Last week at PAX Australia I had the chance to speak to Destiny 2 design director Victoria Dollbaum. She was in Melbourne to celebrate the free-to-play launch of Destiny 2: New Light, as well as its accompanying premium expansion Shadowkeep. It was a good time to catch up on some of the changes, big and small, that the shift in model has ushered in.
Below we discuss the difficulties new players might have accessing old content, the future of Xur, the looter shooter scene in general, and Dollbaum's dreams to have a Destiny arcade game.
Shadowkeep has brought in major changes to the way armor works, and the return of a revamped location, but there's been frustration that the world loot pool—ie stuff that drops when you're just exploring—is largely the same as vanilla Destiny 2. At what point under the season pass model can we expect that pool, and the tower vendors, to get a refresh?
Rewards are always prioritised based on what we are building, so if we spend a significant time building the world pool it means new reward sources that we’re building potentially have either fewer end reward sources, or weaker reward sources. It’s a game, you have only so many resources and you have to spread them out where you will, and we tend to focus on the new things rather than the old things, because even though you’re experiencing world drops once in a while it would not be fun to go play something new and not get something new.
The level of customization with the seasonal artifact has been fun for build crafting. Will the Season of Dawn bring in more solar focus mods?
So, each season will have its own set of mods that come with that. I think there's a static set of mods, and then there's some that are seasonally focused. So the team will select what the theme of the release is, and then build mods according to that theme. They could dramatically shift from season to season to get you to play in a different way. So there could be solar.
Bungie has acknowledged that New Light can be intimidating for new players, and I know from experience. Are there any plans afoot to make that transition easier, or is it going to stay the way it is?
We are focusing on Destiny being an evolving world, and New Light is in that same vein. We have a team that is dedicated to looking at New Light and continuing to evolve it, and improving places where players are getting stuck or the systems are not optimal. We’ll start to see that as the game evolves.
We’re trying to shift the focus away from campaigns that are in the past and are now history. We’re trying to focus on the time period we’re in, and the future where these stories will lead us. So for players coming in, we want them to come in at the present and not the past. Being able to just jump in and play with your friends, and then to do all those other things as more optional content comes is actually better, because when you jump in and you’re starting in the Red War, and you say "hey I want to come play with you, how does this work?", they say "you can’t until you spend another ten hours playing missions"—it can be disheartening. So what we’ve tried to do is break down those barriers. It’s mostly you experiencing history, but we want you to live in the present.
Are there plans to expand the pool of universal ornaments beyond the old Eververse gear? And if so, what would be a reasonable time to expect that to happen?
I don't know that I can say anything about that, other than we are carefully monitoring the success of the universal ornaments that are available now. And there can always be technical hurdles to showing everything at once. So, you know, the team understands that there is a need, which is why they started with that small subset of ornaments to start with, and then the system can definitely be expanded.
Now that Xur only sells the same rolls on exotics as are found in the collection he seems irrelevant, despite being one of the game's cult characters. Are there any thoughts about how Xur could become valuable again, or is he only intended for new players?
I think with Xur, the current moment is intended as kind of catch up for players who are returning or new, not so much for the bleeding edge players who have everything and are looking for special rolls and things like that. It could be that Xur at some point is re-purposed, but that just depends on: is there a need? Are those people who are on the bleeding edge and have all the things... is there a need for them to have more of that? Or is it that Xur’s role is the thing to catch players up who don’t have exotics?
With character appearance, will it ever be possible to respec your gender, race, appearance? Is that something that Bungie has considered?
It is something that everybody wants, right? Like, I've been locked into the same appearance for years now.
We all make mistakes.
Yeah, it's not really mistakes, but sometimes you just want something fresh, right? Like you change your hair colour in real life whenever you want to. So we understand that it's something players are asking for. It's something that they want, but it's also a very large system. So we have to look at where it falls into the roadmap of things that we are trying to do for the game.
In year three How is Bungie intending to absorb the loss of the work from Vicarious Visions and High Moon Studios, given that those studios contributed large chunks of content in year two?
I think we are planning further out for the things that we want to happen, and then making sure that each team is staffed appropriately to do those things. But we also tend to know that our eyes are bigger than our stomachs, and we have a very high bar for what we do. And so we know that it is better to do fewer things at a very high bar, than it is to do a tonne of things and have them not well received by the community. So while you may see us do a little less, that means we're trying to do the high quality version of what we're doing.
