Destiny show new challenges burn it all down this week

It’s that wonderful time when Bungie’s regular offering of high-reward Weekly Heroic and Nightfall Strike missions are rebooted (along with any raid progress made in the previous week), giving everyone a fresh chance at scoring some of the game’s sweetest and rarest loot.

Are you new to Destiny? Don’t know what any of this means? Good news! There’s a Destiny wiki that’s packed with information. Click on through for details on what Strikes are, and howNightfall differs from Weekly Heroic challenges.

Taste the rainbow! Destiny fans can’t ask for much more from their weekly challenge reset. There are shorter Strikes than Winter’s Run, which concludes with a knockdown brawl against a towering Archon Priest, but the three-way burn makes everything more fun. Here’s a rundown of this week’s modifiers:

Nightfall

  • Epic – This is a standard Nightfall modifier. It just means there are more enemies to fight, and a greater number of Majors (the yellow health bar dudes) on the field.
  • Nightfall – Another standard Nightfall modifier. This one boots the entire Fireteam back to orbit if everyone is downed inside one of the revive-only respawn Darkness Zones.
  • Arc Burn – Big damage boost for all weapons that deal Arc damage (blue electricity symbol).
  • Solar Burn – Big damage boost for all weapons that deal Solar damage (orange fireball symbol).
  • Void Burn – Big damage boost for all weapons that deal Arc damage (purple swirly symbol).

Weekly Heroic

  • Heroic
  • Void Burn

“Rainbow burn” is a term that Destiny fans use to apply to the rarely appearing Nightfall challenge that has the Arc, Solar and Void Burns attached to it. Where most Nightfall and Weekly Heroic modifiers are designed to make the going tougher, burns are a double-edged situation.

On the one hand, using a weapon bolstered by the specified element — in this week’s case, any of the three — comes with a massive damage boost. On the other, enemies can inflict that much more harm on you when their mode of attack aligns with the burn. So when there’s a rainbow burn, you’re taking a whole lot more damage from virtually everything, but you’re giving as good as you get.

Obviously, this is the week to bring along any of the raid primary weapons that you’ve picked up, since those are the only primaries that apply elemental damage. The Word of Crota hand cannon and/or the Atheon’s Epilogue auto rifle are good picks for Winter’s Run due to the abundance of void-shielded Minotaur enemies. Arc damage is also handy for the final showdown, so dust off the ol’ Fatebringer hand cannon, too.

Xur’s Location And Exotic Goods For Weekend From Destiny

Bungie slipped a jukebox into the Tower bar area with the Destiny 1.1.2 update released earlier this week. Naturally, this is where the mysterious Exotic vendor made his appearance Friday morning. Will PlayStation and Xbox players have a reason to dance though?

Xûr can be found in the very back of the bar located underneath the Future War Cult in the hangar this weekend. It’s a long jog, but easy to find. Just turn left when you enter the hanger, go down the stairs to the left, and then straight back. Here’s where you can find him on the Tower map just to be sure though.

Xûr and his items will only be available in Destiny through the morning of Sunday, March 29. As soon as the clock strikes 5 a.m. ET / 2 a.m. PT, he will be gone.

The Exotic items on sale this weekend in Destiny are led by “The Last Word” Hand Cannon. This gun hasn’t been sold often by Xûr, but it is an absolute beast in PVP due to its rapid fire capabilities. Meanwhile, the stat rolls on the Titan and Hunter armor pieces are quite good this week while Warlocks get a frequent visitor with a decent stat roll.

This week’s selection of upgrades is fairly average all around. The Achlyophage Symbiote and Sunbreakers are the only ones with great stat rolls. That said, it may be hard to advise to re-purchase or upgrade any Exotic piece of armor that you currently have with The House of Wolves just a couple of weeks away.

Here is what is available for sale and upgrade from Xûr this weekend. Thanks again to DestinyDB for the Exotic information below.

Purple Ball Has Been “Reborn,” Now in a Different Color

Over on the official Bungie site, the studio announced a HUGE change to Destiny, and that’s the big ball you see in the Tower.

