Destiny Update 2.5 Live on PS4 & Xbox, Adds The Dawning

Adding all of The Dawning content, which includes new Quests/Bounties/gear and the return of Sparrow Racing League, Destiny Update 2.5 is now live on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, with players reporting a download of 1.89GB on Xbox One.

Keeping in mind that you need to own Rise of Iron to access The Dawning, here’s the full list of patch notes for today’s update:

General

New Quests are available in the Tower from Eva Levante, Amanda Holliday, and Commander Zavala

A new Record Book is available offering new rewards for the Winter season

Fixed an issue where some players did not receive the Student of History Trophy/Achievement or Sigil of the Young Wolf Emblem for attuning all of the Rise of Iron Artifacts

Fixed an issue where some players were unable to complete the Echoes of the Past Quest

Activities

Sparrow Racing League

2 new racetracks have been added to the 2 returning from last year

Bounties and Quests are available from Amanda Holliday

SRL License Quest progress has been reset and new rewards have been added

Circuit racing gear obtained from the SRL License Quest now has Light and can be infused

SRL Reputation has been reset to Rank 0

Players can obtain an SRL helmet from Amanda Holliday at Rank 3 (1 per character)

Players can obtain a Treasures of the Dawning from Amanda Holliday at Rank 5 (1 per character, max 3 per account)

SRL Racing Suits earned from SRL matches have Light and can be infused

SRL can be launched via the Weekly Featured playlist in the director

Crucible bounties and Jolly Holliday Quest can no longer be completed in Sparrow Racing

General

Strikes in the SIVA Crisis Playlist, SIVA Crisis Heroic Playlist, and weekly Nightfall now award Medals and feature team scoring: Acquire new Bounties from Zavala and the Bounty Tracker to complete in any Scored Strike

3 Strikes have been reprised: The Nexus, Shadow Thief, and Will of Crota

SIVA Crisis and SIVA Crisis Heroic Playlists now include all platform-available Strikes

Dead Guardians are now automatically respawned at the end of Strikes

Fixed an issue with pathfinding that caused enemies to not properly exit their spawn locations: This prevents enemies in the Will of Crota Strike from getting stuck in their doorways

Reduced Burn effects on incoming damage done to Guardians: Outgoing damage by Guardians is unchanged

Fixed an issue in Fallen S.A.B.E.R. where the Ultra Shank teleported after it’s entrance performance

Fixed an issue where Strike Streak was not applying in the SIVA Crisis Heroic Playlist correctly

Fixed an issue where the Hoard Chest on Echo Chamber could become stuck behind an invisible barrier

Increased time for presenting Archon’s Forge offerings to the encounter starting from 5 to 10 seconds

Iron Lord Bounties requiring Archon’s Forge completions now influence the type of Forge offerings that drop: Forge offerings will be more likely to drop with the combatant type to match the Iron Lord bounties in the player’s inventory

Reduced Shields for Bosses in Perfected Shank offerings

Collections

The Circuit and Momentum SRL racing gear sets have been added to the Holiday Collection for players who have earned these items

Circuit and Momentum Racing gear obtained from the Collection has Light and can be infused

Class items have Light and Perks and require Legendary Marks to purchase

Ghost Ghost and Deviled Ghost have been added to the Holiday Collection for players who have obtained these items: Players can pay Legendary Marks to re-purchase these items with random stats and Perks

Two new Emotes, “Proposal” and “Whoa There”, can now be withdrawn by everyone from the Emote Collection

Vendors

Xur

Xûr once again sells Exotic Shards

Xûr no longer sells Exotic Weapon Ornaments

Xûr now sells a larger stack of 10 Heavy Ammo synths

Eververse

Eververse has received a stock of new items

Treasures of the Dawning are now available and contain new Sparrows, Ornaments, Horns, Armor, and Consumables

Players can receive one free Treasures of the Dawning each week by completing their first weekly Heroic Strike

Completing a Dawning set from Treasures of the Dawning on one class will grant the “EV-53 Glimmergold” Sparrow and the “Sunglow” Shader

Nine new winter Emotes are available for sale for the winter season

Rise of Iron’s fall Emotes have been added to the direct purchase Emote rotation on Eververse

Silver Dust Store

A new Silver Dust Store has been added to the Tower. It is a Collection that can be found in the Tower, between Eververse and the Postmaster: This Collection sells a selection of past season items for direct purchase for Silver Dust, including Exotic Weapon Ornaments

The Silver Dust cost to apply Exotic Weapon Ornaments has been removed: Silver Dust has been removed from Radiant Treasures, but still may be obtained by dismantling Exotic Weapon Ornaments

Economy

The free weekly Radiant Treasure has been moved to the first weekly PVP match completion.

