Destiny 2's Arc Subclass is about to improve in the upcoming Episode: Heresy. Bungie has started sharing some details about the next bout of in-game content, including how each Class' abilities will change.

The spotlight here is on a new Arc keyword, Bolt Charge, that lets you repeatedly target foes with lightning strikes. Of course, that's not all from the finale Episode of The Final Shape, as new Aspects are also inbound to help shake up the gameplay sandbox.

While these tweaks and additions don't come with every Tuesday reset in Destiny 2, they often appear in significant updates. With three Episodes for The Final Shape, the structure allowed Bungie a well-defined period of four or so months before changing things up when a new Episode arrived. Now, it looks like some of the biggest shakeups of The Final Shape era were saved for Episode: Heresy.

Introducing Bolt Charge

Bungie highlighted what players could expect from Subclasses heading into the new Episode. While Arc will have a lot going for it in Episode: Heresy, one of the spotlight items is the new keyword: Bolt Charge. It is an Arc feature that allows Guardians to call down a surge of electricity to damage foes. It works differently from other keywords, potentially requiring a bit more planning.

"While you have one or more stacks, from any source — Aspects, Fragments, weapon perks, etc.  — dealing damage with any weapon increases your Bolt Charge stack count. Each time a stack is gained, you gain a chunk of melee energy. At 10 stacks, your Bolt Charge is ready and any ability damage — Arc or otherwise — summons a powerful Arc bolt, dealing roughly the same amount of damage as a Solar Ignition with a smaller area of effect. Different from Ignition though, Bolt Charge is tuned to have more consistent and predictable uptime," the studio said.

It sounds like the key to making the new feature work is getting that first stack of Bolt Charge. From there, additional stacks seem easy to gain, as any weapon damage contributes. Bungie did mention that players wouldn't just be limited to pure Arc builds to use the new keyword. Prismatic Subclasses will also have access to Bolt Charge through various options.

After watching the short gameplay clip of a Titan player using the new Arc Aspect to trigger Bolt Charge on the first encounter in the Vesper's Host Dungeon, the feature looks incredibly powerful. In that clip, it appears the lightning strike knocks a respectable 15 percent or so of health off the Brig.

New Aspects

Warlocks have a new tool to play with in the form of Ionic Sentry. This Arc Aspect allows Guardians to create their own Tesla tower that chains electricity to any foes unfortunate enough to be within range. As a bonus, the Ionic Sentry deploys with a Blinding effect and builds stacks of Bolt Charge as it slays enemies. Using the Ionic Sentry is as simple as charging the feature up by getting Arc kills and then activating it by tossing out a grenade.

Bungie commented on the new Aspect's design, "Stormcallers are masterful at channeling Arc energy, reshaping and redeploying it to cause mayhem on the battlefield. With Ionic Sentry, Stormcallers have harnessed Arc energy and coalesced it into a perfect orb of hurricane and harmony. Once it is charged up through Arc ability and weapon kills, you gain access to Ionic Sentry as a special grenade throw, similar to how Gunpowder Gamble works for Gunslingers."

While Hunters did not get an Arc Aspect to coincide with Bolt Charge, Guardians will have a new Void Aspect to play around with. It is called On The Prowl, allowing Hunters to defeat marked priority targets. When defeated, those priority targets create a weakening smoke cloud that Hunters and allies can use to become invisible again, gaining ability energy in the process.

Titans are also getting a fancy new Arc Aspect: Storm's Keep. Whenever Titans use their Class ability, they'll bestow a "moderate" number of Bolt Charge stacks to themselves and nearby allies. If Titans take one of the Barricade abilities, friendly players (including the casting Titan) will gain Bolt Charge stacks while behind it and can also discharge the lightning strike with weapon damage instead of only ability damage.

"We wanted to do a few things with this Aspect for Strikers," the studio noted. "We wanted to create an opportunity for Barricade to be used offensively and we wanted to capitalize on what Bolt Charge can provide. We envision Strikers pushing forward on the battlefield and using their class abilities to cement themselves as the tip of the spear in any fireteam."

Arc Subclass updates

Several updates are coming to the Arc Subclass aimed at making it more viable and forgiving in endgame content. Most importantly, PvE enemies will now be less accurate against Amplified players, and Guardians themselves will gain 15% PvE damage resistance when under the effect.

Many Fragments are also seeing tweaks to support the Arc-focused Episode. Spark of Discharge will grant a stack of Bolt Charge whenever an Ionic Trace is collected, and Spark of Momentum gets the new effect of getting a Bolt Charge stack after sliding over ammo bricks. It's also easier to trigger the Fragment, but the melee energy bonus has disappeared.

Spark of Frequency will have the added benefit of providing an extra Bolt Charge stack whenever players gain Bolt Charge from any source. That is joined by Spark of Volts, which also adds Bolt Charge stacks when Guardians get Finishers on top of the Amplified buff. Finally, Spark of Ions will additionally reward Ionic Traces whenever players defeat enemies with Bolt Charge.

Hunters

While Hunters may not have a flashy Arc Aspect to use in Episode: Heresy, plenty of updates are coming to the Subclass itself. The Tempest Strike melee ability is getting its damage increased by 57% in PvE. Additionally, players gain a stack of Bolt Charge if it is used to kill a Jolt-affected target.

The Disorienting Blow melee is also seeing a change, offering a "moderate" amount of Bolt Charge stacks whenever dealing damage with the ability. It will also deal AoE damage around the target, and its Blind effect has increased from six meters to a little over nine and a half meters. And for Arc Staff Super enjoyers, there's now a good reason to ensure you're reflecting blows, as it will offer a stack of Bolt Charge. 

Any of these retuned abilities will work well with the touched-up Ascension Aspect. The Aspect now provides three Fragment slots when running an Arc Subclass (already available on Prismatic). Activating the Aspect's effect, an upward Arc Staff twirl, now procs the effects from several other Hunter Class abilities. Bungie noted that Gambler's Dodge, Marksman's Dodge, Empowering Dodge, and Threaded Specter would be included for now, but more options could come in the future.

Titans

Alongside the new Aspect, Titans have a slew of quality-of-life tweaks coming their way. First and foremost, and most important for Storm's Keep, are a few changes to Barricades. Overall, Guardians will be more resilient when behind a Barricade, with splash damage resistance jumping from 60% to 80%. On top of this, the Taunt effect is changing a bit, no longer losing potency and range over time.

The Juggernaut Aspect is also getting a glow-up. The Juggernaut shield effect now offers 60% splash damage resistance in PvE and 10% in PvP. Additionally, you have an extra 10% flat damage reduction in PvE when the shield is up. Finally, when the shield successfully blocks damage, Titans gain a stack of Bolt Charge.

Titan's Ballistic Slam melee ability is also seeing some significant updates. It allows Titans to deal AoE damage with a ground slam after sprinting and while airborne. In Heresy, you won't have to sprint for long before the ability is ready, and damage will scale based on the distance Guardians travel. If that didn't get your attention, overall PvE damage has been bumped by 30%, and a stack of Bolt Charge is earned for each enemy damaged by the melee.

Warlocks

Warlocks have the least of tweaks to their Arc Subclass, but they already had a powerful setup with Arc Soul and Supers like Chaos Reach. Speaking of Chaos Reach, its damage will increase by 15% against non-Champion targets in PvE. The Stormtrance Super is similarly getting a damage boost, jumping by an additional 20% against non-Champion PvE foes.

The Lightning Surge Aspect is getting some tweaks, too. When Guardians use its effect, Amplified will be consumed. Damage is also getting reduced in PvP, from 20 per projectile to 15. That said, a payout is getting easier to predict with a two-meter width and a one-meter height increase of its cone.

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Believe it or not, Oryx, the Taken King, is returning to Destiny 2. Bungie confirmed as much in a Developer Livestream for Episode: Heresy, but there's obviously a lot of information the studio has yet to give us. We know we'll be venturing back into the Dreadnaught, and the Taken and Hive will be involved, but we lack the finer details. The stream did, however, provide players with an idea of what the bones of Heresy will look like.

Oryx, the Taken King, is a major villain from Destiny's past. Once a Hive god and a significant force to be reckoned with, Guardians would eventually topple the monarch in the original Destiny's The Taken King expansion. To do so, we boarded Oryx's Throne World spacecraft hybrid, the Dreadnaught. While the King's Fall Raid is currently available in Destiny 2, Episode: Heresy will be the first time Guardians can explore the Dreadnaught in the sequel. 

The return of the King

Following a trend established in the Episodes of The Final Shape, it seems Episode: Heresy also plans to bring back a major villain. While Echoes brought Maya Sundaresh back into conversations, and Revenant offered a finale for Fikrul, Oryx definitely has the most star power as an Episode's headlining villain. That said, the revival of Oryx doesn't appear as simple as what was attempted in the Ghosts of the Deep Dungeon.

In some key art shared during the livestream, a ghostly visage of Oryx is shown peering over the Dreadnaught. The blue-spectered foe doesn't appear to be haunting us in the flesh, perhaps much in the same way that the Ahamkara Riven came back for Season of the Wish. That said, Bungie did hint at a flesh-and-blood enemy at the root of Heresy's conflict: an as-of-now unnamed Dread character.

Of course, with the prospect of Oryx's return on the horizon, Guardians will need to call in the specialists to deal with the combined Dread, Hive, and Taken threat. Naturally, that means Eris Morn, the Ghost-less Moon Guardian who briefly became a Hive god during the Season of the Witch. Joining the Hive expert is her more-than-just-friends ally, The Drifter, and Commander Sloan from Titan, who'd become afflicted by Taken corruption during Season of the Deep.

Are we getting the power to Take?

During the stream, there were some coy hints and references that Episode: Heresy may finally let players do something they've been asking for since the Taken were encountered: Gain the power to Take. The power of the Taken is intrinsically tied to Oryx, as he originated the ability. While control of the mindless faction has drifted since Oryx's fall, who knows what's bound to happen when the King himself returns? 

If persistent rumors suggesting that we're going to use the Dreadnaught to leave the solar system pan out, then it stands to reason we might need to master the same powers as its former steward. Bungie's Narrative Architect, Nikko Stevens, said, "[Sloan] has been afflicted with this Taken corruption that we saw back in Season of the Deep, and she's learned how to sort of hold it back but also utilize it to make her stronger. So she is going to be teaching us some of that." Adding some fuel to the fire, Senior Social Media Manager Andy Salisbury noted, "We're going 'Beyond,' once again."

Stevens added another piece of context later on when asked about the Path of Resolve in Heresy. "There is 'an event' that happens at the beginning of the Episode," Stevens noted. "This 'REDACTED' event sort of kicks off Sloan's motivation for teaching us about the Taken power that she has been holding back. So, that is the Path of Resolve, she's going to be teaching us how to fight fire with fire." 

The Narrative Architect continued, explaining how the Path of Resolve would factor into gameplay on the Dreadnaught. "We're going to be going into the Dreadnaught, taking some control of that Taken energy, taking some control of those old Hive Magiks, and wielding them using our Light and using our Paracausaility," Stevens said.

Into The Nether

Launching with the first Act of Episode: Heresy is a new activity called The Nether. The studio explained that The Nether would take players back through the old patrol zones of the Dreadnaught as Guardians rot out recent incursions by Dread, Taken, and Hive foes. As Senior Designer Ryan Harris notes, the activity was designed to be highly replayable.

"Baseline, the Patrol Zones are randomized and varied. The encounters inside are varied and randomized as well. So, time over time, when you launch into the activity, it's going to be a different starting bubble, different encounters, and different events and objectives for you to engage with," Harris explained.

The Nether may have some familiar trappings, but the activity will take on a wholly different vibe. Guardians will not regenerate health on their own, so a dedicated healer might be needed to conquer more serious difficulties. To compensate, Bungie is increasing player health by 300 and shields by 75 while in The Nether. "We really want to make your health a resource," Harris noted.

Ammo will also appear at a more limited capacity in The Nether, but the developers explained that there are ways to earn both health and ammo drops throughout the activity. Finally, as Guardians progress through The Nether, they will acquire Boons, which are buffs that will remain present for the rest of the run. Destination materials, chests, and destructible environmental objects like pots were described, acting as potential resource caches.

The Nether will have variable instances, with one mode that caters to solo players. "For players who are wanting that explorative aspect, we've seperated out the modes a little bit. People can go in and they can explore the Dreadnaught, but people who are just looking to bust through the activity and get loot, they have a different matchmade mode," Stevens noted. In addition to the solo and regular matchmade mode, there's also an Expert difficulty option.

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Destiny 2's Raids sure are cool. Predictably enough, Bungie's decision to port Raids from Destiny to its sequel was extremely popular, though one of the most notable old Destiny Raids is nowhere to be seen. As it turns out, the Wrath of the Machine isn't even on the docket.

This information comes from Destiny 2's Global Community Lead, Dylan Gafner, who is also known by his dmg04 moniker. As seen via the XCancelled web app, Gafner posted a cheeky call for fans to ask him anything with the caveat that he wouldn't respond to any of the questions. It didn't take long for Gafner to respond to one particular comment from comedian2008, who tried to get some information on the potential launch window for the Wrath of the Machine Raid from the original Destiny. According to Gafner, the port isn't happening "any time soon," which isn't great news for series veterans.

Destiny 2's next Raid is a mystery, but we do know it's not Wrath of the Machine

As you may already know, the original Destiny only had four Raids in total: Vault of Glass, Crota's End, King's Fall, and the Wrath of the Machine. It just so happens that all of them bar Wrath of the Machine have already been ported over to Destiny 2 to immense satisfaction from the community. All three returns have been widely acclaimed by virtually everyone, and served as excellent pit-stops in between entirely new and original Destiny 2 Raid content.

To provide more context to Gafner's partially off-hand comment, Bungie is currently working on new Destiny 2 Raid content. We've known that there's something cooking in the oven for a while now, since at least August 2024, though we obviously don't have any details on the what, why, and how of this mysterious new Raid. The obvious expectation was that Bungie might wish to once again tide the community over by porting Wrath of the Machine, but that's not the case.

One of the main reasons why the Destiny community has historically rallied around Raids is that their respective releases are celebrated with competitive racing events. Those have instead been relegated to the new Dungeons, such as 2024's Vesper's Host and the upcoming Sundered Doctrine. This isn't a bad approach, but Dungeons are obviously smaller-scale and substantially less complex than full-fledged Raids.

With all of that in mind, even though we do know that Bungie is working on all-new Raids, we don't have the faintest idea of how and when they might be coming out. Presumably, they'll be released as part of the new Destiny 2: Frontiers content pipeline, but the whole thing is a real mystery beyond that. The fact of the matter, though, is that Destiny lives and dies by its endgame content, and it'd be downright blasphemous if Bungie just gave up on Raids as a concept. Guess we'll just have to stay tuned, at least for the time being.

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While Destiny 2's Episode: Revenant is in its waning weeks, Bungie has a few tricks up its sleeve to see the content off, as several balance changes have hit the game ahead of the new Past is Prologue event.

Oddly, the tweaks to general gameplay are pretty significant for the end of an Episode. Of course, these alterations will likely set the pace for the upcoming Episode: Heresy, but you can start taking advantage now.

Every once in a while, Bungie changes how things feel in Destiny 2. The studio usually tackles one or two topics at a time, such as Exotic armor or ability tuning. For Episode: Revenant's final Act, both Exotic weapons and armor are seeing some changes and general tuning for many of the weapon archetypes available in-game.

Exotic Armor updates

In a post detailing update 8.1.5.3, Bungie covered how the game would change for the final Act of Revenant, starting with Exotic armor. One of the most significant pieces of news is that the Ballidorse Wrathweavers Exotic for Warlocks is now functional once more.

The studio had previously deactivated it near the start of Episode: Revenant after Guardians found a way to one-shot bosses with Stasis explosions. Naturally, that didn't attract the best attention in the Stasis-focused Episode, but at least players now have a few weeks to play around with it and all of the Stasis Artifact Perks for some wild combinations.

Warlocks also saw another boon to Exotic armor in Bungie correcting another functionality issue. The Stormdancer's Brace Exotic is supposed to refund Super energy and grant a damage buff for each enemy slain with Stormtrance. Players weren't getting the Super energy gains if they activated the Prismatic Subclass's Transcendence ability. This bug has been resolved and now functions correctly.

The next positive change was more general, as it affected multiple Exotics. For Exotic armor effects that reward an elemental Surge damage bonus, like Mantle of Battle Harmony, Foetracer, or Path of Burning Steps, the Solar Surge x4 wasn't applying to anything other than Two-Tailed Fox. Bungie has corrected this so players can enjoy the full force of a Solar Surge.

The additional Exotic armor tweaks aren't strictly positive. Many are fixes for bugs but end up decreasing current effectiveness. First up are Hunters with the Celestial Nighthawk Exotic. It inadvertently benefited from the roaming Super buff in Episode: Revenant, recharging Golden Gun much faster than intended. This has been adjusted so the Super charges normally.

For Titans, Bungie took a swing at the Crest of Alpha Lupi Exotic and its Spirit of Alpha Lupi effect on the Titan Exotic Class Item. It appears the studio feels that the healing offered was a bit too generous for Thruster enjoyers, so it has been reduced across the board. The full Exotic now only restores 60HP with its healing pulse when using the Thruster Class ability. Similarly, the Spirit of Alpha Lupi on Stoicism has its healing capability reduced to a mere 30HP while using Thruster.

