At 10am PDT on May 19th, the highly anticipated House of Wolves expansion for Destiny will launch worldwide, bringing with it a dizzying amount of new content to Bungie's popular shooter for the 20 million players enjoying the game.

House of Wolves marks the second major expansion, after The Dark Below, to be released for the game, and is the final piece of Destiny's season pass. Offering new game modes, new missions, and more, House of Wolves is quite substantial, but fear not, as we've compiled all the relevant information for House of Wolves into one place.

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New Story Missions

While often the subject of Destiny's criticism, Bungie is continuing the expansion of the game's plot and universe, hoping that House of Wolves can potentially turn around game's storytelling missteps. House of Wolves will follow the Guardians as they hunt down the titular House of Wolves Fallen group through a variety of new main missions, side quests, as well as in a brand new cooperative Strike.

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New Bounties and Social Space

Collecting and completing bounties has been part of Destiny's DNA since day one, and that's not changing with House of Wolves. The expansion is bringing with it a slew of new bounties for players to complete, which will include new rewards exclusive to those with House of Wolves access.

These new bounties can be acquired by interacting with characters in Destiny's brand new social space, The Reef. Amongst these characters is the returning Petra Venj, who will once again be dealing out bounties for the Queen's Wrath event.

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New Weapons and Armor

Destiny - Prison of Elders weapons

One of the major driving forces for Destiny players is to grind for new gear, and House of Wolves will have plenty of new gear for players to earn. Players will be able to obtain new gear through drops, bounties, and by participating in the new modes, the Trials of Osiris and the Prison of Elders. Some of the new gear, including exotics, will even drop in old missions once players download the House of Wolves add-on.

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Page 2: House of Wolves' Most Exciting Content

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Prison of Elders

A brand new co-op experience is being introduced to Destiny with House of Wolves in the form of the Prison of Elders. Similar to Horde Mode from Gears of War, Prison of Elders consists of players (in groups of three) fighting waves of randomized enemies over the course of several rounds. Each round features a different area themed after one of Destiny's four enemy types and features its own objectives based on the wave, and the ultimate goal is to survive to the end. Prison of Elders will also includes its own exclusive rewards and bounties, making it worth checking out for all Guardians.

Prison of Elders also ties into the new bounties, specifically the return of the Queen's Wrath event. By completing Queen's Wrath bounties, players earn a shot at an Ether Chest that may have a Treasure Key inside. These keys can be used in Prison of Elders to unlock a chest that will drop after the final boss is defeated.

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Trials of Osiris and the Crucible

While cooperative play is integral to the Destiny experience, PvP is equally important, and Destiny's PvP mode, the Crucible, is getting a major overhaul with House of Wolves, adding brand new multiplayer maps (along with The Dark Below maps being made a free download to all) among a slew of other tweaks.

The biggest addition to the Crucible as a part of the House of Wolves is the Trials of Osiris. This brand new multiplayer event focused on a new Elimination game type that should prove to be quite the challenge, even for the most coordinated of fireteams. Essentially, players in teams of three (no matchmaking) will complete to win rounds. The first team to win five rounds gets a win tally on their Trials of Osiris Passage (read: scorecard). The more wins a player has on their Passage then the better gear they can acquire from Brother Vance, the Trials vendor. However, if the player notches three losses on the Passage, they lose the scorecard and must start again.

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How to Reach Level 34

House of Wolves will be introducing a brand new level cap for Destiny, meaning players will have to acquire gear with even higher light levels than ever before in order to max out their Guardian.

The first goal players should accomplish in House of Wolves is getting through all of the story missions. By completing the new story missions, this will in turn unlock the level 32 Prison of Elders difficulty. Completing this difficulty level for Prison of Elders will unlock an armor core that can be traded at a vendor in The Reef for a piece of gear with a light level of 42.

During all of this, be sure to check out the vendors in The Reef for additional legendary gear. With the level 32 Prison of Elders completed as well as all the story missions, the next step is to complete the new Nightfall Strike to earn Etheric Light. Use the Etheric Light to upgrade any piece of legendary gear to light level 42.

At this point, there are a couple of options. Players can grind for another piece of Etheric Light to further ascend their gear, or the other option is to complete the level 34 difficulty Prison of Elders rounds. At this juncture, players should finally reach level 34, unlocking an additional level 35 difficulty for Prison of Elders in the process, which brings it with the game's best rewards.

Which aspect of the House of Wolves DLC are you most looking forward to? Does this new content entice you to come back?

Destiny's House of Wolves expansion will be available on May 19th at 10am PDT for PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, and Xbox One.