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Destiny 2 Honours Destiny Players With Emblems

Bungie is staying quiet on most of the ways in which they’ll be honouring players of Destiny 1 in Destiny 2, but they have revealed some of the emblems veterans will be receiving.

Emblems are banners that display behind a player’s name badge when playing on their own or as a Fireteam, and act as a way for players to display their achievements as well as a bit of flair or personality. These emblems are usually rewarded for completing activities in the game, but some can be purchased from vendors throughout the social spaces.

In Destiny 2 emblems are being tweaked slightly in that they’ll be shown in the menu screen at all times, as well as when other players view your Guardian. A nice touch from Bungie.

There will be seven emblems that are exclusive to Destiny 1 players in Destiny 2. These will be rewarded based on the achievements these players have accomplished. The first two relate to the Year 1 moments of triumph. The first can be gained by completing any of them, such as killing Skolas, Crota, or Atheon in the Raid level events. The second is only being awarded to those Year 1 players who accomplished every single one of the moments of triumph.

The second set of emblems is much the same. The first is awarded to those who completed one of the Year 2 moments of triumph, killing Oryx for example, while the second is exclusive to those who completed all of the Year 2 moments of triumph. In both the case of Year 1 and Year 2 emblem rewards, if players didn’t complete them at the time, they can never get the emblems.

The final three emblems relate to Year 3 moments of triumph. The first is rewarded to those who hit Rank 2 in the Age of Triumph record book, and the second is rewarded for reaching Rank 7. The final emblem is rewarded to those who reached a Grimoire score of 5,000, which is no easy feat.

All of these emblems will show those in Destiny 2 who the veterans are, and who the brand new kinderguardians are. It’s nice to see Bungie already planning how they’ll give a nod to old players of the series, but many players would still like to see more.

Playstation Exclusive Exotic Borealis

Among the exclusive content coming to Playstation 4 Guardians in Destiny 2 is an exclusive Strike, armour set for each class, PVP map, and of course this little weapon called Borealis.

Borealis is an exotic Sniper Rifle that’s only on Playstation 4 for a limited time, so grinding for it is recommended so you can gloat for the maximum amount of time possible. But what’s so exotic about this Sniper Rifle? And what could it help you do if you were to head out and use it in activities?

The exotic perk of this weapon, though it isn’t officially defined yet, is that you can swap between Arc, Solar, and Void damage. Not only are you able to swap between the different types of elemental damage, you can do this on the fly. From the trailer it appears as though you can press a button and it will cycle the weapon to the next type of damage, though that isn’t confirmed and could be very clever editing instead.

However you’re able to swap between the damage types it’s just impressive that you can. In Destiny 1 the House of Wolves update added a Fusion Rifle that you could swap out to have the range of a Sniper Rifle, with slightly different charging times, called Queenbreaker’s Bow. This weapon completely changed how you thought about killing enemies, and made it so that you wouldn’t need to swap between a number o weapons.

Can you imagine how useful a Sniper Rifle that can deal all three types of damage will be? The modifiers that are applied to every heroic activity will no longer bother you, as you chop and change your elements to take down the Ultras and deal the most damage possible in any given event, whether that’s a Raid, a Strike, or even just a daily mission. To top it off, you can infuse it to keep up with the highest Light levels and avoid ever needing to leave it behind for something more powerful.

This is just the perk we know about, there could be more. I imagine that Firefly won’t be available on the weapon, purely because that would be incredibly devastating when combined with the element swapping. It feels like it would need a bonus to Agility however, because Sniper Rifles are hard to stop and aim with when you have all kinds of enemies hunting you down fro all directions.

Unknown Darkness

Any Guardian has heard the term, The Darkness, but what exactly does it mean? Sadly we’re not going to find out in Destiny 2, as confirmed by Luke Smith in an interview with Kotaku.

Apparently Bungie don’t really know what The Darkness is, even though it’s referenced a whole bunch in Destiny 1. Here’s the thing, having a vague term like this means that, as a studio, you can pull all kinds of stuff out of nowhere under the guise of it. However, players seeking satisfactory lore will then find themselves at a lost because this phrase, this thing that doesn’t really exist, is taking up space where a real name needs to be.

In Destiny 2, the developers are working on removing the term, The Darkness, replacing it with the specific race or evil that they’re referencing. For a long time I took The Darkness to be a term for all of those races that want the Traveller’s Light, and will attack it wherever it goes in order to get it. This is something the studio considered once, but ultimately shied away from because of how vague it is, and to avoid it becoming a trope they use to pull enemies out of an endless void.

