Destiny Weekly Reset April 19th, 2016

Let’s start off with the weekly Nightfall for this week which is the Sunless Cell Strike.

Since the April update the Nightfalls have gotten a bit harder, not in terms of overall enemies or difficulty but more so in terms of Light Level. The NEW recommended Light Level for the weekly Nightfall is 320. This is due to the fact that the new max Light Level was increased to 335 with the April update. If you were already 320 before the April update, the Nightfall should be only be slightly more difficult, barely noticeable if you are 320. The problem arises if you are below 320, then you can still do it, depending on what Light Level you are, you just have to be more cautious and take your time with it.

From my personal experience every 5 Light Levels makes the biggest difference, so if you are 315 you should be able to complete the nightfall with some struggles. At 310 it becomes MUCH more difficult as you will find yourself dying more often, depending on the special perks of the nightfall. Being 320 doesn’t guarantee that the nightfall will be easier; it just means that you have more of a margin for error. Similarly being ABOVE 320 Light level and closer to the max of 335 gives you an even greater advantage for the nightfall and you should really have no trouble whatsoever doing it at those Light Levels.

With that in mind the nightfall this week isn’t the toughest strike so it should be fairly easy to complete even with 310-320 Light Levels.

The perks for this week’s Nightfall include:

Epic: As with any Nightfall, Enemies are heavily shielded and highly aggressive enemies appear in great numbers.

Fresh Troops: Some enemy squads have been fortified with additional reinforcements. This one is just more annoying than anything else and should only really be a problem for people trying to solo the nightfall. In a fireteam of 3 I don’t see this one posing too much of a problem.

Match Game: Enemy shields are resistant to all unmatched Elemental Damage. Basically what this means is that if you see a knight or wizard and they have a Solar shield for example, using Void burn will literally do no damage, so only way to take down the shield is using Solar damage. Once the shield is down however, any weapon is fair game to finish off enemies. To make this easier just make sure your fireteam is somewhat diversified in the weapons they wield as well as the subclasses being used so that there is at least ONE subclass/weapon for each of the burns type: Solar, Void and Arc. This one just makes the Nightfall slightly more challenging but nothing outrageous.

Catapult: Grenade recharge rate is greatly increased. This one is a blessing of epic proportions especially for a Nightfall. Sunsinger warlocks will love this one with max discipline and 2 fusion grenades. A Titan’s Thermite grenade would also be beastly coupled with something like the Armamentarium which gives titans 2 grenades and you will be almost as formidable as a Sunsinger Warlock.

Exposure: Guardian shields are increased but do not replenish. This can also be troublesome, but all it means is playing a bit more passively than you usually would and it might mean taking longer to complete the Nightfall.

The Sunless Cell Strike isn’t the toughest Strike in the world but there are a few things you need to watch out for especially on Nightfall. The majority of enemies, if not all of the enemies, are Taken but can sometimes also have a few Hive enemies especially during the boss fight. With that said the most troublesome of the lot are definitely the Boomer Knights, Wtiches and Shriekers. The Boomer Knights hit hard and are extremely aggressive on Nightfall. The witches will attack aggressively AND keep attacking incessantly. Getting surrounded by a few knights and witches will ensure you’ll be dead in no time. The same goes for the Shriekers, whose attacks really hurt on nightfall, hence it is important to take your time and try and shoot them down from behind cover with a sniper or possibly a heavy weapon as well. A key thing to remember is that after a Shrieker dies it has an attack that follows you for some time, running away a certain distance will ensure your survival while getting hit by that attack will probably mean certain death, especially on nightfall.

The boss itself is a huge Hive knight named Alak Kul and a good sniper like a 1000 Yard stare or Black Spindle would be the weapon of choice along some heavy weapons like the raid machine gun. It is easy enough to shoot the boss from a distance or behind cover when there are no adds around but get too close to him and he will absolutely melee you in the face which  is almost always a one shot kill.

Like I mentioned not the hardest nightfall by any means but certainly a few things to look out for. This Nightfall will also have an increased chance to drop a Strike specific Fusion Rifle and a Strike Specific Titan helmet which resembles the bosses head.

