Destiny fans, prepare yourselves. Because the game is about to unlock the potential of its exotic weapons. Those magnificent death-dealing guns that are pried from the dying hands of various high-level foes are about to be overhauled, and buffed to be even better than usual at the speedy delivery of lead implants into the face of your nearest nemesis.
First up, the facts: Getting really good loot in Destiny can be a bit of a grind. Specifically, having to actually grind for the materials needed in order to manufacture legendary guns and armour. Bungie has a new patch on the way in preparation of The Dark Below expansion. The biggest change here, will be that upgrading Exotic gear will now require Exotic Shards instead of ascendant materials, which can be obtained from Xur by dismantling another Exotic item. But here’s the real kicker:
- Reduced Cryptarch reputation gain from Engrams, but reputation reward packages now have an increased chance for Legendary Engrams
- Players will now be able to use Vanguard Marks and Crucible Marks to purchase Spinmetal, Relic Iron, Spirit Bloom, and Helium Filaments from the Vanguard and Crucible Quartermasters in the Tower
- Xur now sells a new material, Exotic Shards, to upgrade the final node of Exotics for 7 Strange Coins
That’s a pretty decent price to get some really good gear. Here’s the rest of the patch list below, straight from Bungie:
Weapons
Exotics
Exotic Weapons are designed to look, feel, and sound overpowered. At the same time, they are not supposed to break the balance of the game. We hope these weapons challenge the way players think about their loadouts. Exotics will be a constant work in-progress!
General
- In preparation for the Dark Below, Exotic Armor and Weapons no longer require Ascendant Materials to upgrade
- The final upgrade node of all Exotic Gear will require an Exotic Shard
- Exotic Shardscan be obtained by one of the following means:
- Dismantling unwanted Exotics
- Purchased from Xur for 7 Strange Coins
- Exotics now start at a higher base Attack value and have a narrowed upgrade range to compensate
Thorn
- Projectiles now briefly highlight targets on impact
- Mark of the Devourer DoT (damage-over-time) upgrade increased against PvE enemy targets
- Reload Speed increased
- Magazine Size increased
- Ammo inventory size increased
- Stability and Weapon Handling increased
Bad Juju
- Magazine Size increased to 8 bursts (was 5)
- Ammo inventory size increased
- String of Curses now also decreases the cooldown of your Super on kill
- Adjusted effects to not block first person reticle
Hard Light
- Stability increased
- Perfect Balance upgrade replaced by Fitted Stock (increases maximum possible weapon Stability)
Suros Regime
- Lowered total damage at the end of the mag on SUROS Regime upgrade to be more in line with the Glass Half Full perk on Legendary Auto Rifles
Monte Carlo
- Stability increased
- Range slightly decreased
- Monte Carlo Method upgrade now also has a chance to fully charge melee ability on kill
MIDA Multi-Tool
- MIDA rounds now have increased knockback against targets in both PvE and PvP
Hawkmoon
- Send It upgrade (which was redundant) replaced by Speed Reload
Red Death
- Rate of Fire increased slightly, but Burst Damage reduced to compensate
Plan C
- Weapon Handling speed increased
- Player Speed increased while Plan C is in hand
Pocket Infinity
- Speed Reload upgrade replaced by Extended Clip which allows the option to increase magazine size (5 bursts)
Vex Mythoclast
- Attack Power increased to 323 (from 300)
- Base Damage increased, fixing bug we introduced in previous patch
- Enhanced Battery upgrade by Extended Mag (this change still allows for a significant upgrade to Magazine Size, but less than before)
Invective
- Reload Speed increased significantly, auto fires slightly slower
Ice Breaker
- Send It upgrade replaced by Lightweight (which was redundant as Icebreaker already had maximum range)
- New effects for enemies killed by Ice Breaker upgrade
Patience and Time
- Snapshot upgrade replaced by Custom Optics (provides a lower zoom option)
Super Good Advice
- Stability increased
Truth
- Magazine Size increased to 3 (was 1)
Activities
Raid
- Fixed an issue we introduced in a previous patch, in which Atheon did not correctly send 3 players through the time gates
- Fixed an exploit where the Templar could be forced off its platform
Daily Heroic Story
- Destination Materials now drop from completing the Daily Heroic
Bounties
- Removed the ‘Relic Hunter’ Bounty
- Destination Materials now drop from completing the Daily Patrol Bounty
Vendors
- Faction Class Items (ex: FWC Cloak, Dead Orbit Mark, etc.) are now replaced by Faction Emblems in the rank-up reward packages from Faction Vendors
Technical
- Networking fixes, which should reduce the instance of the Bee family of KTOs
- Fixed an issue in which using Xbox One party chat induced a slower frame rate
Take that, you stingy Cryptarch bastard.
Last Updated: December 2, 2014
Mark Treloar
December 2, 2014 at 10:09
I idea of grinding, grinds me.
Quo Vadis?
December 2, 2014 at 10:09
patch patch patch patch patch. Seems more to me these people should rather be working in an Indonesian sweatshop making knock off Adidas/ Nike/ Hilfiger clothing.
