The quest to get Gjallarhorn and other Exotic weapons from Destiny

The question on the best way to get the coveted rocket launcher is a frequently heard one. This is a guide on the most efficient way to pick up Exotic weapons.

First, you’ll need to accept that you are completely at the mercy of Destiny‘s Random Number Generator (RNG) when it comes to Exotic loot drops. One of my friends that I regularly play the game with didn’t get a Gjallarhorn to drop until he had passed 1,300 hours in the game. It became a badge of honor of sorts for him after a while.

Now compare that with my son’s friend, who only picked the game up at Christmas. His luck was much better and picked up not just one Gjallarhorn but two in a relatively short time frame.

While getting Gjallarhorn as a loot drop is annoyingly random, there are ways to be more efficient about trying to obtain it. The non-matchmaking activities in Destiny are the best, and you will need certain checkpoints for the Raids. Seek checkpoints you need via Looking for Group (LFG) sites like Reddit Fireteams, the100, and DestinyLFG.

Here are the best methods to obtain Exotic weapons in Destiny ranked from easiest / most likely to result in an Exotic weapon to least likely to result in an Exotic weapon. Obviously, running through these activities on multiple characters will increase your chances.

Obtain the Gorgon Chest checkpoint in Vault of Glass. Hunt down someone on a LFG site that has the Gorgon Chest checkpoint for the easiest chance at an Exotic. There’s usually at least one or two available at any time. Just be sure to give the person holding the chest a big thank you.

Complete the Deathsinger and Crota checkpoints in Crota’s End. These back to back checkpoints in The Dark Below raid provide a decent chance at an Exotic weapon. Defeating the Deathsinger is relatively easy.

Defeat Atheon in Vault of Glass. Bringing down Atheon is a tougher chore than Crota and requires a good fireteam. But, it can be just as rewarding.

Complete the Weekly Nightfall and Weekly Heroic. Running through the Nightfall every week should be a given for Destiny players. The same is true with the Weekly Heroic. The former is more likely to result in an Exotic drop it seems, but both are relatively easy to complete.

Play Crucible and Iron Banner. The chances of an Exotic weapon dropping are pretty low for Crucible and Iron Banner, but it is entirely possible. Gjallarhorn and Truth have both dropped while playing multiplayer. The 1.2.0 update for House of Wolves expansion is supposed to improve the drop rate for Crucible, but we’ll have to wait and see if that includes Exotics.

The House of Wolves isn’t out yet, so it’s not clear where the Exotic drops will fall here. That said, you should expect them to be part of the loot table for Prison of Elders and Trials of Osiris. This article will be updated once the drops for both are better understood.

Hopefully, this was some help for those trying to obtain the Gjallarhorn or other Exotic weapons. There’s not much you can do to get around the Destiny RNG.

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.

Destiny Share Adds New Weapon Type – Sidearm

Destiny is getting a new weapon type, sidearms, developer Bungie announced during today’s Prison of the Elders livestream. Siderarms will act as secondary weapons that add elemental damage and a very high rate of fire.

As you can see in the image above, the Vestian Dynasty sidearm, for example, also has high stability and reload stats.

Bungie today released tons of new details about Destiny’s new Prison of Elders co-op arena that’s included with the upcoming House of Wolves expansion. For more, check out GameSpot’s guide to everything you need to know about House of Wolves.

The player breaks world record by soloing Crota in under 12 minutes from Destiny

Destiny is a game many people have put a lot of time into, but sometimes you don’t have several hours to put together a fire team for a raid. So what’s the solution? According to speedrunner ScaRdrow, just blitz through Crota by yourself- if you do it right, it will take you less time than it takes to cook a pizza.

As you can see in the video embedded below, speedrunning through Crota, the final boss of The Dark Below expansion’s Crota’s End raid, requires skipping some combat and a good use of Destiny’s mechanics, but overall it’s mostly about knowing the layout and patterns, and using that knowledge effectively. You could probably achieve a similar – if not quite so impressive – result, if you pay attention. Of course, when I say you, I am assuming you are significantly more talented than I am, but given how awful I am at Destiny, that’s not a tall order.

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.

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 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.”