Destiny: Rise of Iron Wrath of the Machine Raid Review and Guide

I have played quite a lot of Rise of Iron, enough that I have 3 characters over light level 385, which wasn't supposed to be able to happen until the hard raid but people are finding gear is dropping at higher levels. A big part of my light level is thanks to Destiny's new raid: The Wrath of the Machine. This marks the 4th raid available to Destiny players, and I must say, I quite enjoy it.

I have beaten the raid several times now, on multiple characters. First, let me take you through what all you will encounter in raid.

You, and 5 of your friends (or fewer if you are feeling particularly ballsy), will find yourself in the Plaguelands for the beginning of the raid, being stared at by a giant eyeball, which is actually how you will enter the raid proper. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

You feel as though you should cover yourself

First, you must deal with the Archpriest Vosik. Vosik remains immune to all damage until you charge the various generators around the map. Teammates will run around and gather charge by running through the white columns of light. Once they have 4 charges, they must deposit them into a generator within 15 seconds or your dead. The generators need to be charged 4 times. While a couple of teammates are doing that, the rest of the group will be killing the various spawns that appear, especially the giant Shanks that slowly make their way to the generators to sap them of their charge. During all this time Vosik will try his darndest to shoot you with his cannon. Once the generators are all charged they will start dropping SIVA bombs. All players need to grab them as soon as they can and start chucking them at the boss. This is how you lower his shields. Once his shields are lowered, you can start damaging him normally (and don't forget to keep throwing the SIVA bombs as they do massive damage). You will repeat this process until you damage Vosik enough that he will flee into the giant eye, where you will follow...

I really enjoyed this part. It's not particularly hard, and it's rather fun. I really like chucking the SIVA bombs at bosses. I really wished they made a Crucible mode where both teams have to run around and charge their own generators, grab their SIVA bombs, and either slam them in a basketball-like game or shoot them at the opposing team's boss. The first team to kill the opposing team's boss would win. I think that'd be a ton of fun.

Anywho, back to the raid. What's next is a "jumping puzzle". This is not half as hard as the King's Fall raid. You are simply running around in the bowels of the wall in a fairly straight forward fashion. There are exotic chests to be found, broken SIVA fragments for collectors, as well as the first monitor for those players that are interested in getting the new Exotic pulse rifle the Outbreak Prime (more on that in another entry). This is also not particularly difficult, it's more just fun as you hope you will get good stuff from the chests. Eventually, you will find your way to a grate that will drop you in the scariest set of a TV game show this side of the Traveller.

Bob Barker on a bad day

Your team will split into groups of 2 and will take either left, right, or center. Tons of enemies will spawn and you will shoot them down, all the while dodging the Vosik's gunfire. Eventually, SIVA bombs will drop down and you will have to coordinate the throw together to hit Vosik at the same time to remove his shields. After you throw the bombs, one of the TV screens behind him will light up and you must destroy it or you all die for some reason. After 3 sets of bomb throws his shields should be down and you may damage him normally.

After the damage phase, once Vosik becomes immune again, the entire team must run into one of the rooms on the left or right and shoot the energy lock shield to prevent being killed by Vosik's SIVA trails that he'll shoot everywhere. Not even Radiance can get you back from this death as everyone's supers take a hit right before it happens. The rooms are single use only, so you have a bit of a timer with this boss. Once that's done, you rinse and repeat and soon the boss should be killed. There are scary yellow bar captains and explodey shanks that can be troublesome, but good communication and decent gear should take you all the way. Once Bob Barker is finally defeated you are rewarded with some sweet raid loot and a raid chest that can be opened if you have a SIVA cache key, or enough SIVA key fragments to create one. This is very similar to the Moldering Shards from King's Fall.

After this is more jumping and exotic chest finding on your way to the Siege Engine, aka the Death Zamboni.

After the terrible dark on the inside of the wall, you finally make it to the top and into the fresh air. You casually walk across, easily killing the Fallen that reside there, and approach a giant impassible wall (unless you find a weird glitch that lets you skip the entire sequence. Don't do this). While you rack your brain trying to find out how you will scale this giant wall, the Death Zamboni comes to life behind you.

If Mad Max  played hockey...

This wonderful sequence has you desperately killing the freakish amount of enemies that spawn, all the while trying to shoot off the 2 turrets on the Death Zamboni and eventually the face mask, all before the giant engine crashes into the wall, smearing friend and foe alike. If you manage to do this, it's not over. For some reason the Siege Engine has broke down (I wonder who's to blame for that?!). Leaving one teammate behind to deal with a boss that spawns on top of the zamboni, the rest of the group will make their way to the opposite wall to pick up 3 spare parts. The logic of this part of the raid makes no sense but boy is it fun. As a team, you must carry the 3 spare parts to the zamboni in a certain amount of time or you lose. The trick is that you may only carry these gigantic parts for 9 seconds before you become exhausted. You cannot attack while carrying and you move very slowly, and once you drop the parts, you have to wait a while to gather your strength back up. Meanwhile, you are being shot at by skiffs and tons of enemies, and mines will detonate and forever slow you if you don't shoot them before they go off. Everyone must work together and slowly make your way back to the engine, where your other teammate has hopefully killed the boss and lowered the ramp so that you can run the parts up to the engine and place them in the correct positions. It is a wonderfully fun time that reminded me of the beginning of the Crota raid, running in the dark trying to stay together and not die, and try to survive long enough to create a bridge to run to safety.

After you do this you will ride the zamboni and jump off a cliff to go to the next part. There is a chest and another fragment waiting for you on the crags below.

You will head through the server room on your way to the final boss. This part will seem a bit strange, as it isn't really a maze like the Atheon Labyrinth, nor is it particularly saturated with enemies. You will simply go through to the next boss wondering why so much time and space was dedicated to a computer nerd's dreamland. That is, unless you are still trying to get that Outbreak Prime gun. This is the crux of that mission and as I said I will get into that in another entry. But eventually you will simply make your way down a big path going into a giant SIVA diamond ziggurat thingy, where you will meet Aksis, the final boss.