Weekly PvP: As far as PvP for this week, we have Inferno Rumble which is more of a solo Crucible activity, which some people hate and some people love depending on their play-style. Regardless of whether or not you like Rumble you should consider playing a few games or at the very least one game, in order to get your Weekly Sterling Treasure Chest from the weekly Crucible activity.

Lord Shaxx and Petra will also have new bounties for the week so remember to check them out as well.

Since the April update, there is a new weekly activity called Challenge of Elders and the bounties and event Sigil is handed out by Variks each week. These reset on a weekly basis and will usually be different levels and bosses on a week to week bases. The bounties will also ask you to complete different tasks for each of the three bounties from week to week.

Remember to collect your Sterling Treasure Chest from the postmaster as well as 1 from doing the Prison of Elders Level 41 once this week and then another Treasure Chest for doing the weekly Crucible activity.

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How to get an Exotic Sword in Destiny Taken King - Updated quest

Ok so with the release of the Taken King expansion Bungie included 6 different swords (3 Legendary and 3 Exotic) that you can obtain and equip in your heavy weapons slot. Aside from being extremely fun to use these swords are also preferred in certain situations or missions because of the amount of damage they do, especially to captains and majors. The sword entices the player to use a high risk high reward strategy, which like I mentioned, is not only extremely fun but also highly practical in some situations.

***EDIT: There are now FOUR Legendary Swords you can get in Destiny Taken King after the April update. Apart from the previous 3 Legendary swords released with the Taken King, a new Legendary Sword called the Dreadfang was released along with the April update for destiny. This new sword – Dreadfang is a Void Sword with the taken cosmetic look to it. IF you want to know how to get the the Dreadfang in Destiny check my post about it here.***

SO, How exactly do you get an Exotic Sword in Destiny Taken King?

Getting an Exotic sword requires quite a bit of work and so too does properly explaining how to get one, so grab a hot beverage and get comfortable.

Step 1 –

First of all you need to get a Legendary Sword. There are 3 Legendary Swords that you can THEN get the Exotic versions of but only AFTER you get your hands on respective Legendary Swords. If you need help on how to get a Legendary sword in Destiny, then check out my previous article here.

Step 2 –

You need to INFUSE your Legendary sword to an attack of at least 280. The Legendary sword given to you by Lord Shaxx upon completion of that quest only has an attack value of 220. So the first thing you need to do is infuse it to above 280 attack.

Step 3 –

Once you have infused your Legendary Sword to an attack value of 280+ then you need to level it up either using bounties or in game activities or motes of light. Motes of light is obviously the easiest and fastest route, but if you don’t have many lying around then simply using bounties and other methods should be fine as well, it’ll just take you a bit longer.

Step 4 –

AFTER you leveled up the sword you need to then actually upgrade all the perk bubbles of the sword using glimmer, weapon parts and the appropriate material just as you would with any other weapon. Once you have completed this Lord Shaxx will have a new quest waiting for you.

Step 5 –

Speak to Lord Shaxx and he gives you the quest ‘A Sword Reforged’ which is the first step in the questline in order to obtain your Exotic Sword. Now this is the step that most people find excruciating and would much rather skip. Sadly it is the first step in the quest and must be completed to move on.

Step 6 –

Complete the requirements of ‘A Sword Reforged – Honing the Edge” which states:

“Use the Sword against powerful servants of the Darkness, and test it against Guardians in the Crucible.”

This step requires you to get 50 Major (Yellow bar enemies) kills with the sword AND 25 PvP kills in the crucible with the sword. The 50 Major kills shouldn’t be too difficult as you can go into a regular or heroic strike and obtain these kills fairly quickly. The PvP portion of this quest however, while can be extremely fun with friends can be challenging solo depending on the game mode you are playing. I personally found zone control to be a good place to accomplish this as it only took me 2-3 games to get the 25 required kills. I would hide by control points and ambush people as they came to capture a zone. I will say that having a hunter that can go invisible is EXTREMLY useful for getting sword kills as you can literally sneak up to a couple of people and kill them before they know what hit them.

Step 7 – 

Once you have completed the 50 Major kills and the 25 Crucible kills you can speak to Lord Shaxx to get the next step in the questline.

