The Season of Opulence is nearly upon Destiny 2 Annual Pass owners and so are the nerfs. Don’t worry, o murderer mine – even if Whisper of the Wind and Sleeper Simulant become less potent, there’s still one compelling Exotic weapon to strive for. We’re, of course, talking about Outbreak Perfected, obtained from the recently added Zero Hour mission.

Outbreak Perfected is an enhanced version of Outbreak Prime from Destiny: Rise of Iron. It doesn’t quite require as much co-oping or ARG deciphering but there’s still plenty of challenge involved. First, make sure you complete the “Bad Neighbors” Heroic Adventure on Titan. There’s a part with a Shrieker – kill it and you’ll find some strange crystals that can be interacted with. This will unlock a door which contains a Fallen Transponder.

It’s possible to find this door even without going into the Heroic Adventure mission. Simply load into Patrol and look for the same spot. If it doesn’t spawn, then the mission might be your best bet. Upon obtaining it, you’ll need to collect six nodes to get it working.

The locations of the nodes are scattered across various Lost Sectors in the European Dead Zone and on Nessus. They are as follows:

• Node 1: “The Drain” in European Dead Zone
• Node 2: “The Whispered Falls” in European Dead Zone
• Node 3: “The Atrium” in European Dead Zone
• Node 4: “The Widow’s Walk” in European Dead Zone
• Node 5: “The Carrion Pit” on Nessus
• Node 6: “The Rift” on Nessus

Once you’ve collected all of these nodes, you’ll unlock the Zero Hour mission which first directs you to the farm. Head there, find a door leading to the basement of a building and you’ll interact with Mithrax, the Fallen Captain from the Bad Neighbors Adventure. This will take you to an extremely tough mission with 690 Power enemies armed with strong elemental shields. Arc Shields are perhaps the most common type so Riskrunner and Arbalest work well. If you’re feeling especially crazy, use Hard Light – it can change its elemental damage type quickly.

The location should also be very familiar – it’s the original Tower from Destiny, seen in the prologue mission of Destiny 2. You’ll have to navigate the Tower and defeat the boss at the end within a 20 minute time limit. Much like The Whisper mission, there’s a good amount of platforming as you navigate through winding corridors, jump across large gaps and even tussle with a killer robot named TR3-VR in a maze.

Once you’ll completed the mission, you’ll be rewarded with the Outbreak Perfected. Along with perks like Outlaw, Extended Barrel and Accurized Rounds, the 700 Power weapon has two unique perks – The Corruption Spreads and Parasitism. The Corruption Spreads will generate SIVA nanite swarms on precision kills and rapid hits. Parasitism ensures that the amount of damage done increases depending on the number of SIVA nanites attached to an enemy.

After completing Zero Hour, a Heroic version of the mission will open up for obtaining the Catalyst. The major difference between the two is an alternate, longer platforming route that must be taken to reach the end boss. Upon obtaining the Catalyst, you’ll need to score 500 precision final blows with Outbreak Perfected and collect 500 SIVA Particulate in the process. This will Masterwork the weapon and ensure that Orbs of Light drop on multi-kills.

There are a few other things to dissect though. Research firm like Cowen and Company believe that the split from Activision was due to the difference in vision over the game’s direction. Schreier notes that an annualized format of content release was a source of tension as well. Activision is also apparently looking to strengthen its own brands like Call of Duty, even if that means a short-term financial slump from losing Destiny.

"Those who have been in touch with reports over the years know that the situation between Bungie and Activision wasn’t quite so cut and dry."

Not that it matters to fans cheering at Activision’s removal from the equation. The Destiny subreddit wants to proclaim this as “Destiny Freedom Day”. Others have suddenly become more interested in purchasing Eververse items since Activision is not involved. Many believe that Bungie will finally have a chance to shine without an overbearing publisher looking over their shoulder.

Those who have been in touch with reports over the years know that the situation between Bungie and Activision was more than a little complicated. When the much-hyped 10 year deal was penned between both companies, Bungie agreed to deliver numerous Destiny titles and expansions in between those sequels under Activision’s label. Plans went for a toss when Destiny had been delayed from its original 2013 release date to early 2014. It then received another delay to September 2014.

