Destiny Megathread - PC Release 24th October

[McJob]

[ About | Story | Classes | Gameplay | Resources | Players ]




The Story of Destiny

Destiny is an online-only multiplayer first-person shooter video game developed by Bungie and published by Activision. It is the spiritual successor to Bungie's other incredibly popular franchises, Marathon and Halo. Bungie and Activision have agreed to a minimum of 10 years for the franchise, and it kicked-off in 2014 after a very rocky development period. After finishing Halo 3 and splitting from Microsoft to once again become an independent company, Bungie's Jason Jones pushed his team to begin planning out the next big thing for Bungie after they fufilled their final 2 game promise to Microsoft (Halo 3: ODST and Halo: Reach). Development began in 2010, but hit various snags along the way. Despite the loss of core Bungie alumni such as Joseph Staten, Marty O'Donnell and Jaime Griesemer, the team pulled together and Destiny was finally released on the Xbox 360, Xbox One, PS3 and PS4 in September of 2014. Destiny's launch was plagued with teething issues; network connectivity problems, balance hiccups and a general lack of content made for a tough beginning. The first two expansions, The Dark Below and House of Wolves only marginally improved matters. It wasn't until the release of The Taken King, a major expansion pack that reworked many of the core mechanics and introduced an entirely new area, where things began to really shine for Destiny. The following expansion Rise of Iron brought in even more well-respected changed, and the game's final (free) expansion, Age of Triumph, allowed players to reflect back on their Destiny experiences and prepare for the future of the franchise. Destiny 2 was announced on February 11th, 2016, this time aimed towards the Xbox One, PS4 and PC. Lead by the same team in charge of The Taken King, Destiny 2 looks to be a massive step forward for the franchise, including new functionality to help friends come together and fend off the fearsome Cabal Red Legion. The Console Beta was a huge success during July, and the PC Beta will commence during August (August 28th for Early Access players, 29th for everybody, beta ending on the 31st).

The World of Destiny

We called it The Traveler, and its arrival changed us forever. Great cities were built on Mars and Venus. Mercury became a garden world. Human lifespan tripled. It was a time of miracles. We stared out at the galaxy and knew that it was our destiny to walk in the light of other stars. But the Traveler had an enemy: a Darkness, which had hunted it for eons across the black gulfs of space. Centuries after our Golden Age began, this Darkness found us, and that was the end of everything.

But it was also a beginning.

. . .

Hundreds of years into the future, we ventured onto the surface of Mars, and it was there that we discovered The Traveller. The Traveller's Light enhanced us and our civilisations; we produced a race of sentient robots (the Exo) and we colonised many of the planets within our solar system. All was well until The Darkness arrived. The Collapse nearly lead to the end of humanity as a whole, and in its dying breath, The Traveller gave birth to the Ghosts, robots who would seek out their chosen Guardian from the corpses of fallen warriors and resurrect them, imbued with the power of light to fight back against the forces of The Darkness. In our first foray (Destiny), we are revived by our Ghost in Russia, and promptly escape to The Tower, located within The Last City of Earth. We meet the Vanguard, Cayde-6 of the Hunters, Zavala of the Titans, Ikora Rey of the Warlocks and Lord Shaxx of the Crucible, and we also meet The Speaker, the one who tends to The Traveller. We venture forth to do the will of the Vanguard, and on our way encounter the various forces who seek to end us; The Fallen, a race of aliens previously groomed by The Traveller until The Darkness arrived and so it fled, leaving them in the dust; The Hive, an ancient race of undead slaves with a fear of the Light and a burning desire for The Darkness; the Vex, a race of ancient robots who can teleport through time; and the Cabal, a proud warrior race who wish to enslave or destroy anything in their path. At first, the Vex hunt for an object called "The Black Heart"; some kind of device linked directly to The Darkness and the only thing in the known universe that the Vex cannot understand, leading to their insatiable fascination with it. After destroying it, we take on a Hive Prince, worshipped as a God, named "Crota". After helping the Awoken (humans mutated by forces unknown, hiding on a space station near Venus) deal with a traitorous race of Fallen, Crota's dad "Oryx" comes to play, decimating most of the Awoken fleet in the process. Finally, we come back to Earth and help the remaining Iron Lords in order to stop the Fallen from taking advantage of a substance with limitless potential, SIVA.

