Category: Destiny News

Destiny: New Crucible Maps/Trials of Osiris and Elimination Mode

Last week, Bungie revealed details about The Reef, Destiny power leveling new social space in the upcoming House of Wolves expansion. As part of this week’s continuation of coverage, the developer discussed additions coming to Destiny’s PvP during a livestream presentation today. GameSpot went hands-on with the content last week and here’s the full rundown on what to expect.

One big point of contention for House of Wolves when it was announced was the lack of a new raid. But one thing that Bungie will be adding to help ease the pain of that omission will be The Trials of Osiris. This new end-game PvP activity will run every week from Friday to Tuesday. Trials of Osiris will be based on a new 3v3 mode called Elimination where two teams of three face off in a deathmatch. You’ll be able to revive your teammates in this mode, and the first team to win five rounds wins the match. In order to help players focus their strategies, there will only be one map available per week.

 In order to enter the Trials of Osiris you will need a Trials Passage. You’ll be able to earn some by accepting quests that involve talking to NPCs on the Reef. But after that’s completed, Trials Passages will cost 100 Glimmer each. In addition to earning you admittance into Osiris, the Trials Passage tracks your wins and losses. Once you lose three times, that specific Trials Passage is done and you can turn it in. Your package rewards are based on the total number of wins you accumulate.

Here are the rewards in Trials of Osiris:

  • Two to three wins — A blue package that can contain Motes of Light, Passage Coins, and other items
  • Five wins — Ability to purchase the weekly armor
  • Six wins — A legendary package
  • Seven wins — Ability to purchase the weekly weapon
  • Eight wins — Ability to buy a legendary package (Bungie did not disclose the packages rewards, but they did mention that it will not contain Exotics or Trials of Osiris armor)

The rewards are cumulative. So, for example, if you garner seven wins, you’ll be able to purchase the weekly weapon and you’ll also earn every lesser reward.

If you start off poorly or if you just want to begin a fresh card with a new team, you can discard your Trials Passage at any time. Brother Vance sells consumables that will help you get more wins and negate some losses. These items cost Passage Coins that you will receive as rewards from the Crucible and other places. Passage Coins are a new currency coming to the game that can be used to buy consumables from Trials of Osiris NPC Brother Vance.

Trials of Osiris will contain two sets of armor. The better set will be gated through Crucible wins, whereas the other set will be randomly dropped after matches.

As a sidenote, you’ll want to make sure to do Iron Banner when its available, because at Rank 3 and Rank 5 you can earn an Etheric Light to Ascend your gear.

The Dark Below Crucible maps will become free for everyone once House of Wolves releases on May 19. A Bungie representative at the preview event said, “All the Dark Below maps are going into the regular playlist for everybody. If you just have Destiny with no expansion packs, you’ll be able to play.”

The four new Crucible maps coming to the expansion are all small- to medium-sized maps with no vehicles. However, only three of the maps will come to both Xbox One and PlayStation 4.

  • Thieves Den — Fallen hideout located on Venus. It has a broken down walker, a docked ship, and multiple caves to run through.
  • Widow’s Court — An asymmetrical map with both long lines of sight and tight interiors. Set in a European Dead Zone on Earth.
  • Black Shield — A decommissioned Firebase believed to be used by the Cabal on Mars as a war base.

The only PlayStation exclusive for House of Wolves will be a Crucible map called Time Keeper. Focused around a mysterious, clockwork-like structure on Mars built by the Vex, this map has the most verticality and the most open space to run around in.

To encourage all players to spend more time in the Crucible on Xbox One and PS4, Bungie is going to increase the rewards you get for participating in the mode:

  • Earn double Marks
  • Earn double reputation
  • Increased number of Engrams rewarded after each match
  • Completing the daily Crucible missions will net you a reward pack containing Motes of Light, Passage Coins, or other items

On May 6 we’ll have more information about the upcoming PvE additions for House of Wolves when Bungie hosts its final livestream prior to the expansion’s release. House of Wolves will cost $20 as standalone content, but it’s also included with Destiny’s $35 Expansion Pass.

New Weapons Upgrade Mechanics and Social Space Revealed From Destiny

“Destiny” game developer, Bungie, has revealed more details about its upcoming DLC “House of Wolves.” The upcoming DLC pack promises something that will “change the way the game is played” according to a report in Tech Times.

The report says that the coming expansion back is supposedly “built around players who have already conquered the game” and this is further confirmed by a recent announcement by Bungie about the game’s new Social Space called The Queen’s Bay.

A screen grab from the video game Destiny. Activision Blizzard Inc intends to spend 0 million developing and promoting Destiny, potentially breaking industry records as it seeks to build the sci-fi role-playing videogame into its next multibillion-dollar franchise.

