Here’s everything you need to know about Destiny’s second year

The first live stream promoting Destiny’s third expansion, The Taken King wrapped up not long ago, and a range of new details have arisen, regarding the status of existing earned rewards, and how the game’s ecosystem will function after September 15.

The livestream began at 7pm BST, on the Bungie Twitch channel, and over the hour period we were treated with a look into the new experience at The Tower, and how all vendors will operate after the expansion drops. Community Manager, Deej hosted the showcase, joined by Mark Noseworthy and Tyson Green who have worked on the content.

Character Levels and Light Levels

Firstly, the new character and levelling systems were explained, which have been massively overhauled for Year Two of Destiny.

The character screen, which can be accessed by pressing the ‘menu button’ in-game, has received a minor visual tweak, with some user interface elements seeing small redesigns. Now, Grimoire score is not displayed on the playercard in the top right of the screen, and instead is hidden away from obvious player view.

The new level cap in The Taken King has been raised to Level 40, rather than 34 currently obtainable as of the release of House of Wolves. This new levelling system will be measured differently than the current player levels, which after Level 20 is determined by equipped gear, and their attached ‘Light levels’. Now, while light still plays a major role in Destiny, its use has been altered.

As it stands right now, levelling is determined by gear being used by the player, and as a result defence statistics are inherited solely from these items. After September 15, the main character level is determined by experience the player earns, and cannot fluctuate depending on player items. This is similar to how levels before Level 20 were calculated.

Current Light levels are calculated differently from the new XP based levelling system, therefore players levels will not simply transfer across when the expansion releases. Instead, statistics of all your gear across your vault, and inventory will be inputted into an algorithm, and the resultant will be reflected from your gear earned in Year One. Due to this, it is recommended that you resist from dismantling all items which will not transfer from your first year of play.

For players who are starting fresh with The Taken King, they will be given a ‘Spark of Light’. This consumable can be used to instantly level up to Level 25, and The Taken King’s content can be accessed. This will be collected from the postmaster, after the first visit to the tower.

Light level is now being repurposed to determine the strength of a character, and is represented by a three digit value. This isn’t calculated using the light values gear previously held, and now is an average of all values from armour, weapons, and even class items and ghosts. Previously, Ghost shells and class items were purely aesthetic, but with The Taken King, they contribute to the secondary level. This level is displayed on your nameplate in the top right of the screen, where Grimoire score was once showcased.

It was also noted on stream, that other values, such as Discipline, Intellect, and Strength now show their effects on cooldown timers, rather than numbers with little meaning.

Quests and Bounties

A new tab has been added to the character screen, on the top bar between the gear, and inventory menus. The Quest screen is the new way bounties and quests are to be displayed, and will be trackable at all times through this menu. Now, alongside quests, up to 16 bounties can be held, rather than the 10 slots available today. From this menu, after they have been completed, and all prerequisites have been met, they can be cashed in instantly, without a visit to The Tower. While The Tower is still required to collect bounties, rewards can be harvested in-game, from this menu.

The quests section on this page houses quests given by certain characters or factions, and can be earned by ranking up certain levels, or completing activities. On this screen, the rewards can be previewed, and what is required to receive them. These rewards can be gear, reputation, experience, or even the three new subclasses being added in The Taken King. These will be earned, and not given instantly to owners of the expansion.

New bounties and quests are being added with The Taken King, giving players more freedom when meeting these set goals. These can span across the entire Destiny ecosystem, including Crucible, Patrol, Story, or even raids. With many upcoming bounties, it is possible to complete them in all gamemodes.

All of this can be tracked through this menu, however to maximise efficiency, certain bounties and quests can be ‘tracked’. When being tracked, bringing up your Ghost with the ‘View button’ will display the tracked bounties, in the bottom right of the screen. This will show a percentage completion for certain tasks, without having to open up the Quests page itself.

Class Items and Ghost Shells

Minor changes have been made to The Speaker once again, and while they may be small, they massively change the performance, and look of your character.

Class Items, which have mostly been aesthetic additions up until now, have been modified, as showed on the stream. The Speaker was the only vendor where this was massively discussed, however many vendors will offer shells and class items as rewards after meeting certain targets.

Not only do class items and ghost shells change the light level of your character, they also edit the performance through perks attached to them, uniquely. These will have upgrade paths, similarly to how weapons and armour have been handled, and offer boosts to non-gameplay elements. Class items can affect the reputation income from certain factions, based on where they have been obtained. Many will have upgrade trees which have a range of choices, and a variety of perks, depending on the class item in question, and the choices of the player. Ghost shells will offer similar perks, however help in resource locating and farming. Some ghosts will increase material yield, or help find these materials by displaying hints on the map. These ghosts can also offer discipline, strength, intellect and defence, like the armour itself can.

