Greetings Guardians,

I am very sad that this is my final post, as I have enjoyed getting to share much of the game with those who love playing the game and play all the time and with those who have never played before. For our final blog, I want to take the time today and share my final thoughts on the state of the game and where I see myself moving forward on one of my favorite games.

I want to start with the positives and talk about why I love playing the game.

Let’s start with the gameplay. I love getting to run around the different planets killing enemies and using a variety of different weapons in fun and unique builds. There are several guns that I have fallen in love with over the years, and my current favorite gun is a gun called Malfeasance.

I have also fallen in love with the lore of the game. There is so much story in the game, and when you take the time to dive into all the lorebooks written in the game, you get to hear some really good story. I will talk about one of my favorite books. This lorebooks describes how the exostranger known as Elsie Bray is a time traveler/dimension traveler. She has seen several instances of the Traveler losing. The one that we get to see has Zavala getting killed, Elsie having to stab her own sister to death, and Eris Morn killing everyone before Elsie winds up in a new timeline. This is just one of the several amazing lore beats that are super enjoyable, and I hope if you ever have the time you can read through the different books because there is some really good story hidden away not in cutscenes.

However, we need to talk about the negatives. The game has not had enough repetitive content this year. The story for Lightfall was lame and uninteresting, and I finished it in one day of playing. There was also not enough post-story content. This has made the game feel the same the whole year. Every season released some ok content, but people and myself are sick of the seasonal model. On top of that, they did not have any power level increases throughout the whole year, so once I made it to max level in Lightfall, that was it. This whole year I have had no reason to grind. The guns from the recent dungeon and newest raid were uninteresting to me, and I did not nned to grind levels. So, all I do when I log in is play whatever new content comes out which is few and far between, and we have to wait till June for the next DLC.

Overall, I have loved my time with the game. The newest dungeon, while not having desirable loot, is one of my favorite dungeons of all time. However, there is just not enough new mundane content to keep me wanting to play everyday. All I do is log in week to week when the seasonal story comes out. As a new player, I know you will have lots of content to do and will have a blast playing everything with your friends. But, as someone who has loved the game and spent thousands of hours playing both the original Destiny and Destiny 2, I hate to say it but I have no reason to play again until The Final Shape. I hope that The Final Shape changes the game in a major way so  Ihave a reason to be grinding things again, but as is stands, I will be putting the game down for a while.

Thank you all for sticking around after all this time. See you starside, Guardians…

Greeting Guardians,

Today we will start a discussion in regards to all new and current players which is, should you play Destiny 2 at this time? The question is one that I feel is complicated to answer after what has happened this past year. Today, I felt it was necessary to bring up some points about the game so you can make a more educated decision. At the end of this, I hope it is easier for you to decide if you want to play this game or not.

Let us start with the talk about the price. I have had a problem with how this game does its monetization. It has several ways for you to pay while you play the game. Now, Bungie has gone out and said their game is free to play and, while this is not totally false, there is not much for you to do as a free-to-play player. There are a certain number of strikes you can play in the game and it is possible to reach max light level while playing free there are even a couple of raids for you to complete. However, there is very little story you get as a free-to-play player before they start shoving prompts in your face telling you to purchase their DLC. If we were to tally up all the content you can pay for this game from the Steam page for all that is available, you would have to spend $564.86 before tax. This is to allow you to unlock all the content the game has to offer. This included the season pass which is monthly content that gets released, as well as the dungeon keys which are only unlocked through the keys.

So, let’s say you do not have an issue buying the content and your friends really want you to play. Well, you have a bunch of grinding to do before you get there. I hope you have some end-game friends who can carry you through the Legendary version of the campaign because the items you get at the start are going to make going through the legendary versions of the campaigns a whole lot harder. What do you do if you have no friends? Well, they soon will release an in-game lfg service which will allow you to play with anyone that are any light, but now you are playing with randoms who may not be nice to you while you play. I have had some very bad experiences in lfg before.

But, if you have friends that you can play with or you find a really good clan, you can have a lot of fun with the game. I have played for over 2,684 hours. That is a super duper long time to be playing the game. I have done all the content multiple times over and I have had so much fun playing everything. Even after what has happened due to recent budget cuts or with the poor state Lightfall launched in, I still had fun booting up the game with my friends killing aliens and using unique guns and build crafting.