Yep, the Destiny purple ball isn’t as purple now. Here’s what Bungie Technical Artist Nate Hawbaker had to say regarding this game-changing, er, change:

The Purple Ball has been reborn – shinier, more metal, but just as purple in spirit…It has captured the hearts and minds of so many Guardians who visit the Tower in search of their combat wares. We sought to honor their playful rituals by infusing it with the magic that players have clearly assigned to the second most important sphere in the game.

Now, before anyone says it, yes, Bungie is being sarcastic, so don’t spew hate how they seem to be making a big deal out of nothing with the color change.

Here’s what the ball looks like now in case you’re interested:

As for what’s due next after Destiny update 1.1.2, Bungie says update 1.2.0 is the next “destination,” and included in it is the House of Wolves expansion, but it will “impact the experience of every player” regardless if they get the DLC or not.

Have you noticed the ball’s color change? What do you want Bungie to change in the Tower next?

Patch 1.1.2 Removes Blades of Crota from Destiny

Bungie recently updated Destiny with a hefty patch, weighing in at roughly 4.3 GB or so for current gen users. While the new options have been greatly appreciated, there seem to have been some unfortunate side-effects – like the removal of the Blades of Crota.

After The Dark Below launched, a new event of sorts was added to Patrol missions wherein a Hive Knight wielding the Sword of Crota would be available to murder. Killing the Knight would allow you to use the Sword and wreck havoc. Along with offering sword practice for the Crota’s End raid, it could also help users in completing bounties from Eris Morn, the new NPC introduced with The Dark Below.

However, Reddit users are now reporting a complete lack of Blades in maps like the Cosmodrome. You can still find a Blade of Crota in the Fist of Crota mission in The Dark Below. The problem is players who don’t own the expansion will miss out on fighting these enemies on Patrol missions and completing Eris’s bounties without necessarily buying the expansion.

Whether it’s a glitch or not remains to be seen so stay tuned for more information.

Update 1.1.2 is available to download today

After Bungie teased it for the last few weeks, Destiny update 1.1.2 is available to download today on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, Xbox One, and Xbox 360. As Bungie added, “Update 1.1.2 will make its way to all platforms gradually over the next few hours. Thank you for your patience.”

As a result, “Players will be returned to the title screen from their activities and then be required to log in to Destiny again after installing the patch.”

With update 1.1.2, you’ll see a Vault Capacity increase, colorblind support, audio controls, item lock, suspend/resume optimizations on PS4, and much more.

Here’s the full list of patch notes, as detailed by Bungie:

Spotlight Improvements & Additions

  • Vault Capacity increased to 24 Armor Slots, 36 Weapon Slots, and 24 General Slots
  • Disabled gear comparison in Vault on Xbox 360 & PS3 platforms to account for additional slot memory
  • Colorblind support (deuteranopia, protanopia, tritanopia) added for highly color-driven gameplay elements: Motion tracker, Loot drops, Shield energy, Item categories
  • Audio Controls are now available in the Settings menu: Volume control, Music toggling
  • Item Lock now allows players to prevent gear and weapon items from being accidentally dismantled
  • The purple ball has been reborn in the tower as an interactive sphere with a parallaxed energy core that grows with object velocity and tints based off time of day

Weapons

General

  • Fixed a bug that caused a player to lose ammo when switching weapons while dead
  • Fixed a bug where ammo consumables did not reliably replenish ammo
  • Pocket Infinity behavior is less likely to fail during edge case conditions
  • 4th Horseman weapon stats restored to original intended values

Perks

  • Updated Thorn’s first-person player feedback poison effect
  • White Nail perk no longer triggers on immune targets
  • Defensive Reflex (Don’t Touch Me) perk no longer triggers on throwing knives
  • Performance Bonus ammo on Fusion Rifles reduced to match Shotguns and Sniper Rifles
  • Fixed an issue introduced in 1.1.1 that allowed Ice Breaker to persist ammo after respawn