Reports from Schreier and high-profile departures like writer Joseph Staten and composer Martin O’Donnell indicated that all was not well in development though. Once Destiny launched, it was a jumbled mess of plot points, shallow gameplay, fundamental design flaws and networking issues. Such issues were exacerbated with The Dark Below, Destiny’s first major DLC. It featured mission maps similar to the base game but backwards and a buggy as hell raid. Don’t even try to remind players about the process of re-leveling Exotics.

"Destiny had some bumps here and there but was at its peak going into the reveal of Destiny 2 in May 2017."

House of Wolves would improve things, especially for PvP since Trials of Osiris was introduced for hardcore competitive players to indulge in, but not by a huge margin. We eventually learned that the final product of Destiny was meant to encompass the base game, the first two DLC and The Taken King expansion. When Destiny was apparently rebooted in 2014, a spanner was thrown into plans and the additional content was sold off as separate DLC.

However, after The Taken King, Bungie seemed to be back on track. Festival of the Lost was neat. Sparrow Racing League was pretty cool. Crimson Days was lame but hey, new content, and the April 2017 update provided plenty of new, interesting things for PvE fans to engage with. For the most part, it seemed that Destiny was firing on all cylinders even if Bungie made many of us skeptical with its introduction of the Eververse.

Then we learned about Rise of Iron, Destiny’s next expansion, releasing in September 2016. Why was Rise of Iron releasing in September 2016?

According to Schreier, Destiny 2 was pushed back to 2017 because Bungie had rebooted development. Luke Smith was appointed director and the previous director left the company (but that fact would only be revealed later). As for Rise of Iron, it released to a middling reception. The Wrath of the Machine raid was praised but the story missions and overall content were criticized for regressing from The Taken King’s brilliance. The Festival of the Lost returned as a microtransaction-laden debacle but Bungie made good on things with The Dawning and Age of Triumph. Destiny had some bumps here and there but was at its peak going into the reveal of Destiny 2 in May 2017.

"Eventually, Schreier would report how Bungie renegotiated terms with Activision for Destiny 2. Its previous content cycle was thought to be too rigorous and producing so much content was deemed too difficult."

Bungie unveiled some controversial changes for the sequel but it’s a testament to the will of the community that things still looked pretty good. We heard about Lost Sectors, Adventures, World Quests, and tons more content to sink our eager teeth into. Destiny 2 would go on to become an incredible financial success at launch. Critics even lauded it for being an improvement over the first game.

However, as time passed, it was hounded by numerous issues concerning the end-game. Exotics were useless. The raid meant nothing and thus, hitting max Power level meant nothing. The Lost Sectors were rendered useless in the end-game simply because they gave lower level loot. PvP was a snooze-fest and encompassed team-shooting above all. A number of awesome looking cosmetics, previously earned through in-game activities like Strikes and the raid, were locked behind Eververse. Bungie’s decisions when it came to things like one-time use shaders, XP throttling, charging for Heroic Strikes, locking the base game’s raid behind the purchase of DLC and stingy seasonal events didn’t help matters.

Eventually, Schreier would report on how the developer renegotiated terms with Activision for Destiny 2. Its previous content cycle was thought to be too rigorous; producing so much content was deemed too difficult. So instead, Bungie would focus more on cosmetic content through the Eververse and Seasons. As more cosmetic items landed up on Tess Everis’s shelves over the months, it seemed like Schreier’s report had plenty of truth to it.

"Bungie’s track record when it comes to development has been less than stellar. It rebooted Destiny 1 and 2 before their subsequent launches."

Of course, there was still DLC like Curse of Osiris and Warmind. Activision-owned studios like High Moon Studios and Vicarious Visions were assisting Bungie with content as the latter spent 2018 trying to get back on the good side of its longtime fans. It talked more and more about catering to the hobbyist, changing up its weapon slot system and bringing back random rolls for weapons and armour. Masterworks, Exotic revamps, Nightfall Challenges, Bounties and much more were introduced before Forsaken to appease the hardcore player. Bungie even announced the Annual Pass, something that would provide a consistent stream of “end-game” content after Forsaken, as it seemingly moved towards away from more cinematic adventures towards a much deeper grind.

