I’ve taken the time to compile all of the new changes to Destiny with the upcoming Taken King expansion. Holy hell, it’s a lot of information to sift through, but after reading all of it it’s hard not to get excited about what’s on the horizon. I’ve compiled information from Game Informer (here too), Kotaku, Planet Destiny and tried to boil it down into straight up salient points. Let’s dive in shall we?
- Destiny’s loot system will now pay closer attention to the loot you have already received when determining an appropriate drop, so that players will more consistently receive armor and weapons that provide meaningful power growth, items that vary their gear slot from one drop to the next, and fewer drops of items that a player has already attained.
- There are eight new story missions that Bungie’s calling the “first act” of The Taken King, and then there will be a host of other quests and bounty chains that you can get from various vendors at the Reef and Tower. One example of these endgame quests: Unsealed Paradox, a mission set inside the Vault of Glass that’s all about a certain dude by the name of Praedyth. There’s also the raid, of course; it’s called King’s Fall and Bungie’s hyping it up to hell and back.
- Complete the main storyline for access to the ancillary “The Taken War”, with harder, narrative-driven missions that have us revisiting old locales like the Vault of Glass.
- Lots of little story touches—because what would Destiny be without story?—like the new Nolan North-voiced Ghost jabbering with Eris Morn, Zavala, and other various characters as you play. You’ll also be able to examine random objects during missions for little blasts of lore, Bungie says. Maybe this is how they’ll implement all those grimoire cards? Nolan North also re-recorded all of Dinklage dialogue in the game, effectly removing his dull, emotionless voice.
- They’re reorganizing old story missions too, to better incorporate the stuff from The Dark Below and House of Wolves into the main quest. The reef, for example, will now open up once you meet the Awoken Queen.
- Members of the Taken—the new enemy race—have all sorts of abilities:
- Taken Captains: Solar shields, throw out slow moving balls of darkness that blind Guardians.
- Taken Knights: AoE Scorch attack that dissuades close combat.
- Taken Centurions: Possess deadly tracking shots that can aggressively seek around corners.
- Taken Wizards: Can summon “shadow thralls” for a zerg-like rush. Eliminate them fast or risk being overwhelmed.
- Taken Psions: Have the ability to multiply if they are not quickly dispatched.
- Taken Vandals: Deploy a Defender Titan-like Shield, that restores their health and is permeable to their fire alone.
- Taken Phalanxes: Have an impulse blast that applies a physics impetus, much like their notorious shields.
- Taken Thralls: Can teleport short distances to frustrate attempts to pick them off easily.
- There are four new strikes: Fallen Saber (on Earth; you’ll fight against a super-powered Shank); Shield Brothers (on the Dreadnaught; you’ll take out two Cabal leaders); Sunless Cell (hunt down a Hive Darkblade who rebelled against Oryx); and Echo Chamber (this is the PlayStation-exclusive one; it’s yet another Vex mind). Three old strikes are also getting remixed: Dust Palace, Undying Mind, and Cerberus Vae.
- These new strikes have “raid-light” mechanics, Bungie says; in other words, you won’t just be killing waves of enemies, thank god. And since the developers are well aware of how repetitive strikes are, they’re triggering these new and revised strikes to change up enemies and even narrations on replays, which could be either really great or really irritating. No in-between.
- Strikes aim for replayability, cycling species you might fight, & altering enemy configurations. Multiple narrations to provide more info as you replay the strike.
- You’ll be able to turn in Bounties without going back to the vendor.
- The Gunsmith in the Tower will have his own reputation meter and bounties—work with him enough and you’ll be able to order weekly weapon deliveries. Hit a certain rep level with the Gunsmith, and he’ll open up Armsday purchases. Once a week you can pay him for a new legendary weapon, which will arrive on Wednesday with a random set of new perks.
- The Gunsmith has a reputation meter can be leveled by testing out common prototypes in the field. These test weapons have a “built-in challenge” like killing Hive on the Dreadnaught, or using a sniper rifle to get headshots in the Crucible. Check out as many as you want at a time.
- No longer have to wear class items to gain reputation. Instead you “pledge allegiance” to gain rep for a faction, one at a time. Turn in unwanted materials for reputation.
- No more Emblem/Shaders taking up precious Vault space! Shader console & Emblem console in the Tower, housing all of the Emblems & Shaders you own.
- You can change the displayed weapon in the Tower.
- Lots of reputation/material streamlining: Vanguard and Crucible marks are turning into one pool called Legendary Marks, while all class armor materials (like Plasteel Plating) will morph into items called Armor Materials.
- There’s an exotic pulse rifle called No Time To Explain. “No Time To Explain” is an Exotic version of the Stranger’s Rifle, sort of.
- Over a dozen new Exotic weapons. Half a dozen new armor pieces for each class. Auto Rifle that shoots bolts of chain lightning, Sniper rifle blinds enemies on precision hit.
- All Exotic unique namesake perks are immediately unlocked.
- An Exotic gained through multi-step search quest on the Dreadnaught; pieces are hidden all over.
- Quests to ease new players in. 5 weekly bounties in addition to much faster daily bounties. Finish all 5 weekly bounties to unlock a big bad bounty where you have a chance at a powerful reward like a Legendary/Exotic weapon.
- Better matchmaking for skill and connection.
- Lots of other new exotics coming too, like Sleeper Simulant, a heavy weapon fusion rifle that shoots bouncy laser blasts. You have to do a whole quest line (filled with puzzles, Bungie says—actual puzzles!) to get this one.
- Crucible quest lines are coming, as are new Crucible bounty types. Trials of Osiris will get its own set of bounties, and you’ll be able to play through an array of weekly Crucible bounties that eventually lead you to exotic-caliber rewards. This is in addition to all the new PVP maps (eight!) and modes (three that we know of, so far).
- Expanded Crucible: 8 new maps and 3 new modes. The modes are Mayhem, Rift, & Zone Control – only controlling matters, kills don’t.
- The Dreadnaught sounds pretty rad, like it’ll be full of more interesting content than most patrol zones that are in Destiny today. Says Smith: “Through your adventuring on the hive ship, you’re going to find a bunch of arcane objects that you can use to summon ultra-bosses.”
- “Quests from the ominous Eris Morn lead to the rediscovery of a forgotten weapon type.”
“Equippable emotes are now available below your emblem selection.” - Holding L2 on the pause screen gives an instant glimpse at the energy types equipped on each weapon. New item and subclass visual icons have been redesigned for quick recognition at a glance.”
- Tiers (thresholds) for Intellect/Discipline/Strength that tell in seconds what your cooldown is, rather than a percentage that you have to find out.
- “As an alternative to using or sharding your new high-powered Legendary weapons and armor, you can also improve an item you like by sacrificing another piece from the same gear slot.”
- “We’re still bumping into a technical limitation for vault space. We are exploring options for getting stuff out of players’ inventories via these kiosks that we’ve placed around the tower, but we’re still working toward a solution that we’re excited about.”
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