So I've been AFK for 3 months, what do I need to do? (Destiny)

by General Vagueness , The Vault of Sass, Friday, May 29, 2015, 04:00 (3708 days ago) @ Schedonnardus
edited by General Vagueness, Friday, May 29, 2015, 04:20

Honesty I'm in the dark. I've heard something about golden keys, but don't know what they are. I've heard about trials and the prison of elders, but I don't know which is which our what they do.

I know, search is your friend. Just looking for a condensed version of where to start.

Prison of Elders:

• big new PvE thing in the Reef
  
• House of Wolves required
  
• fireteams of 3
  
• one of five (or so) different combinations of enemies each week
  
• lowest level is matchmade
  
• features new mechanics
  
• treasure keys are used when playing this
  
• this is the only way to increase House of Judgment reputation and buy stuff from Variks in the Reef

Trials of Osiris:

• new PvP thing
  
• House of Wolves required
  
• DLC required
  
• fireteams of 3
  
• runs Friday morning through Monday night
  
• one map a week
  
• uses the Elimination gametype-- deathmatch/slayer that ends a round when a team is all dead at the same time
  
• if everyone survives to the end a control point appears, first to take it wins
  
• each match has 5 rounds (or maybe it's 5 rounds to win?)
  
• attack, defense, and player level matter like in Iron Banner
  
• enemies are matchmade but fireteams must be assembled manually
  
• access must be bought from Brother Vance in the Reef
  
• wins give you access to gear that Brother Vance sells (which is of course Egyptian-themed)
  
• too many losses and you'll need to buy access again
  
• Brother Vance also sells items that give you free wins, forgive losses, etc. (these take "passage coins" which can be earned a bunch of ways)

The Wolf hunt:

• the House of Wolves rebelled against the Queen of the Reef, now you get to hunt them
  
• no DLC required for the events or their bounties
  
• overworld events happen in select areas on a similar scale of time and space as the Blades of Crota
  
• Blades of Crota events don't happen any more, sadly
  
• the overworld events are marked by the text "A pack of Wolves is prowling"
  
• a Skiff drops in when this happens; killing its passengers triggers more, ending in a named mini-boss
  
• Petra Venj in the Reef gives out bounties for completing these events
  
• completing an event spawns an "ether chest" somewhere in the area and gives you a countdown to when it despawns
  
• ether chests can give glimmer, materials, special ammo synths, treasure keys, and the various tokens that can be redeemed with Variks in the Reef

Weapons and armor:

• new legendaries and all (recent?) past and future Iron Banner weapons can be "reforged" with the Gunsmith, resetting their progression and giving new perks
  
• all legendary and exotic gear can have its peak attack or defense increased by "ascending" it
  
• legendaries use etheric light (new legendary-tier material) to ascend, exotics use an extra exotic shard
  
• new legendaries don't take shards or energy and use less of the other upgrade materials
  
• new gear only has perk nodes and usually an ascension node (some gear has no ascension node and starts at maximum attack/defense)
  
• new gear breaks down into glimmer, weapon/armor parts, and motes of light
  
• ascension, reforging, and most of the new gear can be had without the DLC

Misc.:

• maps from The Dark Below can be played on by anyone
  
• the rotational playlists now last all week instead of being restricted to the weekend
  
• your vault has more space
  
• the Speaker exchanges certain types of materials and currency for each other
  
• Xur doesn't upgrade stuff since you can do that now, but he does exchange strange coins for motes of light
  
• the beginning area of the game is open and has new and old stuff added in
  
• the Reef has a new social space featuring the characters mentioned above plus a bounty bot, a postmaster, the vault (the same one as the Tower), occasionally Xur, and a new Cryptarch who is a glorious English Awoken asshole
  
• the Tower has a new ball and a jukebox, which are also glorious (but not English, except for some song snippets by a certain person)
  
• Hunters officially glow with beautiful energy