In September 2018, Forsaken launched and was met with praise from critics and hardcore fans. Sure, there was dissent about the heavy RNG-based nature of Bungie’s content (like earning Exotics) and it also didn’t help that some activities were time-gated. But Forsaken delivered a good story (by Destiny standards), a great raid and tons of new loot to collect. The majority of Forsaken was also accessible to all players. Gating content behind high Power requirements, boring quest grinds and baffling puzzles really didn’t stick out as major issues until Black Armory came around.

If you’ve been keeping track of the story thus far, you might have noticed a common theme: Bungie’s track record when it comes to development has been less than stellar. It rebooted Destiny 1 and 2 before their subsequent launches. Throughout the history of both games, Bungie would also prove to be completely out of touch with its community’s needs, taking months to fix long-standing issues.

"For all intents and purposes, Bungie going independent and being free to pursue its own development cycle for Destiny is good."

Only a major exodus of players following the launch of Destiny 2 and Curse of Osiris (not to mention the failure of events like Faction Rally, Iron Banner and The Dawning 2017) would motivate the developer to sit down and actually address concerns. Even now, Destiny 2 is still lacking on issues like competitive PvP matchmaking, endgame economy items like Enhancement Cores and not locking DLC content that players paid for behind ridiculous requirements. And yes, one-time user shaders, awesome cosmetics locked behind Eververse, time-gated content and heavy RNG are still problematic. Did we mention Trials of the Nine was removed before Forsaken and has yet to return?

For all intents and purposes, Bungie going independent and being free to pursue its own development cycle for Destiny is good. However, the enthusiasm for the developer’s approach doesn’t look all that different from when it split from Microsoft.

“Finally, we’d get to see the developer separated from the evil corporation and free to pursue its own vision!” “Finally, we’d get the very best that Bungie could deliver!” That wasn’t quite the case though, as evidenced by the barreling rollercoaster that is the Destiny franchise. I’m no fan of Activision (especially following their treatment of Call of Duty creators Vince Zampella and Jason West) but reading about the additional time and resources, not to mention the new deals it negotiated with Bungie, makes it look like a publisher tried to help rather than impede Destiny’s progress.

"But hey, if you’re a Destiny player, all of this should be very familiar. Destiny has offered experiences to a player base that simply can’t get enough of it."

What this split means for the future of Destiny 2 is still unknown. Cowen and Company believes that Destiny 3 is still coming in 2020. Rumours regarding its content and features along with a greater emphasis on RPG mechanics have been doing the rounds for a few months. Will the studio repeat the same mistakes as before? What’s the plan for content after the Annual Pass? Will we receive another expansion and another Annual Pass until Destiny 3 comes out? Will Bungie scrap the idea of sequels altogether? Will Destiny go free to play? What’s the plan for Eververse? How likely is it that Bungie announces Destiny 3’s exclusivity on the Epic Games Store for PC in the coming years? Will the core issues with leadership that caused Staten and O’Donnell to leave in the first place be fixed?

Blame Activision all you want but Bungie was and still is the company developing the series. How it addressed the issues that plagued both games at their respective launches is available for all to see. It’s currently fine with the stingy RNG for Exotics and Power level system that makes much of the loot irrelevant. It’s the company that said Black Armory’s Niobe Labs was for anyone that was “smart and brave enough to attempt it” in a now-deleted tweet after frustrated attempts by players. At least it went ahead and unlocked the last Forge when no one could figure out the solution.

If you’re a Destiny player, all of this should be very familiar. Destiny has offered experiences to a player base that simply can’t get enough. I should know, having been part of that player base for a few years. Even when the content didn’t quite measure up, I plunked down my own money and waited till launch to join the hype train. Destiny has been a franchise that’s provided some truly amazing moments while simultaneously making me question the numerous blunders that could have been avoided. Looking back, at the end of the day, maybe everyone just wants that same kind of experience without the fear of Activision mucking everything up.

"Can Bungie adhere to long-time fans and become successful in its own right? Can it attract even more players to its franchise in the coming years?"

