Things are heating up big time for Bungie's latest FPS franchise Destiny. Even though it released last September, the game is still one of the most consistently popular titles available, with over 20 million players exploring its content. And with even more substantial content on the way, it won't be a big surprise to see many others jump on the bandwagon, or for lapsed players to return to the game.
The next piece of substantial new Destiny content is right around the corner. Called House of Wolves, the second major DLC add-on for the game is promising to bring with it enough to stave off any complaints that Destiny is a shallow experience. From the looks of it, House of Wolves is shaping up to to be a different experience compared the first expansion, The Dark Below, but we will find out definitively soon enough, as it will be available in a couple of weeks on May 19th.
With such a major expansion on the way, Bungie is making sure the community knows when to expect server downtime, which is necessary for them to prepare Destiny for House of Wolves. As posted in the latest weekly update from DeeJ, the next update is coming on Tuesday, May 12th, and will be released at some point after 10AM Pacific. According to Bungie, this update will incorporate "final preparation" and "world changes" ahead of the release of House of Wolves.
The second update will come the following week on Tuesday, May 19th, coinciding with the launch of the House of Wolves expansion itself. This update, 1.2.0.1, will also be delivered at some point after 10AM Pacific that day, and will actually activate the content of the expansion, so that players can jump in and begin their new adventures. These updates will likely include additional fixes, balances, and more. However, Bungie has not yet released the official patch notes for either update as of yet, though they have apparently leaked anyway.
In the meantime, the weekly update also includes another look at the Prison of Elders, the new co-op arena mode coming in House of Wolves. A recent live-stream of Prison of Elders showed off the wave-based, survival gameplay, but Bungie has now divulged even more info. The mode will consist of differing rounds, each with three ewaves. The rounds will feature randomly selected enemies as well as randomly selected gameplay modifiers. Players that are able to get through the first waves successfully will proceed to a final round in which they will battle against a boss, also randomly selected. There will also be additional weekly challenges in Prison of Elders available to high level players.
Successful players will earn weapons, armor, and gear from Prison of Elders that can't be obtained anywhere else in the game. Rewards can be collected from a new character named Variks, who can be found in the new social space, The Reef.
As a final note, the weekly update also includes information on the success of Bungie's recent Destiny charity event. Destiny players have raised over $400,000 for Nepal earthquake relief so far, but Bungie's not stopping there. From now until the end of the day next Wednesday, Bungie has promised to match $15 for every Nepal earthquake relief t-shirt sold, up to $50,000. This means that an additional $100,000 could possibly be tacked on to Bungie's already sizable Nepal earthquake relief donation, if more charitable gamers step up to the plate.
Destiny is currently available for PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, and Xbox One. The House of Wolves add-on will be available soon, on May 19th, with a simultaneous launch across all platforms.