Destiny: where in the heck are the Blades of Crota?

Destiny was updated today, with an unannounced and not exactly welcome consequence.

Destiny patch 1.1.2 delivers a bunch of great stuff to the game, in addition to preparing it for the upcoming House of Wolves expansion.

There's one tweak that a couple of players have observed that isn't on the change log, though - the Blades of Crota have gone missing.

For those not in the know, the Blades of Crota are a sort of mini public event added to the game when The Dark Below launched. Players on Earth and the Moon see a warning that the Minions of Crota are performing a ritual and shortly thereafter - or if the ritual is interrupted - a Blade of Crota will spawn.

Taking down these enemies and then grabbing their swords is great fun, and more importantly, key to several bounties offered by Eris. Any player wanting to reach rank four in her estimation, in order to score exclusive vanity items and exchange Radiant materials, will see a lot of the Blades.

Unfortunately, they've gone missing. I logged into Destiny on my lunch hour, as I often do, and scoured the Cosmodrome looking for Blades of Crota to murder. I can normally knock over half a dozen in an hour, but I didn't see a single one.

I went to Reddit to see if anybody had the same problem - and they sure did. Element_5, mr-interested, HoneybadgerMD and ElmleaUK all reported the same experience.

It's not clear whether the Blades are gone for good, or whether they're just on a longer timer, but in either case, it's proving pretty difficult - maybe impossible - to find them.

Now, this doesn't break Eris's bounties. You can still load up the first mission from The Dark Below and kill the Blade of Crota there, which can be faster than looking for them in the wilds of Patrol - but that's no good to those who don't yet have The Dark Below and are cranking Eris reputation anyway.

Also: it's just weird. I got so used to the regular interruption that Cosmodrome felt almost desolate without the Blades spawning in.

I don't know if this is a bug, or if it's an intentional part of The Dark Below winding down in preparation for House of Wolves. Hopefully we'll find out over the next few days.