In Destiny, the Vex Mythoclast holds special significance. The exotic fusion rifle was notorious in the beginning, constantly plagued by bugs later on, and now a YouTuber has recreated it using Lego bricks.

The early days of the Mythoclast: Divine

It must have been a great feeling back then when the first Guardian received this quirky weapon “Vex Mythoclast” from Raid Boss Atheon in Hard Mode. It is a fusion rifle, actually a special weapon, that still functioned in the primary slot. What were they thinking? Back then, there were no wikis or showcase videos, the only way to learn about the weapon was through self-testing.

When the Guardian wanted to try out the weapon in the Crucible, the big surprise came: The thing just obliterated everything. Bungie had made the “Vex Mythoclast”, the only exotic weapon that could drop directly in a raid, way too strong and didn’t consider how much a Guardian would go on a rampage with it in the Crucible.

A story full of misunderstandings that is unparalleled in Destiny

The story of the Vex is then one full of misunderstandings and problems. It was nerfed, then buffed a bit again, now it is the only weapon that Xur cannot bring to the new max value of 331, and the last patch made it buggy again.

For a while now, it has not been the queen of the Crucible, but still plays quite solidly in the upper ranks, that is: until the next patch does something wrong with it again.

By the way, a bit of trivia: Mythoclast is Greek and stands for “The destruction of myths”, and you only receive the Mythoclast if you defeat Atheon. And he wields god-like powers.

And now made from 1500 Lego pieces

The YouTuber ZaziNombies has now recreated the Vex Mythoclast using Lego bricks. He does this quite often. He used 1500 bricks and even managed to get the iconic “red scope” just right. The most interesting part of the video is certainly when he takes the individual pieces off, and you can see how accurately he managed to recreate the look of the famous weapon in Destiny using improvised Lego parts that a layman would never have thought of. He used many tires this time. Impressive.

ZaziNombies has recreated other weapons, such as: The Last Word, Thunderlord, Icebreaker and the Gjallarhorn.

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In Destiny it has been achieved after over half a year by the first player to actually solo Atheon, the boss of the first raid.

The next thing that everyone thought was impossible in Destiny is accomplished: Atheon, the raid boss from “The Vault of Glass” was defeated by a single player. It was considered an extraordinary achievement to do it with at least two players. A certain game mechanic required multiple players.

It was of course a “Praise the Sun” Lazarus Warlock. His “super ability” consists of resurrecting from the dead. However, after a successful resurrection, it usually takes too long for it to be possible again. The player needs it quickly enough that he can intentionally die every time Atheon opens the portals, in order to resurrect afterward. Otherwise, he would be pulled into another dimension from which he cannot escape without a partner.

But that is just the rough framework of this idea: The fine details took months for tactical planners to figure out. The player in the video was the first to execute them perfectly. In the video, primarily grenades are used on Atheon, as they enjoy a damage buff during the time streams.

The Warlock also uses as exotic items the “Heart of Praxic Fire” and the exotic pulse rifle “Bad Juju.” The rifle is necessary to generate enough super through kills on the Supplicants or to push the cooldown of the super enough so that the Lazarus “resurrecting from the dead” trick is regularly and timely possible. The chest armor Heart of Praxic Fire allows a hail of grenades after resurrecting. Grenades deal 5 times the damage during the boss encounter.

The strategy to accomplish the impossible in Destiny, when watched, bears a little resemblance to that Tom Cruise movie “Edge of Tomorrow” – which had the subtitle “Live. Die. Repeat.” It is impressive how confidently he takes out the little creatures. If he misses just one, it’s game over.

Seems like there isn’t much left in Destiny that can still be accomplished as the world’s first after half a year. While players are still searching for the sixth chest in The Vault of Glass …

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When it came to grenades, Bungie was faced with a serious problem: They would have to design the grenade throw with every weapon “in mind.” After all, you would throw a grenade completely differently if you were holding a pistol or a rocket launcher in the other hand. This would require 25 different motion sequences.