The design space of the current weapon sandbox seems to have been explored fairly thoroughly. Beyond creating new perks, which can't be done infinitely, it's hard to imagine how the sandbox team keeps making, say, a new 150 rpm hand cannon that people will lust over. What's going to be the key to keeping weapon loot exciting long-term?
So I can’t actually speak to the sandbox part of it, but—this may not even answer the question—but my team really deals with the story and the journey for how you arrive at getting your item, and then the journey that you can take afterwards. So we can possibly see more interesting acquisition stories, longer journeys—so things like Whisper—and interesting ways to get things where, maybe the whole point is not specifically the actual item you're getting, but the stories that you can tell and share with other people. Or items that you get and then go on a journey with, like “Hey I have this weapon and it’s actually counting how many hunters I've killed, so right now I'm the leaderboard person who has the most hunter kills in the world”, things like that.
You can think of things outside of just what its effectiveness is in the sandbox, like how you represent this item in the community and things like that. So the sandbox side I can’t actually answer, but we are always looking at interesting ways for you to acquire things, specifically in the seasonal content. We like to focus on player agency and making the ways that you get these things cool.
When Destiny first released it was mostly alone in the living world, loot shooter space. But there are other games out there nowadays vying for attention, like the Division 2, Anthem, and Warframe has been there for a long time. Is there anything about those other games that you admire from a professional point of view? Do you monitor those games?
Sometimes the customization options that they have, like how in The Division you kind of capture points. We don't have anything like that in destinations, but if you had to go and claim points, and maybe you had to last for some amount of time, that would be pretty cool. I do like The Division. But I think Destiny is very unique, I think the fantasy of it is very unique, and just the gunplay... there’s nothing else out there that feels exactly like Destiny. And it's also very satisfying to me that I'm a Space Wizard.
When you're working on a game that is living and, in theory, permanently evolving, is there ever a point where you just want to do something entirely different? Or does Destiny keep you utterly engrossed all the time?
I think every person who works in the industry kinda has ideas and pet projects that they're working on in their head. And I kind of do that sometimes, but I think Destiny is really interesting because our idea of what Destiny is—if you look at the history of Bungie’s relationship with Destiny—the definition of what Destiny is has constantly evolved. It's always changing and shifting, and so there's a lot of design challenges in a game that is carving its own identity that is not exactly like everything else. So there's a lot of interesting challenges that the teams face, which I find really interesting. I do enjoy working on Destiny, I won't say we all don't have internal projects going on in our heads, or ideas for things we want to do. But yeah, Destiny is very engrossing. I love the challenging spaces within it.
Do you imagine Destiny becoming more modular? It's primarily a first person shooter, and there's been elements of racing before. But can you imagine the universe expanding to take in other sub genres, or other components that vary from the FPS mold?
It could. I would really love to do Destiny arcade games but I don't know what that looks like yet. I'm thinking like, you could ride big sparrows, you know, motorcycle rides and race against your friends.
Halloween is approaching, and so too is the Festival of the Lost, the Destiny 2 seasonal event dedicated to dressing up and celebrating the memories of fallen comrades. This year will see the return of Eva Levante as the herald of the event, which will feature spooky decorations all over the Tower, the return of the Haunted Forest activity, and the Braytech Werewolf, a 950 power Halloween-themed version of the Braytech Winter Wolf Legendary auto rifle.
Eva, who's taken up residence on the Tower for the event, will connect Guardians with a Masquerader Helmet to kick things off. The helmet can be upgraded with Festival-themed ornaments that are purchasable with Chocolate Strange coins, earned through bounties and activities. Players will also collect Candy during their festive adventures that can be spent on Mystery Grab Bags and the Werewolf.
The Infinite Forest has once again become the Haunted Forest—Guardians will have 15 minutes to explore as deeply as they can, taking on the "fiends, ghouls, and terrors that lie within," and maybe something even worse at the end. And of course there will be plenty of seasonally-appropriate cosmetics available in the Eververse Store.
Unfortunately, while the Eververse Store is getting new stock, there's no word of an update to the world drop loot pool, something the community has been grousing about since the launch of Shadowkeep. That sort of thing doesn't usually happen in an event like this, but it's been a long time since the last refresh and it's fair to say that players are getting impatient.