Step 8 –

This is a continuing step in “A Sword Reforged” quest called “Blade Of Night” which asks you to “Draw out and defeat Ecthar Sword of Oryx, in the Asylum on the Dreadnaught.” This sounds vague but all you really have to do is go to patrol on Saturn/Dreadnaught. Once you have spawned on patrol take the same route as the sunless cell strike where you USUALLY kill some wizards and knights before making it past a door. The only problem is that the door is locked and there is a little trick to opening the door.

In order to open the door you need to defeat the three knights (one on the left, one on the right and one right in front of the door) but there’s a catch, you have to kill ALL three knights in a limited time, I believe it is within 10 seconds of each other. To do this all you need to do is weaken each of the knights till they have very little health, being careful not to accidentally kill them. Once all three knights have extremely low health then just proceed to finish them off one after another within 10 seconds. A super is a good method for this, heavy weapons is also a good choice. A fireteam of three would make this extremely easy. 

Once you head through the door you will see the familiar environment from the strike again, but this time instead of activating the panels on the left and right side all you need to do is kill Ecthar. He will be towards the back and there will be a ton of enemies to kill. To make killing Ecthar much easier, kill all the enemies he spawns FIRST then proceed to kill Ecthar.

Ecthar again has a trick to defeating him and that is you have to damage him with a sword FIRST to lower his shield and then he can take damage normally after. Again this step of the quest is made MUCH easier by having a fireteam where someone can focus on the adds OR all of you focus on the adds and then quickly finish off Ecthar.

Step 9 –

“Blade Of Day” This step requires you to talk to Lord Shaxx after you have defeated Ecthar and he will give you the next part of the quest.

Step 10 –

“A Sword Reforged – Essential Elements” This quest step has two parts. One of the parts is obtain 500 Ability kills with either Solar/Void/Arc corresponding to the type of sword you are trying to get. The other part of the quest involves collecting 10 Rare Planetary Materials. You obtain Planetary Materials buy farming resources on the planet specific to the sword you are trying to get, but just farming one doesn’t net you 1. The rate for me seemed to be around 1/7 or 1/8 so for every 8 Spinmetal I collected in the Cosmedrome I seemed to get 1 Rare material. It’s not guaranteed 1/7 of course it’s just the average rate I observed while I was farming for my sword. Again the resource you have to farm depends on the sword you are trying to get and it will state that in the quest you receive.

Step 11 –

Once you have obtained the 500 ability kills and collected 10 Rare Materials then you have speak to Lord Shaxx again and unfortunately he will tell you to wait until the next Armsday. Note that handing this quest in on Wednesday means you have to wait a WHOLE week again so plan accordingly.

Step 12 –

Once you have waited for the next Armsday the quest should pop up and you have to talk to Lord Shaxx again when he tells you the required materials have arrived and gives you the final step in the questline.

Step 13 –

“Sealing the Blade” This is final task you have to complete in this questline and all it requires you to do is complete a special 300 Light Level version of the Sunless Cell Strike while meeting certain requirements. This is like the normal Sunless Cell Strike until the last part where 3 different knights or Wardens spawn. These wardens each represent an Element: Arc, Void or Solar and spawn in that order. In order to complete this part successfully you need to defeat YOUR corresponding Warden/Knight (Meaning the one associated with the sword you are trying to obtain) and Alak-Hul (who is the strike boss) both within 30 seconds of each other. 

A simple way to accomplish this is kill the 2 Wardens you DON’T need while keep the one you DO need alive with very little health left. Then continue to damage Alak-Hul until he ALSO has very low health and then proceed to kill the knight FIRST and then Alak-Hul all withing 30 seconds. If you do this in the opposite manner you will fail the quest and have to re-do the strike. IF you take longer than 30 seconds from the time the knight dies to killing Alak-Hul, again you will have to redo the Strike.

I would advise bringing a fireteam to help you with this part of the quest as the last part is a bit difficult. Note that surprisingly there is also matchmaking for this but this leads to frustration more often than not because everyone might be going for a different sword than you. Hence it helps if people in your fireteam are either going for the SAME sword OR they don’t require the sword and are just there to help you finish the Strike successfully.