Emblems, Shaders and Vehicles

A set of kiosks have been added to the west of the tower, allowing for players to store all their emblems, shaders, and vehicles, without using precious vault space. These are designed to track all earned emblems of players, and even after they are discarded, can be accessed at a later date. The Emblem Collection kiosk was debuted on stream, and explained by the team at Bungie. In this hub, all emblems obtainable in Destiny have been listed, and those that have been found are highlighted in their respective slots. Those which have not been discovered are faded, however after a short hover with the cursor, displays where the specific emblem can be found. This allows players to track the progress of their collection, without losing what isn’t stored on their characters. This is the same with shaders, and vehicles, such as the Sparrow and starships, and as a result, those who are avid collectors have been given even more reasons to play.

Faction Badges and Rewards

Faction based gear has also been modified, once again offering more customisation to the player. Previously, in order to earn experience for a certain faction, a piece of that faction’s gear would have to be equipped. Now, with the introduction of badges, this opens a precious space for your own gear, without the need for any class gear. Once these are used, they are fixed to your character for one week, and can be kept for as long as desired. While wearing them, a regular faction reputation gain continues.

After earning reputation, this can be translated to rewards from the faction’s vendors. New additions include material exchange, in order to receive faction experience, or quests, which are offered at certain ranks.

Currency

To demonstrate how existing currencies will transfer to The Taken King, a small visit to Lord Shaxx, Crucible Handler, was made, where the new bounties offered by the vendor, and the gear that can be earned in reward, were shown.

Lord Shaxx will offer 5 bounties every week, with a 6th being rewarded upon completion of the initial five. The reward for completing this will be an ‘unknown reward’, which has the equivalent rarity to Nightfall drops.

This led on to how the currency with this vendor will soon be changing, and with all other vendors accepting Vanguard Marks or Crucible Marks as a form of payment. Now, these marks will be condensed into one currency, called Legendary Marks. These can be earned in almost all modes, and will be distributed for completing most events. The maximum balance for these marks is 200 Legendary Marks, however an unlimited amount may be earned per week. All existing marks will be converted to reputation commendations, which will return Legendary Marks. These are account wide, and shared between all characters on your Xbox Live account.

Infusion and Blueprints

While many weapons offered in Year One of Destiny will be left behind, weapons earned after The Taken King releases will be given the support to maintain their statistics, as newer weapons arise. All weapons collected after September 15 will carry Infused Nodes, which allow the weapon to be Infused with the help of the Gunsmith. This is a rework of ascension, which was first introduced when the House of Wolves expansion released earlier this year. Infusion allows players to take a weapon they wish to upgrade, and a second weapon which has higher statistics, to inflate the values of the lesser weapon. This unlocks weapons with less admirable statistics to be used effectively against high-end weapons dropping later in the year. This once again gives players the choice, and customisation they desire.

For those wanting to transfer your exotics, you may be in luck due to a simple migration process implemented by Bungie. Select exotic weapons and gear will be upgraded for the second year of Destiny, with perks and statistics being modified, to balance them alongside gear found in The Taken King.

Exotic weapons can also be stored in the Exotic Blueprint terminals, in the Vanguard room, however to access them, they must be extracted from their blueprint form, for a small cost. All exotics yet to be found can also be tracked here.

Miscellaneous Vendor Changes

Apart from the key vendors mentioned above, the following vendors are the only who were sighted in the livestream:

• Eris Morn is no longer located by the railing of the tower. Instead, she has been moved to the bottom of the first flight of stairs, on the way down to the Vanguards.
• The Cryptarch has received few changes, however will now begin selling Legendary Engrams. These will be purchased like previous engrams sold by the vendor, with Glimmer.
• The Gunsmith will now offer players ‘Field Test’ weapons, which will be lent to the player. The player must complete a list of challenges with this weapon, and as a reward, the gun can be kept.
• Foundry Orders will also be offered by the Gunsmith, which are purchasable orders, to receive a guaranteed weapon at a later point in time. This stock rotates weekly, every Wednesday, at 5AM ET/10AM BST. This day is also known as Armsday in the Destiny universe.

Vault Space

As many hoped, the vault space in Destiny will receive once another upgrade, doubling what is currently available for both weapons and armour. After September update, it will be possible to store 72 weapons and 72 pieces of armour, and 36 general items. This, in combination with the new Exotic Blueprint system and customisation kiosks, results in a large portion or storage being freed for the next expansion.

Finally, at the last portion of the stream, we were given a small teaser of the sword, set to drop with the expansion. While little is known about the item, it is expected to be a Legendary heavy weapon.

Source: Twitch