Playing Destiny after yesterday’s 2.0 patch is a little bit like waking up in a just-barely parallel universe. Everything has shifted a little, but you can’t always put your finger on how. Did that thing always sound that way? Did that lady always stand over there? Was that thing always blue?
The 2.0 update is both exciting and frustrating. It mostly feels like table-setting for the real meat and potatoes, which arrive next week when the big Taken King expansion comes out. There are some good things to check out and do this week, and some other things that you’d be better off waiting to undertake until next week, assuming you’re planning to get the expansion.
For now, here’s what’s good:
If you’re not level 34, get to level 34 however you want.
If you’re not 34, well, now you can be! You should be able to get to level 34 super quickly, particularly because there are so many good/easy ways to get XP. Do some quests, play some Crucible; whatever.
Go get a legendary stranger’s rifle.
You probably sharded your Stranger’s Rifle after getting it the first time around, then came to regret it after realising it was a collector’s item. Good news! You can get another one, and it’s legendary this time. Don’t get too excited — it’s still just a year-one gun, so it will still have limited application. Still, you know you want one. To get it, go to the “Abandoned Quests” kiosk on the right-hand wall of the Vanguard area of the Tower and select the Stranger questline. Run those missions (they’re low-level and easy) and the gun is yours.
Save your other ‘abandoned’ quests.
You can pick up a bunch of other abandoned quests, too, but if you’re already level 34, I suggest holding onto those for next week. A lot of those quests give easy XP, since they go back to the phases where you just have to go talk to someone or do a very short mission to finish the quest. Wait to cash them in until the new level cap goes into effect and you’ve got a new subclass to pour XP into.
Take a ton of bounties; you have room now.
Enjoy walking up to the bounty robot and accepting every single bounty without even looking at them. You’ve got space to spare.
Contemplate your expanded vault space.
Sure, we all have way more storage space in our vault. How long do you think it will take us to fill it and start complaining again? A month? Six weeks?
Finish some bounties, but save them for next week.
A lot of the new bounties are pretty easy, and you’ll clear some of them extremely quickly. Still, better to save them for next week than to turn them all in now. If you know you’ll be playing hard all week, sure, cash some in for faction rep or something. If not, just store them up so you’ll go into next Tuesday with a full slate of completed bounties and get to level 40 that much faster.
Enjoy Crucible; it’s a madhouse.
Crucible is absolutely bonkers at the moment. No one knows what’s going on because no one’s quite sure which guns are good for which situations. As a result, regular Crucible matches are more interesting than they have been in a long time. There are still plenty of The Last Word + Sniper and Thorn + Shotty players running around, but you’re far more likely to run into a huge shouty auto-rifle fight than you were a week ago.
Try some old Crucible modes to learn the new balance and maps.
While everyone will be naturally drawn to the new (fun!) Rift mode, I’d also suggest playing some matches with familiar game modes. Playing Rift on a new map feels totally crazy, but if you actually want to get your head around the new weapon balance and the new maps, better to do so while playing a more familiar game mode.
Dunk at least once in Rift.
Obviously the new Rift mode is the hot attraction this week — it’s the only current thing that is actually new, and not just tweaked/freshened up/adjusted. Rift takes a while to get a hang of, and at the moment greatly favours full teams who are communicating with one another. Lone wolf teams wind up running the spark alone and getting mowed down; coordinated teams keep their opponents on their heels and are constantly running the ball.
Anyway, when you’re playing, do yourself a favour and get into at least one situation where you can dunk the spark. Be bold! The payoff is worth it.
Try out an auto rifle in crucible, then abandon it.
The new rebalancing patch changes a lot of things in Crucible. Notably, it promised to buff auto rifles until they were usable again. And they’re… better? I guess? I can’t quite tell. Hard Light seems fine. The Summoner isn’t all that. Anyway, whip out your auto rifle for a while and play with it, then when you’re losing, switch back to whatever pulse rifle/hand cannon/scout you were using before. It’s ok, you tried.
Skip a cutscene.
Just skip the hell out of it. Hold down the circle button until you can’t hold it down no more.
Buy a ghost shell from the speaker.
If you want to get the highest light (currently) possible, you’ll need a Ghost shell. Buy one from the Speaker, and your new Northbot will be prettier and your light level will be higher.
Equip whichever class item you want.
You no longer have to equip a faction class item. Rejoice, Hunters! That Hot Topic-arse Dead Orbit cloak can go away forever. Also, check your class items — some will give you slightly higher defence than others.
Say goodbye to your current armour, because it is trash now.
Seriously, your legendary armour is garbo. Sorry. It doesn’t matter what perks you got on it, it won’t provide nearly the attribute boosts you need to be competitive, particularly in Crucible. Those sweet Int/Disc gauntlets with grenade throw distance and hand cannon reloader are about to be outclassed by some random blue shit you got from a chest. Make your peace with it now, and say goodbye.
Get a gun to test out from the gunsmith.
