Author: Jamie Moorcroft-Sharp

Destiny Age of Triumph Revealed

For a while there have been rumours around an April update happening in Destiny. While Bungie hadn’t announced anything, it would make sense for them to update the game in April this year like they did last year, and arguable last year’s update made players happier than The Taken King expansion did.

Well this week Destiny: Age of Triumph was revealed, and it’s having a similar effect on the community as last year’s April update did. The most important thing to know is that Age of Triumph brings with it a new Record Book to complete, and releases on March 28th.

Unfortunately there isn’t a Light level cap increase with this update, though at this point I think everyone is ready for a new game rather than more increased levels. In addition all Raids are being brought up to the higher Light Level difficulty of 390, something Guardians have been asking for since Rise of Iron released. Interestingly the weekly Raid will now have new challenges assigned to them, the completion requirements for which will be necessary for Guardians to work out we think, since that’s how the Destiny community works best. Completing these challenges will unlock new ornaments, so everyone will know you’re the ultimate raider! While the new raids will be available at the higher Light level outside of the weekly challenge, this will only be three weeks after age of Triumph launches. Week 1: Crota’s End, Week 2: Vault of Glass, Week 3: King’s Fall.

Bungie also announced that older Raids will now be rewarding players with new items, that’s new armour and weapons at the current Light level. Any raids that didn’t have Sparrow and Ghost rewards will have them now, and they’re the best. Bungie is patching many fixes to exploits in older raids like Crota’s End and Vault of Glass, making them harder in general to complete without the increased Light level.

Elemental primary weapons are returning, not least the Vex Mythoclast, and at 400 Light as well!

If you love using Three of Coins from our great friend Xur then you’re in luck! These items will now work on Raid bosses, rejoice!

The legends could be true about that seventh chest in the Vault of Glass as well. While it isn’t confirmed, it was highly hinted at, and no one has ever found it before. Will you be the first?

Age of Triumph Record Book

Not every page of the record book was shown, but we do know quite a lot about what’s in there. There are thirteen pages to compete in the record book, and given that Destiny will remain online for the foreseeable future you should have plenty of time to complete every one of them.

Some pages are raid specific, and will no doubt be focused around accomplishing everything in each raid, as well as the new challenges, which are mostly going to be guesswork in the early days.

There are class-specific pages in the book as well, and they aren’t as easy as you think. Needless to say completing every Quest in the game and reaching level 40 with each class is essential for completion of the Record Book, but there’s even more to do than just this.

When it comes to the Crucible you’ll need to be a seasoned veteran and have picked up all the ghosts, which of course you haven’t, and the Iron Banner probably be getting a look in with this last completionist list so you have that to look forward to.

Finally, the book is basically a completion list of everything there is to do in Destiny. If you want to finish it you’ll have to get every Dead Ghost, you’ll need to reach a reasonable rank (25) with all Factions, you’ll have to help people who shouldn’t be helped (Eris), and most importantly, you’ll have to be the best damn Guardian the Tower has ever seen. Oh and if you thought you’d get away without collecting every Grimoire card then you’re dead wrong.

Image Source: Gameinformer

Destiny Xur Inventory: Should You Buy The 4th Horseman?

It just so happens that Xur is selling the 4th Horseman this week, but is it a viable weapon to purchase at this point for all you Destiny needs?

The 4th Horseman is a shotgun with arc damage, meaning it’s very similar to Invective, though it can’t regenerate ammo over time. It has three perks that make it particularly interesting, the first of which is Thunderer and allows the weapon to be fired in full auto. As you can imagine, for a shotgun this is pretty devastating to both your aim and you enemies. On the one hand you’re almost guaranteed to get a kill by holding down the trigger, but the recoil will be so bad that you’ll be staring at the ceiling by the end of it, leaving you open to pot shots from hidden enemies.

A second perk works in conjunction with Thunderer to help alleviate the stress of wanting to release your entire clip in one go, Final Round. This perk makes the last round in the clip deal additional damage, meaning that if the first three shots didn’t kill your enemy, this last one will. When using the shotgun it never feels great to fire in full auto, except in a pinch, so the rest of the time you need to be running around with the last shot in the barrel ready to go. This shot should kill an enemy, though in PVP it might be a bit trickier, and it won’t blast so hard that you’re staring at the ceiling like you’ve just woken up from a hard night out.

