Destiny 2’s loadout system was a godsend when it was released in Lightfall earlier this year. Much like any other ultra-impactful inventions, such as light.gg and Destiny Item Manager (DIM), players may have wondered how they spent so long without an in-game loadout system. And if they log in and find their loadouts are locked, they’ll have to go back to the Dark Age.
While you were supposed to get loadouts unlocked for good after reaching a certain Guardian Rank requirement (including the extra loadout slots that come with that achievement), players could still log into the game to find they can’t use their custom loadouts. The reason that might happen likely has nothing to do with anything on the player’s end—and luckily for the guardians who love changing builds, there are third-party alternatives for it.
Why did Destiny 2 lock my loadouts?
Destiny 2 locked loadouts on the eve of the release of Season of the Witch on Aug. 22 due to an unintended, game-breaking glitch that let players crash lobbies with a little bit of tinkering.
“Due to an issue, we have temporarily disabled the Loadouts function,” Bungie Help tweeted. “This will appear in-game as Loadouts being locked behind Guardian Ranks.” The message also said previously saved loadouts would continue as they were after the team landed on a fix.
Content creator (and human Telesto) Cheese Forever outlined the issue in question in his channel. Some ornaments could potentially crash servers when using the loadouts system, which led to Bungie outright disabling the feature until it finds a safe fix.
Related: Bungie to ditch Destiny 2’s seasonal model for new system after The Final Shape
“Progress Guardian Rank to unlock loadouts”
Hovering over loadouts will show you a padlock icon indicating they’re locked and display text telling you to “progress Guardian Rank to unlock loadouts.” You don’t have to worry about grinding Guardian Ranks right now, though: It’s a solution Bungie found to disable loadouts across the whole game. While you likely already have the necessary Guardian Rank to use them, all guardians can only use their loadouts again after Bungie has enabled them.
Alternatives when loadouts are locked
If you want to swap builds on the fly while loadouts are locked, you can use third-party tools to build loadouts (like we did in the Before Times). We’re fond of DIM for this process, but other inventory-management tools can also do the trick. To start building your loadout on DIM, just click the Loadouts tab on top of your screen and on the left of the search bar. This tool is also a super handy inventory manager, which makes playing Destiny 2 a lot simpler.
If you’re waiting for the in-game feature to return, keep your eyes on the official Bungie Help channels, including its Twitter account. The account will bring you plenty of updates regarding service interruptions and technical issues, including bugs and fixes.