IF for some reason you have a fireteam consisting of two different swords or god forbid all three swords are different, then I suggest doing the Strike 3 times unless everyone in the fireteam is a high Light level, somewhat experienced/skilled and open to communication as keeping all three knights alive as well as the Boss is extremely difficult without proper communication and teamwork.  So if done incorrectly can lead to multiple failures and at that point it is probably easier/faster to just do the Strike 3 times for 3 different swords.

Step 14 –

“A Blade Reborn”

This is the FINAL step after you completed the special version of the Sunless Cell Strike and kill your knight and Alak-Hul within 30 seconds. All you have to do for this step is talk to Lord Shaxx and he gives you your exotic sword provided you completed the Strike properly.

That’s it! Pretty simple right? If you are reading this and are overwhelmed by the sheer number of steps required to obtain an Exotic sword, let me tell you first of all that it is ABSOLUTELY worth it. An exotic sword in Destiny is one of the FEW exotics that actually FEELS like an exotic since the Taken King expansion. Just take your time with the quest while you do your regular activities and you should be able to complete the quest eventually.

How many Exotic Swords are there in Destiny Taken King?

There are a total of Three exotic swords in Destiny Taken King, one for each damage/burn type: VOID, SOLAR, ARC.

Dark-Drinker: This is the Exotic Sword with VOID burn and its special or ‘R2’ attack is a spinning area of effect attack that lasts 2-3 seconds when triggered. 

How to get The Dark Drinker in Destiny Taken King?

In order to get this sword you need to upgrade its Legendary Sword counterpart, the Void sword known as The Void Edge, and follow the questline and eventually kill the Void knight within 30 seconds of Alak-Hul in the special 300 Light Level Strike.

Bolt-Caster: This is the Exotic Sword with ARC burn and its special or ‘R2’ attack lets you fire an Arc disk at range that leaves a trail of Arc damage. This is the only Exotic sword that has a ranged attack and it is pretty effective over longer distances.

How to get the Bolt-Caster in Destiny Taken King?
In order to get this sword you need to upgrade its Legendary Sword counterpart, the Arc Sword known as Arc Edge, and follow the questline and eventually kill the Arc knight within 30 seconds of Alak-Hul in the special 300 Light Level Strike.

Raze-Lighter: This is the Exotic Sword with the Solar burn and its special or ‘R2’ attack lets you unleash a devastating uppercut to an opponent.

How to get the Raze-Lighter in Destiny Taken King?

In order to get this sword you need to upgrade its Legendary Sword counterpart, the Sol Edge and kill the Solar knight within 30 seconds of Alak-Hul in the special 300 Light Level Strike.

While each of the three swords have their own unique attack, everything else stat wise is the same about them. They also all have the same ammo capacity. Each of the swords have their strengths when facing enemies with their respective burn as well as in certain situations. The Arc sword for example can use ranged attacks as mentioned but its attack might not be as strong as say the uppercut from the Solar Exotic Sword. The Void Exotic Sword is probably the most effective when there are a lot of enemies in close proximity.

If there is ANY part of this quest that seems unclear or you don’t understand, please feel free to leave your questions in the comments section below and I will do my best to answer them as soon as possible. I was lucky enough to have friends to do this quest with so it didn’t seem that daunting of a task but it still took me quite a while to get the whole thing done.

This was somewhat an unusually long post for me as it is more of a guide to getting an Exotic sword than anything else, so if some of you Destiny veterans out there find that I made any mistakes please feel free to point them out asap and I’ll make sure to correct them immediately. Also if anyone has done this quest multiple times and knows any tricks or tips that would be beneficial to the Destiny community, also feel free to add them to the comments section and if they are extremely useful I will again add it to the post as well.

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Xur is Here! – April 15th, 2016

Xur is back again for the first time after the April update and he has some pretty decent Exotics for us this week.

This week XUR is located in the reef, a place he hasn’t been in for quite some time, maybe something to do with the new update and all the new stuff at the reef?

If you have never seen XUR on the reef before then he might be somewhat hard to find as he spawns in a section of the reef that is usually closed off and only opens for his arrival.