However, Bungie are committed to giving players a satisfactory explanation of what The Darkness is, just not in Destiny 2. The second Destiny game is all about Light, the Traveller’s and each Guardian’s. As they recover it after their brutal defeat they will learn more about it and the Traveller in turn, giving more meaning to the powers each Guardian possesses.

If you think about The Darkness for a moment there’s one very obvious theory that come to the foreground. The Traveller uses Light to empower Guardians, so an absence of that Light must be Darkness. What if the Darkness is a culmination of the races that the Traveller has visited before but moved on from, taking it’s Light with it?

In Destiny 2 we see the Red Legion take Light from the Guardians, but what if the Traveller was able to leave? If the Traveller sensed the Red Legion and left Earth to find somewhere else to find, would it take all sources of Light with it? If so that would leave a lot of Guardians very weak, and very angry. After becoming accustomed to reviving from each death and having superpowers, anything less than that would be awful. I wouldn’t be surprised if we see The Darkness in a more corporeal form in later Destiny 2 expansions, or Destiny 3.

Image Source: FSPoint

Will We Meet The Exo Stranger Again In Destiny 2?

E3 was a big event for Destiny 2. Lots and lots of new details and gameplay have been revealed and shown, but there have also been some nice tidbits of information coming out of interviews in and around the event between various staff and multiple press outlets. This includes a statement from Luke Smith, Game Director, who said that he felt the team had exited the Exo Stranger effectively in the original Destiny, opening up the conversation for whether we will see her again in Destiny 2.

The Exo Stranger is a character players will meet as they progress through the story missions. She’s extremely strange and very mysterious, talking mostly to an unseen ally of hers the very first time she meets you. Later she’ll congratulate you on destroying the great big ball of darkness inside the Black Garden, and gift you with her, admittedly badass, weapon. After that, she just up and phases out of the Tower without any kind of hint as to whether that’s it or if there’s more for you to do.

The problem with the Exo Stranger is that you never feel like her story has been fully wrapped up. Luke Smith himself also said that there’s a world where we never find out anything more about the Exo Stranger, and there’s a world where she’s the star. Of course he’s referring to the two drastically different routs the team could take when it comes to Destiny 2’s narrative and the Exo Stranger.

If Bungie were to make Destiny 2, or a later expansion, solely focus on the Exo Stranger, it would explain more about her character and the group she’s with but it would have to open up more mysteries. The Exo Stranger had a single goal, to get Guardians to destroy the heart in the Black Garden. If she returned there would need to be some other sort of hellish creature causing problems around the system. If we take her group to be some sort of band of heroes who always work in the dark to protect the Light, then it makes sense that they’d only show their faces again when things got too dire.

Destiny 2 starts with Guardians losing their power, meaning they can now die and have no Super abilities like they used to. On one hand this is a serious enough event to warrant the interest of a group much like the Exo Stranger’s, but we need to remember that she herself is no longer a Guardian and hasn’t been for a long time.

If we see the Exo Stranger again it would need to be because of a competitor to the Red Legion, another group or individual who wants to take the Traveller’s Light for their own. With the playing field equalised thanks to the acts of the opening of the game, the situation is wide open for any enemies to come in and start taking the power of the Traveller for their own, the only question is who will this be if it’s anyone?

Destiny 2 Release Date and Beta Dates Update

E3 has been on this entire week and there’s been a fair bit of news out of the conference. Most important of all a is information relating to the game’s release date, both on consoles and PC, as well as the Beta release date.

The Destiny 2 Beta has been confirmed as running from July 19th until July 23rd on consoles. Now this beta is only available to those who have pre-ordered the game, so if you haven’t done that it might be worth doing it this month to ensure you get a chance to trial the game before it’s released. If you’re wondering what console to pre-order for then I would say Playstation 4, because the Beta is gong live there on July 18th, giving PS4 players a whole day extra on top of what Xbox One players will get. Sony also have a deal with Activision Blizzard surrounding Destiny 2, meaning Playstation 4 players get exclusive exotics as well as potentially early access to all future content.

For PC players the beta is coming slightly later. Now this is because the full release date of the game for PC has also been delayed, and the game isn’t simply a port of the console version. For anyone looking to get Destiny 2 on PC, pre-order now and you’ll get into the Beta in august.

