Bungie gives an extensive breakdown of Archon's Forge, the new wave-based arena mode fans will be able to jump into once the Rise of Iron expansion launches for Destiny.

Destiny's new Archon's Forge mode coming in its fall expansion, Rise of Iron, has been previewed a bit in the past, but Bungie has blown the doors off the new arena mode with a detailed walkthrough of the space and an explanation of what players will be doing in the new activity come September 20.

The journey to Archon's Forge begins when players find items called SIVA Offerings while patrolling the Plaguelands, which will unlock the enemy waves in Archon's Forge. There are different categories and qualities of the SIVA Offerings, with each kind activating its own unique encounter. When those items are turned in at Archon's Forge, a wave-based arena mode will begin.

Encounters will never last longer than five minutes, and Bungie says there are different encounters that highlight every Splicer unit type in the game, with unique bosses for each encounter. Bungie promises that some of those bosses have abilities fans have never seen before in Destiny.

Bungie says while designing the Archon's Forge area the thought was to keep it relatively open with some cover. That way players can't get too comfortable or be able to hold up in one area. Instead they will have to move around and keep fighting the waves of enemies. There will be unique rewards for completing Archon's Forge encounters, including unique armor sets which can drop at the new Light level cap.

Unlike the Plaguelands, which are very snowy environments with blizzard weather effects, Archon's Forge is a place of heat—liquid slag runs over the rocks and magma pools steam. Bungie says Archon's Forge and its design plays a significant part in the story of Rise of Iron. It is part of one of the story missions and the developer says there is a story-based reason why the Devil Splicer built Archon's Forge as a kind of fortress within the Plaguelands. Bungie says part of the inspiration for Archon's Forge was Lord of the Rings and the land of Mordor with Archon's Forge being a kind of Tower of Sauron that players would be able to see while exploring the Plaguelands.

Bungie says the idea behind Archon's Forge was to give players an activity to do while in Patrol mode, which ended up being a kind of colosseum (or Thunderdome—the Mad Max influences are everywhere in this expansion) for players to fight in—"a place to go to have your knock-down, drag-out fights" as Bungie puts it. It has been described as a cross between Court of Oryx and Prison of Elders "Lite".

If players die while in Archon's Forge and are not revived in time, they are sent up to a "spectator area" where they are taken out of the fight (although they can take potshots on enemies they can see from behind a barrier). If the surviving players inside Archon's Forge can finish the round, all players will be able to reap the rewards. Bungie says there are also opportunities to let players back in by completing certain objectives or by using certain currencies.

The bottom line from Bungie is: "If you like killing guys in Destiny, this is going to be one of your favorite hangouts."

Destiny: Rise of Iron will launch September 20 on PS4 and Xbox One.

Source: Game Informer