Destiny Weekly Reset: What's New For January 31, 2016
By Derek Nichols 31 January 2017
Destiny: Rise of Iron kicks off another new week of content for players with the weekly playlist reset, and here is everything that guardians needs to know for January 31, 2017.
After a very successful holiday seasonal event called The Dawning, Bungie has unfortunately been pretty quiet with its upcoming plans for Destiny: Rise of Iron. For many longtime fans, this narrative isn’t new as the game experienced a similar period last year at this time, which unfortunately led to many players speaking out about the lack of content. While the community definitely isn’t at that point yet, without a clear picture as to what’s coming, continued silence could lead people back to that point.
As players wait for news on more content, Bungie has been forthcoming in what’s ahead for fixes and balance updates. One specific hot topic within the community has been with PvP weapons, specifically shotguns. Bungie’s senior designer, Josh Hamrick, has been working on fixing the Crucible balance and is preparing Hot Fix 2.5.0.2 to be ready sometime in mid-February. If all goes according to plan, players should have new alternatives to counter shotguns, see adjustments to special ammo, see a buff to primary weapons, and many more.
Until then however, the weekly reset in Destiny has arrived once more, which means all sorts of new bounties, playlists, and quests to again undertake. Let’s take a closer look at all the new playlists, bounties, and everything else now available for the week of January 31, 2017.
Weekly Nightfall
Following the Blighted Chalice last week, the April Update strikes are once again the focus of the Nightfall this week, this time sending players to Ishtar Sink on Venus. The newly refreshed and Taken infused Winter’s Run strike takes players into the heart of Fallen country to take down a Taken Captain known as Nixis, the Hunger of Oryx.
Players will first head over to the ember caves to fight through the former Fallen lair, which has since been invaded by the Taken. Things are fairly straightforward here as players should focus on eliminating the initial Fallen patrol area to score some easy points which go towards earning that Gold medal.
Players will begin to fight waves of Taken through the cave system, but the first major test should come from the first open area where Draksis was first fought in the Scourge of Winter mission. The area will already be in a bit of chaos as the Fallen are fighting the Taken, though once the initial enemies are dealt with, waves of Taken will start to flood the area. For best results, players should stay up high and let the Taken come to them. Stay in cover and pick them off as they get closer.
Once the area is secure, players can hop on Fallen pikes to navigate the long canyon, ultimately leading to the final confrontation with Nixis and his Taken. In addition to the typical Arc Shrapnel Launcher and Darkness Bolts, Nixis has a devastating smash attack for players who get too close. Therefor, players are advised to keep their distance as not only that that reduce his effectiveness, but it’s much easier to dodge those Darkness Bolts. New enemies appear at certain intervals when Nixis’ health drops to certain points. Thankfully, these adds are health gated so once they’re gone, they won’t respawn.
Things don’t get any easier as Bungie has loaded up some difficult modifiers to go along with the Nightfall this week. In addition to the Taken, players will need to worry about: Epic, Berserk, Small Arms, Chaff, and Match Game.
- Epic adds heavily shielded enemies that are more aggressive and appear in greater numbers.
- Berserk enemies won’t flinch even after taking massive damage.
- Small Arms essentially doubles primary weapon damage.
- Chaff removes player radar completely.
- Finally, Match Game makes enemy shields resistant to all non-matching elemental damage.
SIVA Crisis Heroic Strike Playlist
Just like the Nightfall, the SIVA Crisis Heroic Strike playlist does not have a burn modifier either, so missions may take a little longer than normal. For this week, the active modifiers are: Heroic, Small Arms, Chaff, and Airborne.
- Like every week, Heroic buffs enemies, making them more aggressive and in greater numbers than normal.
- Small Arms amplifies damage from primary weapons.
- Chaff completely removes the player radar.
- Lastly, Airborne increases player damage done while in the air.
Keep in mind, this Heroic playlist is a great way to earn valuable high level light loot and score an easy 30 Legendary Marks. Not only that, Treasures of the Dawning are still available as rewards for completing a strike from the playlist this week.
Players looking for those rare Skeleton Keys should jump into this playlist as the SIVA Heroic Crisis playlist is still the best way to obtain a key outside of finishing the Nightfall, which grants one automatically each week.
