‘Destiny’ Crimson Days Doubles PVP Event Detailed, ‘Hotline Bling’ Emote Incoming

The Bungie Weekly Update arrived Friday to give details about the upcoming Destiny Crimson Days event along with a third update to Iron Banner matchmaking. PlayStation and Xbox players can look forward to a very special doubles event for Crimson Days along with a candy-flavored booster and a Drake-themed “Hotline Bling” emote.

Iron Banner has already received matchmaking updates intended to improve lag on Wednesday and Thursday this week. The new update, deployed Friday afternoon, is the latest with Bungie testing performance between 4 p.m. and 7 p.m. ET.

Once again, these matchmaking updates are limited solely to Iron Banner and are meant to correct lag issues introduced with the December update. The new matchmaking will be deployed to other Crucible activities once Bungie has finished testing it.

On the Crimson Days front, the event will run from Tuesday, February 9, through the Weekly Reset on February 16. The event revolves around the Crimson Doubles special 2v2 Elimination playlist that only accepts Fireteams of two. The twist with the game mode is that one teammate receives a buff when the other dies.

“When your teammate dies, you become ‘enraged’ with the Broken Heart buff. When you find yourself alone in the fight, you gain maximum ratings for Armor, Agility, Recovery, and Weapon Handling speed,” Senior Designer Leif Johansen explained. “Hearing Bungie devs swear vengeance for their beloved Crimson partners during playtests sealed the deal for me.”

Additionally, the new Crimson Days Quests and Bounties handed out by Lord Shaxx will be focused on two players working together.

“Pairing up and having your kills count toward your teammate’s Crimson Days Bounties seemed to reinforce the theme of partnership. I hope it will create even less friction for more casual players to team up with high-skill friends. A player can carry their teammate through matches and to the rewards,” Johansen clarified.

The Crimson Doubles playlist will include special end-game loot as well. A chocolate-covered and rose-colored Ghost Shells that can drop at up to 320 Light will be available along with new Shaders and Emblems. A Crimson Candy consumable is also a possible reward that will grant the Crimson Connection buff when used.

What’s the Crimson Connection buff? It shares an experience boost for all equipped weapons for 30 minutes for the Guardian that uses it along with every other member of their fireteam. It will be curious to see if this is sold as a package in the Eververse Trading company in exchange for Silver, Destiny‘s microtransaction currency.

Speaking of microtransactions, a new set of emotes will be added to Tess Everis’ shop. The one that already has the Destiny community talking on Reddit is the appearance of a new emote based on the now internet-meme famous “Hotline Bling” dance by Drake.

The “Hotline Bling” fad has faded drastically since it exploded at the end of 2015. That won’t stop Destiny players from using it at every opportunity. The zombie dance emote inspired by Michael Jackson’s 30-plus year-old Thriller video is still a go-to dance in the game long after it was released as part of the Festival of the Lost event last October.

On a side note, this marks the fourth new update from Bungie in a single week. The studio was recently criticized for its silence regarding future plans and issues with Destiny. While there’s been nothing new concerning the status of the upcoming content drops following Crimson Days or the status of a Destinysequel, the studio’s leadership has changed with new CEO, Pete Parsons. It will be interesting to see if Bungie is able to continue to be this open with the game’s community going forward.

[Image via Bungie]