Category: Bungie News

This week at Bungie, we talk about Rhulk finding his chill and a new way to enjoy raids and dungeons.  

Ready to kick off another weekly TWABtastic celebration? Let’s dive right into it then, shall we?  

Kind of like Dungeons & Dragons, if you squint one eye and close the other. 

Moth Man and his Moth Plan.

 

It’s that time of week again, time for our handy dandy Player Support Team to bestow upon us their mighty wisdom in the mightiest of mighty fashions. Or, at the very least, an easy-to-read breakdown of known issues and recent changes you should be aware of.  

Plus, they’re just really cool (but I may be biased).  

Anyway, this is their report. 

Xbox PC Game Pass

As of April 11, 2022, Destiny 2 and its expansions (the Forsaken Pack, Shadowkeep, and Beyond Light) left the Xbox Game Pass for PC in the Microsoft Store. Players who were accessing the Destiny 2 DLCs through the Xbox PC Game Pass will need to purchase them to maintain access to the expansions. 

“Too many Messages”

As of April 14, 2022, changes to in-game text chat have been implemented, effectively adjusting a recent change that caused players to run into a “too many messages” alert earlier than expected. This has been corrected to allow for more time to use in-game communication, which will help allow for fireteam messages to run more efficiently, especially during instances like the Vow of the Disciple raid where multiple callouts are necessary. 

Update 4.0.1

Stop us if you’ve heard this one. 

 

Movies, you love to see ‘em, right? One fan-made clip I just had to include because Hunters are taking up all the conversation with their sweet Void 3.0 makeover, so I gotta do my part to give my Titans some time to shine. What better way to do that than with an awesome freestyle? Other than punching random objects and throwing a shield around like you’re some kind of purple Captain America.  

The next video is a meme video of biblical proportions (I’ve got jokes, you’ll see what I mean when you watch it).  

Enjoy! 

Movie of the Week: Freestyles with a Titan

Movie of the Week: Biblically Accurate Destiny 2 Ghost (warning for mild language)

 

We can’t forget about art now, can we? Oh, nay nay, so let’s jump right in with a few of our favorite pieces from the week, including some friendly competition amongst the Team Mech and Team Monster folks.  

Art of the Week: Team Mech 

Art of the Week: Team Monster 

Art of the Week: The Creation of the Disciple

As always, keep those creative juices flowing and don’t forget to tag us in your amazing Destiny 2 art and movie submissions with #Destiny2Art, #AOTW, and #MOTW.

One last thing before we let y’all go! We’ve got monsters, we’ve got mechs, but who was the ultimate winner? Recently, we shared a poll that players could partake in deciding what sort of armor ornament would be at the ready when Festival of the Lost rolls around later this year. Monsters were up for grabs for the second year in a row, but it looks like the Mech design was what truly captured Guardian hearts around the globe. Let’s break it down: Team Mech won by a hair, taking up 52% of the votes, but don’t count out Team Monster, because they came in like a wrecking ball at 48% of the votes. 

Happy Friday, Guardians! This week we are just knocking it out of the park with Community Focus, ya? Earlier in the week Bruno interviewed MitchySlaps, and today we have another super fun Community Focus with PRONE. 

Hello PRONE! We are so stoked to have you here so let’s get started with who are you, where are you from, and what got you into gaming?  

My name is Brian. When I started on Twitch, I went by ideaprone, but since getting Partnered last April I go by PRONE! I’m from the corn fields of Southern Illinois near St. Louis, Missouri where I live with my wife Liz and our four children. 

I’ll be 42 this month and the first gaming console I had was a black and white system with two dials for controllers that only played Pong! After that, my brother and I delivered phone books (remember those?) for a summer to earn enough money to buy an NES that we shared. I hopped around from console to console until I nestled into the PC gaming world where I’ve spent my time ever since.