Right now, Destiny is in a low point and the game is really struggling with their player count. However, they still make it on Steam’s top 10 most played game chart daily, and they still boast a large playerbase. Not to mention the next season will be upon us shortly. There are some hurdles to get over both monetarily and socially, but if you can find the right group to play with, then all the money spent will have been worth it. Until next time, see you starside guardians.

Greetings guardians,

Welcome back to another post. Today, some terrible things were announced that have shaken the community and have made the community question the future of the company.

Today, revealed by a Polygon article, discussed layoffs amidst the company. Sony currently owns the company, and many believe these layoffs were initiated by Sony rather than Bungie CEOs. Unfortunately, many people lost their jobs today in a wave of layoffs that hit many departments of the company from community managers to sound specialists.

The big DLC that was also supposed to be released in February has been unofficially pushed back to June of next year. This coincides with the layoffs as the information was let out within the article. This is a huge disappointment because many were excited about the release of the DLC and now will have to wait until the summer. This leaves the question, will the final season coming out really last all the way from November through June? The number of players that will drop off during this time will be large, and the game as a whole may suffer as a result.

Now, none of this information has been confirmed by Bungie yet as they have not released a personal statement, but I assume they want to attempt damage control by downplaying everything. This still has had some people who recently lost their jobs speak out on social media. Even the legend Michael Salvatori has been laid off by Bungie. Michael was the one who has been composing much of Destiny’s music and Bungie’s music as a whole for years now. He worked on the Halo games, Destiny 1 and Destiny 2 releasing some of the most iconic music to date, music that I love and still listen to. If you want to listen to all the amazing music he was responsible for, you can visit his YouTube page where he has all the music he created on it. I mean it when I say that much of this music you will have heard from somewhere else because it is some of the most iconic music ever.

At the end of the day, these layoffs will negatively impact the company and the game moving forward, and while we do not currently see the negative effects of these layoffs, we will have to wait and see when the Final Shape releases, as its quality may be affected by what has happened today.

But that is all from me for now. Until next time guardians, I will see you starside.

Greeting Guardians,

Welcome back to another blog post. This week, I want to discuss something a bit controversial in the world of Destiny. This topic was discussed a while back in a previous TWID (This week in Destiny dev blog) and is something that will be affecting players in the near future.

If you do not know what legendary shards are, then you might not know how important they are to the economy of the game. Legendary shards are dropped from any item with a purple (legendary) rarity or above. As you play the game, you obtain thousands of shards from various sources. You can even find them being given away on the battle pass.

Legendary Shards are what you use to purchase several items in the game. From certain engrams to weapons from vendors to upgrade materials, shards are very important. However, even though you can get them from many sources, players have been feeling fatigued by them. Why is that? Well, when you play the game for the first time, it can be very tough to come by legendary shards and get what you want. There is a secondary currency called Glimmer that is also used in every purchase, but it is separate from shards. This difference in currency has confused many players and is the main reason for the shads being removed.

Another reason is shards are annoying to gather. I have been playing for a long time so I have thousands of shards, but at one point I did not have many shards, so I had to tactically choose how to spend my shards. I can see how, for a new player, it can be really tough to want to go out and farm shards.

Legendary Shards were actually introduced in Destiny 2 when it first launched and was not actually in the first Destiny. It was added as a way to make the game more grindy, but overtime that was mitigated by Bungie adding more ways to obtain shards and to the amount of legendary gear that drops.

Today, I understand why they need to remove shards. They hurt new players, and do not have a purpose in the game anymore. Now, Glimmer will be replacing shards, and hopefully, the economy of the game stays healthy, but for those who have thousands of shards saved like myself, go spend them now, because soon they will all be gone from your inventory.

Until next time, see you starside.

Greetings guardians,

Welcome back to another week of Destiny news. This week we will be discussing what is going on with the Imbaru Engine.

For those of you who have not yet played this season, there is a new destination that opened up last week called the Imbaru Engine. Your only goal is to try and open the correct chests as they appear. Sounds simple, right? Well, it is really simple. Almost too simple for Bungie.

