Glad to finally see these thoughts hit the forums. I will start with my skepticism of the notion of ascending to the exotic tier based off the quote from the recent weekly update in which it was noted that a large number of Bungie employees took the game home and later questioned the loot system due to a very small number obtaining an exotic. That seems to imply that no one could just "work hard enough" and make one after putting in the hours. That being said my thoughts on the potential concept follow: I think your comparison to Pokemon brings up a nice possibility. You mentioned it in respect to weapon naming - but it would seem as though the most fitting possibility would be a simple fixed evolution. So perhaps not every weapon can ascend to exotic. However, I feel as though this evolution would likely be covered (if possible) through the existing upgrade trees. Thunderlord was a very simple example but with upgrade trees you can essentially accomplish all of the effects you describe here. Branching for example would allow you to tailor a specific weapon with desired traits, possibly at the exclusion of others. And so if this "evolution" is handled just by the upgrade trees alone - perhaps weapon tier isn't based on starting functionality but just end possibilities. Common weapons would have very shallow trees with standard end of the line upgrades. Exotics would start the journey comparable to their common counterparts but they have better end game possibilities. I imagine closing time requires quite the effort to unlock the ability to pick up ammunition remotely while cloaked (if those options are not exclusive). You could still require special work on the gun at various points in the tree between milestone upgrades including a weapon smith in the city or affixing a piece of the traveller. This possibility doesn't allow every weapon to be a true end game candidate as would your theories. But it does keep exotics rare. Truly exotic weapons here are only obtainable through a bit of luck paired with the hard work required to upgrade. This brings up the question: "What about fully upgraded weapons that are sold?" Does their new buyer automatically receive the upgrades? Or are they required to put in their own time with the weapon. I like the thought of a weapons skill being based on the relationship a player has with it. You've used the weapon a lot over time so you know how to get the most out of it. If you sell it to someone else they've gotta put in the time as well. Speaking of the trees, is there a general consensus as to the presence of the Titan symbol on the upgrade symbol of Thunderlord (not always up to date on most theories speculations)? Is it just assumed that some weapons have special perks when used "correctly"? The symbol in the bottom is likely a focus if so which would possibly grant more bonuses. Edit: Remembered that I wanted to address a point of future exotics. It has been mentioned that "things might not drop any more" at various times throughout the life of the game. This implies an evolving sandbox. One thing I'm curious about is the addition of future exotic abilities such as invisibility. You mention adding blueprints to the game to serve as easy explanations for new exotic arrivals. But my question is this: Do you expect new exotics to primarily provide new abilities or rehash old ones? From my experiences I would say guns can be added to the sandbox with various configuration files that don't require patches to the game so long as they use the existing codebase. That's not so hard to imagine if you consider all guns share some simple properties such as throwing bullets at various speeds with a few variations here and there. But with exotics it seems like to add new abilities to the mix requires patches/updates to support them. For example let's say next year they want to add a new gun that for whatever reason allows a player to briefly use two sights (I couldn't think of something else that obviously breaks existing game code). The art and configuration for the gun can be grabbed without updating the game but they'll have to add the new code to support that gun through an update. An update by itself isn't a huge deal but just interested to see how often they add brand new abilities through future exotics as opposed to remixing existing features.