Starting today, you can get a prototype weapon to test for the Gunsmith. That’s a good idea, since if you complete the test, you’ll get a guaranteed year-two legendary next Wednesday.
Try to spot when Nolan North does a different line-reading.
You guys. Nolan North’s Ghost performance is way better than Peter Dinklage’s was. I share in the collective Stockholm syndrome for Dinklage’s oddball performance, but the new guy is just better. North sounds like a robot reading bad dialogue; Dinklage sounded like a robotic human reading bad dialogue.
Anyway, as you’re listening to North’s new line readings, try to spot the places where he reads his lines differently than Dinklebot did. I’ve spotted a few so far, including (I believe) one totally different line.
Edge up your faction and Cryptarch rep.
See if you can get as many factions as possible riiiight up to rounding the bend to a new level, then let them sit. When The Taken King launches, you can level those all up quickly and get a bunch of faction packages, hopefully with some decent gear.
Buy a new shader from Eva Levante… or you know, don’t.
You can buy two new Taken King armour shaders from Eva Levante. So… yeah, if you want to do that, do that. Maybe the shaders look cool on some armour. They do not look cool on my Hunter’s armour.
Check out the new banners.
It’s fun to pick through the big wall-pads next to Eva, where you can see the shaders and emblems that you have and haven’t gotten, as well as some that you’ve never seen before. Like this one:
I want it.
And most importantly…
Demonstrate how to point.
It’s an important gesture. Go into the new emotes menu in your inventory and select the one emote you have available. Watch your guardian point from various angles. Enjoy pointing. Point at a friend. Point at someone you hope will be your friend. Point at nothing at all. The pointing is the important thing.
We’ll be playing more of the 2.0 update as the week goes on. If you have any good tips of your own, I hope you’ll share them below.
Comments
32 responses to “What To Do (And Not Do) This Week In Destiny 2.0”
Might have to jump back in tonight. It’s been a while.
If you’re on XBone man flick me a message if you need a hand in some areas
I’ve been looking for a nice concise guide for this little interlude before next week — nice job!
First game on a map I had no idea about, first spark up I took it and ended up scoring with a backflip for style. Definitely one of my best moments in Destiny. The Crucible is actually enjoyable. Despite the fact I’m dying more, I’m still loving it. Probably because when I got hit by Thorn it wasn’t stupidly lethal in comparison to my Hard Light. Which is how it should be.
Xbox people, the PS-exclusive strikes should now be available – maybe not on the director at least until you unlock them in-story, but via the playlist. I jumped into the Vanguard Legacy playlist and my very first strike was Undying Mind, so I assume dust Palace is also available.
Interestingly even though I got the grimoire card for the strike and the boss, the grimoire itself isn’t showing up for me in the app or on the site – maybe the strikes aren’t “officially” available til next week?
Your class vanguard will give you subclass quests. If you’re already above level 30, one of these questlines will involve you repeatedly going to orbit and returning to the tower as he gives you rewards for level 4, level 8, level 15, level 25 and level 30. then he will send you out into the world to kill enemies and generate orbs with your class abilities, and then he will give you a special class items you can’t wear until you’re level 40.
‘omg nolan north is just so awesome’… honestly, not one person I’ve spoken too likes it, so i really don’t understand your love for him. He’s not better at all, a few lines maybe, but on a whole, its still just as shit… probably more so due to the high whiney voice he uses.
Also, I don’t understand why they made strangers rifle a legendary, only to keep it as a year 1? Isn’t that a bit pointless? lol
The assumption is that it will be upgradeable. I was reading the Vex grimoires and, in keeping with the theory that the Exo Stranger is a projection of Maya Sundaresh from Dr. Shim’s team (Maya theorised that while they can’t change the past to eliminate the Vex from time, they could potentially go into the future to bring back things they need – and her rifle has components that “shouldn’t exist yet”), people are assuming that the Stranger’s Rifle will later evolve into a more powerful exotic. Probably not as part of the Taken King storyline since nothing I’ve seen indicated that we see the Stranger again just yet, but maybe a future Vex-centric DLC which I believe is planned for mid-2016?
Now you have me curious! That would be very cool if so, and does seem like a logical way for it to go. Although, still disapointed that its still just a waste of vault space… even though I have more space to waste, I still would have liked it to become a bit more prominent.
In fairness, Stranger’s Rifle has always been a popular choice in the crucible where your level doesn’t dictate damage (Trials of Osiris and Iron Banner excluded, obviously) as it is generally a pretty good gun. I assume it will continue to be.
Usually only a popular choice for the lower levels that don’t have thorn or last word yet though 😛 although from what I’ve heard, they aren’t all that good any more though, so is all up in the air now
Direct quote from Luke Smith’s twitter:
I think it’s just to keep it relevant for the year one campaign, now that the story and XP pacing has been reworked,so they’re expecting people to be level 20 or above by the time they finish the year one campaign.