. . .

The Cabal took an interest in us; we were more than just a mere an annoyance, and they've now decided that our time is up. Leader of the fearsome Red Legion, Dominus Ghaul now has our scent, and attempts a move unlike any other force to date. With a giant fleet of powerful warships, they assault The Tower, placing The Traveller within some kind of shield. Hundreds, maybe thousands, of Guardians are eliminated, and the survivors are forced to flee from the ruins of The Last City. We find ourselves within The European Deadzone, and our purpose is clear; we must reunite the Vanguard (who've ended up spread across various moons in the solar system on their own personal quests) and bring the fight straight back to Garry and his Space Turtle forgets. Destiny 2 launches September 6th for Xbox One and Playstation 4, and October 24th for PC.

Who You Play In Destiny



In Destiny, your abilities and role are defined by your Class and Subclasses. There are three classes to choose from, which your character is permanently stuck with after creation. Each class has three subclasses that you can swap between at any time after you've collected them. Classes define your general attributes, while the subclasses decide what superpower and perks you have, based on the element they represent (Solar (Fire), Arc (Electricity) or Void (Darkness-ish).

The Subclass Chart will become available post-launch of Destiny 2, once all subclasses are confirmed.


What To Do In Destiny

		Story Missions For every new Destiny player, this is where you'll begin. Although designed for the solo experience, the story missions allow you and upto 2 friends jump in and experience the tale of your Guardian spreading their light across the galaxy. These missions generally involve going from location to location, retrieving objects and assassinating bosses, and the loot and difficulty are scaled to your Light (an in-game average of your weapon and defence values, representative of how far in the game you are). Destiny's story ended with The Black Garden, although new story missions were added as part of the expansion packs (these are marked with a special header).
		Social Zones Social Zones are non-combat areas where vendors setup shop and Guardians come to kick back. In Destiny, there were three social zones (The Tower, the Vestian Outpost and Felwinter Peak), all of which supported upto 16 players. In Destiny 2, upto 26 players can join in on the action, and there will be more to do inside the social spaces (such as soccer). As well as standard loot vendors, you'll also find vendors for Bounties (little activities that offer small rewards), your Vault for item storage and in Destiny 2, you'll find NPCs who come and go, each with their own story to tell and sidequests to provide.
		Strikes Designed for multiplayer, Strikes are like Story missions, but allow players to face harder bosses for better loot. Strikes feature dynamic matchmaking that will attempt to add players if you ever fall under the 3 player limit. Strikes typically explore loose plot lines touched on inside the story campaign and are self-contained. In Destiny, Strikes and all harder content offer special Chests that can be opened with unique keys (awarded through completion of endgame content), offering incredible Strike-specific loot unlocks.
		Nightfall Strikes The Weekly Nightfall Strike is designed for players looking to get into the endgame content. Matchmaking is disabled, and instead upto 5 modifiers are enabled (generally disadvantaging the player, such as reducing the amount of damage your primary gun does). Enemies are set to their hardest, and you're both timed and awarded points and medals for various actions which culminate in your end of game score. In Destiny, achieving a certain score while remaining under a time limit was necessary for certain special rewards. This activity offers the keys that can be used to unlock the Strike chests.
		Raids Raids are the true endgame content that will test your skills in the PvE side of the game. With no matchmaking, you must collect a team of upto 6 Guardians (less is not recommend, and in some Raids will be impossible to finish under the cap) and venture forth into a series of increasingly difficult challenges. Unlike all other modes, there are no instructions or guides; unless you've read an online walkthrough, players must work out what each of the puzzle mechanics are in order to work their way to the final boss. When a player dies in a Raid, they will not respawn until the team reaches the next stage of the Raid; if all players die then they warp back to the last checkpoint. Raids offer some of the best loot in the game.
		Crucible Lord Shaxx's training ground for Guardians, the Crucible is the bread and butter of the PvP experience. Every week the game-modes and maps on offer are rotated, as well as the loot rewards for finishing a match. In Destiny, party sizes are upto 6 players, while in Destiny 2, party sizes will be upto 4. You can also host a private match with your friends if you'd like to practice or just mess about. Some maps offer unique vehicles or defensive capabilities that may help tip the battle in your favour.

