This weekend was largely one lost to Destiny 2, as I am apparently back on that nonsense again. The curious thing is that I had not really been playing for quite some time. I more or less missed the vast majority the last two seasons. So while Bungie was breaking up with Activision and kicking into seemingly overdrive in releasing content… I have been more or less slumbering obliviously to whatever was going on. This means that I am in probably my favorite spot as far as MMORPGs go… returning to a bounty of new systems to play with.
The real reason I have returned however is because of the 2019 Solstice of Heroes event. This time around the hook is the fact that if you manage to earn a purple set of gear, you will be able to turn it in for the Armor 2.0 equivalent as soon as Shadowkeep launches. I love when a game gives me the ability to work towards a future goal and also gives me something to do in the short term. The process starts with our friend Eva Levante introducing us to the new European Aerial Zone content… and quickly unlocking a full set of Green quality level 700 armor.
As players we have to complete a bunch of activities to turn this Green set into the blue 720 set that you can see my character wearing above. For the Titan the items that I had to knock out are as follows:
Complete One European Aerial Zone run
50 Precision Kills Anywhere
50 Hive Anywhere
5 Solstice Bounties
Loot 10 Chests in European Aerial Zone
Defeat 75 Enemies in European Aerial Zone
Complete 3 Adventures
Collect 100 Solar Orbs in Strikes
Defeat 10 Guardians in Crucible or Gambit
Complete 10 Public Events on Nessus
Collect 100 Void Orbs in Crucible or Gambit
Open 10 Solstice Packages
Complete 10 Strikes
Collect 500 Elemental Orbs of Any Time Anywhere
Complete 10 Crucible or Gambit Matches
I spent an excessive amount of time grinding this weekend working towards the objective of turning my green set into a blue set. By Saturday morning I had managed to convert the greens into blues and was starting on the second grind. This one is a little more heinous, and in truth there has been quite a bit of complaining among the community regarding how seemingly unrealistic it is to complete three sets of this armor. I am only focused on the Titan and I am expecting it is going to take me several weeks to actually knock out all of the objectives.
Similar to the list above, here is the specific list of activities I need to tick off in order to convert the blue set into a purple one:
Complete 10 Gambit Matches
Collect 1500 Elemental Orbs with a subclass equipped matching the daily singe
Defeat 75 Guardians in Crucible or Gambit using Arc Weapons
Complete 10 Heroic Public Events
Complete 5 Daily or Weekly Challenges
Defeat 100 Minibosses in EAZ
Defeat 300 Enemies in Strikes with a Subclass Equipped Matching the daily singe
Defeat 300 Fallen Anywhere with a subclass equipped matching the daily singe
Loot 50 EAZ Chests
Complete 50 Bounties
Collect 500 Void Orbs in Strikes
Kill Enemies anywhere with Solar Melee Attacks
Complete 25 Patrols on IO
Collect 300 Elemental Orbs of Any kind in EAZ
Defeat 300 Enemies with Solar Weapons
Another thing that I have been working on is unlocking various items in Callus’ treasure room that he crafted for us. I unlocked access to it on Saturday and I dumped a ton of my glimmer into buying the various trophies. In theory I should have waited for the glimmer discount to have increased after several weeks of doing the content… but I am always looking for something to spend down my glimmer on so I didn’t really mind it. I’ve spent a good chunk of Destiny 2 being glimmer capped, because I am seemingly bad at managing that.
I had an awful lot of luck this weekend with drops. I managed to pick up Lord of Wolves and got it by completing a bounty in the Forsaken Shore. I have no clue how you are supposed to get this thing, but I somehow feel like maybe that was not actually the intended way? I always figured you had to kill the escapees from the Prison of Elders, another thing I have been bad about actually keeping up with. Lord of Wolves was one of my favorite weapons from Destiny 1, and I am super happy to have it back in Destiny 2. This has replaced the Ikelos shotgun in my standard Gambit and Black Armory Forge loadout.
Another thing that I picked up this weekend is what I would probably consider to be my ideal load-out for the Bygones Gambit pulse rifle. The first two pips are “fine” but not perfect with Fluted Barrel and Armor Piercing Rounds. The last two however are dialed in to exactly what I would want with Rampage and Outlaw, because on a Pulse Rifle I am going to do my damnedest to make sure I am dialed in on a precision hitbox before firing… giving me super fast reload. I also really just like the look of the skin I have for the weapon.
I have no clue why Destiny 2 has latched on so hard, but I guess it makes sense given that I tend to cycle through periods where I am obsessed with it. I’ve been really happy to see some of the changes Bungie has made or at least announced since taking over the reins from Activision. I am also looking forward to the shift over to Steam away from Battle.net, largely because I think it will make it easier to connect up with people. More than anything I am looking forward to cross save which is supposedly coming in now ahead of Shadowkeep.
I am still trying to poke my head into Final Fantasy XIV on a nightly basis, but for now I am just letting the obsession play out. I have a feeling that once I knock out the purple set of armor I will dial things back significantly seeing as I doubt I will actually be able to masterwork any of the pieces. Destiny 2 is in a really solid place right now and I am happy to be returning to it.