Poor paraplegic Fallen

This lovable cuddle-monster is separated into 2 parts, similar to Vosik in the beginning. In the first part, you will again split into groups of 2 and take either left, right, or center. Tons of minions will pour in and you must kill them while dodging Aksis' fire. Eventually 3 captains will spawn on each side carrying an elemental cannon (shock-arc, null-void, and scorch-fire). Once you kill the captain, one player will pick up the cannon and try to find the servitor that matches the shield of the cannon you picked up that should spawn soon. You must kill the servitor before they make it to a platform and kill you all from Critical SIVA Density (whatever that is). The people using the cannons need to charge their shot in order to kill the servitors, and it MUST match or you will do no damage. Once the servitors are destroyed, they will drop a SIVA bomb, that someone ELSE (ie not the cannon holder because they can't for difficulties' sake) will have to throw at the SIVA pyramid nodes right beneath the boss.

You will repeat this process 3 times, with the last phase having 2 sets of Servitors to destroy (so keep those cannons handy). Once you've destroyed all the nodes you win, receiving another chance at a chest, and a small reprieve before the final fight.

In the final phase, Aksis decides to join the fight proper and lowers himself onto the SIVA node platform, revealing that he had the ability to walk, he only needed to believe in himself...as a giant scary spider nightmare.

Let me go grab my giant boot

This part requires a ton of coordination, very similar to the King's Fall raid in the respect. You will remain in your groups of 2. Tons of enemies will spawn that you will have to kill as normal. This time Aksis will teleport around the room and spray his space aids SIVA swarm clouds at you that persist for a long time. Captains will appear just like before and you must kill them, take the cannons, and find the matching Servitor just like before. Once the SIVA bombs drop, chuck them at the boss, not worrying about the timing.

This time, however, you may notice that some teammates have become Empowered. This glowy blue aura is similar to the Aura of the Unraveler in the King's Fall raid. This is the most crucial part of the entire raid and requires the most coordination. This requires great communication from the entire team as you have to make sure you have someone Empowered on each side. After Aksis takes the hits from the bombs, he'll being to teleport to 1 of 4 locations around the map (left right, front center, back). As soon as he teleports to a location, someone who is Empowered must jump on top of him and slam down, which will stun him. There will be a quick damage phase where everyone will shoot with primary or secondary guns before he teleports again. Another fun part is that after you slam, the Empowered aura will randomly switch again, so you must coordinate to make sure you have all the locations covered in time when he teleports to another location. Luckily, Aksis doesn't teleport to the same place twice in a row, so after the first phase you can more easily have everything covered. Once he teleports, you do the same thing where someone Empowered slams on his back. After that, you do it one more time and then you have your main damage phase. Everyone has to pour as much damage as they can at him. Titans use your Weapons of Light bubble, Nightstalkers use your tether, and everyone use whatever heavy weapon you can (don't forget to use the cannons, they do the most damage when their charged).

Keep in mind that if someone misses their slam, or waits too long, Aksis will shoot his SIVA and wipe the whole team.

Aksis will become immune to damage and either way will shoot his SIVA and then everyone must quickly jump to one of the 4 glowing pillars in the back. Make sure you designate which one to go to as they are one use only just like the rooms in the 2nd Vosik fight, and you will need to use several of them to beat Aksis if this is your first time.

You basically will just repeat this phase as much as you can until you do enough damage to kill him the way you killed Oryx in King's Fall. You must coordinate and communicate everything, and try not to screw up, or die, lol. A death can be worked around but it makes it very difficult. Once you've done enough damage Aksis will teleport to where he began before the 1st phase, and you have one last chance to finish him off before he wipes the board. Hopefully you still have some heavy weapon and cannon ammo, a spare tether or weapons of light handy for the last part. If you can pour enough damage into him, you will have beaten Aksis and beaten the Wrath of the Machine Raid. Congratulations! Have another chance at some sweet raid loot!

I'm sensing a SIVA theme here...

The Wrath of the Machine has a lot of elements to it similar to previous raids: It has the frantic speed run element from the beginning of the Crota raid during the death zamboni sequence. It has the team coordination and aura callouts that Oryx had during the Aksis fight. It has a light version of the jumping puzzle from King's Fall. It has tons of chests and loot possibilities as well.

Overall I was very pleased with this new raid. It's a ton of fun. It's not terribly hard, although the last part requires everyone to concentrate and do their part correctly which can get quite frustrating with certain groups. It doesn't take a ton of time to run through, which I also appreciate, although some may not. The higher your level, the easier it will get, much more so than previous raids I'd say. With the Rise of Iron being so generous in its giving of end game gear you don't even HAVE to complete the raid to get there, although it is a great way of doing so. I don't care for the look of any of the raid gear or weapons, which is a shame, but that is just my personal preference.

I highly recommend you checking it out if you haven't already. It's a very entertaining time and as I said, it's not particularly time consuming or hard, as is evident by the fact that it was beaten in the first day in like 3 hours. We'll see what changes will come with the hard version, which should be coming by the end of the month. I'm guessing just more tears and frustration auras. But in the meantime, I hope you enjoyed this and happy gaming!

Destiny: Rise of Iron Review Part 2

Onto Part 2 of my Rise of Iron Review! If you missed Part 1, here it is. http://amazingspidertank.blogspot.com/2016/09/destiny-rise-of-iron-review-part-1.html

Rise of Iron introduced to us a whole slew of new things. We got a new record book, new ornaments, new types of artifacts, and of course new weapons and armor. We also got a new strike and 2 of our old strikes got minor facelifts. And lastly, I want to touch upon our new enemy. So let's dig in:

Yummm...grinding....

We got a new record book, similar to the SRL and Moments of Triumph record books of the past. These have been great ideas. It keeps players working towards something, and it's exciting when you get to a new level. The best part of this record book has to be the awesome armor that comes with it (see below). While the armor won't be catapulting you into high light levels, it sure does look awesome. The look of this can also be changed using the new Ornament system that Destiny offers.

Ornaments are things that can be added on certain weapons and armor in order to change their appearance. Random chance boxes can be bought with real money, but they can be earned in game. They can be gotten in a nightfall or raid, or from treasure chests that can be won weekly. These are a great idea. It's a chance for players to customize their look so we can all be precious little snowflakes. For instance, each of the Rise of Iron record book armor can have an ornament added to it to turn it into a sweet iron furnace-looking armor:

Is this Destiny or some weird Dark Souls DLC?

For you wannabe Lord Saurons out there

We also have new artifacts. Artifacts in Destiny have just been little modifiers that change your attributes. They haven't been anything too special. But in RoI, they have changed them up in a pretty significant way! You can earn these ornaments from weekly quests. Based off of 8 Iron Lords, each new artifact grants its user some kind of special ability. For example, one of the artifacts available this first week is the Memory of Jolder, which gives the player unlimited sprint! Another is the Memory of Timur, which allows you to convert enemies to your side for a limited amount of time! One of the ones I am most interested is the Memory of Radeghast:

No, not that one

The Memory of Radeghast allows you to use your heavy sword to reflect projectiles, rockets, even some supers! My mind races with the possibility of reflecting raid boss shots back at them, and the hilarity of watching a Hunter get killed by his own Golden Gun.