The Queen’s Bay is located within the Reef where most of the action will take place in the new DLC pack. This Social Space however is not just available for those who have the expansion pack but is also available for other players who want to access it. It is however considered the player hub for the “House of Wolves” expansion.

It is manned by a character named Petra, who is the new Bounty Tracker and Story Agent. She acts as the player’s main contact in the area and assigns new Story Quests and hands out bounties for “House of Wolves.”

According to the report, the Queen’s Bay is also populated with shops who have new gear, weapons, shaders and ship schematics. It was not mentioned how players can access these however. The good news is even if players are at the Queen’s Bay, they can still have access to the facilities in the Tower, namely the Cryptarch, Vault and Bounty Trackers.

Part of the expansion pack’s new feature is that ability of the Tower’s gunsmith to re-forge weapons, giving players a chance to make the perfect weapon. This however comes with a price every time you have the gunsmith re-forge your weapon.

The report also cited other details shared by Bungie, such as raising the Light level cap increase to 34 such that players will be able to access all the game’s new Social Spaces without the expansion or Season pass. One last detail confirmed was the new “Prison of Elders” mode which is not simply a “simpler tower defense-style co-op mode” which will change on a week-to-week basis.

Bungie intends to reveal additional details this week. The “House of Wolves” expansion pack will be released on May 19.

New stores opening at USA from Destiny

Syracuse, N.Y. — Lots of tenants are shifting spots at Destiny USA and a few new stores are set to open.

Here’s an update:

On the new tenant front, work is coming along on Nordstrom Rack. Rack, Nordstrom’s off-price unit, is set to take up a huge chunk of space on the first level of Destiny’s expansion section.

The barricades for the 33,000-square-foot store extend almost the entire length of one side of the corridor just off the Canyon. The retailer is swallowing up space once occupied by Tod’s, which has closed, and Puma, along with some previously vacant space.

Puma moved and is now located in the spot that was home to Hickey Freeman until it closed earlier this year. Rack will be across from a number of Destiny’s high-end outlets including Armani, Salvatore Ferragamo and Brooks Brothers.

It’s set to open this fall.

Construction barricades are still up for Jared The Galleria too. It’ll be right near Rack’s new store on the expansion’s first level. Also coming soon at Destiny is Threads, a men’s and women’s fashion and accessories store that will be located where Envy U and XSRE were on the second level of the expansion.

Via Roma, a menswear retailer, is set to open on the second level of the mall’s older section where Cortefiel was located before it closed. That’s between Ann Taylor and the Apple store. You know Deb, the mall stalwart, is out of business. But its space at Destiny wasn’t empty long. Lane Bryant is moving in temporarily.

Lane Bryant’s old location just down the hall is getting a facelift, which should wrap up by the end of June. The store will open in the temporary space Wednesday. Also on the move is Cooperstown Connection. It’s moving to the former location of Ecko Unltd. on the expansion’s second level. That’s down the hall from its old spot near Chico’s.

And Guitar Outlet moved from the expansion to the former location of Ruum, the childrenswear store, on the first level of Destiny’s older section. No info from the mall yet on plans for the old Cooperstown and Guitar Outlet locations.

Two more: There’s a new retailer, New York Fashions, open in the second-level connector between the mall’s old and new sections on the Lord & Taylor side. And Toys R Us Express is opening soon on the second level of the older section near Banana Republic.

The House of Wolves DLC To Possibly Have New Modifiers

Enraged Cinema is a Twitch streamer that recently made a trip out to Bungie to get his hands on the upcoming House of Wolves for Destiny power leveling. During his hands on session he found out some interesting new information about the game. He said that the House of Wolves DLC expansion that will be arriving next month is going to include a new set of modifiers.

He couldn’t go into the details and specifics of it, but merely mentioning it was enough to throw some people into a frenzy of speculation. Granted nobody has any idea what these modifiers are, but at the moment, the most commonly requested modifier on Destiny’s sub reddit is Kinetic Burn.

Other players seem to want Halo inspired modifiers such as no HUD, given that Bungie embraced Skulls in Halo, the community might recognise and respect these little nods to the past. As usual take this piece of information with a grain of salt unless you hear it from Bungie themselves. Destiny is now available for the PS4, PS3, Xbox 360 and Xbox One. For more information on the game check out our hub page of Destiny here.

Destiny Share Iron Banner Returning On April 28th

Destiny’s Iron Banner event is much loved by the game’s community which is why it’s not surprising to see it return after a brief time out. It has been confirmed today when this PvP event returns next. Fortunately Destiny fans don’t have to wait for too long because they will be able to take part in the Iron Banner event in just a couple of days.