I was exclusively a stay-at-home dad for eight years and spent a lot of time around babies and, if it wasn’t for my awesome wife, I would have gone days without being able to speak to another adult. Then I found Twitch and a whole world opened up for me. I could have streams on in the background and listen to all sorts of cool people and feel like I was part of a community with other like-minded adults. I found myself thinking a lot about what I would do if I were the one streaming. Then I mustered up enough courage to give it a try and here we are! 

I was a stay-at-home parent for a bit and I remember how lonely those days were sometimes. I love that Twitch and gaming really opened a space for you to thrive! So how did you find Destiny and when did you start playing?   

I found Destiny through Leopard. (Yes, this is your fault, Lep.) When he decided to start streaming Destiny again at Forsaken, I decided I had better check the game out if I was going to watch him play it. I made some great friends through his channel and we started building a community. 

My content mainly consists of mediocre gameplay and me laughing really, really, loudly! I love trying different/weird/underused weapons and loadouts and having fun with them. I don’t do raid helps or Trials carries because I’m not good enough at the game, but I would like to think that if you stop by the channel, I can help brighten your day. 

When I started the game, I literally only played Warlock for the first year. I was too intimidated to try learning other mechanics. Eventually I branched out and started playing Hunter  — which is my main for PvP content  — and Titan which I main for PvE. Recently I’ve been really enjoying Warlock again, especially with Stasis and Void 3.0.  

As a Fusion-main, my favorite weapon of all time is Erentil, and I had almost 19,000 kills on it when it got sunset, which I think is pretty good for an old man! Since then, I’ve bounced around between other Fusions but currently I’m vibing with Zealot’s Reward, Snorri, and Deliverance. (I’ve been waiting so long for a Kinetic slot Fusion, it opens up so many fun possibilities.) 

I did manage to go solo Flawless once with a Khepri’s Horn/Jotunn/Sunspot build and I’m pretty proud of that silly loadout. 

I mean, solo Flawless on a super fun loadout seems like a pretty magical time! So, what kind of vibe does your channel maintain?   

If I had to pick one word to describe the channel it would be “authentic.” I value honesty and integrity above all else. I always wear my heart on my sleeve… for better or worse. What you see is what you get with me. We talk a lot about food, beer, games, pets, and because our community skews to the older side… our kids! Our main objectives are to have fun, to support each other, and to contribute to charity. I truly believe we have the best, most kind-hearted community on Twitch. 

We love to participate in charity events, but I try to space them out. Recently we were able to raise $5,327 for Game2Give which I’m incredibly proud of given the relatively modest size of our community. The next event we participate in will probably be Bungie Day in July. 

Other than that, I’ve been preparing a barn on my property for streaming IRL and VR. Also, this fall we’re having a community meetup at my house which I plan to stream! 

Thank you, Bungie, for making one of my favorite games of all time and thank you to the Destiny community for supporting so many amazing content creators. I’d also like to say that none of this would be possible for me without the support of my amazing wife who has let this old man live out his dream. Thanks, dear! Thank you to my amazing mod team, many of whom I have been lucky enough to meet in person over the last few years, who keep me on the right path: Weru, Kday, Nottyl, Ken, Battalion, Soup, Pedro, Cab, Lucky, Cal, Commando, and Evo. And lastly, thank you so much to my community who has supported me and lifted me up through everything over the last three years. As I often say… I’m not the most important part of the channel. People stick around and find a home because of all of you. 

This week at Bungie, we talk about pixels and the Kilts for Kids fundraising event! 

Welcome to your first April 2022 installment of the TWAB. Yes, you read that right! We’re already in the fourth month of the year. Time is flying by, and we can’t help but wonder why. Maybe it’s the fact that we shipped an expansion in February, or the weekly hunts for Deepsight weapons that we’ve been embarking on. In any case, Destiny 2 keeps going strong. 