The Festival of the Lost gets underway on October 29 and runs until November 19. A closer look at what's involved and how to collect the goodies is available on Bungie's help page.
To the delight of Destiny veterans, The Last Word Exotic hand cannon is now available in Destiny 2 for players who own the annual pass. The Black Armory expansion is all about crafting the finest weapons of humanity's Golden Age, so it only makes sense that this iconic revolver would return. The Last Word is the fastest-firing hand cannon in the game, and you can even fan-fire it like friggin' McCree. It's a cool, powerful, beloved weapon, designed to dominate shotgun rushers in PvP, and it's well worth owning. In this guide we'll explain how to acquire the weapon, offering tips to take the pain out of some of the steps required to complete its Exotic quest, which is called 'The Draw'.
Visit the Tower and talk to the Drifter. He'll give you a Hive artifact which you'll need to upgrade multiple times by feeding it energy and materials, starting with the life force of lots of Hive. For the first step, you need to kill 75 Hive enemies plus three Hive bosses, and you'll need to kill a boatload of Hive with solar damage. Between Escalation Protocol and the Northern Lost Sector, Mars is the best place to kill Hive, so head to the Red Planet and pop some heads.
The solar kills take the longest, so equip your strongest solar guns and abilities at the start. The Avalanche LMG that was handed out during The Dawning event is a good choice. Blade Barrage, bottom tree Dawnblade, and top tree Hammer of Sol are all good Supers, and any solar energy weapon will do the job. For exotics, try Sunshot, Prometheus Lens, Hard Light, Skyburner's Oath, or Polaris Lance. Helpful exotics include Ophidia Spathe for extra fiery knives, Hallowfire Heart for fast-recharging Titan abilities, and Sunbracers for Warlock solar 'nade spam.
You knew this was coming: it's time for the Crucible part of the quest. The first Crucible part, actually. Yes, there's more. But it's really not that bad. For this step, you need to fill a progress bar by getting kills in the Crucible. The kicker is that dying will set you back, so you have to go positive. Happily, assists help, so be sure to travel in a pack and tag as many opponents with your primary as possible.
You can get kills with anything, so as long as you keep your KDA above water, you'll finish this step eventually. Just group up, pick your mode of choice (not Rumble as you won't get many assists), and play relatively passive. Godspeed.
Made it through? Good. Now it's time for a much easier mission. Once you finish your Crucible kills, head to the Rig landing zone on Titan. You'll see a mission marker on the map; select it and follow it to a Lost Sector on the north side of the Rig. The mission power level starts at 500 and scales to your level, so you'll be fine. Make your way to the heart of the Lost Sector and you'll find a souped-up Hive Acolyte guarded by two Wizards. To drop the Acolyte's shield, you'll have to kill the Wizards first. So, you know, shoot everyone. Once everyone's been shot, it's back to the Drifter.
This is the longest part of the quest, so buckle up. You need to:
The good news is that you can get the Hive Larvae and Etched Crystals by spamming the normal version of the Lost Sector you did in step three. Seriously, just do it 15 times and spawn back on the Rig after each attempt. Once you get enough Larvae, you can ignore the little dudes and just melt the boss to speed things up.
The bad news is that the Hive Ritual public event only spawns on Titan in the Rig and the southern sector of Mars,where it's a pretty rare event due to people firing up Escalation Protocol. So, while you're farming Larvae and Crystals, keep checking the map in those locations to see if the Hive Ritual event is incoming. This event spawns near the Rig landing zone on Titan and in the top part of the Southern sector on Mars. If you finish the Larvae and Crystals before you finish the Hive Rituals—which you probably will—go ahead and move onto the Crucible medals and periodically check the map for events.
(As a quick note: to trigger the heroic version of the Hive Ritual, stand on the two plates and kill the Wizards that spawn once their shields drop. Stay on the plates and the shields around the crystals will drop, so kill them too.)
