Friday 26 December 2014

Destiny: The Dark Below

Hey everyone :)

destiny shoutjohn


As you are all aware - I am a bit of a gamer. Destiny just released their new expansion a couple of weeks ago: 'The Dark Below'. I have been playing this game non-stop since it was released in September. I luckily enough got Beta access so that was great and meant I got to play before lots of other people did.

I did a blog post on my first impressions and how I got on when I first started playing it. You can check that out here.

Destiny (or Bungie) have released a couple of promo videos before the release of the game. They also added in some changes to the game prior to the release. I've added one of the promo below so you can check if out if you haven't seen it already.


The expansion unlocks lots of armour, weapons and changes to existing content such as vanguard commendations, new items to upgrade weapons and armour.

The main additions are listed below. I have managed to complete all of them apart from one of the bounties which I am still working on (this opens up a new mission on the map) which I'm struggling to complete by myself.

Story Missions

Fist of Crota - this takes you to the hive tunnels where you do the first earth strike with the mesh generator. There you go against Sardon a knight with a cleaver. While fighting you are burdened with the darkness so you can't use certain light abilities. I found this quite easy just running around shooting, letting him chase you - obviously with any boss fight once his health drops to 3/4, then 1/2, then 1/4 the game spawns in acolytes and thralls. Once dead the mission is completed.

Siege of the Warmind - I did check this place out ages ago when I was in the Forgotten Shore but it was guarded by a high level Knight so I ran away and never went back. In the building high on the cliff are stairs leading into Rasputin's bunker (the warmind) mentioned constantly throughout the game. Basically the hive have broken in and are attempting to destroy him or control him. You just find them off, there are a few endless waves of hive, and green circles spawn on the floor that you shouldn't go in. Then the boss spawns an ogre named 'Might of Crota' as usual the ogre's weak spot is the same as all other ogres so after a few sniper shots he was down and the mission ended.

The Wakening - this takes place on the Moon (if I didn't mention the other two are on Earth). Deep in the tunnels near the worlds grave but a bit further on. There is a large glowing green crystal. Similar to all boss fights - you kill of all the waves then the boss can be targeted (which this time is the big crystal called: 'Soul of Crota') - he shoots energy blasts at you and spawns reinforcements in every so often. After a few rocket launches and snipers he was down quite fast. Once dead the mission is complete.

That was all the story missions completed. I should have mentioned before I started that a new character is added to the Tower called Eris Morn - her story is that she is the last remaining surviver of 6 who went down into the pit to face Crota and everyone died but her. But she couldn't get back out the pit so survived for years in the tunnels etc etc etc ...

While doing the story missions you do the bounties at the same time with her ... they run together so you follow a story with her and the story missions (if that makes sense). The day she was released 9th Dec (my birthday) - you get two bounties however one of them was to get an urn from Xur (but for those regular games out there) know that he only arrives near the weekend. So we all had to wait for him to come to see where that bounty lead us to.

That bounty was a bit of a nightmare ...

Firstly you had to collect ashes from thralls using a solar fusion rifle.
Secondly you had to collect ashes from acolytes and wizrds using void damage
Thirdly you had to collect ashes from melee attacking cursed thralls (the ones that blow up)
Fourthly you had to kill a very hard boss near Skywatch during a public event (Urzok, the hated).

Then you take it to Eris and she opens up another story on the moon for you. You must take the urn and go back to where the 3 wizards had the shard of the traveller. There is a rather larger urn and you must defeat a wave of thralls, then acolytes, then wizards, then knights (with swords and guns), then orgres. I died a few times attemtping this so I'm taking a break and doing this blog at the moment. I got up to the ogres then they killed me with their pink beam weapon-thing.

So at the moment after I eventually complete this additional story mission or bounty mission. That is all the story missions from the expansion.

Strikes

Two new strikes were added for Playstation users and unfortunately Xbox users only got 1 of them. Apparently (not sure why) the Undying Mind strike is only available to PS users until Fall 2015.

Will of Crota - this is the strike that the story missions have lead up to - the Wizard behind the story missions or the Wizard causing us all these troubles is Omnigol (someone hot-shot Wizard whom probably was having an affair with Crota) she wants to raise him from the dead and will do anything - so obviously we have to stop her.

So similar to all strikes - you team up with two other people (3 in total) and run through the strike - I thought this was pretty easy. The strike area is not new - its familir from other low-level story missions apart from where you confront Omnigol that part is newer. Your basically doing one of the story missions backwards and you end up in Skywatch and you go into the building with the seed ship sticking out of it to finish off the strike.

The strike is quite hard what with hive constantly spawning all over the place and then Omnigol shooting all the time - but I managed it with two other guys.

The Undying Mind - so this strike apparently is only for PS users until Fall 2015 - then I'm assuming Xbox people can play it. This one is set in Mars in the Black Garden (well you start there) - apparently something is trying to restart the heart you destroyed in the last mission. So you fight your way back through the last mission until you find a Hydra (similar box from the Nexus) but harder and with better shields. Again similar to other strikes - 3 people, constant mobs spawning. Managed to kill him after a bit (unfortuantely one of our party left < idiot!) and it looked like we were going to die but another joined us at the last minute and we defeated 'the undying mind'.

Raids

Crota's End - so this is the raid everyone is talking about. This is also where Eris (the new addition to the tower) was nearly killed. So I haven't gotten much information about this from my own knowledge because I haven't done the raid yet (I know shock, shock, horror, horror). I have watched several videos on YouTube - some were over 7 hours long though - god knows how some people can play it for that long just to complete a raid - but this is dedication folks! I would say I'm dedicated but not that dedicated!

So like all raids - there are 6 of you. From what I've heard you need to be at least 28, nearer 30 though. Have some epic armour or weapons to help you out, a mic is not needed but required so you can talk to your team. The normal stuff for a raid - if your a gamer - I shouldn't need to explain this :)

If you want to check out for footage of the raid - go to YouTube.

Crucible Maps

So I'm not much of a player of the Crucible - however I am trying to complete an Exotic Bounty and so I need 10,000 points to get the bounty so I have been playing a bit more of the maps.

Pantheon - is set in the Black Garden or any area near the black garden.

The Cauldron - this is set on the Moon - not sure where just somewhere ... there are cliffs, doors, a centre area ... I've played this one the most at the moment.

Skyshock - similar to the Mossyards - planes and old golden age vehicles are lying around broken.

Vehicles

EV-30 Tumbler - you get this if you bought the expansion pass before the release of the game. It's a bit better than the ones you find or get for completing a guest/bounty. It is faster (100 over the normal 70 speed) and can do a couple of tricks.

That's mostly all of the additions to the game - the next expansion 'House of Wolves' will be the next expansion to add to Destiny - but there is not much information out there at the moment :)

Let me know if you guys have played/or are playing Destiny and how your getting on.

If you are on PS3 add me - my gamertag is: johnaagnew2010



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