Finishing Moves Are The Perfect Blend Of Cosmetics And Armour

Coming to Destiny 2 with Shadowkeep is Armour 2.0, a complete rework of the armour system in the game. However, in addition to this new way of working with armour are Finishing Moves, which we believe are going to be the perfect blend of cosmetics and armour. We also need to point out that Destiny 2 has needed something like Finishing Moves for a while, so it’s a relief to be seeing them included in the game from here on out.

What Are Finishing Moves?

Finishing Moves are like Glory Kills in DOOM. They’re triggered when an enemy gets below a certain health threshold without dying, and a visual indication of this will be displayed to Guardians that shows they can perform a Finishing Move.

Just like Glory Kills in DOOM, Finishing Moves aren’t purely cosmetic. They can be customised with Mods on other pieces of Armour that will specifically enhance them in different ways. One example Luke Smith has given of this is generating ammo for your team mates. I imagine that you could also get Mods that increase the number of Orbs of Light you produce from a Finishing Move, as well as what type of ammo you generate, such as Special or Power ammo.

However, the caveat to these Finishing Moves is that they have a cost. The cost is Super energy, so if you’re used to building up your Super and spamming it in hordes of enemies, you might need to change your play style. The amount of Super energy that Finishing Moves use is still in flux, and probably will be even after Shadowkeep has launches, because Bungie are going to keep tweaking it until a happy medium is reached between them and us Guardians.

Equipping Finishing Moves

Finishing Moves have their own slot in which they’re equipped. As I already mentioned, they can be modded with Mods attached to other pieces of Armour, but there will definitely be a trade off between enhancing your Armour, or enhancing your Finishing Move. Finishing Move animations can be switched in and out, but the overall strength of that Finishing Move, and the effect it has, is determined by Mods on other gear.

When Shadowkeep launches it will be possible to equip just one Finishing Move, but Bungie is working on the ability to equip multiples. I think the idea here is to allow Guardians to initiate Finishing Moves from different angles, which will activate a different animation, and potentially activate different Mods associated with that animation as well. This is extremely similar to DOOM’s Glory Kills and Chainsaw Kills, with one granting health, and the other ammo. Of course in Destiny 2 there will be a lot more finite details behind what each Finishing Move does.

How Will Finishing Moves Affect Gameplay?

Day to day there might not be a huge impact on the way you play Destiny 2 with Finishing Moves. Yes, they will be a fun new addition and item to collect, but they aren’t exactly going to change your life at all times.

However, in Nightfall Strikes, Raids, and just against tough enemies, Finishing Moves could change Destiny 2 dramatically. If a Finishing Move is going to award Power ammo for example, you need to coordinate with the other Guardians on your Fireteam to activate it at a certain point during a Raid Boss fight. Another Mod for a Finishing Move could trigger health regeneration for all Guardians, and saving this until one Guardians is getting low could save their life, and the need to respawn them in a tough situation.

Our Take

We’ve already said that Finishing Moves are the perfect blend of cosmetic items and Armour. They sound as if they’ve got the deep RPG element of needing to min/max them to work just as you want, and you can alter them to look as awesome or stupid as you want. While they are subject to a bit of chance before Shadowkeep launches on the 17th of September, the general idea sounds great. We can’t wait to take them for a test run.

Let us know your thoughts on finishing moves in the comments.

Image Source: WCCFTech