I've seen people get annoyed when receiving them over armour. Hopefully this will help people realise they're pretty important if they haven't already!

I'm still a poor ass 22 and haven't used them. What exactly do they do, if anything?

Ascendant energy is used for weapon attack upgrades, and ascendant shards for armor defense (and light) upgrades. Shards are more important since these upgrades are the only way to get your level up.

Dismantling legendary weapons gets you energy, dismantling legendary armor gets you shards, and dismantling exotics seems to be able to give you either.

Just wondering - does it check to see if you already have a given legendary item, or could you feasibly receive the same gun, say, twice?

Yes. I just decoded a legendary engram and got a legendary gun I already had.

"It can open doors, unlock mysteries, intimidate friends and foes, ventilate skulls...
I don't leave home without it." - Cayde-6

I'm still a poor ass 22 and haven't used them. What exactly do they do, if anything?

Ascendant Shards and Energy are used to upgrade high-level gear and weapons, respectively. I need something like 36+ Shards to complete my current gear upgrades…

I've seen people get annoyed when receiving them over armour. Hopefully this will help people realise they're pretty important if they haven't already!

I'm still a poor ass 22 and haven't used them. What exactly do they do, if anything?

Just wondering - does it check to see if you already have a given legendary item, or could you feasibly receive the same gun, say, twice?

I have received a legendary item that I already obtained. I would guess it's RNG, but within a range.

I'm hoping this also means I might occasionally get them out of legendary engrams...

This is probably exactly why they're being made Legendary. If they were still Rare, and a purple engram decoded into them, people would rage... I think a purple engram turned into three shards for me once, but my memory is fuzzy.

I'm cool with it, though. Getting shards instead of gear that's likely inferior to my own is fine by me.

All but one of my purple engrams have decoded to materials or coins or motes of light.

I'm hoping this also means I might occasionally get them out of legendary engrams...

This is probably exactly why they're being made Legendary. If they were still Rare, and a purple engram decoded into them, people would rage... I think a purple engram turned into three shards for me once, but my memory is fuzzy.

I'm cool with it, though. Getting shards instead of gear that's likely inferior to my own is fine by me.

I liked this part:

"Cayde-6 took the Cryptarch aside and showed him a sack of doorknobs. He decoded that mystery pretty quickly."

They should make a sack of doorknobs a new legendary you can get from Cayde.

3rd slot for hunter sub-class: Sackdancer

They should make a sack of doorknobs a new legendary you can get from Cayde.

JRPG characters get clothing made out of belts.

Destiny characters get clothing made out of doorknobs.

I liked this part:

"Cayde-6 took the Cryptarch aside and showed him a sack of doorknobs. He decoded that mystery pretty quickly."

They should make a sack of doorknobs a new legendary you can get from Cayde.

"Cayde-6 took the Cryptarch aside and showed him a sack of doorknobs. He decoded that mystery pretty quickly."

I'm hoping this also means I might occasionally get them out of legendary engrams, which I'm fine with for 2 reasons: First, I actually like my current equipment OK (other than the fact that I need some legendary boots), and would much rather be able to upgrade said equipment than replace it. Second, due to legendary engrams being added to the Vanguard Tiger rewards, I expect I'll be seeing more of them than I did previously.

It's not a functional change, it's a visual change to help people make the connection between items easier.

I've seen people get annoyed when receiving them over armour. Hopefully this will help people realise they're pretty important if they haven't already!