Tag: Destiny Glimmer

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.

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.

Destiny: Broadcast To Show New Gear Upgrades And Areas

Now that we know that Destiny’s massively anticipated House of Wolves DLC expansion has an official release date of May 19th 2015, players of the popular multiplayer shooter have been clamouring for some new official information from Bungie. Sitting at just over a month away, the House of Wolves has been a long time coming, or at least it feels that way for Guardians.

To help appease the masses that have been diligently waiting for their next Destiny fix, Bungie have scheduled a Twitch broadcast that will show off a number of the new gear upgrades coming to the game, as well as some of the new areas that until now have only really been seen by glitching your way through certain areas of the game.

The stream will be going live at 11 a.m. Pacific, which is around 2 p.m. Eastern, on Bungie’s official Twitch channel. If you’re interested in the upcoming DLC, then this is a must see stream for sure.

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?

Destiny: The Agent of Nine’s Exotic Items, Times And Location April 17-19

Hey, “Destiny” fans! It’s Friday, and you know what that means. Xur, Agent of the Nine, is back in Bungie’s popular shooter “Destiny.” This week, Xur is in the hangar downstairs.

Check out the Agent of the Nine’s items below:

  • Exotic Engram [Chest armour] – 23Mol
  • Helm of Inmost Light [Exotic Titan helmet] – 13SC
  • Radiant Dance Machines [Exotic Hunter leg armour] – 13SC
  • Voidfang Vestments [Exotic Warlock chest armour] – 13SC
  • The Last Word [Exotic hand cannon] – 23SC
  • Exotic Shard – 7SC

This week, players can upgrade the following armour — Crest of the Alpha Lupi, The Armamentarium, Sunbreakers, Heart of the Praxic Fire, Knucklehead Radar and Achlyophage Symbiote.

Hard Light, Red Death, Thorn, Patience and Time, Plan C, Hawkmoon and SUROS Regime are the upgradeable weapons.

Meanwhile, Bungie is preparing for the upcoming “Destiny” downloadable content (DLC) expansion pack, “House of Wolves,” which is scheduled to reach the Xbox One, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4 on May 19, four months after the game’s first expansion, “The Dark Below.” Publisher Activision confirmed the release date in a news release earlier this week.

“Destiny” booked a record for most initial sales in the first 24 hours of a franchise debut. The online action title went on sale last September and Bungie sold $500 million worth of the game to retailers within two days, making it the largest new game franchise launch in history. Activision Blizzard Inc. CEO Bobby Kotick claimed the sales figure was an “industry milestone” that “marks another blockbuster success for our company and demonstrates our unique ability to create some of the most successful entertainment franchises in the world.”

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.

House of Wolves Info Revealed in Data-Mining Leak From Destiny

Destiny’s House of Wolves DLC finally has a release date, nearly six months after the game’s last major expansion went live, and a series of weekly dispatches from the folks at Bungie will help count down the final month separating the Destiny community from a new wave of post-launch content.

Earlier this week, Activision published the prologue video for Destiny’s House of Wolves DLC. The video dropped alongside news that we’re just over one month removed from the expansion’s release date and we’re already starting to get some idea of what to expect when House of Wolves goes live.

According to a follow-up post on Bungie.net, the studio behind Destiny will gradually unveil some of the new content from House of Wolves, beginning with a tour of The Reef on April 22. The road to Destiny’s second expansion also includes  some live gameplay previews of the new Trials of Osiris and Prison of Elders endgame content. Relatively little is known about the former, which was revealed this week, but Bungie has already confirmed the latter will be a “cooperative multiplayer arena.”

In addition to the upcoming House of Wolves reveals, Bungie published Destiny Update 1.1.2 this week, along with patch notes for the game’s latest update. The biggest change in this week’s patch is also the one that received the most publicity in recent weeks — the expansion of Destiny players’ vaults — but there’s plenty of other changes in the latest Destiny update.

Those interested in the complete patch notes for Destiny Update 1.1.2 can find them on Bungie.net.

If you haven’t yet, take a couple of minutes to check out the House of Wolves prologue video that debuted on Monday. Then head down to the comments section and let us know if the new expansion and/or Destiny Update 1.1.2 is enough to get you playing the game again with any regularity.

Destiny’s House of Wolves DLC is being developed for PlayStation 3, PS4, Xbox 360 and Xbox One. The expansion is currently scheduled to hit PSN and Xbox Live on May 19.

Be sure to check back with iDigitalTimes.com and follow Scott on Twitter for additional Destiny coverage throughout the remainder of 2015 and for however long Activision and Bungie continue to publish new Destiny content in the years to come.

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.