For a little history on Destiny, they have had multiple puzzles that have made the players look inside and around the game to find out about its secrets. One of their biggest secrets was when they released the gun, Outbreak Perfected. It all started with a random daily mission that most players might overlook. However, a new secret path opened up that gave you the item called the Fallen Transponder. From here you had to decode the message by searching for pieces in the game. It eventually led to a link that you needed to put into your browser which displayed a symbol for a location within the game. After deciphering everything and completing a secret mission, you were rewarded with an exotic weapon, Outbreak Perfected. (displayed below)

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How does this tie into the Imbaru Engine? Well, the first week the mission launched, it only had you opening up chests. However, a new secret was found this week when you unlocked a hidden card. It opened a door leading deeper into the spire. This led to a room where you had to follow a path killing certain enemies to fuel the engine. Once completed successfully, you were given a bit of loot and then kicked out of the mission.

I have spent time searching every nook and cranny I could find and I was unsuccessful in my discoveries. It appears the mission will be unlocked week by week until we make it to the very end where, hopefully, a super awesome weapon is there waiting for us. Unfortunately, we will have to wait and see. Until next guardians, see you starside.

Greetings Guardians,

Welcome back to another weekly Destiny News. Today we are going to discuss what is going on within the game.

For those of you who have not been on recently, there has been a game-breaking bug that has been discovered. This bug allows you to turn your auto rifles into machine guns, your shotguns into boss deletion machines, and your snipers into one-shotting nightmares. How has this happened? Well, I am not sure how this bug came to be, but it’s a bit difficult to try and pull off. How it works is:

Go into the Enclave and find a gun you want to merge into another (I recommend an aggressive frame shotgun so that way your guns shoot 12 bullets for every shot fired).

Then you want to click on the gun that you want to merge.

Then you have to immediately click another gun that you want to transfer the frame onto.

Finally, craft the weapon.

And there you have it! I have done this with two guns so far. I have a slug shotgun shooting 12 pellets every shot, and I have a sniper doing the same. I took the weapon with some friends into the newest raid and…. well… just take a look at the damage yourself.

You are seeing that correctly. My shotgun with the combination of Tractor Cannon and Divinity allowed me to achieve over 12 MILLION damage. To be honest, I have never seen anything in the game quite like this. It is very hilarious and, if you can get it to work for you, can be loads of fun.

Now, I know what you are thinking, “Oh no will they ban me if I use this?”. The answer is actually no! Bungie posted on their twitter that they would not be stopping our fun unless it completely breaks the game in some way. In PVP, good luck because every gun is one shotting people, which is still fun but can be frustrating if you do not have one yourself. Otherwise, Bungie is saying, “Go have fun while it is in-game since it won’t last forever!”. Honestly, go give this a shot because it is very fun. Until next time, see you starside guardians.

Hello Guardians!

It sure was a crazy week in Destiny last week, and I thought it would be great to discuss what happened during the world’s first race.

Now, if you have never heard of Destiny, or you have no idea what a world’s first race is, buckle up because it is one of the most watched events in the gaming community. A world’s first race happens when a brand new (or reprised raid) is added into Destiny 2 for the first time. During the first 48 hours (used to be 24), the difficulty is turned up to an 11. You are forced to be 20 light levels lower than your current level at all times, and enemies not only hit harder but have more shields and aggression toward the player. On top of this, there are no guide videos out there, so you have to learn the mechanics all on your own. Teams of six race to become the first team to complete the raid successfully to earn a championship belt from Bungie.

When Lightfall (newest dlc) came out, its raid was beaten in under three hours. It was the fastest raid ever completed in a raid race. Crota’s End is a reprised raid from Destiny 1, and it was known for being the easiest raid in that game. So, when the community heard that Crota was coming back, we all thought it was going to be the easiest raid again. However, this raid ended up being one of the hardest raids. From enemies killing you in a couple of blows to the new mechanics making hundreds of thousands of teams struggle to get their clears.

The raid was beaten in 5 hours and 50 minutes. The team that beat the raid and claimed the title was Team Elysium. This is now their fourth world’s first completion, and only time will tell if they can continue this pace when the next raid comes out in the Final Shape DLC. Until next time, see you starside guardians.

This blog is focused on news regarding Destiny 2 and Bungie-related Development updates, community projects, and feedback.