The Taken King will be adding new content across the whole game,
from new enemies to areas, modes and weaponry, and can be purchased through a
digital upgrade or two physical editions.
Bungie has just revealed major changes to how levelling, Factions and Quests
will work, and has more to come in a series of weekly livestreams, continuing
August 26. In preparation, here’s everything we know so far.
Everything you need to know about Destiny: The Taken King‘s
new levelling, Factions, Exotic Blueprints and Quests
© Bungie
What is Destiny: The Taken King?
The Taken King is essentially the first major expansion to
Destiny, marking the start of the game’s second year of content,
following the game’s initial release in late 2014 and two expansions The
Dark Below and House of Wolves.
It will include at one major new planet-sized area (the Dreadnaught), three
new sub-classes, new story missions and narrative, new and remixed Strikes, a
Raid, Crucible maps and modes, Patrol content, Exotic weaponry and quests, a new
enemy type named The Taken and a higher level cap.
There will also be plenty of changes across how you access weapons,
Bounties, Quests and more. For example, you can now hold up to 16 Bounties and
redeem them without a Tower visit; see all missing and available Bounties and
Exotic items in new Collections, and the game’s economy has been streamlined to
a single Legendary Marks currency.
© Activision
As well as new Strikes with “unique and dynamic new Boss battles”, according
to Bungie, existing strikes Dust Palace, Undying Mind and Cerberus Vae III –
which were previously PlayStation exclusive – will be updated with Taken enemy
encounters.
It will also introduce a new levelling up system (detailed below) which will
completely transform the end-game experience.
The Taken King will be available as a digital upgrade for those who
already own all of Destiny‘s previous content for £40 / $40. It’ll also
be available at retail for £55 / $55, which will include all of the game’s
previous content, and a Collector’s Edition for £80 / $80, which includes a
series of physical bonuses and bonus in-game content, which can be bought
separately.
The release date for Destiny: The Taken King is September 15
worldwide on PS4, Xbox One, PS3 and Xbox 360.
Destiny: The Taken King‘s level boost and levelling up
system
With the release of The Taken King, experience earned by defeating
enemies, completing missions and turning in bounties will now help you level up
all the way to the new cap of 40.
© Bungie
Everything you need to know about Destiny: The Taken King‘s
new levelling, Factions, Exotic Blueprints and Quests
Light level – the stat that is currently given to characters post-level 20 –
will remain, and is now a product of all your gear held on every character on
your account and items inside your Vault. Bungie recommends you shouldn’t
dismantle anything before The Taken King comes out, because it’ll all
count!
Light is now a three-digit number. Instead of the previous 30% damage
increase from one Light level to the next at the moment, it means that stat
changes will be more granular in The Taken King.
Bungie’s Luke Smith reckons the old way of doing things left too much to
chance. He said: “The conflation of gear and character level led to this place
where your identity was determined by things outside of your control. We don’t
want to do that.”
With an increased level cap of 40, and missions starting at a much higher
level than casual players might be used to, each copy of The Taken King
comes with a one-time level booster.
Players will receive one of these consumables per expansion – so choose your
Guardian wisely – and can use it to bypass the grind and jump straight into
those new story missions.
Destiny: The Taken King‘s three new
sub-classes
Each of the game’s classes will have a third sub-class as part of The
Taken King, each with a new Super ability based on an element they’ve yet
to have before.
© Bungie
Hunter sub-class Nightstalker
The Hunter sub-class is Nightstalker. Described as more of a support class,
its Super is a Void charged bow-and-arrow, which fires a projectile binding
multiple enemies in place before exploding.
© Bungie
Titan sub-class Sunbreaker
Titan’s new sub-class is the Sunbreaker, based around the Solar element. The
Super sees a flaming Thor-like hammer that can be thrown at enemies, or used to
leap forward towards them at high speed.
© Bungie
Warlock sub-class Stormcaller
Warlock, meanwhile, has a sub-class based around Arc damage named
Stormcaller, with the Super ability causing them to temporarily levitate off the
ground and move around the map, allowing them to rain electricity down from
above.
It’s been suggested that sub-classes won’t immediately unlocked at the start
of The Taken King, with them being described as “lost arts” that
Guardians must rediscover in order to match the threat from Oryx.
Destiny: The Taken King story and lore: Who are Oryx
and The Taken?
The main enemy of the new expansion is Oryx, an ancient Hive king born from
The Darkness, who has come to our solar system on his Dreadnaught to seek
revenge for Guardians killing his son Crota in expansion The Dark
Below.
© Bungie
Oryx, The Taken King’s central antagonist
With him comes a new enemy race, The Taken. This is essentially a possessed,
remixed version of the game’s four enemy races, which have sucked into Oryx’s
dimension and back into ours.
Possessed enemies will have different behaviours. For example, the Cabal
Phalanx will now shoot energy from its shield when planted into the ground.
Psions, meanwhile, will multiply if left undefeated.
© Bungie
The Taken is a new enemy race in The Taken King
Community manager Eric Esborne teased they’ll impact other areas of the
game, not just The Taken King‘s new content. He told us: “We can
introduce this new enemy combatant race that will not only serve as the primary
focal point as the story, but the rest of the game as well. You can deploy them
pretty much anywhere and make an encounter feel different and unique.