. . .

Other Activities As you might expect, some of the content introduced in Destiny will not be returning to Destiny 2 or will be changed in ways that we simply can't just at this point. The Prison of Elders and Challenge of Elders are PvE arena battles, pitting you and friends against rounds of various enemies, offering special loot and favour with the Awoken. The SIVA CrCIA Strikes were a take on the Weekly Nightfall; instead of being a weekly rotated unique challenge, the SIVA Strikes are special variants of standard strikes available through two Strike Playlists which offer the medals and scoring of the Nightfall, but feature new enemies and more helpful modifiers. Finally, the Trials of Osiris were a PvP endgame activity where highly coordinated teams could come together to try and win a trip to the hidden Social Zone, The Lighthouse. Flawess Victory (7 uninterrupted game wins) would guarantee your ticket to the Lighthouse, where you could purchase special gear. Destiny 2 is including some new types of content, although we'll need to wait until release for full details.

Additional Destiny Resources





BLF's Destiny Players

TBA

[Ad Bot]

[McJob]

-post reserved for future updates-

[JumboMuffin]

i have preordered regular edition for pc, im hyped :D

[John Freeman]

Tfw I'm on vacation during the beta

oh

[JumboMuffin]

Tfw I'm on vacation during the beta

oh

yeah i missed the last beta because of that

[Element]

from those that played the console beta: how is the game? i've got a slight doubt that it's just gonna flop so hard which i can't get rid of

[Nal]

The Things To Do In Destiny

WIP

sounds about right /s

[Blue Screen]

lmao destiny 2 launches one day after my birthday, might pick it up if i have money, also i gotta get back into destiny before destiny 2 comes out lol

excellent work on the op btw

[Legoboss]

from those that played the console beta: how is the game? i've got a slight doubt that it's just gonna flop so hard which i can't get rid of

i've never played destiny until the beta but it was fun
the best part was when they opened up a farm place and it was just a bunch of players richarding around and playing soccer

[McJob]

The last two sections I'll get around to soon; I'll be including links to various communities of interest as well as useful tools and just some cool Destiny-related stuff you might like. I'll then make a pretty table where you can link your Bungie account details

sounds about right

Fixed ;)

from those that played the console beta: how is the game? i've got a slight doubt that it's just gonna flop so hard which i can't get rid of

Waaaaaay better than Vanilla Destiny, I can tell you that much. The launch game is going to be jam packed with more content than current Destiny (and all its expansions), and the mechanics have been polished up and retweaked to better suit a faster and more offensive style. There's also new tools to connect with friends and other people, and my god does the game have some gorgeous visuals.

It's going to be fantastic.

excellent work on the op btw

Cheers aye.

[ShadowsfeaR]

nice :)

[McJob]

Because the Destiny 2 API is still not fully announced yet, the web resources that will be available to players aren't yet formalised. I'll update that section post-release, same as the players list once we have access to your pretty emblems and stats. Might even pump them into the second post so I can do even better formatting stuff.

[Trymos]

i'm still salty over a lack of cross platform play in a game where ideally you should be playing with friends.

but w/e i'm still buying it on pc because i can buy it with wow gold.

[ShadowsfeaR]

i'm still salty over a lack of cross platform play in a game where ideally you should be playing with friends.

but w/e i'm still buying it on pc because i can buy it with wow gold.

PvP with PC vs Consoles would be a loving nightmare

[Trymos]

PvP with PC vs Consoles would be a loving nightmare

there are ways around this while still keeping the most useful point intact.

also mcjob i hate you forever it's called the blizzard app not battle.net because blizzard app is clearly a better name and is so much more iconic than battle.net /s

https://worldofwarcraft.com/en-us/news/20972461/blizzard-battle-net-update
nevermind i can go forget myself.