A face only a mother could love. Now THAT'S blind love!

We also got a new strike called the Wretched Eye. In this one we get to go fight Frankenstein and his monster. Well...run from his monster anyway. This strike feels different from previous ones. There is a lot of vertical movement in this strike as you go down into the depths of what looks like old missile silos, searching for your prey. All the while you are harassed by enemies. You are trying to find a Devil Splicer High Priest, who apparently likes to capture Hive Ogres, remove their eyes, and use their pew-pew-ness to power his own weapons. The final area is by far the best part as you need to dispose of the bullet spongey boss, all the while avoiding the Reagan-smashing blind Ogre that's stomping about with hands that look like they are made of WWII submarine mines. It's great, thrilling fun, all the better when done on Heroic Mode or during the Nightfall.

We also got 2 older strikes that were revisited: Sepiks Perfected and Abomination Heist Siva Phogoth. Sepiks Perfected has us revisiting our very first strike and rekilling our very first strike boss. The strike plays out mainly the same, although the enemies are slightly different, and the path is slightly different. At the end we fight the aforementioned boss, only this time he has an invulnerable shield that we have to take out by first killing a captain with the matching shield color boom gun. Once the shields are down (thanks Admiral Ackbar!), we can lay waste to the boss. My thoughts are those mechanics will be coming back in the raid.

However, Bungie got smart and removed all our old cheesing spots by putting respawning turrets everywhere, so we have to stay outdoors. Probably my favorite part of this strike is the awesome guitar music in the background. It definitely comes as a surprise, but it's a welcome one, and I wished more of Destiny had such epic music.

Abomination Heist has us revisiting Phogoth. Honestly I can't recall too much of a difference other than enemies. There is one part where you have to traverse some tomb ships that served as a pleasant reminder of the King's Fall Raid, but other than that the strike is pretty lackluster.

We also can get loot in a different way in the strikes. Now there are things called skeleton keys, which can be used on the treasure chest located at the end of every strike. Opening these things gives access to rewards at the top light level, and rewards can be specific to the strike. So if you really want that Darkblade Helm, just save your skeleton key for the Darkblade strike. However, good luck finding skeleton keys. I am finding those things harder to get than a Vex Mythoclast.

Lastly, I wanted to talk about the new enemy: Siva

I'm sure there's a cream for that...

***Story Spoiler Warning!!!*** Siva used to be a nanotechnology used in the Golden Age to help the human colonization of the galaxy. At some point it went rogue and became more of a virus. The Iron Lords attempted to destroy it but only managed to contain it in the Plaguelands, losing most of their members in the process. It is this weird red looking Twizzler mess that has infected everything.

Exactly like this

The Fallen, who are always up for pirating and using whatever they need to in order to win (Like Vex stuff in the House of Wolves), have brought it upon themselves to take it to the next level of evolution.

The new Splicer Fallen enemies are "enhanced", says the game. Honestly they are just reskinned, but they do behave slightly different just like the Taken did. They all have a red/black coloring about them and usually shoot red lasers, unlike their blue-brethren. The basic soldiers have peg legs for some reason.

Peg legs are great for snow traversing

The snipers shoot multiple bursts instead of one beam, and another thing Siva does apparently is burst out of your head when your head gets shot, to go and find who did and kill them in a red mist.

I feel about the same way I felt about the Taken, although the Taken did at least arrive in a unique way. Fallen Splicers are basically just reskinned Fallen troops that borrow some abilities.

In my next article I will hopefully get to talk about the new raid, and compare it with the previous ones. I hope you enjoyed this, happy gaming!

Destiny: Rise of Iron review Part 1

*shields not included*

Well it's been a while. Who knew having 2 kids under the age of 3 would be time consuming? Anyway I am back now and I'd like to continue to talk about the various video games I am enjoying. Today I want to talk about Rise of Iron. This will be a 2-part article as I have a lot to cover. So sit back, and enjoy the wall of text ;).

I wanted to first briefly comment on the recent DLCs:

Shouldn't we be facing the other way?

The Taken King DLC: I did not do a writeup of that DLC for a variety of personal reasons, but it was not because I disliked the DLC. I greatly enjoyed the DLC and the raid will probably go down as my favorite in the series. I really enjoyed what it brought to the table, especially in regards to infusion. The theme, story, grimoire, combat, music, weapons, were all top notch and I still use a lot of what was there, not to mention the 3 new classes! Since it is so old I won't bother going further into it, although I'm sure I'll reference it from time to time.

He seems friendly...

House of Wolves DLC: I also really enjoyed this one. Prison of Elders is one of my favorite activities that Destiny has to offer. It gives me the fun boss fights with slight mechanics, but without the time investment. I really liked the story and a lot of weapons looked really cool, even if they weren't terribly useful. I definitely wished there was more to do, and would have loved a raid, but what can you do?




Alrighty then, now going back to more recent affairs. Destiny's newest DLC Rise of Iron, released this past Tuesday. I have spent many hours playing the new content. I have not tried the raid yet but I plan on doing so this weekend.

*Wolf pets not included*

I started my journey as a lowly 334 Warlock. I actually did not attain the top light lvl from the previous expansion, mainly because I didn't see a need to, especially knowing this expansion was going to greatly increase it. After the first mission I was already at 336 so I was not worried. I breezed through the very short campaign. I was very intrigued by the story but it really never went anywhere. I love the Iron Lords and Siva seemed like an interesting enemy, but I felt we never really got a chance to get to know either. The campaign was over and I guess we pushed Siva back for the time being. We learned a little of what happened to the Iron Lords but I'm definitely sitting here waiting for more. Perhaps the raid will further fill the gap.

I do appreciate the number of other little missions that have popped up since. I hope there are a bunch more. The mission to get the new Gjallarhorn was very fun, so many enemies! The mission to get an upgraded version of the very first gun we all ever got, the Khvostov, was also fun. The gun is very interesting because of the the variety of ways it can be used (single shot, burst, or auto), but I doubt it will be used much.

