Category: Destiny

Destiny: The Newb’s Guide to Being a Hero

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 how Nightfall differs from Weekly Heroic challenges.

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.

This week’s chosen Strike is the hated Cerberus Vae III mission, in which up to three players hunt down a Cabal general on the sandy surface of Mars. It’s among the lengthier Strikes in Destiny, and it’s also — as Bungie revealed in its April 2 update — one of the most frequently unfinished. So much so that the developer is planning to ease the difficulty in an imminent update.

Sadly, that update hasn’t yet arrived, which means we’re stuck with the same super-challenging gauntlet. Here’s the top-line details for this week, if you just want to know what the modifiers are:

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.
  • Lightswitch – Enemy melee attacks do mega-damage. Keep your distance at all times.
  • Angry – Headshots (and high-impact weapons) don’t stagger enemies.
  • Juggler – Ammo only drops for the weapons that you’re not actively using.

Weekly Heroic

  • Heroic
  • Lightswitch

Them’s the basics. But what does it all mean?

This week’s Nightfall is, frankly, a waste. There’s no elemental “burn” modifier like there usually is, meaning you don’t get any damage buffs from your Arc, Solar, and Void weapons. You also don’t take the increased damage from those elements without the burn. That’s nice, but the Strike is still too long and the final boss fight, too tedious.

House of Wolves Release Date Coming Soon from Destiny

The latest weekly update on the Bungie blog indicates gamers won’t have to wait much longer for information, with news regarding a release date expected before the end of the month.

Since “The Dark Below” was released in December, “Destiny” gamers have played and replayed content a thousand different ways. The patient wait for the game’s next major DLC pack, “House of Wolves” continues, but at least fans now know when they can expect more news.

As noted by Gamespot, “The House of Wolves” is believed to launch with a new storyline focusing on the Awoken, an exclusive raid, three new Crucible maps, a new Fallen Strike and new weapons, armour and gear. Gamers who purchased the “Destiny” Expansion Pass will be able to access “House of Wolves” without paying anything extra, while the DLC is available to purchase separately for $20.

“The next expansion for Destiny is something we’re really looking forward to talking about. This month, there will come a day when we’ll reveal a release date for the trials that await you, with a whole reef of details soon to follow – but it is not this day,” read the blog post, by Bungie community manager, Deej.

The tease may seem cruel, but at least gamers will still have the weekly Heroic and Nightfall Strikes to keep them busy. Regular “Destiny” data-miner, Megamanexe4 has spilled the beans on Reddit, indicating gamers are set for a level 24 Heroic Strike mission to the Mars Median Bay for a showdown with Cabal Colossus Ultra; Valus Ta’aurc. Heroic and Lightswitch modifiers will be active, meaning hordes of enemies dealing greater damaged with increased aggression will be the order of the day.

The Weekly Nightfall offers up an even sterner challenge, with a level 30 Very Hard mission featuring Nightfall, Lightswitch, Angry and Juggler modifiers. Destiny power leveling make you upgrade more easy. As always, Nighftall means if the entire fireteam dies, players get kicked back to orbit, Angry sees enemies that don’t flinch even in the face of massive damage, while Juggler means enemies don’t drop ammo for currently equipped weapons.

Players looking for a leg up on Valus Ta’aurc can check out a video hosted on the DPJ – Daily Destiny Videos YouTube channel, which shows Guardians of all classes how to cheese the boss. Players will need to make their way up to a hidden spot in the battle arena, from where they can headshot Ta’aurc with ease, whilst staying behind cover.

That said, experienced players may have no need of the cheese. As noted by Polygon, Destiny aim to make some raid bosses, including Valus Ta’aurc a little easier in the near future. Finally, the developer is also planning on temporarily banning a small number of toxic players from matchmaking. Bungie said the offenders are chronic idlers who who sit idle in competitive and cooperative multiplayer, damaging the experience for others.

Destiny share Bungie devilishly trapped its players

On forums and in other community venues, both hardcore and casual players will attest to that sentiment, yet somehow, both fan bases still chug along, min-maxing their stats, grinding out faction reputation for a chance at extremely rare cosmetic items, or chasing that one elusive gun. Normally, that would sound like we players are making our own decisions about grinding extra hard for minimal returns, but really, we’ve fallen prey to Bungie’s grand designs.

Once you hit the soft level cap — something a robot has managed — you can play through four weekly events (currently two raids and two strikes) per character until the reset seven days later allows you to get loot from those events once again. In an effort to gain extra chances on dropping specific desired loot, players created extra characters (a maximum of three slots), which not only extends their playtime, but grants them access to the game’s most enjoyable content extra times per reset. At GDC this year, head of User Research at Bungie, John Hopson, revealed the tricks and strategies Bungie employed to keep us coming back for more — even if certain players are able to uncover what’s coming down the pipeline.

Three years before Destiny released, Bungie had test groups regularly playing game builds and documenting almost every response elicited during gameplay. The developer split players up into five categories: short and long campaigners, short and long omnivores, and specialists. Campaigners would play the campaign, omnivores would partake in activities from every category — PvE, PvP, and anything else — and specialists would focus on one specific activity. Wanting players to get the most out of its game, Bungie focused on the omnivores.

