Battle Royale mode games are very popular these days. Our author and Fortnite fan Robert has considered what such a Battle Royale mode could look like for Destiny 2.
Battle Royale games like PUBG or Fortnite: Battle Royale are extremely successful. The game principle is simple, and the tactical possibilities are limitless. If something goes wrong, a new game can be started in no time.
In such games, you are dropped over a map along with a certain number of other players. The goal: to survive as the last one standing. During a match, the playable area becomes smaller and smaller, making confrontations inevitable.
Despite their uniform game idea, Battle Royale games thrive on unique elements. In Fortnite, for example, fortresses can be built, while in PUBG, there are many crafting options with mods and drivable vehicles that allow you to cover large distances quickly.
I asked myself how such a Battle Royale mode in Destiny 2 might look – the different character classes and the unique characteristics of the game certainly offer potential.
So what could such a mode look like in Destiny 2? Let’s find out!
A conceivable Battle Royale mode in Destiny 2: Guardian Wars
A Battle Royale mode needs a catchy name. How about “Guardian Wars“: Guardian Wars that allow 100 players to compete against each other simultaneously on a simulated location from Destiny’s history to crown the best Guardian – the one survivor who will lead the Vanguard into battle against future threats.
Unlike the normal Crucible, respawns are not possible; if you die, you go straight back to the lobby. The battles are moderated in a calm manner by Lord Shaxx – who ensures that everything is done right.
Destiny 2 Guardian Wars – The Locations
Admittedly, the current available locations are unsuitable for battles with 100 players. Even the PvE maps offer little potential for fights of this magnitude due to their structure.
However, this is not a problem. With a few adjustments, some locations can be transformed into perfect arenas:
- The Dreadnaught, Oryx’s Grave Ship from Destiny 1, could serve as a location. The map, however, needs to be expanded, especially with regards to places where players can find loot.
- The European Dead Zone is also an excellent choice. Loot is hidden in abandoned ruins and old vehicles.
- The Forest of Eternity could also serve as an arena but would need to be significantly enlarged. An additional danger component would be added here – the fall into the abyss.
There are plenty of possibilities, even though the maps would need to be extensively developed and tight spots for ambushes would need to be removed. To ensure the individual rounds come to their inevitable end, a scenario describing the advance of an opposing alien race would make sense.
Thus, the siege ring in the European Dead Zone would be tightened by the Fallen, and anyone outside the safe zone would continuously take damage from enemy fire. In the Forest of Eternity, the Vex would attack us, while on the Grave Ship, it would be the Hive or the Cabal.
Loot such as weapons and mods can be found in treasure chests, on the floor in houses, or in dark corners at remote spots on the map. If you find a weapon, it already comes with ammunition. Additional ammunition can be found in ammo crates that may be scattered across the map.
In each location, the typical planetary resources can also be collected, which you can then exchange with a familiar noodle-faced character for rare gear, more on that later!
Destiny 2 Guardian Wars – The Character Classes
All classes are selectable in Guardian Wars. You can still choose a talent tree and switch the focuses at any time during a round – however, a switch resets the cooldown of your abilities.
Each Guardian has a fixed number of health points and a shield that corresponds to the element of their chosen focus. If you are not shot for a longer period, you will regenerate your health and shield again – similar to the main game.
If you are killed by an opposing Guardian, you lose all your equipment – weapons and mods, armor mods, and collected resources.
You can use your grenades and melee attacks just as in the main game, and your super ability can be charged. However, to charge your super ability, you need to defeat enemies – an aggressive playstyle will be rewarded.
The cooldown time of your other abilities is quite slow at the beginning of a round, but you can speed this up – we will cover this later.
You start each round without weapons. You wear your armor from the main game – but without any mods. You will have to find these, as well as the corresponding firearms.
Destiny 2 Guardian Wars – The Weapons and Upgrades
Unlike in the main game, Guardian Wars do not have weapons of different rarity (with one exception at the end of the article). Every player finds the same auto rifle, sniper rifle, and so on. The weapon slots correspond to those of the main game, meaning that Kinetic, Energy, and Power weapons can be found.
Mods can be used for each weapon, which will influence the weapon’s behavior. Up to three mods can be installed in each weapon. The mods differ by rarity:
- Gray – Common
- Green – Uncommon
- Blue – Rare
- Purple – Legendary
The following weapon parameters can be adjusted with the mods:
- Stability, Range, Handling
- Damage increase
- Special perks like faster reloading or fireball
As there are only three slots available, the choice of mods should be well thought out. With increasing rarity of the mod, the influence on the weapon’s behavior increases. Thus, a legendary stability mod has a greater effect than a common one.
In rare cases, found weapons may already be equipped with a mod.
Energy weapons play an important role in your setup. If you carry a Solar weapon, you will destroy enemy shields faster if the opposing Guardian is using a Solar focus.
You can recognize this by the fact that the displayed damage number is shown in the corresponding color. If you attacked with the right weapon, the damage number glows in the color of your weapon’s element. If you attacked with the wrong element, you deal significantly less damage, and the number is displayed in gray.
Once the opponent’s shield is destroyed, you will deal damage with any weapon regardless of the element.
Destiny 2 Guardian Wars – Armor Mods and Ghosts
At the start of each round, you start with your armor from the main game, but without mods. These need to be found first. Similar to weapon mods, they are also divided into quality levels:
- Gray – Common
- Green – Uncommon
- Blue – Rare
- Purple – Legendary
You can influence the following parameters:
- Grenade cooldown
- Melee cooldown
- Sprint speed
- Mobility / Recovery / Resilience
Additionally, your equipped ghost can be improved using mods. You can enhance the following parameters with your ghost:
- Improved detection of environmental sounds
- Marking of planetary resources in the vicinity
- More detailed radar
Destiny 2 Guardian Wars – The Sparrow
The Guardian’s popular means of transport is the Sparrow. You can use it, but only to a limited extent. To drive the Sparrow, you must find fuel.
A permanent use of the Sparrow would disrupt the balance. Each fuel unit allows you to zip around with the Sparrow for 10 seconds – perfect for avoiding a fire fight or reaching the safe area of the map.
Unlike all other items, dead Guardians do not leave behind fuel since it is volatile and must be directly refueled into the Sparrow. Since a dead Guardian does not drop their Sparrow, the fuel is gone too!
Destiny 2 Guardian Wars – High-Ranking Targets
From time to time, landing ships from alien races bring a high-ranking target into the arena. These landing ships are acoustically announced and are easily visible in the air. At the landing site, a thick chunk awaits you, dropping the best loot in the form of Power weapons and legendary mods upon its demise.
Since other players can also see where the target will land, the site will always be fiercely contested. This system allows for additional gameplay styles that are reminiscent of the public events in the main game.
Without weapons, you will have no chance of taking out these high-ranking targets, but you might be able to surprise an unsuspecting player who is just collecting the loot from their killed target.
Destiny 2 Guardian Wars – Xur
Xur has a specific role in this game mode. He occupies a random spot on the map and offers you exotic weapons in exchange for planetary resources. These exotic weapons have no mods but are meant to be stronger than weapons with mods due to their exotic nature.
Xur offers three weapons, one for each slot. His location is marked on the map and changes with each reduction of the game area.
This opens up room for interesting tactical tricks. Short on resources to buy from Xur? Then simply shoot a player who just scored a deal with Xur.
The game elements could be expanded indefinitely. Events could occur where enemies in certain sectors of the map attack each other. Analogous to the book “The Hunger Games”, certain sectors could periodically become death zones from which the Guardians must escape.
What do you think of this game mode? Would you like to see such a mode in Destiny 2?
