Masterwork Cores have existed in Destiny 2 for some time now, but a patch released just before Forsaken's launch made them more important than ever. Bungie has now acknowledged some of the complaints regarding how they work and laid out its plan for overhauling them.

Masterwork Cores were previously used for one purpose: to upgrade a weapon or piece of armor into a Masterwork version. This would have various effects (improved stats, causing Orbs of Light to drop after a multikill, etc.) but they are unquestionably better than non-Masterworks. Cores are rare and obtained by breaking down items that randomly dropped as Masterwork versions.

As of Forsaken's big update, however, Masterwork Cores are a key ingredient in Infusion--the process of using the higher Power level of one item to raise the level of another item. Bungie intended to make Infusion something you would have to strongly consider before committing to, rather than the obvious path to take with any piece of gear you like. Masterworks are also used for upgrading a piece of gear's tier, a process which eventually culminates in forging a Masterwork version of it.

But many players argue Masterwork Cores are too rare, something Bungie acknowledged in its latest weekly blog post. It outlined two problems: "Masterwork Cores have a misleading name. When they were created, the definition of a pinnacle item put the emphasis almost entirely on Masterworking. We expanded that definition in Forsaken, but didn't update the currency. [Also] There are not enough reliable sources to earn Masterwork Cores, which can make deciding what to spend them on too difficult."

Bungie says it's been looking at "monitoring Core supplies and the numbers aren't as high as we'd like." As a result, it plans to make unspecified changes to "create more reliable and plentiful Core sources." It also intends to rename Cores to something else.

Post-Forsaken, you have two primary routes for obtaining Masterwork Cores: breaking down Masterwork items (just like before) and buying them from Spider. The latter route is something you can do at any time, but the price (Legendary Shards) increases with each one you purchase. However, this price resets daily, though the process can be something of a nuisance as it requires you to travel to him each day.

Bungie also brought good news for those annoyed by the droprate of Exotic items in Forsaken. While it won't be increasing them outright, it sounds like Bungie will be making changes to ensure you're less likely to see a duplicate drop of an Exotic item you already own.