World

  • Players can now choose to wear their helmets in social spaces
  • Quest loot pyramid baubles are now easier to spot
  • Added Quest indicator badges to the Tower when a Quest is either completed and ready to turn in
  • Increased Crota’s Bane Reputation rewards on Eris Morn’s bounties
  • Fixed a bug where Major Thralls had two jaws and two left hands
  • Fixed a bug where player’s equipped items did not receive experience from completing missions
  • Fixed a bug where the Black Garden Level 30 Featured Story was incorrectly listed at Level 28
  • Fixed a bug where Heavy Ammo consumables were not available for purchase from Xûr

Strikes

Cereberus Vae III

  • Valus Ta’Aruc’s strength has been reduced by 33%
  • Reduced the number of Major combatants in the Valus Ta’Aurc fight

Dust Palace

  • Dust Palace: Reduced the number of Major combatants in the Psion Flayer fight
  • Dust Palace: Lowered the strength on the Psion Flayers’shields

Raids

Vault of Glass

  • Vault of Glass will no longer display a highlighted activity notification despite players best efforts to remove it
  • Fixed a bug where splash damage could penetrate the Aegis bubble
  • Shield Relic melee attacks now land Minotaurs more consistently
  • Improved issues associated with walking through the teleport

Crota’s End

  • Crota will now wait until fully standing before a sword attack
  • Fixed a bug where the sword immediately despawned after killing a swordbearer
  • Swords will now last a full 30 seconds after being picked up

PvP

General

  • Greatly reduced the weighting of Blind Watch and Firebase Delphi in Control, Iron Banner, and Inferno Control playlists
  • Fixed a bug where a player that was killed by an enemy could commit suicide and be revived for points
  • Fixed a bug that prevented players from receiving points for neutralizing a control zone
  • Fixed a bug where capture points were not properly disabled after the game ends
  • Added incremental revive timers to Skirmish and Salvage: Each time a teammate revives you, it takes longer before you can be revived again (currently +5s each revive)
  • Stopping Power now requires Shotgun kills instead of sprees
  • Target Practice now requires Hand-Cannon kills instead of sprees
  • Electrocutioner now requires Fusion Rifle kills instead of sprees

Maps

  • Anomaly: Added invisible physics over the pool table to keep people from hiding
  • Shores of Time: Added kill volume to the open edge of “A” cave in to keep players from hiding
  • The Burning Shrine: Moved the spawn point to fix camera view

Ammunition

  • Crates are now visible for all players long before they are available to pick up, with a countdown timer added to show when they will arrive
  • Guardians no longer drop Special ammo on death
  • Lowered the amount of Special ammo picked up from crates (from 50% to 25%)
  • Special Ammo crate respawn time raised (from 45 seconds to 120 seconds)
  • Increased drop radius when a friendly picks up a Special crate (from 20 meters to 100 meters)
  • Slightly increased interaction time on Special Ammo crate (from 0.1 seconds to 0.8 seconds)
  • Reduced the number of Special crates on the maps and relocated them (from 6-8 crates to 3-5 crates)
  • Special and Heavy ammo bricks now despawn when a player dies or on a timer (20 seconds for Special, 30 seconds for Heavy)
  • Heavy ammo now lets everyone know which player or Faction picked up ammo
  • Increased warning time on Heavy ammo (from 10 seconds to 15 seconds)

UI

  • New visual treatment to Quest nodes and nodes that involve Quest activities or steps
  • Players can now click the left stick to hide the UI when inspecting items, for screenshotting/sharing purposes
  • Fixed a bug where precision kills did not appear correctly in the PGCR
  • UI flyouts are now easier to navigate (i.e. “Amazon Flyout Menu”)

Audio

  • Fixed an issue where Stealth Vandal audio was being suppressed by gunfire or other loud sounds
  • Titan Ward of Dawn now has audio indicators at low energy so players can more easily read when it will time out
  • Players walking into enemy Wards of Dawn now hear a sound when blindness is applied

Companion

  • Fixed issue where Combined Arms Grimoire card was pointing to the wrong unlock conditions
  • Fixed issue where Grimoire cards were awarding the incorrect number of Grimoire points

Technical

  • Fixed a rare soft-lock when a player’s internet connection drops
  • Clarified error that displays when user has insufficient hard drive space
  • Better handling of rest mode/resume on PS4

As we learned yesterday, the House of Wolves expansion launches this May, but it won’t include a new Raid.

