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6/26/2025 8:59:40 AM
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Reflections from a Destiny 2 Sherpa Or... At Least Someone Trying to Be One
About 6 months ago, I started helping others through Destiny2 's endgame PvE - mostly dungeons and GMs - not because I’m a top-tier player or wanted to collect praise, but because I wanted to give back.
For every time someone took the time to teach me a mechanic, walk me through a wipefest, or just didn’t boot me for being clueless, I felt I owed it to Destiny Community to pass it forward.
What I didn’t expect was just how difficult, and honestly, tedious Sherpa-ing could be. I’ve gained a whole new level of respect for every single Guardian who has ever willingly stepped into the role of teacher, leader, or group babysitter.
The amount of self-control, patience, and mental gymnastics it takes to keep a fireteam together while explaining mechanics and adjusting to every player's pace? It’s unreal.
Over these past months, I’ve met every kind of player imaginable:
· Some talk, some don't. Some use text chat, some only use comms in their own language, and others... well, you're lucky if you even get a jump emote.
· Some are totally new and honest about it—huge respect to them. Others pretend they know everything and then wipe the team 12 times trying to “one-phase” something with "1600 light".
· Then there are the speedrunners who just want to burn through the activity and don’t care if the blueberry is still trying to find their way out of the jumping puzzle.
· Some Guardians are genuinely grateful and patient. Others tilt the moment something goes wrong, quit without a word mid-encounter, or worse - start kicking people for being “too new” or making one mistake.
Honestly, there are too many player archetypes to count, and most don’t even fit into a box. Every run is different. Every encounter is a coin toss.
And still... the Sherpa community keeps showing up. I sometimes think we must be completely insane.
We take the pain, the wipes, the silence, the sudden departures, and we keep coming back—for what?
A "GG" in chat.
A "thx" over comms.
A surprised laugh or gasp when someone clears an encounter for the first time.
That one excited voice that says, “Holy crap we did it!”—that’s the magic. That’s the reason.
The thing is, there’s no emblem, triumph, shader, or loot drop for being a real Sherpa. No unique title. No in-game system to manage the literal overflow of "blue" loot and junk materials you have to scrap manually after every run. And yet, the real Sherpas keep helping. Many of them don’t even create content or chase hashtags. They just do: day in, day out, with no spotlight.
So, can I call myself a true Sherpa? I’m not sure. But I try. And I’ve grown to truly respect everyone out there who’s been carrying Guardians up this long hill of light levels and wipe counters.
@Bungie, if you're reading this -please find a way to recognize these people. Not just the creators, but the quiet heroes in LFGs, Discords, and random matchmaking, who teach, guide, and stay patient when everyone else hits "Leave Fireteam."
They’re the reason many of us stuck around long enough to become the ones helping next.
#EyesUpGuardians #GuardianHelpingGuardians #PatienceIsALightSubclass
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Went through this with VoG where the hardest mechanic is playing hot potato with a shield. I stopped because it felt like no one would take accountability for freezing mid gameplay and playing dumb so they don't feel responsible for messing something up. While I can understand that feeling as it's not to far from how I first felt raiding, I've seen more and more people use it as a shield where they do know the encounter or intentionally mess up an encounter to take a secondary roll. I taught VoG because I wanted more people to experience it (in my mind the easiest raid), not to fast track players into an activity they don't want to be in for loot they will probably never have a reason to use. Especially when they ruined the experience of new players that did try and learn the mechanics.
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Back in the D1 days I used to spend Sat's and sometimes Fri's taking BB's through VoG, Crota, and KF then later RotM(but not so much). What Bungo needs to do is create explorer leave raids for people to Sherpa first timers through. And by Explorer mode I mean like what we have for "Spire of the Watcher". I actually came back into D2 to run that one as I no longer run with others thanks to to many experiences with really nasty people (a few who were in my own clan and who turned me forever off raids!!!) So for those you do still help others THANK YOU and may Bungo do something right and help someone other then their groupie streamers!
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1 ReplyThere is a saying in my line of work: Easy to do. Hard to teach. The job is literally watching people make mistakes, having to have the patience to watch them do that…but often with people who are not really open to learning, or who don’t respect what you are trying to do for them. It’s hard work…and we (America) are a culture that has and shows little respect for the role of teacher.