Crucible Playlist
Heading over to the Crucible, chaos has once again returned to the PvP arena. Mayhem Clash mixes up the normal team deathmatch rules by basically removing all cool downs. Player supers fill considerably faster, grenade and melee cool downs are reduces significantly, and ammo drops for Heavy and Special arrive far more often than normal.
For players who like a little more order and structure, the other featured match type this week is Inferno Rumble. Essentially a free for all style match, the modifier here completely removes the radar. Apparently Bungie is a big fan of Chaff this week.
Tower and Iron Temple Bounties
There are new bounties and quests available from The Iron Temple on Felwinter Peak as expected. For players who have yet to earn all eight of the Iron Lord artifacts, Tyra Karn as the weekly Artifacts of the Iron Lords quest once again available. This week, the three artifacts available are: Memory of Felwinter, Memory of Skorri, and Memory of Perun.
- Memory of Felwinter removes the players super meter, but provides a boost to all stats and grants an additional melee and grenade charge.
- Memory of Skorri recharges nearby guardian’s super meters once the player’s meter is full.
- Memory of Perun highlights enemies with low health, along with other enemy guardians with a full super.
Like each and every week, the Vanguard scout Shiro-4 has more work for players looking for things to do around The Plaguelands. Along with his weekly Plaguelander quest line which centers around various patrols, he also has four new Iron Bounties to complete as well. He’s apparently mixing up expectations this week as he’s carrying only one Archon’s Forge related bounty and three general Plagueland bounties. This week, players can pick up: Stay Down, Shock It To Me, Anti-Splicer, and Archon’s Forge: Captains.
As usual, these bounties are the only way to have a chance at earning the Thorn exotic quest line, one of four that is needed to finish off the four exotic quests in the Rise of Iron record book.
- Stay Down is a simple and straightforward Fallen Splicer kill bounty.
- Shock It To Me tasks players with using arc damage to kill a certain number of Fallen Splicers.
- Anti-Splicer is focused on completing patrols around The Plaguelands.
- Archon’s Forge: Captains requires players to complete four Captain encounters inside of Archon’s Forge.
Before heading out into the wild, make sure to stop by the tower to stock up on additional bounties. First up is the Crucible handler, Lord Shaxx who is featuring the Clash type playlist, perfect for people about to jump into Mayhem Clash. Here’s how to finish it off:
- Back to Basics requires seven Clash matches completed, 50 primary kills, 25 assists, and another 25 ability kills.
Keep in mind that finishing these weekly Crucible bounty is a very easy way to earn Nightfall tier rewards and loot that will help players get closer to that maximum light level of 400.
Last but certainly not least is Commander Zavala inside of the Vanguard room in the Tower. As usual, Sunrise and Strike Elite are available once again this week along with a new bounty called Merciless.
- Sunrise – Earn a Gold Tier Medal before time expires in the Nightfall Strike.
- Merciless – Earn Rampage medals by killing 9 enemies. Earn 3 for a primary weapon, two for a special weapon, and 1 heavy rampage medal.
- Strike Elite – Earn 9 Gold Tier, Silver Tier, or Bronze Tier Medals.
Don’t forget, the Icebreaker exotic quest has a small chance to be started by turning in the Sunrise bounty each week.
Challenge of the Elders
Players looking to challenge the prison in order to score Sterling Treasure, House of Wolves and Prison of Elders specific gear, should head to the Reef to speak with Variks. For Guardians working on the Elder’s Sigil in the Challenge of the Elders, the modifiers for this week are: Trickle, Juggler, and a bonus for getting super kills.
- Trickle significantly reduces the recharge rate of player abilities.
- Juggler prevents ammo from dropping for the currently equipped weapon. Make sure to swap constantly to force ammo to drop.
- Lastly, all Super Kills award bonus points.
Events
Unfortunately, all is quiet within the Tower this week.
A new week means the raid challenge has once again flipped. Aksis is now the target for players doing the challenge mode in Wrath of the Machine, tasking players with using the supercharge mechanic against him. For more details and a walkthrough guide, make sure to check our guide.
As always, good luck out there, Guardians!
Destiny: Rise of Iron is available now for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.