The release date for Destiny 2 has shifted ever so slightly on both console and PC. Before E3 the release date was September 8th, but the game will now launch for Xbox One and Playstation 4 on September 6th. Now I know this isn’t a massive shift in the grand scheme of things but what it does do is put the game on a release day of Wednesday instead of Friday. The possible reason for this could be that Bungie is now hoping to have Trials of Osiris run that Friday, September 8th, but they don’t want players to be overwhelmed too early on. By releasing the game on the Wednesday they give players plenty of time to gear up a bit before taking on others in the gruelling Trials matches.

For PC the release date has shifted to October 24th. Now this is a Tuesday which is a normal day for games to be released, however it could still be that Bungie wants to run Trials that weekend and don’t want to overwhelm PC players either.

With the PC version releasing a month or so after the console version some may be worried about the state of the Raid. In Destiny Bungie waited a few weeks before unlocking the Raid so players could earn gear and guns to complete it. This time around I think we will see the same situation, but I doubt that Bungie will wait over a month for the PC version to release just to put the Raid out for all players. Unfortunately it looks like PC players will miss out on being the first Raiders in the game.

Sunshot, Sweet Business, and Riskrunner – Some of the Exotic Weapons in Destiny 2

Destiny has a whole pile of Exotic weapons for Guardians to gather, horde, and barely use in all of the activities the game has to offer. Destiny 2 will be no different, and now we have the opportunity to check out three of the Exotic weapons coming with Destiny 2. These weapons were class exclusive in the Destiny 2 reveal event but there’s no confirmation as to whether they are specifically class exclusive. The classes mentioned below are the ones that simply held the exotic weapon to give you an idea if they are class exclusive.

Sunshot – Hunter Exotic Hand Cannon

Obviously Hunters get the Hand Cannon, that’s just the class they belong with and you can’t really argue with that. This gun is Solar powered, which should also be obvious given the name. The weapons deals 200 damage, at the moment anyway because we don’t know about the infusion process if there even is one. The weapon also fires 150 rounds per minute, which sounds more like a machine gun but it definitely isn’t, and that fact alone makes it awesome.

The perks for this weapon are Sunburn, which produces explosive rounds that are said to highlight targets, and Sunshot, which makes enemies explode in Solar energy. I can’t really get my head around just how good this is going to be in PVP. Here you have a way to highlight your enemies, and there are explosive rounds going off as standard. Couple that with an explosion every time you kill an enemy, and you’ve got team kills stacking up in your mind already.

Sweet Business – Titan Exotic Auto Rifle

This exotic Auto Rifle sounds like it’s Void powered, but it could as easily just be Kinetic which is just fine. The weapon deals 200 damage and fires 360 rounds per minute, which is pretty phenomenal and worthy of an exotic weapon.

The perks for this weapon are Payday, which increases the hip fire accuracy as well as the total ammunition its magazine, and a Placeholder perk that currently isn’t named, but it boosts the rate of fire and range when you hold down the trigger. Additionally any ammunition that is picked up will be automatically loaded into the magazine.

Riskrunner – Warlock Exotic SMG

This SMG also does 200 damage, but it fires 360 rounds per minute, just under the Auto Rifle Sweet Business which is nothing to be shunned. This weapon seems like it does Arc damage, so it may be that it doesn’t just belong in the Kinetic Weapons slot. As the first exotic SMG we’re getting a look at, this is pretty awesome.

The perks for this gun are Arc Conductor, which increases the weapon’s damage when you take Arc damage, and another unnamed perk which works alongside Ar Conductor, giving bullets a chance to become chain lightning when the other perk is active.

These exotic weapons look pretty great and are a good start to what I’m sure is just an entire mountain of elusive loot to chase after.

Why Guided Games Is Essential For Destiny 2

Bungie is introducing a brand new system into Destiny 2 that will help all those who enjoy the solo experience of the game, and those who simply don’t have enough mates playing the game.

In Destiny it has always been the way that when you hit the end game content you find yourself up against a wall of missions and activities that require you to meet up and join with people you know in order to compete. Even if you join a clan, some people simply don’t have the time to dedicate to a weekly raid, or a specific time for playing through round after round of Trials of Osiris.

Guided Games is a completely different experience. In Destiny 2 we’ll definitely still have a Raid, but there will no doubt be other activities such as Trials of Osiris that require you to meet up with mates, or clan members, in order to complete them. With Guided Games you can do these activities, and you don’t need to wait until a specific time or day just to do them.

