Destiny Expansion I: The Dark Below Preview

The bounties are a cinch but can be rather tedious. The ones for today are 200 fallen headshots, 200 ether drops from Fallen, Kill 3 Fallen Walkers, Play a crucible match with the Queen's Class Item/Shader/Emblem (all 3) equipped, 20 headshots on guardians with handcannons, 15 headshots on guardians with a sniper rifle. Tedious but doable (though the Queens Items one can't be done till your rank 2 with her).

So I was out farming spinmetal today to upgrade my armor when I found a legendary engram in a chest. Went to the Cryptarch to decrypt it and got myself the biggest surprise of my life. I got an Exotic and it's the PS4 exclusive Auto Rifle the Monte Carlo.

Nice! I need to grind tomorrow on my off day. I still need 2 more strange coins to buy an exotic weapon from Xur Friday. I'm hoping he has a hand cannon for sale.

Heh, I nearly crapped myself when I saw it. Had to go try it out and it's a damn nice rifle. A little sad you can't upgrade the sights on it but the sight it has is pretty nice. Has a very nice fire rate as well.

Who knows, he might have one. I'm still surprised you didn't get the hand cannon exotic bounty when you got yours (which I still have yet to get, oh well the Monte makes up for that). As far as I've heard it's one of the most common ones you get (though the questing process is kind of a bitch from what I've seen). Also figured out why you can't have all exotic armor equipped (if you happen to have a whole set which atm is impossible). Seems you can only have one Exotic weapon and one Exotic piece of armor equipped at a time due to how powerful they are (I got a little pop-up when I equipped the rifle telling me that). Kinda sucks but I guess it makes sense. Just need to go find myself an exotic piece of armor now.

Decided to jump on for a little bit tonight just to claim the bounties. I'm glad they mixed it up. I love the public event bounty. I didn't snag the Devil Walker bounty because I'm not doing the earth strike 3 times anytime soon.

Anyways, I lucked out and the Weaponsmith was selling exactly what I needed for the stage of my Exotic Weapon Bounty.... Observe as my Frugal-ness paid off in the end... this is the most glimmer I've ever spent.

Man... Now I want a yellow weapon. *is jealous*

lol, I probably shouldn't say this but I'm close to getting my second exotic weapon. While playing this morning I finally got the Exotic Weapon Bounty from the Bounty dude. I got to choose between the Pulse Rifle Bad Juju, the same Fusion Rifle DX is working on, and the Machine Gun Super Good Advice. I chose the machine gun and I'm now waiting for Xur to show up so I can by something from him for it. After that it's 500 machine gun kills and I get the weapon. Once I do I get to play the whole "Which Exotic weapon should I use today?" game. I guess it's a good problem to have but still a problem none-the-less.

I decided to go back to Vanguard rep just so I could get to level 2 and purchase legendary armor. I bought a pair of boots that give me more hand cannon ammo and uses Helium Filaments to upgrade.. now I have a nice mix as each of my armor requires a different material to upgrade. I'll hope for some gauntlets that need Relic Iron... it would be a pain if all the armor pieces needed the same thing and you'd be stuck on that one planet farming for hours on end. The ascended shards are going to be a bitch. I've already ran out and I cant upgrade my helm and chest plate now until I get 11 more.

EDIT: I didn't realize that boots and gauntlets were cheaper than helms and chest plates. I bought gauntlets and now I am fully armored in legendary. Now I can just dismantle legendary stuff for shards...

And what do you know? A legendary engram paid off...

EDIT 2:

http://www.bungie.net/7_Hot-Fix---09252014/en/News/News?aid=12190

The loot cave has been fixed, and my plan to dismantle queens armor for ascended gear has been squashed. I guess Strider and I got it while the getting was good.

That moon mission was almost impossible. If I had better armor, I wouldn't have died so easily. But its a catch 22 because I needed to do that Queen's Wrath to get the better armor.

I'm hoping for an easier mission tomorrow. 6 or so attempts and those moon bastards kicked my ass. x_x

At least my level is 21 now, but my defense is only around 620. x_x

If I buy a bunch of heavy ammo resupplies we can do it. No one was dropping any heavy ammo, and after the first attempt failed, it all went to hell. He has to be killed before the Sword Knights spawn or else its impossible without 3 super charged titans.

I agree with that. I used the last heavy ammo item I had during the daily mission. I should have picked up a couple and I didn't even think about it. Damn loot cave had to close down on the day I could have used it the most. x_x

Strider and I did it no problem when he was Level 21. But we both had a full supply of heavy ammo. The Sword Knights are the deal breaker. It caught me off guard when they came out. I'm pretty disappointed we didn't get you a legendary armor. I have a friend's B-day to attend tomorrow, but I'll be on Sat and Sun.... Hopefully Strider will be on tomorrow to help you out. Engram drops are apparently going to go up if they haven't already. I got 2 legendary today. I think they should drop green and blue decodes from the Legendary Engram and instead keep it at a 33% chance at a legendary, and the other percentages should go to ascended materials, strange coins, or hell, even random materials, ships, and sparrows. That way you don't feel like you got totally screwed off a rare drop. 

http://www.joystiq.com/2014/09/25/bungie-closes-destinys-loot-cave-discusses-future-fixes/

Thanks for the help. I wish had more time yesterday to try a couple more rounds but I don't think we'd have gotten it done without the heavy ammo. And not a singe enemy dropped any. The respawn point didn't help any either. It spawned everyone right in front of that wizard and 3 acolytes. I might try doing some crucible rounds later to try and get blue armor drops.