Hmmmm....lava

I have enjoyed patrolling the new area called the Plaguelands, although I have gotten the feeling I have figured everything out. I hope that's not the case. In TTK I felt so overwhelmed by all the stuff to discover in Oryx's ship. It was awesome. This one has a couple of little laser grids I need splicer keys for, but they are easy to get and don't really hold anything interesting in them. Luckily, there is plenty of grimoire to discover with the various ghosts and the new Dormant Siva clusters (think Calcified Fragments from TTK). The Plaguelands don't feel nearly as busy as Oryx's ship though. It is only the first week though, so maybe it will populate. This leads me to Archon's Forge.

Archon's Forge is supposed to be RoI's (Rise of Iron) version of the Court of Oryx/Prison of Elders. The concept is great, but the execution feels lacking. Right now the only way of participating in the Archon's Forge is to happen to be there when other people are starting it which for me hasn't happened yet (you also literally have to be there before they start or you're locked out), or you have to have your very own Siva offering. I completed a green (uncommon) run by myself easily enough, and I did a blue (rare) one with some friends. We tried a purple (legendary) but we couldn't finish it, even with a full fireteam. Hopefully once we become a high enough light lvl we should be fine.

Siva offerings have been extremely hard to find. And the worst thing is that you can only carry one at a time, and your vault can only hold one at a time! It's very annoying. I have 2 legendary Siva offerings right now but I don't want to get rid of them because they should drop the best stuff, but it's very hard to find people to do them and until I do, I cannot get any more. I have yet to finish the bounty for winning a specific Archon Forge enemy, and the experience has left me a little salty. There are also no fun little raid-like mechanics like in CoO or in PoE, just enemies to kill. It's rather bland. I understand the reason why Bungie can't have people running the event tons of times is because it's a place where you can get end game light lvl rewards.

This is one thing I am both happy and sad with this DLC. I like that there are multiple avenues to getting to the maximum light lvl. In the base game, the ONLY way to get the max level was to beat the raid on the hardest difficulty. Then later we got the Iron Banner, which allowed PVPers the chance to get the hardest stuff, and then Trials of Osiris, which gave the elitist of the elite PVPers some exclusive gear. And over the next couple stuff we've gotten different ways of getting stuff at the max lvl. But this DLC we can get it everywhere. I can get it from the raid, from Archon's Forge, from Iron Banner, from Nightfalls, from Crucible from random drops. Now don't get me wrong, it's not like I am the top level right now. I still have a ways to go. I have been impressed with my slow but steady race to the higher levels. Never have I felt stagnant in my climb. Every Heroic Strike or Nightfall has given me something that has increased my light. It does feel like I've cheated though. It could just be a personal thing, but being at a high light lvl doesn't really feel special anymore. Maybe the bragging rights come from the specific armor you unlock or something, but I know it was a better feeling being at the top lvl when Vault of Glass came out, or when Trials of Osiris dropped and you got some of that gear.

Complete with bonfire!  Rekindle!

We also got a new social space, Felwinter's Peak. It's this wonderful Iron Lord's temple on top of a giant mountain. It's pretty awesome. The view from on top is amazing, and you can see all Earth has to offer it seems. I love the wolves that are scattered about, and the NPCs are all very entertaining. I wish it was bigger, but then again I probably wouldn't use most of it if it was.

I'm sure I'll nail the landing...

You can attempt to climb the mountain in order to get a Siva cluster, as well as bragging rights. It has been the most frustrating thing I've done so far, lol. I made it finally, but it took me more deaths than a Nightfall, and I quit due to frustration multiple times.

All in all I am enjoying my experience with Rise of Iron. We shall see how long the DLC can keep me entertained because I am getting the feeling I've seen everything, but hopefully I'm wrong.

Well I think that's enough for the time being. Stay tuned for the next part where I talk about the new ornaments, the new artifacts, some of the new weapons and armor, the new strike and updated ones, the new enemies, and maybe even the raid! Thanks for reading and happy gaming!

Destiny Dark Below Review and Thoughts

So we got the Dark Below "expansion" for Destiny earlier this month. I wanted to give the expansion a little time before I reviewed it and posted my thoughts. I'm glad I did, because I have changed my opinion about it a couple of times.

When it first came out we were given 3 story missions, although we could only repeat 2 of them so I didn't think that should count. We got a new raid and a new strike (although PS users got an additional strike).

Those lucky PS bastards

 I enjoyed playing the new stuff although I was again saddened at the complete lack of story again. This game has no story at all. Maybe they don't want it to and just want it to be about the mechanics. The mechanics are at least very well done so it has that. It's just sad that a Bungie game has no story when they've had a good history of the opposite.

All the new content can be done extremely quickly and the only reason it takes a few hours is because you have to go back to the Tower to turn stuff in after every new bounty and mission. That gets a little tiring. Also, the new Eris bounties you get aren't really new, it's still just "go there, kill that". But oh well, I'm not sure what else I should have expected.

I want some vehicle missions, or a timed thing where you have to race on your sparrow to get away. Let's see some variety!

But anyway, going back to Eris. She's a new Tower vendor with her own list of items and bounties and her own reputation to gain. Unfortunately, Bungie thought it would be smart to give one of her small amount of daily bounties to specific classes. So every day you get to sit and watch you not gain more rep simply because you are not a certain class. That's dumb. We should have gotten a class specific bounty, but that everyone would get one specific to their class. Oh well, not a huge deal. I am finding that it's gonna take a while to get your rep to lvl 4. I haven't done the math but I wonder if it's actually possible to do before they release the hard raid at the end of the month? In the meantime you can enjoy some new shaders and class items which do look pretty cool.

I think there's a cream for that...

 The new strike is fine. I enjoy strikes and this is more of the same. The last boss, Omnigul, is a bullet sponge like all the others and you are forced to stay in the back room and poke out to shoot like you are for almost all the other strike bosses. There are tons of Hive though and it's fun to mow down tons of enemies while dodging wizard blasts. We also got a new strike playlist although the rewards still suck.

Nothing but hot babes in this expansion...

 Onto the new raid though: Crota's End. I really enjoyed the new raid. I was able to attempt it on day 1 and although I didn't officially beat it until the next week, it was still a lot of fun. I really love the first part of the raid and I think it may be my favorite part of the entire game so far. It's intense and glitch free as far as I can tell. I love sticking together as a group and slogging it out trying to get to the end, all the while getting hounded by enemies and being in the complete dark. You have to choose to stop and try to revive a fallen compatriot, and the joy of reaching a beacon and looking back to see a friend being swarmed and almost taken down, only to be saved by a mass of gunfire from you and your friends is something rarely achieved in gaming these days. And then at the end where you are standing on a glyph plate trying to materialize a bridge and your teammates start going down, and then when the bridge is formed you just rush into the light, all the while being chases by hundreds of enemies. It's great fun.