Gambit Labs went live earlier this week. Invasion Swap has been getting us some great anecdotal feedback for Mote-dunking and invasion strategies, and we’re excited to see the data and feedback as it comes in. We did have a small hiccup on Tuesday where the Pinnacle reward for playing three matches was not appearing, but the team quickly issued a server-side fix to get you your just rewards. Paired with double Gambit rep, it’s a great week to complete some Seasonal Challenges for Bright Dust and earn some nice Gambit-themed rewards.

Looking to next week, Iron Banner returns. While we’re planning a larger TWAB to cover upcoming changes, our one piece of advice to you this week is to spend your Iron Banner tokens, complete your Iron Banner quest, and redeem your Iron Banner bounties. We have some updates to Saladin and how he’ll be dishing out rewards, which naturally leads to the retirement of Iron Banner tokens and bounties. You have two Iron Banner weeks left to spend these tokens for rewards, including next week, so make sure to plan some time in the Tower to turn them in before the end of the final Iron Banner of the Season. Oh, and a small update from the team: we’re looking to prevent the abilities bounty for our final Iron Banners before next Season. We’ve heard (and felt) the feedback that it could be a bit time consuming, so we’re shifting to focus on objective and weapon bounties for the remainder of the Season. Happy hunting! 

So, what else is going on this week? We’ll be celebrating the upcoming Kilts for Kids fundraiser and having a quick “story time” about a wonderful community event that occurred last weekend. 

Kilts for Kids 

Year after year, the Bungie Foundation participates in numerous charity initiatives to raise funds for people in need. While we host our own streams and charity drives, once a year we dive back into our favorite kilts to drive for some wonderful goals in the name of support for children. We have some awesome incentives lined up, so read on for more! 

Bungie Foundation: Kilts for Kids, our annual fundraiser that supports Seattle Ronald McDonald House (RMHC) is going 11 years strong! We bring you our usual suspects: Christine, Mark, and Forrest. After two years of stay-at-home orders, the crew was excited to take advantage of a rare sunny spring day in Seattle and don their kilts together. 

Throughout the pandemic, RMHC continued to provide exceptional care, safety, and community for so many families facing serious illness and long hospital stays. Help us achieve our $77,777 goal by heading to the RMHC Donation Page and casting your votes for Team Bungie. Each vote is worth $10 and every $30 donated will pay for a family to stay at the House for one night. 

In addition to helping kids and families facing illness, we also have some awesome donation incentives*!

  

Pixel by Pixel, Place by r/Place 

Last weekend was one to remember. It started small with the placement of a pixel. Within minutes, it grew to four days of community, memes, art, Ace of Spades, and a raid boss that couldn’t stop moving their legs. 

If you don’t frequently visit Reddit, a wonderful weekend event kicked off where any user in the world could place a pixel on a board to start creating small (or large) pieces of art. This wonderland of expression has appeared only a few times in previous years, going by the name of r/place. While your individual efforts could yield success for a short while, this place has become a home for Reddit communities (or communities in general) to rally their members to secure a place on the board. 

Now, it’s not as simple as placing a pixel and calling it done. Participants could override a given pixel placement at any time (on a five-minute cooldown) to “take over” spots on the board, or simply bring some chaos to the conversation. This leads to a few things: intense community competitions between millions of different people from given message boards, communities, or even countries, all seeking to claim some place space. This also results in wonderfully positive moments when communities create alliances with each other, helping one another to defend their artwork as the weekend raged on. 

Through the weekend, two Destiny specific Reddit communities, r/DTG and r/Destiny2, led the charge in securing a spot on the board to represent the Destiny community. Through Discord chats, text messages, forum posts, and multiple other means of communication, the community effectively locked down the “Destiny 2 spot” through all four days. This wasn’t just a simple tricorn, and I’m still blown away by the coordination between hundreds (to thousands) of participants to execute on the art below:

Crushed Gamma Emblem code: D97-YCX-7JK 

Cheers to all who contributed over the weekend, and thanks for yet another year of fond memories to look back on whenever we reminisce about Telesto and its resiliency. 