Warlocks didn't escape without a nerf of their own, another instance of Bungie fixing something that wasn't working correctly. Before the third Act of Episode: Revenant, Warlocks could extend the Song of Flame Super by activating the unique effect of the Mantle of Battle Harmony Exotic. The studio has corrected this oversight so the already-powerful Super doesn't get out of hand.

Exotic weapon updates

There weren't nearly as many changes to Exotic weapons as there were to the armor, as mentioned above. That said, all of these tweaks are worth noting, as they're all for popular weapons. Kicking things off for PvP players is the ever-popular Ace of Spades. Depending on how you look at it, this could be either a buff or a nerf, but the weapon now does Solar damage with its Firefly explosions. Those booms were previously Kinetic damage.

The Whisper of the Worm Exotic sniper has been reliably popular even before its reintroduction through the remade Whisper Exotic mission. Now, it's a force to be reckoned with, bolstering multiple Catalysts and build options. As the gun is about landing multiple precision hits to refund ammo, Crucible fans should know that the flinch against other players has been reduced by 50 percent.

Finally, Graviton Lance has been a favorite of Guardians looking for a long-range, reliable Void weapon. It's not getting diminished in terms of the direct damage it does, but it is getting a slap on the wrist with a return to its previous RPM. Graviton Lance is now back to 300 RPM, down from 325 RPM.

Weapon archetype and Perk updates

For weapons in general, some are rising up for Episode: Heresy, while others have seen their time in the sun and are getting a bit of a nerf. Sidearm fans can start to break out their favorite Heavy Burst archetype, as the category has received an overall damage increase. Body shot damage has been bumped from 30 to 33, and precision damage has jumped from 48 to 52.8, making these weapons incredibly dangerous at a range where reliable precision damage isn't an issue.

Submachine guns are also getting some love, seeing a general magazine increase across the board. It seems, based on the vague wording of the buff, that all submachine guns are included in this boon, including Exotics. Bungie specified that the magazine increase would be anywhere between 10 and 15 percent, depending on the specific weapon. For Lightweight pulse rifles, general damage went from 17 to 20.4 and 31.45 to 31.6 for precision damage. Auto rifles got a small but needed bump to damage as well. The Rapid Fire archetype specifically went from 13.5 to 13.6 damage and 23 to 23.1 for precision damage.

Lightweight scout rifles are getting inched up in effectiveness. The Lightweight archetype's damage receives a nudge from 32 to 38 and precision damage from 64 to 64.6. Alternatively, High-Impact pulse rifles are getting tuned down a bit, with Bungie noting that it now takes six precision hits to eliminate a player with a Resilience score above 10. High-Impact archetypes now deal 21.5 damage per shot, down from 22. Additionally, precision damage dropped to 38.7 from 39.6, and the damage falloff for aiming down sights has been reduced.

Outside of general damage tweaks, hand cannons have a new Intrinsic Trait for the Precision archetype. The guns now reduce the aim down sight movement penalty by 10 percent. On the opposite end of the range spectrum, sniper rifles across the board now have 20 percent less camera roll flinch against players. Topping weapon changes off, Bungie reduced the self-damage done to players using heavy grenade launchers by 50 percent.

Looking at the individual Perks that can appear on weapons, Bungie made two changes for Act Three. The most substantial is that the Iron Banner Origin Trait, Skulking Wolf, now works in PvE and makes enemies less accurate when they're shooting you. Also, the studio noted that it rolled back the changes to how the Target Lock Perk works on submachine guns. Those alterations were made in Update 7.3.5, forcing the Perk to trigger when Guardians went through 20 percent of their clip rather than 12.5 percent.

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Just like the Riven's Wishes event from Season of the Wish, Destiny 2 is currently running a limited-time event with some notable rewards on offer. The Past is Prologue event will take players back to old familiar haunts across the system as they do what they can to kindle the will-they, won't-they energy between Eris Morn and The Drifter. Thankfully, there are also plenty of prizes on the table for helping the two out, including the return of a coveted Shader from the original Destiny.

The Past is Prologue event is a lot like the Riven's Wishes event from last year. Guardians are given relatively basic tasks, like participating in Gambit matches or slaying Hive on the Moon, that reward Bento Tokens upon completion. Each of these Tokens can be exchanged for powerful rewards, and that returning Shader is a complimentary gift after players complete five tasks.

How to start the Past is Prologue event

The Past is Prologue event is available to all players, even those enjoying Destiny 2 on a strictly free-to-play basis. To kick things off, players will need to journey to The Tower and pay a visit to that snarky Gambit vendor, The Drifter. Ol' Drifter now has a new tab to interact with, labeled Limited-Time Event. In there, players will find four event Quests and one master Quest tracking progress toward the Shader reward.

Once players have each Quests, they should immediately complete the first step, as it simply requires discussing the Quest and Eris Morn with The Drifter. Guardians can tackle the tasks in any order they see fit, but if players plan accordingly, they can knock multiple objectives out simultaneously. 

As players complete Past is Prologue Quests, they'll be rewarded with Bento Tokens. It seems that some Quests can reward more Bento Tokens than others, depending on the complexity of the task. These Bento Tokens can be exchanged with Eris Morn for desirable rewards on the Moon.

Past is Prologue rewards

Resources and Mementos

Weapons

Artifice Armor

What's worth getting from the Past is Prologue event?

Much like The Drifter, Eris Morn has a Limited-Time Event tab for Past is Prologue. This menu is where Guardians can exchange their earned Bento Tokens for the fabulous prizes on offer. While the usual event offerings of Mementos or Exotic currencies like Ascendant Shards and Exotic Ciphers are available, the real prize for Past is Prologue are the Adept weapons and Artifice armor.

While the Artifice armor outright costs double compared to everything else, it may be the easiest way for a player to guarantee themselves a piece of the coveted gear with some decent stats. That said, only some of the Artifice armor up for offer has a roll worth nabbing, with many appearing with mediocre (at best) stat scores or distribution. That said, the gloves, gauntlets, and grips actually have decent distribution, and Class Items won't ever drop with stats anyway. As for the Adept weapons, players should get any they don't already have, so long as they'll actually use them. The Cataphract GL3 with the PvE god roll won't be helping any Crucible mains, and the same goes for Igneous Hammer for those that don't engage with PvP.

After players spend five Bento Tokens with Eris, they'll complete the Packed Lunch Quest and earn the returning Chatterwhite Shader. That said, the fun doesn't stop after the first five Bento Tokens, as the studio previously detailed that players would earn a total of eight Bento Tokens. It appears that more Quests rewarding the Tokens will make their way to the game, and there is a note on the Packed Lunch Quest that says, "Additional 'Past is Prologue' Quests will unlock next week, or can be obtained from Xur this weekend." Either way, Guardians will have a few more rewards coming their way, so long as they keep up with the event.

When does Past is Prologue end?

The Past is Prologue event is a limited-time and optional endeavor Guardians can undertake, but the potential rewards are great. Bungie has noted that the event will only run for two weeks and implied that players won't be able to spend their Bento Tokens after the start of Episode: Heresy. In a This Week in Destiny communication, Bungie explained, "The Past Is Prologue event will only be around for two weeks. So don't waste any time and make sure you spend all your Bento Tokens before the start of Heresy."

So, if Guardians are in desperate need of an Artifice Class Item or want to snag themself a fancy Adept Igneous Hammer, they absolutely shouldn't miss out on the Past is Prologue event. While Adept weapons are always hard to pass up, if players already have the most tantalizing rewards, at least there are still some free Mementos and Exotic currencies up for grabs.

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While a current focal point of Destiny 2's Episode: Revenant is a Tonic system that didn't initially work as intended, the third Act offers players a reliable way to brew Exotic Tonics. While it was possible for Guardians to create an Exotic Tonic before, there weren't recipes for the concoction until recently. Of course, as with many things in Destiny, players aren't just given the means to produce these valuable Tonics. First, Guardians must uncover the Tonic recipes for themselves; otherwise, strike it lucky on a never-ending treadmill of chance.

The Tonic system in Destiny 2 is a feature of Episode: Revenant that served as a way for players to influence gameplay and rewards. The idea is that players earn Tonic ingredients by defeating enemies and completing certain activities. Those ingredients can then be distilled into either a Volatile Tonic that boosts a specific effect or an Enriching Tonic that augments rewards. Of course, before Guardians can brew a Tonic, they'll need its ingredients and the required recipe. That's where Exotic Tonics become a bit more tricky than Rare or Legendary counterparts.

What are Exotic Tonics?

Episode: Revenant Tonics come in different rarities. Players start with the ability to create Uncommon, green Tonics and learn new recipes as Fieldwork is completed and more Tonics are brewed. Typically, players create somewhere between four and six Uncommon Tonics to earn a recipe for a Rare Tonic, and the same is true going from Rare to Legendary. However, Exotic Tonics are a bit different, and not just in how players earn them.

Exotic Tonics are only available for one category of Tonics: Resource. As such, each helps players earn a specific Exotic currency. There are three Exotic Tonics in-game: a Tonic of Exotic Ciphers, a Tonic of Ascendant Shards, and a Tonic of Ascendant Alloys. In addition to offering a chance to earn more of the specified resource from activities and kills, each Exotic Tonic lasts for 112 minutes or nearly two hours.

How to earn Exotic Tonic recipes

With enough time and effort, Guardians can learn all of the Uncommon, Rare, and Legendary Tonic recipes just by continuing to craft Tonics. Exotic Tonics require a specific course of actions to earn, with two taking players into the Kell's Fall Exotic mission and another being up to lady luck. As players hunt down the Intrinsic Trait upgrades for the Slayer's Fang Exotic shotgun in Kell's Fall, they'll earn two Exotic Tonic recipes, the Tonic of Ascendant Shards and the Tonic of Ascendant Alloys.

It doesn't matter the order in which players obtain the Intrinsic upgrades, as the Tonic recipes aren't tied to specific pickups. Instead, players need to locate and collect the Intrinsic upgrades in any order to open up more Exotic Tonic recipes. Alternatively, the final Exotic Tonic has been in the game since the start of Revenant, but it might be the hardest to make. That's because there's no recipe; players must get lucky while brewing other Tonics.

The Tonic of Exotic Ciphers can technically be made after players have started creating Legendary Enriching Tonics. There's a slim chance that while brewing any Legendary Enriching Tonic, a Tonic of Exotic Ciphers will also be created. Guardians can tilt the odds in their favor by earning the Extraordinary Tonics upgrade from Eido through Major Fieldwork from the first Act. It increases players' chance to create higher-tier Tonics while brewing, which helps but still leaves a lot to chance.

How to create each Exotic Tonic

After players have earned the recipes for the Tonic of Ascendant Shards and the Tonic of Ascendant Alloys, they can start producing as many beverages as resources allow. Technically, the same is true for the Tonic of Exotic Ciphers, but without a specific recipe, Guardians are at the mercy of whatever reagents are plentiful or trivial to farm. Here are the ingredients required to brew the Exotic Tonics from Episode: Revenant:

Tonic of Ascendant Alloys

• Enriching Nugget (2)
• Enriching Flake (2)
• Tomb Flake (2)
• Reflective Flake (2)
• Enriching Powder (6)
• Reclaimed Vitality (60)

Tonic of Ascendant Shards

• Enriching Nugget (2)
• Enriching Flake (2)
• Tomb Flake (2)
• Reflective Flake (2)
• Enriching Powder (6)
• Reclaimed Vitality (60)

Tonic of Exotic Ciphers

As mentioned previously, the Tonic of Exotic Ciphers can be a bit of an enigma for reliable farming. Ideally, players will luck into a few as they progress Tonic recipes and Fieldwork. If not, some tips and tricks can at least help Guardians spend their ingredients wisely. One important first note is that the Tonic of Exotic Ciphers only appears when brewing Enriching Tonics. Don't waste your time or resources with Volatile Tonics, at least in the pursuit of a Tonic of Exotic Ciphers. 

Another worthwhile consideration is the cost of each Legendary Tonic in the hunt for Tonics of Exotic Ciphers. Specifically, the World Gear category of Tonics offers the cheapest cost per Legendary Tonic. Each Legendary World Gear Tonic requires Enriching Nugget (2), Enriching Powder (3), and Reclaimed Vitality (20). Each ingredient is readily available when playing almost anything in-game, with even more significant payouts for Episode: Revenant content.

If Guardians want to eek a bit more feasible use out of the Tonics made in pursuit of some Exotic Cipher juice, they can brew from the Onslaught, Tomb of Elders, or Kell's Fall categories instead. However, those Tonics all require an additional reagent earned from the activity with the same namesake. It costs an additional Enriching Flake for Onslaught Tonics, a Tomb Flake for Tomb of Elders Tonics, and a Reflective Flake for the Kell's Fall Tonics. 

Going the route of weapon Tonics is a bit more work, as it demands players to frequent the activity from which they're hunting weapons. That said, there's no question that the rewards stand to offer a lot more than Glimmer and upgrade materials earned from dismantling set after set of Shadestalker armor.

The post Destiny 2: How to brew Exotic Tonics appeared first on Destructoid.

Guardians diving into Destiny 2's new Exotic mission, Kell's Fall, will encounter an odd sight toward the start of the endeavor: an organ. Those musically inclined players hoping that the instrument is a part of some elaborate puzzle or gameplay mechanic are in luck, as the organ is the key to most secrets within Kell's Fall. Thankfully, players don't need to do all the work required to piece together each melody, as any will work if you know which order the notes go in.

The Kell's Fall Exotic mission has its share of secrets tucked within, including Exotic Catalyst Quests and intrinsic upgrades for the Slayer's Fang Exotic shotgun. Many of these optional pursuits are accessed via the organ found within the mission. However, players must know what tunes to play to get what they want. Guardians can spend some time hunting down all the hidden melodies scattered throughout the Exotic mission, but that time-consuming work can be skipped thanks to the efforts of the Destiny community.

How to use the organ in Kell's Fall

Shortly after players first encounter The Trickster, they'll enter a building with the organ against the back wall. The organ is connected to a series of pipes, which are, in turn, connected to switches with symbols on them. Each symbol can be shot to play a particular note on the organ, and a series of symbols can be shot to put together a melody.

Not all of the switches will be available on the first run of Kell's Fall. However, more organ switches will become available in subsequent runs, with all accessible by the third completion. That said, it appears that most, if not all, melodies can be played on the organ with the switches available during the second run through the Exotic mission. 

When Guardians are ready to input a melody, they'll need to stand on the circular plate directly in front of the organ. From left to right, the switches can be numbered through 13, so players don't have to try to remember each switch symbol. As long as the switches needed are present, players can orchestrate as many melodies as they want, even all of the known combinations in a single run.

Known Kell's Fall organ melodies

As mentioned earlier, it's primarily thanks to the Destiny community that it's this easy to enter each of Kell's Fall organ melodies. Throughout the Exotic mission, eagle-eyed Guardians may spot a string of glowing symbols written on a wall or a wayward symbol tucked out of sight behind some rubble. These symbols correspond with the symbols on the organ switches, and in the correct order, these are the melodies players are looking for. Some are easier to find than others, and some are downright cryptic with the placement and orientation symbols that appear.

While there's a Triumph in the Secret category of Episode: Revenant for playing six melodies on the organ, eight have been discovered by the community. It's certainly possible that there are more melodies that players have yet to learn of; the community has banded together to share what's already known. These are all of Kell's Fall organ melodies confirmed to work, and here's what they do:

Slayer's Fang Intrinsic Upgrade #1

The code to open the door to the first Intrinsic Upgrade is 2, 11, 1, 10, 7, 6. If players enter the sequence correctly, they'll see the text, "Ancient gears grinding deep within the fortress."

Slayer's Fang Intrinsic Upgrade #2

The code to open the door to the second Intrinsic Upgrade is 1, 4, 11, 1, 4, 10. Once the melody is correctly entered, players will see text that says, "Barrier giving way."

Slayer's Fang Intrinsic Upgrade #3

The code to open the door to the third Intrinsic Upgrade is 1, 8, 1, 6. Once the melody's code is correctly entered, players will see a line of text saying, "Air stirring in a forgotten passage."

The Scorned Organist

The code to access the secret Kell's Fall boss is 10, 4, 6, 1, 11, 4, 8, 1. After Guardians enter the sequence, the Fireteam will be teleported to an arena to fight the Scorned Organist.

Uldren's Shrine

The code to open the door to Uldren's secret shrine is 1, 8, 4, 11, 1, 6, 4, 10. Players can confirm they entered the melody correctly if they see text that reads, "The melody sounds like a child, yearning for his father." The secret shrine is tucked away in the Undercroft section of Kell's Fall, in one of the red dome buildings, on the platform just before dropping down into the next area. 

The Trickster and The Mad Bomber

The code 1, 8, 1, 9 allows The Trickster to appear during the fight against Kaniiks, The Mad Bomber. Players will know they've entered the sequence correctly if they see text that says, "The melody twists your stomach in knots. You've made a terrible mistake." The added boss can be hurt during the encounter and will turn invisible to escape after taking enough damage.

The Trickster and The Mindbender

The code 1, 8, 1, 11, 9 sends The Trickster to the fight against Hiraks, The Mindbender. If the code was entered correctly, players will see text that says, "The melody sends a chill down your spine. What have you done?" As with the previous code, The Trickster will appear in another fight. The added boss is similarly damageable and will also pull another disappearing act once hurt enough. 

Savathûn is still watching us

The code 4, 7, 9, 6, 2, 6, 7, 1 is a bit of an oddity, as all it seems to do is award a cackle from Savathûn that echoes over the room. Players will, of course, know they've correctly entered the sequence if they hear the antagonist from The Witch Queen laugh over the comms. While there are suspicions that there could be more to this melody, no one has been able to identify anything else happening after activating the switches.

