The new Fireteam Finder rules when it doesn't suck

Aenz and I walked into the Deadsea. A grey-and-red indicator flashed along the bottom of my screen—our companion from the Entrance area through the Cube encounter had departed in the Wasteland. The Kell Echo would be difficult without a third fireteam member. But this is sometimes just the risk you run when you form parties through the Fireteam Finder.

LFG finders are commonplace in most other MMOs. Tools like the Duty Finder in Final Fantasy XIV and the Group Finder in World of Warcraft help players get together quickly to complete high-level content and daily roulettes. This helps lower the barrier to content that is otherwise difficult or impossible to do solo. For many players who aren't in clans or who don't have dedicated raid/dungeon parties, this is a blessing. But for the vast majority of Destiny's decade in operation, such a tool just hasn't existed in-game. 

That is, until this winter. 

The Fireteam Finder was launched alongside the Dawning seasonal event. It's still in beta, but the thing is basically feature-complete. you can either search for existing listings or create one yourself for the activity you need to do. The process is painless, quick, and best of all: simple. There are eight activity categories:

1. Campaign: allows you to gather players for regular and high-end campaign activities for Beyond Light, The Witch Queen and Lightfall, including the weekly legendary playlist.
2. Crucible: allows you to create fireteams for Trials of Osiris, Control, the Competitive playlist, a private match and 6v6 quickplay.
3. Dungeons: allows you to get a fireteam together for all eight currently-available dungeons, from Shattered Throne to Warlord's Ruin.
4. Gambit: team up for a public or private Gambit match.
5. Raids: jump into a party or create one to tackle the game's most difficult challenges from Last Wish to Crota's End Remake. 
6. Seasonal: everything from seasonal events to an Exotic Quest Rotator can be found here.
7. Vanguard: choose from Nightfall, Grandmaster Nightfall, and Vanguard Ops activities.
8. Other: Offensives, Free Roam, Nightmare Hunts and Social parties all welcome here.

My experience with the Fireteam Finder has been mixed. On the one hand, I've been able to complete a bunch of activities that I otherwise would have continued to studiously ignore. On the other hand, I find that the random mashing-together of players in these higher-level activities often led to bigger challenges than if I had simply asked folks I knew. 

Screenshot: Blueberries.GG

Aenz was inexplicably already across the Deadsea by the time I got to the lip before the ribbon road. I hesitantly boarded my Skimmer and started the treacherous descent. As I wound my way down to the tractor beam that would carry us to the Kell Echo's boss room, I found myself beset upon by Taken ads that my sole partner hadn't bothered clearing. How had they crossed the chasm so quickly? 

Prophecy is a dungeon that was introduced almost four years ago. In the time since its release, I've played it a grand total of once prior to my current sojourn. My last attempt was with friends; we impromptu loaded in late at night and the combination of my exhaustion and some of my fireteam's inebriation led to a long, slow slog before getting smashed repeatedly by the Kell Echo. We never went back to it. 

I'm here now because it's required to complete Riven's Wishes VI. The reward is two ahamkara teeth, which can be traded for stuff. Since part of this project is getting through all the content stuff Bungie had to throw at us to fill time during the added six months between Season of the Wish and The Final Shape, I had no choice but to return to the dungeon that so handily smacked us down four years prior. 

Back in the Season of Arrivals, when Prophecy first launched, the Power Floor for the season was 750. Its pinnacle cap - the absolute strongest you could be - was 1060. Walking into the dungeon's Entrance area at power level 1824 made enemy bullets and energy blasts feel trivial. Sure I could die, if I stood still and didn't fire back, but I didn't have to worry about that causing the whole party to lose time. Plus, when Prophecy first came out, there was no buildcrafting, limited modding, no Stasis or Strand weapons or abilities, and little in the way of variation for how these kinds of activities had to be run. Success in dungeons and raids often came down to: god-rolled weapons, the right exotic armor, and high levels of coordination and prep with your team. Today, I'm strolling in with two random other Guardians on a less-than-optimal Strand Hunter build with a Quicksilver Storm I haven't unequipped since March of last year, a random Void wave frame grenade launcher, and a Cyrtarachne's Facade I got out of the first Riven's Wish prize pool. 

Random matchmaking has always worked fine in Destiny 2, considering most of the matchmade activities are fairly mindless. Running the same dozen strikes or so, which have no variation in goal or difficulty, becomes a process of mechanical execution rather than anything approaching tactical prowess. Playing regular matchmade Crucible or Gambit is like playing solo; very rarely can you pull off anything in these modes as a team without being mic'd up with each other. 

The Fireteam Finder lets you match up with random Guardians with or without mics. It is still a crapshoot as to whether you're going to get skilled players who know what they're doing in an encounter. Recently I put a call out for a Fireteam who could run with me through the final mission in the Lightfall campaign on legendary mode; the first group was... less than successful. We made it to Calus, but struggled to get past the first arm of his boss fight. The second group was more successful, but one Guardian ducked out (a fairly common occurrence if progress isn't being made according to... whoever's plan) before we got to Calus. It wasn't until I made a group specifically to tackle the final encounter that we were able to get through it. 

In other situations, I've found myself the only part of a fireteam who remotely knows the mechanics of the content we were running; in others, I've been caught between a Guardian Level 10 player and a Lvl. 6 player who were essentially struggling for control of the pace of a mission. I've had both fireteam members eject, including the original party leader; I've bailed out of my fair share of botched missions. 

Could more granularity fix this problem? More descriptive choices in the Finder itself? Would it be better or worse to compel players to play with mics on? Could there be a queue strictly for people like myself, who hasn't spent the better part of a decade running dungeons and raids in this game? I don't know. 

Screenshot: Blueberries.GG

Aenz and I both died on the platform with the tractor beam on it. We were trying nonsense with our Skimmers, and it resulted in a wipe all the way back to the beginning. That was how I learned of my partner's secret: the new Skimmer has a trick mode that can last for as long as the board has juice and you don't hit any obstacles. Press B to grind in midair. I watched as Aenz floated down to the platform with ease. I tried to follow suit, but ended up dying from a treacherous ledge. Aenz, to their credit, continued to the Kell Echo and triggered the emergency teleport to their side.

Defeating the Kell Echo turned out to be a trivial pursuit. Once Aenz deposited the necessary light and darkness orbs, we simply ganged up on the Kell - me with my wave frame grenade launcher and Aenz with their Well of Radiance. We ended the Kell in two rounds, where previously with friends we hadn't managed to take out more than a quarter of his health per round. After a brief trip to the end of the dungeon, we paid our mutual respects through the equally-experimental commendations card and parted ways, probably never to cross paths again.

***

A thought I've had repeatedly as I've played Destiny over the years is that, fundamentally, the game is meant for much younger people, high school and college-age kids. This is juxtaposed against the fact that so much of the game's aesthetic, narrative and mechanical trappings are meant to entice OG Halo fans and their ilk. The Fireteam Finder is proof of this, I think. On one hand, it's nice to have; theoretically, anyone can finish any content now, without needing to search for an open clan or random group of internet friends to do so. But on the other hand, experiences like mine in the Prophecy dungeon are profoundly lonely. We'll never know why our third Fireteam member left; I'll never know why Aenz didn't just return to orbit and space me out of the fireteam like junk from an airlock. But our victory, what is supposed to be a joyous moment, nevertheless felt weirdly muted. A quick tip of the hat, and then back into space, like ships in the night.