Destiny: The Dark Below unlocks at 9am GMT/1am PT, hotfix ups difficulty

Destiny has been updated with an uptick in difficulty ahead of today's release of The Dark Below, its first expansion.

Destiny: The Dark Below will launch at 1:00 AM PT on December 9; that's about 12 hours away at time of writing.

Sometime before kick off, you should see a few changes to the game thanks to a hotfix.

The patch notes on Bungie.net indicate that Daily and Weekly Heroic Challenges have been made more difficult, but it's a bit of text at the bottom of the notes which I found really interesting:

"Players who need to level up to successfully complete featured missions at new difficulty levels will find what they need to upgrade their characters in the Tower," Bungie wrote.

"As part of Expansion I, vendors will be equipped with more powerful weapons and gear. These items will be available for acquisition by all players."

Good to know. Bungie had promised to increase the difficulty of Heroics to level 30, so it's possible that with this new gear players will be able to reach level 30 even without venturing into the Vault of Glass.

If you want to hit the new cap, though, Crota's End is your only recourse.