Destiny, a yearlong beta for a video game that will be released this September, is getting some major overhauls that we should probably talk about.
Today on a Twitch stream, Bungie’s designers talked about some of the ways our characters will change when The Taken King launches next month, starting with an explanation of what Light will actually mean now that levels are all done through XP:
So you’ll be able to hit level 40 with experience, but you’ll still have to keep track of your Light, which will be based on your weapons and armour. Makes sense.
Your stats will now have more detailed descriptions, showing you not just a percentage but explanations of how your cooldowns are affected by each of the three stats, Strength, Intellect, and Discipline:
The quest page, which Bungie has mentioned before, will look like this:
16 Bounty slots! You’ll be able to submit bounties from anywhere — no more trekking back to Tower — and you can keep track of your progress via Nolan North:
Every Destiny player will also get a Spark of Light — aka cheat command — that will boost a single character up to level 25:
Ghost Shells have abilities now! Cool ones:
There’s a terminal in the Tower that will let you see a full collection of Emblems:
Each Emblem you don’t have access to will also tell you where you can find it.
New equipment has some interesting new perks:
Comments
44 responses to “How Destiny Levels And Gear Will Change In The Taken King”
“Destiny, a yearlong beta for a video game that will be released this September”. I lol’d.
“Destiny, a yearlong PAID Beta for a video game that will be released this September” is more accurate…
That is what we call Early Access nowadays. Paid beta doesn’t sound nice enough.
At only double the price…
Aaaaaand now I’m officially calling this game ‘Spaceballs 2’. …Still gonna p(l)ay the hell out of it though….
For better and more detailed info on all the info stream, check out planetdestiny’s article http://planetdestiny.com/year-2-stream-analysis/ it’s really descriptive and nice if you didnt want to watch 2 hours of running around the tower
cool I might get back into this in September 🙂 I quit because if the light system. I couldn’t get any gear which meant I couldn’t level up which meant I couldn’t do raids which meant I couldn’t get gear… which was basically effin boring.
Is it still the case that there is no way to go on raids with randoms? Last I heard Bungie was saying that you needed to do it with friends or not at all.
Friends or through community-run LFG sites. They’re generally pretty good, in my limited experience, just not integrated into the game.
yeah friends in inverted commas. basically an organised fireteam, they don’t even need to be on your friends list to invite them to party chat or your fireteam. there’s a lot of great resources out there. the100.io and /r/fireteams to name two.
I was in the same boat
So… Should I consider taking the plunge now?
The Taken King will be available bundled with base game + expansions 1 & 2. So that’s the cheapest way to get it. Since the launch is only ~3 weeks away, I’d recommend just waiting it out.
I’m in the same boat as you – I think, after these new details, I’m definitely going to be picking it up
Oh look, basic features and an interface that should have been there in the beginning. Well done Bungie!
HEY! Listen you………….
Yep he’s right. Definitely right…
Yeah, kind of annoyed that this isn’t how the game launched and that it’s being used to sell an ‘expansion’ (again, what should’ve been in the original ultra-sparse game) that costs as much as the base game which basically means buying the game twice.
Spot on
Really sounds awesome, and I’d love to get it…. but that price is insane! Especially when we’re paying close to double what they are in the US 🙁 The pricing sucks, but the australian pricing is kind of insulting
wha?
Yeah, only costing $40 in the US for the expansion, which equates to roughly $50 AUD. We’re paying $70 🙁 That is probably what pisses me off the most, $20 more just for being Australian lol although I think they are copping much the same in the UK too
Most of these changes sound pretty sweet, but I don’t think the changes to levels and gear are going to satisfy players. Light levels as they are work fine, it’s the method of making gear obsolete in order to make new content attractive that’s the problem. I think this new system is more complicated for the sake of creating the illusion of a smoother transition and it’s just going to carry over the core problem. It’s like trying to get more water by switching the units you’re measuring it in.
“Destiny, a yearlong beta for a video game that will be released this September, is getting some major overhauls that we should probably talk about.”
How was it a paid beta? Destiny was released last year in-store & online for the RRP. It doesn’t get more official / final than that. What is this madness?
Now Activision & Bungie are masking the game’s initial launch failure as a beta? What a joke. Only in 2015 can you have failed launches and then relaunch games.