The final perk that works in this weapon’s trio to make it one of the more interesting exotics is Return to Sender, meaning each kill you make has a chance to return ammo to the magazine. Again this is an incentive to not fire the shotgun in full auto, and reserve that use for dire situations. The key to using this perk is to ensure you’re always on one bullet, run around the arena, make a kill, and hope that this perk kicks in and gives you another round to continue running around with. The additional damage will still apply to this cheekily-gained final round, and you’ll be an almost unstoppable killing machine.

Obviously all three of three of these perks are brilliant for PVP, and the shotgun is pretty much made for use in the Crucible. However, in PVE you will find that being able to deal a huge amount of damage at once with that full auto perk is wonderful in the right situations. The real key to using The 4th Horseman in PVE is to keep it in reserve with that one round in the chamber. Special ammo is plentiful enough here that you don’t need to grieve the loss of every missed shot. Keeping the weapon in your special slot with that one round that could kill a sun is going to save you when an Ultra tries to rip your face off after your Primary fire has left it with a quarter of its health. We recommend The 4th Horseman to anyone who ventures into PVP, but even if you’re sole interest is PVE it’s got some charms that could make it invaluable to your loadout.

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Character Bio – Commander Zavala

Commander Zavala is the Vanguard for the Titan class, an Awoken who lives in the Tower and is stationed alongside the other Vanguard representatives. He sells Titan armour and emblems, and was named as one of the characters in the leaked MegaBloks sets for Destiny 2.

Zavala used to be a student of Lord Saladin, and fought in the Battle of Twilight Gap. He’s even been a serious competitor in the Crucible, and as such was approached by the various factions of the Tower for support, none more so than New Monarchy representative Executor Hideo, who offered to make him King of the City if he joined them. He refused.

He also Refused Dead Orbit representative Arach Jalaal when he pleased for support from Zavala, though this probably would have reignited the Faction Wars. Zavala did vouch for the Future War Cult and their inclusion to the Consensus, an alliance of the City’s factions, because of their focus on combat which he sees as useful to the City.

Commander Zavala’s role in the Vanguard is overall defence of the City, and developing strategies against enemy forces, both from The Darkness and any who threaten the City. He is the one responsible for the preemptive Strike mission against the House of Devils and killing Sepiks Prime. He also tasks Guardians with recapturing Freehold by destroying the Cabal chain of command.

While Zavala may not appear to be scary, he’s got a lot of history that many may not credit. The Battle of Twilight Gap was a battle against The Fallen, as all houses came together to try to take The Traveller from Earth. Together Zavala and Lord Shaxx led the counterattack and successfully defended the Traveller from its enemies, though many enemies lost their lives. It was at this battle that the Thunderlord Machine Gun gained its reputation, and the Gjallarhorn was forged from the armour of the dead Guardians who fought in it. Lord Shaxx began the Crucible as a way to ensure that future Guardians are always ready for a fight, even the biggest fight of their lives. The Crucible continues today because Guardians always need to be ready for  a new threat to rear its head, and Zavala is a large part of why it exists.

Image Source: DestinyWiki

Xur Location and Inventory for March 3rd and 4th

Who is Xur?

Xur Agent Of The Nine, works for the mysterious group, The Nine. While Guardians have never seen The Nine, it is said that their influence is vast. Xur, the moss-tentacle-faced vendor visits social spaces once a week, bringing with him a variety of exotic items, which Guardians can purchase with Strange Coins.

Xur’s Location

This week Xur is back in the Tower, hanging out with the Speaker. Head left from spawn, down the stairs and head towards the Speaker’s Chamber. Before you get there, don’t go in there, keep going past as far as you can go to the right of the entrance, and you’ll see Xur uncharacteristically enjoying the sunshine.

