Destiny: Rise of Iron kicks off another new week of content for players with the weekly playlist reset, and here is everything that guardians needs to know for January 25, 2017.

Even after the return of Lady Efrideet and her Iron Banner event, the most common question heard throughout the Destiny community continues to be: What's next? While we do know that a couple of weapon balance fixes are on the horizon, the latest update from Bungie continued to tease the future and in an interesting change of pace, they revealed what wouldn't be coming back instead.

Surprisingly, Crimson Days, the Valentine's inspired holiday event will not be making its return to the Tower this year. While Bungie is coy on why the event isn't coming back, the developer has stated that it has other plans in mind. The live team, responsible for keeping the game updated through events and smaller content drops, is starting to put the next content update together and it looks to be ready for sometime in the spring. Longtime players will recognize this pattern, as just last year, Bungie dropped a pretty big content update in April which added new gear, quests, and managed to reinvigorate the community which had been clamoring for something new to do.

For now however, the weekly reset has once again arrived, bringing with it new bounties, playlists, and quests for the community to tackle. Here's a closer look at all the new playlists, bounties, and everything in between for the week of January 25, 2017.


Weekly Nightfall


Speaking of the April Update, the Blighted Chalice inside of the Hellmouth of the Moon is the featured Nightfall Strike this week. Originally introduced in the large springtime mini-expansion last year, players will square off with Malok, Pride of Oryx, who is seeking to lead the Taken army in the wake of the death of Oryx.

Kicking things off in the Phogoth chamber, players will find themselves moving backwards through the Hellmouth. Things are not too difficult in this section as it features a number of Hive and Taken enemies to contend with coming in waves as players pick up and deposit relics. Players should take their time, keep moving, and pick off any additional enemies as they appear. Expect to see lots of Thralls, Knights, and Acolytes, in this first section.and their Taken variants along the way.

Once the fire team is able to leave the chamber and enter the Circle of Bones, the Taken begin to appear and will continue to harass the players until they reach Malok in the Shrine of Oryx. During this boss fight, Malok will summon more minions to his aid through Blights. Players are advised to shut these down as soon as they can as not only will it prevent more enemies from spawning in, but it will remove the Shadow Touched debuff from the area as well.

Unfortunately, Malok will continue to do this as regular intervals as his health depletes, so players should focus on the ads and then target his head once the ads are gone. Continue to move around the circular arena and eventually the big guy will go down. Of course, players could also opt to use this optional cheese spot to make things a little easier as well.

Of course, it's not just the strike that players need to contend with. This week, the Nightfall also features the following modifiers: Epic, Void Burn, Grounded, Juggler, and Catapult.

  • Epic adds heavily shielded enemies that are more aggressive and appear in greater numbers.
  • Void Burn increases all void based damage. Of course, players should use their void-based subclass to make things a touch easier this week.
  • Grounded increases damage done to players who are airborne.
  • Juggler removes ammo drops for the currently equipped weapon. As always, players should switch weapons often in order to earn ammo drops.
  • Finally, Catapult greatly increases the grenade recharge rate.

SIVA Crisis Heroic Strike Playlist


Interestingly enough, the SIVA Crisis Heroic Strike playlist once again features arc burn. Just like last week, players are encouraged to change to their arc based subclass along with arc damage weapons such as Zhalo Supercell and the Trespasser to make life easier. In addition to the burn modifier, the other active mods this week are: Heroic, Exposure, and Catapult.

  • Like every week, Heroic buffs enemies, making them more aggressive and in greater numbers than normal.
  • Arc Burn amplifies all damage from arc sources.
  • Exposure greatly increases Guardian shields, but they no longer recharge after taking damage.
  • Lastly, Catapult greatly increases the grenade recharge rate.

As always, the SIVA Crisis playlist is a great way to earn valuable high level light loot and score an easy 30 Legendary Marks. Not only that, Radiant Treasure boxes remain the easiest way to acquire Silver Dust and new weapon ornaments.

Players looking for those rare Skeleton Keys should jump into this playlist as the SIVA Heroic Crisis playlist is still the best way to obtain a key outside of finishing the Nightfall, which grants one automatically each week.


