Lots of good news for Destiny players this weekend.

The Hard Mode ‘Crota’s End’ Raid will be available from next week and Xûr currently has one of the most sought after exotic weapons for sale in his inventory.

 

Level 33 Crota’s End Is Coming… Eeeek!

 

 

The Hard Mode, Level 33 ‘Crota’s End’ Raid for the most recent Destiny Expansion will be available next week with a bounty of new weapons to obtain. This is delivered to players via an update that will be released during the weekly refresh of content ( Tuesday night @ 8PM AEDST). Not sure I’m keen just yet. My wounds from running the Level 30 a few times are still fresh and painful enough for me. I can sense a massacre of epic proportions and am woman enough to walk away for the time being, dignity still intact.

Raids are probably the most difficult and challenging of the Player vs Enemy elements of the game. It requires a Fireteam of six players and a hell of a lot of teamwork, communication and usually confusion if your team isn’t familiar with the fine details and mechanics of how each stage plays out.

So far we’ve seen the Vault of Glass, which was Destiny’s first raid. With the first expansion The Dark Below came the newest raid – Crota’s End. Gaaaah I hate Hive Knights.

Before Tuesday, Crota’s End has only been playable at Level 30 – the original level cap before the expansion. Prior to the release of the next expansion due in a few months, Level 32 can only be achieved by players who have acquired the armour from this easier Level 30 Raid (this is because it carries a higher Light Rating than other legendary armour currently available).

Well I definitely haven’t been playing as much Destiny as I would like since the expansion. Therefore I can safely say there is no way in hell I’m interested in attempting Crota’s End at Level 33 yet. I have only two pieces of current Raid armour for my Warlock and Titan, and one for my Hunter. So that means level… 31.5 at the most. Hard Crota Raid + not Level 32 = total annihilation. I’m just not in the mood for the anger and frustration I know attempting this prematurely will bring.

But anyone who IS keen should get ready for the update, as Bungie has announced they are *maybe* going to *possibly* give away a prize to the first Fireteam across the line, most probably left over merch considering they’re being super vague with the details. Make sure you equip those solar and arc weapons and get ready to pummel some pretty epic Hive enemies and a Super Saiyan Crota. You can just tell me how it went afterwards. I’ll be grinding Eris Morn bounties trying to get her last shader. That thing is super sweet.

I will get round to it eventually… I need that stupid Crux of Crota to upgrade Eidolon Ally to it’s epic exotic version. It’s actually a pretty ridiculous gun. Can’t imagine I’ll be super impressed with the upgrade, so Hard Crota’s End is going on the back burner for a while.

 

 

Xûr Has Icebreaker!

 

 

Xûr, Agent of the Nine, is a mysterious vendor that appears in the communal Tower area in Destiny each week (from 8pm AEDST on Friday night). He sells a random selection of exotic items for Strange Coins, as well as offering upgrades to old exotics purchased prior to the first expansion.

The sneaky bastard is always somewhere different each week and Friday at 8pm on the dot you can find me dashing jogging around the Tower and checking his usual hangouts. Or looking around for player markers clustered together in a suspicious area on the map. That trick has saved me a lot of legwork.

Friday night is a highlight of my week… I just wanna know if he’s got anything badass and I’m not waiting to find out.

From now on I’m going to let you know where he is and what he’s selling as soon as I can each week.

 

 

Xûr – January 16-18

This week, old mate is selling Ice Breaker. Get your hands on this if you can. It’s not really appropriate for every day use, but god damn if I don’t pull this thing out most Nightfalls. Juggler can be a bastard of a modifier. It regenerates ammo, hits hard and has ridiculous range. Its major downfalls are the speed at which ammo regenerates, and it’s horrible stability stats. The kickback is awful. Some players who previously owned this are probably super dirty it’s for sale because “waaaaaaa it ruins the game!!! Now everyone has it!”. Yeah well, so they should. It’s weapons like this that make Destiny awesome. Just like I wish all my friends bought Red Death when I did. Still hands down my fav Destiny weapon of all time.

Also Obsidian Mind, the Warlock Helmet, looks badass. It’s like… really, really black. Like looking into the depths of oblivion… I love this thing with the Dead Orbit shader. Don’t give a crap what it does, really. But if you want to know it’s a Voidwalker focussed helmet with the abilities Insatiable: Nova Bomb kills reduce the cooldown of your next Nova Bomb and Inverse Shadow: Increased Super energy gained from killing minions of the Darkness. Yeah, cool I guess, but the Sunsinger subclass is way better IMO. I’d suggest buying this too if you can afford it after Ice Breaker.

 

Xûr’s Location:

Hall of Guardians (straight ahead down the stairs when you spawn in the Tower), near the Crucible Handler on the left as you enter.

 

Exotics For Sale:

The Glasshouse – Titan Helmet

Achlyophage Symbiote – Hunter Helmet

Obsidian Mind – Warlock Helmet

Ice Breaker – Sniper Rifle

aaaand as usual he’s also selling an Exotic Shard so you can upgrade all your shiny new babies.

 

Upgradeable Exotic Armour:

Achlyophage Symbiote – Hunter Helmet

Lucky Raspberry – Hunter Chest Armour

Crest of Alpha Lupi – Titan Chest Armour

No Backup Plans – Titan Gauntlets

Skull of Dire Ahamkara – Warlock Helmet

Light Beyond Nemesis – Warlock Helmet

 

Upgradeable Exotic Weapons:

Bad Juju – Pulse Rifle

The Last Word – Hand Cannon

Plan C – Fusion Rifle

Pocket Infinity – Fusion Rifle

Thunderlord – Machine Gun

Gjallarhorn – Rocket Launcher

 

Curios For Sale:

Scout Rifle Telemetry

Hand Cannon Telemetry

Shotgun Telemetry

Plasma Drive (Sparrow Upgrade – No Colour Boost)

Stealth Drive (Sparrow Upgrade – Red Boost)

 

Bummer, no 5-packs of Heavy Weapon Ammo Synthesis this week. That’s my fav thing and for only one strange coin! Super bargain!

 

 

From next week onwards I’ll include a video or at least still images of Xûr and his bounty of goodies 🙂

 

– Geek and Gamer Girl

 

(All images courtesy of destiny.wikia.com and gamespot.com)