Bungie Weekly Update - Jul 2 at 8:56:12 PM

This week at Bungie we're making a list of stuff that we haven't said about The Taken King... yet.

We've already said that we'll be kicking off the second year of Destiny with a major expansion. On the road to launch we plan to prove that The Taken King is more than DLC - it's a game. Going forward, Weekly Updates will be a source of information and insight on how we're updating Destiny for everyone this fall, highlighting key features and the content that we know you care about.

Before we dig in, we want to tackle the basics in more detail, and specifically answer the question, "What's in the box?"

Destiny: The Taken King introduces the following to Destiny on every platform:

• New story missions and an array of sidequests that conspire to tell the story of our battle to defend our Solar System against Oryx and his Taken army
  
• New narrative driven by cinematic cutscenes starring an engaging cast of characters
  
• New Exotic Weapons, Exotic Armor, and Exotic Questlines
  
• The Dreadnaught, a full new destination, with unique secrets, rituals, and treasures to uncover
  
• A new breed of enemy combatants, The Taken, armed with new abilities and weapons
  
• An increased Level Cap, and new ways for your Guardian to grow more powerful
  
• The most substantial injection of new, unique, and redesigned weapons, armor, and talents to date
  
• New subclasses with all new Supers and abilities
  
• New cooperative Strikes with unique and dynamic new Boss battles
  
• Redesigned and reimagined Strikes - Dust Palace, Undying Mind, and Cerberus Vae III - are now overrun by the Taken
• New Crucible multiplayer maps with new Crucible modes, including the previously revealed Rift and Mayhem
  
• And, of course, last but not least, our biggest six-player Raid yet
  

That content and those features will form the baseline of every version of Destiny: The Taken King. Between now and September 15th, we'll also explore a range of topics that we know are important to you, including weapon rebalancing, economy improvements, an overhauled quest experience, bounty enhancements, faction allegiances, end game content, and more.

We've learned a lot these last ten months - about the game as well as the people we're playing it with. If you've been adventuring alongside us through The Dark Below and House of Wolves, you know our creative process follows an evolving playbook. The Taken King will present its own unique leap forward, and we're excited to unpack it for you this summer.

More on all of that in the weeks ahead.

07/07/15: The Day of the Player.

Throughout this summer, we'll have many chances to delve deeper into the second year of Destiny. For now, it's appropriate to talk some more about the first. It's been a long, strange trip, and we have yet to do it justice. Fortunately, there's a time intended for that.

Exactly twelve months ago, we had seen the first signs of a Destiny community. The Vanguards had broken new ground in the Alpha. The second wave of explorers were lining up to breach the boundaries of the Beta. Ever since those first sparks of character creation, we've seen a global population of Guardians emerge.

Our inaugural journey around the sun is cause for celebration. Bungie [Community] Day is just the occasion. This tradition was set into motion by players of Bungie games. We made it official on 07/07/07. Since then, the seventh day of the seventh month has been a time to recognize an amazing group of people who assemble in games to become a community.

Pay us a visit again on Tuesday. We'll have some celebrations of the awesome stuff you've done this past year, along with some invitations for how you can express yourselves.

We'll also tell you how any player who has braved the first year of Destiny can achieve permanent, exclusive legendary status. This is something we've been working on for a while, and your own triumphs are the crucial ingredient.

All of this happens on the seventh day of the seventh month. Mark your calendars. Bookmark this website.

And now, a word from the Smart People

I get a lot of direct messages to the effect of "fix this" or "nerf that." Trust me when I tell you that you don't want your friendly neighborhood community manager grasping those controls. To keep Destiny in a state of stability and improvement, we have the Destiny Player Support team. They stay laser-focused on the forums for #Help and #Feedback. This is their story.

DPS: Last week, we mentioned our Guided Support articles for the Red Bull Quest. As of 7/1/2015, the Focused Light XP consumable became available to anyone who redeems a Red Bull Quest code. If you successfully redeemed a Red Bull Quest code prior to that date, you will need to visit our Code Redemption page and manually activate it with the "Use Now" button. If you have any issues with code redemption, please contact Red Bull Support for the best results.

With the return of Iron Banner, we'd like to remind you that Reforging a weapon you've previously Ascended means that you'll lose any Etheric Light that may have been previously applied to it.

While we're on the subject of Iron Banner, let me share with you some of what I learned when I talked to some of the other smart people at Bungie earlier in the week. If you weren't there to see it, Lord Saladin stumbled a little bit when he returned to the Tower for the first time since some of our recent maintenance cycles. This resulted in some of you not earning the reputation gains you were owed as payment for your victories. We're planning for the future here, and that means rearranging some of the furniture behind the scenes. Sometimes, that resulted in a stubbed toe we didn't anticipate. When the Iron Banner issue came to light - thanks to your feedback from the front - we worked to restore Lord Saladin to his former state of generosity. Please know that the fix is in.

Thanks again for letting us know. Game on.

Limited Run

The Destiny Community is an endless wellspring of colliding imagery and passions. When you filter the Internet in search of Guardians, you'll find joy, criticism, victory, defeat, lunacy, and sheer brilliance. While we see almost all of it, we close out every weekly update by making an example of just one of you. This is often an impossible task, given the wealth of content you all create, but someone has to win the lottery.

WINNER: Sing it to us in a song.

Enjoy my song about the most uncommon weapon in game, Praetorian Foil! https://t.co/uLDMNxPdYq @Bungie @DeeJ_BNG #DestinyMOTW HASHTAG!

— Lucent Beam (@lucentbeam) July 2, 2015

We'll do more to honor you next week, and our brush strokes will paint far more of you as targets for our adoration. Bungie [Community] Day is inbound.

Until then, enjoy an explosive weekend from a safe distance.