In the MMO shooter Destiny , Bungie occasionally shares quirky statistics and information. This week was no different. It was about special weapons in the Crucible. An outsider emerged as the winner.
“Bungie User Research” conducts a kind of player research: They are responsible for ensuring that the design team continuously receives information on how your game is played. To do this, they conduct extensive game tests in the lab, create surveys, analyze them, and have access to all game data.
From time to time, they reveal particularly quirky numbers to the players. This time, the “most popular” special weapon in the Crucible is the Vestian Dynasty. 27% of all PvP players reportedly used it at least once this week. The pistol is awarded to every player who completes the first story mission of “House of Wolves”.
Just to be clear: This is not the weapon with the most kills. They do not disclose which weapons are at the top.
Black Hammer the most popular sniper rifle in Destiny’s PvP
The other popular special weapons this week were mainly shotguns and sniper rifles. Representatives of both weapon types are balanced in the top 10 for special weapons in the Crucible. This was likely due to the fact that “Pantheon” was the Trials of Osiris map: Here, snipers have an advantage due to the long sight lines. Most Guardians in the Crucible otherwise complain that shotguns are too strong.
The most frequently used sniper rifle this week was, by the way, the “Black Hammer” – much to Bungie’s surprise. Actually, this is a classic PvE weapon, as it returns a full magazine when you achieve 3 precision hits in a row.
Curious: Bungie takes a hint from reddit
There is also a curious note. In the Destiny subreddit, it has become common over the last few months to prepend “SGA” before “tips”: A reference to the machine gun “Super Good Advice”.
As the Bungie User Research staff member said today, reddit has won in that regard. More and more emails in internal Bungie communications now start with “SGA.”