This never happen. Just run.

 The next part is also pretty fun although now that there is a way you can cheese past it, there's really no point to slugging through to try and beat it legitimately. It's a shame, but when you have a game that simply requires you to do the same thing over and over again for an end goal, you don't care how you do it, just as long as you reach the goal, and you can rationalize using a cheese method in a variety of ways. But then again I think this argument stands in that since there are no directions on how to beat the various parts of the game, anything goes. But anyway, beating this part the way it seems the designers would want it beat is fun and thrilling with everyone standing on summoning plates and then killing sword bearers and rushing over the bridge to kill gatekeepers and the coordination needed is very satisfying when you finally beat it.

You then have a little fun part charging down a hallway destroying some Shriekers on your way to try and jump into a doorway for a nice chest reward.

Then you get to kill Ir Yut, which is the hardest part of the raid IMO and actually the only one that can't be cheesed. Although don't feel bad for Bungie because you also don't get any loot for beating it which I believe is a mistake. In general you have to lure out a wizard on both sides, then kill shriekers on both sides, then finally kill Ir Yut before she finishes her litany of death. It's still pretty fun and with all the enemies being a higher lvl than you it's quite difficult.

If you manage to get this far you get to try and beat Crota. He's a giant knight with a death sword as well as the ability to shoot you somehow. You have no healing in this part and must rely on passing a chalice around (think relic) in order to heal. You also have to kill a sword bearer, grab the sword, and as everyone else drops Crota's shield he will fall to his knees and the sword bearing guardian will go in and hit him to bring down his health. Rinse and repeat several times and you will be rewarded with Crota's End.

Hit him! Hit him!

 There are a number of decent drops in this raid including some fun weapons and cool looking armor that is the only way to get to lvl 32. Also new to this raid are the radiant materials needed to upgrade this raid's armor. You can only get the materials in the raid so it's going to be a while before I will reach 32. Luckily they retooled the drop system to take into account your previous winnings and try to get you something new. I've done the raid 6 times I think by now, and when I've gotten an item of some sort and not just materials, I've gotten something different every time except twice. So I think that's cool. I have gotten everything I need in order to get to 32, I just need the materials now, so back to the grind.

My new goal-weapon

 Alongside the new raid has come the new, and controversial, method of upgrading your old exotics into the new damage ceiling. This has you going back to Xur once a week to see what item he offers an upgrade, then having you fork out 7k glimmer and an exotic shard (which can be bought from Xur for 7 Strange Coins or received from dismantling an exotic item). Then you turn in your old exotic for a shiny new one with its base damage starting out at 300, and then you have to fully upgrade all the perks again to get it to the new damage ceiling of 330 or so, ending with another exotic shard for the last damage upgrade. People shouldn't be surprised at this type of method. It's clearly a way to increase the grind so they can brag about players playing their game, and is an unfortunate part of MMO like games. Most games have some type of system like this, and we all know that 99% of Destiny is a grind so we shouldn't be surprised. It's a shame that Bungie's changes and "expansions" usually are in the form of forcing you to grind some more but that seems to be the pattern. If you don't like it, stop playing.

They haven't released the hard version of the raid yet. This is probably a good thing although I think it's only done for their benefit, not the players'. I believe the reason they did this is twofold: They don't want to be shown up again and see that their hardest content can be beaten in less than a day, which it surely would have been. And they wanted some time to see how people beat it and find cheesy ways of beating it so they can patch it all so to make it extremely hard to beat it when it finally comes out. They also haven't released the raid legendary primary weapons, which will only drop in the hard raid. Oh well. I am still looking forward to trying to get the new stuff as I'm sure they are awesome, but it will be frustratingly difficult I'm sure. If Bungie spent half as much time just improving their game rather than trying to make sure players have a hard time beating it or preventing exploits, Destiny could have been something amazing. It's all part of the business of gaming these days. I also don't really like the new precedent of their definition of a hard difficulty is just to make the enemies be a level higher than you can possibly get. The hard raid I believe will end with lvl 33 enemies, and we can only get to 32. That's not really a good way of making something hard, it's a cop out. Make it hard through gameplay, not simply giving everyone a 20% decrease in damage.

Overall I think the expansion is still worth the money. I will definitely spend enough time playing the new stuff to warrant the cost, even though I have a sneaking suspicion it's more due to the addicting nature of the game rather than actual enjoyment, but I am still having fun playing with friends and meeting new people from all over the world. I really hope Bungie will listen to fans and try to make this game better in good ways and if not with this game, then for Destiny 2, but until then I will slog on towards my quest of getting and doing everything. As of this writing Bungie did make it so we can replay the 1st expansion mission which was previously unavailable, so that's good. It was probably an error but I'm glad they fixed it. Until next time, happy gaming!

Destiny Patch 1.1 Thoughts

We received a patch for Destiny that went live yesterday. Here are the patch notes and my thoughts are at the bottom:

__________________________________________________________________________________

1.1 : The one about Exotics. And the Raid!

Today's patch includes the long-awaited arrival of Exotics weapon buffs, additional acquisition paths for destination upgrade materials, along with additional changes to exotic gear node upgrading in preparation for the soon-to-be-released expansion, The Dark Below. We're also correcting issues induced by our more recent update to the Raid.

Weapons

Exotics

Exotic Weapons are designed to look, feel, and sound overpowered. At the same time, they are not supposed to break the balance of the game. We hope these weapons challenge the way players think about their loadouts. Exotics will be a constant work in-progress!

