Guardians, we have finally been graced with the information we have so patiently waited for from Bungie Developers. As promised, Bungie fed all the hungry Guardians with new information about the spring patch they have been discussing since winter. In this first volume of three broadcasts, it was more focused upon what we guardians will have access to do with this upcoming patch. There are some new things to do on the PvE side of the house as well as some bolstered content which we are accustomed to. Let’s roll through some of these changes to get you Guardians up to speed with what’s going to be happening.
First off, this update that will be dropping on April 12th is going to be free for all the Guardians who own The Taken King. That being said, it’s not the same size update that Crota’s End or House of Wolves update was but is close. The biggest part is that it is free, and free is always better than nothing. Anyways, this patch will start to help the story line and the lore of Destiny better explain what is happening after The Taken King, aka Oryx, has been defeated. The King may be gone, but the army still exists. Therefore, we have to figure out a way to make sure it doesn’t rise up again. To do this we have to return to The Reef to pick up new quest lines and challenges to take head on. Once you arrive back into The Reef you will see Variks and Petra awaiting your arrival with new quests and challenges to hand you.
PlayStation guardians will get an extra exclusive quest to complete as well that forces them back into the Court of Oryx to compete against the Taken.
For this new story line, it looks like our Fallen friend Variks will be our main go to NPC for end game content. That’s right folks, we are headed back into the Prison of Elders to face on new bounties and challenges in two new modes.
All of the old PoE content will still be there, but in addition there will be two new nodes to select from. One is a level 41 matchmaking mode which will help your guardian reach the 320 light level (the Sterling Treasure reward in the picture will be revealed on Wednesday). The other is a level 42 non-matchmaking mode called Challenge of the Elders where you will get points for kills.
During Bungie’s stream, they revealed how PoE will have three rounds of bosses to fight with waves of minions appearing on certain health gates that the boss hits. The main goal is to rack up as many points as possibly by killing the minions while then transferring to the boss. Precision kills are granted bonus points as the rounds go on, but time is key when it comes to collecting points since Variks will get displeased and dock points from your score if you take too long. Your group of guardians will have to be timely and communicate on when you are going to burn the boss verses focus on the minions.
The Challenge of the Elders is paired with the new Elder’s Sigil which you can purchase from Variks as well. The goal of the sigil is to ultimately, as a group, get a combined score of 30,000 points and complete the challenge. Doing so will get you a 335 weapon. There is one challenge to get a 335 armor requiring you to earn 90,000 points, so it’s going to make you replay it a couple times to complete the challenge. The sigil is a weekly reset as well, so only one 335 elder’s armor package and one 335 elder’s weapon package per character per week max.
The Bungie Stream team did let one Queen’s weapon out of the bag when they redeemed their Elder’s sigil. Her Fury sniper rifle at light level 335, as advertised, which has two new nodes that were not hovered over or discussed in detail until the next stream on Twitch. I have some assumptions based on these two pictures that the new nodes have to deal with weapons skins. I only think that due to the bonus talent in the overview stating that it “Activates a Red Chroma glow”. We will have to wait till their next broadcast telling us what gear we can earn. Right now, all we have to go off are images of these Guardians running around in new gear and shaders.
PoE is the big endgame content; but there are other bounties, quests, and strikes to complete to tie the story line together. The new Blighted Chalice strike will be a new Taken boss, Malok, who looks to be in a familiar room on the moon that was used to communicate with Oryx in year one. In addition, Strike Bungie has revamped one of our favorites Winters Run into a Taken version as seen in the pictures.
Those were just some of the peaks into what us Guardians will be facing when the patch drops on the 12th. What we have to look forward to is the new gear and armor we can earn from these challenges which will be the direct focus of Bungie’s next stream on Wednesday, March 30th. If you would like to catch the previous video stream you can check it out right here. As always, I will be keeping a watchful eye on the world of Destiny and will be back to you with more news when it happens.
-ShadowAssault86
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