After a long drought of no new content and radio silence, Bungie broke their silence last week with the announcement of patch 2.2.0. With a new well of content to reveal to players, Bungie has scheduled three separate “Twitch Reveals” in order to inform and prepare players for the upcoming content drop.
April Update Preview: New Things to Do
Wednesday, March 23rd – 11AM Pacific
April Update Preview: New Things to Earn
Wednesday, March 30th – 11AM Pacific
April Update Preview: Sandbox and Crucible Updates
Wednesday, April 6th – 11AM Pacific
Source – Bungie
To start off with, the content from the patch is largely focused on the Reef following the Awoken realm and what they are doing since their defeat by Oryx’s fleet and the disappearance of their Queen, and yes I mean disappearance as Bungie has confirmed that the Queen is still alive and that she still has a role to play in the Destiny universe. You will obtain new quests from Variks centred around his capture and study of the Taken in the Prison of Elders. PlayStation players will also get access to a new questline from Petra at the Reef which will yield its own unique rewards.
They are also increasing the light level cap from 320 to 335. Yay, finally a new mountain to climb! There are also multiple ways to earn gear to hit this new 335 light level tier which include;
- Prison of Elders
- Court of Oryx
- Heroic and Nightfall Strikes
- Kings Fall Raid
- Iron Banner
- Trials of Osiris
Source – Bungie
Personally, I am glad that they have raised the tier rewards for the Kings Fall raid as it would of been a shame to see all our hard grinding for the Kings Fall gear over the last six months go to waste. It is also good to see them moving forward with all forms of end game in order to ensure plenty of ways for every kind of player to advance to the new light level cap.
Bungie is finally giving the Prison of Elders the face lift it deserves after it was left in the gutter at the beginning of year 2. They are bringing the match made level of POE up to level 41 (light 260) in order to put it in line with other current activities. However the mode I am excited about is the new Challenge of the Elders mode. Challenge of the Elders is the new endgame mode that is being added with the patch 2.2.0 which combines the scoring system of the crucible with the fun, less stressful game play of PvE activities. The challenge mode runs on a weekly rotation with 8 confirmed new bosses to take down, each with their own unique abilities. As I mentioned the Challenge mode incorporates the scoring system of the crucible which is how you earn your end game rewards. Each week you may purchase an “Elder’s Sigil” from Variks each week which has two parts to complete. Part 1 is the challenge score, which is a score that must be obtained in a single run of the challenge mode. Achieving this will earn you an end game level weapon of a random type. Part 2 is an accumulative score which can be achieved by several runs and this will earn you an end game level piece of armour. Each piece can only be earnt once per card, which is on a weekly rotation, so once per week.
Another new thing to do is the new strike called “The Blighted Chalice” and the upgraded strike of “Winters Run” where you get to face the Archon Priest again but with a Taken Twist. The Blighted Chalice strike features a new threat in the form of the Taken champion Malak who, in my opinion, looks like a giant, roided up Thrall. Malak has filled the void left by Oryx’s demise and must be dealt with before he can become the new Taken King. You will track him to the Hellmouth where you will face him and his horde in the new strike showdown and of course, this strike will feature its own unique rewards as well. They are going to need to upgrade the Vault again if I’m going to keep hoarding all of this new gear.
I don’t know about everyone else but I am super excited about all these new developments in the destiny saga and I cannot wait for April 12th when the patch will go live. Until then, we have two more reveals to look forward over the coming weeks where Bungie will reveal even more about its latest advancements in the Destiny universe.
