The latest expansion packs draws near from Destiny

Fans on the Xbox and PlayStation platform get their hands on House Of Wolves later this month and will have two new endgame activities to try out instead of a new raid.

The latest blog from the studio has given a recap on the latest reveal on crucible event, Prison of Elders, where teams of three players can take on waves of increasingly difficult enemies to earn destiny power leveling legendary and exotic rewards.

Higher difficulty challenges are available and will include even greater rewards for those Guardians ready to test themselves. The Trials of Osiris meanwhile introduces a weekly 3v3 elimination event that tracks your team’s wins and losses.

The more wins your team accumulates in each Passage, the greater your rewards, which include Osiris-themed, endgame gear. Bungie have spent a lot of time focussing on the worth of the two new activities and look set to continue on that trend until May 19.

 

“Respect your elders, they say. The cold, hard fact is that they won’t always respect you back,” the latest Bungie blog opens with.

“That’s what we learned yesterday during the Prison of Elders reveal. Three Guardians who had never played Destiny together took on one of the most challenging activities that you’ll experience in House of Wolves.

“The results were amazing. Our enemies cowered in fear as we swept each cell clean. We emerged victorious to enjoy a shower of riches. “Okay, we got our asses kicked. Think you can do better in the new endgame? You’re invited to go serve your own sentence after May 19th.”

Activation of House of Wolves from Destiny

On Wednesday, Bungie released Destiny update 1.2.0, which took the game offline for a few hours and prepared it for House of Wolves later this month, but the changes didn’t go live yet.

In their Weekly Update, Bungie revealed that update 1.2.0 goes live on May 12, while another update on May 19 will set the stage for House of Wolves‘ activation:

Update 1.2.0

  • Tuesday, May 12
  • Sometime after 10am PT
  • Final preparation and world changes

Update 1.2.0.1

  • Tuesday, May 19
  • Sometime after 10am PT
  • Final delivery and activation of House of Wolves

They also warned about the supposed patch notes floating around, saying, “As always, keep an eye out for official Patch Notes. The last word on game updates will be brought to you by the Destiny Dev Team. Accept no substitutes!” If you’re thinking of picking up either of the Destiny expansions on PlayStation 3 or Xbox 360, Bungie revealed that their Digital Upgrade Program has been extended indefinitely:

Many players have benefited from this initiative since it began. To enable more people to take advantage of this offering, it will be extended indefinitely. Please note that this extended offer is only for the Expansion Pass, Expansion I, and Expansion II. For our fans who will be entering the Destiny universe on PlayStation 3 or Xbox 360 we have some great news! For a limited time, whenever you buy the Expansion Pass, Expansion I, or Expansion II on PlayStation 3 or Xbox 360, you will be able to download the next-gen version within the same console family for FREE.

Finally, Bungie’s fundraising effort to support disaster recovery in Nepal has reached $400,000. You can learn more about the initiative over here.

House of Wolves’ new endgame mode, Prison of Elders

Destiny’s second expansion, House of Wolves, will add a new gameplay mode called Prison of Elders when the add-on hits later this month, and Bungie plans to reveal more about that new endgame activity tomorrow, May 6.

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In a new teaser video, we get an early peek at Prison of Elders, which sounds like a cooperative, horde mode-style gameplay option for three players. “Prepare for combat. Fight. Kill. Survive,” the teaser says.

Destiny: House of Wolves senior design Matt Sammons will reveal more about Prison of Elders during a livestream on Twitch on May 6, starting at 11 a.m. PT. He’ll be joined by special community guest Professor Broman.

House of Wolves will raise Destiny power leveling cap from 32 to 34, and players will be able to exchange ascendant and radiant materials and redeem commendations for reputation to help them get there. Guardians will also have the chance to level up their existing gear through a process called “ascension.” The upgrades allow for maximum attack to reach 365 on weapons like Fatebringer, Bungie confirmed in a livestream last month.

Bungie revealed details on House of Wolves’ new social space in the Reef and the Trials of Osiris competitive game mode in April.

House of Wolves comes to Destiny on May 19 for PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360 and Xbox One.

Will Be Improved Before House Of Wolves’ Launch

Destiny’s player-versus-player activities are going to be much more tempting soon. Bungie plans to boost the rewards for Crucible matches prior to the House of Wolves expansion’s debut.

 “Shortly before the hunt for the House of Wolves begins on May 19th, all players will download Update 1.2.0 for Destiny power leveling,” Bungie’s David Dague said in the latest Weekly Update. “It will be another evolution for the experience you know.”

When Update 1.2 goes live, Legendary items will become possible end-of-match rewards in the Crucible. Furthermore, you’ll earn twice the usual Reputation and Marks at the end of a match. The first time you finish a daily feature Crucible activity each day, you’ll get a reward package. The changes should hopefully encourage players to push through a losing battle and stay until the end rather than quitting.

Iron Banner will be undergoing a couple changes as well. Spawn locking, an exploit that allows one team to essentially delay the respawns for their enemies, will be fixed. Furthermore, Iron Banner vendor Lord Saladin will begin selling Etheric Light. This new currency, available at Rank 3 and 5 in Iron Banner, allows players to upgrade any Legendary or Exotic weapon to the new damage cap of 365. It’s a way for players to keep their old favorites relevant even as Bungie adds newer loot in House of Wolves.

Lastly, three maps (“Pantheon,” “Skyshock,” “The Cauldron”) from previous expansion pack The Dark Below will be made available to all players. You’ll encounter them in the rotation for “select playlists” that weren’t announced just yet.

“As always, the full suite of changes will be itemized and scrutinized in the Patch Notes,” Dague said. “We’ll set your expectations for the exact date when all these changes arrive as it draws nearer.”

Destiny’s House of Wolves expansion will bring a number of other big changes for the Crucible. The largest is the new weekend activity Trials of Osiris, designed for teams of three. In Trials, teams will face off against each other in a new Elimination mode. They’ll keep going until they hit nine wins or three losses. A team’s final record during a Trials run will determine what kind of rewards they can purchase from new vendor Brother Vance. In addition to new equipment, Vance will sell consumables that make it easier for players to improve their record. For example, the Favor of Osiris adds a win to the team’s Trials run.

The expansion also enhances the usual Crucible modes with three new maps: “Black Shield,” “Thieves’ Den” and “Widow’s Court.” PS3 and PS4 owners will have exclusive access to a fourth map called “Timekeeper.”

House of Wolves will make some changes to currencies as well. Commendations will no longer be needed for buying Legendaries. You can burn your remaining supply off for bonus Reputation. Players will have  plenty of new currencies to gather, though.

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 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.

Iron Banner Returns Next Week, New Gear Rewards Revealed From Destiny

Destiny’s limited time PvP Iron Banner event will return this coming Tuesday, April 28, developer Bungie has announced as part of the latest Bungie Weekly Update

The event kicks off that day at 10 AM PDT / 1 PM EDT / 6 PM UK. Bungie explained that it previously expected the Iron Banner to return this week, but changes made to Destiny’s Crucible multiplayer mode through the 1.1.2 update led the developer to push the event back a week.

Bungie also notes that, due to a “navigation bug,” the only way players will be able to access Iron Banner next week is by selecting it through Destiny’s main Director menu, not inside the Crucible mode itself. It will show up there on the left side of the screen as a “Featured” activity.

Finally, Bungie announced the special gear you can earn for completing the event. This includes three new helmets, which you can see below.

In other recent Destiny news, Bungie recently announced loads of details about the game’s upcoming House of Wolves expansion. The developer has also outlined changes to the game’s Commendations system.

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.

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.