The first details of the Destiny April update were finally revealed by Bungie during a Twitch livestream Wednesday. PlayStation and Xbox players can look forward to new experiences in the Prison of Elders along with some new content from Variks and Petra Venj in the Reef.
The next big Destiny update arrives April 12 and was created by the Bungie Live team, who has been responsible for past events such as Sparrow Racing and Crimson days. The goal of the April update is to keep players engaged through the paid DLC release planned for the fall. The developer stated the new content will stay fresh for four months before it begins rotating, which is just in time for the next DLC release.
The Destiny April update includes a new Prison of Elders Challenge mode along with a new Strike, a remixed Strike, new Quests, plus weapons, armor, and more. The Light level cap is also being raised to from 320 to 335 so players will have an opportunity to progress further in the game.
Prison of Elders has been upped to level 41. This includes a whole new suite of rewards. New bounties for Prison of Elders have also been added that will rotate every week. Some will ask players to take on challenges at level 41 and some will be for lower level challenges.
A Challenge of the Elders entry is also added to Variks’ inventory. The Elders’ Sigil is similar to the Trials of Osiris Pass and costs 100 Glimmer.
The original Prison of Elders encounters are being left untouched. This is to keep something available for new players to progress through. Bungie is adding a new Level 41 arena with a recommended Light level of 260. It does feature matchmaking, so players can team up with random players similar to the Level 28 version.
The new Level 41 will feature a mix of the existing Prison of Elders encounters along with Taken alternatives. There is a 50/50 chance of getting either the original version of the Prison of Elders encounter or the Taken version.
Additionally, a level 42 “Challenge of the Elders” area is being added with a 320 Light level. Matchmaking is not supported. This will extend players to the new 335 Light level. Each week, three modifiers will be added to the Challenge arena for players to overcome. One of these three modifiers is a score bonus modifiers. For example, the Precision Skill Bonus will be worth more points, and a team’s high score plus cumulative score during a session will be tracked via the Elder’s Sigil purchased by the individual player. You get a guaranteed weapon from Variks when reaching the high score goal of 30,000 and a high-level armor when reaching the cumulative score milestone of 90,000. Every run will add to your individual cumulative score.
The Challenge versions of Prison of Elders are played in three rounds with a fight against a boss during each round. There are eight possible bosses with four original Prison of Elders bosses with new tricks plus four new Taken bosses. This is both a scored event and a timed event. Variks will grow impatient after five minutes in each round and will decrease the team’s score. A score multiplier is also added as player’s progress through each round.
There are plenty of ways to earn points. Precision kills, melee kills, assists, and generating orbs are just some of the ways players can earn points. If a fireteam wipes during a Prison of Elders round, they are returned to the airlock and their score for that round is reset. It will not count towards the cumulative score kept by the Sigil to prevent farming.
Each round will have five waves of minions to fight. Each wave is based on the boss’ health. Minions can also drop Engrams. Rewards are given at the end of the third and final round. These rewards can drop at the new 335 Light level.
On the non-Prison of Elders side, Destiny adds a new quest called “Pretender to Throne.” Variks has been tracking a new Taken power on the Dreadnaught. He’s also been a busy bee collecting Taken and sticking them in the Prison of Elders.
This new quest appears tied to a new Strike called “The Taken Chalice,” which also features a new boss named Malock. He’s a hulking enemy carrying a large rifle. Not much is known about him outside of a few Destiny screenshots shared by Bungie.
Meanwhile, the Winter’s Run Strike is being upgraded for the Vanguard Heroic Strike playlist. Like other Year One Strikes upgraded to Year Two, it includes a Taken alternative version of the strike and even the Archon Priest boss has been “Taken-fied” by Bungie.
Petra Venj will receive a new quest line that will be exclusive to PlayStation 4 players. There’s no word on when this will become available to Xbox One players.
Other details include new Crucible and sandbox updates, balances, etc. Quality of life updates will be coming as well, but these details along with new weapons and armor will be revealed in the next two live streams that will take place over the coming weeks.
[Image via Bungie]