Back in PvP, you get Blood for Blood medals by killing players right after they kill one or more of your teammates, and you get Best Served Cold medals by killing the player who killed you last. In other words, both of these medals are contingent on someone dying, so there's no purely proactive way to farm them. That said, you can increase your odds of getting these medals by staying close to your teammates, keeping track of who kills you, and by using one-shot supers like Nova Bomb and Blade Barrage to counter roaming supers like Nova Warp and Golden Gun. Quickplay is generally the playlist to run here, but if it's available, Mayhem is ideal since it gives you so many supers. Once again, it's just a matter of patience and time
Almost done. Head back to the Drifter and he'll give you a new artifact called The Conversation. This unlocks a new mission in the Tangled Shore, in which you'll have a very loud chat with a Hive gunsmith named Enkaar. Set down at Thieves' Landing and head south until you reach the mission marker. Most of the mission needs no explanation. If you've killed Hive before, you'll know how to proceed: kill dudes, insert Worm A into Wall A, kill wizards, kill crystal. Standard stuff.
It's after you kill that crystal that things pick up. You'll find yourself in the Broodhold and you'll see a runic plate. Standing on the plate fills a progress bar, and when the bar is full, The Last Word appears. But it's not yours yet; you've got to kill Enkaar first. Enkaar will spawn in front of the plate around the time you grab The Last Word, and shortly afterward, he'll draw his gun. You guessed it: you've got to shoot his gun out of his hand using The Last Word, and you've got to do it before he blasts you. How cool is that? It's high noon!
There are three plates in the Broodhold, and each plate comes with an extra clone of Enkaar for you to duel. The first plate is unlocked from the get-go, but to use plates two and three, you'll need to clear out the enemies that spawn, taking particular care not to get blown up by the Cursed Thrall. Apart from that, it's standard procedure: stand on the plate, fill the bar, grab The Last Word, and shoot Enkaar's weapon when it glows. Note that the clones fire in the order they spawn, and if you're too slow, you will die, so channel your inner Clint Eastwood.
Make your way to the third plate, shoot all three Enkaars in the blaster, and claim The Last Word. It's officially yours. Congratulations! You'll find that The Last Word is a joy to use in the Crucible—remember it's intended to be used in close range, fired from the hip rather than ADS— so if you're not sick of PvP, go give it a test run.
I hope your allergies aren't playing up, because Destiny 2's latest event just dumped a crapton of greenery over the tower. The arrival of the The Revelry, which is themed around the start of spring, also signals the return of a new but familiar PvE mode, plus additional rewards. Of those, the most enticing is Arbalest, an exotic kinetic linear fusion rifle (the first of its kind, no less) and the final exotic of Season of the Drifter. But don't worry, getting your hands on it isn't reliant on RNG. During The Revelry, you'll be able to pick it up in no time by replaying the Verdant Forest PvE mode and completing some attached bounties.
Hand over 300 Reveler's Essence to Eva Levante (who's located near Ikora Rey in the Tower social space), and the weapon is yours. But first: what is Reveler's Essence and how can you earn it? It's pretty straightforward, but just in case, here's everything you need to know about getting Arbalest as quickly as possible.
Do this by talking to Eva Levante at the Tower. She'll give you a buff tonic and 50 Reveler's Essence to spend on a buff of your choosing. Buff tonics give you a significant stat increase for use in the Verdant Forest and elsewhere. You'll get to pick from a melee recharge buff, a grenade recharge buff, or a class ability recharge buff. Slot it in to get access to your first Verdant Garden bounty.
Now, just finish a run of the Verdant Garden by queuing up from the Tower map screen, and return to Eva once the job is done.
Each bounty rewards 25 Reveler's Essence. Almost all of the bounties are easy to complete just from playing Verdant Garden (branches cleared, bosses killed, final hits, etc.), so you won't even need to mess with your preferred loadout. We cleared 25 branches and killed five bosses on my first run and I haven't played much in a month, so expect to do just fine.
If you stick to bounties, you'll need to complete a total of 12, assuming you don't spend any Reveler's Essence elsewhere. That's just over two days of finishing every daily bounty, but chances are you'll find enough Reveler's Essence to get the Arbalest in two days along the way. But you'll likely need more time to get the Arbalest anyway. Just be sure to sit on 300 Reveler's Essence to make it easier later on.
But simply having enough Reveler's Essence won't cut it. You'll need to earn the Party Hard triumph too, which requires completing 7 of the 10 Revelry triumphs.
