In Destiny we will learn today how things will continue. We are here with a live ticker in German as Bungie streams the Spring Update 2.2.0.
This evening starting at 7:00 PM will be the first time since last summer that we will talk about new gameplay content for Destiny. Bungie will present the Spring Update. The stream on Twitch is called “New Things to Do” and will be the first of 3 live streams for the patch scheduled to be released on April 12. We will embed the Twitch stream here.
We will follow the discussion with a live ticker in German. We have done this a few times in the past. For those who don’t know: We keep it rather casual, fitting to the late hour and the format of the Twitch stream.
Guests on the stream will include Lead Designer Ryan Paradis and Senior Designer Tim Williams. Paradis is the “Live Events Lead Designer.” These are “new faces” – the “Live Team” was only established relatively late when there was an internal restructuring and is responsible for the content that comes outside of DLCs and expansions. It will probably be hosted by Community Manager DeeJ – this time without the support of a YouTuber or streamer.
The live ticker for the Destiny stream
6:05 PM: Everything indicates that something is happening with the “House of Wolves” gameplay content. DeeJ pointed out the image that we also embedded here as a title image, as “the sign he gave to the players.” The invitation to the stream ended with “See you in the Reef.” And “Urk” canceled the raids yesterday, but not the Prison of Elders. Furthermore, it has been emphasized multiple times in the past how great Variks and Petra Venj were – they hardly had anything to do in TTK. A reunion seems likely.
There is a lot to suggest that the “Prison of Elders” is returning, perhaps certain bounties, the 3 “House of Wolves” exotic weapons are also overdue – nothing is really set yet, but it strongly indicates that the April update is moving in this direction.
6:15 PM: It might be for the best that there is no community representative present. The drinking game “Take a drink every time DeeJ looks grumpy because the streamer wants to buddy up with him” reportedly claimed several victims in the past.
6:20 PM: The “Broman Prison of Wolves” massacre is probably the reason why DeeJ is no longer allowed to go live with a controller. Older players will remember.
6:30 PM: Normally, it doesn’t start exactly at 7 PM. Instead, at 7 PM a countdown starts, then there is usually some video and then it begins.
6:35 PM: Tim Williams, one of the two speakers, has actually been with Bungie for ages. In 2000, he graduated from university, then he wanted to get started with a dot-com company right away. Bad timing, the internet bubble burst in 2001. He later slowly worked his way into the industry as a kind of professional “tester and bug hunter.” He was hunting bugs in the first Halo on PC, later became a permanent member of the Bungie team and has been there since forever in various positions. In 2009, he gave an interview to Bungie.net, at that time he was a Production Engineer, and already sounded like he had been there forever.
6:55 PM: 11,000 people tuning in on Twitch right now. Timer is currently at 6:06 PM. It will be an exciting question how high the viewer counts go. They were extremely high during the last announcement streams, but it has also been a while.
7:00 PM: And already it’s 30,000. Destiny still has its pull.
7:05 PM: 60,000 want to know how things will proceed with Destiny in April. I belong to that group, because if it really is the Prison of Elders, I will act like someone who “just knows things” in the future.
7:06 PM: Ha! Video with Variks’ voice.
Prison of Elders returns
7:08 PM: The Light level rises to 335. There are new bounties, quests, new missions, and a fresh strike. The Prison of Elders gets a facelift and a challenge mode. Thus, it will be the new endgame.
7:09 PM: A new Taken strike “Rotten Chalice” is coming and the Archon Priest strike “Winter’s Run” is also returning.
7:11 PM: Variks will be the new quest giver for the update. He has captured Taken and imprisoned them in the Prison of Elders. He wants the Guardian to eliminate and examine “the new Taken.”
7:12 PM: The Prison of Elders will be designed for Level 41.
7:14 PM: Variks will distribute weekly bounties, which will reset on Tuesdays and lead players into the Prison of Elders. In the challenge mode of the raid, one has to pass through some kind of “ticket” – like with Brother Vance and the Trials of Osiris. Petra Venj has a new quest – but only for PlayStation players, which is Sony-exclusive.
