Squeeze more out of the Destiny beta: secrets, collectibles and pastimes

Destiny's beta contains a handful of story missions, one co-op strike and PvP multiplayer. If you think you've seen it all, here are a few tips to keep you busy.

Seek out hidden chests

Chest spawn in random spots around set locations. Once you find one - say, in a cave or room - make sure you take another look every time you wander past that location, because it will probably be back, but in a slightly different, hidden place.

One good way to locate a chest is to listen; they give off a slight jingling sound, distinct from that of spinmetal. When you hear the jangle, start looking around. Sometimes they appear in unusual places.

You may need to do some tricky jumping to get to a chest, but trust me - you can get to it. Bring your buddies with you to ensure you all get a share of the loot, which includes glimmer and equipment.

Find the five golden chests

Now that you're an expert loot hunter, go after the grand prize: the golden chests. There are five golden chests scattered around the Cosmodrome, differentiated from standard respawning chests by their bronze colour and better quality contents.

When you're over-levelled, golden chest loot can be a little disappointing, but yesterday two of my maxed-out fire team buddies both got new ground vehicles from one, leaving me in their dust as we zipped across the Cosmodrome.

Golden chests do not respawn, so if you didn't notice at the time the best way to figure out if you found one is to check the navigator when selecting a destination; when you click on Earth, you should see an indicator of your progress over to the right of the screen.

Find the Ghosts

Scattered around the Tower and Cosmodrome you'll find dead Ghosts. Revive them to earn Grimoire cards and points. Ghosts can be hard to spot, but tend to be hidden inside things - lockers, pipes, the cab of a beached boat. Look for the pale glow they emit.

Turn the difficulty up

After you've chosen a location to visit in the navigator, don't hit launch - click the difficulty indicator to select a higher difficulty. This is especially useful if you're trying to earn an XP bounty or farm for gear, but it's also just a lot of fun. It's particularly good if you're starting a new character.

The Devil's Lair Strike is probably the most difficult PvE the Destiny beta offers, so if you can get into this at a lower level with the difficulty up you'll find yourself challenged.

Hunt some high level enemies.

There are areas in the beta you are not supposed to go, and Bungie has ensured you don't get too far by filling them with enemies far too high level for you; grenades, supers and heavy weapons won't make a dent in these monsters.

However, you can still have some fun with them. In the area on the far side of Skywatch with the helicopters and constant battle between Fallen and Hive, listen for the rumbling roar of a monster close to a gap in the cliffside barrier. Carefully jump down to a ledge below to find a cave inhabited by an over-powered knight.

If you have a buddy with you, and you're quick and careful, you can lure this guy out while your friend drives into him with a vehicle and knocks him to his death. You don't get much reward bar shits and giggles, but there is a chest in his cave.

Keep killing off our ugly friend and you may just spawn an even bigger baddie. That's all I'm saying.

Challenge the Devil Walker - solo

In Explore, you can go almost anywhere accessible in story missions and strikes. If you wander your way through the cosmodrome towards Sepiks Prime's lair, you'll eventually come fact to face with a Devil Walker.

Taking this bad boy down solo isn't easy, and takes a lot of time and patience. But if I can do it, so can you, and then we can all brag.

If you need help figuring out how to take down this six-legged tank, we have you covered.

Next: Pimp your Guardian, capture a Pike, turn in bounties, fill in your Grimoire and master PvP and more...

Pimp your Guardian

There don't seem to be any armour shaders in the Destiny beta, alas, but that doesn't mean you can't have some fun with customisation. The Cryptarch occasionally offers class armour for sale, including uncommons, so you can rock a new cloak, hip cloth or wristband, depending on class.

Visit the shipwright to purchase a new jump ship and ground vehicle, which will be the envy of your less well-heeled friends. A vendor near the Speaker in the Tower offers emblems, including the occasional rare. All of these are equipped in your character screen; use the drop arrow to the bottom left.

Finally, there are several variants of every kind of gear at every level, so do some farming and score yourself a sweet matching outfit. Titans in particular look rad in matching kit, thanks to their full body armour.