Spring Cleaning- Clear 50 Verdant Forest branches
Verdant Light- Competitive: Generate 200 Orbs of Light in Gambit or Crucible
Verdant Light - Cooperative: Generate 200 Orbs of Light in Strikes or raids
Verdant Light - Events: Generate 200 Orbs of Light in the Verdant Forest or any Black Armory forge
Spring Hunt - Defeat at least three bosses in a single run of the Verdant Forest
Budding Fashion - Defeat 20 bosses while wearing at least four pieces of Revelry armor
Super Celebratory - Defeat 150 enemies with Supers
Fireworks! - Get 100 grenade kills in Crucible, Gambit, and Strikes
Melee Mayhem - Get 100 melee kills in Crucible, Gambit, and Strikes
A Bountiful Spring - Complete 50 daily and weekly bounties for Eva
As long as you're playing a lot of Destiny 2 while the event is active, you'll likely earn these triumphs naturally, but be sure to check in and see where you need to focus your energy.
Revelry ends May 7, so get started sooner than later unless you want to rely on RNG for the Arbalest, and none of us want that.
The Outbreak Perfected exotic quest was secretly added a while ago, but if you're developing a new character you'll definitely want to take the time to complete the quest to unlock this superb weapon. To kick off the secret scavenger hunt leading to the Outbreak Perfected exotic weapon, head to Titan first.
Once you encounter the first room with the shrieker (those floating hive enemies that spit out a barrage of purple lasers) rather than head straight through into the next room, turn left and open the door. If you can't open the door, there are some prerequisites players are still untangling. It also might just be a bug.
Turn left directly after passing through the door at the back of this room.
Once you're in the hidden room, examine the Fallen device on the desk to pick up the Fallen Transponder. It's pretty difficult to miss.
Finish up the quest and head back to orbit.
Next you'll need to hunt down nodes that correspond to the areas hinted at in each branch of the Fallen Transponder, which are located on the EDZ and Nessus. This video by Niitq usefully details each of the six node locations.
Don't worry, I forgot it exists too. Once you've found every node, fly to the farm and head to the basement of the main building. As soon as you spawn in, turn right, head into the basement and talk to the Fallen captain hiding down there. This will launch the time-limited Zero Hour mission.
This is a race against the clock. You have 20 minutes to complete some combat rooms, a lengthy maze and jumping puzzle section, and a final boss room stuffed with enemies. It's a 690 power mission and enemies are protected by a lot of shields.
Once you've spawned in and slipped through the wall via a vent to your right, you're thrown into the first combat zone featuring some Fallen captains and lots of tracer shanks (there are a lot of these in Zero Hour). If you have it, Arbelast is effective at range and strips shields efficiently. Supplement your loadout with a good sniper rifle like DARCI, or a decent roll on the Black Armory sniper rifle, Tartara Gaze. You have to kill everyone here to bring down the blue shield and proceed to the old Tower courtyard.
The second combat area is populated by more tracer shanks and a few massive shanks. Snipe what you can from the ruin of the wrecked corridor that you take on the way into the courtyard, then focus down the big shanks. Ahead and on the right edge you will find a path that leads around into a corridor, which takes you into the Tower interior.
Inside the tower you will find clusters of Fallen protected by Servitors, overlooked by long-range Vandal snipers and yet more tracer shanks. Counter-snipe the snipers, nuke super the clustered servitors and Fallen, and then lay continuous damage on the Walker at the end of the room. Once that's dead, the next door will drop. Fight through two small rooms full of bog standard Fallen, and then proceed to the maze.
It's easier to watch the jumping puzzle section to see the route through this convoluted area. Planet Destiny does a clear run through at this point in his guide video.
After this you get to meet one of Destiny 2's most famous villains. TR3-VR is an aggressive cleaning bot that patrols the basement, chopping up anything it finds. This is terrifying, but the solution is simple. Turn left and hug the left wall, take any left turns that you find, and hit any switches you can find. Once you've hit four the exit will open and you can progress to the final combat room.
Here it's just a great big fight. Wipe the enemies, kill the boss and claim your Outbreak Perfected.
