Destiny 2 Iron Banner cheese highlights issues with the model

The Iron Banner was one of the most sought-after activities in Destiny 2 at one point in time. However, over the past few seasons, the popularity of the activity has dwindled.

The primary issue with the mode is that it only appears for two weeks during each season. With only one day remaining in this week's Iron Banner in Destiny 2 Season of the Seraph, most Guardians in the community are grinding hard for a shader (which is locked behind the second reset track with Lord Saladin forge), but they're doing so by intentionally losing matches.

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Destiny 2 community figures out a cheese to grind for an Iron Banner shader

The Iron Banner for Destiny 2 Season of the Seraph was supposed to be an exciting event for the community. With Caitl and her forces supposedly being involved in the new Fortress mode, the community was excited to participate in the event.

However, the Cabal involvement was somewhat mediocre. With just two Scorpius turrets being dropped on the field, that wasn't really the excitement that the community was looking forward to. Moreover, most Guardians have resorted to throwing matches rather than actually playing out the entire match.

This is being done because losing is apparently an "easier" way to unlock the shader that everyone is after, the Iron Countershade. This shader gives armor pieces a texture that is similar to that of chainmail, something which is very unique in Destiny 2.

As mentioned above, every Iron Banner match lasts for around nine minutes. Every victory secures around 300 rank points, while every loss secures around 220 rank points. These are the scores that players receive at max reputation multipliers. To reach the second reward track, Guardians will have to reset their rank once with Lord Saladin. Only then will they be able to reach the second reward track and unlock the Iron Countershade shader.

To do this, players will have to play around 70-80 matches. The number of matches required to reach the rank depends on the rank multiplier, wins, and losses, but the number is quite high regardless.

To combat this, players in the community have started teaming up and throwing matches by emoting or simply running around, giving the opposition free kills. Here's the math they're following:

• Each Iron Banner match lasts for nine minutes. Winning = 300 rank points, and losing = 220 rank points.
• Lord Saladin calls the match in favor of the winning team if a score of 65-0 is reached.
• Reaching this score barely takes a few minutes if a team is intentionally losing matches. Using this method, they can win two games within a nine-minute time frame, which would net them a total of 440 rank points.

Although this is a rather boring method to grind for rank points, it's undoubtedly faster. This also highlights a major issue with the Iron Banner mode in Destiny 2: the endless grind.

The grind to rank up is so exhausting and lengthy that Guardians would rather throw matches than play the mode. The event only lasts for two weeks, and because there's no clear date regarding when the next one will be conducted, it's only understandable that the community wants to grind the reward track out this way.

Moreover, removing rank points for the loser won't make sense either. Although a small part of the community is throwing matches, there is another section of the community that is losing matches despite trying. The only two possible fixes would be to either increase the duration of the Iron Banner in Destiny 2 or to announce dates for both the Iron Banner weeks beforehand. For now, it's unclear if Bungie will address these issues, but until then, grinding seems to be the only way forward.