You already saw how strikes won’t play the same twice in Destiny: The Taken King (opens in new tab), but dedicated Destiny players know repetitive Strikes were only half the problem. Now Bungie’s fundamentally changing Destiny (opens in new tab)’s weekly and daily events so they feel like less of a chore.
First off, failing a Nightfall will no longer return your Fireteam to orbit, forcing you to sit through two load screens for every total party kill. Meanwhile, the individual death penalty will be retooled into a 30-second revive timer, just like in the normal versions of Raids. Enemy damage types will also change on a weekly basis to encourage players to rotate their armor as well as their weapons.
Also, remember that all-important buff you’d get for completing the Nightfall strike which would boost your reputation, experience, and Mark gains by 25 percent until the next weekly reset? That’s going away, because Bungie doesn’t like how it pressured players into completing the Nightfall as soon as it was available – don’t worry, other sources of XP and reputation will get a boost to make up for the buff’s absence.
Weekly Heroic Strikes are out, and a new Vanguard Heroic Playlist will take their place. The new playlist doesn’t have a cap for how many Legendary Marks (the new unified end-game currency) you can collect in one week, though you’ll receive extra for finishing your first three before the server rest. You’ll also get a Legendary Engram for finishing your first weekly, guaranteed, and all the Mark awards are distributed to your account, so there’s no extra benefit to playing through on multiple characters.
Bungie’s also giving Crucible enthusiasts a Nightfall-equivalent in The Taken King: grab “The True Meaning of War” Bounty from Lord Shaxx, complete all your new weekly PvP quests, and turn the Bounty in for “Nightfall tier rewards” every week. Lastly, the Daily Heroic and PvP quests will get better rewards, but in turn be completed across your account. Bigger payoff for one character, less repetition.
Destiny’s old weekly grind started to feel like a very poorly paid second job after a while, so it’s good to see Bungie making some serious changes. We’ll see how they play out when The Taken King arrives on September 15.
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