I find it highly unlikely it will never develop further in the future, especially given that they’re apparently doing it for the benefit of newcomers who don’t already have level 20 characters right before 160 damage cap weapons come obsolete? The old version has now transmuted to a legendary with a 116 damage cap, it can apparently be ascended with 25 legendary marks once those become available (and vanguard/crucible marks become obsolete).
I remain confident it will come into play later.
They’ve spoken about it being able to be upgraded to a year 2 Exotic cleverly named ‘No Time To Explain’.
I agree so far about Nolan Beyond. I deleted my youngest character (Warlock) so I could re-make her and play as a fresh character. Just did The Dark Beyond (first moon mission) and man, I don’t think I’ve preferred one line of his over Dinklebot, which I never really had a problem with. The lack of dramatic emphasis in certain points is mind-blowing- like when you find the dead guardian, Ghost says “where’s his ghost?”. Nolan Beyond just asks it casually, while Dinklebot asked it with a “….uh oh…..” tone to it that emphasised the tension. This is even more apparent with the next “we’ve woken the Hive!” line, which Nolan Beyond says so freakin’ casually even though every other part of the Destiny world is screaming at how scary and bad the Hive are. Dinklebot captured the fear perfectly.
My only hope is that he sounds better in the new content where the script was revised. Praying to the traveller for that to be the case…
just so you, not to be a jerk, but his name is Nolan North, not Nolan Beyond. Just thought you should know.
But I agree completely, I actually prefer dinklebot because while some of his lines sounded funny or melodramatic at points, at least they sound SOMETHING. North’s lines so far to me just sound really boring like, it seems he tried to make it sound too much like some sassy little robot instead of something idk cant really quite place my finger on what about his perfomance just isnt good to me but… it definitely just isnt good to me.
lol I’m fully aware of his name. Notice how I was comparing between Dinklebot and Nolan Beyond…? Because Nolan Beyond is a joke-name that is being kicked around the internet for the new Ghost. It’s a pun on the No Land Beyond exotic. Other contenders include Nolanbot, Nolandroid, etc…
Still no update to still customize your character..
or add more customization to a character..
I still have a couple GB of the 18GB patch to download when I get home (I couldn’t leave it on standby today for ‘reasons’. It looks like it will be a weekend thing for me 😉
Good write up, didn’t know about the ‘abandoned’ quests. I’m guessing you can only replay those once?
Got a busy weekend coming up with little time to game, but post-monday definitely keen to give destiny another go. Haven’t played since launch…
i welcome the new changes. bring on the taken king. feel free to add me on xbox one anyone . most friends i played with jumped ship to ps4.
GR44 MickWounds
I think I already have you on my list haha that is spun out
I still can’t decide whether to get it! I keep getting excited, then I go to get it and see the price and the excitment dies, then I see a new video and i get excited again…. it hurts my head 😛 i should just bite the bullet and do it, its inevitable anyway lol
yeah i thought $70 is a bit much. i expected $50. despite all it’s issues i love destiny and have sunk many hours. keen as for TTK.
if you do decide to get it feel free to invite me games if you’re a man short.
Definitely mate, I play with a few different ppl, so if I see you on i’ll drop you a line
Worst part is, if we were paying the same as the US it’d be $50 🙁 but then that is the same for every game we get down under
You’re spot on though, the amount of hours we’ve sunk in, its hard not to. Plus, I do think I’ll get $70 worth of fun out of it. Listen to me trying to convince myself lol
It does seem quite steep for DLC, although it’s better to think of it as Destiny 2 rather than DLC. I think if I wait a month or two it will drop by quite a bit.
It’s more content for a game I truly do love playing. I just burn out quick due to lack of things to do.
The other thing the Taken King including all the content I already purchased is $100, If I buy it now I’ll have payed $210. I also have a lot of games to play right now so I’m not bored waiting for something cool to drop. And all I get for my loyalty (Cash) is a Sparrow, a Shader, an Emblem and early access to weapons which I don’t think is worth the extra $30 when I’m sure I could get it cheaper later.
Time to start DLing the update.
Nolan heaps better than Dinklebot. Not in this universe or any. He sounds like an excited tween at a twilight convention. And that is me being polite.
Also, don’t finish the subclass missions. They give you a class item but fail to give you the promised emblem, Bungie said that it’ll be fixed if you complete the missions from the 15th of this month onwards, but you won’t be retroactively rewarded the emblem (it gives you extra XP) if you’ve already done the quests. Oh, and you can’t repeat the quest to obtain it.
Way to go Bungie.
“There appears to be some confusion surrounding the new sub-class emblems that can be found in the Emblem Collection. The new emblems, which can be found under The Taken King sub-heading, are new emblems that require the completion of certain content and/or Bounties that will be released when Destiny: The Taken King launches. Players who complete their new sub-class Quests do not qualify for these emblems yet. There will more steps to complete, starting on September 15.”
ahem…
Yeah, I saw they cleared that up.
Hey me and my buddy been looking for someone to help us beat one of the 34 prisons to get etherlic light if anyone interested hit me up