Destiny: 14 things you might have missed during House of Wolves intel drops

News by Brenna Hillier Contributor

Published on April 30, 2015

Destiny: House of Wolves does a great deal more than just slap some new content on the existing game structure.

House of Wolves changes Destiny in a lot of interesting and very welcome ways.

Bungie showed off many of these changes in its livestream, and let both me and Arekkz come and have a look for ourselves. We produced a bunch of lengthy reports and videos, but if you're more the quick facts type, here's a few things that seem to have slipped under the radar:

01: Crucible rewards will double when House of Wolves launches

Bungie knows playing Crucible doesn't pay, and it's fixing that. Double the Crucible Marks, double the Reputation gain, more and better engrams - including Legendaries. Crucible will become as if not more lucrative than Strike playlists, its PvP equivalent. Additionally, the chances of the top player getting zip during Crucible matches will go down dramatically, and playing one match from the daily Crucible playlist will net you a reward package full of upgrade materials and Passage Coins.

02: Elimination mode will be available outside of the Trials of Osiris

Elimination will go into Crucible playlist rotation along with other modes like Skirmish and Inferno.

03: There's no team matchmaking for Trials of Osiris

You need to bring your own crew to the 3v3 Elimination matches in Trials of Osiris. Anything else would be suicide.

04: Trials of Osiris team match ups work differently than in vanilla Crucible

My bad, I forgot to mention this: in Trials of Osiris, matchmaking will prioritise connection speed and low latency, ignoring skill and ranking. Don't worry though; it will also ensure you're not sent up against the same crew over and over again.

05: Trials of Osiris will run every weekend

You'll be able to earn rewards from Brother Vance every weekend rather than waiting for periodic announces, as with Iron Banner. The event period is shorter than Iron Banner, though, and your Trials Passage progress will reset each week. The first Trials of Osiris begins on May 22, the first weekend after House of Wolves launches.

06: Trials of Osiris will be fought on one map only each weekend

Starting with Burning Shrine, Trials of Osiris will rotate through featured maps on a weekly basis - one map per event. This is to allow the community to work on strategies and develop meta for a single map over the course of the event. Not every map will be featured in this rotation, of course; some are simply too big to accommodate the mode comfortably.

07: Trials of Osiris isn't level scaled

Like Iron Banner, power matters in Trials of Osiris. Bring your best gear.

08: The old Exotic upgrade system is being ditched

Instead of waiting on Xur's fickle selection and having to repurchase all your upgrade perks, you just ascend whatever Legendaries and Exoticsyou like, whenever you like, with Etheric Light. Exotic shards are still needed to unlock the final upgrade on an Exotic weapon, though.

09: Etheric Light will drop from most endgame activities, not just the Trials

Want to ascend your gear to level 34? Who can blame you. You have a chance to earn Etheric Light as a random drop in Prison of Elders (more on that next week), the weekly Nightfall and Trials of Osiris. You are guaranteed an Etheric Light item as a reward for hitting level three and level five in the Iron Banner.

10: Ascending equipment increases all its stats

When you Ascend a piece of gear, you essentially trade it in for a level 34 version (only it retains all your upgrade progress). Its base stats and bonuses go up accordingly.

11: Passage Coins are the new currency of Trials of Osiris

Again, I didn't cover this in detail. You purchase Trials of Osiris boosters with Passage Coins, which drop plentifully from Trials of Osiris reward packages, as well as in the daily Crucible playlist reward package.

12: The Dark Below's Crucible maps will be free for everyone when House of Wolves launches

Nice.

13: The Speaker will provide a currency exchange service

This is something Bungie talked about previously but it's going under the radar a lot: the Speaker will have a currency exchange similar to Eris Morn's Radiant material exchange. You'll be able to trade various items - Ascendent and Radiant materials, Motes of Light - for each other, as well as purchase Motes of Light outright.

14: Vanguard Commendations are being given the flick

The Vanguard Commendation currency introduced in The Dark Below acted as a gating system so new characters couldn't just buy level 31 gear right off the bat, which was a reasonable idea. In practice, though, it just proved to be annoying, and it's going away when House of Wolves launches. One less inventory item to worry about.

We'll have even more to say about House of Wolves - notably the new Strike and the Prison of Elders - next week. House of Wolves launches on May 19.

For more on House of Wolves and the Trials of Osiris, see:

Brenna Hillier recently visited Bungie's studio in Seattle to preview House of Wolves. Activision provided flights, accommodation and hospitality.