Bungie brings back the Iron Banner PvP event after every few weeks and sure enough the community is always ready for it, rather they’re anxiously waiting for it to return. There’s no doubt in the fact that Destiny fans will be excited to see Iron Banner return next week.

The developer of this popular title confirmed today that Iron Banner will return next week after Destiny’s weekly reset in the coming days. The event was actually supposed to arrive this week but it was delayed due to recent Crucible changes implemented with patch 1.1.2.

All new rules for ammo introduced with patch 1.1.2 will apply to the Iron Banner event as well so do keep that in mind once you’re down to play next week. Iron Banner goes live on April 28th at 10am PST.

Those who are willing to play it should keep in mind that they won’t be able to access it from inside the Crucible menu, rather it will appear on the left side next to featured activities.

Destiny: Update Will Remove Vanguard

More specifically, the developer took the game’s complex (some would even call it convoluted) currency and consumable selection and made it even more so.

 And although it’s true that the House of Wolves DLC will add new upgrade materials, consumables, and currencies into the mix, it will also render a few others obsolete. More specifically, the next major Destiny update will do away with Vanguard and Crucible Commendations, clearing the way for more space in players’ vaults.

For those who might be familiar, Commendations was yet another currency added by Destiny’s Dark Below DLC. As players leveled up their Vanguard and Crucible Reputation they would earn a Commendation, which could be used (along with Vanguard Marks or Crucible Marks) to buy new gear or weapons. In fact, many of the DLC gear required Commendations, making the currency pretty important…at first.

Eventually, though, Vanguard and Crucible Commendations lost their utility, as most players either bought all the gear they wanted or found better gear from Xur or Crota’s End. That didn’t stop the Commendations from coming in, mind you, but they just sat there.

However, starting with the next Destiny update, players will finally be able to take their Commendations and trade them in for Vanguard or Crucible Reputation. And any future Reputation levels will no longer deliver Commendations. All players will need to purchase the new gear moving forward is a certain number of Crucible or Vanguard Marks.

While it’s great to see that Bungie is listening to fans and making changes, it’s hard not to wonder why the Commendations were added in the first place. Destiny already puts so many hoops in player’s way that anything extra only takes away from the enjoyment. And even those who buy in to the changes will eventually find that there’s a shelf life for almost every piece of currency. For example, once players acquire every exotic weapon and armor piece from Xur, Strange Coins become practically useless.

 The good news, though, is that Bungie has heard those complaints about upgrade materials loud and clear, and they are adding changes to improve those systems as well. Starting with the House of Wolves, The Speaker will offer an exchange system whereby players can trade their upgrade materials (shards, energy, and Motes of Light) for different types of upgrade materials, or they can simply exchange them for Glimmer.

At the very least these upcoming moves should do well to clean out Destiny players’ vaults, giving them more space for those new consumables like Etheric Light. However, we still can’t help but shake our heads as Bungie goes back and forth, adding features and then removing them.

Are you happy to see that Commendations are being removed from Destiny? Are there any other currencies or upgrade materials you’d like to see go?

Destiny Share The Player Trading System Still on Bungie’s Radar

Will Bungie ever introduce a player trading system for items in Destiny? It’s a question that Bungie is continually asked, including during yesterday’s special livestream for upcoming expansion House of Wolves. Destiny creative director Christopher Barrett responded by saying that, although it’s not a feature he’d personally like to see in Destiny, it’s not been ruled out for sometime down the road.

 Barrett said people have been asking about a Destiny trading system “since the beginning of time.”

“It’s something we’re…there’s downsides to it and there’s upsides,” he explained. Destiny community member Gothalion said a item trading system could diminish the appeal of Destiny’s endgame if players could freely swap items between one another.

Barrett said he agreed. But while he wouldn’t personally like to see player trading in Destiny, he says the team internally at Bungie is divided on the subject, noting that the studio’s “investment designers” continue to explore the possibility.

“The investment designers, there’s a lot of conversations I’m sure that happen about that,” Barrett said. “We’re always considering features like that. Personally, I’d prefer not to have player trading. But you’ll get different opinions across the entire team.”

Destiny publisher Activision does have a history with player trading systems, as the company’s genre-defining MMO World of Warcraft has had such a system for years now.

Would you like to see player trading in Destiny? Let us know in the comments below.

We learned a lot more about Destiny’s new House of Wolves expansion yesterday, and you can see a roundup of the key points here. The expansion itself arrives May 19 for all platforms.

The latest teaser trailer for the second DLC instalment from Destiny

Rockstar has warned fans to update their password protection on their Social Club accounts to avoid them being hijacked. Fans have been reporting problems with accessing GTA 5 due to being locked out by people who have managed to steal their user details.

