‘Destiny 2’ Patrols Given Big Boost Via More Content Like Flashpoints With Prestigious Gear

More Destiny 2 information dropped on Monday, specifically about Patrols. This activity is not available in the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One beta that runs through tomorrow evening, so the community does have a high interest in how they have been improved. A new IGN video points to much more content and activities with end-game level content.

Patrols in Destiny 1 quickly became a source of tedium for players as there wasn’t much to explore and the few activities available were repetitious. This was particularly true of public events with mini-boss fights in the same spot and patrol missions with the same “go here and kill/collect” tasks.

Exploration

One of the big changes with Destiny 2 patrols is the ability to choose multiple landing zones. However, players will only start with only one for each destination and more will be unlocked as the location is explored.

Public Events

Destiny 2 will return some slightly evolved public events from the first game. The IGN video shows the Vex sacrifices renamed to “Disrupt Vex Construction,” for example.

There will be new public events in addition to the returning evolved public events. The number of new events will be more than the old, according to Rituals and Programming Lead Rob Engeln.

Another twist is a “Heroic” modifier. Every event will have an optional bonus objective that kicks off a more difficult version of the public event with more enemies and named bosses to kill. Guardians that complete the optional Heroic tasks will get extra rewards over the standard public event.

Adventures

At first glance, Adventures appear to replace the old patrol missions from Destiny 1. The difference with the sequel is Bungie injecting story into these missions. They are fully voiced and will provide information and backstory on the destination and enemies.

In many ways, this sounds like Bungie taking the story-rich, but buried, Grimoire cards in the first game and bringing them into Destiny 2. This was a much requested feature of players who became engrossed in the lore of the game’s universe.

Lost Sectors

Patrols in Destiny have always been filled with little caves for players to explore or to spawn enemies. Destiny 2 expands on these caves to create small dungeons, called Lost Sectors.

Large Lost Sector symbols painted on the environment will signal to the player that a dungeon entrance is near. Players will need to find the entrance, which may be difficult depending on the cave.

The Lost Sector dungeons will feature encounters with enemies of differing length and difficulty. All will be punctuated by a boss fight at the end with the chance to open a specially-designed loot chest.

World Quests

More lore-based content comes in the form of bite-sized stories called World Quests. These are multi-step quests which are opened after completing the campaign. They go deeper into the history of a location and characters. The one shown in the IGN video is about the AI character, Failsafe, and how she ended up on Nessus.

Flashpoints

Destiny 2 will gain a new weekly activity with Flashpoints in patrol. These will be featured in different destinations each week and look like a challenge to complete multiple public events at a destination with “Prestigious Gear” as the potential reward.

During the Flashpoint event, players will be able to summon secret bosses by finishing the event quickly or completing the Heroic version of the event. These bosses will drop extra loot.

Additionally, Cayde-6 will offer treasure maps each week for the featured destination.

Flashpoints are meant to give players a Nightfall-tier activity for players during patrol.

[Featured Image by Bungie]