The post Destiny 2: All known melodies for the Kell’s Fall organ appeared first on Destructoid.

There's much to be said about the current state of Destiny 2, but the world's first race events are a tried-and-true roll call for the community. Since we're not getting any new Raids anytime soon, Dungeons are the next best thing, and Sundered Doctrine is now on the docket.

Though we have absolutely no actual promotional materials for Sundered Doctrine in Destiny 2, Bungie has been kind enough to reveal some interesting details about this fancy new Dungeon in the latest TWID (This Week in Destiny) blog post. For example, we now know that Sundered Doctrine takes place aboard Rhulk's sunken Pyramid vessel, back in Savathûn’s Throne World. Sundered Doctrine's world's first completion race will kick off on the Dungeon's release on February 7 (Friday). Remember, too, that this means Contest Mode will be enabled for the next 48 hours, making Sundered Doctrine far more challenging than it otherwise would be.

The Sundered Doctrine Dungeon world's first race is coming to Destiny 2

Sundered Doctrine is thus poised to be the second Dungeon released to its very own world's first race, following last year's Vesper's Host. Only, this time around, Bungie intends to pull all the stops for the winning team: "This time around, rather than a podium race, we’ll be looking to crown the single team that rises to the top and finishes first. With that, we are leveling up the reward, creating something memorable and unique to honor the incredible accomplishment of the winning team. That's why, for this race, each winning team member will receive the first-ever Dungeon Race trophy," says the announcement.

This is fairly unprecedented, as such real-world trophies had previously been the exclusive purview of Raids. Things definitely are a-changing, as we can see.

If you're a mere mortal such as myself, and don't necessarily intend to compete in the world's first race proper, odds are you're still going to want to score a piece of sweet loot. Fancy new guns and armor are a given, and to get any of that goodness, you'll need to meet the Power Level requirement. As per Bungie, the PL target is 1995 for all encounters, which should be easy enough to target.

To be eligible to play Sundered Doctrine in the first place, all players in your Fireteam need to own the Final Shape Dungeon key and acquire the Drowning Labyrinth quest. Whenever a new Dungeon releases, this NPC or the other will invite Guardians to pick up its respective quest from them. This is, presumably, how we'll acquire Drowning Labyrinth upon the Dungeon's release.

I'll happily admit that I wasn't able to complete Vesper's Host during its Contest Mode period. If you, too, end up struggling with Sundered Doctrine in February, there's nothing to worry about: all the important goodies (i.e. guns and armor) will still be available after Contest Mode runs out, on the reset of February 9. From that point onwards, the Dungeon will be more accessible to the average player with a reduced Power Level requirement. Neat!

Remember, too, that this is going to mark the start of the third major Episode of Destiny 2: The Final Shape. It's a thrilling enough predicament, for sure, but Bungie's recent track record has got me slightly worried for what might happen to Oryx's Dreadnaught.

The post Destiny 2’s next Dungeon, Sundered Doctrine, is coming out very soon, and so is the world’s first race appeared first on Destructoid.

If Destiny 2 players want to make the most out of their new Slayer's Fang Exotic shotgun, they'll need to revisit Kell's Fall. The Exotic mission evolves with subsequent playthroughs, not showing its true nature until after Guardians' second completion.

Alongside the Exotic Catalyst Quest objectives hidden throughout Kell's Fall, players can also find three Intrinsic Trait upgrades. But it will take more than curiosity to find the upgrades; players will have to master the Scorgan.

Many of the Exotic weapons obtained through Exotic missions are enhanceable by completing certain tasks in subsequent runs of the mission. In the case of Kell's Fall, those are the Exotic Catalysts and the Intrinsic Trait upgrades. Each upgrade generally enhances the weapon, making it even more dangerous. The final upgrade even provides a nice boost to some of the shotgun's stats. All Guardians must do is masterfully navigate through Kell's Fall, stopping to investigate all the ethereal nooks and crannies.

When are the Intrinsic Upgrades available?

To acquire each Intrinsic upgrade, players will need to open a secret passage within the Kell's Fall Exotic mission. Each of the three hidden paths is accessed via the organ towards the start of the mission. Shortly after players have their first fight against The Trickster, they'll enter a building with a large pipe organ at the back of the room. This organ is, in fact, playable, and specific hidden melodies open most of the secrets in the Exotic mission.

By standing on the plate in front of the organ, players can shoot the switches connected to the instrument. Each switch emits a note, and Kell's Fall reacts when specific arrangements are played together. To keep things simple, the community has numbered the switches up through 13, read from left to right. An essential piece of information to note is that all organ switches are not active until players have completed the first two runs of the Exotic mission through Episode: Revenant's story.

That said, players can open some of these hidden chambers even during their first run if they are persistent enough. However, the upgrades themselves won't appear until after Slayer's Fang has already been earned. Similarly, while all the switches won't be available until a third run, players should be able to open the optional Intrinsic upgrade paths available after a single Kell's Fall completion through the Episode. Additionally, Guardians can play all three melodies to open every Intrinsic upgrade path in a single run.

Slayer's Fang Intrinsic Upgrade locations

Once players have earned the Slayer's Fange Exotic shotgun, they should be able to reenter Kell's Fall (provided the Fireteam's host has made it far enough in the Episode: Revenant story) and access the hidden Intrinsic upgrade pathways. As each is unlocked by playing a correct melody at the organ, it's imperative that Guardians don't forget to stop by the instrument and confirm entries are correct via the text that appears on the screen.

Technically, Slayer's Fang starts with the first version of its Intrinsic Trait, Nightsworn Sight. So, as players unlock these upgrades, it will change to Nightsworn Sight II, III, and IV.

Nightsworn Sight II

The first Intrinsic upgrade for Slayer's Fang can be found right off to the side of the Scorgan. Normally, heading further into the Exotic mission, Guardians head up the organ's left-side path. On the right, another path leads to what appears to be an empty room. However, that's not the case after playing a particular tune. 

If Guardians stand on the plate in front of the organ and shoot switches in the order of 2, 11, 1, 10, 7, 6, they should see the text, "Ancient gears grinding deep within the fortress." The message confirms the melody was played correctly and opens another door in the room to the right of the organ.

Inside, players will find a Tonic bottle that can be collected. Guardians will be rewarded Nightsworn Sight II on top of a few other rewards after picking it up.

Nightsworn Sight III

The next Intrinsic upgrade for Slayer's Fang is in the Mirror Gallery, specifically once Guardians enter the reversed mirror dimension. Of course, players will need to have already opened the pathway via the organ earlier to proceed.

Standing on the plate in front of the organ, players can shoot the switches in the order of 1, 4, 11, 1, 4, 10. If done correctly, the Fireteam will see a message that says, "Barrier giving way."

Back inside the Prismatic-ified Mirror Gallery, the locale players are hunting for is just before the large room with the gnarled tree growing through it. Guardians will find themselves in a long hallway with a navy blue door at its end. Normally, this door is shut tight, but the melody opens it up. Inside is a room with a knife on the floor. The knife can be collected to receive Nightsworn Sight III and some additional rewards.

Nightsworn Sight IV

The final Intrinsic upgrade in Kell's Fall is just before players head into the encounter with The Mindbender. Players will have just come out of the platforming section and find themselves in the side room off of a larger chamber. If players look behind to see where they came from, they'll notice three unlit torches stacked atop one another and mounted on the wall.

Each of these torches corresponds with a lit brazier in the area. There's one in the side room with the torches, in a nook behind some chains. The other two are in the main chamber with the mirror portal to The Mindbender. Once all three braziers are doused, the torches will light instead, and a hidden passage will reveal itself. However, that passage is a dead end without the organ.

Back at the start of the mission, at the organ, players can stand on the plate to enter the sequence 1, 8, 1, 6. If Guardians do this correctly, they'll see text that says, "Air stirring in a forgotten passage." This opens another door inside the secret dead-end room by The Mindbender encounter, leading to an urn. Players can collect the urn to unlock Nightsworn Sight IV and earn additional rewards.

What does Nightsworn Sight do?

All Exotic weapons have an Intrinsic Trait that, along with other Perks and features, gives the gun its unique feel. On its own, Nightsworn Sight is a buff that allows kills to grant Truesight, increases reloaded speed and precision damage and ensures the tracking submunitions add the Weaken effect to targets.

As if seeing through walls or Weakening enemies with ricochet damage wasn't impressive enough, each time players upgrade the Intrinsic Trait, they also upgrade its effects. Nightsworn Sight II and Nightsworn Sight III increase the precision damage and reload speed bonus the Trait provides, and Nightsworn Sight IV further improves effects on top of some flat stat boosts. With the final Intrinsic Upgrade, Nightsworn Sight IV adds 10 Range, 10 Stability, and 10 Handling to the weapon.

Of course, Guardians can only take advantage of these upgrades after they've already gone out and earned them. Additionally, finding these Intrinsic Upgrades isn't enough on its own, players must remember to head back to the Enclave to Reshape the changes into the weapon.

The post Destiny 2: Where to find the Exotic Intrinsic Trait upgrades for Slayer’s Fang in Kell’s Fall appeared first on Destructoid.

The Destiny 2 community is up in arms again, this time over the new Slayer's Fang Exotic shotgun from Kell's Fall.

As it turns out, the weapon can actually damage and debuff its wielder, leaving some under the impression that the situation is another blunder during Bungie's buggy Episode: Revenant. However, the situation took an odd turn when the studio hopped to social media to explain that the self-damage and Weaken effect are not bugs; they are features.

Episode: Revenant, and the greater year that's followed since The Final Shape expansion, hasn't been the best for Destiny 2. The first Episode, Echoes, ended in an unsatisfying flop, and Revenant has had no shortage of issues since it began. Between the now-infamous Weightgate, Tonicgate following soon after, and a crop of Dawning Event issues, the hits to morale and studio trust have been relentless. Now, players have a hard time taking Bungie's explanation at face value when something seems off in-game.

Why is my gun hurting me?

Imagine the surprise of players who get caught by their own ricocheting projectiles of Slayer's Fang. Not only will the weapon damage its wielder, but it can also apply the Weaken debuff. Slayer's Fang can be as powerful as anything else in the game, but if it's Weakening and has a chance to kill players, it becomes less practical and more of a hazard.

It appears that's been the consensus of the Destiny 2 community, with many taking to social media to question whether the new Exotic weapon's behavior is an accident. With the state the game has been in lately, it wouldn't be much of a surprise if yet another piece of content shipped broken. However, Bungie has made it clear that Slayer's Fang is (mostly) working as intended.

The burn means it's working

In a post on X (formerly Twitter), Bungie brought the discussion to the Slayer's Fang Exotic and acknowledged some of the discourse highlighted by the community. "We've seen conversations around Slayer's Fang's ability to do self-damage and apply Weaken to yourself if you're hit by the ricocheting projectiles. Note, the Weaken is only applied while Nightsworn Sight is active, while the self-damage always happens. This is intentional for both gameplay and narrative reasons and we wanted to give a bit of insight into our thought process."

The team explained that the possibility of self-damage was a conscious choice. Bungie noted, "A lot of ricochet projectiles or explosives do self-damage (Sleeper Simulant can even kill the user) and it's an important balancing measure." The studio added that this potential self-damage creates a risk/reward scenario that influences a player's choice of weapon use.

Bungie also shared a lore reason why Slayer's Fang behaves the way it does. "On the narrative side, Slayer's Fang is aware of its use as a tool for destruction and doesn't lend its power to its wielders easily," the studio noted. "You may find that if you mishandle Slayer's Fang, the gun with a mouth for a barrel may just bite back a little. With the ultimate Slayer Baron weapon in your hand, you may not fear dreams nor teeth, but you will want to handle it with care."

In the final section of the post, Bungie doubled down, stating, "So, appropriate for its design and narrative goals, Slayer's Fang does a little damage plus a short Weaken instead of outright killing the player."

The community bites back

Bungie's definitive statement on Slayer's Fang went about as well as anyone familiar with the Destiny community might expect. Between the X post itself and similar Reddit topics, commenters quickly pointed out that Bungie's explanation felt too convenient. One X commenter said, "Dude there is no way you put an exotic weapon in the game that can actively harm using the weapon as intended."

Others are echoing a similar sentiment across social media. "I'm actually not too bothered by the self damage or even weaken applying from the ricocheted shots as many others seem to be since it's been a present interaction throughout the game," explains one Redditor. "But what's really bothering me is the attempt at giving it a narrative explanation of making the self-damage a canon in-universe result. It reads like it was written up by one of the teenaged kids of one of the developers who's going through their edgelord phase."

Of course, it wasn't an entirely negative response. Some players loved that Bungie took the time to come up with a narrative reason for why the Exotic weapon was behaving the way it was. "Please don't change it," begged one X commenter. "[R]ealistically it won't come up in combat and it's a neat little narrative beat. People complaining are doing it just to complain."

Poor design or backtracking?

It seems that the Destiny community has a real chicken-or-egg situation here. Was the self-damage and Weaken debuff intended all along as a yet-to-be-disclosed narrative tidbit? Or is Bungie's explanation a bandaid aimed at yet another unseen wound? It's tough to say, and we'll probably never get a definitive answer. Still, it is interesting to note that there's no mention of the potential damage or debuff anywhere on the weapon or even hinted at through its Lore page.

If Slayer's Fang's self-damage and debuff were intentional, then the quality of the weapon design becomes part of the conversation, even if we're taking the lore explanation into account. And sure, other Exotic weapons like Sleeper Stimulant have lethal ricochet potential, but those aren't weapons players are sprinting into melee range to use. Sleeper Stimulant also doesn't punish players for using it with a Weaken debuff, increasing damage taken across the board.

I do think the situation seems a bit odd. As I mentioned, there's nothing in the weapon's Lore hints that the gun could harm or debuff wielders. Also, this isn't the first time this has happened. It seems much more likely that Bungie made a powerful, fun shotgun with some oversights. The community quickly uncovered those oversights, and it's much easier to say that it was always supposed to work that way.

Slayer's Fang has its fans and has indeed shown to have its haters. Either way, it's becoming clear that it's far from an automatic pick. As many players have noted, there is no shortage of shotgun choices in Destiny 2, and plenty can do just as much, albeit in a different way, as Slayer's Fang. That's all without the risk of damaging or Weakening oneself and without using an Exotic slot.

The post Destiny 2’s newest Exotic harms and weakens wielders, Bungie says its intentional but players aren’t buying it appeared first on Destructoid.

The Agent of the Nine, Xur, is one of the most highly sought-after characters in Destiny 2, wielding the game's best gear. But since he's a master of movement, he never stays in one place and disappears from time to time.

To help you find him, check out Xur's location and wares in Destiny 2.

Where to find Xur in Destiny 2

Xur can be found in the Tower Bazaar in Destiny 2. Mark a waypoint on him to guide you over there quickly. You'll need to get there fast, as he will leave on Jan. 14 at 10 a.m. PT/1 p.m. ET/6 p.m. BST.

You'll encounter Xur in a fairly hidden room tucked away in a corner. Approach him to see what he's got for sale today. Keep in mind that he is only available from Friday to Tuesday, meaning he won't be accessible during most of the weekdays. His location may also vary each week, typically spawning in the Tower, Nessus, or European Dead Zone. I'll be sure to update this guide when his location changes.

What's Xur selling in Destiny 2?

Xur utilizes Strange Coin currency, which is earnable through Ritual Activities like Vanguard Ops (Strikes). Each time you use Strange Coins, it'll increase your Reputation level, earning you rank rewards. We'll break down each category in Xur's collection to show you what rewards he has to offer:

Multivarious Strange Offers

More Strange Offers

Strange Gear Offers

Xur Rank Rewards

Exotic Ciphers

Like Xur's locations, his selection changes every time to give you more variety in weapons, gear, and materials. So, if you see something you direly need, it's best to get it now, or you may never see it again. Some items also require specific packs, like the Destiny 2: Forsaken Pack. You'll need to purchase the add-on separately to access the Exotic Gear collection, but you can always stick to the free stuff to save yourself money.

The post Where is Xur in Destiny 2 today? Exact location appeared first on Destructoid.

Though you may feel that Bungie has fumbled Episode: Revenant's grand finale, Destiny 2 is thankfully more than just its latest narrative beat. 2025's Festival of the Lost, for example, is bound to be a hoot, and now's the time to vote on each Guardian Class's cheeky new armor set.

After Festival of the Lost 2024's wizard-themed armor sets, Bungie is now steering back towards the event's horror roots. What better way to do so than with a suite of monster costumes from contemporary pop-horror media, then? Once again, players get to vote on each of the three Classes' respective armor sets, and it is going to be a tough choice.

Vote for Slasher or Specter armor sets for Destiny 2's FOTL 2025

The vote for 2025's FOTL is now up, and you can participate either by entering the survey via this link or by checking in with Bungie's promotional email newsletters, which should be coming our way sometime soon. The choices are all rather phenomenal, if I may say so myself:

• Titan Class: Jason Vorhees (Halloween) vs the Babadook (Babadook)
• Hunter Class: Ghostface (Scream) vs La Llorona (Mexican folklore)
• Warlock Class: Scarecrow vs Slenderman (internet creepypasta)

I don't believe there's any chance of the generic scarecrow costume beating out the literal Slenderman, but you never know! We'll need to wait and see how the armor sets look and feel in-game, but the designs as they appear in the featured artwork seem like they'd work well when mixed and matched with other assorted sets. A huge boon, that, and not something that fashion-minded Guardians will take for granted.

