Throughout the season of defiance we were introduced to a few new things to try on destiny, guardian ranks being one of them. Guardian ranks are a great concept but in my opinion are very poorly made. Along side guardian ranks we also got the commendation system, yet again another great idea but poor execution. But that’s a topic for another time. One of the main issues I see with the guardian rank system is that it’s not very friendly to a free to play player. Guardian ranks were advertised as a way to show your skill and what to do next if you were lost or just had no clue what you should be doing on destiny. Yet multiple of the options require you to purchase a certain DLC such as; “complete lightfall part 1/2” or “complete duality/spire of the watcher” and so on. So in theory it’s not to show what you should do next, it’s “show what you should buy next” And yes before I get people saying that it’s a free to play game, how else will they make their money? My response to that would be, don’t make it a requirement to level up your guardian rank. Another problem I have seen floating about online is the exotic requirements for levels like guardian rank 9. To progress to guardian rank 9, for example, you have to own 85 exotic weapons and 20 exotic armour pieces. I can understand the low exotic armour requirements as many people play on one character but I personally think that 85 exotic weapons is ridiculously steep. I read somewhere that some people have played since forsaken and still don’t have anywhere near! I can understand that the game gives us the chance to get one exotic weapon a week, but for most people even logging in every week to do a 4/5 hour xenology quest is difficult. It also isn’t very solo player friendly, as they wouldn’t get access to raid exotics because they don’t have the people for it. Yes I know that bungie have an app for finding a fireteam for raids. But it’s not a very friendly place for people who don’t know what to do or are on their own, as most times they get kicked for not knowing what to do or removed before they can grab their raid loot. Personally I feel like guardian ranks should be made more accessible to the free to play community and the casual community. I would love to hear what you have to say.