So, Where is XUR located in the reef?

As soon as you spawn on the reef you go ahead a bit and find the first stairs on your right and go down them and you will be head towards Brother Vance (Trials guy.) Keep going past him and turn right again and keep going along till you find a small opening on the left. This is the section I mentioned is usually closed off so it won’t be hard to miss. Go into the opening and XUR is directly on your right as soon as you enter.

You can also take the stairs right beside The bounty guy which are sometimes hard to see. The stairs are located to the left of him and then all you have to do is go straight down and straight ahead through the opening I mentioned was usually closed off and XUR will be on the right as soon as you enter.

What does XUR have in his inventory this week?

Helm Of Saint-14 (13 SC) – Titan Exotic Helmet where the special perk is: “Starless Night – Your Ward of Dawn blinds enemies who enter it.” This exotic is for those defender Titans out there and I must say that this exotic is one of the top tier exotics for both PvP and PvE. Pop this bubble in a control zone and people who see you with the helmet on will be unwilling to enter it unless they rush in to super you in the bubble. For PvE this brings a whole new level of awesome for the Titan Bubble as many adds that walk through your bubble will immediately cease attacking you as they are now blinded. This can be a real life saver on more than one occasion. Definitely an Exotic worth picking up for the Titan if you don’t already have it.

Young Ahamkara’s Spine (13 SC) – Hunter Exotic Gauntlets where the main perk is: “Field Trip – Increased Tripmine Grenade duration and gain an additional Tripmine Grenade charge” This is a pretty awesome for hunters who run the Gunslinger class and love using the tripmine grenade. I already think the duration for a tripmine grenade is pretty long, this exotic makes it even longer. To make the deal even better it gives you an addition tripmine grenade and who doesn't like more grenades? This makes it a good Exotic for PvP AND PvE.

Starfire Protocol (13 SC) – Warlock Exotic Chest where the main perk is: “Starfire Protocol – Gain an additional Fusion Grenade.” I ABSOLUTELY love using fusion grenades for PvP, I find one of the most fun things to do is, stick an opponent with a grenade and watch them die regardless of what they do(most of the time anyways.) Sunsinger Warlocks have a perk that unlocks a second grenade for them but if you are using this Exotic for PvP, then you can potentially free up another perk to use.

Bad Juju (23 SC) – Exotic Pulse Rifle where the main perk is “String of Curses – After each kill, this weapon will reload instantly and increase damage for a short time. Kills will help charge your Super.” So apart from this awesome perk the gun can also fired in FULL AUTO.  This gun also has a magazine size of 27, which is fairly decent and while all this seems really awesome, the impact of this gun really holds it back from bring a truly amazing primary Exotic weapon. If the impact of the gun was buffed up even a bit it could be such an awesome weapon, but sadly it won’t do all that well in PvP at the moment. While the gun does have its uses in PvE, there are certainly other items to save your Exotic slot for such as the Black Spindle or an Exotic Sword. All in all this gun is not bad, it just could be so much better. If you have coins to spare it is definitely worth a try as it is still relatively fun gun to use.

Legacy Engram – Special Weapons Engram (31 SC) – Before the April update I would have told you to save your strange coins unless you were looking to complete your Year 1 collection and you had the coins to spare. However, since the April update a lot of Year 1 special weapons have also been brought to Year 2 and so it might be worth buying 1 or 2 of these Engrams especially if you have been stocking up on Strange Coins as you could potentially now unlock both a Year 1 AND Year 2 weapon.

This week all the exotics are decent and it is hard to pick a winner but I am going to have to go with the Titan. Yes both the Hunter and Warlock Exotics unlock a second Grenade but the Titan one is just so useful and comes in clutch so often that it edges the win ever so slightly in my opinion. Regardless of my choice, this week’s Extoics from XUR were all really decent and it was too close to call this one.

Below is a video showing you exactly where to go when you first spawn in the Reef if my instructions at the top were a bit unclear. The video also shows the various items XUR is selling this week so you can have a look at those as well.

