‘Destiny: Rise Of Iron’ Exotic Dropping Now Plus Other Changes, Ghost Bullets Confirmed
The Destiny 2.4.0 update came with a few surprises on Thursday night when the servers for the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One shooter finally came back online. Bungie typically rolls out a few surprises ahead of the release of an expansion, but this is the first time it has allowed players to pick up an Exotic weapon early. Meanwhile, the developer has acknowledged the existence of Ghost Bullets.
Reports of a Rise of Iron Exotic dropping started coming in from the Destiny Reddit community not long after the game’s servers came back online after being offline for most of the day. Specifically, the new Trespasser Exotic Sidearm is being granted when decrypting Exotic Engrams with the Cryptarch. Bungie even confirmed the news in the following Twitter post.
Trespasser dropping early? Yup. Trespasser is dropping early. Have fun, Guardians!
— Bungie (@Bungie) September 9, 2016
The Trespasser is part of Bungie’s attempt to make Sidearms more relevant in the Destiny meta. It fires bursts of bullets and comes with a perk to grant an enhanced motion tracker following kills with the weapon. Meanwhile, another perk buffs the power of the weapon when players reload after a kill.
An apparent side bonus is that the Light level has been slightly increased ahead of the release of Rise of Iron. Players are reporting decrypting Exotic Boot engrams up to 338 Light, while Silver Trial of Osiris bounties appear to be dropping Boots and Helmets above 335 Light. The new Destiny expansion will cap the Light level at 400 when released on September 20.
Other surprise changes confirmed by the Destiny Reddit community include class items now affected by Shaders, and this includes four new ones just added: The Ointment, Stolen Chalice, Barrier Ethos, and Sparklepony. Meanwhile, Faction Sparrows have been added to Faction packages, and Crucible ships have been added to Crucible Packages. The Gunsmith is also now selling Armor Materials, and some Blue engrams are decrypting into Exotics.
Players should also now see the Plaguelands and Felwinter Peak regions in the Destiny game director for Earth. Don’t expect to actually be able to go to these places yet, as there are no menu items to click there. Other director changes include a Rise of Iron-themed background for the Crucible and the Vanguard Heroic Strike Playlist renamed to Taken War Strike Playlist.
There have been some slight tweaks to activities too. The Fallen S.A.B.E.R. Strike now shows some of the SIVA effects from Destiny: Rise of Iron, while the Nightfall Strike is now rotating between Fallen S.A.B.E.R. and the current Cerberus Vae III Strike.
Those holding on to Iron Banner bounties may notice those bounties have disappeared from their Guardians’ inventory. This is an intentional move by Bungie to prepare the way from changes to the monthly event with the release of Rise of Iron, as explained by a Bungie help post.
At the same time, the Ghost Bullet effect that Destiny players have suspected to be in the game for the longest time was confirmed by Bungie Community Manager David “Deej” Dague. This YouTube video from TripleWreck explains what Ghost Bullets are about perfectly.
For those who can’t watch the video, Ghost Bullets occur when Destiny Hand Cannons miss the intended target seemingly at random, despite the crosshairs being firmly fixed on the target. The example shown in the video demonstrates a Hand Cannon targeting another player’s head while aiming down sights. Most of the bullets hit, but sometimes one will miss and sometimes one will be a body shot instead.
This suggests a bit of Random Number Generation (RNG) is included in Destiny’s targeting of opponents. Bungie’s Dague acknowledged the existence of Ghost Bullets in a Twitter post and suggested the studio will talk more about them in the future once he’s had a chance to talk with the development team.
What do you think of the changes brought to Destiny so far in anticipation of Rise of Iron? The expansion will be released on Tuesday, September 20 and will go live at 5 a.m. ET/2 a.m. PT.
[Image via Bungie]
