Destiny — Bungie previews ‘new things to earn’

Previously, Bungie unveiled the new things to do in the April Update for Destiny. Last week, as promised, they showed ‘new things to earn’ — previewing the armour, weapons and more that awaits gamers in a little over 1 week.

New things to earn

Let’s run through the headlines before diving into the detail:

• HUD-less option added — perfect for movie makers and screenshot takers
• Chroma system adds a red, blue, yellow or white glow to select armour and weapons
• New armour sets to collect — Desolate (Taken) and Spektar
• Both sets obtainable through Sterling Treasure chests, in addition to new ships, sparrows and Chroma colours
• Infusion now boosts items by 100% of the light level difference
• Year 1 legendary weapons return
• Vault space increased
• Kings Fall raid stays relevant — max light level of normal and hard mode increased to 320 and 335 respectively

Chroma

First up, Community Manager ‘DeeJ’ — accompanied by art lead Keith Bachman and live team designer Brenton Woodrow — walked and talked us through 2 new armour sets and the Chroma system some eagle eyed viewers will have noticed in the previous stream. In simple terms, the Chroma system allows players to add a white, red, blue or yellow glow to their weapons and armour. Chroma is applied to individual items — meaning a player can mix and match different colours on different armour pieces or weapons.

It’s a minor, cosmetic, touch — but it adds some variety and it must be said, looks great; the Dead Orbit shader accented with a blue Chroma in particular working very well.

When armour is looted, it has a set Chroma colour — but if it’s not want you want, a measly 100 glimmer lets you randomly re-roll it — and with just 4 colours to choose from at the moment, it won’t cost you much to get the shade you’re after.

New Armour Sets

Chroma can only be applied to new sets of armour — it cannot be used on existing items. There are 2 brand new compatible armour sets — Spektar, and Desolate — the latter finally being revealed as the Taken armour hinted at in the initial April Update press releases.

Each of the 3 factions also have a Spektar armour set to which Chroma can be applied — although this seems to just be a renamed version of the existing faction armour sets. These are rewarded through faction rank-up packages, but unfortunately not sold.

Equip yourself with a complete set of Desolate armour, and you also gain a Taken ‘shiver’ emote, giving your Guardian the trademark twitches and convulsions that the Taken display. A nice touch.

Sterling Treasure

Acquiring the vanilla Spektar set, as well as the Desolate set, is a case of opening Sterling Treasure chests. Each chest guarantees a random piece of armour at Light level 3 — but with the changes to the infusion system that reward 100% of the Light level difference, boosting these up to a respectable light level will be easy.

Each chest then has a chance to award a ship, sparrow, one of the 4 Chroma colours to apply to an armour piece, a consumable which boosts faction reputation gain for a limited period of time, or a class item.

Players can acquire Sterling Treasure in a few ways. They will be awarded one per week from the postmaster, one per week from Shaxx for completing a match in the weekly featured crucible playlist, and one per week from Variks for completing the level 41 match-made Prison of Elders activity. They can also be purchased from Eververse — the Destiny cash shop — for 200 silver. This has been the cause of some contention — which perhaps we’ll talk about another time — as it marks the first item that players can buy with real money that will expedite their characters endgame progression.

That issue aside, Sterling Treasure gives players a genuine route to competing their armour sets, and something to work towards from week to week.

Year 1 Legendaries Return

The April Update will reintroduce some Year 1 weapons into the mix — available by decrypting Legendary Weapon Engrams, and crossing your fingers. Two guns in particular are sure to pique the interest of Year 1 veterans — Shadow Price and The Devil You Know. These can be infused right the way up to Light level 335, making them viable for endgame content.

The full list of returning Year 1 Legendaries is below:

• Shadow Price (auto rifle)
• Badger CCL (scout rifle)
• Lord High Fixer (hand cannon)
• Grim Citizen III (auto rifle)
• The Saterienne Rapier (scout rifle)
• The Devil You Know (hand cannon)
• The Swarm (machine gun)
• Zombie Apocalypse WF47 (machine gun)
• LDR 5001 (sniper)
• Longbow Synthesis (sniper)
• Two To The Morgue (shotgun)
• The Comedian (shotgun)

And to accommodate all these new armour sets and returning weapons, Vault space has once again been increased, with a 3rd page added to each section of the vault meaning up to 108 weapons, 108 armour and 108… other… things can be stored.

Bungie have one more livestream planned before the release of the April Update. This coming Wednesday, they’ll unveil other Crucible and Sandbox updates we can expect to see when the update drops. Details below — you can tune in live on the Bungie Twitch channel, but expect a summary here in the days that follow.

• Wednesday, April 6th at 11AM Pacific — Sandbox and Crucible Updates