The really good news is that the armor sets that lose the vote won't be gone forever: "While you’ll still vote on which armor set is going to be released during Festival of the Lost, we will commit to producing the runner-up sets later. While we aren’t promising a specific timeline, they’ll typically be released before the next year’s Festival of the Lost event," says Bungie in this week's TWID.

As for all those wizard and witch-themed armor sets that lost in 2024, those are set and primed to release this year, in a surprise twist: "We know a lot of you loved the Wizards who didn’t make the cut for 2024. We felt the same way, so we’re making plans to release those armors during Heresy this year. We aren’t planning on producing all past runner-up armor, but we felt like the fashion could use a few more wizard hat options," the post reads.

So, Destiny 2 fashionistas are going to have their hands full this year 'round no matter what. The Festival of the Lost 2025 will kick off sometime late in October, and if you'd like to get a sense of what to expect, look no further than this handy guide to last year's FOTL. It's a grind, for sure, but one that's often very well worth it.

The post Destiny 2’s Festival of the Lost 2025 vote is now on, featuring Slenderman Warlocks and Friday the 13th Titans appeared first on Destructoid.

Destiny 2 has finally delivered the closing mission of Episode: Revenant's third and final Act and it's a perfectly fine piece of content. The bit that's not fine, according to some players (myself included), is the lore behind it and what happens with Eramis, one of the main Eliksni antagonists.

Obvious spoilers ahead for those who haven't yet finished Destiny 2's grand finale of Episode: Revenant's third act. I cannot help but feel that Bungie's storytelling has fallen off a cliff after The Final Shape wrapped up. Episodes have served up narrative flubs one after another, and Revenant is no different in this respect. Specifically, while it's certainly great news that we've finally received the conclusion to the all-but-forgotten Kell of Kells story thread, it's gone in a truly wild direction. Mithrax is only technically now the Kell of Kells, while the grand savior of the Eliksni goes to Eramis. How's that for a twist?

Players do not enjoy what Destiny 2 is doing with one of its main living antagonists

For those who haven't kept up with Destiny's story-beats over the years, Eramis (the literal Kell of Darkness) is many things. Chiefly, a xenocidal maniac that's been leading the House of Salvation since the Beyond Light era onwards. Disregarding whatever character growth Eramis might've received in the subsequent DLCs, she has done all of the following:

• Tried (and almost succeded) to blow up the Last City with a nuclear bomb.
• Attempted to eradicate regular Eliksni living on Europa.
• Mounted numerous assaults on both Eliksni and human civilians.
• Went after Mithrax, the Kell of Light several times.
• Caused the destruction of Rasputin and his Warsat network.

This is an inexhaustive list, mind, but it illustrates the point I am trying to make. Then, in the final moments of Revenant's final cinematic cutscene, the Echo MacGuffin ends up choosing and empowering Eramis over Mithrax. Simultaneously, Mithrax has been suffering from the curse of Nezarec all along, and it's conceivable that a super-causal artifact such as the Echo could've cleansed him of it. Subsequently, Eramis chooses to take her House of Salvation Eliksni with her and travels into deep space.

Mithrax becomes the de facto Kell of Kells (but Variks and Eido are still around). Has Bungie gone against the lore-established prophecy of Traveler itself blessing the Kell of Kells? Perhaps, but we'll have to see if there's more to this than currently meets the eye.

The fact is that it doesn't sit right with the community that one of the worst in-universe war criminals still alive in Destiny has just received their happily-ever-after ending. Not everyone agrees with this assessment, of course, but the discussion has overtaken a part of the game's subreddit.

Bungie has been on a bit of a bender when it comes to redemption arcs. Between Uldren/Crow, Savathun, Rasputin, and now Eramis, the trope is tiring by now. At the same time, there's always been a chance that Eramis would turn a new page at some point, and Bungie's been setting the stage for that over the past couple of releases. Regardless, this development doesn't feel like a very satisfying conclusion to this whole year of content.

Whether this was a redemption arc for Eramis or just a somewhat clumsy way of taking her off the board for Destiny: Frontiers, it doesn't fill me with confidence for Bungie's future narrative development. Content-wise, I'm still excited for what's to come, and Frontiers looks mighty interesting in the context of what we've been getting over the course of 2024, but I feel that Destiny's writing has lost much of its luster by now. The whole Kell of Kells schtick drives that home for me.

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Destiny 2's new Kell's Fall Exotic mission has a secret encounter awaiting players. No, not the different bosses you fight at the end of the activity as you progress the episodic narrative, but one that can be battled right toward the start. It's a challenge against the mind behind the organ Guardians encounter within Kell's Fall, the Scorned Organist. But if players want a chance at the tortured musician, they'll need to learn how to conduct a little song of their own.

The Kell's Fall Exotic mission is the main centerpiece of Episode: Revenant's third Act. The Exotic mission is built to be replayed, with three different iterations occurring as players tackle the Act Three story. Outside of the content on the surface of Kell's Fall, the Exotic mission holds its own secrets. The Scorned Organist is one of these secrets, alongside the hidden Illusory Anchors needed for Slayer's Fang Exotic shotgun Catalysts.

That said, it's surprisingly easy to go up against the Scorned Organist. All Guardians need is the right tune and a bit of patience.

Where is the Scorned Organist?

The Scorned Organist secret boss is indeed within Kell's Fall, but it's not something players will just discover as they're running through the mission. There's a specific way to get to the Scorned Organist encounter, and it involves the instrument that the foe seemingly built. While Guardians pass by the large pipe organ in each run, shortly after The Trickster's first appearance, it isn't always usable.

The organ's pipes are connected to a series of buttons that can be shot to play specific notes. However, several buttons will be missing on the first run through the Exotic mission. This drastically limits the melodies that can be played, including the one needed to get players to the Scorned Organist encounter. That said, enough of the buttons will work by the time Guardians head into the Exotic mission a second time, so it's doable as early as Kell's Fall: Distortion.

If players head to the organ, they'll notice a plate with a glowing aura in front of the instrument. Guardians must be standing on this plate to interact with the organ. There are a total of 13 buttons to play notes on the organ, so we'll number those 1-13 and read from left to right. The button sequence that plays the melody needed to fight the Scorned Organist is 10, 4, 6, 1, 11, 4, 8, 1.

If you are having trouble getting the melody to work, try swapping to a single-shot weapon (like a scout rifle) to ensure buttons aren't being hit repeatedly by accident. Once entered correctly, the Fireteam will be teleported to a new area to face the secret boss.

The Scorned Organist's final tune

After the Fireteam plays the correct melody on the organ, the group will be teleported directly to the Scorned Organist. Guardians will find themselves in a large chamber with a wide open center. The Scorned Organist will teleport into the arena a few seconds after players arrive, appearing in front of the large circle decal on the opposite wall.

Other enemies will populate the chamber, and the Scorned Organist will occasionally drop down a Void shield totem, but the start of the battle isn't too spicy. However, once players bring the Scorned Organist down to around two-thirds of its health pool, it will become immune and summon a Tormentor.

The Tormentor can be quite a pain, especially when it dive-bombs players and ends their Super prematurely. But once it's eliminated, Guardians will be able to get back to work on the boss. From here, there aren't any other tricks that the Scorned Organist has up its sleeve. Other enemies will continue to periodically flood the arena while the Scorned Organist attacks and creates Void shield totems. Once players manage to overcome the Scorned Organist and its lackeys, the Fireteam will be teleported back in front of the organ. 

Are there rewards for beating the Scorned Organist?

While there's seemingly no immediate reward for the secret battle, the Scorned Organist is actually the final step in Eido's Fieldwork for Act Three. After working through the Act Three Minor and Major Fieldwork, the final Key Fieldwork will demand the Scorned Organist's demise. 

For your trouble, players will be rewarded with the Spectroscopic Ghost Shell and a Large Tonic Reangent Sack. That said, the boss may have to be conquered again if you already jumped at the opportunity to take down the Scorned Organist before taking on the Fieldwork. If that's the case, at least once you know how to get to the secret fight, the Tormentor is the only major hurdle.

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After toppling Destiny 2's newest Exotic mission, Guardians must return to Kell's Fall to hunt down Illusory Anchors. These Anchors are the key to opening up powerful options for the new Slayer's Fang Exotic shotgun, but players have to find them first. Everything is not as it seems in Kell's Fall, and it will take courage and wits if players hope to strengthen their arsenal with the power of the dead.

The Kell's Fall Exotic mission is the highlight of Destiny 2's latest Act Three of Episode: Revenant. The endeavor takes players deep into a Dracula-inspired stronghold of the Scorn leader Fikrul. While there's plenty of action on the surface of Kell's Fall, there is a trove of secrets to uncover within the Exotic mission. After completing it once, players will earn a new Exotic shotgun that can be empowered with four unique Catalysts. The only catch is that Guardians must venture back into Fikrul's diabolical lair on an even more challenging difficulty if they want to earn these Exotic boons.

Becoming a Revenant Slayer

After players have completed a run of Kell's Fall, they'll earn the Slayer's Fang Exotic shotgun and open a second version of the Exotic mission. While completing the Episode's narrative involves going back into Kell's Fall to partake in a third iteration of the content, Guardians can complete all of the Exotic Catalyst Quests as soon as Expert difficulty is available.

After returning from the first run, players will earn the Quests by talking with Eido and the other involved NPCs in The Last City. There are four in all, Revenant Slayer I-IV. The first step of each Quest is identical; it just asks for Guardians to defeat 20 enemies while under the effects of any Tonic. All four Quests should be completed at the same time, and that will open up the next step for each Catalyst Quest: the Illusory Anchor hunt.

Three Illusory Anchors are hidden in four areas throughout the Kell's Fall Exotic mission. They will only appear when the mission is undertaken on Expert difficulty, adding a little more challenge to the whole ordeal. Thankfully, there are no limited revives in place, so players can take their time locating each Anchor and destroying it without worrying about losing progress or getting sent back to Orbit if the Fireteam goes down.

The Illusory Anchors can only be interacted with if players have equipped the Slayer's Fang Exotic. Anchors become more visible as players get closer to them with the Exotic, and aiming down the sights of Slayer's Fang solidifies them. Once an Anchor materializes, Guardians must shoot it with the Exotic shotgun to destroy it and earn Quest progress.

Revenant Slayer I - Mirror Gallery

The first locale players will have to head to in the hunt for Illusory Anchors is the Mirror Gallery. This is the first mirror realm segment Guardians traverse in the Exotic mission after smashing through the first set of rubble and following the short fight against The Trickster near the organ room. There is no boss to worry about, but enemies will still try to ruin your day. That said, they don't respawn infinitely, so they can be focused down and eliminated if they become an issue.

The first Illusory Anchor is nestled immediately to the left of where Guardians appear after entering the mirror realm. It is in between a crystalline tree and a closed door. The second Anchor is a bit further ahead, just before the large room with the gnarled tree growing horizontally. The Anchor is at the end of the preceding hallway, in front of a large navy blue door. The final Ilusory Anchor is in the large room with the horizontal tree, on the opposite side from where the second Anchor was found. It's in front of the large crystalline pink door on the right side of the room, but Guardians might have to get pretty close to it before it reveals itself.

Revenant Slayer II - Fighting Pit

The next set of Catalysts amps up the heat a bit, as players must hunt for the Anchors while juggling a boss encounter. The Fighting Pit is where Guardians face off against Kaniks, The Mad Bomber. When players head into the mirror realm during the bout, that will be the opportunity to hunt these Anchors down. Thankfully, all three Anchors in the Fighting Pit are pretty close together.

The first Anchor is located right on the central platform in the chamber, floating in the air. A second can be found against the room's back wall, opposite the mirror portal by a sealed door and some statues. The final Anchor is tucked away in the arena's side room filled with statues and podiums. It's right up against a wall.

Revenant Slayer III - Sanctum

While fighting Hiraks, The Mindbender, three Illusory Anchors, can be found in the mirror realm. The encounter will occur as usual, but Guardians can see the destructible objects during the bout. In my personal experience, this set of anchors gave my Fireteam the most trouble. After shooting the first Anchor, my Quest step was completed, but the object disappeared for my allies. We couldn't find any other anchors, so we reset the encounter, and the same thing happened again to another player. The third Guardian seemingly progressed as intended after a third encounter reset, locating and destroying all three anchors before getting a Quest update.

After porting into the main room of the mirror realm, the first Anchor is tucked behind the mirror portal the group just exited. The second Anchor is just inside the arena, near a table on the right. The final Anchor can be found in the hallway reached via the opening in the main room. Guardians will locate the Anchor near some boxes and a brazier.

Revenant Slayer IV - Throne Room

Three Illusory anchors can be located during the final battle against Fikrul. Guardians can participate in the fight as usual, heading into the mirror realm when the Scorn leader readies his big attack. Once inside, players can use Slayer's Fang to locate, materialize, and destroy the three anchors scattered around the area. There will be plenty of heat on Expert difficulty, but death just serves as a temporary delay.

The first Anchor can be found right near where players exit the portal, by the titular throne in the Throne Room. The second Anchor is in an entryway on the opposite side of the chamber. On the left and right side of this doorway are Dreaming City-esque planters. The Anchor is above the right-side planter if you're facing the door. The final Anchor is on one of the sides of the room, a bit above eye level. It's floating by an Awoken statue, again, much like one that you'd find in The Dreaming City.

What happens after finding all Illusory Anchors?

Once all three anchors are destroyed in any area, Guardians must continue and complete the Exotic mission on Expert difficulty to finish off the Quests. Of course, players can take a break after destroying the Anchors and return to get the Expert completion later; they'll just lose their checkpoint if it's not done in the same week. With that known, efficient players will likely opt to do all four Exotic Catalyst Quests during one Expert run, so long as no pesky bugs prevent anchors from appearing for someone.

Once all four Quests are complete, players will earn four new Exotic Catalysts for the Slayer's Fang. Revenant Slayer I rewards Repulsor Brace, Revenant Slayer II provides Loose Change, Revenant Slayer III gives Stats For All, and Revenant Slayer IV grants Cascade Point. Depending on the needs of the Guardian, that's a lot of wiggle room for this Exotic shotgun.

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Act Three of Episode: Revenant has come to Destiny 2, and its main attraction is the new Kell's Fall Exotic mission. Guardians are tasked with forging deep into the Revenant lair of Fikrul to root out his corrupting influence and investigate the Echo he wields. However, the Exotic mission is not just a simple run through a haunted house; players will have to venture into the enemy stronghold multiple times if they want to conquer the fel Kell.

Kell's Fall serves as the main centerpiece of Act Three, meaning players must repeatedly venture into the Exotic mission as the narrative unfolds. While Guardians aren't prevented from joining a friend to attempt Kell's Fall if they're not caught up on the story, players cannot select the activity independently unless they've already completed Act One and Act Two.

When players are ready, they can head to The Last City and pay a visit to the Holoprojector. Eramis will set Guardians on their course, sending you off for a few other chats before heading into the Exotic mission proper.

Kell's Fall: Reflection

After loading in, Guardians will find themselves once again on the Tangled Shore in front of a bizarre sight: Scorn kneeling before players. These first foes aren't interested in a fight. Instead, they want to see players face off against Fikrul. You can head off to the right by the gnarled tree, hopping across gaps in the cliffside. Further ahead, players will turn left and continue along the linear path until they encounter the first obstacle: Araskes, The Trickster.

This battle isn't anything much for Guardians to worry about, but the foe will periodically turn invisible and scurry away. After players bring Araskes to half health, the enemy will retreat, and the way forward will open. Ahead, you'll encounter a large chamber with a pipe organ at the back of the room. If you inspect the organ a bit closer, you'll notice a series of glowing symbols attached to the instrument. These can be used to play melodies, which cause things to happen in the Exotic mission.

There is one melody readily available to play on the organ. It can be found written on a wall in a room at the end of the path the right-side stairway leads to. However, the room it opens will only have something to collect after Guardians have completed the Exotic mission at least once. Otherwise, players can head up the stairs to the left of the organ and follow the next set of stairs upwards.

You'll soon arrive at a dead end, but in the room, there is also a glowing brazier nearby. Interacting with the brazier opens a door, and the path leads to a large, empty hallway. The path forward is behind some rubble tucked behind a branch in the corner of the hall. Some rubble will block a small entryway, melee it to clear it aside. The next room has what looks like a broken mirror, but shooting the mirror reveals it to be a portal, taking players to the Mirror Gallery. This Prismatic-tinged realm is a bit of a labyrinth, but there's only one way forward for Guardians. When players reach a large area with a tree growing horizontally through it, egress is at the other end of the room, down the left path. A brazier will await in a room with another broken mirror. 

The mirror will take players back to reality, and a linear path will eventually lead to some rubble that needs clearing on the left side of a large hall. That cave passage will ultimately lead players to the Fighting Pit, where a Rally Flag and the subsequent encounter await. Kaniks, The Mad Bomber will attack the Fireteam in the next large room. Kaniks itself is shielded, so players will need to traverse the mirror realm again to gain the necessary power to defeat The Mad Bomber. In the mirror realm, certain enemies will drop motes of Revenant Power. Once Guardians collect 10 motes, they'll get the Revenant Empowerment buff, allowing players to break Kaniks' shield.

After The Mad Bomber is dealt with, Fikrul will appear to show off the power he can wield, thanks to the Echo. After the display of strength, a passage on the right will open, and players can head through there. The path ahead is pretty straightforward, but towards the end, some rubble will block the path off to the right. The path opens up to a red-lit area that serves as the Exotic mission's main platforming challenge. Players will want to carefully make their way toward the back right side of the room, heading through any caves that look like there's light coming from them.

