‘Destiny: Rise Of Iron’ Mission And Strike Count Revealed, New Co-Op Arena Coming

Bungie released Destiny: The Taken King with a wealth of new content for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One players to explore. How will the upcoming Rise of Iron stack up against last year’s release and previous DLC? The latest issue of Game Informer revealed just how much content buyers would get for their $30 purchase.

Destiny has always been a mix of different cooperative PVE content with an extra helping of PVP multiplayer content on the side. This will continue with Rise of Iron as the expansion’s story focuses on the SIVA plague and the Fallen Splicers as the new enemy who has set up shop in the Plaguelands, a brand new play area for Guardians to explore and conquer.

The added content includes the new Felwinter Peak social area, previously covered by the Inquisitr here. Players will need to ascend the top of the peak to take back the mountain and the Iron Temple, a mausoleum for the deceased Iron Lords, which is a crucial piece of the new Artifact system.

This opening mission leads into a five-mission campaign for Rise of Iron. By comparison, The Taken King came with eight campaign missions, while House of Wolves had eight, and The Dark Below had only four. That won’t be the extent of the story content, though, as completing the campaign will unlock additional missions, quests, an all-new Strike, and the Archon’s Forge co-op arena.

Lord Saladin will play an important part of the new campaign, similar to how Cayde-6 and Eris Morn drove the story of The Taken King through cut-scenes and in-game communications. The Iron Lord has spent the past two years preparing Guardians for the return of SIVA through the Iron Banner trials while keeping watch on the long-buried technology, which required the sacrifice of eight of the Iron Lords to stop.

“We learn of the Iron Lords and what happened to them long ago, when they sacrificed themselves to save humanity,” Game Director Barret explained. “In the process of you discovering that story, Lord Saladin enlists you to help bury the past, confront this threat from long ago, and in the process pass the torch, so that you yourself become an Iron Lord.”

The Archon’s Forge arena fits somewhere in between Prison of Elders and the Court of Oryx. This is a player-triggered event which can be done with a fireteam and other random players in a five-minute, wave-based encounter. Players will battle Fallen enemies throughout the arena during the encounter until the boss round. Beating the boss result in Forge-exclusive loot.

Similar to Court of Oryx, Archon’s Forge will require a consumable item to trigger the event. Whereas players used Summoning Runes in the Court, the new arena will require SIVA offerings, which can be found throughout the Plaguelands. There will be different tiers of offerings for different levels of difficulties.

The Wretched King is the name of the all new Strike and will send Guardians into old missile silos located in the Plaguelands. The Strike will offer players different paths to take as they come upon different doors through the silos. Each path contains a unique set of enemies to defeat to reach the boss fight.

In addition to the new Strike, Bungie is remixing two existing Strikes for Destiny: Rise of Iron. The existing Devil’s Lair is being upgraded to Sepiks Perfected with new Splicer enemies. Meanwhile, The Summoning Pits gets Abomination Heist as a new spin. Both remade Strikes will receive a new story thread and dialogue between the Guardian, their Ghost, and others.

Strikes will receive another twist when Rise of Iron releases. Playlists and Nightfalls will sometimes reward a Skeleton Key when completing a Strike. This can be used to open a chest that spawns at the conclusion of the activity to receive unique loot from that Strike. This allows players to decide which Strike-specific loot they want to shoot for.

Details on the new Raid for Destiny are still thin, but Bungie did share a name along with some other details. The new end-game event will release on September 23 and is called Wrath of the Machine. It is loaded with outdoor settings and “memorable boss fights” that focus on keeping the players mobile. One example of this has already been teased with images of the “Death Zamboni” chasing players across a wall.

In addition to the above, Destiny: Rise of Iron will have the following:

• New Armor sets
• New weapons
• Festival of the Light special event
• Sparrow Racing League returning in December
• Four Crucible maps
• New Supremacy PVP mode
• Reinvented Iron Banner
• Light cap raised to 400
• New “Ornaments” armor and weapon customizations that can be earned in-game or purchased through micro-transactions

What do you think about the new content for Destiny: Rise of Iron? Does it seem to be worth the $30 price? Sound off in the comments below.

[Image via Bungie]