Destiny: The Dawning Event
By Anthony Taormina 05 December 2016
Destiny‘s holiday event is called ‘The Dawning’ and in addition to the return of Sparrow Racing League, Bungie is adding strike scoring, new gear, and more.
When Destiny developer Bungie first teased the Year 3 content they promised it would be more substantial than in Year 2. Today, the team confirmed just that with the announcement of The Dawning, Destiny’s holiday event that features new quests, the return of Sparrow Racing League, and tons more.
Chief among that “tons more” list is a new addition for Destiny: strike scoring. With a wide variety of modifiers to choose from, strike scoring will seemingly offer players new ways to experience all of Destiny’s strikes and to compete against friends and teammates. Presumably those aforementioned new quests will also require players complete specific goals with strike scoring active, but nothing is known at this time.
Of course, the main centerpiece of The Dawning will be the return of Sparrow Racing League, which features all of the expected additions. New tracks, new sparrows, new goals, and new rewards are just a few of the items highlighted in the trailer, so players will have a lot to look forward to.
On top of that The Dawning will also bring new gear to the fold, including a set of heavy machine guns that look like Void and Solar versions of Thunderlord. New riffs on the exotic heavy have been rumored for quite some time, and they will finally join the fold with The Dawning.
Also joining the fold is Icebreaker, one of the most popular exotic weapons from Year 1 of Destiny. The ammo-refilling sniper rifle will return to Destiny with The Dawning and it will also support weapon ornaments. How exactly (if at all), Bungie has changed Icebreaker is unclear, but even for nostalgia’s sake it’s nice to see Icebreaker make a return.
While The Dawning event is centered around the holidays and has an expiration date of January 3rd, both Sparrow Racing and strike scoring will stay in Destiny past the new year. Sparrow Racing will be an option for private matches moving forward and strike scoring can be activated at any time.
All told, it appears Bungie is trying to make this year’s holiday event more substantial and varied. Sparrow Racing was fun when it was first introduced, but it was limited in terms of its viability. Now, with four tracks to choose from, more gear to collect, and strike scoring for those PvE fans, there is something for almost every Destiny player to enjoy.
Destiny: The Dawning runs from December 13 to January 3rd on PS4 and Xbox One.