Overall a decent week for XUR but I am hoping he sells the Telesto next as it is an exotic I am still missing from my collection and I heard that it is an extremely fun Fusion Rifle to use even though Fusion Rifles don’t have the best record in PvP post Taken King.

Let me know if XUR bought you something you really wanted this week or if you are waiting from him to bring a specific Exotic in the comments section below.

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New Items and Challenges with Destiny's April Update

Destiny’s April Update just went live yesterday and there are many things to look forward to as well as some general housekeeping and bug fixes that came along with the update.

Here’s some of the new and exciting things added to the Taken King after the April Update:

Increased Vault Space: I put this one first as I think it was a much needed upgrade to Destiny, especially for those hard-core Destiny players or hoarders or better yet hard-core hoarders. The weapons and armor tabs will now have 108 slots while the miscellaneous tab will have 72 slots. Plenty of space to hoard all the old and new gear available in Destiny Taken King.

Increased Light Level: The new max Light level in Destiny has been increased to 335 from the previous 320 Light level. The list of activities that can provide a player with 335 Light Level items include:
                Prison of Elders Challenge mode
                Crucible Weekly
                Court of Oryx Tier 3 (Artifact only)
                Trials of Osiris
                Iron Banner
                Exotic Engrams
                King’s Fall (Hard mode) – King’s Fall normal mode will drop up to 320 Light Level items.

Prison of Elders: Some of the New challenges added in the April update includes New Level 41 Prison of Elders with taken enemies as well as Prison of Elders Challenge mode and Variks bounties.

Infusion: Infusion will now grant 100% of the Light level increase from the infused item. One of the best thing I’ve seen that was added to the update.

Sterling Treasure Chest: These are a new item in Destiny Taken King which was released with the April update and you can get three of them per week per account fairly easily. One of the Sterling Treasure Chests you can get simply by logging into one of your characters every week and you will have one waiting in the postmaster for you. The second one you can get by participating in and winning at least 1 of the WEEKLY crucible matches. Lastly you can get one for completing the Level 41 Prison of Elders for the first time in a week which is also fairly easy to do.

Sterling Treasure Chests contain new Taken Gear, new Spektar Gear, Chroma, New taken ships (2), new sparrow, reputation boosters for vanguard, crucible and House of judgement. You are guaranteed 1 piece of armor and possibly up to 4 other things from each of the Sterling Treasure Chests. I for example opened a treasure chest and received the new Spektar Gauntlets for my Titan with a defense of 3, one of the new taken ships and a single white Chroma as well as a single red Chroma.

Another thing to mention is that all the armor you receive from Sterling Treasure Chests (Taken and Spektar) will have a defense rating of 3 and no intellect, discipline or strength attributes. Only after you infuse this gear with higher gear will you receive attributes that is the SAME as the gear you used to infuse it with. This is very important to mention as if you want certain attributes for example Intellect and Discipline for a Titan, then use gear that has only those attributes to infuse with your new Taken or Spektar gear as the Taken or Spektar gear will then take on not only the Light level but ALSO the attributes, so choose carefully.

Chroma: Chroma is another cosmetic feature added to Destiny Taken King after the April update. Chroma allows players to customize their armor and weapons with a glow-like effect using 4 different colors: Red, White, Blue, Yellow. Something to note is that Chroma cannot be applied to ALL armor and weapons but only to certain ones, mostly newer gear released along with the April update. Most of the gear includes not only the new Spektar set but also some armor and weapons from House of Judgement and Queens faction which can both be acquired by doing Prison of Elders and/or raking up with Variks.

Chroma can be obtained in only two ways. The first way you can obtain Chroma is by opening a Sterling Treasure Chest and you have a high chance of getting at least one Chroma if not more. The second method of how you can get more Chroma is by dismantling gear you get from the Sterling Treasure Chests such as the Taken or Spektar gear.

All in all it won’t be long before you can get a full set of Chroma gear, especially if you spend silver and buy Treasure Chests from the Eververse vendor.

Strike: New Blighted Chalice strike as well as a taken version of an older Strike

New exotics: There are new exotics being added to Taken King and by ‘new’ I mean mostly more Year 1 Exotics that will now get year 2 versions.