Xur’s Inventory

Exotic Weapon: The 4th Horseman (Exotic Shotgun) 23 Strange Coins

This weapon has some brilliant perks that make it exotic, but whether they make it worth your time and Strange Coins is another thing entirely. The first perk, Return To Sender, has a chance to return ammo to the magazine when you make a kill. Given that this gun has a very small clip this is a great perk. Secondly, Thunderer, this weapon can be fired in full auto, and finally, Final Round grands the final round in the magazine additional damage. All of these combine to a tactic of fire every bullet at once and you’re almost guaranteed a kill.

Exotic Helmet: An Insurmountable Skullfort (Titan class) 13 Strange Coins

This helmet has a great exotic perk that grants full melee regeneration, and a second melee charge. In addition, get a kill with Storm Fist and it’ll immediately trigger health regeneration, perfect for last ditch melee kills. A second perk, Invigoration, grants additional melee energy on Orb pickups, which further pushes this helmet towards a melee build.

Exotic Helmet: ATS/8 Tarantella (Hunter Class) 13 Strange Coins

This helmet is built for Bladedancers, so skip by if you don’t want anything to do with them. If you do, there’s a perk on this helmet called The Tarantella, which means your Hunter takes reduces Arc damage from minions of the Darkness, and Arc Grenades and Arc Blade recharge faster. On top of making you look like a badass spider thing, this will really help if you need to be using your Arc abilities over anything else, and certain bosses will deal much less damage.

Exotic Chest Armour: Voidfang Vestments (Warlock Class) 13 Strange Coins

This chest armour is also quite ability focused, with a perk called Hungering Void that lets you spawn with full Grenade energy and your Axion Bolt will spawn an additional seeker.

Legacy Engram: (Exotic Body Armour) 29 Strange Coins – The Legacy Engram will decode for a Year 1 or 2 piece of armour to complete your collection. Some of these items can be infused to Year 3 Light Level.

Three Of Coins (Consumable) 7 Strange Coins

Plasma Drive (Consumable) 23 Strange Coins

Emerald Coil (Consumable) 23 Strange Coins

Heavy Ammo Sythesis Consumable) 3 Strange Coins

Glass Needles (Consumable) 3 Strange Coins, 3 Motes Of Light, and 1 Exotic Shard

Our Take

The 4th Horseman is a very powerful Shotgun, and it’s worth having for both PVE and PVP. With that said there are also a number of pieces of armour that are worth having to help with your character builds if you don’t already own them. At this point you may already have the weapon, so the armour is probably what you need, we say go for the piece that suits your best character and get into that Iron Banner!

Iron Banner Tips: February 28th to March 3rd

The Iron Banner is an event usually held on a monthly basis, in which Guardians can compete for unique event gear, weapons, and glory. The Iron Banner changes each time, using a different game mode from all Crucible match types, and enables levels to make a difference. That means that all your gear and weapon Light levels, coupled with your Guardian level, all affect the damage you deal and take in every match. The event lasts until the next weekly reset, which is March 3rd this week.

There are four weekly bounties which you should pick up as early as possible to ensure you complete them for reputation gain. Each rank allows you to buy better gear and weapons from Lady Efrideet. This week you can purchase class specific Leg Armour at Rank 3, a Helmet or The Laughing Heart Sniper Rifle at Rank 4, and The Lingering Song, a Hand Cannon, at Rank 5.

This week the Iron Banner game mode is Supremacy, which requires you to pick up the Crest a Guardian drops when you kill them. Each Crest is worth two points, but you also need to gather the Crest your teammates drop in order to prevent the enemy team from scoring, if you can.

Our Advice

Even if you have better gear and weapons than what is being sold, the Iron Banner is an essential event to ensure you have the best gear. The loot drops at the end of each match will be relevant, and usually above, your Light level, meaning you can easily move up if you compete in a few matches. The Iron Banner Bounties also grant loot at or above your Light level in addition to reputation.

This week it is certainly worth getting to Rank 5 for The Lingering Song, arguably the best Hand Cannon currently in the game. This weapon is superior to all others of its type, and many have even been swayed from their precious Hawkmoon in favour of it.

Our final piece of advice is to those who aim to collect the rarest loot, the best rolls in weapons, the items other Guardians weep over. Rewards from timed events such as The Dawning, and Crimson Days can be dropped from Iron Banner matches, and if you don’t have them then trust us, you need them. Items such as the Crimson Shell, and Sugary Shell are admired by all, and you’d do well to own them.