Characters who are level 40 will now automatically convert Uncommon Engrams (Green) to Weapon and Armor Materials on pickup

New Bounties are available from Petra to assist players in gaining Queen’s Wrath Reputation

Class items obtained from Queen’s Wrath packages now correctly display their stats

Fixed an issue where Year 3 Faction Class Items were not properly contributing to Faction specific Quests

Players can now purchase Wormspore from the Vanguard Quartermaster

Brother Vance now offers materials exchange for Passage Coins and Motes of Light

Skeleton Keys have been adjusted:

Skeleton Keys drop rates have been slightly increased in the SIVA Crisis playlist, SIVA Crisis Heroic playlist, and weekly Nightfall

Players will now receive a Skeleton Key for their first account Nightfall clear per week

Subclass Quest class items can now be repurchased from the Speaker once earned

Legendary Weapons obtained from the Gunsmith’s Rank 2 Quest can now be repurchased from the Gunsmith

Crucible

Maps

Fixed an issue where players could become stuck in Vex geometry on The Burning Shrine

Gametypes

Added ability for players to “wave off” heavy ammo if EVERYONE in the match does the ‘Wave’ Emote in the first 30 seconds of a round

Fixed an issue where the end-of-round countdown could play twice if the round tied in Elimination

Inferno Rift and Inferno Zone Control modes added to Private Matches

Supremacy score to win is now 120

Rumble Supremacy score to win is now 40

Supremacy Mercy spread is now 20-60, down from 30-90

Slight reduction of Super energy gain in Supremacy modes

Playlists

Icarus has been removed from the Rift playlist

Record Book

Fixed an issue where Supremacy mode variants were not counting towards Record Book completion

Bounties

Iron Banner Bounty Iron Marathon now correctly awards 10 points for a win instead of 15

Iron Banner Bounty Iron Support no longer credits you with assists that any nearby player earns

Fixed an issue where the Highest Score Crucible Bounty did not work in Supremacy

Lord Shaxx no longer requires players to complete The Mountaintop before offering his Weekly Crucible Bounties

Reward

Increased the drop rate for Trials of Osiris vanity items

Fixed a issue where the Trials of Osiris Shader “The Devoted” was not obtainable

Increased the drop rate for Iron Banner vanity items and Artifacts

Completing a Daily Featured Crucible activity now rewards 3 Passage Coins (up from 1)

Completing a Weekly Featured Crucible activity now rewards 3 Passage Coins (up to 3 times per week)

Fixed an issue where the Crucible Sparrow S-39 Lightrider was not available through Crucible Reputation Packages

Added vanity items and Ghost Shells to Crucible PGCR drops:

Ghosts: Crimson Shell, Sugary Shell

Emblem: Crimson Crest

Shaders: Rosebright, Valentine

Added select Year 2 Crucible Legendary Weapons back to core PGCR drops:

Red Spectre

NL Shadow 701X

The Ash Factory

Eyasluna

Party Crasher +1

Grimoire

Fixed an issue where the “Efrideet” Grimoire Card was not awarded upon viewing the Iron Banner Efrideet cinematic: If you have already viewed this cinematic, the card will be awarded upon entering orbit

Fixed an issue where the “Beauty in Destruction” Grimoire Card was not being rewarded for completing the “Beauty in Destruction” questline: If you have already obtained the Year 3 Gjallarhorn, the card will be awarded upon entering orbit

Fixed an issue where Grimoire Cards associated with Khvostov Manual Pages were not being awarded, including the final page: If you have already completed the “We Found a Rifle” Questline and acquired the Y3 Khvostov, these cards will be awarded upon entering orbit

Fixed an issue where Grimoire Cards for Year 1 Thorn and Year 1 Gjallarhorn were not being awarded when receiving their Year 3 counterparts

Fixed an issue where Grimoire cards awarded when picking up Dormant SIVA Clusters were awarding Grimoire score for each character who picked them up: You will now appropriately only receive Grimoire score credit once per account per card

Picking up Dormant SIVA Clusters will now appropriately award their corresponding card: Cards will be awarded upon entering orbit for Dormant SIVA Clusters that have already been picked up

Fixed an issue where Grimoire Cards for Crucible maps were not consistently unlocking when players spawned in Private Matches

The Dawning runs until January 3, 2017 and you can learn more over here.

[Source: Bungie, Reddit]

9 Things You May Have Overlooked in Destiny The Taken KIng

9 Things You May Have Overlooked in Destiny: The Taken King

You may not play Destiny a lot. You also may not follow everything online about the game. Fortunately, we're showing you some fundamental things about the game's latest expansion that you may have overlooked to help you get the most out of it.
1) Court of Oryx

In the middle of the Dreadnaught there's a massive platform with a portal on it which can be accessed through patrols. This is the Court of Oryx. Spending time here will drop a ton of engrams and allow you to level up quite rapidly.

