‘Destiny: The Taken King’ Preview Hyped With Peek At Light Levels, Exotic Blueprints
Bungie dropped a tease today for its first Destiny: The Taken King Twitch livestream scheduled for Wednesday, August 19. The brief 50 second video provides a wealth of choice information that hasn’t previously only been hinted at before with the promise of fuller explanations coming tomorrow.
Light Level Definition
The split between a Guardian’s overall level and their Light level became a little clearer with the video. The character menu screen above shows the overall level as the large number 40 to the left of the character with the Grimoire score beneath it. The yellow 214 number on the right is the Light level and shows the following definition when highlighted:
Your Light score is an average of the Attack and Defense values across all your currently equipped gear. A higher Light score improves both your damage output and your defense.
The player emblem also now displays the Guardian’s Light level under the overall level instead of the Grimoire score. We still don’t know the maximum and minimum Light levels, but a 279 number for a level 40 character is shown in a subsequent screen suggesting that the max level might be 300.
We can also see new items in the first page of the character screen. The Ghost Shell has been moved from the second page of the character screen to underneath the Heavy Weapon slot on the first. Meanwhile, there’s a brand new slot underneath the Class Item for Artifacts, which have not been revealed or explained yet.
Legendary Marks
Here we can see the merging of Vanguard and Crucible Marks into the single Legendary Marks currency. Interestingly, the text says that Legendary Marks can be earned from the Daily Heroic and Daily Crucible playlists and not the Strike playlists. We’ll have to wait on a clarification from Bungie for that.
Another new point is Legendary Marks can also be earned by dismantling Legendary gear. That’s a change from just receiving upgrade materials today.
Quests
Here we see the new Quests screen that can hold up to 32 Quests plus up to 16 Bounties. We saw this before in a previous reveal, but now we can see the names and partial descriptions of some of the Quests.
Faction Allegiances
Here we see the new way to pledge allegiance to one of the faction in Destiny that replaces the class item worn by the Guardian. A Faction Badge must be purchased from the faction leaders in the Tower for 2,500 Glimmer. Factions allegiance can be changed via a new kiosk in the Tower, but it appears players can only do that one a week per the text on the screen.
Lots of Information
Here we see the list of all the additional information that Bungie plans to reveal for Destiny: The Taken King in the livestream. The mention of “Collections” along with “Vaults” suggests a new way to handle inventory. We already know that class-specific upgrade materials are being moved to a single item and shaders and emblems are being moved from the inventory to a kiosk.
That will free up room, but The Taken King is adding hundreds of weapons and armor pieces to Destiny. Bungie will have to step up its item management game.
Exotic Weapon Blueprints
This briefly seen screen is one of the most fascinating and already has the Destiny community frothing at the mouth for more information. You can see Exotic weapons divided up between Year 1 and Year 2 with the latter getting the Oryx icon to note which tier they belong in.
However, some of the Destiny Year 2 Exotics appear to be upgraded versions of existing weapons. Specifically, you can see The 4th Horseman receiving on the right of the screen getting an upgrade with the Oryx icon. It also appears that the Thunderlord is in a Year 2 Heavy slot with the Oryx icon as well.
Could this be why Bungie told Destiny players not to dismantle their weapons?
[Images via Bungie YouTube]