Destiny Share Can Benefit From ‘House of Wolves’ Ditching Its Raid

Yesterday, Bungie announced something we were all expecting, a May release date for Destiny’s House of Wolves DLC, and something no one was, that the new expansion would not contain another Raid.

 

Rather than introducing another complex, six-man activity, Bungie instead revealed a few details about another type of mission called the “Prison of Elders.” They describe it as “a new cooperative end game activity focused on variety, replayability, and skill.”

They refer to it as a “battle arena,” which many fans have taken to mean that Prison of Elders is some sort of co-operative Horde Mode type activity where players (in groups of three, not six) will work together to survive waves of enemies. Though Bungie says in the statement they are working on a new Raid to be released later this year (which jives with a timeline anticipating a big new content drop in the fall), House of Wolves will not have one.

 

The community seems pretty stunned by the decision, given that the Raid has always been the ultimate endgame of Destiny content, both in the original game, and now recently in the first DLC, Crota’s End. Without more details about what the Prison of Elders will contain, it can be hard to tell if the decision is a wise one, but obviously many fans are making up their minds already that this is a very bad thing.

I’m not so sure, and I think once again the most engaged, vocal fans about an issue like this are forgetting the true make-up of the Destiny playerbase.

House Of Wolves DLC Will Be ‘Intense’ And Dark Days Ahead For Guardians

Some news for you Guardians still amongst us that are surely beginning to feel a little bit bored waiting on the House of Wolves to drop. Kirsten Potter, Voice Over Actress that worked on Destiny power leveling, has taken to Twitter to both inform and disappoint. She said, “Just recorded some cool stuff with Team Bungie. House of Wolves shaping up to be pretty intense. There are dark days ahead, Guardian!”

This of course points towards the DLC still not being quite complete. Which is a bit of a kick in the teeth especially given the fact that the release date is right around the corner. However, it will surely be interesting to see what these “dark days” will be, especially if the Queen of the Reef is warning you about them.

 

Now might be a good time to grind out some better armour, just to be on the safe side. Destiny is now available on the PS3, Ps4, Xbox One, Xbox 360 and hopefully one day on the PC. For more on Destiny check out our hub page here.

Bungie weekly update detailing the fate of PVP changes from Destiny

While Bungie still is not ready to reveal a release date for the next major Destiny update, the studio has shed light on yet another noteworthy change coming to the game’s competitive mode. If you have upgrade trouble, you can find destiny power leveling.

According to the developer’s weekly update, ammo within the Crucible is getting a few modifications in order to change the the general flow of PVP matches. As such, Special ammunition will be a “more precious resource,” as Bungie seeks to create a more balanced landscape for those playing against one another online.

Limiting high-damage weapons and clearly defining the role of Heavy ammo within the shared-world shooter’s PVP is a major goal of the studio as well, undoubtedly altering the way gamers will have to approach online battles.

For more on Destiny, you can read all about the forthcoming changes that were revealed last week.

Agent of the Nine Exotic Items Up To May 19 from Destiny

It seems like Destiny Xur: Agent of the Nine vs Megaman saga has finally come to an end. For past few weeks, Megaman openly admitted that he is finding it difficult to leak Xur Agent of the Nine exotic items (with the help of data mining tech) ahead of its official arrival. The reason behind it was (according to Megaman) Bungie made some drastic changes to curb hacking of Xur Agent of the Nine exotic items and upgrades via data mining tech (in short, Bungie started manually controlling Xur and changing Xur’s stock in real time via patch).

