The second Bungie reveal stream leading up to the April Update debuted today, and there was pl enty for new players to be excited about. Dubbed the “New Things to Earn” reveal, the twitch stream focused on the new gear upgrades and cosmetic items, as well as the different ways that Guardians can attain that armor.
Bungie announced several major changes to the game that should help players in the grind to max light level, as well as allowing a unprecedented amount of customization in the game. One of the biggest changes is a major change in the controversial Infusion system for progression. In the Taken King update up to this point, players could take lower level gear and, if they had a piece of gear that was a higher level that they didn’t like as much as the old piece, could infuse it into their lower level gear to bring it a portion of the way toward the power of the new weapon. However, this didn’t level the gear all the way up, so a player had to sacrifice a few light levels to keep their favorite gear. With this update, gear will now infuse to the full level of the higher-level gear, making leveling up much less of a grind. Another change that affects the level progression is the plethora of places in which players can attain max light-level gear. Where previously the only way to reach max light level was by Raiding and going flawless in the Trails of Osiris, players can now get max-level gear not only from King’s Fall (After a hot fix), Iron Banner, and Trials of Osiris, but also from Exotic Engrams, Court of Oryx, Challenge of Elders, and the Strike Unique gear can also drop at max level.
As far as new gear goes, the stream revealed all-new sets of faction gear, as well the new Desolute line, which is taken-themed gear, as well as the Spectar line, which was created with the newest customization innovation in Destiny, the Chroma system, in mind. The Chroma system is an upgrade node on weapons and armor that allow players to customize their gear with a glow, separate from shaders, in one of four colors: White, Blue, Red, and Yellow. Each piece of gear is separately customizable with Chroma, so this allows for many different combinations of colors and shaders. The Desolute and Spectar lines of armor are obtainable only from a new consumable called the Sterling Treasure, which can be obtained in four ways. Players will receive one free Sterling Treasure from the post office per week, and another will drop when guardians complete one match in the weekly crucible playlist. They will also drop upon a weekly completion of the level 41 Prison of Elder’s completion, and they are also available for purchase from Eververse. The gear dropping from these consumables only drop at 3 light, so purchasing the packs do not allow players to “pay to progress.” Sterling Treasures can also drop new ships, sparrows, shaders, as well as faction rep boosts and Chroma materials.
Additional customization was show from Eververse in a new selection of emotes, including Club Dance, Instructional Dance, Do It, Kicks Dance, Praise the Gun, Amazed, Sumo, Bye-Bye, Praise the Light, I Don’t Know, Crane Kick, and Rude Taunt. The stream also featured a new taken sword, a new taken ship, a new taken ghost from the Challenge of Elders, new sparrows, and also revealed that the update will bring back some old year-1 weapons back to the new endgame. Additionally, the stream showed a new feature that allows players to turn off the HUD interface, allowing for a more cinematic experience, at the cost of functionality.
Immediately following the stream, Bungie released a series of Instagram posts showing some of the new year one exotics that will be brought forward with this update, including all of the Prison of Elders exotics, Patience and Time, Universal Remote, The Arachnid, Purifier Robes, Eternal Warrior, Sunbreakers, Glasshouse, Kepri’s Sting, ACD/0 Feedback Fences, and more.
Next week’s stream will cover the Crucible, sandbox updates, as well as other quality of life changes coming in the update. The April Update will drop April 12, at no charge to players who have Destiny: The Taken King.