If Se7en has taught you one thing, it’s not to ask what’s in the Mysterious Box, but that’s exactly what we are going to do in this guide to get Izanagi’s Burden. With the launch of the Black Armory came the forges and within the forges there were three exotic weapons; Jotun, Le Monaqrque, and Izanagi’s Burden. The first two can be found through random drops when completing different Lost Forges, but Izanagi’s Burden is going to take a little more than simply participating in the events.
For quite a while during Season of the Undying a bug meant that acquiring Izanagi's Burden was impossible. The issue related to a particular Forge activity, the completion of which is essential in picking up the supremely effective exotic sniper rifle. As of November 7, 2019, a hotfix now means that Forge keys count towards the Mysterious Box as they should.
The first step in getting Izanagi’s Burden is to find the box in which it resides, the Mysterious Box. You’ll find the box hidden just outside of the Volundr Forge in the European Dead Zone, within a cave on the cliff’s edge on the left side prior to jumping across the broken bridge.
After you acquire the box, you’ll need to find four different keys to open it. The Fishhook, Butterfly, Hand, and Black Armory keys are all found throughout the Volundr, Izanami, and Gofannon forges—respectively—with the fourth, Black Armory, requiring additional work.
While in these forges, you’ll want to keep an eye out between the first in the second round for a series of small drones flying around the arena. If you destroy all the drones within the arena, you’ll be notified that you have tempered the forge and received a Maximum Temper buff. Successfully completing the forge you’ll receive the keys after tempering.
The three locations for the forges can be found below in gifs.
Volundr
Izanami
Gofannon
Similar to the keys above, the Black Armory key can be found within the Bergusia forge after you destroy the drones to receive the Maximum Temper buff, but to get this part takes a few more steps than previous keys.
The first step is to visit Ada-1 in the Tower and you’ll receive the Black Armory Key Mold and that you need to kill watchers in the underbelly of the Leviathan raid. There’s two ways to do this, as a team while completing the Leviathan raid normally or to use the switches beneath Leviathan to gain access to the Underbelly solo.
This most simple and fastest approach is to do this is the second method. You’ll need to load in to the Leviathan and make your way to the switch room in the basement. Pull the switches in the following order; 1, 5, 3, 2, 4, 6 as shown in the GIF below.
After you’ve successfully opened the door via the switches, you should make your way towards the engine room to kill the watchers (follow the path in the gif below). While in this room, you will want to kill all the Watchers and additional enemies, exit the room, pull the switch again, and repeat until you’ve killed enough Watchers, which is 24, to fulfil the requirements of the quest by harvesting their Lenses.
Next, you’ll need to gather 200 Glimmering Amethyst, this can be done through opening planetary chests, completing strikes, and participating in Public Events. The fastest method is to complete Heroic Public Events, which nets you 10 per completion. Normally this should take you 20 events, but equipping a ghost with a chest finder for the planet you are on will speed up the process as you’ll stumble upon multiple planetary chests naturally while waiting for events.
You’ll now be able to find the final key within the Bergusia forge by taking part in the event, find the drones, and destroying them. The drones are found circling two pillars on each side of the arena (as seen in the gif below). Completing the forge, just like the others, will net you the final key to the Mysterious Box—but we are done, not yet.
If you haven’t already, you can now place all four keys in to the Mysterious Box. In doing so, you’ll receive a Mysterious Decryption Device and a Mysterious Datapad. Take these items to Ada-1 in the tower and you will receive the next step of the quest.
This part of the quest requires you to complete and hand in a rare Black Armory bounty. Black Armory bounties are randomly dropped when completing standard bounties from Ada-1. So, you’ll either need to keep one on you and wait to turn it in, or you’ll need to grind out Ada’s bounties until you receive one.
When you turn in the bounty, you will receive an Obsidian Crystal. The next step requires you to complete the Shattered Throne, which is a 3-weekly event in the Dreaming City when the curse is at its highest.
After that, you need to complete a special instance of the Pyramidion. This version will have its own unique modifiers which increases the damage of solar weapons and the frequency of heavy ammo. You’ll need to be a minimum of 650 Power Level to attempt this strike and you won’t be able to change your gear while attempting to finish it. So, equip a solar class, your favourite solar secondary, and a solar heavy weapon that packs a punch.
Upon completion, you’ll receive the Unidentified Radiant Frame and gain access to the Lock and Key mission on the EDZ. It’s quick, easy, and when you reach the end you’ll get an Exotic item called Not a Weapon that you can take to Ada-1 in exchange for Izanai’s Burden.