However, Rockstar has also stressed that the Rockstar Social Club has not been compromised. Fans have been opening tickets via the Rockstar Support page on Twitter to try to restore full access to their accounts which seem to have been hijacked through another website or database.

Destiny’s latest teaser trailer for the second DLC instalment, House of Wolves, has revealed new details about the level changes set to be implemented. The new content will allow players to reach at least light level 34 after the clip ran through all the new features set to be added and briefly focussed on a character screen who had reached it. Destiny power leveling make you upgrade more quickly.

The video also revealed the new reef social space, characters, and gear upgrades. The level cap was originally raised for the The Dark Below expansion, with the light level system rising from 30 to 32. Fans are still waiting for the official announcement from Bungie but all looks set to be revealed during a live stream demonstration on April 22.

The Bungie team will begin to roll out information for the upcoming Destiny Expansion II: House of Wolves from 19:00, with Deej (Bungie Community Manager) hosting  the livestream straight from the studio with Christopher Barrett (Bungie Creative Director) and community member Gothalion.

They’ll take viewers through a live tour of the brand new social space, The Reef, while discussing the new content, new vendors and more. Wednesday, April 22: Bungie and special community guest Gothalion on Twitch for a tour of the The Reef can be watched below:

Remedy, the makers of Xbox title, Alan Wake, has revealed that a sequel in the series could be available on all platforms. The original title was a console exclusive on the Xbox 360 but things could all be different after production wraps on Quantum Break for Xbox One.

“Ultimately, these things are business decisions,” Remedy Chief Creative Officer Sam Lake told Polygon.  “We are definitely not ruling anything out and looking at different opportunities, but nothing is set in stone at the moment.” “When it comes to sequels it’s our thing, we can do whatever makes sense and what’s best for the franchise overall,”

“But obviously it depends on many different things. I think that regardless of the platform, a good sequel — while it continues the story of the original one — it’s still something that someone who hasn’t played the original one can enjoy and jump on board and dive into the setting and the world and enjoy themselves.”

The Biggest House of Wolves Changes from Destiny

As part of a livestream video broadcast today, Bungie outlined some major changes coming to Destiny by way of the game’s upcoming House of Wolves expansion, which is set to launch on all platforms May 19.

 Below you’ll find a roundup of some of the biggest news from the video broadcast, while we’ll have a more in-depth video breakdown later today featuring commentary from GameSpot’s Destiny experts. You’ll also find some new images of House of Wolves in the gallery at the bottom of this post.

Keep in mind that today’s Destiny broadcast was primarily focused on The Reef, one of the new social spaces coming to the game. The expansion doesn’t have a new raid, but it will come with a new three-player cooperative arena called Prison of Elders and new Crucible event known as Trials of Osiris.

Bungie will talk more about these new in-game activities through Twitch broadcasts in the coming weeks. For now, here are five major takeaways from today’s Destiny broadcast:

 

1. Legendary armor and weapons can now be upgraded to max level with Etheric Light. Exotics can be upgraded separately without resetting progress.

2. New weapons can be reforged with new perks at Gunsmith. This feature was previously only available in Iron Banner, making the Gunsmith useful again for post-Level 20 players.

3. Speaker has an all purpose material exchange including Ascendant and Radiant materials, Glimmer, and Motes of Light

4. New social space: Vestian Outpost. New NPCs to be introduced include:

  • Petra Venj – Main story agent.
  • Variks – Warden of the Prison of Elders
  • Brother Vance – Trials of Osiris Handler

5. Tons of new ships, weapons, and armor, which should introduce greater player variety. Max level cap raised to at least 34.

The House of Wolves DLC Lets You Reach Light Level 34 From Destiny

The second DLC expansion for Destiny, House of Wolves, will allow players to reach at least light level 34, a fact revealed by a new teaser trailer. Destiny power leveling make you upgrade easy.

The video, which you can watch below, briefly highlights the additions House of Wolves brings with it: a new social space, new characters, and new gear upgrades. We get a glimpse of each of these things, and it’s during that last section that we get a brief look at the character screen, showing a character whose light level is 34.

Following the release of The Dark Below expansion, the cap for light level–the system for leveling up beyond the standard level cap of 20–was bumped up from 30 to 32.

Bungie has yet to formally announce another increase to the light level cap, though it’s been presumed for some time that it would be going up with the next expansion. Then again, many assumed House of Wolves would include a new raid, which it will not.

We don’t know for sure that 34 is the new maximum–it’s possible it could go even higher–but we don’t have long to wait before finding out. Bungie has a livestream set to take place tomorrow, April 22, where it’ll be talking about “the upgrade paths for your gear.” It also has plans to reveal more in the weeks to come, with House of Wolves set to launch on May 19.