As the curse on the Dreaming City worsened over the past few weeks, hints kept dropping that our efforts were somehow culminating in a final stand against the curse consuming the city. Every week we were given a new story mission, continuing the plot line of the curse of the Dreaming City.
Just as players were getting into the cadence of Forsaken, this week’s mission was paired with a brand-new activity, blowing all of our minds with one of the most unexpected additions to this expansion. Bungie’s bombshell introduced a brand-new endgame PvE activity mode. For many, this has made Forsaken the most valuable expansion in Destiny history.
The entrance to The Shattered Throne
Dungeons Are Now A Thing
This past Tuesday, Destiny 2 was updated to introduce a brand new activity called a “Dungeon”. It can best be described as a 3-person mini raid. Called “The Shattered Throne”, it features a recommended power of 570, and encounters that scale up to 590. This means that not only is it a pinnacle end-game activity, it’s slotted at even higher recommended power than the new raid “Last Wish”.
The activity features 3 sections, which function similar to raid encounters with puzzle sections and a mini-boss. Completing each section grants powerful gear, including the final boss encounter. Completion times tend to run between 1 to 2 hours, putting it at parody with a typical raid run. Finishing the dungeon also grants the quest to gain the exotic bow, Wish Ender.
“Wish Ender” Exotic Bow
The events of this week are also revealing that the Dreaming City curse will be on a 3-week cycle. This means that next week the Dreaming City will return to its week 1 status, with the curse at its mildest form. The following week will get more intense, similar to how it was after the raid was completed. Finally in the third week, it will once again return to its spiciest version, the version we see this week.
This is all fairly new to us, and of course Bungie remains tight-lipped as to preserve the surprise. However, this might imply that the dungeon may only be available only during the third “spicy” weeks. The rotation might be unfortunate for some players though.
The Exciting Potential
The concept of the dungeon is an exciting one, and is destined to fill a gap sorely missing in Destiny. Up until this expansion, the gap between solo activities and the raid, in regards to quality of content, was unfortunately pretty wide. Destiny’s raids are often feature some of the games’ best art and music, in addition to its most inventive and rewarding challenges.
The issue with raids is that they are 6-person activities with no random matchmaking or in-game group finding tools. That is assuming you don’t have a tight-knit raid group or clan. This results in the use of apps and message boards to find groups. Sadly, this does leave a large portion of the player-base from ever experiencing the game’s best content.
Dungeons have the potential to fill that gap. Like Prison of Elders in Destiny 1, the 3-player requirement is much easier to attain. The communication requirement also gives otherwise solo players a taste of communicating and cooperating with other players to overcome puzzles and challenges.
The Dreaming City (week 2 curse).
A Love-Hate Relationship
I both love and hate the implementation of dungeons. Love more than hate. Currently the dungeon is a secret needing to be discovered. It isn’t a shiny icon on the director for you to select, like every other major activity. It is also seemingly only going to be available every 3 weeks.
This first dungeon is easy to fall in love with since it’s so deeply rooted in the story and is presented in an organic, immersive way. It makes it feel even more dark and mysterious. Almost as if we shouldn’t be entering it.
The dislike comes in its accessibility. If it was designed to bridge the gap between strikes and raids, its lack of pomp and circumstance on the destination map makes it less likely to be discovered. Or even truly understood by the more casual player. I suppose there really is no way to make it a more visible activity without ruining the immersion, so I suppose I prefer the current implementation.
Dungeons are a very welcome compliment to the raid, and a tool used to make the endgame experience more varied and dynamic. It isn’t always easy to group up with 5 other people, and a 3-person activity with similarly powerful rewards makes dungeons a very attractive option.
We currently don’t know if The Shattered Throne is the only dungeon in Forsaken. Since activities like this, The Blind Well, and more planned activities will be released as soon as December, Destiny 2 is at its most exciting and approachable.
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