I'll be on for a little while tonight to do bounties so if you want to attempt to do Kill Orders again we can. Not going to promise anything though since 2 Hunters might put us at a disadvantage (I think the only reason it went relatively well for DX and I is the fact that he's a Titan and can take more punishment) but I'm always willing to try. That or we can do crucible matches, I still need to grind out 10 more marks for when I hit rank 2 with Dead Orbit for my arm gear.

http://kotaku.com/bungie-is-starting-to-fix-destinys-loot-1639688827?utm_campaign=Socialflow_Kotaku_Facebook&utm_source=Kotaku_Facebook&utm_medium=Socialflow

Save all your purple engrams until the next update!

I'm going to try to get on for a bit tonight after I finish grilling some steaks for dinner. If I get any purples I will definitely hold onto to them now.

"Only Engrams that drop after 1.0.2 are subject to this change."

Sorry gents but it says that right before it goes into the changes so there really is no point in keeping current engrams (though if you want to I guess it's no harm, just don't be surprised if they don't give you Legendaries when you do).

Damn. Oh well. I think I'll try and get some bounties done in the next hour. I think that new loot cave has already been fixed because comments on the video are indicating that only ammo is dropping there now.

I went to the new loot cave to check it out.. and its pretty much nerfed in terms of drops. I needed 200 fallen headshots so I figured it would be an easy way to kill time to see if this was a good farming spot.. and it isn't. The enemy spawn rate is quick so it only took about 40-50 mins to get the headshots I needed. I used a hand cannon from some distance for the first 30 mins or it would have gone alot faster. Anyway.. after about an hour I only got 5 items including 2 blue engrams.

I did get 3 Queen's bounties done. I'll get on again tomorrow at some point but I don't know when yet. I'll be smoking some ribs in the early afternoon so I'll probably get on in the evening.

I'll be on in the evening.

I got my second exotic bounty today, and it was for the hand cannon thorn. But after looking at the requirements I scrapped it. You have to beat the moon strike... then get 500 void kills on crucible... which you get 5 points for each kill, but lose 2 points for each death... yeah fuck that... and to make it worse, after that, you have to beat the moon strike on level 26 and hope an ultra wizard appears to kill... I heard Thorn wasn't that great anyways. I'll wait on getting lucky for Hawkmoon.

The loose 2 points for each death ruins that. I bet if you did the moon strike at level 26, all thralls are replaced with ultra wizards. Lol.

I like the blue hand canon I have now. With the extended mag it has 13 rounds.

Actually that Wizard spawns every time during the level 26 version according to what I've read and the videos I watched. Once you kill him you can just leave the strike since it doesn't require you to actually finish it. The only problem is getting to that stage.

I'll be on early this evening, about 6:30 your guy's time. If we're all on I'm up for some Kill Orders to get Sledge some better gear (plus I might get lucky and get that Legendary Sniper Rifle that's part of this event). If not I'll do the usual and grind out my bounties, only 490 rep away from rank 2 with Dead Orbit. I'm so close I can taste the gauntlets I'm after (or gloves or whatever the hell you want to call them). Plus I really need to work on those 500 machine gun kills (I have 2 so far).

I'm not trying to rub it in but damn that sniper rifle is nice. I was doing 2000+ damage a shot against the Devil walkers legs and 1000+ a shot right in sepkis primes eye.

Thanks to both of you for helping me get some good armor.

He took out the Ogre on Shrine of Oryx with 4-5 shots. . The boss went down so fast on hard. Now that Sledge has a legendary Void, and I have a legendary Solar... Strider needs a legendary arc. We can probably manage the Black Garden Kill Order now with Sledge's sniper rifle.

Once we all manage level 28, we need to do a nightfall strike.

While this game has GW2 and Halo mixed in, it also has PAYDAY2 with the different insane difficultly settings for the same missions making them new experiences every time.  Its more fun when you have a full fireteam shouting out: "SWORD KNIGHTS SWORD KNIGHTS OH SHIT!!!.... Anyone have arc damage?! SHIELD DOWN!! DAMMIT WHERE IS HE?! HE'S HIDING TO GET HIS SHIELD BACK UP!!!" Or waiting for the dialog at warp to see what we get... "Its the Gate Lord! FUUUUUUUUUUUUUU!!!!! f'in juggler!!!!"

As fustrating as it is, I like Queen's Wrath... I look forward to it again after its over. Especially after Jupiter and Mercury come into the fray with new insane bosses.

Heh, no problem Sledge. I enjoyed playing last night though I still hate you for getting that Sniper Rifle

I'll be farming the hell out of those Queen's Wrath missions until she gives me my damn rifle because I want it so damn badly. She better cough it up before the 6th or I'm going to be royally pissed.

I love our pre-wrath banter, especially when we find out what the damn mission is (I freaking hate Oryx and Gate Lord, so sick in tired of doing them). So freaking hilarious. I just wish more people used their damn headsets in this game, gets kinda boring running Strikes with no one talking (though I'm sure those guys we've run with think we're dorks by the way we talk when we do them )

I love our teamwork. Our coordination is great and I'm surprised more people don't talk.. but maybe its a game thing and they don't have the mic setting turned on. But during the beta, me and DX talked to a third guy on a strike and he ended up sounding like a 12 year old boy. We might not be missing much by not talking to some of these people.

I have this upcoming friday and monday off, so I'm going to work on the queen's bounties until I get a full set of legendary armor.