Try the other classes.

You can make three characters, so when you hit that level cap with your first, why not try another one? The three classes might feel similar initially but at high levels they vary considerably; switch between your maxed out Titan and Warlock to instantly feel the difference.

Remember, glimmer and Grimoire points are shared among all characters, while bounties are not. You can share equipment using the vault if there's a rifle you're particularly attached to.

Max out your upgrades

So you've hit the level cap; that doesn't mean your progress has to stop.

After level eight, your Guardian's powers continue to develop. Play for long enough and you'll discover new kinds of grenades, the Hunter's amazing triple jump, and class focus options.

Weapons and equipment continue to develop, too; new scopes, power bonuses and other goodies are on offer as a reward for your service. You can put together amazing builds with upgraded weapons and armour.

Capture a Pike

The ground vehicle you receive as standard issue is the Sparrow, a weaponless cruiser. In the Crucible, though, you can ride Pikes and Interceptors.

There's no way to purchase or otherwise acquire either of these vehicles in the beta, but if you're quick and clever you can joyride on a Pike for a while.

Visit the seaside at the Forgotten Shores to spot a couple of Pikes cruising around at lengthy random intervals. Snipe the pilot - carefully! - and you can claim this prize for yourself. Why not immediately lose it by driving straight into the nearby high-level Hive den?

Turn in some bounties

Bounties earn you Vanguard points, which can be used to purchase sweet gear from your class Vanguard. You can earn these points through Explore missions, but it takes a long time, so why not up your earning potential by taking a few bounties with you?

Some of the bounties sound much harder than they are. For example, when it says "without taking damage", it means "without putting your health bar in the red", as the white portion is shield damage. You still earn XP after hitting the level cap, by the way, so don't let that put you off.

Bounties are available for the Crucible, as well.

Fill in your Grimoire

As you play you may notice messages flashing at the bottom of the screen alerting you to Grimoire point gain - something like "Fallen kills level 1" and then a tally. Grimoire points are awarded for completing story missions or strikes with each c;ass; visting PvP maps; hitting specific milestones, such as kills of a particular enemy type or in a location; and finding collectibles.

If you reach the max available level in a category you'll receive a new Grimoire card. The Grimoire itself is browsable on Bungie.net or via the Destiny companion app, and is packed with lore. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to offer any way to check on your progress towards goals.

Grimoire points aren't really for anything, it seems; they're just for bragging rights. I'm determined to have more than all my friends.

Play soccer on the tower

There's usually a football floating around on the tower; if nobody's had it out for a while, it's usually found demurely tucked against the wall of the building housing the post office, on the side facing the path leading to the Speaker.

It's easy to lose it over the side or wedge it in a corner where you can't retrieve it, but until the inevitable happens it's surprisingly satisfying dribbling and botting the ball aorund the plaza.

Pick a couple of objects to serve as goals and have it out with your mates. It's better than Sparrow jousting, anyway.

Give PvP another try

The good thing about PvP is that none of it is scripted, so you'll have a new experience every time. There are a couple of maps on offer, and more during Iron Banner events, and they're all quite interesting.

If you need an excuse to give it a go, Crucible points can be used to purchase special equipment, although much of it is outside the parameters of what you'll be able to use in the beta.

If you're more the collect-and-turn in type, you can trade your spinmetal for Crucible points in the Tower. It's not really a worthwhile strategy for earning Crucible awards, but if you're a few points shy of a bit of equipment it can really help.

Destiny's PvP learning curve is steep, and you may spend your first few matches being constantly headshot by a guy doing a tango in mid-air or firing rockets from an Interceptor. Keep at it; it gets easier.

The Destiny beta is currently PlayStation exclusive. It goes offline later today, but will reopen at 1:00PM EDT July 23 for both PlayStation and Xbox fans. It runs until 3:00AM EDT July 28. You can secure entry by pre-ordering, but those who have done so may have codes to share, so ask your mates if they're willing to spot you.