With Guided Games clans will be brought into the game proper, and players will be able to browse them in order to find groups who are in need of one or two additional players for their activities. A small description of each clan will be shown, and then it’s down to you if they sound like a decent group to roll with. There is no pressure to join the clan, and you can move on and raid with a new one the very next day if you wish so.

This new system will completely change how people play Destiny 2, as there won’t be a need to be part of a clan. I suspect that people will remain a part of the clans they’re currently aligned with more out of loyalty and convenience. Guardians will be used to running with their clan each week, and changing this habit is going to be very difficult for people who have built up strong friendships.

For those of us who enjoy a more solitary experience in Destiny, meeting up with random players through the Subreddit or LFG sites, Guided Games will be essential. Having a system that makes it easier to complete all activities in the game each week, and it makes Destiny the game all Guardians want it to be, not just a game that has some aspects all players will enjoy.

The New Worlds Of Destiny 2 And Navigating Them

Bungie unveiled a lot of information at the Destiny 2 reveal event, but none seems broader than the new worlds confirmed as both part of player exploration, and the core story. The new worlds are Io, Titan, and Nessus, though we’re also seeing a return to Earth, but we’ll be in a different area due to the impact of the Red Legion destroying the Tower. One thing you have to note about these worlds is that there will be no more returning to Orbit in order to switch between them. In Destiny 2 you are able to open the System Map and travel to which ever planet you’d like regardless of where you are.

All of the worlds in Destiny 2 will have better and more interesting gameplay thanks to the map that players can use to reveal Timed Events, secret loot caches, and collectibles. Hidden Sectors will now be found around each area, holding a large boss who guards a pile of loot that you definitely want to get your hands on. NPCs will also be dotted around the worlds offering you side missions and treasure maps, helping you discover the world around you and really feel like you’re seeing every inch of it.

Let’s take a look at these new worlds in some more detail.

Earth – European deadzone

The European Deadzone will take the place of Old Russia on earth. Now players will not only patrol this new, much greener and more lush, area, but it looks like Guardians will be able to seamlessly transition between the patrol area and the new social space there. That’s right, the Vanguard has relocated to the European Deadzone, at least that’s what it looks like from the gameplay videos. This area is twice as large as any in Destiny at the moment, though it is probably the only one that will be given the nature of the combination of hostile and friendly environments here.

The social space that Guardians will now be calling home looks like little more than a shanty town. My theory is that as players progress through the campaign they will see this town grow as more people flock too it from the now destroyed last city. As it grows new missions and NPCs will probably become available, which should create the feeling of the world growing organically around you. The story of Destiny 2 has Guardians travelling around the system collecting members of the Vanguard from where they’ve scattered themselves to. Bringing this group together once again will be how Guardians win the fight against the Red Legion.

This first new planet is one of Jupiter’s moons, the fourth-largest. With over 400 active volcanoes it is the most geologically active body in the solar system, and that makes for one hot world when you’re travelling around its surface. In the lore of the game, this is the last place the Traveller’s Light touched before the Collapse, and the freshness of the Light here has made it a holy place for many Guardians. Warlocks regard Io as a holy place the most, travelling there to observe the powers of the traveller and bask in its power.

If there was anywhere Guardians can hope to recover even a small semblance of their powers in the known galaxy, it’s on Io. The Traveller’s power is probably at its most powerful here, which is why Ikora of the Vanguard has travelled here and will have some quests for Guardians when they travel to see her.

Titan

Titan is a cold and watery world where scientists currently believe there could be life in extremophile form. The seas however are not made of water, they’re made of methane, and are terribly cold.The atmosphere on Titan is thick, and therefore an ecosystem here could be possible, especially if the Traveller has had any kind of influence over it.

Here Guardians will join up with Zavalla, who is currently gathering his strength in and around some of the Golden Age platforms that were built on the land on Titan. These platforms will be interesting to explore, not just because of their many levels, but also the fact that they are slowly falling into the sea.

Nessus

Nessus is the only world Guardians will explore that is outside of Earth’s solar system. This planet is strange and unstable, and has been completely overtaken by the Vex. Here huge Vex machines mine and convert the landscape for some unknown purpose. If Nessus is anything like Venus and the Vault of Glass, it will be filled with time holes and great and powerful enemies that lie locked away in some sort of prison, waiting to be unleashed by the Vex. Here Guardians will follow Cayde-6 on his adventures, no doubt as he attempts to regain his power and avoid being brought back into the desk job he has with the Vanguard.