Bungie employed eye-tracking technology to document where players looked, they recorded what players said — explicit or otherwise — and gave players a button to press when they felt something in the game worked. So, while Bungie employs dastardly tricks like time-gating the game’s most fun content or requiring a slog of a faction reputation grind, the developer’s real trick is it psychoanalyzed — and recorded — players to find out what works best.

Destiny Share Update Sees Raid Fixes, Strike Improvements and More

Bungie recently released some important details for the “Destiny” upcoming Patch 1.1.2. Slated to be released alongside the game’s upcoming second expansion, House of Wolves, the said update will see changes on raids, Destiny power leveling make you upgrade easy, strikes and improvements on player usage.

As pointed out in the studio’s official update blog site, the next upgrade will bring in the needed fixes for the Atheon and Crota Raid bugs.

“In 1.1.2, we have an opportunity to make some targeted fixes. We prioritized a list of items based on community feedback and tried to hit the ones that have been the most important to players. In particular, we wanted to improve the Atheon and Crota boss encounters. They’re challenging enough without the game getting in your way,” senior designer Gavin Irby told Bungie.net.

More details about the Raid bug fixes will be provided when the Update Notes for Patch 1.1.2 is released, the site said.

The upgrade will also bring some Strike fixes which is said to improve the strikes gameplay. The blog cited User Research Lead, John Hopson particularly addressing the Cerberus Vae III Strike which, as he said, is “arguably the longest and hardest Strike in the Game.”

To answer the problem, production engineer Brenton Woodrow said that their goal now is to “ease up” on the difficulty of the strike.

“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,” Woodrow said.

Bungie will also begin handing out punishments to players who idle around during matchmaking activities.

“Sitting idle in Strikes and PvP has been on our radar for a while now, but it’s become clear that a small number of the worst idlers are responsible for damaging the experiences of thousands of other players,” Hopson said.

The site clarified the premise of the punishment by saying that only those “truly dedicated idlers” are to be reprimanded by “temporarily banning” them from the multiplayer activities.

Destiny: April Fools’ Day Prank Is an Epic Dance Party

Who wants to dance? Your Destiny character does, that’s who. As part of Bungie’s April Fools’ Day prank, your Destiny character is locked into a constant state of dancing on Bungie.net.

Visit the “Legend” tab on the website to see your character get down. It’s even funnier if you have multiple characters, as YouTube user moreuse shows us in the video above.

Does Bungie have a dedicated dance choreographer on staff? They must, because some of these moves are pretty excellent.

Destiny is just one of the many games celebrating April Fools’ Day today. Check out our roundup here to see what other games are doing to mark the occasion.

Destiny Share Will Bungie keep fans until House of Wolves

The House of Wolves was originally set to hit download markets in March, but was postponed by Bungie and has yet to be given a set release date.

An arrival window has been set between April 1 and June 30, which could mean the release could be set for this month.

However, Other leaks in the past year have suggested that House of Wolves could be released on May 19, and will feature an array of new missions, strikes and Crucible levels.

 

“All we ask is that you leave your mind open to the evolutions that are inevitable,” community manager David Dague wrote back in February.

“What you see here are very old ghosts from our pre-launch database.

“Aside from giving it a name, Bungie has yet to reveal the House of Wolves. That means that anything you know about it can change.”

The game’s last expansion, The Dark Below, launched on December 9 and a wait until May would certainly leave the title rather barren of new content for gamers.

“I’m glad Iron banner is coming but even what it offers isn’t really worth participating in if you are 32 already. I hope Bungie introduces something new soon.

“I don’t understand why they don’t just add all the story missions to the random strike generator, that would mix things up at least a little. Also a friendly fire option.”

Halo: The Master Chief Collection is another option for fans, now that the matchmaking problems seems to have been put to bed and multiplayer can be enjoyed to its fullest again.

Battlefield Hardline is another option, while GTA 5’s Online Heists could appear as a tempting prospect with those with enough friends and a lot of patience.

House of Wolves meanwhile is reportedly set to include:

  • New Awoken storyline with Raid
  • 3 new Crucible maps and a new Fallen Strike
  • a big range of new weapons, armour and gear

Switching games now for something like Call of Duty may appear to pricey for some gamers, and having put in so many hours into Destiny it would seem certain that the core support are set to stay for the wait.

One fan wrote: “As much as I would like it to come out last week if they take their time and do it right I will be Happy as long as it’s better then the Dark Below.”

Nightfall and Heroic Strike Revealed: Punch Sekrion

Sekrion is your main target but as is the case with Nightfall missions, several modifiers are in effect.

These include Angry (enemies don’t flinch), Epic (heavily shielded and plentiful enemies), Juggler (no ammo for your currently equipped weapon), Void Burn (void damage is greatly increased and this works for both you and your enemies) and Nightfall (return to orbit once your entire team dies in a Darkness Zone).