Image Source: PlanetDestiny

Xur Location and Inventory for February 25th and 26th

Who is Xur?

Xur Agent Of The Nine, works for the mysterious group, The Nine. While Guardians have never seen The Nine, it is said that their influence is vast. Xur, the moss-tentacle-faced vendor visits social spaces once a week, bringing with him a variety of exotic items, which Guardians can purchase with Strange Coins.

Xur’s Location

This week Xur has moved into the Tower, and hidden himself away a little next to the Crucible Quartermaster. Head straight forward from spawn and then go down the stairs. Once you’ve passed Eris and her scary old cauldron then go for the Crucible Quartermaster on the left, Xur is the creepy guy staring at you from behind him in the shadows.

Xur’s Inventory

Exotic Weapon: Hawkmoon (Exotic Hand Cannon) 23 Strange Coins

Well, well, the Hawkmoon is back once again from Xur. We’ve already covered whether you should buy this weapon from him, but just to refresh your memory, the perks for this gun give three random bullets additional damage. With a smaller magazine that means that you’re going to be blasting off very powerful shots quite often.

Exotic Chest Armour: Twilight Garrison (Titan class) 13 Strange Coins

This armour has an exotic perk that allows you to dodge while airborne, quite important for a number of reasons. Firstly, if you’re using a weapon that has a perk increasing it’s damage while airborne, this will allow you to deal more damage. Likewise, when there’s a modifier increasing damage while airborne then this armour is vital.

Exotic Helmet: Celestial Nighthawk (Hunter Class) 13 Strange Coins

This helmet is a bit great. If you’re running with Gunslinger class then it’s really quite powerful, providing you’re willing to sacrifice three Golden Gun shots for one. The advantage is that you get six times the damage from that one Golden Gun shot, making short work of bosses and turning you into an important part of your fireteam.

Exotic Gauntlets: Claws of Ahamkara (Warlock Class) 13 Strange Coins

These gauntlets are applicable to all Warlock classes, granting an additional melee charge. This is very helpful for all kinds of PVE, and particularly PVP when you’re running around shooting a lot and need that final punch to finish off your enemies.

Legacy Engram: (Exotic Body Armour) 29 Strange Coins – The Legacy Engram will decode for a Year 1 or 2 piece of armour to complete your collection. Some of these items can be infused to Year 3 Light Level.

Three Of Coins (Consumable) 7 Strange Coins

Plasma Drive (Consumable) 23 Strange Coins

Emerald Coil (Consumable) 23 Strange Coins

Heavy Ammo Sythesis Consumable) 3 Strange Coins

Glass Needles (Consumable) 3 Strange Coins, 3 Motes Of Light, and 1 Exotic Shard

Our Take

If you’ve already bought Hawkmoon then you’re good, but if not then go and buy it! The Celestial Nighthawk is one of the best Hunter helmets, so it’s also worth buying if you’re running a Hunter these days. The rest of the armour is good but it’s down to what class you’re using mainly at the moment that will make the decision on what you buy.

Character Bio – The Guardian

Every Destiny player knows that their character is The Guardian, one of many who have been revived by a Ghost. Ghosts were the last, dying effort of the Traveller to protect Earth and The Last City, so we can therefore assume that the Guardians are that protection. Imbued with the Traveller’s Light, Guardians summon amazing abilities to fight back against the Darkness.

Why is each Guardian chosen?

We don’t know anything about the thought process behind reviving a Guardian from whatever stage of decomposition they might have been in when their Ghost found them, but what must be important is character. Each Guardian must be strong willed and be able to accept the gift of Light from the Traveller, which isn’t everyone.

The Guardians are responsible for helping push back against the Darkness, which means fighting oppressive foes such as Crota and Oryx, and exploring the darkest dungeons like the Vault of Glass in order to prevent enemies such as the Vex from bringing back world-ending gods.

Guardian Races

The first race that the Guardians can be is humans. Humanity have always remained on Earth, fleeing into the woods and other rural areas when the Fallen invaded. While humans may have once ruled Earth, it’s safe to say that now they’re only claiming it back thanks to the help of others who have been touched by the Light.