Eververse: There are now 12 new emotes to get and all the old ones are bundled in mystery bags as Winter 2015. One thing to note is that you can ALSO buy Sterling Treasure Chests from Eververse for 200 silver. Bold move by Bungie and although I don’t agree with the move, I still don’t think it’s a HUGE game breaker (yet) as most of the items are only Light level 3 and mostly cosmetic in nature.

There were many other updates and game fixes that came with the April update along with some Crucible, Class and weapon changes. For a full list of things to look out for visit Bungie’s page here.

Lots to do in Destiny with the new April update, especially for PvE focused players finally. The addition of a lot of new PvE content was a good move by Bungie after recent PvP focused events such as the Crimson Doubles and Sparrow Racing.

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Destiny Weekly Reset April 5th, 2016

Let’s start off with the weekly Nightfall for this week which is the Sunless Cell Strike.

The perks for this week’s Nightfall include:

Epic – As with any Nightfall, Enemies are heavily shielded and highly aggressive enemies appear in greater numbers.

Solar Burn - Solar Damage from any source is greatly increased. Something like the Black Spindle would be extremely effective here. Even a 1000 Yard Stare with Solar burn will make this week’s Nightfall that much easier. If you have the Exotic Solar sword that would be a solid heavy weapon especially if you have the uppercut unlocked.

Grounded - Players take more damage while airborne. Simple enough to follow, will probably only be a problem for those players that like jumping around non-stop. As long as you don’t do it when there is a room full of adds and snipers and such everything should be just fine. Something that I do personally is when I’m taking a lot of damage from adds is, I invariably jump up to avoid taking more damage, which normally that would be fine but for this Nightfall its likely to get you killed even faster.

Fresh Troops - Some enemy squads have been fortified with additional reinforcements. This one is just more annoying than anything else and should only really be a problem for people trying to solo the nightfall. In a fireteam of 3 I don’t see this one posing too much of a problem.

Catapult - Grenade recharge rate is greatly increased. This one is a blessing of epic proportions especially for a Nightfall. Sunsinger warlocks will love this one with max discipline and 2 fusion grenades. A Titan’s thermite grenade would also be beastly coupled with something like the Armamentarium which gives titans 2 grenades and you will be almost as formidable as a Sunsinger Warlock.

The Sunless Cell Strike isn’t the toughest Strike in the world but there are a few things you need to watch out for especially on Nightfall. The majority of enemies, if not all of the enemies, are Taken but can sometimes also have a few Hive enemies especially during the boss fight. With that said the most troublesome of the lot are definitely the Boomer Knights, Wtiches and Shriekers. The Boomer Knights hit hard and are extremely aggressive on Nightfall. The witches will attack aggressively as well AND keep attacking incessantly. Getting surrounded by a few knights and witches will ensure you’ll be dead in no time. The same goes for the Shriekers, whose attacks really hurt on nightfall, hence it is important to take your time and try and shoot them down from behind cover with a sniper or possibly a heavy weapon as well. A key thing to remember is that after a Shrieker dies it has an attack that follows you for some time, running away a certain distance will ensure your survival while getting hit by that attack will probably mean certain death especially on nightfall.

The boss itself is a huge Hive knight named Alak Kul and a good sniper like a 1000 Yard stare or Black Spindle would be the weapon of choice along with some Solar heavy weapons like the raid machine gun. It is easy enough to shoot the boss from a distance or from behind cover when there are no adds around but get too close to him and he will absolutely melee you in the face which  is almost always a one shot kill.

Like I mentioned not the hardest nightfall by any means but certainly a few things to look out for. This Nightfall will also have an increased chance to drop a Strike specific Fusion Rifle and a Strike Specific Titan helmet which resembles the bosses head.

As far as PvP for this week goes, Iron Banner has officially ended and this week’s weekly crucible is Zone Control similar to normal control except you only get points for capturing zones and not actual kills.  

Lord Shaxx and Petra will also have new bounties for the week so remember to check them out as well.

Also there is officially only one more week left till the highly anticipated April update for Destiny where we will see new armor sets, new strikes, new changes to PoE, Max Light level increase and much more. I for one am definitely looking forward to the April update to Destiny Taken King.

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