Why hasn’t Episode Echoes brought back the popular auto rifle for Destiny 2 players?

Following the success of Destiny 2’s latest expansion, Episode Echoes, Bungie’s replacement for Seasons has now fully launched and is gaining momentum.

It is yet to be determined what distinguishes the former from its predecessor, however, fans have already expressed dissatisfaction with one aspect of the content being offered.

Bungie has a habit of bringing back weapons from past Seasons for players who may have missed out on them initially. In Episode Echoes, the studio has retrieved five guns from the Destiny Content Vault, which were originally introduced in Season of Dawn, and made them available once again through loot drops.

The issue is that Steelfeather Repeater, which was one of the most sought-after weapons during that time, has been neglected and is still collecting dust.

Steelfeather Repeater hasn’t been reprised in Episode Echoes

The auto rifle was originally a Kinetic, rapid-fire archetype and was highly favored in PvE for its strong Perk pool. If it had been reintroduced in Episode Echoes, it would have conformed to the current trend of all Legendary primary weapons and utilized Stasis or Strand as its damage type.

Unfortunately, it was not meant to be, and it remains a mystery as to why Bungie chose to exclude the beloved fan favorite. Various responses on a Reddit discussion attempting to uncover the reason range from serious speculation to comically irreverent.

One person responded, saying that Atheon’s Epilogue would not be left out, alluding to its absence in Destiny 2 when the Vault of Glass Raid was introduced. Another person commented that this was likely because the developers did not want it to overshadow the new 720 Comp AR, The Riposte, which was added to the Competitive playlist in The Final Shape.

Similarly, the inclusion of Veiled Threat, a rapid-fire frame obtainable from Breach Executable, was likely a contributing factor in Bungie’s choice to avoid overwhelming the game’s arsenal with too many weapons of the identical type.

Regardless of the reason, five out of the seven weapons that were originally included in the Season of Dawn have returned.