Earlier today, Bungie held the first in a series of live streams that dive into some of the details about the latest Expansion for Destiny, the House of Wolves. The stream today featured DeeJ, our friendly neighborhood Community Manager, and Christopher Barrett, Art Director for Destiny, talking about some of the things we can expect to see when House of Wolves finally launches on May 19th.
The topics of discussion for this first stream were the new Reef social area and upgrade paths for our gear. There was actually a lot of information covered in the stream today, even though it was just under an hour long, so I'll be splitting the recap up into two parts. In this first part, I'll go over all the details of the Reef. So lets get down to business!
Overview
To start off with, we got some details about the House of Wolves Expansion in general. The Expansion revolves around the Fallen House of Wolves who were once under control of the Queen of the Reef, who we encountered in the main Destiny story. However, the Fallen under her control have decided to rebel (for some reason that is yet unknown) and killed many of the Queen's Guards in the process. They have since spread out across the galaxy and the Guardians have been called by the Petra and the Queen herself to hunt them down.
In regards to the story of House of Wolves, Christopher Barrett commented that "there is a lot of story," and DeeJ also said that this Expansion is "a fresh approach to story telling." In addition, they mentioned that most of the work on House of Wolves was done after the initial launch of Destiny, so they were able to take player feedback and criticisms into account. As a result, they said, House of Wolves feels like a reaction to what players want and like.
Design
The Reef social space is designed to function much like the Tower that we've all come to know so well. The Reef however, is a very dangerous place, filled with derelict ships and plenty of pirates. As a result of this differing story, the design team wanted to create a darker, more dangerous mood for the Reef.The change of tone and atmosphere is one of the primary ways the Reef differs from the Tower.
However, like the Tower, the Reef is populated with a handful of vendors for everything from bounties to crucible events. The live stream revealed four different vendors, which I'll detail below. It also hinted at the possibility of other areas, similar to to the special area for Iron Banner in the Tower, and other secrets that await us.
Petra Venj
Just like in the Dark Below, the story for the House of Wolves will be delivered through the use of a "story agent." For the House of Wolves, that story agent is Petra, who will distribute bounties, and presumably also story missions to players. Petra, known as the Queen's Wrath, has a reputation system similar to all bounty distributors and has a collection of emblems, shaders and ships for players to buy at each rank.
So let's take a look at the bounties that Petra offers. There were six shown in the live stream, but there are likely others that will be part of the rotation.
Wanted: Drevis, Wolf Baroness
Hunt Drevis, Wolf Baroness near the Cosmodrome's Forgotten Shore.
"Drevis led a strike of Silen Fang in the Raze of Amethyst, an attack which killed my sisters. Show her no mercy." - Petra
Rewards: Queen's Wrath +250
Experience +4500
Wanted: Beltrik The Veiled
Hunt Beltrik, the Veiled in Ember Caves on Venus.
"When Paladin Abra Zire heard of Beltrik's escape, she was angry enough to destroy an asteroid. Another one" - Petra
Rewards: Queen's Wrath +250
Experience +4500
Wanted: Mecher Orbiks-11
Hunt Mecher Orbiks-11 near the Ishtar Cliffs on Venus.
"They say the Orbiks Servitors once seerved a long-lost Fallen House. Let's make them stay lost" - Petra
Rewards: Queen's Wrath +250
Experience +4500
Wanted: Wolf Scavengers
Hunt the Wanted Wolf Scavengers in the Halls of Wisdom on the Moon.
"A group of Wolf Scavengers were spotted making runs into Hive territory. Don't care what they're up to, put them down." - Petra
Rewards: Queen's Wrath +100
Experience +3500
Wanted: Queenbreaker Vandals
Hunt the Wanted Queenbreaker Vandals in The Cinders on Venus.
"The Queenbreakers are Wolves who pledged themselves to the Queen and then betrayed her. Show them no mercy." - Petra
Rewards: Queen's Wrath +100
Experience +3500
Wanted: Howling Raiders
Hunt the Howling Raiders in the Hall of Whispers on Venus.
"Skolas has sent some of his best thieves into the Archive. Don't let them leave alive." - Petra
Rewards: Queen's Wrath +100
Experience +3500
Variks, the Loyal
Perhaps the most interesting vendor in the Reef is Variks, the Loyal. Variks is a Fallen who is the only known remaining member of the House of Judgement, one of the oldest Fallen houses. He has been extremely loyal to the Queen and is in charge of the Prison of Elders, this Expansions end-game activity. Like Petra, he has his own reputation system and a corresponding set of items as rewards, like shaders, ships and class items.
Interestingly, he appears to sell gear from the Prison of Elders, at a cost of either 1 Armor or 1 Weapon Core. Since these Cores are said to be obtained during the Prison of Elders, it appears as though we will be able to purchase these exclusive weapons and gear, rather than receiving them randomly throughout the Prison of Elders. Variks' inventory is said to be on a set, predictable rotation so players won't have to worry about him selling the same piece of gear for a number of consecutive weeks (I'm looking at you Xur!!!). The fact that we may have somewhat of a choice as to our rewards from the Prison of Elders has some interesting implications, but I'll wait and talk about those after the live stream.
Christopher Barrett also mentioned that Variks has full sets of
Fallen-themed class items, shaders, ships and gear for each Fallen
House. This sounds like it will result in a lot of items that we can buy. For now, let's take a look at the items in Variks' inventory that we saw. The live stream was from the perspective of DeeJ, so all the armor pieces are for Warlocks.
Kellbreaker's Gloves
Gauntlets
"The gas is no soul. An ethereal lifeblood maybe. But a soul? I think not."
402 Defense (initial)
42 Light (initial)
Perks:
- Chance to generate ORbs when killing Fallen with melee attacks.
- Increased reload speed with special weapons.
- Increased grenade throw distance.
1 Armor Core
Wolfslayer's Claw
Auto Rifle
Its claws are sharp, many and unrelenting.
365 Attack (initial)
Perks:
- This weapon deals moderate bonus damage to Fallen Shanks.
- Kills with this weapon cause bonus damage for a short time.
1 Weapon Core
Judgement's Chance
Package
Attain a chance to acquire Prison of Elders rewards.
1 Weapon Core
1 Armor Core
Brother Vance
Another vendor that calls the Reef home is Brother Vance, the emissary of the Trials of Osiris. Not much was revealed about him, or the Trials of Osiris, other than that this event takes place every weekend, beginning sometime on Friday and lasting until weekly reset. The live stream next week is all about Trials of Osiris, so we will undoubtedly have some more information soon.
Other Stuff
There's a few other things in the Reef that are worth noting. The fourth vendor that we saw in the live stream was another Bounty Bot. This bot distributes the same bounties that can be grabbed back in the Tower, and therefore you can presumably turn bounties in at either bot regardless of where you picked them up at.
On top of this, we will also have access to our Vault from the Reef, so there will never be a need to travel to the Tower just to pick up a weapon or piece of gear.
That's it for the Reef portion of the live stream. Hopefully some time tonight or tomorrow I will have the recap up for the second portion which dealt with upgrade paths for our gear. Thanks for reading!
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