General

• In preparation for the Dark Below, Exotic Armor and Weapons no longer require Ascendant Materials to upgrade
• The final upgrade node of all Exotic Gear will require an Exotic Shard
• Exotic Shards can be obtained by one of the following means:
• Dismantling unwanted Exotics
• Purchased from Xur for 7 Strange Coins
• Exotics now start at a higher base Attack value and have a narrowed upgrade range to compensate

Thorn

• Projectiles now briefly highlight targets on impact
• Mark of the Devourer DoT (damage-over-time) upgrade increased against PvE enemy targets
• Reload Speed increased
• Magazine Size increased
• Ammo inventory size increased
• Stability and Weapon Handling increased

Bad Juju

• Magazine Size increased to 8 bursts (was 5)
• Ammo inventory size increased
• String of Curses now also decreases the cooldown of your Super on kill
• Adjusted effects to not block first person reticle

Hard Light

• Stability increased
• Perfect Balance upgrade replaced by Fitted Stock (increases maximum possible weapon Stability)

Suros Regime

• Lowered total damage at the end of the mag on SUROS Regime upgrade to be more in line with the Glass Half Full perk on Legendary Auto Rifles

Monte Carlo

• Stability increased
• Range slightly decreased
• Monte Carlo Method upgrade now also has a chance to fully charge melee ability on kill

MIDA Multi-Tool

• MIDA rounds now have increased knockback against targets in both PvE and PvP

Hawkmoon

• Send It upgrade (which was redundant) replaced by Speed Reload

Red Death

• Rate of Fire increased slightly, but Burst Damage reduced to compensate

Plan C

• Weapon Handling speed increased
• Player Speed increased while Plan C is in hand

Pocket Infinity

• Speed Reload upgrade replaced by Extended Clip which allows the option to increase magazine size (5 bursts)

Vex Mythoclast

• Attack Power increased to 323 (from 300)
• Base Damage increased, fixing bug we introduced in previous patch
• Enhanced Battery upgrade by Extended Mag (this change still allows for a significant upgrade to Magazine Size, but less than before)

Invective

• Reload Speed increased significantly, auto fires slightly slower

Ice Breaker

• Send It upgrade replaced by Lightweight (which was redundant as Icebreaker already had maximum range) 
• New effects for enemies killed by Ice Breaker upgrade

Patience and Time

• Snapshot upgrade replaced by Custom Optics (provides a lower zoom option)

Super Good Advice

• Stability increased

Truth

• Magazine Size increased to 3 (was 1)
  

Activities

Raid

• Fixed an issue we introduced in a previous patch, in which Atheon did not correctly send 3 players through the time gates
• Fixed an exploit where the Templar could be forced off its platform

Daily Heroic Story

• Destination Materials now drop from completing the Daily Heroic

Bounties

• Removed the ‘Relic Hunter’ Bounty 
• Destination Materials now drop from completing the Daily Patrol Bounty 

 

Vendors

• Reduced Cryptarch reputation gain from Engrams, but reputation reward packages now have an increased chance for Legendary Engrams
• Players will now be able to use Vanguard Marks and Crucible Marks to purchase Spinmetal, Relic Iron, Spirit Bloom, and Helium Filaments from the Vanguard and Crucible Quartermasters in the Tower
• Xur now sells a new material, Exotic Shards, to upgrade the final node of Exotics for 7 Strange Coins
• Faction Class Items (ex: FWC Cloak, Dead Orbit Mark, etc.) are now replaced by Faction Emblems in the rank-up reward packages from Faction Vendors

Technical

• Networking fixes, which should reduce the instance of the Bee family of KTOs
• Fixed an issue in which using Xbox One party chat induced a slower frame rate

 _________________________________________________________________________________

Okay, so a lot of stuff there. Let's start at the top with the decision to remove the need for legendary ascendant materials to upgrade exotic weapons. It makes logical sense since the materials say legendary, but it's rather silly to have to get them via Xur. Yes, you can get them dismantling exotics, but let's face it, you pretty much only get exotics from Xur anyway. Sometimes you get them from the nightfall or raid but it's fairly uncommon. Now if you have everything fully upgraded you may need to wait until Friday in order to get the exotic shard you need. Hopefully it won't be too annoying. It would probably be smart to stock up on a few each week just in case. They only cost 7 strange coins so that's nice. I personally think a permanent vendor should sell them but whatever.

Now the various buffs to the exotics you can see for yourself but a couple of points are that the Thorn is finally decent! You practically couldn't use it in light of a number of other hand cannons that were flat out better in every way. But now the Thorn is a beast and I love it.It's such a cool looking gun and I'm glad to be motivated to use it. Now I just need to get an exotic shard ;).

They buffed the Bad Juju but I still don't think it's very good, which is a shame because I think it might be the coolest looking gun after the Mythoclast. The damage and impact are just too low, especially when compared to a number of other guns.

The Suros actually got a nerf, which may have been needed, but I hardly used it outside of crucible anyway. Now I definitely won't.

They actually buffed the Plan C which I am surprised, as that is pretty much universally considered to be the best fusion rifle. If you had it, you used it in crucible. Making it better is rather silly, but whatever.

They boosted the Mythoclast which was necessary. I wish they boosted it more as I am finding it hard to not use the Vision of Confluence and Ice Breaker combo, which in my opinion is the best in the game. It is nice to have a gun that does over 300 damage though, plus it looks amazing.

The Truth upgrade is a little silly since it actually has a magazine size of 2, not 1. So they just increased it by 1. That gun is not going to get used as long as the Gjallarhorn is around.

Now onto the raid fix. They fixed the teleportation glitch. Finally. You can't be too happy about stuff like that because it shouldn't have happened in the first place, but at least they did their job. I must ask why they didn't fix all the other crippling issues that the raid has though? Random minions regenerating health, the relic shield turning off or not working, the glitch where you don't get to go through the gate unless you slowly walk and take turns with people, Oracles not getting killed even though they should have, etc. Baby steps I suppose. They fixed the Templar glitch where you could push him off. That was probably necessary as it was kind of cheap. Now it will just make the raid a little more annoying. I wish they had fixed the crippling issues before fixing something that made the raid easier but it shows where Bungie's priorities are.

The daily Heroic story missions now also drop Destination Materials. And for those of you, like me, who had no clue what they were talking about: Destination Materials are the crafting materials like Spirit Bloom and Relic iron. That's a nice plus. And speaking of the crafting materials, they finally made it so you can purchase them at the Tower! That's awesome and was greatly needed. You can buy them with crucible or vanguard marks at a 2:1 ratio.

All in all it was a good patch, fixing several issues. There are still a lot of things that need to be fixed but I'm still glad for this. It does show that Bungie cares about their game. Now we just need some more content. Hopefully the DLC gives us that.

Destiny Iron Banner 2.0 Tips, Tricks, Strategy, and FAQ

So Destiny's Iron Banner is live this week, and apparently only for one week. That's a lot of gaming that needs to get done if someone wants to reach rank 5 and get those new guns and beautiful shader! Here is a ton of information I've compiled through digging forums and playing enough matches to be rank 4 (so far).  The tips and tricks are at the bottom so read everything!

The mode is control. This means you capture the various points on the map, and for each kill, you get some points and the most points wins. The trick is that for EACH point you control when you get a kill, you get a bonus 50 points.