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1 ReplyPatience is a virtue as they say…being able to teach and communicate is a skill. Having all 3 of these traits rolled into one-Sherpa. What you do is not easy…..the community is thankful because at the end of the day, it keeps the numbers healthy…which keeps the game healthy. The accomplishment of finishing a dungeon, a raid or higher level content gives the players a boost. Even if you don’t finish there’s a sense of disappointment but the player hopefully learn a little more. To me the game has always been about discovery. That’s what makes it special. Folks like you keep that aspect of the game going. I’d love to to Sherpa…but I don’t have the communication skills to be effective…secondly my patience wears thin with folks that aren’t patient. I always cringe when we start a raid with 2-3 new people that haven’t run it and someone remarks “this should only take an hour or less.” Sometimes we get lucky but those are normally the rage quitters. I feel like the D2 piece of the game centered around the clan concept. We have a strong following and are older….its a nice environment. Long winded response to say…thank you for what you do. Thanks for guiding and showing people. You’re a rarity. I hope I see you out there Guardian.
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5 RepliesA task made harder with the introduction of revive tokens, one of Bungie's more asinine ideas imho. Bungie prefers to tie emblems to watching Twitch streams or making a donation rather than foundation activities voluntarily driven but keep it up knowing you are working for the light. :)
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1 ReplyWhat they really need to do is stop counting final encounter clears as "sherpas." This would disincentivize the nasty clear farmers who are turning off new players from learning raids/dungeons. These days it seems most LFG posts offering to teach raids/dungeons are false advertising. They are either leader-board chasers or soliciting money for carries. It would take minimal effort to put a stop to that.
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1 ReplyEdited by Ehhhric13: 6/26/2025 5:30:05 PMI used to sherpa raids but i have retired from it due the complex nature of the raid mechanics and how much time i have to commit to teaching and completing each raid encounter. I found dungeons to be more easier in teaching/carrying and forgiving but even like that it can be exhausting afterward.
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1 Reply100% went through a sherpa phase after Kingsfall dropped in d2 again. And kinda was the clan sherpa. Loved it. Met all sorts of people. I have a profound respect for sherpas and their patience. I, too, also wish bungie would do more for that community instead of the speeds community. Sherpas foundationally push the community forward and together. The speed community is typically elitist and jaded.
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1 ReplyRespect to you guys honestly, I’ve done a few raids myself with guidance. I always appreciate them
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1 ReplyAs one of those "just started dungeons and raids" blueberries, my genuine thanks to anyone and everyone who is willing to Sherpa. It doesn't matter if it's an lfg post or within a clan. Teaching is a tough spot to fill. My new clanmates have been great for teaching this blueberry. I've been lucky with them. Two dungeons (Grasp and Pit) and VoG in a week. I'm hoping (someday) to be able to pay them back, either by taking over the teaching role or by helping them with "another body who kwtd" in a teaching run.
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3 Replies[quote]The thing is, there’s no emblem, triumph, shader, or loot drop for being a real Sherpa. No unique title. No in-game system to manage the literal overflow of "blue" loot and junk materials you have to scrap manually after every run. And yet, the real Sherpas keep helping. Many of them don’t even create content or chase hashtags. They just do: day in, day out, with no spotlight.[/quote] So, tying rewards to Sherpa-ing leads to some pretty bad outcomes, where people claim to be teaching and will do the barest minimum to clear the encounter, often without teaching others anything. You always see this whenever there's a 10 Sherpas for a new Raid emblem It almost leads to the opposite intent, where you're flooding LFG with people who have clears, but no idea what to do
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ⒻⒶⒷⓄⓊⓇⒼⒺStop collecting points. It's pointless - old
I want an emblem for having a full time job in real life 🥲 -
1 ReplyI'm on 2 separate leaderboards for this stuff. And tbh only reason I do it is just because I hate kwtd people and their egos. Like, buddy, I can tell you're pooping your pants. Stop trying to pretend you're an expert and let me help you. Or the "I only do this one way or you/I can leave the fireteam if you want different" person, who doesn't want to even hear about the different ways it can be done. My personal favorite is the classic "it's too complicated for me, so that must mean it's too complicated for the new person" guardian. even though the newlight is doing better than them! However, I do enjoy the "show off" aka "I want to teach even though I'm brand new and this isn't my fireteam/post." Because random chaos, scuffing things, and carrying in the background is still more fun than a 30-minute jog with a max optimized team. With the designated: "I learned the skip so I don't have to play the game." Speed Runner trying to pretend skipping the traversal is so important. Worst part about this is kwtd people, are still so full of themselves and high on their own supply that I can walk in with an emblem showing off my stats and still get away with pretending I'm a kinderguardian and it's my first time. And nobody will notice.
