This week, Destiny 2’s Eververse Store added a new shader to its inventory called Jacarina that features a black and white color scheme. Considering how rare good black and white shaders are in Destiny 2, many players were excited to see Jacarina available for Bright Dust. However, they quickly found out that Jacarina was meme fodder more than anything else.
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Although the inventory image for the Jacarina shader suggests that it will give armor and weapons a black and white color scheme, there is actually a hidden blue tint included with the shader. For the most part, the shader looks exactly as it should, but there are random spots that turn blue and look laughably bad.
As one might expect, the excitement over the shader soon turned into confusion. Jacarina is by no means the first shader to include some “hidden” colors, but the fact that the bait and switch is with a black and white color scheme made the discovery all the more disappointing.
Some Destiny 2 players (like Reddit truenaagloshii) even tried to dig deeper to find out why the Jacarina shader includes the colors it does, and surprisingly there is an answer. The term Jacarina is a reference to Volatinia Jacarina or the Blue-Black Grassquit Finch. It’s a mostly black bird that has some slight pops of bright blue color on its plumage.
While the bit of blue makes sense from a “lore perspective,” Jacarina’s deception highlights a larger problem with the shader system in Destiny 2. Beyond the fact that players can only hold a certain amount of shaders (far fewer than are in the game) and that there is no “Apply All” option, shaders are inconsistent in how they work. The four colors on display may seem like they would work well on armor or weapons, but the game chooses random spots to apply each. On top of that, there are instances like Jacarina where the perception of the shader doesn’t match up with the reality.
Black and white shaders are highly coveted in Destiny 2 because of the popularity of the color scheme and its associated nostalgia. Many players even chose Dead Orbit as their faction of choice in D1 because it offered black and white shaders like Hanged Man or Bittersteel. The argument could even be made that Dead Orbit won some of the early Faction Rally events because of its own black and white shaders.
Players seem to like the black and white color scheme, but few shaders have nailed the look that players want. Monochromatic is one of the more popular black and white shaders, but it shades certain armor pieces in a weird way. It also is more for the white with some black crowd than those that prefer black with some white. Jacarina looked like the perfect shader to meet that need, but instead, it feels like a troll from Bungie
Still, as a joke shader for those Destiny 2 players who like to add a little flair to their look, Jacarina seems to fit the bill nicely. Applying the shader to the Gnawing Hunter auto rifle, for example, gives the weapon a sleek look, except for that clip.
Destiny 2 is available now for PC, PS4, Stadia, and Xbox One.
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