But here, Bungie was simply clever. If you look closely, the first animation preceding every grenade throw is the avatar lowering the weapon first: This turned 25 animations into just one, perfectly executed.

The Field of View: Just Set It a Little Lower

Hesby also revealed another secret: “When designing a shooter, you want to place the crosshair right in the center of the screen first.” However, if you set it a little lower, fields of view above and to the sides open up, allowing for peripheral vision.

Learn more about the secrets of Bungie’s MMO shooter on our Destiny topic page. And… there is also another theory as to why Destiny works so well: Is the success formula based on tests with rats?

The MMO shooter Destiny is facing a lot of criticism. However, the core mechanic, known as gunplay, is beyond any doubt. How did Destiny achieve this?

It is fascinating what game designers have to deal with. They focus on the issues faced by gamers that we feel deeply but cannot articulate, even if they spoil the entire game for us. And they work hard to ensure that we do not encounter these problems.

If you ask hardcore players why they still play Destiny despite all the issues, they will say something like: “It just feels good.” But why does it feel good? This is the responsibility of David Heslby, one of the senior animators at Bungie, who explained some of his tricks at GDC.

The Tricks of the Destiny Developers

Camera Control: Borrowed from Boxers

One of the most sensitive topics in shooters is “camera control.” How does the player’s field of view move when they move and perform actions? If the camera remains static, it feels “wrong,” too “airy.”
If the camera mimics the player character’s movements too much, it becomes jerky and unstable. Players do not feel comfortable, but rather get almost motion sick, especially if they are prone to it: “Even if only 10% of players feel uncomfortable, you alienate people when you sell a million games, that’s 100,000 players,” Helsby explains. That’s why camera animation is so critical.

One might think to simply attach a camera to a runner and see how they perceive the world as they move. But according to Helsby, that’s not a solution. And he knows, he tried just that once.

Then they found the answer with boxers. They already know in advance about each of their punches and position their heads accordingly. When a boxer winds up for a punch, they also move their punching hand with their head. However, before making contact with the opponent, the head swings in the opposite direction to maintain balance.

This was the secret that made the animations in Destiny so convincing. According to Helsby, you can see this best in the knife melee of the hunter.

The Grenade Trick: Only One Instead of Twenty-Five Animations

When it came to grenades, Bungie was faced with a serious problem: They would have to design the grenade throw with every weapon “in mind.” After all, you would throw a grenade completely differently if you were holding a pistol or a rocket launcher in the other hand. This would require 25 different motion sequences.

But here, Bungie was simply clever. If you look closely, the first animation preceding every grenade throw is the avatar lowering the weapon first: This turned 25 animations into just one, perfectly executed.

The Field of View: Just Set It a Little Lower

Hesby also revealed another secret: “When designing a shooter, you want to place the crosshair right in the center of the screen first.” However, if you set it a little lower, fields of view above and to the sides open up, allowing for peripheral vision.

Learn more about the secrets of Bungie’s MMO shooter on our Destiny topic page. And… there is also another theory as to why Destiny works so well: Is the success formula based on tests with rats?

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In Destiny, dataminers predicted the weekly Nightfall strike for March 17.

The weekly Nightfall strike, known as Nightfall in Destiny, is, according to statements from the Japanese prophet Megaman, “The Will of Crota,” the DLC strike against Omnigul with the Arc-Burn modifier.

There are 4 variants of The Will of Crota in Destiny

This would be the fifth time that The Will of Crota has been selected as the Nightfall strike. It thus has three major characteristics:

• It is only accessible to players who have the “The Dark Below” DLC activated.
• It appears much more often than other strikes in the Nightfall rotation – at least once every month.
• It is the only Nightfall strike in Destiny that has more than two variants. The “Will of Crota” is available with Arc-Burn (December 9 and March 15), Solar-Burn (December 30), with Triple-Burn (January 27), without Burn (February 17).

