Nightwave Intermission 2 – A Repetitive Chore for Repeating Items

So Nightwave Season 2 finished with a shitty conclusion that didn’t really tell us anything apart from the fact that people are bad and easily tricked and there’s more infestation roaming around Eris. That ended back on the 13th of October, but to fill the gap between Season 2 and Season 3, we’ve got a Nightwave Intermission. Again.

Now normally I wouldn’t complain. The first intermission was great because it was short and easy and simple. 15 levels which you could complete in about a month, with one new thing in it and a bunch of useful stuff for newer players. Nightwave Intermission 2 on the other hand… not so much.

For starters, this Intermission has 30 levels, double what the first intermission had. Which suggests that DE aren’t planning on releasing a new Nightwave episode for a long, long time. Even if we’re getting levels quicker than we were in the Wolf of Saturn Six, this intermission is the same length as the Emissary, which was a complete (if somewhat inconclusive) season. This is worrying because I feel like DE have no real plans for Nightwave and if you want the full rewards, that’s like… two, three months of work?

But the rewards are a big problem because, if you did the Wolf of Saturn Six, you already HAVE all the rewards. Even if you didn’t finish the first Nightwave, you’ll have some of them. The only actually new items here are a Liset skin and a ship decoration, so an older player is going to get a bunch of rewards they already have, some of which are cosmetic and can’t be deleted. In fact, for me, the only appealing reward here is the Umbral Forma, which means a lot of people can now have a complete Umbral Forma build using all three mods.

I don’t have a problem with old items returning, after all I think everyone should get the Saturn Six armour, but it’s a bit of a kick in the balls to get old items as rewards for leveling up with Nightwave intermissions, as it’s basically not a reward. I can’t use another Wolf Syandana or Saturn Six Armour Set. Why couldn’t these have gone into Nora Night’s cred shop so people could buy them if they wanted to, and instead sticking useful things like more forma or endo or credits in the Intermission 2 rankups? Most of the rewards are pretty alright, but it’s a lot of work to get to them, especially later ones.

Sure, you can say “so what if you have all these, don’t play?” but there are a handful of things I want, like the Umbral Forma, and I have to grind through 20-something levels to get to it, while basically getting NO reward for leveling up on certain ranks. But at the same time, Nightwave is for everyone, it’s there to replace alerts and give something for everyone to do. Heck, I consider myself to be a “please consider the newbies!” person and even I’m sitting here wondering whether it’s worth playing or not because there’s only like two items here that a veteran would want – even the Aura Forma is no longer really desirable because they can be bought or farmed elsewhere.

While I appreciate a way to buy even more Nitain for the next few months, I’m worried that these super long intermissions with nothing in them for veteran players will be a trend. Sure, veteran players tend to have most things already, but we should try and treat all players equally.