7:17 PM: The new leader of the Taken is “Malok.” (people are still eager for the Hunter helm, Hood of Malok). The “Archon Priest” strike will be reissued with Taken.
7:20 PM: Many pretty pictures now, not so much information on what it will really be like.
7:22 PM: For a free update, this is already impressive. Prison of Elders as the new endgame with challenge mode, a new strike, a revised strike, quests, missions, bounties. There will be discussions about rewards and balance changes in the coming weeks.
7:24 PM: This is Tim Williams – he is now sharing the information we had earlier. 10 years at Bungie. It’s about the Prison of Elders from Destiny.
In challenge mode, there are items up to light 335
7:26 PM: There are no more keys, you can enter the Prison of Elders as often as you like. (The challenge mode will probably be more restrictive.) Items up to light 320. – This applies to the normal mode, which we are only skimming here.
7:28 PM: In challenge mode, there will be items up to light 335. – Community Manager Cozmo first yawns at the camera, someone should have told him that he is currently on TV.
7:30 PM: There are 16 different variants for the Prison of Elders – this likely applies to the various modifiers and how they are composed. There are a total of 8 bosses. Challenge mode Prison of Elders will not have matchmaking, designed for 3 players.
Challenge mode in Destiny now consists of battling bosses and timing for points
7:32 PM: The idea for the challenge mode is “You take a kind of pass that is valid for a week” – there are 2 kinds of points that you can earn. First, “high score,” only the “best run” of that week counts. And “total score,” where the individual scores are summed up. For scoring, the “team score” is used. If the high score is high enough, there will be a weapon with a power of 335. If you beat the “total score,” there will be an armor piece with a defense value of 335.
7:34 PM: In challenge mode, there are 3 rounds – no treasure room, it’s just about points. Per round, there is one boss. It will be determined once a week how the challenge mode is structured and that will apply to everyone.
7:36 PM: It’s all about points and against a time limit. If you take too long for a round, longer than 5 minutes, you get point penalties.
7:38 PM: Cozmo continues the glorious tradition of community managers in Destiny live streams. He is being carried through by designers.
7:40 PM: You will be able to complete bounties in the Prison of Elders. The Taken count for the bounties. There are checkpoints. The enemies drop engrams. Everything should be significantly “more rewarding” than before.
7:43 PM: The challenge mode is relatively short and testers are getting through it well, so it shouldn’t be “sooo hard.” The individual rounds are basically boss fights with plenty of adds. In case of a wipe, the score resets to the value before the round. And then you can try the round again.
7:49 PM: The trick is to kill the boss only when you have enough points to surpass the high score barrier. Then go in twice more and you have the “total points” collected. It’s a question of how hard that really is. How well equipped the testers were and whether it’s really a challenge for skilled Destiny players. Likely already with the 320 gear it should get much easier quickly.
7:51 PM: There are a total of 8 bosses in the Prison of Elders.
7:51 PM: Uh, there will actually be guaranteed 335 weapons if you achieve the high score in the challenge mode in the Prison of Elders.
Summary – What is coming in the April Update
- Light level rises to 335.
- The “Archon Priest” strike “Winter Storm” is returning – and a completely new Taken strike “Rotten Chalice.”
- New quests, bounties, and missions are coming. The focus is on the Reef and Variks.
- The Prison of Elders is returning in 2 variants. The “normal” is designed for light 260 – here items drop up to 320. In challenge mode, items up to 335 can drop, and there is the possibility to receive guaranteed 2 335 items per week through “score cards” – one weapon and one armor piece.
Next Wednesday there should be a discussion about rewards. What items can players obtain? There was a sniper rifle with new, yet unknown nodes to see.
Additionally, further information: Rewards for the King’s Fall raid are also being increased. Normal drops will soon be 320, in hard mode 330 – and artifact drops at the Court of Oryx will soon be 335.