Now, all Nightfall variants in “The Dark Below” should have had their turn

Now in its fifth occurrence, it would be the first time that an Omnigul variant is repeated. Perhaps now the “circle” is closed and next time The Will of Crota appears as the Nightfall in Destiny, it will continue with a Solar-Burn. Since The “Will of Crota” has twice as many variants as all other strikes, it is also logical that it appears twice as often as all other strikes. This is certainly to promote the DLC “The Dark Below” in Destiny. We have addressed the issues, that arise from the abundant DLC content in the weekly rotation, in an article.

“Hobby-predictors” with “After X comes always Y!” can now at least plan that they will have to include twice as many Omnigul strikes in the Nightfall circle as other strikes.

The modifiers for the Nightfall on March 17

• Nightfall – When all players are dead, go back to start
• Epic – harder than heroic
• Lightswitch – enemies deal so much damage with melee attacks that the lights go out quickly
• Angry – enemies are so enraged that high damage won’t stop them
• Arc-Burn – Arc damage is greatly increased

The weekly heroic strike also has Arc-Burn activated.

What weapons are recommended?

Weapons with Arc damage are recommended.

Primary Weapons: The scout rifle Ir Yût’s Bite, the pulse rifle Oversoul Edict or the Deus Ex Machina.

Special Weapons: For example, the sniper rifle Patience and Time.

Special Weapons: The machine gun Thunderlord.

If you want to take a look at strategies on how the strike was previously completed, here is our article from December 9. Omnigul Arc-Burn was the first strike with the new DLC.

This is what else is going on in Destiny on Tuesday, and there are predictions for that too: Iron Banner starts on March 17, are these the items?

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An interview with Destiny’s Production Director, Jonty Barnes, can now give fans hope. At Bungie, they see many things as the gamers do.

Interviews with Bungie employees are rare. Most communication comes through the Weekly Update, which often provides only vague information. When Raid Designer Luke Smith spoke clearly last time, there was more information about the future of Destiny than collected in a month of “Weekly Update”.

Now Destiny has scooped the award for Game of the Year and Bungie’s Production Director, Jonty Barnes, took the time for an enlightening interview.

The surprise: At Bungie, they see almost everything as the community does.

The strengths of Destiny: The core gameplay

When asked what he likes best about Destiny, Barnes replies: “What I like most is that we have created a game that you can enjoy together. We have been working on Destiny for 6 years now, and I still play it with friends. (…) Many of the employees are incredibly proud of the core gameplay mechanics. Playing the game is simply fun. And we have worked hard to get to where we are today. And we are very proud of that.”

This core mechanic is, according to Barnes, also the foundation of success. The action gameplay Bungie is renowned for works well in Destiny.

Barnes probably means the famous “30-second loop”, a sequence of shooting, moving, taking cover, throwing grenades, shooting, that repeated itself in Halo and was considered the basis for making the game feel good. The major plus that is also attributed to Destiny.

According to Barnes, reward systems, a responsive AI, and the ability to play cooperatively add to this foundation. That is the recipe for Destiny’s success.

The weaknesses of Destiny: The story and the slow introduction of new game content

When asked what the team would do differently in Destiny if they had the chance, the answer was refreshingly clear: “We would make some different decisions regarding the game’s story today.”

Additionally, Barnes personally wishes that they could create new locations in the universe faster to give players more to do.

Personally, I wish we could build more places in our universe faster.

The future of Destiny?

According to Barnes, the outlook on “creating new places faster” is positive. The systems they have for bringing in new things evolve just as the players do. Therefore, they will be able to meet players’ wishes faster and satisfy their demands more promptly in the future.

Fortunately, the systems we use to build those worlds is evolving right alongside the player, better enabling us to meet their demands.

At the moment, they have the problem of having too many great ideas to choose from, as the strong community brings so many ideas to the team. In making choices, they will rely on what they believe to be right within the team itself. Because at heart, everyone at Bungie is a gamer.

From the last year, they have also learned that players embrace an “existing universe” like that of Destiny, and the player base continues to grow. This insight has already fostered a rethink of how to design games and what players yearn for.

For more on the MMO shooter, you can visit our Destiny-themed page.

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