Eventually, you'll reach what looks like a dead end with a bright white light at the end of the passage and red dome-like structures. The way forward is actually down, and you can spot the landing place by the warm glow emanating from the cave's mouth. After exiting the platforming section, players will enter a red room with braziers scattered around the area. If Guardians look back to where they came from, they'll notice three small torches stacked atop one another. As players light the braziers in this area, the torches will react in kind. After all three braziers are lit, a door will open behind the torches. A hidden symbol is written on the wall in this small room, which is worth noting for later use.

In the next room, a shattered mirror will lead players back into the mirror realm and the next encounter. Guardians are facing off against Hiraks, The Mindbender, and he'll initially be damageable when encountered. After knocking down a third of his health, The Mindbender will retreat, and Guardians must escape the mirror realm. A path on the side of the mirror realm will lead to another shattered mirror, which the nearby braziers can awaken. Once back in reality, players will encounter Hiraks in the next room.

After another third of The Mindbender's health is gone, he'll pull another vanishing act, and players will have to hunt through the mirror realm again. Hiraks will make his final stand here, and after a short bout, The Mindbender will go down. Fikrul makes another appearance to taunt players, and once Guardians are ready, they can head through the door to the right and through the mirror portal.

The path ahead will lead toward a gravity lift, and once ascended, players will encounter Araskes, The Trickster, again. After ascending a long and winding staircase, Guardians can have their rematch with The Trickster. Araskes will harass players during the climb, but he'll inevitably meet his end at the top. Through the next door is Fikruls throne room and the final challenge in Kell's Fall.

Fikrul awaits in his throne room ahead, but he's invulnerable with the power of the Echo. Before long, Fikrul will begin casting an attack, and that's the players' cue to head through the mirror portals. On the inside, Guardians can defeat enemies to collect Motes for Revenant Empowerment. Once at 10 stacks, players can head back out to Fikrul. However, the Scorn leader feels you are beneath him, so he summons a lacky, Reksis Vahn, The Hangman. 

Reksis Vahn won't take much to bring down, but it'll mean Fikrul makes his escape. After defeating The Hangman, players will receive a trove of Tonic supplies and rewards, including the Slayer's Fang Exotic shotgun. If Guardians visit The Last City, they can check in with Eido, The Spider, and Crow for four (!) Exotic Catalyst Quests and the next step in taking down Fikrul: heading back into Kell's Fall.

Kell's Fall: Distortion

After the first completion, Guardians are tasked with heading back into Kell's Fall to empower the Slayer's Fang Exotic shotgun and continue gathering intel on Fikrul. While most of the Exotic mission remains the same, players can access new areas and find new secrets within. For instance, the organ near the beginning of the Exotic mission will now have most of its buttons working. That said, there are still three that remain broken.

The passage through the Exotic mission is functionally the same as the first run-through. However, Guardians must locate the Apothecary, who'll be locked up just before the ascent up the winding staircase where The Trickster reappears. Otherwise, players will face off against the Screeb Matriarch at the end of the Exotic mission. This boss is even less of a threat than the last, as the Screebs created can chain explode next to the boss for massive damage. Once it's defeated, players will get treated to a bit more lore and then close out this chapter of Kell's Fall.

Kell's Fall: Defraction

Guardians will have to venture into Kell's Fall one last time to see to Fikrul's demise. After the second outing, some behind-the-scenes work with Eido and the new Apothecary ally leads to a stake-like quest item that can be used to inject Fikrul's heart with a Tonic that will turn his Dark Ether to Light. This will make the ghoulish leader mortal, allowing players to land a killing blow.

Inside the Exotic mission, it's much like the previous run. The encounters remain as players remember them, but there will be more opportunities for secret interactions and powerups for the Slayer's Fang Exotic shotgun. As with the second run, Guardians must visit the Apothecary on the way up the staircase.

The final battle takes place against Fikrul himself, but Guardians are prepared for the foe this time. The fight goes a lot like previous final battles have in Kell's Fall: the main difference is the opponent players are fighting against. During the encounter, after players get the Revenant Empowerment buff, Fikrul will assault the Fireteam in the mirror realm. The procedure is no different, though, and the Scorn leader will finally get the cinematic end he deserves.

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Remember last year's "Weightgate" micro-scandal that shook Destiny 2's community to its very core? It wasn't quite as dramatic as that, granted, but it sure was a royal mess. Now, some players think that Destiny 2 is silently repeating that particular mistake in the background of its ongoing season.

The problem with Weightgate was that Bungie initially claimed that nothing was amiss, only for the Destiny 2 community to band together with hard data to show for its efforts. Subsequently, Bungie admitted that Legendary-tier weapons did have janky perk weighting in place, though it was a mistake rather than an attempt to make god roll items harder to get. The players' trust in how Bungie is wrangling Destiny 2's Perk RNG has since been eroded, however, and some feel that we've now got an encore. Redditor Wrecluse has posted their "relatively small" dataset of 104 recorded Rake Angle sword drops which (according to them) may suggest Perk weighting.

Is Destiny 2 experiencing a new Weightgate?

As per Wreckluse's findings, "Certain perk combinations, like Rimestealer + Vorpal Weapon and Replenishing Aegis + Close to Melee, appear more frequently than others." Conversely, "Chill Clip is relatively less common overall (~11.54% frequency in Perk 2A), which may suggest it is less weighted."

While 104 data points might sound like a fair number to assess, it is actually a rather small sample that even Wreckluse themselves admit isn't enough to draw concrete conclusions. As one would expect, other members of the community have been quick to call this out.

I'd argue that one of the biggest problems with Wreckluse's argument is that they haven't kept track of all of their drops' respective perks. More specifically, Destiny 2's weapons roll about a dozen unique perks whenever one drops. Instead of jotting down all of them for each of the featured 104 drops, Wreckluse has only kept track of the two main perks. This makes it much harder to spot any potential RNG anomalies right off the bat. Further, perk RNG information found at Light.gg suggests no obvious problems with Rake Angle's drops, and data sets found using this app were what initially tipped the community off about Weightgate.

With all of that in mind, it doesn't seem like Wreckluse is actually witnessing a new round of perk RNG problems unravel. I'd argue that this isn't necessarily the crux of the problem in and of itself, however. Instead, the issue is that there's a track record of Destiny 2 having RNG problems that not even Bungie was aware of. Whereas we used to be able to write such events off as bad RNG a while ago, the fact that Weightgate was a thing means it can happen again. Wreckluse's post is, thus, just one of many more to come, and they're all going to be worth keeping track of just so Weightgate doesn't happen again.

In other, extremely related news, Bungie is now actively hiring more quality assurance staff to assist with future Destiny 2 releases. Over the past year or so, it feels like the game has slowly been coming apart at the seams with every new content drop and event. Some of these bugs have been rather obvious, while others crept in only to be spotted later on. To call this anything but unacceptable would be a mistake for a game as prolific as Destiny. With Frontiers on the horizon, Bungie needs to sort out its processes to re-establish Destiny 2 as the premiere live-service co-op shooter. Otherwise, it's not looking great. But hey, at least we've all got phones to play Destiny: Rising on, right?

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If player accounts are anything to go by, it seems there was another Destiny 2 bug amid the recent deluge of issues that accompanied the Dawning holiday event. Bungie created three limited-time Emblems for the event featuring Commander Zavala, Ikora Rey, and Crow. The Emblems were supposed to be extremely rare at the event's launch and progressively become easier to earn as the event went on. However, it doesn't seem like that's how everything played out in-game.

Destiny 2 has been having a rough go lately. The current Episode, Revenant, has been rife with issues. First, players realized weapon Perks weren't being distributed correctly in what became known as Weightgate, and that was followed shortly after by Tonicgate, where players revealed that Revenant's primary loot system, Tonics, wasn't working as intended. As if this wasn't bad enough, Destiny 2 soon started its Dawning holiday event, which similarly was riddled with issues.

With everything going on, especially with the mass of buggy Dawning features and Quests, the limited Emblems not behaving as Bungie described might not have been on the community's radar. That said, looking at some of the online discourse, it seems something was definitely up with Destiny 2's first Dawning bake-off.

The Bake-Off was a bust

Bungie explained how the 2024 Dawning bake-off would work in a This Week in Destiny communication a few days before the event started. The team explained that the three Emblem rewards would be extremely rare when the event started, but as the community engaged with the bake-off, chances of earning the limited flair would increase. Accompanying this explanation, Bungie shared a schedule detailing which NPCs would be featured during each week the Dawning ran for.

"During the Dawning, baking a certain set of cookies starting on a given week will give you progress towards the community-wide goal: a significant drop-rate increase for all three emblems," Bungie noted. "If we all bake enough of them, we will sooner than later reach the threshold, significantly increase our drop-rate chances, and earn the emblems. All three drop on every week of the event, so don't worry if you are out during one of them."

In practice, however, it doesn't seem like the bake-off worked as intended. There are countless examples of players commenting about the iffy drop rates online, with one player even noting that they'd opened something like 130 A Gift in Return packages before earning a single limited Emblem. Even odder are examples of players who quickly and easily earned all three of the Emblems within their first few packages early in the event, when the rewards were supposedly the rarest.

From Christmas to Krampus

Of course, the bake-off and progress toward better Emblem drop rates were contingent upon players participating in the event, baking treats, and delivering them to the highlighted NPCs on any given week. It's certainly possible that player progress simply wasn't enough over the three-week event, but player engagement is no secret to Bungie, and it wouldn't make sense to set a participation goal too lofty for the existing player base. Couple that with the accounts from players who earned their Emblems bizarrely fast, and it seems more likely that another bug (or RNG issue) affected the Emblem drop rate or the bake-off interaction bonus.

Making the whole situation all the more egregious is the process players go through to earn a single A Gift in Return and a chance at what seems like an unreliable system. The A Gift in Return item is earned from NPCs after giving them a treat. The only thing is, the A Gift in Return is only one potential reward and it's by no means the most common. Guardians are much more likely to earn some Glimmer or a random throwaway weapon. After turning a couple dozen cookies into three or four A Gift in Return parcels, it can be frustrating to have all that work amount to a handful of Enhancement Cores. It's even more annoying when you realize those same A Gift in Return packages can be spent on guaranteed Dawning weapons from Eva, which also have a chance to reward Dawning Mementos.

Personally, I was able to earn two out of the three rare Emblems within my first five A Gift in Return packages on the first day of the Dawning. From there, I could not earn the third throughout the rest of the event, even with near-daily participation -- and I must have opened somewhere between 10-15 A Gift in Return parcels in the last three days of the event alone.

Between some early birds getting the paid Event Card for free, all of the other bugs, and potentially even the bake-off Emblems, 2024's Dawning has not left the community in a particularly jolly sentiment. Hopefully, Bungie can reignite passion and earn back player trust in the new year, but 2024 ended with more of a holi-don't than a holiday for Guardians.

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It's the end of another year, and Bungie has prepared the Destiny 2 Wrapped 2024 for all those who have jumped onto the battlefield anytime during the previous 360 days.

Annual wrap-ups appear to be the recent trend as different software and video games are letting players have a round-up of everything they have done in a calendar year. The Destiny 2 Wrapped 2024 feature is no different, and it will show you your annual highlights and exploits across all the different quests and objectives. Let's take a look at how you can enjoy this wrap-up and check out your records.

How to get your annual recap as part of Destiny 2 Wrapped 2024

Usually, you'll need to go to the game/software to view your annual round-up. To check out your Destiny 2 Wrapped 2024, you'll need to go to a third-party website. Once connected, you'll be able to find out your annual stats and share them with your friends.

• Go to the Vercel app website.
• You'll have to log in using your Bungie account. If you play on multiple platforms, make sure you're using the correct one.
• Once logged in, you can scroll the website to check out all your stats.

The exact stats and data that you can find will vary from one player to another, and that's perfectly natural. Here are some of the commonly available stats that all players can access.

• 10 most-played activities
• Most-played activity type and how many hours you have spent in it.
• Highest streak for continuous game time.
• PvP stats (if you participated in Gambit).

You can access much more data than what's mentioned here, but I have gone for the most vital stats.

2024 was a big year for Destiny 2, which got The Final Shape expansion. It managed to find a lot of favor with the community due to its narrative design and in-game mechanics. The new subclass and faction managed to match the expectations of the community. But things are far from over, as 2025 will bring the next act of Revenant, new Dungeons, and more.

The post How to see your Destiny 2 Wrapped 2024 appeared first on Destructoid.

After an Episode in Destiny 2 where it seems like almost nothing has gone to plan, Tonics are finally working the way they're supposed to, at least according to Bungie. Alongside the game's weekly Tuesday reset, Bungie communicated that it tackled a few pesky bugs haunting Guardians throughout Episode: Revenant.

Episode: Revenant is the current Episode of live content in Destiny 2, but the season replacement hasn't exactly gone off without a hitch. There have been bugs and issues present since day one, with players discovering that some may have even been tucked away within the game long before the Episode. The game was first rocked by Weightgate, exposing issues with certain weapon rolls, and then Tonicgate revealed that the whole Tonic system powering Episode: Revenant was also broken. The winter holiday Dawning event topped things off, releasing with almost no working parts.

Seemingly to make up for the myriad of issues with Tonics, Bungie also buffed how they all work. Now, hopefully, the tides are turning with this first change and buff to how Tonics work in Destiny 2, along with a few other spirited attempts to smooth out other pain points.

Tonics are now (mostly) worth using

In a patch notes communication, Bungie confirmed that Tonics would now work as intended. "Legendary Tonics now 100% guarantee their specific reward," the studio noted. Bungie also explained that it added a new feature to incentivize using specific Tonics for specific activities. The patch notes described that "Legendary Tonics now increase the chances of obtaining the specified gear from the activity they are made for." Essentially, players consuming a Tomb of Elders Tonic will further increase weapon drops from the Tomb of Elders activity.

Tonics also got a flat-out buff in the form of a duration increase across the board. The base Uncommon Tonics have had their effects lengthened from 20 minutes to 40, Rare Tonics have gone from 40 minutes to an hour, and Legendary Tonics now offer 80 minutes of an impact as opposed to the original hour. With this change, players may still need to reapply Uncommon or Rare Tonics in more prolonged activities like Onslaught: Salvation. However, a Legendary Tonic should cover most Guardians for all but lengthy Dungeons or a Raid.

Other 8.1.5.2 fixes

Update 8.1.5.2 didn't just take a swing at Tonics; it also attempted to iron out some of the other problems players have been having throughout the Episode. For the newish activity, Tomb of Elders, Bungie fixed an issue where not all objectives would spawn during a round, resulting in the inability to progress particular bonus objectives. Additionally, the team "fixed" the chest at the end of Tomb of Elders that initially only rewarded Glimmer, but that's under the assumption it wasn't supposed to do that from the get-go.

Despite the Inverted Spire Strike getting a pretty respectable glow-up, it apparently wasn't included in the Vanguard Ops playlist. Bungie has resolved this issue, so it should start showing up aside from when it's featured as a Nightfall. The team also got to a Lost Sector bug preventing weapon drops on certain days. On the Raid and Dungeon front, Master Crota's End and Salvation's Edge will start respecting player checkpoints again, and a few bugs have been fixed in Vesper's Host, including stuff getting stuck in the floor.

Sentinel Shield Titans have had enough fun, as Bungie has fixed the bug causing massive Super damage. The team did buff the Super a bit as it brought it back into line, though. It now does 44% more damage against non-Champions and 15% more against Champions. Similarly, Hunters' Spectral Blades got some tuning to make it more competitive. The Super now does 66% more damage to non-Champions and 30% more damage to Champions.

Also, for Hunters, the Knucklehead Radar Exotic helmet was applying its effect on a hit instead of on a shield break; this has been resolved. Finally, the High Ground weapon Perk is now reenabled, as Bungie corrected the bonus damage issue against other players. In doing so, the team increased the height differential required to trigger the effect by 150% when using primary ammo weapons.

While the fixes and change to Tonics are the most significant news to take away from these patch notes, at least Bungie is working toward fixing some of the other issues in the game. It might be too little too late for some Destiny 2 players, but this is the kind of caretaking that keeps the game from reaching the quality control lows it has recently found itself stuck in.

The post Destiny 2 Tonics in Episode: Revenant now work and last longer appeared first on Destructoid.

It feels to me like Destiny 2 (and Destiny at large) is inoculated against repeated success. With Bungie reducing the importance of weapon crafting and doubling down on the Power grind, the community is slowly growing more and more tired of how the studio is handling the game.

Specifically, we've now had not one but two huge Reddit threads where a Destiny 2 player going under the name of Techman- went deep into discussing what's going on with Bungie's flagship project. Their assessment? That Bungie is slowly but steadily dismantling the legacy of Destiny 2's former Game Director, Joe Blackburn. I wasn't too worried when Blackburn, who was beloved by the community, announced his departure. His replacement was a different Bungie veteran, Tyson Green, and the future seemed reasonably bright at the time.

That assessment of mine can now safely be revised, as it hasn't aged all that well. On top of releasing one buggy disaster after another, the delightful heights that Destiny 2 reached upon the release of The Final Shape have now been replaced by a series of confusing lows. Techman- has got an idea of why that is the case.

