Here's What's New In Destiny's First Expansion

Here's What's New in Destiny's First Expansion

The Dark Below, as it's called, will bring new missions, gear and a level cap increase to the game.

Courtesy of Activision, here's the list of what's included in the The Dark Below:

  • Three new competitive multiplayer arenas:
  • Pantheon — set deep within the Black Garden in an ancient Vex temple that features Vex-designed landscapes and tight corridors
  • Skyshock — an old interplanetary defence array that offers both vehicle and infantry engagements
  • The Cauldron — an abandoned Hive ritual site that offers close-quarter combat
  • New six-player Raid, Crota's End, set deep within the depths of the Hellmouth
  • PlayStation platforms will also get access to an exclusive cooperative Strike, TheUndying Mind, and more (timed exclusive until at least Fall 2015)

The expansion will be available separately for $US20, or as part of the Destiny's Expansion Pass, on PS3, PS4, Xbox 360 and Xbox One on December 9. Look below for a couple screenshots of all the new stuff, and check here for Activision's announcement.

Here's What's New in Destiny's First Expansion
Here's What's New in Destiny's First Expansion
Here's What's New in Destiny's First Expansion
Here's What's New in Destiny's First Expansion
Here's What's New in Destiny's First Expansion
Here's What's New in Destiny's First Expansion
Here's What's New in Destiny's First Expansion
Here's What's New in Destiny's First Expansion
Here's What's New in Destiny's First Expansion
Here's What's New in Destiny's First Expansion
Here's What's New in Destiny's First Expansion

Destiny Expansion I: The Dark Below Detailed, Launching December 9 [Activision]



    Also hey, additional bounty slots! That's real damn neat. I like the rocket launcher, too.

      Oh God...

      It's not even a raise of the actual level cap; it's their damn "grind for gear/motes of light" post level cap level cap.

      If I hadn't gotten this "expansion" included with the limited edition there's no way I'd be buying it.
      As it is, I'm still not pleased about it... I may just skip playing it.

        Of course it is, why would you think they would ever raise the base level cap?

        I said the exact same thing on another Destiny article. The exact same thing. I don't know if I can even be bother. Grinding for gear is just so damn freaking crap. Maybe the 3 story missions will have some actual story, unless I need light cap of level 30 which I may never see.........

      Of course it will be, most likely you will be able to get to 31 with non-raid gear and 32 with it. Though with them making 30 obtainable with some Iron Banner gear soon I'm guessing 32 will be obtainable outside of the raid later but not straight away.

    Will it also add fun and story content to the game?

      Can't you see the little foot note?

      * - Fun and Story not included

      Apparently three missions of story. Then that's it until the next one...
      As a fan of compelling narrative, Destiny 1 looks like a write-off in that regard. I wouldn't pin hopes on any patches or either of the announced DLC packs.

      I'm pretty sure they realize that their review scores are almost exclusively down to the incredibly shoddy storytelling (lackluster events of no impact or conveyed significance, no character development or interaction to provide context, meaning, or value), such that the 'become legend' tagline fell squarely on its face.

      It's undoubtedly the point that bumped them from solid 8-9s down to 6-7s.
      They can code, you can assume they can read. They know how they fucked up, people tell them at every available opportunity and it cost them millions of dollars.

      But something pundits don't seem to realize - time and time again - is that AAA game development is an unwieldy beast, righting this ship is going to take more than the 3-6 months for DLC which is not only well into the finishing stages, but likely contractually obligated to consist of certain bullet points - no more, no less. I think the first time we'll start seeing something closer to what the PR guys promised and the original dev team was excited about, is probably going to be Destiny 2.

      So, give it another year or so.

      But I wouldn't say it's not 'fun'. It's just fun for a different demographic. People who like PVP, or who haven't had the parts of their brain that provide 'daily grind quest' enjoyment utterly destroyed by fatigue from the same mechanic used in traditional MMOs. If you were after FPS RPG, this is not your game. It's all G, no RP. There's some 'levelling' but nothing more deep or involved than in Call of Duty. There's a lot of people having a blast, just not the people who thought they would, from the dev blogs and marketing promises.

      Last edited 30/10/14 9:32 am

        I agree with you. Just shits me that I cannot just do the story and ignore the other crap as I need to dedicate hundreds of hours to the "G" grind to get to the "light" level to see the new non-existent story - you know what fuck it.

          I doubt you'll need to grind terribly much. Much like the rest of the game, I fully expect the story stuff will have a lower threshold for gear requirements, and the real pain will start kicking in for the strikes and raid.

          That said, if the ONLY thing you play for is story, you're basically only utilizing around 25% of the content. Which might not make it the best value purchase.