Each win in IB gives you 50 reputation

Each loss gives you a medallion, and you can hold up to 5 medallions. When you finally win a match, your medallions get redeemed at around 30-40 rep a piece.

The IB emblem, class item, and shader provide a 10% rep buff each, so make sure they are all equipped! It does not seem to matter which shader and emblem you have, they all give the same boost.

You can buy the Tempered consumable buff every 12 hours from Lord Saladin. It's the little coin looking icon at the bottom of his store. It costs 1 mote of light and lasts for 12 hours. When consumed it gives you increased rep gains. The rep gains are also greater the later in the week it is although it is not known exactly how much it changes from day to day.

You can get exclusive IB weapons and a ship as a drop after you reach rank 3

IB weapons can be reforged at 2 motes of light a piece. This resets your progression on the gun and changes the abilities and element of the gun permanently. You can do this multiple times as long as you have the motes

Here are the costs (in rep), for leveling in IB:
Lvl 0-1 costs 100 rep
Lvl 1-2 costs 1200 rep
Each level after costs 2400 rep

Here is Saladin's store:

Rank 1

• Unlock Iron Banner Emblem (Sigil of the Iron Lords) - 2400 Glimmer

 Rank 2

• Unlock Iron Banner Shader (Million Million Shader) - 7500 Glimmer

 Rank 3

• Unlock Iron Banner Armor Item (Greaves/Boots) - 9950 Glimmer
• Unlock Iron Banner Embelm (Scar of Radegast) - 2400 Glimmer

Rank 4

• Unlock Iron Banner Armor Items (Gauntlets/Sleeves/Gloves) - 9950 Glimmer
• Unlock Iron Banner Class Item - 4500 Glimmer
• Unlock Iron Banner Weapon Item (Perun's Fire - Solar Fusion Rifle) - 11500 Glimmer

 Rank 5

• Unlock Iron Banner Weapon Item (Gheleon's Demise - Scout Rifle) - 11500 Glimmer
• Unlock Iron Banner Shader Item (Goldspiral) - 7500 Glimmer

Here is Perun's Fire:

Here is Gheleon's Demise:

Iron Banner Tips, Tricks, and Strategies

Before the game take note of the map you are playing on and change your gear/upgrades to match. Are you playing on a mainly indoor map, maybe shotguns are the way to go. Is it open, maybe snipers. You get the idea.

In the beginning of a match only 1-2 people need to claim the objective closest to you. Everyone else should be running for B since it is B that the game revolves around.

Only capture 2/3 zones. Zone B is the most important on every map. The team that controls B will most likely win. If you can get B and another zone you will earn double the amount of pts for each kill than the other team. DON'T capture a 3rd zone though, as that will randomize where the other team will spawn and there will be a higher chance of them getting multiple zones off you.

When it comes to heavy weapon ammo:
- Get it! It's very important and easy to get kills with them
- If you can, wait until a teammate or two come before you open the ammo box, as it will give the ammo to everyone there. If your whole team is using the heavy ammo, you will crush
- If you kill an opponent and that opponent dropped heavy weapon ammo and you already have heavy ammo DON'T pick it up. Use the ammo you already have. If you die, you can respawn and find the heavy ammo still on the ground, and now you can use your heavy weapon again!
- You can also use the spawn point of the heavy ammo near your opponent's side as a fish-in-a-barrel situation. Everyone blindly goes running for the heavy ammo and it makes for easy pickens

If you only have 1 zone you really need to capture a 2nd, but don't go crazy and throw yourself into the meat grinder that your opponents have created in the path to the 2nd zone. If they have B, go get their A or C, and then after you get it mount an attack on B as they try to go get it back. Let your opponent get A or C, it's B that matters.

Although people on the forums will complain that Bungie should nerf this and that, I will really say all the weapons are great if used correctly. All the classes are great if used correctly. I have been killed by every class and I fear all of their supers(except for maybe Sunsinger).

I will say, however, that if someone is using an assault rifle, they are most likely using the Suros Regime. Every match it seems over half the people are using it. It's a great weapon and it works. It's not invincible though. You can beat it with any other weapon. Don't freak out and rage quit or start demanding Bungie to nerf, just work on your aim with your favorite weapon.

Aim for head shots! Although they say that weapons and gear matter in IB, the biggest deal is who is accurate with head shots. Head shots drop an opponent more than anything else, so go for that noggin.

Spread yourselves out a little bit when capturing a zone. Not only do you want some space for strafing in case you are shooting at an opponent, but you don't want everyone to be wiped out by a rocket or a super. If you are more spread out there is a better chance one of you may survive. Heck, I might even go so far as to recommend you staying away from the capture zone, and just watch for opponent's using their supers. If there are multiple teammates trying to capture a zone just stay a little back, and wait. I have gotten many kills and captured zones by waiting and letting someone use their super, only to have my come in and kill them and then finish capturing the zone.

Be a team player. You need to capture 2 zones and then get kills. Obviously your k/d ratio is important, but if you only have 1 zone you are getting half the pts your opponent is. Don't just sulk or camp, actually go out and help your team. Also, if your teammate is taking fire, jump in and help, don't go hide or run away. If you help you may take some fire off of them and then you can team up and kill your opponent. I've seen this dozens of times. 2 people running around get a lot more kills than just 1. Work with each other and help each other.

Lastly, have fun. this is just a game. Enjoy playing with people and take it as a challenge when your team is down. I have played several games where my team has come back from a several thousand point deficit. It can be done, trust me. And nothing feels better than doing it.

That's all I got. Quite the list and congratulations if you've made it this far. Happy gaming!

Iron Banner 2.0 and Level 30

Boom, I'm level 30 (as my Warlock)! And I reached it actually without needing the Iron Banner gear. In a last ditch effort to get the remaining gear I needed (either the gauntlets or the helmet), I desperately tried to get a group together to do the hard raid. We started at Oracles and went all the way through Atheon. Despite 4 people being lvl 30 we had an annoyingly difficult time defeating Atheon, but in the end I was finally rewarded with 2 copies of the raid helmet, lol. Oh well, I'll take it. There are still a lot of things I would like from the raid, but I was finally able to reach lvl 30! I quickly did random bounties and anything I could to immediately become lvl 30. Now I can play Iron Banner without freaking out.

