‘Destiny: Rise Of Iron’: Bungie Talks Thorn, Gjallarhorn Changes, And More

The release of Destiny: Rise of Iron is closing in for the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, but there are still plenty of questions about the upcoming expansion. Bungie took some time to answer fan question via a Game Informer videocast and shared details on Thorn and Gjallarhorn plus other details on Xur, vendors, factions, and other content.

Destiny: Rise of Iron Director Christ Barrett and Executive Producer Scott Taylor took fan questions and answered the ones they could and deferred on ones they couldn’t or wouldn’t answer yet. This is the collection of the more informative answers.

Weapons

Bungie does not plan to change any of the Destiny weapon balancing with the release of Rise of Iron. Instead, the developer is going to watch the reaction to the performance of weapons and classes post-release and then make any necessary tuning tweaks.

This leads into the question of how the two dominant weapons from the first year of Destiny, Thorn and Gjallarhorn, will perform in Rise of Iron. The Year 3 Thorn will actually perform as the original version does currently in the game, just at the higher Light level. This means the same damage over time (DoT) effect will be present. The difference will be the introduction of Artifacts. As previously covered, one of these Artifacts counteracts the DoT effect.

Meanwhile, the Gjallarhorn will not return to its Year One dominance. The Exotic Rocket Launcher will still be effective, but Bungie wants to avoid it being the only weapon players use that actually breaks boss encounters.

Vendors

Vendors will get a new collection of goods to sell at new Light levels, which Bungie is still working on. This includes the usual faction vendors plus the more specialized vendors like the Gunsmith, Banshee-44. He will have a new selection of weapons for Armsday.

Meanwhile, Xur will add Ornaments to his collection of Exotic goods sold when he makes his weekend appearances. Ornaments take the concept of Chroma and expand it to changing armor and weapon geometry. The idea is to provide some variety to how players look.

Ornaments are typically received from Radiant Treasure drops, but can be converted to Silver Dust and used to buy items from the Eververse Trading Company and possibly Xur too. Those looking for Chroma can head over to Eva Levante to buy all the color-changing material they desire.

Private Matches

Interestingly, wins and kills in the much-requested multiplayer feature will count towards Grimoire score. However, it will not count towards any quests. So, don’t expect to use your friends to help with the Jolly Holiday quest to get The Chaperone if you are still struggling to complete it.

Exotics and Vault Inventory

Inventory management is always an important question as Destiny players are hoarders by nature. The Vault won’t see an expansion with the release of Rise of Iron, but Bungie is currently working on it.

The new Year Three Exotic weapons and armor will appear in their respective kiosks, though. They will be shown on the same page as the existing Exotics.

Bungie wouldn’t say if Exotic engrams being collected now will drop Year Three Exotic items when Rise of Iron releases. The non-committal response suggests players may want to start saving their Exotic engrams to decode later.

Strike Playlists

The Heroic Strike playlist from Destiny: The Taken King will still hang around and contain the same remixed of Strikes featuring both regular and Taken variants. This leaves it available for those that have not upgraded to Rise of Iron. The Legacy Strike playlist will be available as well.

The new Strikes with their remixed variants plus an unspecified number of older Strikes will be included in a new playlist specifically for Rise of Iron.

For those curious, Destiny: Rise of Iron will go live at 5 a.m. ET/2 a.m. PT on Tuesday, September 20, for the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. Expect to see some special events the week prior to release, just like all the other expansion launches.

[Image via Activision/Bungie]