Megaman is a relief man now and feels like his task is accomplished, and he openly let this feeling of his know to Destiny community via Reddit. In the comment section of one of his thread, Megaman stated that because of recent Xur’s Stocks leak, Bungie was forced to changed him with new stocks because all old stocks were WEAK and Destiny players were not happy with it.

In addition to this, Megaman stated that he had possession of Xur: Agent of the Nine stocks and exotic items up to May 19, and those were “Awful”, Mida Multi Tool was scheduled to come three times.

Here is what Megaman said (in conversation with other Xur Items/Stock leaker) (translated) 

“I’m grateful to you. If you hadn’t published the data of xur, Bungie would not have changed xur. I had possession of data up to May 19th and it was awful. Mida Multi Tool was scheduled to come three times.”

Are you guys happy with the recent changes made (by Bungie) to Xur: Agent of the Nine exotic items, stocks and upgrades? Do let us know in the comment section below.

Destiny Share How Bungie Goes About Improving The Game Every Week

The video game industry moves fast. A game everyone’s talking about today can become a foggy memory in just a matter of weeks. The best chance most games have at success happens right around launch. One game, however, is bucking that trend: Destiny.

Built by Halo developer Bungie, Destiny came out in September 2014 to massive hype from shooter fans and the gaming press alike. But despite Bungie’s pedigree and the game’s positive pre-release press, many players’ initial reactions when it came out were surprisingly lukewarm.

For most games, this would be a death sentence; just look at what happened with the similarly-hyped but under-delivering Titanfall. But that’s not how Destiny has played out. In February — five full months after the game’s release — Destiny was the fifth most searched game on Google, well ahead of more recent major releases like Evolve and Resident Evil Revelations 2. So why is Destiny thriving while other games struggle to maintain the spotlight? It’s due in large part to the game’s weekly updates.

In the months since launch, Bungie has done a lot to improve Destiny’s gameplay experience, which pleases dedicated players and brings new ones into the fold.

The weekly updates keep the gameplay balanced and as bug-free as possible while Bungie works on the larger content updates it releases sporadically. As the developer writes on its blog:

We’ve said many times that Destiny is never finished. We’ll keep updating it, polishing it, revising it, and pushing its boundaries until you pry it from our cold, dead… You get the idea.

Bungie decides what to change in its weekly updates by listening to the fans, finding bugs, and searching its data to minimize pain points and things that frustrate players unnecessarily.

Since Destiny is an online game, it’s easy to find things to fix. The developers can look at just about everything people do in the game, which helps them identify things like which missions are too easy or difficult to complete, which guns are over- or under-powered, and exploits players have discovered.

To keep players up to speed on what’s happening in Destiny, Bungie hosts a news page. It shows an incredible amount of transparency between the game’s developers and the players. Each weekly update is accompanied by a post that explains what has changed and why. The game’s designers are quoted at length, discussing any challenges or concessions they had to make when designing the update.

Destiny’s most recent weekly update offers a telling look into how Bungie goes about improving the game from week to week. The developer found that a small number of players would chronically sit idle during raids, letting other people do the fighting, but reaping the rewards once the raid was complete. The new update puts temporary restrictions on the accounts of people who exploit the game regularly.

Bungie also looked at the statistics for its missions and found that two missions had very low completion rates, with average completion times that were excessive. According to production engineer Brenton Woodrow:

Our goal was to ease the difficulty for the least-completed strikes. In order to do this, we focused on the final boss encounters, which were fairly lengthy on higher tiers. We addressed this by reducing the strength for several of the major combatants. We also felt that the bosses themselves could use some tweaking. We reduced Valus Ta’Aurc’s health by a third and reduced the Psion Flayers’ shields by about 15%. We locked these changes after several playtests with the designers and feel that they bring these encounters in line with the rest of the Strikes.

It’s exactly this kind of attention to detail week after week that has improved the experience of playing Destiny since its September launch. There’s a right way and a wrong way to approach a game that doesn’t click with players immediately. With Destiny, Bungie is showing everyone else how it should be done.