The Exo may look like machines that once served humans in the Golden Age, when the Traveller’s Light brought untold advances in technology and space travel, but they’re so much more. Over time the AI in each Exo degrades, and bugs form in their programming. It’s these bugs, formed by the experiences each Exo has been through, that have created personalities over time. These personalities are what determine whether a Ghost will choose a certain Exo or not.

Finally we have the Awoken, a beautiful and mysterious race. During The Collapse, when the Darkness descended on Human space, many humans tried to flee out of the area. While many perished, some survived and made it to the edge of Human-controlled space, which is where something happened to them. Now these ashen-faced descendants of humans mainly live out in the Reef. Ghosts no doubt choose Awoken as Guardians because they possess the same traits as humans, though with little something else added in there.

Image Source: DestinyWIKI

Destiny Xur’s Inventory: Should You Buy Hard Light?

This week Xur is selling, among other things, Hard Light. This Exotic Auto Rifle is one of the most interesting in Destiny, with a unique perk that makes it incredibly useful to those who like to hold the trigger down until the bullets are gone. Volatile Light, the exotic perk, means that rounds fired from this gun have no damage falloff, overpenetrate targets, and ricochet off hard surfaces.

If your rounds have no damage falloff, then they will do as much damage to your target when they hit them from a hundred metres away, as they they would if they hit them from three feet away. This alone is deadly, as damage falloff is a big part of how enemies get away from your shots in both PVE and PVP. I would say thanks to this the weapon performs better in PVP because there is less change for enemies to avoid serious damage from you shooting at them from a distance.

Overpenetrating bullets will pass through enemies and hit others behind them. In PVP this won’t come in handy too often, but you know how important this could be in PVE. This part of the perk will make Hard Light perform well in strikes and Raids. You’d be surprised how useful this is when facing hordes of smaller enemies, even just when you’re out patrolling.

Finally we come to what makes this weapon so interesting, the bullets that ricochet off of surfaces. If you fire the gun at a surface then you’ll see the bullets bounce off at an angle, it’s that simple. You may not notice this at first, but you will see some bullets bouncing around as you kill foes in PVE, but taking the gun into PVP is where you’ll make the most of it. Hard Light lets you effectively shoot enemies from around corners, so if you master the angles that the bullets bounce off at, you could kill an enemy as they hide from you.

I have found Hard Light to be a really useful Exotic weapon, though not as good as some of the others out there. Really it depends on what activities you participate in the most, but I will put it out there that this gun is more well-suited to PVP than it is PVE. Taking the gun into a raid might make you the enemy of your fireteam however, because it’s not as good as some of the other exotics out there. If you enjoy using the gun, then go for it, it will do a lot of damage and it will help you reach those achievements that you haven’t met just yet.

Image Source: PlanetDestiny

Xur Location and Inventory for February 17th and 18th

Who is Xur?

Xur Agent Of The Nine, works for the mysterious group, The Nine. While Guardians have never seen The Nine, it is said that their influence is vast. Xur, the moss-tentacle-faced vendor visits social spaces once a week, bringing with him a variety of exotic items, which Guardians can purchase with Strange Coins.

Xur’s Location

If you want to find Xur for some exotic goodness this week then head to the Reef, the only social space that isn’t on Earth. From Spawn you need to head right and down the stairs all the way, then turn right again. In front of you should be a small entrance on the left, go in there and you’ll find Xur skulking around at the back, no doubt surrounded by loads of other Guardians eager to get their hands on his wares.

Xur’s Inventory

Exotic Weapon: Hard Light (Exotic Auto Rifle) 23 Strange Coins

Hard Light’s exotic perk, Volatile Light, make its bullets super powerful, never losing damage over distance, over penetrating targets, and bouncing off of surfaces. This perk alone makes this weapon fantastic for shooting around corners and generally annoying Guardians in the Crucible. The other perks build on this one to make it far better to spray as many bullets as you can, with reduced recoil and increased damage from the second half of every magazine.