In saying that, I would consider Destiny, but as a latecomer, it seems like a serious investment. Adding to that is the constant mention of ongoing expenses. Seems easier to avoid.
*whoosh*
^^
With Metal Gear Solid, Fallout and Battlefront just around the corner, its probably safe to avoid Destiny for now. Wait and see how this expansion turns out.
that said, Fallout and Battlefront aren’t here until November, I’m not sure MGS exactly has the wide-range appeal as most titles, and aside from a few other niche titles, there’s not a hell of a lot going on games-wise
Should I…..? Should somebody…..?
yeah nah it’s disgraceful!
Anyone know if I buy the retail TTK pack, will it be compatible with my existing vanilla character/save?
Use the TTK code in the box, you’ll take everything across that’s already on your account.
Oh ok, so the retail version isn’t a new copy of the game per se, it’s a DLC collection that I can redeem? I no longer have the disc for the original game is all, I sold it a few months ago.
i’d say you’d still need the disc in order to play it, but since you’ll have the codes for the full set you can just redeem them all and that avoids that problem. As long as you didn’t delete your game saves it should still detect that.
Errmmmm… Let me get back to you on that…
The retail version is original disc + DLC code for season 1 + DLC code for TTK expansion. So if you buy the retail TTK, you are set to go.
About the game saves, everything is in the ‘cloud’ (nothing is stored locally), so as long as you didn’t go and manually delete every item and every character, you should be good to go. You can use destinystatus, destinytracker or bungie.net to check out what characters and gears you still have saved on the servers if you want to check before going out and buying the retail version.
But guys, guys … YOU CAN USE A SWORD! A SWORD!!!!
But seriously, I’m looking forward to this. As much as Bungie doesn’t want to admit that Destiny is an MMO disguised as an FPS, this is a similar kind of situation you get whenever WOW gets a major expansion, but in this case so much new content makes it feel like an entirely different and more exciting game overall. As much as it has its problems, I love the world they’ve created and the experience of beating a Raid is second to none.
“As much as Bungie doesn’t want to admit that Destiny is an MMO disguised as an FPS…”
I remember when the videos first leaked of the “final boss”, and seeing everyone lose their fucking shit over how bad the battle was and how they can’t believe they waited this long for such a shit FPS game with a nothing ending, etc etc
aahhh the lols were had. And they were good.
I have been in a rut these days trying to figure out what game to play. I seriously loved Destiny for the first month or so, but then I got burned out/bored very quickly.
The biggest issue for me is that the harder content that has arguably the most fun-factor tied to it (such as raids), is exclusive for people who have the time, contacts and resources to actually form a party. No matchmaking has come into play as far as I’m aware.
While these changes are welcome and enticing me to play again, I don’t think I’ll truly be happy until matchmaking is introduced for all possible content.
Trust me, you do not want matchmaking on end game content.
Hop on the100.io and join a group of peeps of similar age/time zone/play style as you and make some internet friends. You won’t look back.
We should have the option of matchmaking, especially on old Raids which are now essentially useless
Agreed, raids should have matchmaking, don’t worry, these idiots have back flipped on everything else, it will happen eventually
sounds like it’s finally time to start playing Destiny?
This is so hilarious, they finally wake up to the fact that the level progression and light system is ball-sack and the missions and rewards suck big time AND they want a nice crisp $40 from all of us poor suckers??? Bollocks
I don’t know what all this complaining is about. I consider myself a fairly casual gamer, coming in and out of destiny at times, but for my initial $100 investment, my 99 hours of game time so far has been mostly great fun.
I like how destiny is tweaking the game based on community feedback, and what I saw of that video looks great. I appreciate that they tried a different method of levelling up that’s tied into gear, and while it didn’t work so great, it still showed some creativity outside of copying most RPG/MMOs.
The only thing I’ll agree and complain about is the ‘evolution’ of weapons and how existing legendaries were made obsolete despite the hours put in to levelling them.
I’m looking forward to the taken king.
It didn’t impress me enough at launch to have me stick around longer than a week, and these changes don’t seem enough to make me consider taking the plunge again.
Not that I thought it was a bad game, just “meh”.
But… What happens if you DON’T get TTK? What happens to your game/character/weapons?