The House of Wolves finally lands for Destiny on PlayStation and Xbox consoles today. Those who purchased the expansion are not the only ones that will benefit from its release, though. Bungie is making several changes that improve multiple aspects of the shooter for everyone, even those who don’t throw down more money.
New Weapons, Armor, and Power Levels Available to All
House of Wolves bumps the damage rating for weapons up to 365, as well as pushes the armor Light Level to 34. The confusing upgrade system from The Dark Below has been scrapped and all players will be able to upgrade their existing Legendary and Exotic gear to the new levels through Ascending. This requires players to take a fully upgraded weapon or armor piece and upgrade it one more time with a new obtainable material called Etheric Light, which will drop in existing Weekly Nightfall Strike and the Iron Banner for those who don’t purchase the expansion.
Additionally, new Legendary gear at the new power levels will drop in Destiny during regular activities, and the Faction vendors inventory have been refreshed with new weapons and armor as well. Even better, Commendations are no longer required to purchase certain items. You just need to be at the appropriate reputation level. Existing Commendations can be turned in for 250 reputation points each.
Crucible Rewards are Better
Completing a Crucible match will no longer mean performing a facepalm as you witness a lack of rewards. The chance to earn Rare weapons and armor have been increased 100 percent across all playlists, while the chance to earn Legendary gear has also been added.
The Crucible Mark and Reputation rewards for completing a match have also been increased by 100 percent and 20 percent respectively. That means six Crucible Marks for a win and four Crucible Marks for a loss now. You still have to deal with the limit of only being able to earn 100 Crucible Marks a week plus the cap of 200 Crucible Marks total.
Additionally, Bungie is adding a Daily Reward package for completing one match of the Featured Crucible playlist for the day. This is similar to the Daily Reward package for getting a Gold rating in a public event.
Note: Passage Coins are a possible new drop as well, but can only be used in Trials of Osiris that comes with House of Wolves .
Crucible Playlist Expands
The maps from the Dark Below expansion (Pantheon, The Cauldron, and Skyshock) are now available to all players.
The Cryptarch is Even Less of a Jerk
The joy of taking a Legendary engram to the Cryptarch only to get shards instead will no longer happen. Legendary engrams will only convert into a Legendary weapon or armor with a chance for an Exotic piece.
Compare that to the nefarious days when Destiny launched and the Cryptarch would give you a rare item in exchange for a Legendary engram. You could almost hear the cackling. Cryptarch, you’ve come a long way.
Similarly, the Faction Reward packages will no longer produce shards.
The Speaker Will Trade Materials
You can now exchange Ascendant Shards for Ascendant Energy and vice versa with the Speaker. It will cost Glimmer and Motes of Light, but is an excellent way to level up gear faster.
If you purchased The Dark Below , the Speaker will do the same for Radiant Shards and Energy.
Also, you can exchange Strange Coins for Motes of Light with Xûr if you are short on Motes of Light.
Destiny Update 1.2.0 is being deployed on all platforms. https://t.co/wwbfHaos2j pic.twitter.com/ZUQo00ZYOP
— Bungie (@Bungie) May 15, 2015
Future Connection Recovery System
Bungie is testing out a Connection Recovery system with in Trials of Osiris with the release of House of Wolves before rolling it out to other Destiny activities. This will attempt to fix networking problems instead of kicking players to orbit.
[Images via Bungie ]