Now onto the Iron Banner 2.0 discussion: There have been a couple of changes, and they are all for the better, although I still don't think it's where it needs to be. Although I'm lvl 30, I'm still not seeing that much of a difference in the levels. If I, as a 30, am going up against a 26 or 27, they shouldn't be able to do a thing to me. Bungie probably didn't want to penalize lower lvl players as much but I thought the point was that your armor and weapons mattered? It doesn't seem to.

I have been pretty decent in Iron Banner, finishing in the top 3 almost every time. Although I will gladly finish last on my team if we get a win. That's my primary issue with IB. Although it is better than last time with you getting a loser token for every loss (up to 5), but it's still not great. Bungie managed to fit in even more RNG into the game in that it doesn't really matter how well or poorly you do, if your team is good, you will win. That's a good and bad thing. Good in that it stresses you need to play as a team, but bad in that you are punished for simply being a part of a bad team. If I do amazing, I should be rewarded. But in IB I could be thrown in with campers and other horrible IB control players that don't play correctly and we lose, and I get nothing until I happen to win by being placed on a good team. I personally think you should get limited reputation for being in a losing match, and a lot more for winning. I also think you should get a bonus if you are number one on your team. That would motivate people to do more. I've seen too many games where people will sit there idly when they start losing because they know they will get something at the end no matter what. And I get tired of working my butt off only to get the exact same thing as someone who either did nothing, or just joined and did nothing, then to top it all off the last place person frequently gets rewards. It sucks.

Lame

I still would say I'm enjoying IB though. Control is my favorite mode to play in multiplayer, even though I still don't like multiplayer as much as anything else in Destiny. I really like the rewards for this one. You can boots and gauntlets that can help you get to 30! Although I don't need them for my character I'm glad they are giving people a chance to "earn" that last remaining gear they need. That will be a big help for the next expansion. I also like how they aren't as good as the raid gear in that they don't have all the other nice perks. They just add to your light level. That seems fair. I also like how you can buy some special IB guns and I hear there are a couple that can dropped while playing that are exclusive to IB once you reach rank 3 and above. The thing I'm working hardest to get now is rank 5 so I can get the gold shader.

Reaching what will end up being rank 5 is a ridiculous process though. I have been fortunate enough to have a lot of time on my hand lately (usually late at night), to play, but I can't imagine someone who is even a little bit busy getting close to rank 5. Now Bungie has given us a consumable that costs 1 mote of light each that can be bought every day, and every day the event goes on the buff gives you more reputation for the IB. I don't know how many hours I've poured into IB this week but it's considerable. Easily over 10 hours, and I'm only lvl 3, almost lvl 4. I'm hoping I can do it but I actually won't be able to play for the next couple of days so that will be hard. I might have to depend on a late night Monday streak. Also, I need to play some single player to get some glimmer as I have run out purchasing various upgrades.

So if you have the time get in to IB and give it a try. It is much better than last time and hopefully it will be even better next time. Get your gear to get to lvl 30 asap because it's awesome!

You know you play too much Destiny when...

...you are driving and you keep looking for little green lights on a loot chest

...an item that's green angers you, but you inexplicably become happy when you see purple or gold

...someone shows you something new and you think: "they didn't earn that, they got lucky off RNG!"

...your week officially starts on Tuesday

...you look for craftable items in the real world

...you see a ton of people walking out of a store and think "maybe it's the new loot cave?"

...you try to shoot the Sun down before you get marked

...you mistake the Moon for the Traveller

...the lights dim and you get excited for an incoming Public Event

...you see a green traffic light and try to think of a way to get up there to accept a patrol mission

...your hours played in Destiny is tracked by the week instead

Destiny level 29 and the daily grind

Well Destiny has been out for a while and I'm still level 29....with two characters. I think a lot of people are in the same boat as I. I've gotten to the point where my destiny is now in the hands of the almighty RNG. I need a chest or head piece raid gear in order to get to 30, and the only way I can get that is dropped in the raid, and it's completely random. I would also love to get the Mythoclast but that can only be gotten for beating the final boss on hard mode. I've beaten the raid tons of times by now but just haven't had the luck. I've received the same sniper rifle 4 times in a row, and the Chatterwhite armor shader 3 times in a row, along with countless ascendant shards and energy.

This is almost identical to my Hunter. So much for looking unique...

 The RNG system is something that has bothered me a while when it comes to Destiny. Now I understand the need for it and am fine with it existing. But I have a problem when Bungie claims that they didn't put trading in the game because they wanted each item in your arsenal to tell an epic story. I don't want trading in the game but the various items that you get are hardly gotten in an epic way. It's completely random.

"AAARGHRHGHGH!!!!" -Every gamer ever

 I've gotten an exotic sniper rifle from a random grunt while on patrol. I've gotten lots of legendary items from leveling up the Cryptarch and other minor things like that. When RNG is involved, it isn't skill or an epic story, it's just dumb luck. I played with someone in the raid when it was his first time and he got 2 different raid armors. It has taken me countless times going through the raid to get 2 items. I've played the hard raid and people have gotten their 5th Mythoclast, and they are angry because that's all they get, meanwhile I'm stuck with another Chatterwhite. It's hard to feel any sense of accomplishment when everything you get is just dumb luck. The only thing that would feel like an accomplishment is your faction rank, as that actually can only be required by playing the game and isn't up to luck.

I always find it funny when people on the forums start getting angry at Xur when he sells various exotic equipment at the Tower on Fridays.

That Cthulu/Nazgul slut...

 People will claim that they earned their equipment, while others will say that it's welfare for unskilled players. I have gotten plenty of items by "earning" them in game, and I've bought several items from Xur as well. I actually would lean towards saying that people that buy items from Xur are the ones that earned them, honestly. Because of RNG I have randomly gotten exotics from the Nightfall or the Raid. I was lucky to get them, I could have just gotten ascendant materials. Meanwhile, if I bought it from Xur, I had to play long enough to earn all those Strange Coins, which aren't easy to get. But then again the RNG has a lot to say when it comes to how many Strange Coins one gets, but still.

What's strange is thinking about what Xur does with them when he gets them

 There hardly any earning in Destiny, it's all RNG, so stop complaining. I for one am glad that Xur is around because it helps to limit the negative effect of the RNG system. There are plenty of people (like my brother), who have had horrible luck with getting legendaries and exotics. If Xur or the faction venders didn't exist, my brother would be stuck at level 20 with rare gear if he was lucky. Instead, he has been able to play the game, earn the reputation or Strange Coins, and buy some stuff that has helped him level up.

So do whatever rain dance or sacrificial ceremony you think will help you on your way to becoming legendary in Destiny. Appease the RNG god!