After more than 6 months without any new content for the hit game, Destiny, Bungie Studios hosted a live stream in which they revealed actual gameplay and images from what they are referring to as the “April Update.” Bungie Community Manager Deej ushered a Twitch audience of nearly 70,000 viewers around the Reef as he explained what guardians could expect from the long-awaited content drop, including the basis for the story. With the Taken King Oryx vanquished in the King’s Fall raid, the taken presence in the solar system has been decreased, but it has not yet been destroyed entirely. The quest “Pretender to the Throne” centers around Malok, a powerful Taken enemy who now seeks to take over the throne that Oryx has vacated. It will be the job of the guardians to track him down and destroy him in the all-new Blighted Chalice strike.
An additional strike was also revealed, in which a taken variant of the Archon Priest strike, which was included in vanilla Destiny, will be available in the Vanguard Heroic playlist, although it will not be an inherent strike in the directory. This strike will drop exclusive gear, much like the other Taken King strikes. In addition, Bungie also noted that, true to form, guardians on the PlayStation will have access to an exclusive quest and strike.
The main feature of this reveal was a newly enhanced, albeit familiar, Prison of Elders, which debuted last spring in the House of Wolves DLC. Variks has been rounding up Taken enemies and wants the guardians to study how they fight and to destroy them. Originally, the Prison of Elders content seemed exciting, but most players lost interest within only a few weeks, partly because of the sheer repetitiveness and partly because of the lack of “useable” loot that the activity dropped, especially at the higher-difficulty levels. The new facelift that Bungie is giving the Prison in this update may be enough to bring players back to content that many players remember as the most grueling and frustrating in the game to date.
Bungie focused on many different changes that they made to the Prison of Elders, but the main attraction is a new scoring system, similar to the one used in the Crucible multiplayer mode, which will be employed in the new “Challenge of the Elders,” a level 42 activity. Each week, players can purchase a Sigil that act similarly to the Trials of Osiris ticket, and work to earn points for rewards each week. A one-game high score over 30,000 points will score players an armor piece at 335 light level (the new level cap), and an accumulation of 90,000 points in one week will net guardians a weapon at 335 light level.
This new Prison of Elders Challenge Mode will consist of three rounds, unlike the original 5-rounds, and will also have checkpoints. Each week, the challenge will have different nightfall-like modifiers, as well as a positive score multiplier, such as extra points for precision kills. This multiplier will be escalated at each progressive round, so the final round will be worth the most, point wise. Deej revealed that Bungie has 16 different combinations of skull challenges, as well as eight bosses. While the old bosses have been recycled in this iteration of the Prison of Elders, each of the new Taken variants will have new powers; for example, the Pilot Servitor now has the ability to teleport and drop spider tank mines, and the Taken Knight’s fire breath now lingers longer and has a higher area of affect.
In addition to the new Challenge of the Elders mode, there will also be a level 41, 260 light-level version of the Prison of Elders, in which gear will drop at 320 light. Additionally, there are no more treasure keys required to open the chest at the end of the run, and there is no limit to how much loot players can get from this mode. Additionally, this will drop something called the “Sterling Treasure,” which Deej hinted has something to do with player progression, and could be a similar resource to the House of Wolves’ Etheric Light, and will be discussed next week. Engrams can now drop natively in the Prison of Elders, and the enemies within will also count towards bounties and quests. If Three-of-Coins are still included in the game, they will probably trigger in the Prison as well.
The Bungie website also showed that Kingsfall Normal drops will increase to light level 320, Kingsfall Hard drops will increase to light level 330, and Court of Oryx Artifact Drops increased to light level 335.
While it may not be the brand-new content that the community has been craving for the past few months, the April update is sure to be a breath of fresh air for many Destiny players. Next week’s reveal stream will feature level progression and new additions to gear in the game, and will be aired at 11:00 a.m. Pacific time.