Destiny 2's Season of Opulence is currently in full swing and that means there's a new exotic quest ready and awaiting completion. Due to a severe lack of exotic hand cannons, Bungie thought it best that they unleash yet another on the crucible.
This time it's Lumina, the literal opposite of Thorn. Where Thorn previously whittled away at an opponent's health, Lumina heals your teammates. Thanks to the Noble Rounds perk, players will be able to kill enemies and pick up special rounds that, when hip fired, will seek out a teammate, heal them, and then provide an additional damage buff for a period of time.
Lumina is an interesting combination of support perks and deadly precision wrapped up in a hand canon, so here's how to get it.
It's almost fitting that you'd find Lumina in the exact same place as you did the original remnants of Thorn. That means you'll need to make your way to the EDZ.
While in the EDZ, you'll want to drop in at the Trostland area and make your way through the salt mines. As you reach the elevator, you will need to transmat upwards and continue towards the blue barrier at the top of the hill. With the barrier on your right, you will want to veer left off the edge of the cliff and continue forward through an alcove until you reach the camp (third picture below). At the very back of the camp resides a chest and in it the first steps to obtaining Lumina.
Upon opening the aforementioned chest, you will receive the quest step 'A Fateful Gift' and an item called the 'System Positioning Device'. This device can be found within your pursuits tab and is integral in completing the quest.
To complete 'A Fateful Gift' you will need to locate a unique chest within the galaxy. The chest's location changes every hour, on the hour—just as the quest step states. To figure out where this chest may be, you'll need to consult with the 'System Positioning Device'. There will be some purple text that will detail the rough area in which you will find the chest. The following videos detail the Fateful Gift quest step locations.
Fateful Gift Quest location for Alton Dynamo on MarsFateful Gift Quest location for Shaft 13 in the EDZFateful Gift Quest location for High Plains on the Tangled ShoreFateful Gift Quest location for Sinking Docks on TitanFateful Gift Quest location for Spine of Keres in the Dreaming CityFateful Gift Quest location for Excavation Site 2 on IO
The next step is as straightforward as it sounds. It should take you no more than 30-60 minutes with the right build, less if you're a Hunter wearing Orpheus Rigs. The fastest method is to get a roaming super, a group of friends, and equip masterworked weapons while completing Escalation Protocols or Blind Wells. Make use of any Warlock's Well of Radiance for bonus orbs. When you've finished this step, you'll be rewarded with Rose, a legendary hand cannon.
The next quest step is broken up into three separate pursuits, rather than one exotic quest. Completing all three of these steps will allow you to progress the overall exotic quest.
The first step, 'Band Together', requires you to complete a nightfall strike with over 50,000 score. This should be easily achievable with the right modifiers and the right fireteam, you could even do it alongside your weekly 100,000 nightfall attempt.
The next step, 'Face the Hordes', is a little more time consuming. You're going to need to earn 35 points by completing Blind Wells, Escalation Protocols, or Forges. It's really down to you how you want to approach this step as they are moderately flexible in terms of time spent. Points are allocated as follows; Forges give 4 points, Blind Well Tier 4 completion gives 7 points, and Escalation Protocol gives 1 point per wave and 3 points per boss kill.
Finally, there's 'Defend the Light'. 'Defend the Light' requires players to defeat multiple opponents without reloading. If you're moderately conscious of the requirements of this specific task, you could equip weapons with large magazines, like Hammerhead/Thunderlord in the heavy slot and a few ARs/Pulse rifles in your primary/secondary for good measure. It will most likely come to all players naturally while pursuing the previous two steps.
After you finish all three of these steps, in any order, you'll then move on to 'Fireteam Leader'.
Similar to the 'Face the Hordes' step, you're going to need to complete more activities, like Blind Well, Escalation Protocol, and Forges again, but with the added bonus of several other activities, such as the Menagerie, counting too.
The percentage you receive is based on the number of players in your fireteam using Rose or Lumina, with dramatically larger percentages for full fireteams. The most efficient method of completing this step that is currently known is to complete the Menagerie as a team of six with all players using Rose/Lumina, this will net you 35 percent of your total goal per run.