Bungie is messing up the legacy of Joe Blackburn, and that's not a good sign for Destiny at large

Techman-'s posts, which are massively upvoted and popular on the DestinyTheGame subreddit, have helped me contextualize what's gone wrong with Destiny 2 over the past months. These assessments are exceedingly well-sourced and hugely supported by other members of the community, and they posit a few simple claims:

• that Joe Blackburn's de-emphasized gear FOMO is being done away with
• that Destiny 2 is reverting to its old grindy self, necessitating a frankly extreme time investment from players

This is seemingly being accomplished mainly through a renewed focus on Power grinding and by deliberately not making cutting-edge top-of-the-line weapons craftable, which they were under Blackburn. Weapon crafting is a particularly notable issue here because it offered players a relatively straightforward and (more importantly) RNG-free way of earning endgame-ready gear.

Techman-'s original post garnered lots of support when it was first posted, but Bungie's recent developer update spurred them into action once again with a new assessment of the matter:

The author of these posts now feels that Bungie is working with "ego-based decision-making", with Destiny 2 slowly peeling back all the many different quality-of-life improvements it received under Blackburn's umbrella. The community now feels that Bungie doesn't understand what the community wants and that the recent Episode Revenant's Tonic-based RNG optimizing system is a straight downgrade compared to the established weapon crafting systems.

From my point of view, it seems entirely obvious that Bungie is floundering with Destiny 2. Earlier this year, I finally managed to put my feelings about the game into words with a simple argument: that this franchise's biggest problem by far has always been uncertainty. This wasn't quite as pronounced in the years past when we knew quite clearly what Bungie's next step might be. Now, though, with Episodes falling flat on their faces time and again, and with Destiny 2: Frontiers being a huge unknown, the community is absolutely beset by uncertainty.

Players just don't know what to make of Bungie's current plans for the game, and given the studio's latest developer update, there now seems to be a severe disconnect between the team and the community. That's a huge issue for a live-service game that lives and dies by how much its players care about the present and the future.

Compared to what we had on the cusp of The Final Shape, Destiny 2 is now grindier and less approachable. These issues are compounded further still by the fact that Frontiers is supposed to be a huge revamp of the core progression loop with sandbox campaigns, Metroidvania elements, and more. Techman-'s posts are a solid mirror of the current state of Destiny 2's community, and I highly recommend reading up on them if you haven't kept up with things. On the flip side, it seems like Destiny: Rising is better than anyone expected it to be, so hey.

The post Destiny 2 is backtracking on its biggest player-oriented wins, and for what? appeared first on Destructoid.

As live-service games continue to struggle to find a way to work in modern gaming, there's a handful of outstanding titles that continue to improve and grow, which servers as the basis for Destructoid's best ongoing game award.

You'll notice that while all of these games have received substantial updates, expansions, or DLC content this year, none of them actually released this year. That's because to be a truly great ongoing game, you need to prove you can continue to evolve and adapt to the industry and your player's feedback over time.

Here are Destructoid's nominees for best ongoing game of 2024:

Apex Legends

Many battle royales have come and gone, but Apex Legends continues to receive hefty updates each year including the most recent one that reworked the long-popular Lifeline character, introduced Rift Relics which are powerful weapons and abilities that can spawn throughout the game, and more.

Further content updates for Apex Legends have included trying out other game modes like Team Deathmatch, Control, and Gun Run, helping push the title outside of just the battle royale formula. None of them have caught on quite as well, but it's great overall and a promising sight for the over five year old game.

Destiny 2

Even though there are certainly arguments to be made about the future and current community feelings toward the long-running online shooter, Destiny 2 had a big year with the release of its Destiny 2: The Final Shape expansion back in June.

Not to make you feel old, but Destiny 2: The Finale Shape marks the eighth expansion and eighth year of the shooter, and concludes the first major saga of Destiny called the Light and Darkness saga. Even post-expansion release, Destiny 2 continues receiving episodic updates with a new expansion codename Apollo looking to launch in mid-2025.

Diablo 4

Technically the newest title on this list, with the base game releasing on June 5, 2023, Diablo 4 just received its first full-fledged expansion about two months ago with Diablo 4: Vessel of Hatred. The expansion added a new class, the Spiritborn, as well as a whole new area called Nahantu.

But the reason Diablo 4 makes this list is because the game continues to improve with each season with major core gameplay and system changes, including the recent Loot Reborn season that completely overhauled the loot system of the ARPG, a much-needed and requested change that has the game heading in the right direction.

Final Fantasy XIV

It's no secret that Final Fantasy XIV has one of the most loyal fanbases when it comes to ongoing games. The MMORPG saw the release of its fifth expansion, Dawntrail, earlier this year, which took to the vibrant continent of Tural, a zone inspired by Latin America and Southeast Asia themes.

After re-releasing with completely reworked systems and combat in 2013, Final Fantasy XIV has continued to receive several major content updates each year as well as a full expansion every couple of years. With the Dawntrail storyline heating up at the end, it's easy to see Final Fantasy XIV continue to be a popular ongoing game for years to come.

Fortnite

Another battle royale on this list, Fortnite continues to grow and add to its universe with frequent seasons and all-new chapters. After a very heavily Marvel-focused chapter that added Doctor Doom, Ironman, Captain America, and more to the shooter, Fortnite launched its Chapter 6 first season just a couple of weeks ago with a Demon Hunters theme.

Fortnite is appealing to all kinds of players as it continues to add unique systems, features, and content not typical of the genre. For example, the current chapter has teased the arrival of Godzilla, which is scheduled to release on January 17, 2025.

Warframe

Another 2013 release, Warframe has continued to evolve over the last decade, transitioning from a mostly online lobby-based multiplayer game to having much more traditional MMORPG features including massive open-world zones.

Today, Warframe released its Warframe: 1999 expansion that takes players back to the city of Hollvania on December 31, 1999, as players experience the new solo-only main quest called The Hex. The free update adds unique 90s-style weaponry and environments as well as exciting new gameplay elements like Protoframes and an exciting new open-world that players can traverse with an Atomibike.

World of Warcraft

2024 is a big year for World of Warcraft, with the release of The War Within expansion but also celebrating an impressive 20 years since the release of the original vanilla WoW. Over those two decades, WoW has received ten expansions with at least two more in the pipeline to release over the next few years making it one of the longest-running and still popular MMORPGs on the market.

With the release of World of Warcraft 20th Anniversary Edition servers—essentially Classic realms, again—World of Warcraft essentially has three versions of the game live at the moment including retail and Cataclysm Classic. And next year, Cataclysm Classic will progress to Mists of Pandaria Classic, extending the timeline of that version of the game by another year or more.

The post Nominees for Destructoid’s Best Ongoing game of 2024 appeared first on Destructoid.

It's that magical time of year in Sol when Guardians come together across Destiny 2 to celebrate the winter holidays. In-game that means the Dawning is back. 

For 2024, things aren't too different from previous years, ignoring all the bugs, of course. That said, the event features some lovely cosmetics both from the Event Card and via the Eververse Store. And that's before even mentioning the breathtaking new dragon-themed armor set alongside other fun-themed goodies.

While The Tower is all glossed up with lights and snow for the holidays, Eva Levante sets up shop to begin Dawning celebrations. Players can visit old Eva, and she'll serve as the main hub and vendor for the event. Primarily, the Dawning centers around baking sweets for the various NPCs across the solar system, but a slew of issues have stood in the players' way. It seems Weightgate and Tonicgate were just the start, as the Dawning also has its own fair share of bugs. Thankfully, Bungie has worked out many of the problems, so they should be far less prevalent among players.

How to start the Dawning

To kick things off for the holidays, Guardians can head to The Tower and pay a visit to Eva Levante's setup. Whether players have partaken in the Dawning before or not, Eva will provide a key item needed to participate in the festivities: Eva's Holiday Oven. 

If it's your first time talking to Eva this Dawning, she'll give Guardians a handful of ingredients and instruct them to bake Gjallardoodles for Commander Zavala. There's the possibility that ingredients won't be provided if players are visiting Eva on a second or third character. In that case, you would have to farm the Gjallardoodle ingredients manually before baking the cookie.

To actually start baking cookies, players need to interact with Eva's Holiday Oven. This can be found either in the Quests tab of the Director or on the Inventory screen of the Character menu, next to the Tonic Capsule. Interacting with the Holiday Oven opens a separate menu where Guardians can decide what treats they want to create. You can either create by recipe or via mixing ingredients manually, with no downside to choosing one option over the other.

Once players bake the Gjallardoodles, they can deliver them to Zavala in The Tower. As Guardians deliver treats, NPCs may reward them with an item called A Gift in Return. These can be opened in the Inventory menu and offer Dawning rewards. Returning to Eva will see the end of the initial Dawning Quest and open the event up properly. Talk to Eva again afterward; she'll offer the Cookie Delivery Helper and Winter Night Quests.

Dawning Ingredients

To create each Dawning treat, players will need to combine two ingredients with 15 Essence of Dawning. The Essence of Dawning can be earned by completing activities around the game, from Patrols and Public Events to Strikes. The other ingredients are earned as an automatic drop from enemies and are automatically collected. The ingredients that drop depend on the type of enemy players are fighting and the abilities and weapons being used.

Uncommon Ingredients

• Vex Milk - Earned by defeating Vex enemies.
• Ether Cane - Earned by defeating Fallen enemies.
• Cabal Oil - Earned by defeating Cabal enemies.
• Chitin Powder - Earned by defeating Hive enemies.
• Taken Butter - Earned by defeating Taken enemies.
• Dark Ether Cane - Earned by defeating Scorn enemies.

Rare Ingredients

• Delicious Explosion - Defeat enemies with rocket launchers, grenade launchers, and grenades.
• Perfect Taste - Defeat enemies with precision damage.
• Sharp Flavor - Defeat enemies with swords.
• Bullet Spray - Defeat enemies with auto rifles, SMGs, and machine guns.
• Impossible Heat - Defeat enemies with Solar damage.
• Finishing Touch - Defeat enemies with Finishers.
• Electric Favor - Defeat enemies with Arc damage.
• Balanced Flavors - Defeat enemies with bows, snipers, scout rifles, and pulse rifles.
• Null Taste - Defeat enemies with Void damage.
• Multifaceted Flavors - Defeat enemies rapidly.
• Flash of Inspiration - Generate Orbs of Power.
• Superb Texture - Defeat enemies with Super abilities.
• Personal Touch - Defeat enemies with melee damage.
• Dark Frosting - Defeat enemies with Stasis or Strand damage.

Dawning Recipes

All of the ingredients gathered have one purpose: to be used in Eva's Holiday Oven to create delicious treats for your allies. While the Dawning used to be a little tougher on players, recipes are all essentially available from the start. Guardians just need the desired ingredients to make something specific. After a recipe is baked for the first time, it will appear fully revealed in the recipe menu, no longer displaying as a mystery treat. There are 20 recipes altogether, with a new option even appearing in 2024 for Nimbus.

Dawning Quests

Cookie Delivery Helper

After players have gotten their initial bearing for 2024's Dawning, Eva will ask for some help spreading cheer. The Cookie Deliver Helper Quest asks Guardians to bake and deliver specific treats for specific NPCs.

The first step of the Quest demands four different treats for allies across the system. Players will need to produce one Telemetry Tapioca, one Infinite Forest Cake, one Lavender Ribbon Cookies, and one Neomun-Pies. Thankfully, all of these confections use Vex Milk as a base, so it's just a matter of heading into a Vex-rich environment and using a mix of Darkness damage, Solar damage, melee, and rapid-fire weapons.

Once the ingredients are obtained, players can bake their treats and then head out to Banshee-44 for the Telemetry Tapioca, Saint-14 for the Lavender Ribbon Cookies, Failsafe for Infinite Forest Cake, and Nimbus for the Neomun-Pies. Once those are all passed out, Guardians will get their next set of gift recipients.

For the next phase, we'll be using lots of Ether Cane, so Fallen/Eliksni will provide the main ingredient. For Hot Crossfire Buns, players will need to defeat enemies with bows, snipers, scout rifles, or pulse rifles to farm Balanced Flavors. Gentleman's Shortbread requires Perfect Taste, which can be earned via precision damage. Blueberry Crumbles needs Bullet Spray, which comes from auto rifles, SMGs, and machine guns. Finally, Eliksni Birdseed calls for Personal Touch, which is generated from melee kills.

The second batch of cookies will get delivered to another set of friendly NPCs. The Gentleman's Shortbread is for Devrim Kay in the EDZ, Blueberry Crumblers are a favorite of Shaw Han in the Cosmodrome, and then The Tower hosts both Ada-1 and Hawthorne, who'll want Hot Crossfire Buns and Eliksni Birdseen, respectively.

The third step only asks for two treat deliveries, and both include Cabal Oil. Aside from the main ingredient coming from the faction bearing the same namesake, players will also need some Flash of Inspiration and Sharp Flavor. Flash of Inspiration is earned by generating Orbs of Power, while Sharp Flavor comes from getting sword kills. The sweets in question are the Traveler Donut Holes for Ikora Rey and Vanilla Blades for Shaxx, both located at The Tower.

Step four has players going back to four goodies, using Chitin Powder as a main ingredient. The Hive are plentiful between The Final Shape, The Witch Queen, and Moon content, so Guardians should head to one of those locales to earn materials. Players will need Finishing Touch, earned from Finishers; Perfect Taste, earned from precision; multifaceted Flavors, received by achieving multikills; and Electric Flavor, earned with Arc kills. 

When everything is gathered, Guardians can bring an Ascendant Oatmeal Raisin Cookie to Eris Morn on the Moon, a Lucent Crunch to Fynch on the Throne World, an Etheric Coldsnap for Variks on Europa, and some Bright-Dusted Snowballs for Tess Everis in The Tower.

Step five will require three more tasty creations: Dark Chocolate Motes, Classic Butter Cookies, and Strange Cookies. Thankfully, these all use Taken Butter as a main ingredient, so Guardians will just have to hunt down Electric Flavor with Arc damage, Superb Texture with Super kills, and Null Taste with Void damage. Once made, the Dark Chocolate Motes are for The Drifter in The Tower, Strange Cookies go to Xur in Eternity's Treasure Hoard, and the Classic Butter Cookies for Eva Levante herself.

The final part of the Quest will ask Guardians to drop off some Starwort Thins and Ill-Fortune Cookies to two ladies from Destiny's past. For these treats, the main ingredient is Dark Ether Cane, plentiful with the Scorn-filled Episode. Elsie Bray will want the Starwort Thins on Europa, which means players will need to use Stasis or Strand damage to get Dark Frosting. Petra Venj, on the other hand, is in the Dreaming City, and her Ill-Fortune Cookies require Solar kills for Impossible Heat.

With the final two treats delivered, Guardians will be able to Masterwork their Holiday Ovens, and the Quest will also instruct them to do so. Players can head back into the Holiday Oven menu and go into the tab to the right of Recipes. The Masterwork process will reduce the Essence of Dawning cost for each recipe, and there's no cost for the Masterwork other than getting this far in the Cookie Delivery Helper Quest. With the Masterwork complete, players will finish the Quest.

Winter Night

Once settled into the Dawning's general groove, Eva Levante will offer the Winter Night Quest. This task familiarizes Guardians with the other side of the holiday event: snowballs. Snowballs appear throughout Destiny 2 content during the Dawning, from Strikes to out in patrol zones. Players can grab a snowball and toss it at foes to deal Stasis damage, with options to upgrade the snowballs further at Eva.

Winter Night has three main objectives, each only requiring some time to be completed. Guardians must defeat 75 enemies with snowballs and then defeat an additional 25 enemies using snowballs upgraded by the Stay Frosty or Long Winter buffs offered by Eva. Additionally, players must bake one Classic Butter Cookie for Eva to enjoy while they're having those snowball fights.

Once the three tasks are complete, players can return to Eva at The Tower to turn in the Quest. The event vendor will reward Guardians with a Dawning Memento. And with that, the Winter Night will end with players one Dawning Memento richer.

The Dawning Event Card

Like many of the other events Destiny 2 has housed, 2024's Dawning has an accompanying Event Card. The Event Card has 16 Event Challenges centered around the holiday. Each Event Challenge has rewards; sometimes that means a new Shader, and other times, it's materials. Either way, it's worth knowing what the Dawning Event Challenges are and the rewards that are up for offer, as players will likely knock a couple out just participating in the winter festivities.

As Guardians complete Event Challenges, they'll earn Event Tickets. These can only be spent if you choose to upgrade to the premium Dawning Event Card (or if you were lucky enough to get it for free while it was bugged). Seven Tickets gets you a Frost Dragon Shell to match your Ghost to that Dawning dragon armor. For five Tickets, players can get the Holiday Dance Emote, two buys a wrapped gift Transmat Effect, and one can be exchanged for an Astral Stasis Drake Ghost Projection.

Rare Dawning Rewards

Alongside the cosmetics players can earn through the Event Card, there's a chance Guardians can get lucky when opening one of the A Gift in Return packages, which are sometimes earned after delivering baked goods. While these packages typically offer Enhancement Cores, Upgrade Modules, and slightly rarer instances of Dawning Mementos, Bungie added a few extra surprises for 2024.

As noted in a This Week in Destiny communication, Bungie explained that there would be three new Emblems for the Dawning. Each has bombastic colors and features one of the three Vanguard leaders: Zavala, Ikora Rey, and Crow. Bungie noted that these Emblems would be fairly rare but that a community baking event would help tip the odds in players' favor.

The studio noted, "As a new addition to the Dawning, this year we have hidden three new and exclusive emblems inside of A Gift in Return packages. They are very cool, but also pretty rare. But don't worry: Eva loves us so much, and the festive spirit is so strong that she has found a solution: a community event that increases everyone's chances of getting them. It's the Dawning Bake-Off!" All three Emblems are available throughout the course of the Dawning, but players can increase the chances of making each appear for everyone by contributing and hitting community milestones. Each week, for three weeks, specific treats will be featured that contribute to the community baking event.