For Bungie, the real test begins now. Without the big bad villainous publisher for people to deflect blame to when things go wrong, it will take the brunt of not delivering worthwhile content and financial failure. Will it sink or swim in the process? This is an industry that’s being defined more by games-as-a-service titles like Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 and Fortnite: Battle Royale. That’s not including beloved free to play games like Path of Exile or Warframe. Additional competition from blockbusters like Anthem and The Division 2 is also coming. Can Bungie adhere to long-time fans and achieve the potential that Destiny seemingly promised all those years ago? Can it attract even more players in the coming years?

It’s hard to say but unlike October 2007, this isn’t a Bungie that inspires confidence. It’s a Bungie that makes me cautious of investing time or money in their products. Here’s hoping for the future to change. As a member of the Bungie.net forums so aptly put it though: We’re finally going to see who was responsible for Destiny’s failings – Bungie or Activision.

Destiny: Rise of Iron players will have a new event to take part in on December 13th but it’s not just Sparrow Racing League – it’s a whole new thing called The Dawning. Hinted at several months ago as Days of Dawning, The Dawning will see Sparrow Racing return with new tracks, new Sparrows, new shaders and new emblems.

But that’s not all. The update will also include Strike scoring, where you can earn medals and points to likely net some neat rewards, and new gear and weapons. Icebreaker, the iconic sniper rifle from Year One, will be making it return and we finally get to see the Solar and Void variations of the Thunderlord teased in Year Two.

The Dawning will run until early January but we expect the new loot to stay after that. Or will they only be obtainable through Eververse? Let us know what you think in the comments below and stay tuned for more.

Destiny may be due for a sequel next year (one that we really hope supports your characters and all the hours that went into them from the original), but in the here and now, they continue to provide exemplary support for the current game, which just received its Rise of iron expansion not too long back.

It looks like Bungie may also be getting ready to share details on some new content headed to Destiny next week. On their blog post about Thanksgiving, where they posted about what they were most thankful for, they ended on a rather intriguing note- “We’ll be back in the swing of things next week. The cadence of new content in Destiny is about to speed up again. We hope you can keep up.”

This implies we’re about to get a whole lot new content than we have been recently, which sounds exciting (although to be fair to Destiny, lack of content hasn’t been an issue with it for a very longtime now). Destiny is presently available on Xbox One and PS4, with unsupported versions also available on PS3 and Xbox 360.

Bungie have acknowledged that the SIVA Key and Sigil of the Young Wolf Emblem issues are both present in Destiny: Rise of Iron– and while the new patch released for the title does not quite addressed them, Bungie did promise that they were looking into them.

The SIVA Key issue sees Keys created by combining fragments forwarded to the Postmaster, even when the player has enough inventory space to keep them on their person. The “Sigil of the Young Wolf” Emblem issue, meanwhile, impedes the player’s ability to unlock the Emblem, or to gain the Student of History Trophy/Achievement.

Both issues are being investigated, and will hopefully be addressed by one of the coming patches and updates for the game. Destiny: Rise of Iron is available now on Xbox One and PlayStation 4. Destiny itself is also available on PS3 and Xbox 360, but those versions were not upgraded to Rise of Iron, and are no longer supported with active updates, beyond weekly rotations and resets.

It’s that time of the week again! Destiny’s Exotics vendor Xur has returned to the Tower and is currently by the railing near the Speaker. He’ll be there till 9am GMT on Sunday, October 31, so you have enough time to actually grab some of the things that he brings with him this week.

And what are those things? Well the standout is probably Bad Juju, which you can get for 23 Strange Coins. He also, as always, has two weapon ornaments, that you can purchase using Silver Dust, should you be so inclined. You can check out his full list of inventory below. Destiny: Rise of Iron is available on Xbox One and PlayStation 4, with pre-Rise of Iron versions of the game also available on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.

For more on the game check out our review of the game. Thoughts on this week’s Xur’s offering? Let us know in the comments section below.

