‘Destiny’ Level Booster Costs Almost as Much as ‘The Taken King’ Expansion

If you’re looking to avoid Destiny’s grind to the level cap, Bungie is throwing you a $30 bone. The newly available level boost will take you to level 25, more than halfway toward the cap of 40.

At more than a dollar per level, it’s quite a premium to not have to play a large portion of the game. It’s very similar to World of Warcraft‘s character leveling service, but priced, if possible, even more aggressively.

The Destiny developers previously opened the Eververse Trading Company to sell in-game emotes and dances for a real-money conversion currency, steadily backing down from overtures that the game would not be monetized through microtransactions. This latest development has understandably ignited community fears about the future of item and progression purchases, turning an already costly retail game and expansions even further up the “pay to win” dial to many of its fans.

Still, it does provide a convenient — if costly — bump toward the content available in The Taken King expansion, which is generally regarded as being far superior to the base game and previous expansions. It’s relatively painless to go from 25 to 40 during the course of the expansion’s campaign.

The only caveat comes by way of my own personal experience with Bungie’s level boosts. The one that came with Destiny’s complete edition may give you level 25, but all of your skills remain locked, so you’re essentially just a giant helpless baby, too advanced to grind through the earlier content, but too weak to seamlessly jump into the level-appropriate stuff. This new retail booster does advertise that you will be able to boost one sub-level for your character, so perhaps you’ll at least have some skills to show for your $30 investment.

It’s also worth noting that The Taken King expansion costs $39.99 on its own, putting the premium on skipping a day or two’s worth of leveling at only $10 less for an entire expansion.

Meanwhile, Bungie continues to shore up an ever-receding barrier between what you must earn in game versus what you can pay for. If you’ve played the game to death already, this could be a tantalizing opportunity to skip an extensive replay of content through which you’ve already slogged. If not? Call this a hard pass.

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