Crucible Playlist


Without the Iron Banner, things return back to normal on the Director. Combined Arms, a large objective based mode is once again featured this week. The biggest change from a traditional Control style match is the inclusion of vehicles such as sparrows, pikes, and interceptors.

Alternatively, the smaller Salvage mode is also a featured mode this week, pitting two teams of three against one another to capture and hold a specific point on the map. Once a spot is held, the other team will need to take it away and deactivate the probe before it finishes the extraction.


Tower and Iron Temple Bounties


As usual, The Iron Temple on Felwinter Peak is a great destination each and every week as new Iron Bounties, weekly quests, and more await players. The weekly Artifacts of the Iron Lords quest is once again available from Tyra Karn for players who have yet to earn all eight of the Iron Lord artifacts. This week, the three artifacts available are: Memory of Silimar, Memory of Timur, and Memory of Jolder.

  • Memory of Silimar grants players with added resistance to damage-over-time attacks in the Crucible.
  • Memory of Timur gives a chance to convert minor enemies against its allies when hit with a melee strike.
  • Memory of Jolder removes the sprint cool down penalty.

Players looking to get their hands dirty should stop by Shiro-4 who has his weekly Plaguelander quest, along with four brand new bounties to complete in the Plaguelands. As expected, Shiro has another balance this week, offering two Archon's Forge specific bounties and two general Plagueland bounties. This week, players can pick up: Stay Down, Crushing Blows, Archon's Forge: Servitors, and Archon's Forge: Dregs.

As usual, these bounties are the only way to have a chance at earning the Thorn exotic quest line, one of four that is needed to finish off the four exotic quests in the Rise of Iron record book.

  • Stay Down simply requires players to defeat a specific amount of Fallen splicers.
  • Crushing Blows tasks players with killing 100 enemies using the Iron Battleaxe or other powerful enemy weapons like the scorch cannon.
  • Archon's Forge: Servitors requires players to complete four Servitor encounters inside of Archon's Forge.
  • Archon's Forge: Dregs requires players to complete four Dreg encounters inside of Archon's Forge.

The Tower also has a number of things to pick up before heading out and fighting the Forces of Darkness. The most recent match type, Supremacy, is again the focus of Lord Shaxx this week with his A Hunt for Glory bounty. Here's how to finish it off:

  • A Hunt for Glory need seven Supremacy matches completed, 50 primary kills, collect 30 kill credits, and deny 25 crests from the other team.

Keep in mind that finishing these weekly Crucible bounty is a very easy way to earn Nightfall tier rewards and loot that will help players get closer to that maximum light level of 400.

New Strike Scoring bounties are also available this week with Commander Zavala in the Vanguard area of the Tower. As expected, both Sunrise and Strike Elite are available once more along with a new challenge: Simply Perfect.

  • Sunrise - Earn a Gold Tier Medal before time expires in the Nightfall Strike.
  • Simply Perfect - Earn Flawless medals by completing a SIVA Crisis strike without an fireteam member going down.
  • Strike Elite - Earn 9 Gold Tier, Silver Tier, or Bronze Tier Medals.

Don't forget, the Icebreaker exotic quest has a chance to be started by turning in the Sunrise bounty each week.


 Challenge of the Elders


Players looking for Sterling Treasure and Prison of Elders specific gear will need to speak with Variks in the Reef to enter his Prison of Elders. For Guardians working on the Elder's Sigil in the Challenge of the Elders, the modifiers for this week are: Small Arms, Grounded, and a bonus for getting grenade kills.

  • Small Arms increases damage for primary weapons.
  • Grounded increases damage done to players who are airborne.
  • Lastly, all Grenade Kills award bonus points.


Events


With the Iron Banner packed up once more, the halls of the Tower have once again grown silent for now. Though it was added a couple weeks ago, don't forget to grab that Traveler's Walk ghost inside of the Tower.

With thew start of a new week of content, the Wrath of the Machine raid challenge has once again swapped over to Vosik and his SIVA charges. For a run down of what to do and how to effectively do it, make sure to check our guide.

As always, good luck and stay safe out there, Guardians!

Destiny: Rise of Iron is available now for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.