Are you a Destiny player who didn’t buy today’s new expansion pack, The Dark Below? Hope you don’t plan on doing this week’s heroic strike. Because you can’t.
Since the weekly strike is currently “The Will of Crota” — the new strike packed with Destiny‘s $US20 expansion — players without the DLC won’t be able to do it. It’s locked. Hope you weren’t planning on going to Xur this week.
For the uninitiated, let me explain: every week, high-level Destiny players can run what’s called the weekly heroic strike — a challenging dungeon gauntlet that results in some solid rewards including the “strange coins” you need to buy items from Xur, the weekend vendor (who has some essential high-level gear). Every Tuesday, the folks at Destiny developer Bungie pick a new encounter to declare as the weekly strike, and completing it regularly is one of the most important activities for anyone who’s past level 20.
Now, things are a little bit different. This week, since the heroic strike requires The Dark Below, non-DLC players will instead see this message:
What a bummer. It’s safe to assume that in the future, when the weekly strike is set as one of the vanilla options, non-DLC players will be able to play it again, but for now, this really sucks. They couldn’t have added an alternative weekly strike option for people who can’t or don’t want to spend $US20 on the DLC right now?
Between this and what appears to have been a nerfing of the strike playlists so that only the highest-level Roc strikes — also only available to DLC owners — give you engrams, it seems like the folks at Bungie are trying to get everyone’s $US20, no matter what it takes.
Comments
63 responses to “Destiny’s Weekly Strike Is Now Locked Behind DLC”
Outrage in 3… 2… 1…
Don’t be fooled.. anybody who complains about this news impacting on them is surely a closet long time high level Destiny player and not a hater.
It’s the game that just keeps on taking..
That seems like a pay to win model. I understand if it’s a full expansion required to do certain content like WoW but to lock out content because you didn’t buy a $20 expansion seems off to me. What’s stopping them releasing a constant stream of $20 minor updates like this?
It’s Activision, so…. Nothing!
The content is new, though. You can play all the strikes you could before, you just don’t have the alternate option of earning weekly strike rewards based on vanilla content (at least for this week).
Having played a bit of the dlc (and reading everything I could pre-release) only the new missions (3 story, 1/2 strikes, 1 raid) and new exotics are locked behind pay wall. All new legendaries (which are as strong as the new exotics, just less unique) are available to everyone.
Oh noes, something made 2014’s most disappointing game more disappointing.
it seems like every game I have played this year, on a forum somewhere, someone is calling each and everyone one of them the “worst/diappointing game of the year” its got to such a stage where its basically meaningless. Sure Destiny wasnt what I was expecting hasnt stopped me playing over 200 hours worth. So in that instance it strangely is my most played game of the year. The trick is not expect perfection and find reasons to enjoy the game you have not the game the hype in your head created.
It’s almost like the act of liking or disliking something is largely contingent upon the person’s own preferences and tastes. We must investigate further! To the science mobile!
hah the hate for this game (like many this year) have less to do with the game itself but this massive general 2014 hatefest on everything from games, tv, movies. These days I would be more surprised if someone actually admitted to liking something.
but surely after how much money they spent on the game one should expect perfection or near to. I’m glad Kotaku readers voted this as their biggest disappointment of the year. I really hoped Bungie take note and improved it, but this latest news is a step back once again.
That money (US$500 million) is the projected investment by Activision for the whole franchise. In no way did Destiny cost any where near that amount.
I didn’t even play 200 hours of Skyrim, I can not conceive of sitting through 200 hours of Destiny.
Looks like they have a 10-year disappointment plan
Thanks Bungie! I’ve been on the brink of giving up on Destiny for a while now and forcing me to buy DLC or stop playing has finally won me over. Now to find a new game to play instead 😀
Dragon age Inquisition brah!
Sadly I never really got into the Dragon Age games (strange, since I love RPG games and DnD) but thanks for the suggestion!
Just come join us in WoW =P
Yeah I’ll be there too
its one week (so far), and its not like you cant get strange coins form other sources.
Yes, that’s all well and good when I am segregated from my friends!
Especially more painful given the content is probably on the disc already.
How can you even suggest that? The download was over 9000! (kilobytes)
Over 9,000!!!!
They really should just stop adding new content and leave it as it is
That’s like saying WoW should do the same
WoW should have done the same. I loved vanilla WoW, the rest not so much. But then, that’s just me.
Sarcasm doesn’t translate very well to the text medium
Might still get it… But I am having loads of fun replaying LOU single player in HD and wandering around collecting/killing shit in DA:I, so whatever.
What did they expect? Paid DLC with new content but people expected to be able to play it without paying? After this week there’ll probably be one of the old strikes that everyone can do but I can’t believe people are complaining that they need to pay for the new content in order to play it when a lot of other people have paid for it
But it’s not the same. Players have been provided with weekly heroic strikes as part of the vanilla package. Now they don’t have this option at all, not even a vanilla heroic strike to tide them over. Yes it will likely revert back to something vanilla players can play next week, but I suspect it will then alternate between DLC players and vanilla players week by week from this point on.
Edit – someone just mentioned this is a one week only thing. Therefore, I take it all back…. I can take it back, right?
Quote from Activision:
This quote says to me that each time a DLC is released, the strike that is released with it will be the Nightfall/Weekly for the initial opening week.
I stand corrected
True, it does suck for people that do not buy the DLC for whatever reason. I agree with you on that. However on the flipside there are now other options available for people wanting to increase their level which is considerate on Bungies part.
Great quote, I hadn’t seen that before. Without that, I’d have thought they were quite possibly being evil, or made an ultra-idiotic and totally forseeable mistake – the worst one possible for the timing.
But since it’s deliberate, and there’s notice, then all you can really say is… it’s understandable. I see their reasoning. And frankly, it should have been expected.
