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‘Destiny’ Update Hits Exotics And Economy, Removes Raid Exploit

Published on: December 1, 2014 at 1:52 PM
By Scott Grill

Bungie delivered a major Destiny update Monday to PlayStation and Xbox consoles as the developer prepares for the release of The Dark Below expansion. The update delivers significant changes to under-performing Exotic weapons as well as the game’s economy plus fixes a big exploit during the Templar encounter in the Vault of Glass raid.

The Exotic weapons Thorn, Bad Juju, Hard Light, Monte Carlo, MIDA Multi-Tool, Red Death, Vex Mythoclast, Invective, Ice Breaker, Patience and Time, Super Good Advice, and Truth all received buffs to their stats, perks, or both. Meanwhile, the Suros Regime received a debuff to the damage it was dealing at the end of its magazine. All Exotics have a higher base Attack value though the upgrade range has been narrowed.

The big change with Exotics is how you will upgrade Exotic weapons and armor. It used to be you had to grind for Ascendant Shards or Energy. Bungie has discarded that for Exotics and replaced with a final upgrade node that required an Exotic Shard. These shards can be obtained by purchasing them from Xur for seven Strange Coins or by dismantling Exotic items. That doesn’t mean all the Ascendant Shards and Energy you have already collected are worthless, however. Remember that you’ll still need them to upgrade your Legendary items.

Meanwhile, the Vendors are now selling materials that will help reduce the in-game grind. You can now purchase Spinmetal, Relic Iron, Spirit Bloom, and Helium Filaments from the Vanguard and Crucible Quartermasters in the Tower. That means you can use Vanguard Marks or Crucible Marks to make the purchase. These “destination materials” will also be rewarded after completing the Daily Heroic mission and Daily Patrol bounty.

Destiny players are always finding ways to make difficult encounters easier, and the Vault of Glass raid was ripe for finding more efficient ways to get past dangerous spots with minimal fuss. Players discovered that they could hide under a ledge and toss grenades at the Templar to knock him off a ledge instead of killing the Vex boss with the desired game mechanic. That’s now been fixed. The last update to the Vault of Glass fixed a similar exploit with Atheon. However, it also introduced an issue where one or two players would be sent through the time gates instead of three. That is also fixed with this patch.

You can check out the complete patch notes for the Destiny update below. The update is live now for the PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, Xbox One, and Xbox 360. Let us know your thoughts on the update below.

Weapons

Exotics

  • Exotic Weapons are designed to look, feel, and sound overpowered. At the same time, they are not supposed to break the balance of the game. We hope these weapons challenge the way players think about their loadouts. Exotics will be a constant work in-progress!

General

  • In preparation for the Dark Below, Exotic Armor and Weapons no longer require Ascendant Materials to upgrade
  • The final upgrade node of all Exotic Gear will require an Exotic Shard
  • Exotic Shards can be obtained by one of the following means:
  • * Dismantling unwanted Exotics
  • * Purchased from Xur for 7 Strange Coins
  • Exotics now start at a higher base Attack value and have a narrowed upgrade range to compensate

Thorn

  • Projectiles now briefly highlight targets on impact
  • Mark of the Devourer DoT (damage-over-time) upgrade increased against PvE enemy targets
  • Reload Speed increased
  • Magazine Size increased
  • Ammo inventory size increased
  • Stability and Weapon Handling increased

Bad Juju

  • Magazine Size increased to 8 bursts (was 5)
  • Ammo inventory size increased
  • String of Curses now also decreases the cooldown of your Super on kill
  • Adjusted effects to not block first person reticle

Hard Light

  • Stability increased
  • Perfect Balance upgrade replaced by Fitted Stock (increases maximum possible weapon Stability)

Suros Regime

  • Lowered total damage at the end of the mag on SUROS Regime upgrade to be more in line with the Glass Half Full perk on Legendary Auto Rifles

Monte Carlo

  • Stability increased
  • Range slightly decreased
  • Monte Carlo Method upgrade now also has a chance to fully charge melee ability on kill

MIDA Multi-Tool

  • MIDA rounds now have increased knockback against targets in both PvE and PvP

Hawkmoon

  • Send It upgrade (which was redundant) replaced by Speed Reload

Red Death

  • Rate of Fire increased slightly, but Burst Damage reduced to compensate

Plan C

  • Weapon Handling speed increased
  • Player Speed increased while Plan C is in hand

Pocket Infinity

  • Speed Reload upgrade replaced by Extended Clip which allows the option to increase magazine size (5 bursts)

Vex Mythoclast

  • Attack Power increased to 323 (from 300)
  • Base Damage increased, fixing bug we introduced in previous patch
  • Enhanced Battery upgrade by Extended Mag (this change still allows for a significant upgrade to Magazine Size, but less than before)

Invective

  • Reload Speed increased significantly, auto fires slightly slower

Ice Breaker

  • Send It upgrade replaced by Lightweight (which was redundant as Icebreaker already had maximum range)
  • New effects for enemies killed by Ice Breaker upgrade

Patience and Time

  • Snapshot upgrade replaced by Custom Optics (provides a lower zoom option)

Super Good Advice

  • Stability increased

Truth

  • Magazine Size increased to 3 (was 1)

Activities

Raid

  • Fixed an issue we introduced in a previous patch, in which Atheon did not correctly send 3 players through the time gates
  • Fixed an exploit where the Templar could be forced off its platform

Daily Heroic Story

  • Destination Materials now drop from completing the Daily Heroic

Bounties

  • Removed the ‘Relic Hunter’ Bounty
  • Destination Materials now drop from completing the Daily Patrol Bounty

Vendors

  • Reduced Cryptarch reputation gain from Engrams, but reputation reward packages now have an increased chance for Legendary Engrams
  • Players will now be able to use Vanguard Marks and Crucible Marks to purchase Spinmetal, Relic Iron, Spirit Bloom, and Helium Filaments from the Vanguard and Crucible Quartermasters in the Tower
  • Xur now sells a new material, Exotic Shards, to upgrade the final node of Exotics for 7 Strange Coins
  • Faction Class Items (ex: FWC Cloak, Dead Orbit Mark, etc.) are now replaced by Faction Emblems in the rank-up reward packages from Faction Vendors

Technical

  • Networking fixes, which should reduce the instance of the Bee family of KTOs
  • Fixed an issue in which using Xbox One party chat induced a slower frame rate

[Image via Destiny Wiki ]

[Update: Added Tweets from Bungie on material vendor prices and how to update. Updated line to show that the patch is live.]

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