Players will use runes to spawn enemies and gain rewards for killing them. Even if you don't have runes of your own, you'll get periodic rewards as others use theirs. A couple of hours here can easily upgrade your light significantly, and it's a lot of fun to grab some friends run the Court.
2) Motes of Light

If you played a lot of Year One Destiny, and had a ton of old materials sitting around (yup, those ascendant and radiant materials), you'll have access to a ton of Motes of Light.

The materials can be turned in to The Speaker in exchange for Motes of Light, and leveling up beyond 40 will get you Motes as well.

What are they good for? Hold square in your menu while over them and you will gain experience for any weapons and armor that need experience. Got a sweet new sniper that you want to max out quickly before you run the raid? Use Motes. It's a little trick that can really save time. You can also use Motes of Light to quickly level up your chosen faction reputation.
3) Three of Coins

When Xur makes his appearance for the weekend, you can check here at PlayStation LifeStyle for his location and inventory. Even if there's nothing for you, it's worth it to pick up a few Three of Coins. He sells five for seven Strange Coins.

Using the Three of Coins increases the drop rate of exotics from Ultras (boss enemies). The buff goes away after each boss, whether an exotic drops or not, but there's good news! It stacks if you don't get an exotic, so chances are increased each time.

If you make sure that you use a Three of Coins anytime you don't have the buff active, regular play will see a number of exotics dropping for you.
4) Class Specific Strike Armor

The Taken King has some unique new strike bosses, and your Guardians can wear armor modeled after each of them. By playing the heroic strike playlist, there's a higher chance that you can get legendary armor pieces for each class that match some of the bosses.

These armor pieces will drop according to your light level though, so if you want them in the endgame, you'll want to run this with a high light level.
5) Regular Bounties

Bounties have gotten much easier to accomplish, both in requirements and with being able to turn them in directly from your menu. Turning in bounties will often get you Motes of Light, Strange Coins, and engrams, so it's well worth picking up each days bounties before you head out to fight the darkness for the day. It's a simple one, but something many Guardians overlook.
6a) Crucible Questline/Weekly Shaxx Bounties

There's a very long and arduous questline that requires a lot of playing in the Crucible. If you're up for it, completing the full line of quests once (which again, can be frustrating and time consuming) will unlock Shaxx's weekly Crucible bounties. These bounties are far easier to complete than some of the requirements for the questline to unlock these. Go through each of these five bounties...
6b) Weekly Shaxx Bounties

...to complete the final Shaxx bounty for the week. Turning this in from your menu will reward you with endgame gear, such as...
6c) Endgame Gear

...this exotic sniper rifle that dropped for me on my first completion of Shaxx's weekly bounties. While this one gun wasn't worth the pain of the entire questline, having these bounties unlocked for endgame rewards each week going forward will definitely be worth the controller crushing madness I endured.
7a) Gunsmith Rank/Test Weapons

If you head over to Banshee-44, the gunsmith, you can pick up some test weapons every week. These weapons will have specific requirements like using it to kill Hive, or getting kills in the Crucible with it. Once you complete the "research," you can dismantle the weapon as the reputation has already been sent to your gunsmith rank. There's a very good reason for ranking him up...
7b) Gunsmith Rank/Class Specific Weapons

As you level up the gunsmith rank, you will unlock small questlines to get class specific legendary and exotic weapons.

You read me right. An auto rifle and shotgun specifically for a Titan. A sniper rifle just for Hunters. These are great weapons with some special perks that make them work great with each class, so they are well worth getting your rank up for.
8) Exotic Gear Questlines

If you see a questline with a yellow background and a sword in the middle, these are the quests you'll need to complete for specific exotics. Rather than having exotics be random drops, Bungie has created an environment where we can work specifically towards certain exotic items.

Keep in mind that these quests aren't the easiest to do (they are exotics after all), and you may want to have some friends willing to help with some of the missions.
9) Infusion

Want to increase your light level, but your highest level weapon is the hand cannon with a massive reload time? Are your exotic items lower than some of your other unused gear? Infusion is the answer!

Any piece of gear with an attack/defense value can be infused. Hit triangle on any item you want to level up and go to where my cursor is in the image. You can then use any higher level gear from that same slot to infuse into the lower level gear, which will raise it's attack/defense value. You no longer need to leave your favorite legendaries and exotics behind when new, more powerful gear comes up. Now you can specifically increase the level of the gear you want to use.