'Bloom' is the final step in achieving Lumina and requires you to not only complete the 'Will of the Thousands' strike, but you'll need to complete the strike with Rose equipped, destroy 11 floating crystals found throughout the strike, and to kill Xol with Rose all in one run of the strike..
As Xol falls, your Rose will blossom into a beautiful Lumina. (Don't worry, you can still pull Rose from your collection).
Bad Juju is back, sending forth bad vibes and big damage with a perk called String of Curses. It behaves like Rampage on 'roids, and generates additional super energy based on how many stacks you have.
Needless to say, you’re going to want this gun and we’ve got a guide to make sure you pick it up ASAP.
Head to Nessus and visit the barge. On the barge, look for a chest next to Werner 99-40 and open it. This will cost you 5,000 glimmer and kickstart your way to unlocking the Tribute Hall.
When you open the chest, you’ll receive an "Invitation From The Emperor" pursuit which will beckon you to the Tribute Hall. The Tribute Hall is also found on Nessus, but it can only be accessed through the Directory in the Destinations tab—the area can be found right next to the same marker you would use to start the Leviathan raid (as seen below).
When you make your way to the Tribute Hall, you’ll be greeted by a near full-sized Calus statue, called Visage of Calus. Interacting with said statue will progress the quest and allow you to buy Calus’s bounties.
To complete the next step of the quest, you'll need to buy one of these bounties and complete it. These bounties regularly rotate and cost 500 glimmer, so keep an eye out on their daily rotation as they serve a purpose later on. I'd recommend trying to aim for the easiest of the bunch as dying before completion will reset your progress.
After completing one of the bounties, you will receive a Boon of Opulence that you will need to offer to the statue. Doing so will progress your quest and grant you access to the Tribute Hall.
Now you’re on to the meat of the quest, a big ol’ time sink. As the doors swing open, you’ll be faced with a multitude of areas in which you can place tributes to Calus. Each of these tributes is based on one of many triumphs that can be found in the Destinations sector under The Tribute Hall in the Minor tab.
Each triumph is based on completing specific actions you should have performed throughout your time with Destiny 2, but the added twist is that you are expected to have completed these events in Calus’s name. This basically means you need to have completed the events using Calus themed equipment—so basically anything from the Leviathan raid or the Menagerie. Alternatively, you can drop cash/materials.
It is possible to buy tributes from Calus, each with a starting cost of 130 planetary materials (or 260 Legendary Shards or 2,850 Bright Dust) and well over 12,000 glimmer. To reduce the cost of these you can continue to complete Calus’s daily bounties for a maximum discount of 80 percent. There are six tribute types in total that require six different materials; Alkane Dust, Dusklight Shards, Microphasic Datalattice, Phaseglass Needles, and the aforementioned Bright Dust and Legendary shards. Put it this way, with the required one percent reduction from the first Boon of Opulence from starting the quest, you’d need 644 of one of the individual planetary materials and 59,400 glimmer.
For those like me with more shards and glimmer than sense, you can always visit the Spider on Tangled Shore to pick up missing materials and speed along the process a fair amount.
Either way you’ll need to find 18 tributes, by hook or by crook, to progress onto the next step.
After you’ve deposited 18 tributes, you’ll be granted with a new quest that beckons you to the chest sitting in the middle of the Tribute Hall, in which resides Bad Juju. Unfortunately, you aren’t over the finishing line yet.
As you approach the chest, an ascendant portal will appear. This portal will take you to the other side. After you enter the portal, you will be tasked to run through an encounter, kill all the enemies therein, and finish off a Cabal boss—making way for a further portal.
Jumping through this portal will return you to the Tribute Hall and the chest in the centre of the room will open to give you Bad Juju.
To earn this catalyst, you are gonna need to offer up some more tributes to Calus (45 to be exact) and then buy the catalyst from Calus.
This next step is not for the faint of heart and will take a considerable amount of time, but doing so will net you the buffed String of Curses perk, increasing the amount of time perk stays active.
While unlocking Bad Juju is far from the hardest exotic quest in Destiny 2, it is a time consuming one for those who haven’t been on the grind since day one. However, it is certainly worth the extra time if you have some to spare.
In the mood for more new exotic gear? Check out what Xur, Destiny's snake-faced bastard of a weekend vendor, is selling here.