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1 ReplyI been a sherpa for many years to various raid enjoyed it greatly even with it up and down
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2 RepliesAs a player that has been privileged enough to be given the title of "sherpa" in the D2 community, there's a few things I can add: I'm nearing my 500th total sherpa in raids, and honestly, the reason I enjoy doing sherpas is the people. There's nothing that Bungie could offer that really gives me the level of joy or excitement of hearing that one player who believed something was impossible to cross that finish line and find out it was possible all along. Almost every player I've encountered have the capability to do some of the most amazing things in D2...but they just need someone to believe in them...someone to just give them the confidence to overcome their own self-doubt. I know that this role is very precious, and that one misstep can hurt a raider's desire for a looooooooong time. So I owe it to my team to be patient, kind and understanding. Bungie has given out emblems in-game for doing sherpas - From the OG Guided Games emblems to the more recent "Guide 10 new players through [whatever raid]", but almost all sherpas I know do it for the excitement of helping a new player, as well as testing their own mettle as a raider. Being a sherpa requires you to think quick on your feet to solve problems, and that level of added complexity excites some sherpas (myself included) and really pushes them to their limits. At the end of the day, I think everyone just wants good people to play with, and that's the goal for most sherpas - The bigger the pool, the more people to engage with, the more experience that can be shared, the greater the enjoyment will be for everyone.
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1 ReplyI used to run a lot of sherpas when the community % of good to bad apples was much higher. When that % shifted into consistently running into more bad than good apples - i stopped Sherpa runs.
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1 ReplyOP et al: 🥂👌 Back in D1, wasn’t a Sherpa, though did help out on a few King’s Fall runs, as a bubble T with ToM. Some of the most frustrating bits was to get players to grasp the plates’ right / left bit! 🤔 It’s a bit like ‘don’t fire your rocket inside a bubble…’ - VoG boss fight, middle platform…or doing Crota! 😵💫 Still, we scraped through…mostly! That was then. The D1 vibe was very different to the current D2 vibe: impatience / angry / surly / mean spirited / selfishness / quitters / etc. And yet, there are a goodly number of Sherpa Guardians that go the extra mile to help when asked…and they’re out there - ready and waiting! Not all have streams or make content compilations…they don’t seek ‘follows’ or ‘clicks’ or ‘subs’ - they’re just some of the great Guardians that roam Destiny’s shores! Epic stuff in deed! 😇😎👻 That is all. Carry On. 🫡
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1 ReplyIt would be nice to be able to get a guided title. Maybe a gift box with shaders, emblems, etc. Maybe have it tied to the number of joy bringer, or thoughtful votes from after activities. It would be nice to see these people rewarded with something. I have had quite a few help me through out the years and they deserve something just for dealing with me lol.
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3 RepliesI honestly think more sherpa come back if Bungie introduces more and push "Explore mode" in things like raids because it is kinda hard for things like that now with the tokens system that ruins it
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it used to be a emblem for sherpas if my mind is not failling me, i have the blue one, theres a legendary one, tjat emblem of 3 ships flyinh it? bungir in all wisdom remove it.
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1 ReplyI've played with both sides of the spectrum and I gotta say, the super casual crowd is far more insufferable to play with then the hardcore elite. The elite might make you feel inadequate at times, but you'll at least get done whatever you're trying to do. The casuals will expect a free carry and demand to be rewarded for doing nothing but killing a few ads. Even when you try to explain everything as simple as possible, there are still players who will just refuse to contribute anything to the team.
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3 RepliesI got torched for saying gjake is the goat sherpa of d2. It's not close.
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1 ReplyI’d actually love a tab in the Fireteam finder, strictly for Sherpas. All in one tab, anyone who wants to Sherpa any type of event. Also add rewards to anyone who helps people in this tab, make it based on ratings given by the players, and make it after a certain amount of a certain rating. Much respect to all those who do take on the arduous task though, you deserve a medal👍
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