Exotic Helmet: Eternal Warrior (Titan class) 13 Strange Coins

This helmet is pretty great, giving you the Unstoppable ability for your First of Havoc, as well as one of four random perks that boost you in different ways. This week the roll is Intelligence: 42, quite bad considering the max is 104, and Strength: 43, which is about midway between the min and max for this helmet. Honestly I would avoid buying the helmet this week if you’re trying to create a specific build, but for collectors this is a must have.

Exotic Chest Armour: Lucky Rasberry (Hunter Class) 13 Strange Coins

The exotic perk for Luck Raspberry lets you spawn with full grenade energy, and makes your Arc Grenade Chains reach further. This week the roll is 103 Discipline, which is okay considering the max is 138, so it might be worth buying if you’re building a Discipline character. I will say that Bladedancer is a very powerful Subclass, and if you’re using it without this then you’re doing it wrong.

Exotic Chest Armour: Purifier Robes (Warlock Class) 13 Strange Coins

Purifier Robes are pretty great for a Solar Warlock build. The perk Burn Brighter means you disorient any enemies nearby when you use Radiance, and Solar Armour gives you additional armour when using a Solar-based subclass. The roll this week is Intelligence: 55, just above the minimum of 51 and nowhere near the max of 138, and Discipline: 57, again much closer to the minimum of 51 and nowhere near the maximum of 86. This week it’s a bad roll I’,m afraid, but if the perks sound good for the Guardian you’re playing the most then I would go for it. 

Legacy Engram: (Exotic Body Armour) 29 Strange Coins – The Legacy Engram will decode for a Year 1 or 2 piece of armour to complete your collection. Some of these items can be infused to Year 3 Light Level.

Three Of Coins (Consumable) 7 Strange Coins

Plasma Drive (Consumable) 23 Strange Coins

Emerald Coil (Consumable) 23 Strange Coins

Heavy Ammo Sythesis Consumable) 3 Strange Coins

Glass Needles (Consumable) 3 Strange Coins, 3 Motes Of Light, and 1 Exotic Shard

Our Take

This week we’re not getting the best stuff from Xur, it has to be said. Hard Light is a really great weapon, and if you’ve never had it I would thoroughly recommend picking it up just to see those bullets bounce around everywhere. The armour he’s offering is pretty bad in terms of rolls, but Purifier Robes are definitely going to be useful if you’re running with a Solar subclass on your Warlock. Sadly this isn’t the best week for Xur, but there’s always next week if you don’t get what you want this week.

Destiny 2 On Track For 2017 Release

An Activision Investor Slideshow has confirmed that Destiny 2 is on track to be released this year. During a Q&A session it was then also confirmed that the game will be released in Fall, or Autumn.

The original Destiny released in September, so a September release date for Destiny 2 would seem fitting if that’s what Activision is going for. This release slot is after the summer lull, when people are desperate for new games after E3 a few months before, and before the Holiday rush of releases that compete for Christmas present space.

The investor slideshow also spoke of on-going content development plans, which mean that expansions will be coming thick and fast for Destiny 2. Thanks to the new engine the game is being built in, making it easier for Bungie to develop new content, we can expect more live events from the team in addition to full content expansion such as The Taken King.

Many are sceptical about the release schedule for this year however, because of the nature of publisher and developer relationships. A report was released by Kotaku saying that Activision would gain control of a percentage of Bungie stock if Destiny 2 did not hit the 2017 release window. Activision has since come forward and denied the report, saying that no partner stands to gain Bungie stock in the event of a missed release date.

Activision has around three large studios helping Bungie work on Destiny 2, also according to Kotaku. The game is coming to five consoles, Playstation 4, Xbox One, Scorpio, Playstation 4 Pro, and PC, meaning there’s a lot of work that has to go into developing it. To make Destiny 2 work across all these platforms, and work with each other for PVP, Strikes, Raids, and milling around in the social areas, the game needs to be compatible across each platform. Currently Destiny doesn’t allow players to compete across Playstation and Xbox consoles, hopefully that will change with Destiny 2 and allow all players to both see each other and compete with each other. This kind of compatibility is what will push Destiny 2 from the level the original game is at now, to beyond the level of games such as Overwatch.

Image Source: Reddit