“They can attack the Cabal, or fight other groups, but they’re a mixture of
existing enemy races with this new dark power.”
Describing their appearance, art director Michael Zak said: “We wanted to do
something that retained elements of where the Taken came from, but that unified
them. They’ve got this supernatural flame that’s burning them from the inside,
and because we wanted to communicate their will being erased, they tend to have
jitter in their animations and a tortured look to them.”
The Taken King‘s setting: Oryx’s Dreadnaught and
Phobos
Much of the expansion is to take place on a Dreadnaught operated by Oryx,
who is the central antagonist of The Taken King. This is a ship that’s
millions of years old, and will feature story missions, the Raid and Patrol
missions.
© Bungie
Dreadnaught concept art
Discussing the Dreadnaught, community manager Eric Esborne told
Digital Spy: “Not only is it a new destination – we know
players are going to love that, they’ll be going in there and to explore, fight
new enemies and do new patrols, it’s also the thing that will pull you through
the story – it’s the stage for all of our story missions, and also the place
where you’ll get the fresh looks and the first looks at the end game.
“We wanted it to be this big elaborate thing, this big fortress you’ll go
back to and always have some new activities to see. It’s where we’re going to
evolve that model as you transition out of the story and into the end game, it
makes for a really cool set piece.”
The game starts with answering a distress signal from a Cabal base on Mars
moon Phobos, which is thought to be the game’s second new area, though it could
be just for a single mission.
© Bungie
Dreadnaught concept art
It’s been teased that missions and Strikes could have Raid-style puzzles,
with a trailer showing players running down corridors with shooting electricity.
“Even in The House of Wolves and Dark Below, we introduced
some Raid-like mechanics – some things we learned,” said community manager Eric
Esborne. “We certainly don’t want to make our storytelling or story missions
Raid difficulty, because you won’t be able to get through them.”
New in Crucible modes and maps
Two new modes are confirmed for The Taken King – Mayhem and Rift –
and three maps Bannerfall, Crossroads and Frontier. More modes are set to come.
First is Mayhem, which sees ability and Super energy meters recharge much
faster than usual. “It’s essentially team deathmatch, but everything is turned
up to 11,” said design lead Lars Bakken.
© Bungie
Perform a backwards flip in Rift mode to earn extra points
Rift, meanwhile, is “Destiny‘s answer to capture the flag style
objective mode” according to Bakken. Teams have to grab a ‘spark’ and take it to
the enemy team’s rift. Points can be scored in two ways – with a regular dunk,
and also a stylish backflip to net extra points.
Peter Dinklage is no longer the voice of
Destiny
Game of Thrones star Peter Dinklage – the man who famously uttered,
“that wizard came from the moon” – will be replaced as the voice of
Destiny by Nolan North.
Nolan North isn’t just voicing new dialogue for The Taken King, but
will be re-recording dialogue for the entire game.
© Getty Images / Albert L. Ortega
Nolan North is the new voice of Destiny
Wishing to put his own stamp on things, North didn’t listen to any of the
older dialogue, choosing instead to record everything from scratch. “I
specifically said I didn’t want to hear anything that someone else had done, so
that I didn’t have some preconceived notion of what it has to be. Instead, I
just gave it my stamp, and let them direct me accordingly,” he said.
North is hoping this will become an ongoing job, arguing that it would be
great to “evolve Ghost as we move forward over the years”. Maybe he knows
something we don’t.
Destiny: The Taken King Collector’s Edition DLC, VIP
bonuses and Red Bull DLC
Upon The Taken King‘s release, those who have bought both The
Dark Below and House of Wolves expansions, or have reached level
30 within the game’s first year, will be given VIP items. Teased to be exclusive
shaders, emblem and weapons, Bungie has said players “won’t ever” gain access
beyond playing the game in its first year.
© Bungie
Collector’s Edition bonuses
© Bungie
VIP Year 1 player rewards
As well as exclusive physical items, a Collector’s Edition of the game will
offer some bonus in-game rewards, including class-specific emotes, armour shades
and exotic class items with experience bonuses. After feedback from the users,
these items will now be made available as downloadable content for $20.
Bungie have teamed up with Red Bull to offer a timed-exclusive “epic, new
quest [that] is a never-before-seen, multi-stage mission”, with codes with each
drink purchase providing access between September 18 until December 31, before
being available to all from January 1. Meanwhile, from July 1, codes will give
the Focused Light drop, which increases experience gains by 50% for half-an-hour
at a time.
Like last year, PlayStation players have access to timed-exclusive content
until September 2017; a Vex-focused Strike named ‘The Echo Chamber’, Crucible
map ‘Sector 618’, Exotic weapon Jade Rabbit and new gear sets for each of the
game’s three classes.
Destiny: The Taken King trailers:
Destiny: The Taken King is available September 15
worldwide on PS4, Xbox One, PS3 and Xbox 360.
Everything you need to know
about Destiny: The Taken King’s new levelling, Factions, Exotic Blueprints and
Quests
This Destiny: The Taken King teaser highlights year
two’s enhancements
Destiny is finally selling its best
weapon, the Gjallarhorn, and people are losing their
minds
We’ll find out more about Destiny: The Taken King very
soon
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