April 12th marked the release of Bungie’s newest mini expansion to their ever growing universe. With it, we saw the arrival of two new strikes, new quests and a bunch of tweaks and fine tunings behind the scenes. We also saw a new light goal of 335 as well as a bunch of rehashed weapons and armours.
As a huge Destiny fan having spent over 500 hours playing since its release, I was more eager than anyone to see what the April update bought to the table. After spending two weeks ticking off every possible thing to do, I couldn’t be happier with what Bungie have done. Let me tell you what Bungie have included and why I was so happy about it.
Recycling the Prison of Elders and introducing the new challenges was ingenious. From a technical point of view, rather than developing completely new content, Bungie spent time tweaking their unused existing content and in doing so created an abundance of replayability in what is now called The Challenge of the Elders. This includes the challenges of accumulating points and achieving a highscore, all whilst juggling a rotating modifier such as headshots or grenade kills. The reward for such accomplishment are new armour pieces and weapons respectively. The best part about the Prison of Elders update is that it still only requires 3 fire team members and this suited my small group of friends perfectly.
A new item has been added to the Eververse in the form of Sterling Treasure. This is a box that can drop new armour pieces (at light level 3), that can be infused with Chroma. For those that aren’t aware, Chroma is an aura of sorts, where you can mix and match your 4 different colours as you see fit. Whilst I don’t really agree with Eververse items, a total of three Sterling Treasure boxes can be found per account by participating in the weekly crucible match. You must also complete a level 41 Prison of Elders and one will be waiting for you at the post master. A certain set of armour drops inside the Sterling Treasure will allow you to look like the foe you had been hunting since last September (The Taken). You can also get a free suited emote to match it once your set is complete. Whilst i’m not a huge fan of it all, I’ve definitely taken shot at Taken themed guardians more than once.
Previously infusing items was somewhat of a gamble people evaluating formulas to determine what their infusion light would be, now you will end up with the highest light level item being infused no matter what. A great example of this is that one of the level 3 armour pieces from the Sterling treasure boxes will instantly infuse into your 320 light armour piece you are sacrificing, if you choose to sacrifice that piece.
The best part of the update is without a doubt the new smart loot system. Long gone are the days of grinding at forever 29 or 319. Bungie have revamped the loot system for guardians so that the items you need will appear more frequently and 1-5 light points higher than what you currently have. To put this into perspective, prior to the April update I was sitting at 317 across all characters. Two weeks into the update and doing just about everything you can do in those two weeks, I currently sit at 334 on all characters. I’m not only one point off the new max of 335. It was remarkable and extremely rewarding in comparison to the previous grind that it used to be.
Now, there are a few issues with this. If I can boost up to just under the highest light level in a space o two weeks, certainly this will be the case for everyone. From what I can see, half of the community thinks this is too easy and the other half are happy that they’re able to quickly create their perfect guardian in terms of looks and weaponry. I love feeling like my hard work is being rewarded in-game for once and I sit on the side that absolutely loves this new update.
My only grief is that people are essentially bluffing their way through the game when it comes to the games toughest challenge, The Kings Fall raid. There was a time before this update where you knew a guardian was worth their salt with a light level of 315 plus. Now post update, with the generosity of smart loot, people who have never attempted or even completed the raid think that they can do so. Don’t get me wrong, I am no elitist, if a fellow guardian asks for help I am more than obliged to help. It now stands though that people are upright lying about having completed the raid and refuse to listen to acceptable instruction on how to do so. Not only wasting their time, my time but the four other raid party members time.
Apart from this gripe, I absolutely loved everything in this update. I believe it’s what Destiny has been needing for a very long time. The updated difficulty in the Nightfall Strike, the increased rank buffs for factions, with better rewards & the updates strike playlist with rewards to suit. I’m also a massive fan of the item drop rate and light drop rate. In my opinion, Destiny has now ticked every box that needed to be addressed and I once again cannot get enough of Destiny. My time now feels much more well spent and I feel a bigger sense of accomplishment when playing.