New Supers And Abilities In Destiny 2

At the Destiny 2 reveal event we saw quite a lot of screen time from on the new Super abilities from new subclasses. These subclasses were revealed quite a while ago when some Destiny 2 images leaked, showing some characters with sword, shield, and a staff. We know now that these images were actually of these new Super abilities, though they aren’t new subclasses.

The first new Super and subclass is Dawnblade. This is a Solar Super that gives Guardians a huge Solar sword that works mostly like the swords in Destiny. However, this sword also throws flame at enemies when swung in their general direction. The full skill tree for this revamped subclass includes Solar Grenades, Firebolt Grenades, and Fusion Grenades, as well as some other abilities such as healing rift, healing those around you, and Empowering Rift, a wall of Light that increases the power of those inside of it.

The second new Super is for Titans, the Sentinel subclass. The Sentinel is a Void subclass This new subclass turns Guardians into a space version of Captain America. Titans will get a shield that they can use to smash enemies out of the way, defend themselves, or throw at enemies in order to take them down. The shield will bounce off of enemies as it hits them, meaning you could throw it into a group of three and end up taking all of them down if you really wanted to.

The final new subclass is the Arcstrider for Hunters. Of course the Arcstrider is an Arc based subclass, but with the Super it’s so much more than that. The Super gives Hunters a big old Arc staff with which they can smash enemies and do all sorts of awesome attack moves over and around with, taking out enemies with incredible efficiency. There’s an AOE effect that sees you spin the staff around against all enemies, and there’s some kind of attack that sees Hunters come down from a height to deal big damage too.

With new subclasses come new dynamics between fireteams. Of course the ideal fireteam would be one of each major class with complementary subclasses in order to take enemies down in the most efficient way possible. Dawnblades definitely seem like more of a supporting subclass, with abilities that play on helping out allies with healing and empowering. The Arcstrider appears to be more of a close combat specialist, and classically they’ve always trodden the line between supportive and offensive roles in the fireteam. The Sentinel Titan definitely seems like more of an offensive subclass, especially with that shield that can be used for both close and long range combat. However these subclasses play out in the game we now at least know what they are and what elemental power they all use.

What this doesn’t answer is the question over whether there’s a new elemental power in the game, one that Guardians will gain access to as part of the second half of the game’s content. The main element that springs to mind is air, though how this would be represented in Destiny 2 in both weapons and subclasses is a different story altogether.

New Weapons And Loadouts In Destiny 2

Last night we were treated to a reveal event for Destiny 2, and a lot of information was given to us in a short amount of time. One thing that was glazed over quite well, at least for those of us watching the stream who haven’t had a chance to play the game yet, was the new weapons and loadout system.

The new loadout system changes the current one a little, altering it from Primary, Special, and Heavy weapons, to Kinetic, Energy, and Power weapons. We already know what Kinetic weapons are, Assault Rifles, Pulse Rifles, Hand Cannons, and Scout Rifles. Energy Weapons are different and include some of the new weapons shown off last night such as Grenade Launchers, as well as old weapons such as Fusion Rifles. While we don’t have any confirmation of what Power Weapons are, we saw some very impressive weapons as part of the stream such as cannon that sends out pulses of Arc energy into enemies, and a giant satellite cannon.

The difference between the two loadout systems is the freedom it allows Guardians in how they outfit themselves. A Grenade launcher is useful, but very high power, so probably belongs in your Power slot. If you’re partial to sidearms or SMGs then you can put one of either in the Energy and Kinetic slots, or you could opt for a sidearm and a Hand Cannon, to keep things consistent. Alternatively you could give yourself a Fusion Rifle and Shotgun and keep the punchier weapons out in front so that you pack way more firepower. The point is that your loadout is exactly what you want it to be, and that’s going to make a big difference between how you play Destiny, and Destiny 2 when it releases.

In addition to the new weapon types and loadouts, we have a new manufacturer. Veist is the name of the new weapon manufacturer joining the fray in Destiny 2, and they appear to specialise in SMGs, and potentially certain Power weapons. Whether we see some Exotics from this new manufacturer is still up for debate, but with the truckload of them promised by Bungie we can certainly hope for some.