The Future Looks Bright for Banshee-44
Banshee-44
Few merchants of the Tower serve as vital a function as Banshee-44. His knowledge of weapons is encyclopedic — but don’t ask him where it comes from. Banshee’s mind and body have absorbed incredible punishment over the ages. He grapples with fragments of memory, the shrapnel of ancient ordeals that return to haunt him.
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Banshee truly has been through a lot. As his grimore states, even he cannot fully comprehend the struggles his Exo frame has endured through the ages. But, every Guardian can speak to the horrors and atrocities he has had to go through this past year in Destiny. Warlocks sliding into his workbench. Hunters trying to climb the wepons on his display racks behind him. Even worse are the countless Titans caught trying to dance on his tables. Knocking every loose screw as far as the Jovian colonies.
Things are Looking Up
Tucked away in a quiet corner of the Towers main court yard, many a Guardian has past him by. Never taking the time to listen to his confused messages. Stopping only to purchase a hulk of heavy ammo synth’s before the raid, re-rolling that shotgun that just dropped for you into a Guardian Tear Jerk machine or possibly to purchase a few telemetries for a new weapon. With the release of House of Wolves, we did spend a bit more time desecrating his work space while reforging every weapon that dropped upon us. But with The Taken King, we have all learned to appreciate him for all his oddities and humor.
Armsday is Here
With the introduction of Armsday in The Taken King, we all have found a new friend in the Tower. Although you might still see the occasional Hunter climbing his walls, which is not out of the ordinary by the way, there are no oddities to be found at Banshee’s station any longer. Guardians clamer in line, every Wednesday, pick up their Armsday packages and grab a handful of new weapons to play with on their adventures. Not to mention Banshee handing out our class specific weapons and secret missions.
Yes, Banshee-44 has had a lot of good things going for him lately. But I think things could be even better. Would any enterprising Guardians be interested to read what my ideas are? Read on then. I have two ideas that I think would be awesome!
Improving Banshee’s Corner
- Allow Banshee-44 to have his own bounties. These would not be your average bounties. I would like to see them setup similar to the new Iron Banner and Crucible bounty systems. Have three Daily bounties along with more challenging Weekly bounties. Have the bounties center on skill building, such as 25 Headshot Kills with a sniper in the Crucible. The catch? You have to use a test weapon sniper that has low impact, zero aim assist and a poor base range stat. Yes these attributes are tied together, but it takes everything that makes using a sniper down to pure mechanical skill and unlike anything else in the game. Another example could be — using a weapon to get kills centered around a perk set, like say Stability and Recoil. You have to get so many kills with a Stability perk active, then with that perk turned off and turn on a Recoil perk that changes the gun completely. This would teach new players, and a lot of older players, the differences in how certain perks work and how they effect a weapon. Completing each Daily bounty would net you Gunsmith Rep along with 2 weapon parts. Completing a Weekly bounty would net you Gunsmith Rep, 6 weapon parts and 3 Legendary Marks.
- Weapon Shaders Don’t think for a second that Eve is the only one that knows a thing or two about how to run a business. Allow Banshee-44 to sell weapon shaders, for silver of course. Maybe he could sell some of the bland ones for Glimmer (God knows he does not need any more Motes, since we all reforged so many weapons in HoW). What would a bland shader look like, you ask? Something along the lines of a solid color, maybe. No Gradients and no more than two colors in the shader. The shaders sold for silver, would be really cool. Allowing for up to three colors, gradients and possibly even labels. But lets say that there is an unknown contract that Eve has with The Consortium that states only she can exchange in Silver, since she is Awoken. Maybe Banshee has a chance to drop some of this bland weapon shaders from completing all his Weapon Tests and all 6 bounties.
Conclusion
What do you think? Personally, I have enjoyed the new interactions with Banshee and who doesn’t love playing with weapons and getting really cool one’s in return. I think there is a real opportunity here, with Banshee, that could serve so many purposes. As a casual player (3–4 hrs a day), weapon parts are pretty hard to come by since the Weapon Parts nerf in patch 2.0.1. Getting them from Gunsmith bounties, just makes sense. It doesn’t have to be a ton of parts that you get back. Just another source for them. And yes, I understand that weapon shaders are probably not going to happen until Last-Gen console support is dropped. I get that and take no offense to it, because sadly, I are one. But a Guardian can dream, right?