From the start of the event through December 16, Gjallardoodles for Zavala, Bright-Dusted Snowballs for Tess Everis, Starwort Thins for Elsie Bray, and Neomun-Cake for Nimbus earn community progress. From December 17 through December 23, Traveler Donut Holes for Ikora, Classic Butter Cookie for Eva Levante, and Dark Chocolate Motes for The Drifter contribute. Finally, from December 24 through December 31, Vanilla Blades for Shaxx, Lavender Ribbon Cookies for Saint-14, and Etheric Coldsnaps for Variks will be in the spotlight.

What to do with A Gift in Return

After you've been baking the ingredients gathered from your foes and delivering them as treats to your allies, you'll likely have accrued a stash of A Gift in Return items as a means of thanks. These items can be opened individually from the Inventory page for generic crafting rewards, a Dawning Memento, or the rare Emblems discussed above. Otherwise, players can use A Gift in Return items to focus on specific rewards through Eva Levante.

Focusing through Eva costs both 1 A Gift in Return and 25 Dawning Spirit. That said, the Dawning Spirit cost can be lowered via an upgrade that is purchasable alongside Eva's snowball buffs. There are a couple of stand-out weapons, including the new Minstral Lift, which can roll with the desirable Envious Arsenal and Bait and Switch Perk combo.

Eververse Dawning offers

Outside of what's available to earn through the Dawning Event Card, there's plenty of other cosmetic swag on offer through the Eververse store. While it's all optional and costs real money, some of the best event goodies come to Eververse first, usually even exclusively.

The post Destiny 2: The Dawning 2024 event guide appeared first on Destructoid.

After a steady stream of bugs and missteps, Bungie announced that it would contract additional gameplay specialists for the studio. The role would help playtest Destiny 2, diving deep into the core systems and end game to identify any issues for Bungie.

While the news will undoubtedly sound good to those familiar with the state of Destiny 2, it's avoidable not to note that this seems like a reactionary move from the studio after Episode: Revenant was haunted by bugs and missteps, likely a result of the studio's diminished staff.

While the zombie Scorn army theme behind Episode: Revenant is superb, the content has been rife with issues. Destiny 2 doesn't have a reputation for being squeaky clean, but issues like Weightgate, Tonicgate, and the most recent slew of Dawning issues have left the game in a sour state. Hopefully, the contracted testers can help Bungie regain some player faith or at least catch some of the prevalent issues squeezing through the cracks.

Some end-of-the-year hope

In an end-of-2024 communication, Bungie's Destiny 2 assistant game director, Robbie Stevens, offered a little insight into what was happening behind the scenes at the studio. Noting that the team was hard at work on Codename: Frontiers, Stevens explained that communications detailing the upcoming expansion would stop for the immediate future.

Stevens also noted that Bungie was opening some Gameplay Specialist positions. The job description reads, "Our specialists, sourced from the community, will be in the trenches with the dev team playtesting the new Core Game progression and gameplay systems as well as Codename Apollo's campaign and postgame. These specialists provide us with the kind of perspective you can only get from dedicated players." They appear to be frontline testers, members of the community who are already familiar with Destiny 2 and able to quickly identify things that don't appear right.

Looks like Bungie wants these candidates descending into the nitty-gritty of end game and pinnacle content to ensure the loot chase works as intended. Under "Responsibilities," the role explains prospects will "Track and communicate objective feedback and issues with an eye towards both ritual specific, and game-holistic, improvements," or, in other words, hunt down game-breaking bugs.

While it's a bummer that these additions to Bungie's team won't be permanent, the added employee power may be exactly what the studio has needed since Episode: Revenant launched. Here's hoping the extra help leads to a smoother launch for Frontiers and the franchise moving into the new year.

The post Bungie is hiring more Destiny 2 QA after several buggy disasters appeared first on Destructoid.

Another update, another hiccup in Destiny 2. The Dawning event, the winter holiday event for the game, began on December 10, and while its new dragon-themed armor was getting the initial attention, Bungie accidentally made the event's optional paid event card free for players to claim.

The studio was quick to correct its mistake, but it's just yet another glaring issue added to the steady stream of bugs and missteps that have plagued Episode: Revenant.

During the Dawning, the Tower gets decked out in lights, Eva Levante shows up to help Guardians bake cookies, and snowballs appear in certain activities. While many players will spend their time baking, the cosmetic rewards are the real draw of the holiday. Alongside the new draconic appearance, Bungie also offered its typical paid event card, but it was accidentally made free for those who were quick enough before the studio swooped back in to disable it.

Bah humbugs

While it doesn't reward any gear or upgrade materials, the premium event card for the Dawning does offer exclusive access to certain event-specific cosmetics. When players upgrade to the premium Dawning event card, they'll immediately unlock a holiday-wrapped present-themed sparrow called Gift Wrapped, a blue and purple shader that perfectly compliments the dragon-themed cosmetics, and the Cozy Cat Emote that lets Guardians sit by a fireplace with their pet cat. Additional rewards are available through the premium event card, but those must be unlocked with Event Tickets earned by completing Event Challenges.

Once Bungie realized the premium Dawning event card was bugged to be freely given to early players, the studio quickly removed the entire event card system from Destiny 2. While this was only temporary, and both the free and premium event cards are now available again, there was a period where player participation was not tracked toward appropriate Event Challenge progress. That said, players who lucked out will not lose what they gained. "Players who obtained the Dawning Event Card Upgrade while it was incorrectly listed at no cost will keep it. Bank error in your favor - Happy Dawning," the studio commented.

More coal in your stocking

A wonky event card is one thing, but that's not all that's wrong with 2024's Dawning holiday. Bungie has confirmed several issues, including Dawning weapons not being focusable or rolling with the intended double Perks. Some holiday-related Triumphs are also seemingly broken, and players have both become stuck during the initial Dawning Quests or have been unable to start the event with additional characters after initially commencing the Dawning with a different character.

Episode: Revenant was already messy between Weightgate and the recent Tonic controversy. Now, the Dawning is here and stuffed with bugs and issues, too. It's just further fuel on the fire for Bungie's already precarious predicament, and the Destiny 2 community is reaching its wits' end. Destiny 2 content creator RickKackis said, "The Dawning Event Card is Glitched and ends up being removed[,] Double Perks on Dawning Weapons don't work[,] If you switch characters your quest progress is lost Bungie, just give the damn Event Card to Every Destiny 2 Player. There's not many players left. Treat them well."

Bungie has been communicative since the start of the Dawning, noting and following up on each identified issue as solutions are reached. The studio has shared that the Dawning event card is working back in-game and that weapon focusing should be working as intended. As for the other issues plaguing the event, hopefully, Bungie can right the ship before it saps the holiday spirit and goodwill out of the players sticking around.

The post Destiny 2 accidentally made its premium Dawning holiday event card free appeared first on Destructoid.

Christmas has arrived early in Destiny 2 in the form of the Dawning event, and the Mistral Lift Linear Fusion rifle is certainly one of the best rewards you can get for your grind.

The latest weapon holds high potential to become top tier in its own archetype, and especially so, if the player knows how to compliment it well with a good build and top-tier rolls. It's an Adaptive Burst Void Linear Fusion rifle that shoots in three-burst rounds and offers some amazing perks. But before we get into that, let's take a look at how you can unlock this gun in the first place.

How to get Mistral Lift in Destiny 2

The Mistral Lift is available exclusively during the Dawning event. To get the first copy of the gun, you'll have to complete event card challenges and eliminate targets with any form of Void damage. This includes your weapons and abilities, as long as they do the required type of damage.

Next, you'll have to get Dawning Essence to create gifts for the festive season. When you deliver the gifts, you'll get A gift in Return that can be used at Eva Levante to get specific weapons. Make sure to purchase all the required items to unlock weapon focusing. While this takes care of getting the gun, let's take a look at the best possible builds for it.

Best Mistral Lift Perks and God Rolls in Destiny 2

The Mistral Lift is reportedly becoming a new darling of the community when it comes to PvE. It's a far more limited choice when it comes to PvP. Nevertheless, here are the god rolls of the gun for both game modes.

Mistral Lift PvE God Roll

Fluted Barrel and Enhanced Battery offer a bigger magazine size and greater stability that can combine extremely well with the two perks. Bait and Switch will provide a 30% boost to damage, and Envious Assassin also amplifies the damage. Their trigger factors are also similar, making it easy for you to activate both of them by basically doing the same activity.

When it comes to content like Nightfall raids, Withering Gaze can be a good alternative as well. If you have aimed at an enemy for 1.5 seconds, your shot will weaken the enemy you hit. It's a good choice, but you'll have longer reload times.

Mistral Lift PvP God Roll

In PvP, you'll want to to avoid using Linear Fusion Rifles, as weapons with faster shooting rate will be far more beneficial. Do note that there is no other way to get the Mistral Lift apart from completing events that are currently available on the Dawning event card.

The post How to get the Mistral Lift adaptive void linear fusion rifle in Destiny 2 appeared first on Destructoid.

With the "weightgate" controversy just barely in the rearview mirror, Bungie has confirmed that there is indeed another bug plaguing Destiny 2 players.

This time, it's the Episode: Revenant Tonic system, as the feature does not reward what it's supposed to when gains are expected. Unfortunately, issues like this are growing in prominence, becoming an apparent new normal after Bungie's consolidation and shift in priorities.

The Tonic system in Episode: Revenant allows players to earn reagants through gameplay, which are used to brew concoctions in The Last City. The idea is that these Tonics can be used to increase or target farm certain rewards and buff specific abilities and effects. In practice, however, it hasn't really felt like the system worked. Each Tonic only lasts for a bit, and as if the constant application wasn't annoying enough, it seems the feature isn't even working the way it should be.

Tonics are the latest broken Destiny feature

In a post on X, formerly Twitter, Bungie formally acknowledged an issue with Episode: Revenant Tonics. The studio noted that Tomb of Elders Tonics weren't increasing chances to earn the appropriate weapons. Bungie wasn't ready to announce a fix date, instead telling players it would test and validate potential solutions before providing more information.

While the studio only notes that Tomb of Elders Tonics were affected, the whole system has felt off from the get-go. Just like with the extensive testing done to verify something was wrong with weapon rolls, the Destiny 2 community is at a point where they don't take Bungie's word for granted. Some have even gone to similar lengths as the "weightgate" scandal, testing Tonics over several days to form a dataset.

Tonics are the latest thing players have realized aren't working correctly in Destiny 2, but the issue goes deeper than buffs simply not rewarding as many guns as they should. For the past few years, most, if not all, weapons released during a season were craftable. Players only needed to log on once a week, claim a free pattern from a vendor, and check out after they unlocked the blueprints for whichever weapons they desired. It didn't make for the most engaging structure for a looter shooter, but it was at least consistent.

Bungie tried doing something different by adding more depth to the looting system, which I totally agree with. Still, the process was fumbled so thoroughly that players are begging the studio to return to the one-pattern-a-week crafting alternative. It's a shame, as I imagine the studio won't be so keen to attempt to innovate after a debacle like this.

Bungie's losses are more apparent now than ever

It's hard to discuss bugs and issues within Destiny 2 and not bring up Bungie's layoffs between 2023 and 2024. First, in October of 2023, Bungie laid off an estimated 100 employees and delayed both Destiny 2's The Final Shape expansion and the upcoming title Marathon. Reporting followed that described a "soul-crushing" atmosphere at Bungie, including reckless decision-making, internal scandals, and a scramble to prove itself a good investment for Sony.

With Sony's earlier acquisition of Bungie, a second round of layoffs in July of 2024 meant that incorporating Bungie employees into Sony was possible. Bungie noted 220 employees were laid off in the second round, with another 155 moving directly to Sony. Between the reported layoffs (about eight months apart), the studio lost around 475 employees. And that's, of course, not including those who left as they started to see the writing on the wall.

Previous reporting noted that testing and QA were some of the first roles to go at Bungie and that reality is being felt now more than ever. That's not to say that Destiny 2 was without bugs and annoying glitches in the past, but I don't think I remember things being this bad since Curse of Osiris or maybe the early Shadowkeep days. Veteran Destiny 2 reporter Paul Tassi is even one of the extra unlucky players who can't create Tonics at all on certain characters.

At the very least, Bungie is looking into the issue now. That said, it seems like more and more, the Destiny community is doing the heavy lifting of identifying potential issues in-game. It's appreciated work by dedicated Destiny 2 players, for sure, but it should be Bungie's job to take care of the game, not ours.

The post Bungie has confirmed yet another bug in Destiny 2 appeared first on Destructoid.

Well, I can't believe that I'm saying this, but Destiny: Rising is actually pretty fun. It's not perfect by any means, but it's remarkable how much it feels like I'm playing Destiny on my phone. Now, I gravitate toward Destiny: Rising during idle time and sneaking 10-15 minutes during breaks. It's not in any position to take me away from Destiny 2 proper, but it provides a quick Destiny fix and plays well enough that I'm willing to overlook some of the more annoying aspects of mobile games.

Destiny: Rising presents a respectable slice of Destiny 2's spirit on mobile, even making a few surprising improvements in some areas. That said, there's no getting around the fact that this is a true mobile-made experience, complete with predatory microtransactions and most of the other warts that haunt phone games. NetEase nailed the control and gameplay front, but under that, there's a sea of rare currencies, single-digit percentage reward chances, and even what appears to be several subscriptions, all aimed at getting players to fork over some dough. Even with all that, I'd be lying if I said I wasn't having fun with Destiny: Rising.

Alpha test perks

Before I get into my time with Destiny: Rising, I think it's important to know that the alpha test experience isn't wholly representative of the final product. And that's for better and for worse. There weren't any major barriers preventing progression through the game's narrative or systems, but there were features that were intentionally absent, like microtransactions (which conveniently hide what resources and premium features actually cost).

Inversely, alpha testers also had the opportunity to receive a slew of daily login and overall participation rewards. These were often extra handfuls of resources, ensuring there was never a drought of materials or currency for testers. Additionally, some milestones provided free access to in-game subscriptions that further increased rewards. No doubt these freebies will be absent from the release version of Destiny: Rising, and who knows how much those subscriptions cost and how grindy the game is without them.

The game is legitimately fun

All that said, I've been having a blast with Destiny: Rising. The game even served admirably as my main Destiny outlet during a week-long vacation to Disney World. I wasn't skipping Pirates of the Caribbean to play, but it went a long way in winding lines and while relaxing back at the hotel.

Everything a Destiny player might expect is on show and available in Destiny: Rising, from Strikes to PvP and even Raid-like challenges. Aside from the content you can launch into through a menu, Destiny: Rising doesn't skimp on the other familiar trappings of Destiny games, like open destinations, hub zones, public events, and discoverable secrets. The mobile game also isn't afraid to experiment, like a quest that ends in a high-speed Sparrow chase and an on-rails shooting segment.

There's no shortage of content to pursue in Destiny: Rising, but that only matters if the game is fun to play. Thankfully, I can say that if you enjoy the general gameplay and progression found in Destiny 2, then Destiny's first mobile outing is pretty similar. Players will still build their armory of weapons, manage the mods and power of said weapons, and then use those weapons to shoot aliens, hopefully resulting in the acquisition of a new gun. Destiny: Rising adds the twist of managing and growing a roster of existing Guardians, each with unique abilities and weapon preferences.

Mobile Destiny can feel this solid?

If you play Destiny 2, you'll feel right at home with Destiny: Rising. While there are some notable differences between the two games, like no option to crouch and semi-limited loadouts, Destiny: Rising really works some magic to make gameplay feel natural. That even goes for the touchscreen controls. While I initially spent some time using a Backbone controller on my iPhone to play, I quickly got used to using touch controls when I didn't feel like lugging around another accessory.

The most important parts of gameplay, moving, shooting, and ability use, all feel great, though it's much easier to gracefully combine these actions on a controller. Some niceties are built into the game for touchscreen players, though, like an auto-sprint option that can be toggled on and off easily while exploring larger destinations. Using the touchscreen is totally functional, more so than many other mobile games I've played, but using a controller makes Destiny: Rising play almost identically to Destiny 2, and I find that remarkable.

Sparrow Racing League, anyone?

Impressively, Destiny: Rising features an entire campaign alongside a wide assortment of activities that can be started anywhere via the menu. I have some bones to pick with the campaign, which I'll get to, but those are primarily about performances, presentation, and lore accuracy. The mobile game surprised me with a lengthy campaign offering memorable and fun moments to play through. It's just that the narrative surrounding these moments needed to be stronger.

The diversity of available activities, on the other hand, is strong. Are you one of those Destiny players who miss the days of the Sparrow Racing League? Well, Sparrow Racing is an Event in Destiny: Rising. The same goes for Clan challenges called Pack Ops and a Gwent-like card game called Shadowshaper Duels. There are also several variations of more conventional Destiny gameplay, including multiple Strikes and other varied activities that reward various materials.

My favorite activities thus far have been the variations of Singularity. The enigmatic Nine and Xûr host a series of forays into the roguelite genre. Each activity has multiple difficulty options, and as players progress through an attempt, they can choose from an assortment of randomized buffs after each successful round. The activities typically last for seven to ten rounds, featuring a boss at the end. In addition to completion rewards, players also earn currency to put toward a long-term skill tree for the mode.