            I got the collectors edition so I get it regardless. Had I had a time machine I would not of bought the game at all for full price or any DLC.
            25% content, yeah but the other 75% seems to offer the first 25% three more times. :)

      There's actually an interesting interview with Bungie's CEO over here at Eurogamer:

      They're saying at least that they're trying a different story approach for the new story missions in this expansion. Whether that will actually play out is debatable, but it does seem like they're acknowledging that the story's not great and honestly there's not many ways they could make it worse so hopefully the only way to go is up.

    So you have to get the DLC to get the 5 additional bounty slots? whats next extra ammo with DLC?

      I had the same reaction when I read that.

        I got a couple exotic bounties going atm so hardly any slots for normal bounties.

    Wow is that it? And they are calling that an expansion? What a joke, I was looking forward to a large chunk of new content not a couple light levels and a raid...... Agh I want to like destiny I really do but this is making it hard.

      I was hoping Saturn would be added like they had in the pre-release vids and maybe Mercury which was also in the vids but Saturn is my fave planet.
      Yeah expansion is a joke, but what is more a joke is people will buy it so this crap will keep happening. Look at Far Cry 4's day one season pass content.

    Sounds neat, I would love to know what the plan is for current exotics, seems dumb to have to shelve them now that the cap goes up.

      Yeah I really hope they raise the attack/light of all exotics. Maybe have special new upgrade materials and/or bounty quests to do so.
      Be pretty lame otherwise.

    Third exotic, loot frequency increase and some more interesting missions would be nice, but I'll get it. Destiny has become a bit of a 3-time-a-week habit while I play other stuff, so I'm happy to take what I can get.

    I would be pretty into this if it weren't for that price tag. I don't usually dwell on that stuff but $20 for a basic content update? I want new Destiny content but they're asking for more money, delivering less content and taking money from Sony in exchange for strong arming me over to PlayStation.

      At least you are not paying more on PlayStation for the dlc. I pity Xbox players.

    Skyshock - VEHICLE and infantry engagements. VEHICLE. Booom, there we go.

    That makes 2 exclusive strikes that PS users are getting. God damn I'm really curious as to how Sony pulled off a convoluted exclusivity deal like this!

      $$$ and it paid off with the amount of consoles sold. Unfortunately they need to deliver on the promise although that's more to do with Bungie and not Sony. As far as Sony's concerned, this deal has probably already paid off. I wouldn't be surprised if the deal would spread to Destiny 2 as well, but I also wouldn't be surprised if Sony put pressure on them to deliver a better quality exclusive that keeps the fans happy more.

      It'll be interesting though if the AC 'exclusive' stuff on the Xbone will have a similar effect or not as well as the Halo collection

      They paid Activision a lot of money, and most likely Microsoft didn't want to match it

    This is way too expensive even if I had the game on PS4. I'll wait...

    Eeeeeeexcellent *rubs hands together*

    Maybe we'll even finish the first raid by the time this appears...

      I had my first complete run through of VOG last night with a bunch of experienced players. Beat it in 1.5 hrs. Wow....what a hoot! Apparently it's even tougher since the patch update. I don't envy the first people who did goodness.

      I hauled Kabr's Wrath (raid chest piece), The Comedian (shotgun), Steel Oracle Z-11 (RL), Vision of Confluence (SWEET auto rifle) and about 12 Ascendant Energy. I went to bed a very happy camper.

      Last edited 30/10/14 11:01 am

        yeah first crew had to put in 10 hours to get through. 10! hours! man, thats some hauling. well done.

          Thanks! An auto rifle that can be upgraded with full-auto!

          I assume you've done it? Still.....

          Battling Atheon, those freaking 'Supplicants' and being randomly teleported, "my vision is going black. Ahh! I can't see!" experience is intense.

        Gonna need to have another go. Can't speak for the others but I had a great time as far as we got (although we did lose an hour of play time to the update/server shenanigans on Tuesday).

        Damn, you got some good loot. I got pretty much nothing. After the update, I found it pretty easy but more glitchy. My nades weren't showing when I threw them during Templar and then I randomly died and no one could revive me. I had to leave and join back. Did a spead test and had a 1.2MB connection.

        Then with Atheon, we had him down to a mm of health and then we all died with the message - You have succumb to the Oracles even though we killed them all. That happened twice.

        A lot of us lost a lot of sound as well and one guy kept getting booted to Orbit.

        Now to do it on hard. Trying to get my Warlock to 29 first and then my Hunter which has already got 2 Raid gear.

    Sort of glad I'm getting this for free with the limited edition (well, not free, because that edition cost more, but you know what I mean), because that does not sound like $20 worth of content.

    I'm struggling to get to 29 because I get Ascendant Energy 98% of the time between two characters.

    My main dissapointment about this announcement, is there are only 3 additional Story missions. I had hoped they would release another 10 at least to give us more of a reason to keep playing, more purpose and understanding in the direction they are headimg. 3 extra Story missions aren't going to explain sweet shit all.

    But I will stay hopeful.

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