• Legacy engram [Special weapon] – 31SC
• Eternal Warrior [Exotic Titan helmet] – 13SC
• Achlyophage Symbiote [Exotic Hunter helmet] – 13SC
• Skull of Dire Ahamkara [Exotic Warlock helmet] – 13SC
• Bad Juju [Exotic pulse rifle] – 23SC
• Moonglow Hawkmoon Ornament – 25SD
• The Wolves Remember The Young Wolf’s Howl Ornament – 25SD
• Three of Coins – 7SC
• Glass Needle – 3SC

Another week has started in Destiny, which means it’s time for another weekly reset of the game’s servers. The reset means that, obviously, there’s a new Nightfall, new challenge in the Prison of Elders mode, new playlists in the Crucible, and more. This week is special, because it also marks the beginning of the second Festival of the Lost event, which is Destiny‘s annual take on Halloween.

Destiny is available now on Xbox One and PS4. PS3 and Xbox 360 versions are also available, though they did not get updated to Rise of Iron, the latest expansion for the game. You can check out the detail for this week’s server reset below.

• Weekly Nightfall: Strike- Sunless Cell; Modifiers- Brawler, Chaff, Match Game, and Exposure
• Heroic Playlist Modifiers: Solar Burn, Small Arms, and Fresh Troops
• Challenge of Elders (With modifiers Brawler, Juggler, and Super Kill Bonus.)
  • Round 1: Pilot Servitor (Fallen).
  • Round 2: Val Aru’un (Cabal).
  • Round 3: Overmind Minotaur (Vex).
• Crucible Playlists: Combined arms, and Rumble Supremacy.

Destiny‘s final expansion, Rise of Iron, is almost here, and ahead of its launch, Bungie have released a pretty exciting and hype inducing trailer that establishes the lore behind the Iron Lords in the series, and how it ties into the present day narrative of the game and its universe.

Apart from establishing the story and its stakes, the trailer also promises a new cinematic story campaign for the game (inasmuch as anything in Destiny can be cinematic or have a story), as well as new weapons and armor. We also get to see a whole lot of new gameplay footage from the upcoming expansion, naturally.

Destiny: Rise of Iron is the final expansion for Destiny, following last year’s The Taken King, and House of Wolves and The Dark Below before that. It will be launching on September 20 on Xbox One and PlayStation 4. You can check out the launch trailer for it below.

Destiny: Rise of Iron, the upcoming expansion to Bungie and Activision’s two year old shared world shooter, will be adding a brand new mode, Supremacy. And this new mode is all about honor, and not about letting other Guardians steal your honor- so says Bungie’s David ‘DeeJ’ Dague, Destiny‘s Community Manager.

“My most valuable moments in Supremacy are when somebody who’s better than me [on my own team] gets killed and I can grab his crest — while he’s waiting to respawn and I can make like it never happened,” DeeJ said to Stevivor. “Defending your team in that way is defending their honor. That’s the metaphorical theme of the crests — this a totem of your identity, bearing your class insignia. This is your identity, this is your honor, and when [the other team steals] your honor, they put points on the board.”

Destiny: Rise of Iron is set to launch on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One on September 20. Unlike previous expansions for the game, there will be no PS3 or Xbox 360 versions of this expansion.

One of the big omissions in Destiny is matchmaking- there is no matchmaking for Destiny‘s various Raids. Given that the raids are among the best bits of content in the entire game, and that they form the bulk of end game activities in the title, this means that realistically, for a lot of players, there is no point in playing the game if they don’t have some friends also interested in playing it.

“We are absolutely listening, and we’re absolutely thinking about stuff, and we are also absolutely prioritizing the things that we want to do. So we’ve prioritized, in a lot of cases, giving players new adventures and new experiences. And then things like private matches, this is the right time to bring that into the game. So, I think it’s just about us trying to make the things that we think are the most impactful for each release. And constantly looking at stuff that people are talking about,” Steve Cotton of Bungie said to Metro UK in an interview. Asked specifically about the possibility of matchmaking for raids, Cotton said, “[It’s not off the cards.] We’ve been thinking about that a lot.”

This surely comes as good news to a lot of Destiny fans- the lack of matchmaking in raids has been one of the biggest issues with the game that has continued to be one of the big deficiencies of Destiny that have gone unaddressed. Hopefully with Destiny 2, this is no longer a problem.