With the imminent release of Destiny: The Taken King and the Destiny 2.0 update, Bungie is taking a slightly different preview path than they did with the previous Destiny content releases.
Instead of releasing new PvE events into the world (Wolf Hunt patrols before House of Wolves for instance), Bungie is allowing all guardians access to new PvP modes and maps coming in The Taken King which are bundled in the Destiny 2.0 update. As a side note, the massive ~18GB update is scheduled to be pushed out next Tuesday on 9/8 so make sure your console has enough storage to handle it.
Destiny 2.0 features an enormous amount of changes that impact nearly every aspect of Destiny, both in the base game and across all of the additional content. We’re talking updates to the year one campaign (NorthGhost replaces DinkleBot throughout), character progression, reward and loot systems, weapon and gear upgrade paths, menu and UI tweaks, even more vault space (yay!), and so much more.
Once players get their hands on the game, even those who quit once they hit level 20, there’s no doubt that they will like what they see/play. During our recently hands-on preview of Destiny: The Taken King and the Destiny 2.0 update, we came away extremely impressed with the effort that Bungie has put into overhauling issues that fans have had since launch.
The character progression curve for the new and improved leveling system is not only more intuitive, it’s also a hell of a lot smoother and more granular resulting in less difficult gaps when taking on challenging tasks. The more generous loot and rewards drops certainly don’t hurt.
See a teaser showing off some of the new crucible modes and maps, including the explosively fun and fast-paced Rift mode. (We dare you to not instinctively yell “Boom-shakalaka!” when scoring)
Official Destiny: The Taken King Crucible Preview Event:
Otherwise, here’s what else that Destiny 2.0 will bring to all Destiny players next week. If you haven’t stopped by the Bungie weekly update today, read on for some of the important details and announcements.
Destiny 2.0 update details:
Character
- Character Level Cap for all players will be raised to 34
- Level Cap for The Taken King will be 40
- You will be able to level up by gaining XP alone
- Character Level and Light are now separate statistics
- Your Character Level will be grandfathered into your highest possible Light Level from all gear in your inventory and vault
- Attack and Defense ratings for armor and weapons will be translated to the new systems – their power levels will be unchanged
- Grimoire Score has been moved from the Character Nameplate and now displays in the Character Screen
Quests
- A Quest Screen will be added to your Menu
- Tracks all active Quests
- Abandoned Quests can be recovered in the Hall of Guardians
- Year One Activities have been converted to the Quest system
Bounties
- Bounty slots will be increased to 16
- Incomplete Year One Bounties will be auto-abandoned on 09/08 in preparation for launch of The Taken King
- Incomplete Year One Exotic Bounties are auto-completed with their respective Vendors
- Year One bounties issues by Eris will be retired
- Reputation with Crota’s Bane can continue to be earned by completing Quests in The Taken King
Tower
- Collections have been added to the Tower
- Emblems/Shaders can be found near Eva Lavante
- Ships can be found near Amanda Holliday
- Exotic Armor and Weapon Blueprint added to the Tower
- You will now have the Blueprint for all Exotics you own in your Collection
- Report to the Vanguard in the Hall of Guardians
Inventory
- Motes of Light will be used to grant XP to Weapons and Armor
- Class-specific Armor materials will be deprecated in favor of a unified Armor Material
- Vanguard Quartermaster, Roni-9940, will exchange old materials for armor material [Update: This change takes effect on 09/15]
Weapons & Armor
- Revised Sandbox balance will be in effect, based on our previous analysis
World
- Fallen Wolf Hunt Patrols will retreat in anticipation of the arrival of Oryx in your solar system