The Changes to Destiny Worth Knowing After Latest Patch
By Weston Albert 16 December 2016
Destiny‘s latest Update 2.5.0 makes many changes across the game in both PvE and PvP, changing economies, adding vendors and items, and fixing some bugs.
Alongside Destiny’s new live event for December called The Dawning, the game has received the latest Update 2.5.0. Previewed last week with changes including automatically decrypting Uncommon engrams into materials and a buff to Skeleton Key drops, Destiny’s developer Bungie has revealed all the changes coming in 2.5.0 in the full Patch Notes. There are numerous changes, including the addition of the Silver Dust vendor in the Tower, where Radiant Treasure is now earned, and some weapons returning to the Crucible rewards pool.
First off, Update 2.5.0 brings new quests and bounties related to The Dawning, which will not be covered in detail here. As for the game-wide changes added as a part of Update 2.5.0, the changes start with some fixes to some quests from Rise of Iron. For those who activated all the Iron Lord artifacts and did not receive the trophy/achievement and/or the emblem awarded for completing, a fix will now award those items. Players will also be able to finish the “Echoes of the Past” quest if it was bugged for them.
Another change has to do with the burn effects that are found in the Heroic and Nightfall weekly Strike playlists. The burn effects have been tuned down on damage done by enemies on the player, but the burn damage done by players on enemies remain unchanged. This should help if the new Will of Crota Strike is ever the Nightfall with a burn applied.
Xur is also getting a big change. He will once again sell Exotic Shards, which should help those running low on the item. The amount of Heavy Ammo Synthesis he sells has also been increased from a pack of five to ten. That should help ease the long process of stocking up on Heavy Ammo Synths. While those items have been added, weapon Ornaments have been taken out of his inventory.
That is because a Silver Dust Store has been added to the Tower, and with it comes some changes to the Silver Dust/Radiant Treasure economy. The store can be found between the Postmaster and Eververse. The store allows players to buy Ornaments and other items for Silver Dust. The Silver Dust requirement to apply a weapon Ornament has now been removed, mirroring changes made previously to the armor Ornament requirements. Silver Dust will no longer be found in Radiant Treasure, but will be gained by dismantling Ornaments. Speaking of Radiant Treasure, they have been moved from being a reward from the weekly Heroic strike, and is now a reward for completing one match in the weekly featured Crucible playlist.
When it comes to PvP, many fans were disappointed that this update did not include a class or weapons balancing pass. But in PvP, the “waving heavy ammo” feature has now been implemented in all playlists. Plus, fan favorite weapons including Eyasluna and Party Crasher +1 are back in the loot pool as possible post-match rewards in the Crucible. Also added to the loot pool are vanity items from the Crimson Days event, specifically that event’s Ghosts, emblem, and shaders.
Destiny: Rise of Iron is available now on PS4 and Xbox One.
