In Destiny, mysterious, highly infectious viruses are spreading shortly before the launch of “Rise of Iron.” These grant buffs to your Guardians. What’s the deal with them and with the “OWL Sector?”
Bungie secretly introduced a mysterious event into the game last night, which the community is currently eagerly trying to solve. This is being referred to on Reddit as a possible new ARG, or “Alternate Reality Game,” which is meant to hint at “The Rise of the Iron Lords.”
Currently, quite a bit is known about the “viruses” that are infecting your Guardians through this event. However, they remain very mysterious. We summarize what the Guardians have discovered so far.
How do you get infected?
There are a total of five buff viruses: Brilliance 3.2, Glory 2.1, Splendor 2.6, Majesty 2.0, and Valor 3.1. If you receive a virus, the buff will be displayed in the character menu, always with the description:
[The respective buff] has been transferred to you. Increased XP and reputation gain for the duration of the transfer.
Here you see a screenshot from our community regarding this:
The spooky happenings and the community’s collective actions seemingly began when a Redditor wrote that his buddy suddenly had this buff when he started a Crucible match.
The following ways to obtain these viruses have been frequently mentioned so far:
- Start a PvP match (public or private). Collect the light spheres of an infected teammate. Kill an opponent and you will receive all the viruses that the teammate has.
- Or: Simply kill a random opponent in PvP and you may receive a buff. Here’s how a Guardian receives viruses after a kill (displayed at the bottom left):
- Additionally, there is a theory that you frequently get the viruses by eliminating an opponent who has an active super.
- There are also reports that you can receive the viruses when starting strikes.
However, there are currently various theories about this. Therefore, our tip: Go into the Crucible, defeat enemies, and see what happens.
If you switch your character or log out, these buffs remain available when you select the infected character again. Furthermore, the buff bonuses seem to always be the same, regardless of whether you carry one or all five buffs.
If you are infected, particles, “electronic mites,” flicker around your head:
There are reports from streamers that a user named owl_sector sent the following lines as a message during the stream when they received the buff:
We’ve detected an unidentified foreign intrusion into your systems, Guardian. Stay calm. We will investigate.
And with that, we come to the next mysterious circumstance.
What is the “OWL Sector” website about?
Recently, there is an “OWL Sector” website that belongs to Bungie.net. On it, you will see a large world map with several hotspots marked. The number of these has increased in the last hours. According to the legend of the world map, these correspond to the five buff viruses.
Below the world map, a column spins, indicating how frequently each virus is spread. Accordingly, Brilliance 3.2 is the most common. Above the map is written: OWL Sector Emergency Console – Please remain calm.
What all this means is still unclear. But Destiny: Rise of Iron is being plagued by a new threat: SIVA, a biomechanical plague. These buff viruses are most likely related to SIVA.
Bungie itself is rather reserved on this matter. They seem to let the Guardians explore for themselves. Only the community manager DeeJ commented via Twitter: He was asked whether a Twitter account named OWL_SECTOR was official. DeeJ replied: No, that’s not us.
OWL Sector Documents
Additionally, you can click on “Open Documents” on the “OWL Sector” website. Here you will find various texts related to each virus. More will be added gradually. You can read all previous texts on the website itself. Here is an excerpt from “Brilliance 3.2”:
Owl Sector Internal, OS-I6 1
SHU: How long ago was the last meeting?
QUI: I can still remember Dawn Calamity, so not long enough. BER: I’m receiving strange reports from all over the system that all agree.
SHU: Come on, just say it.
BER: A few Guardians in the field report being surrounded by some kind of electronic mite in swarms. The first ones, after having been on the Dust Palace on Mars, but the rest is now coming from everywhere.
SHU: How bad is it?
BER: Apparently it’s fantastic. At least they’re screaming that over the comms. Is joyful screaming a medical problem? Should we tell the Vanguard about this?
QUI: First Ikora. The Hidden might know something.
What do you make of this event? According to this text, everything seems to have started in the Dust Palace, the current Nightfall strike.
