Destiny: Crota's End Hard Mode coming soon, next patch to target cheese strats

Destiny will be updated next week, and those of you exploiting your way through Crota's End are in for a disappointment.

The latest Destiny weekly update reveals Hard Mode for new raid Crota's End is almost ready to go. Bungie said it will share the release date as soon as possible.

"We’re not going to spoil any hard mode surprises here. You’ll need to learn a new trick or two, but given your past performances, we’re pretty sure plenty of you will find a way to come out on top and earn some shiny new trophies to take with you on your next adventure," a post on Bungie.net said.

The developer also revealed that the raid has been completed over 1 million times since launch, which is impressive given the difficulty.

Speaking of the difficulty, Bungie showed good humour regarding the various cheese strategies players have worked out to make the battle that much easier, describing Guardian's attempts on the raid as "busily swinging that sword into poor Crota’s big shiny green mug between dainty bites of soft, warm cheese".

Next week's patch, which drops on January 13, will go some way towards plugging the holes in the raid; see the full patch notes below. On the bright side, better rewards are on offer.

The patch will also ensure Exotic weapons in the Vault of Glass will drop at level 32; the eagle-eyed among you may remember I did a post about this problem, and then deleted it after I realised I'd made too many egregious maths errors. It's nice to know it really exists.

A few other announcements were made this week. In the Crucible, Asylum, The Anomaly, and The Burning Shrine maps are being added to existing Clash and Control playlist rotation, and Iron Banner will return with new rewards, on January 13.

Crota’s End – Updates
• The existing Pit treasure chest reward moved to killing Ir Yut, the Deathsinger. She has a chance to drop Exotic weapons and armor, class pieces, and Radiant materials.
• The Pit treasure chest will now contain Radiant Materials.
• Pit Encounter
  - Removed the physics impulse caused by exploding lanterns.
• Bridge Encounter
  - Players will now be required to cross the bridge in order to complete the bridge encounter.
  - Players will now be required to wait for the bridge to be completed prior to crossing with the sword.
• Deathsinger Encounter
  - Fixed a rare case where the Shriekers would not spawn, preventing players from reaching the Deathsinger.
• Crota Encounter
  - Two Swordbearers will no longer spawn at the same time at the outset of the encounter.
  - Crota will now recover from his kneeling state after a player quits.
  - Fixed a bug that allowed players to remove the “Presence of Crota” using a Radiance Warlock’s Fireborn ability.
  - Fixed a bug that made the Oversoul appear destroyed to some players in a Fireteam when it was actually still active.