The UI looks great on the surface

Learning the systems and discovering what's available in a mobile gacha game can be overwhelming, and Destiny: Rising's UI does some things exceedingly well while others fall short. A small UI window shows players their current objectives, and you can use your Ghost to access a more comprehensive menu system (a lot like Destiny 2). Under the icon for your Ghost, there's another that takes you to an activity hub. This hub works a lot like the way I imagine Bungie wants the upcoming Portal feature to work in Destiny 2, featuring recommended activities on a front tab and offering access to all available activities on various other tabs in the interface.

Between these two icons and the minimap itself, which can be tapped on to reveal a larger map and POIs, there's also an icon on the left side of the minimap that takes players to the Draw menu to pull for characters or gear. I like how the interface looks on the screen; there aren't too many options, and everything looks clean enough that it never feels like the screen is too busy with UI elements. That said, the Ghost icon has way too much stuff crammed into it, and the layout doesn't always make sense. 

For example, there are options in the Ghost menu for activities, Draws, and the map. The icons near the minimap are just shortcuts, but they function better as out-of-the-way, direct ways to access this content. It makes less sense to jump through the Ghost menu, yet the options are still there, crammed with everything else. Events like Sparrow Racing and Shadowshaper Duels make even less sense, as they're in the same place as login rewards and other gifts. This location, again, is accessed through the expanded Ghost menu.

Destiny: Rising's story needs some work

While I can argue that the UI is mostly fine and that only some of its placement doesn't make sense, I can't look past the painfully dull and poorly presented story. While the solid gameplay and a well-put-together opening tutorial mission help overlook some of the awkward writing and delivery, by the time players get a full loadout of weapons and start meeting some supporting characters in the central hub zone, it starts to wear thin. 

Unfortunately, voice acting and the evolving narrative never get much better, and it gets more egregious the more you realize how much of the voiced content was AI-generated. NetEase has stated that the AI voice work is simply a placeholder until the game is finished, and I will note that if that's true, Destiny: Rising may have just as much, if not more, voiced content at launch as Destiny 2 has currently. Of course, as I mentioned before, a lot of that content just isn't that interesting.

Generally, the story is about Wolf, the newest Guardian to awaken, finding his bearing amongst his fellows. Though Wolf is technically the main character, as new characters are introduced (and become earnable through the gacha system), a few quests or a dedicated adventure serve as an introduction and sometimes allow players to try out the new Fireteam member. However, the story mostly revolves around the interactions between the human defenders of Jiangshi Metro and the mixed community of Haven, a settlement with Guardians flocking to its Tree of Light.

This setup could offer some interesting stories, especially considering some of the Jiangshi Metro citizens don't harbor the best feelings towards Guardians. However, things never develop further than characters speaking their emotions and sending you off towards the next firefight.

The lore is a whole other issue

NetEase noted from the start that Destiny: Rising would be set in an alternate universe of the franchise, after the collapse but before the City age. While describing the game as an alternate universe works like a lore get-out-of-jail-free card, there are still some glaring lore and consistency issues within the game.

Probably one of the biggest gripes I have in this corner is the Fallen NPC that hangs around Haven. Even if this is an alternate universe where nothing I know about Destiny matters, the game sets up the Fallen as this arch-rival race of space pirates that are set on looting and pillaging a weakened humanity. If there are Fallen working with humanity in Haven, then the leaders in charge are grossly incompetent and far too trusting. As for the Fallen themselves, from their perspective, humanity is wounded and on the back foot; humanity "took" the Traveler. What do Fallen have to gain by joining their enemy, and is it worth the inevitable risk?

Another thing that bugs me is tying powers of Light to relics instead of a Guardians Ghost. In Destiny games, Guardians typically channel the Light through their Ghosts to manifest abilities. In Destiny: Rising, Ghosts still choose from among the dead to create immortal Guardians, but they seemingly can only channel the Light if they're lucky enough to stumble upon a relic. This, of course, happens to Wolf during the tutorial, but this creates a world where countless Guardians are awoken by a Ghost who didn't find a relic. What does that look like? They're just functionally immortal and that's it? 

At least if there will be Fallen ex-patriots or new rules for Light, explain it, please. The Fallen character in Haven simply notes it's following the "Great Machine," but that's just a thin excuse to justify an existence to ensure players can quickly identify Fallen technology throughout the story. Similarly, if Destiny: Rising is set during an era when the Light was weaker, and abilities had to be channeled through specific powered relics, okay, but tell me about it. This is a game working within an existing franchise; if something is different from that existing, preceding franchise, then please tell me why.

The grind might be rough

As I mentioned earlier, the alpha test had some benefits, including several tracks of login rewards and similar tracks for participating in select activities and events throughout the testing period. While this constant flow of materials ensured pretty much all of my earned characters could fully develop abilities and gear, things certainly won't be the same when the game finally releases.

The grind will likely be real, not only for desired materials but also for specific characters or weapons. In Destiny 2, a much-maligned modifier exists called Match Game. Match Game ensures that elemental shields are vastly empowered against anything that isn't a matching element. In Destiny: Rising, it seems like a version of Match Game is always on. This is exponentially worse if weapons are below level for the foes you're fighting. I found myself in a story mission against enemies with Void shields but only had access to Solar and Arc damage on my Guardian. It took several clips of auto rifle ammo before I broke the shield and could damage the enemy normally.

This annoyance also applies to Destiny: Rising's version of Champions, Shinka. These enemies also have shields and specific effects that are painful to play around without the desired weapon types to counter. For example, a Spread Shinka is best countered by a Guardian wielding a weapon with an explosion radius, like a rocket launcher. As Guardians are limited to the type of gear they can equip, you may not have anyone capable of wielding one, and that Shinka fight will be long and arduous, if not downright impossible.

Progression is also limited by resources, which should be familiar to mobile players. Here, that means Guardians can't unlock their full potential until you've earned multiple copies of the same one. Similarly, weapon level, mods, and a generic character level also contribute to overall power and naturally require resources to advance. That means players might reach a point where they need to be level 50 to participate in an activity needed to progress the story, but they've run out of the materials required to push them from level 40 to 50. In that case, players would either run whatever activity provides the desired resource or break down and get some via a microtransaction.

Better than expected, worried about monetization

Altogether, I still admit that I've been having fun with Destiny: Rising. I'm not blind to the probable inevitability of it blindsiding me with a flood of microtransactions and progression gates when it finally releases. Still, I can't deny that it's been a joy to play. 

I know it's a fool's longing, but I do genuinely hope NetEase leans back on what appears to be a whole lot of hidden microtransactions (or disabled annoyances that will push players toward microtransactions upon final release). Even if they incorporated a system much like the one alpha testers received, where players were substantially rewarded for ongoing participation in the game, that would be huge. Beyond that, I think in-game subscriptions that provide additional loot are a bit too far unless it too was incorporated into some loyalty reward system. 

I'm anxious to see where Destiny: Rising goes from here; it is now entirely on my radar. It will be interesting to see how NetEase responds to alpha testers, as several extensive surveys have been issued in-game, each rewarding a juicy stash of rewards. Monetization and microtransactions were among the first things players were curious about, so no doubt many noticed the same things I did and voiced their opinions also as I did. 

Most recently, NetEase announced a beta test for Destiny: Rising, allowing even more people to experience and trial the game. For me, it's proved itself a competent entry into the franchise; it just has to stick the landing.

The post Destiny: Rising is shaping up better than I expected appeared first on Destructoid.

Revenant Act 2 in Destiny 2 has introduced a fair share of new artifact perks, and some of them can be amazing in terms of the current meta.

There can be no question marks over just how good Grenade Launchers currently feel on the meta. They have always had a strong spot, but the upcoming perks will make some of them a lot more powerful. Interestingly, you'll also get an Exotic launcher from the current pass, and combining them with the new artifact perks is only going to make it and all other launchers even better.

Complete list of new Revenant Act 2 Artifact Perks in Destiny 2

First, let's take a look at all the new perks that are going to be part of the game very soon.

The Alethonym, once unlocked, will be perfect with these perks, but you can also take a look at Ex Diris. Its potential rise in the current meta largely has to do with the perks that will be released as part of Act 2.

Putting aside the weapon changes that have been made to Ex Diris, the upcoming perks become a natural fit for this launcher. For starters, it will Blind enemies, which makes it a great choice for Arc Compounding. While the hits will blind the enemies, they will then get increased damage from Arc sources.

But even if you didn't manage to obtain this launcher from Season of the Witch or can't purchase it from Monument to Lost Lights, the upcoming perks will fit a lot of other weapons as well. You'll be able to access Revenant Act 2 on November 19, 2024.

The post All new Destiny 2 Episode Revenant Act 2 Artifact Perks appeared first on Destructoid.

Episode: Revenant is the Stasis season Destiny 2 players have been waiting for. Now, players can put together their most biting builds and shatter foes with frosty wrath. It's not that Guardians are deciding to start using Stasis just for the fun of it, but Bungie put a focus on the Subclass in Episode: Revenant through the Artifact Mods available and updates to the Exotic armor repertoire.

Players haven't really ever had a season to enjoy Stasis, as the Subclass wasn't super attractive following its launch in the Beyond Light expansion. Bungie has been steadily improving Stasis since then, and the Class and ability updates preceding Episode: Revenant were some of the biggest yet. These came alongside the aforementioned Artifact Mods and Exotic changes to position Stasis in the best place it's ever been.

Episode: Revenant Artifact

Episode: Revenant has an Artifact with great options to support a Stasis build. While each build and Class may focus on different things, the Stasis-focused Artifact Perks are general enough to work well with most Stasis builds. As such, players should enable One With Frost, Wind Chill, Crystalline Converter, Armor of Eramis, Hail the Storm, Brain Freeze, and Served Cold. Of note, Served Cold allows Stasis Shards to provide Class ability energy on top of melee energy, and Wind Chill grants Frost Armor with rapid Stasis weapon precision hits.

Warlock

It is time to put away those Osmiomancy Gloves. In Episode: Revenant, Warlocks can grant themselves and any nearby allies full stacks of Frost Armor whenever they cast their Healing Rift. The Rift will create a Stasis Freezing blast, generate Super energy for each ally buffed, and regen Class ability energy if used close to enemies. All that extra Super energy will allow Guardians to use Winter's Wrath frequently, which will, in turn, provide more Frost Armor, buff Shatter damage on foes, and increase Stasis weapon damage.

Subclass

Before jumping into the gear, Warlocks will want to make sure they have their Stasis Subclass set up in a way that makes the most of the entire build. While the melee ability is static, and the grenade choice can vary based on other loadout choices, a Healing Rift will provide an accessible health source and play into additional features once we add the Frostpulse Aspect. Frostpulse creates a Stasis shockwave that Freezes enemies after casting a Rift. Iceflare Bolts is the other Aspect of choice, spawning homing and Freezing projectiles after Shattering a Frozen target.

For Fragments, Warlocks will want to stick with Whisper of Rime, Whisper of Chains, and Whisper of Refraction. The trio offers increased Frost Armor effectiveness, Stasis Shard generation while Frost Armor is active, and Class ability energy on defeated Frozen/Slowed enemies. The other Fragment is a little more fluid depending on playstyle, with Whisper of Fissures being a fun choice for AOE mayhem or Whisper of Chill for even more Stasis Shards.

Gear

The build comes to life with the Exotic gauntlets Ballidorse Wrathweavers. It now provides Frost Armor to Guardians in range of the Winter's Wrath Super shockwave. Frost Armor is also granted via a Frostpulse Rift, which rewards max stacks to any allies in range. As if that wasn't nice enough, Super energy is rewarded whenever Warlocks provide Frost Armor to allies.

All of those features function well together, but Ballidorse Wrathweavers also provide increased Stasis weapon damage to anyone buffed by it and increased Shatter damage for anyone doing enough damage to enemies Frozen by the Warlock's Winter's Wrath Super.

Weapons aren't as crucial to the build as a proper mod and subclass setup. Still, an Exotic Stasis primary weapon like Wicked Implement will take advantage of the Stasis weapon damage buff and reward extra Super energy.

Stats and armor mods

Outside of the Ballidorse Wrathweavers, players will want to ensure the mods equipped on their armor support Class ability regen as much as possible without skimping on Resilience or Discipline. With that in mind, Guardians want 100 Resilience and then as much Recovery as possible. From there, any extra stats can go into Discipline for grenades.

• Head: Harmonic Siphon and Dynamo
• Arms: Momentum Transfer and Bolstering Detonation
• Chest: Damage resistance
• Legs: Recuperation, Absolution, and Insulation
• Class item: Reaper and Distribution

Titan

Titans finally have some Stasis skills to show off, following massive changes to both standard Class features and the Stasis Subclass specifically. Now, Titans can become the focus of the whole room, capturing enemy attention before Shattering them like an unstoppable bowling ball, knocking down pins of Stasis Crystals. Titans will be nigh unkillable with constant Frost Armor and lots of devastation at close quarters.

Subclass

Guardians will want Rally Barricade, Shiver Strike, and Duskfield Grenade for the Stasis Subclass. Shiver Strike is the only melee option, but it's been reworked to be reasonably solid. Rally Barricade offers the fastest Class ability cooldown, and Duskfield Grenade can Slow enemies on a whim, both of which can help the overall build function.

For Aspects, Diamond Lance is a no-brainer, offering ranged Freeze and Frost Armor with a slam. The other Aspect to take is Tectonic Harvest for easy Stasis Shard generation, which will grant Frost Armor, melee energy, and heal Titans when collected.

With the two Aspects chosen, Titans will get five Fragments to play with. Whisper of Rime, Whisper of Reversal, Whisper of Refraction, Whisper of Durance, and Whisper of Fissures all work together well. The Fragment combination puts an enhanced slow effect on enemies whenever they deal or receive melee damage and defeated slowed enemies grant Class ability energy. Frost Armor is also improved alongside Shatter damage, as Titans will make lots of Stasis Crystals.

Gear

For gear, players can choose between two playstyles. The safer option in high-end PvE content is the Icefall Mantle Exotic. Icefall Mantle grants Frost Armor from rapid Stasis kills and heals the Titan with each stack or refresh of Frost Armor.

The Exotic also replaces Rally Barricade with a unique Class ability that creates an AOE Freeze effect and grants the user full stacks of Frost Armor. Alternatively, players can take the Cadmus Ridge Lancecap for a spin to wholly lean into Diamond Lances. The Exotic lets Diamond Lances create Stasis Crystals, and rapid precision damage or precision kills spawn Diamond Lances. 

Titans can get a lot of use out of the reworked Salvation's Grip Exotic grenade launcher. It can charge a shot to create several Stasis Crystals, and regular fire deals increased damage to Frozen enemies and Stasis Crystals. The weapon can also reload itself by destroying multiple Stasis Crystals. Otherwise, players will want a primary Stasis weapon with the Headstone Perk to ensure Stasis Crystals are plentiful.

Stats and armor mods

Titans using this setup will get a little extra stat boost from the selected Fragments, but stat priorities should still seem familiar. 100 Resilience is the priority, followed by Strength and then Discipline.

• Head: Harmonic Siphon and Heavy Ammo Finder
• Arms: Impact Induction and Focusing Strike X2
• Chest: Damage resistance
• Legs: Stasis Weapon Surge, Absolution, and Recuperation
• Class item: Reaper and Distribution

Hunter

While Hunters benefit from the more significant Stasis changes abound, they'll likely want to fall back on an old favorite build centering around the Duskfield grenade. Hunters will litter the battlefield with Duskfield grenades, providing Frost Armor to allies within its enhanced range and debuffing enemies caught within. Stasis Shards and Orbs of Power will also track to Hunters, decreasing all ability cooldowns.

Subclass

Players will want Gambler's Dodge, Withering Blade, and Duskfield grenade for the Stasis Subclass setup. Gambler's Dodge can be used to refund a Withering Blade whenever needed, and the melee ability provides another source of Slow. Duskfield grenade has greater importance to the build, working with the Touch of Winter Aspect and the Exotic armor piece of choice to greatly improve its effects. The other Aspect for this build is Grim Harvest, creating Stasis Shards whenever Slowed or Frozen enemies are defeated.

For Fragments, players will want Whisper of Rime and Whisper of Chains to make the most of Frost Armor whenever it's available. Whisper of Durance makes Slow effects and Duskfield grenade last longer, creating more Stasis Shards, which will be automatically collected thanks to Whisper of Conduction. Finally, Whisper of Shards allows Hunters to shatter the Stasis Crystal formed after using a Duskfield grenade to boost grenade recharge rate.

Gear

If it isn't clear by now, Hunters will use the Renewal Grasps Exotic for this build. The gauntlets increase the size of the Duskfield grenade's effect and reduce damage from enemies inside. The Duskfield effect also grants Frost Armor to the Hunter and allies within its radius.

As for weapons, Hunters will ideally want something that can create Stasis Crystals, so they are not wholly dependent on the small Crystal created from Duskfield grenades. Verglas Curve can work well for this purpose, and the extra Super energy from kills is lovely, too. That said, it may feel less effective in more challenging content. In that event, Wicked Implement is a less flashy but reliable alternative.

Stats and armor mods

Like all Classes, Hunters will want to reach 100 Resilience first. From there, the focus should shift to Discipline and then to Mobility. Thankfully, some of the Fragments provide some stat boosts, so players will have a little help reaching their goals.

• Head: Harmonic Siphon, Dynamo, and Heavy Ammo Finder
• Arms: Bolstering Detonation X2 and Momentum Transfer
• Chest: Damage resistance
• Legs: Invigoration, Absolution, and Recuperation
• Class item: Reaper and Bomber X2

The post Destiny 2: Best Stasis builds to chill out Episode: Revenant appeared first on Destructoid.