The weekly refresh for Bungie’s Destiny has come and gone, replacing the Weekly Heroic and Nightfall for the week. Last week saw players head to the Summoning Pits to face Phogoth the Untamed but this week, you’ll be going to Venus and visiting the Nexus.

The Weekly Heroic modifiers include Juggler and Heroic (tougher and higher number of enemies).

For the Nightfall, make sure to pack the Word of Crota or Atheon’s Epilogue to deal with mobs. Truth, Against All Odds and other Void heavies along with Swordbreaker and Praedyth’s Revenge will be your best friends. What are your thoughts on the weeklies? Let us know below.

Destiny Share New PVP Battleground Inferno Clash Hits This Week

Detailed on the Bungie blog, Inferno Clash will contain a few characteristics that were present in Inferno Control mode but has a heavier emphasis on scoring kills.

These include the removal of the radar on the HUD, placing only one set of heavy ammo crates per match, and simplified scoring. For the latter, Bungie has removed “as many scoring events as possible” and made it so that assists will no longer be awarded points. The map rotation will also be carried over from Inferno Control, which featured the following maps featured in the line-up:

  • The Anomaly
  • Firebase Delphi
  • Twilight Gap
  • Rusted Lands
  • Shores of Time
  • Blind Watch
  • Asylum
  • The Burning Shrine
  • The Cauldron
  • Pantheon

Destiny’s upcoming patch 1.1.2 update will introduce a few tweaks to the game in preparation for the House of Wolves expansion. This includes increasing the capacity for players’ storage vaults, which are currently capped at 20 slots each. The update will also implement new audio options, a feature for colorblind players, and various gameplay fixes.

Destiny Share New Queen’s Wrath Bounties

The baking of Queen’s Wrath was likely drawn out further as resources were split between updating Destiny and getting The Dark Below expansion ready for release. However, it appears that it could return with The House of Wolves based on these bounties discovered in DestinyDB by a sharp-eyed Redditor.

The first Queen’s Wrath PVE event received mixed reviews from Destiny players when it was first released a couple of weeks after the game’s launch. A mid-event patch was needed once Bungie realized how easy it was for players to rack up Ascendant Shards. The developer then announced the event was “going back into the oven for a while” at the end of October 2014.

New Queen’s Wrath Bounties

  • Moluk, Wormwaker – Defeat Molik, Wormwaker in “The Seeding” mission in the Cosmodrome on Earth.
  • Nycor, Reborn – Defeat Nycor, Reborn in “The Veil Lifted” mission in the Cosmodrome on Earth.
  • Watchers of Crota – Defeat the Watchers of Crota in “The Wakening” mission on the Moon.

The first two listed above are missions that appear to come with The House of Wolves expansions. Meanwhile, the Watchers of Crota bounty refers to a mission from The Dark Below.

These new bounties plus the pre-existing Queen’s Wrath bounties are all classified as “Reef” bounties. I can’t recall if they were classified as such when the original event was released, but it lines up with the new Reef social space outed in a recent Destiny leak.

Those aren’t the only new bounties discovered. There’s also a new Vanguard bounty.

  • Battle Scars – Earn 20000 Experience in story missions with the Epic modifier active.

And, a new Iron Banner bounty.

  • Salvaged Hope – Participate in the capture of 15 Salvage zones while competing in the Iron Banner tournament.

The Iron Banner bounty is interesting, because it is based on the Salvage game type. All six of the Iron Banner events to date have run the Control gametype. Could the PVP special event be due for a shakeup as well?

It’s good to see that Bungie hasn’t forgotten the Queen’s Wrath and there has been work done on it. Hopefully, it can help fill in some of the mid-game content where Destiny hits a lull between when players complete the campaign and when they can start participating in raids.

The House of Wolves is expected to bump up the starting levels for Heroic and Nightfall Strikes plus the Strike Playlist. Mid-game content will become more and more important as Destiny continues to expand.

Senior gameplay left Bungie to join Fallout and Elder Scrolls studio from Destiny

Destiny senior gameplay designer Josh Hamrick has left Bungie to join Fallout and Elder Scrolls developer Bethesda. He announced the news on Twitter, expressing gratitude to Bungie, and wishing the developer all the best as it continues to work on Destiny going forward without him.

Hamrick did not announce his exact title at Bethesda, nor did he say what project at the developer he’ll be working on. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim team Betheda Game Studios is currently working on an unannounced game.

Some are suggesting this game may be announced at E3 given that Bethesda is–for the first time ever–holding its own press conference at the show.

 

During Hamrick’s nearly six years at Bungie, he also worked on the developer’s final Halo title, Halo: Reach. Prior to joining Bungie in 2009, Hamrick worked at Midway Studios Austin on BlackSite: Area 51, among other titles.

Destiny launched in September 2014 and Bungie has continually supported and expanded game since then. The game’s first add-on, The Dark Below, was released in December, while the next expansion–House of Wolves–will be released before the end of June. Bungie is also working on “Destiny 2.”