Being enthusiastic about something new is great. But when there are people who are not getting in on that fun party action, it’s kind of kicking them when they’re down to ALSO take away the bonus they are used to getting. It’s not just, “Hey, we’re all doing fun stuff over here, but you can have your heroic I guess,” it’s, “No heroic for you unless you buy in.”
Which makes it a bit of a dick move.
Completely agreed with you. Their *should* be a different strike for people who don’t have the DLC for this initial week, hands down.
The quote only came up this morning – you should have seen the way that /r/destinythegame blew up with fits of anger. The first 2 pages were just QQ threads left right and center.
I don’t think it’ll alternate. For xbox there are six strikes with one being dlc, and for playstation eight strikes with two being dlc. So there will be a 1/6 or 2/8 chance vanilla players can’t do the weekly… Which doesn’t seem too bad.
The problem with giving people without dlc an alternate strike is that if one is perceived more difficult than the other bungie will see a barrage of complaints from people unable to get their coins whereas the other group can
The author of this article seems to have only captured one side of the coin here. Activision have stated that this is only a 1 week thing that is happening.
Not to mention that you don’t need TDB to get to 31. The Vanguard & Crucible vendors now offer gear that allow you to get to level 31. And how hard is it to save $20? Really? If you’re complaining about $20 then perhaps people should lay off drugs/alcohol/luxurious spending for a day, save that $20 for the DLC. The DLC is something that outshines the ‘cut-content’ of the main game by FAR. Incredibly challenging so far.
Right back at you champ! 😉
I love them negative feels ^.^
I think you are missing the point that unless you are willing to hand over more money for the extra content, you are now locked out of completing original on disc content tasks.
Its not about the money, its about the way Bungie have handled this update.
No @ax that’s not the way it is. Have you been in since the update? You can STILL do the old content – there’s nothing that’s locking you out of doing the old content apart from it being the initial week of release. Please refer to my quote I pulled from Activision that I linked to wa1dofoo.
True that – I got a bit carried away ^_^
Yes the content is there BUT you cannot do it in strike form, hence you miss out on strange coins and other tid bits. Thats what people have issues with.
Im getting the DLC tonight when I get home but i completely understand why its an issue. And yeah, ive been on since the update. Checked it out last night but didnt buy it. Hope its worth a 20!
Aye, yeah that’s correct. Very valid and agreed on that – fortunately though it is only for the initial week of release – or so Activision have stated.
I’ve thoroughly enjoyed the missions and strike (Only done 1 so far) and they are REALLY challenging. Play them on the hardest difficulty you can!
I think the vanilla content being referred to is “being able to get strange coins in any appreciable quantity”. Basically for this week exotic armour costs $20.
All 4 missions and then the mission to to the same mission again.
Destiny? More like destined to F*&^ing fail! -Francis.
The story mode was an hours worth of game play….you call this an ‘expansion’ Bungie? Ironically, the main games story wasn’t too much more, SO…what did I expect? :-/
But they’ve padded it out with random bounties. And you also don’t seem to be able to replay certain missions without the bounty to do them… 🙁
I like how people automatically see this as a negative for people who didn’t buy the DLC.
How about thinking it as an extra reward for those that did? After all they did pay extra.
I’ve said this many times before, but why can’t they make the weekly and nightfall strikes different? Add some variety.
And don’t worry too much non-DLC people, you’ll only be locked out every sixth week (assuming they continue to just cycle the strikes).
Refer to quote I linked to @wa1dofoo.
So it sounds like it’s only this first week then? People are getting upset over something pretty minor then.
Imagine if you bought Mario Kart 8 and Nintendo brought our an expansion DLC for $20 for 3 extra tracks. You figured you didnt need the 3 extra tracks so you didnt get it…..Nintendo then block 2 of the original tracks that came on the disc because you havent bought the extra content.
I will be buy this Destiny DLC but the way they have gone about this is just wrong. Its less an expansion and more an extortion.
Um, that’s not really what’s happening at all. You can still access the old content (and actually a fair bit of new stuff is still available to non-DLC owners).
Wait. Only the Roc Strikes give engrams now? What’s the point of playing lower level strikes then???
I have the DLC, but haven’t played it yet.
I have paid for the DLC and i like the idea of it being the first weekly. its something new and interesting and it will be a good boost for the rest of the week. if there was a different weekly for non DLC there would be someone winging about how people with the DLC get a different strike ect. its $20 or $40 for both and i dont think its that bad.
I love how I’m reading this article and on the edge of the screen I’m smothered by ad’s for the DLC. One hand giveth…
When is the fun part?
I’m glad I didn’t purchase the season pass. I was expecting the DLC to be more substantially.
I miss the days of DLC like in GTA4 where it was an entire new episode of story missions.
Have totally lost interest. To be honest I can’t see where the $500 million went. It’s basically just a few empty planets and the dialogue was awful.
It was enjoyable enough for the 20 hours I put in but it definitely isn’t the massive persistent Scifi world of adventure the trailers made out.
$500 mil = for the franchise, not 1 installment.
My friend needs to do a bounty (i.e. side quest) which involves the weekly Nightfall mission, but since neither of us bought the DLC, he is now unable to complete that quest. That totally sucks.
Also, vanilla strikes are still in rotation and can be accessed, yes, but since you get no reward for playing them, there are no purpose in playing them any more. The strikes that do give you rewards are now locked behind a paywall, and again, this sucks.
Imagine if Bungie decided to put PlayStation exclusive strikes into the Weekly/Nightfall rotation and excluded all Xbox players…
Bungie needed to add features to DLC buyers, not remove features for vanilla Destiny players. It’s like if a shop raised it’s prices by $10 and then had a “sale” where everything was discounted by $10.