Jonah Cash
December 2, 2014 at 10:12
Well this is an always online game so there will be patches a plenty!! I appreciate them, as it makes the game better!! On single player offline game I agree, they should not even be necessary!!
And to be fair to Bungie, Destiny did pretty much work the way it should have at launch…. Which not many of the offline games can say this year!!
Quo Vadis?
December 2, 2014 at 10:14
Lol I can appreciate that, Jonah.
Jonah Cash
December 2, 2014 at 10:10
My bloody ADSL line is down, I can’t play Destiny… I even had to talk to my wife last night… My life is now a lie!!!
Also all my exotics are fully upgraded already!! So this doesn’t help me one little bit!!
Alien Emperor Trevor
December 2, 2014 at 10:14
I read that very quickly & thought you said “My wife is now a lie!!!”
Mark Treloar
December 2, 2014 at 10:15
Video or it never happened?
Jonah Cash
December 2, 2014 at 16:28
No man is that lucky!!!
Alien Emperor Trevor
December 2, 2014 at 10:13
*BANG* “Hah! Fooled you punk, this is a semi-automatic with a 9 round clip, not a revolver.”
Hammersteyn
December 2, 2014 at 10:17
“from the dying hands of various high-level foes” yeah I got all my exotics from either Xur or bounties. High level foes don’t drop shit
Jonah Cash
December 2, 2014 at 10:21
I have Hard Light and Invective!! When you put on earphones and you fully auto Invective it is pure gun lovers bliss!!! That shotgun on full auto is just amazing and sounds very close to the real thing!! Love it!!
Barend Van Niekerk
December 2, 2014 at 10:33
I have abandoned this game as server disconnections makes this game unplayable. Being excited about the game has turned into disappointment and lost of interest. Since when is launching unfinished titles the standard. Im on Mweb 4mb uncapped Premium, have tried an Afrihost account but i still disconnect. This is the only game with issues on my Xbox 1.
JunkieJI
December 2, 2014 at 10:35
I had the same problem with my MWEB account. Afrihost account worked for me, but yeah it was super frustrating
Hammersteyn
December 2, 2014 at 10:36
I’ve found that port forwarding(check their guides for which ports to open) and just having my PS4 connected to the internet works best,no phones or laptops. Took me a couple of days to figure it out but that’s whats working for me at the moment
Barend Van Niekerk
December 2, 2014 at 10:39
I have 2 PC,s and 2 Xbox 1’s on my network. We both have Open NAT and we disconnect the pc’s when we play. We are using the Mweb FON router. We have tried doing port forwarding but that gives us both a moderate NAT. Still almost Insta dc from game if we get in. Afrihost seems more stable but we still get dc’s when we are in fireteams
SojournZA
December 2, 2014 at 10:43
Barend, I found if I had a torrent application open not necessarily downloading though, caused issues for me. Once I turned the application off and gave my router and Xbox One a restart it resolved all my issues
Barend Van Niekerk
December 2, 2014 at 10:44
THis happens even if i dc my pc, but i did not reboot after i disconnected my pc so ill try it tonight thx.
SojournZA
December 2, 2014 at 10:46
yeh well for me, on a netgear 2750u router seemed to need a clear of the routing table before it would function correctly.
hope it helps
Hammersteyn
December 2, 2014 at 10:43
So you’re more than one person playing on the same line? I’ve read countless articles on universities having connection issues when trying to play on the same line. Hopefully Bungie sorts this out one day.
Sean Carbutt
December 2, 2014 at 12:07
Darryn, you have left out a couple of little things. Chests are now irrelevant as is the need to farm materials. You can now simply just buy them, BUT, who in their right mind is actually going to trade crucible or Vanguard points to buy materials? The ratio is 10 faction points to 20 materials? I can farm these in less than 5 minutes. Next cockup that they made is that you can now only get crucible points by playing crucible. Well not all of us enjoy COD in outer space with 12 year olds. So in essence, all of the vendors other than your class as in Warlock, Titan or Hunter are useless unless you play PVP mode. Definitely balanced in favour of PVP. Last mistake that Bunged Gee made is the need to now have to do their exotic bounties to get the Exotic Shards for the final Upgrade, ok you can buy them for 7 coins from Xur. Sorry not bitching at you, just venting. Bunged Gee keep listening to the wrong people and keep screwing this game up. They might as well just delete the poor story and just make it a full on PVP FPS
Jonah Cash
December 2, 2014 at 16:33
I agree with you on the point you make about materials… I would not use 1 point to buy materials let alone 10!! You can easily get 20 materials in the time it takes you to do 6 patrol missions…. And that is without really looking for chests!!
How else could you get Crucible marks? I thought it is only earned in the Crucible, luckily I like shooting 12 year old’s in the face it would seem….
Jonah Cash
December 2, 2014 at 16:35
Yes Daryn, if I have Invective at my side I feel lucky enough to try out your 1 shot theory with your puny .44 magnum….