PLAYER SUPPORT REPORT 

Make Shaxx proud. 

 

With the news we shared last week, some of you are imagining a day when you’ll reach Unbroken. With the help of PvP-centric Guardians around the world, your imagination may someday become reality! Our Player Support team has a quick update below on known issues. 

This is their report. 

UNBROKEN SEAL RETIREMENT 

The Unbroken Seal and title will be retired with the launch of Season 19, and will be no longer available to earn. Season 16 is the last chance for players to begin making progress on associated Triumphs in order to earn the Seal, including reaching Glory Rank: Legend in three different Seasons. 

Players who earn the Seal prior to its retirement will still be able to equip the title and associated gilding. 

VOW OF THE DISCIPLE: THE CLEAVER EMBLEM AND TRIUMPH 

We are currently working to grant The Cleaver emblem to players who completed the Vow of the Disciple raid during the contest mode extension. Players who qualified for the emblem can expect to receive it during the week of April 19. 

KNOWN ISSUES 

While we continue investigating various known issues, here is a list of the latest issues that were reported to us in our #Help Forum: 

Somebody, Please, Put Baby in the Corner  

 

Sam: Happy TWABsday, Guardians! Is it just me or has this week felt like it’s taken forever and also flown by? Either way, we hope your week was super rad and we have a super fun movie we think you will really get a kick out of, an incredible 8-bit track, and can someone go check on the Child? They seem to be bullying a few Guardians again. 

Movie of the Week: Give and Take Give and Take

Movie of the Week: The First Disciple 8-Bit

Movie of the Week – BONUS: Child of the Old Gods be like…

Don’t Let Those Meme Dreams Be Dreams 

 

Hippy: Listen, OK, I’m going to keep it real right now and say life is freaking hard and sometimes, it’s easy to take it too seriously or to miss out on the beautiful parts of it. Because of that, we’re mixing meme madness with some truly spectacular art. Plus, we heard you liked chaos, so as a b-b-b-bonus round, we’re also throwing in an excellent representation of Titan awesomeness by one artist that had the gall, nay – the audacity – to be talented as all heck. They also managed to rear up those daydreams of a fully Exotic’d-out (that’s a word) Guardian! Not a Titan main? That’s cool, this artist also has other classes represented in a similar style, so peep out their account below!  

Without further ado, let’s art!  

Art of the Week: Guess Who Just Got Played! 

Art of the Week: Elemental Warlocks, Skateboard Edition 

Art of the Week – BONUS: Exotic Titans Go Brrr 

Time For Some Raids… or Trials?

Team Monsters

Team Mechs

After you’ve gotten your vote cast, hop in to Destiny 2 for some fun. This weekend’s looking great for solo players seeking some Trials loot, as Freelance kicks off tomorrow at reset. If you’re looking for a little Wrath to add to your arsenal, it’ll be a fun weekend to jump in. If you’re looking for a more team oriented endgame experience, why not hop in to some Raids with friends? Maybe help a Blueberry or two to their first victory.

Looking to next TWAB, Master Vow of the Disciple is just around the corner, starting on April 19 We’ll be spending some time getting you prepared. Speaking of raids, tune in next Thursday for some fun news concerning an upcoming rotator of sorts in Season 17. 

Cheers, 

dmg04

Hello there, Guardians! How’s your week going so far? Have you jumped into the Grandmaster Nightfall that just launched? I’m still trying to find the courage to do one of those, but meanwhile, I just finished my first raid of the week. Let me tell you one thing: my experience wouldn’t be the same without the resource we are talking about in this Community Focus, a resource we think you will find just as useful.   

Today, we wanted to introduce you to MitchySlaps, the creator of a wonderful Stream Deck input tool for those that may not be able to communicate in the heat of battle and for those like me who have trouble remembering symbols. If you normally use this programmable keypad for shortcuts inside your streaming apps, Mitch work allows you to use it inside a Destiny raid for callouts. As simple and great as that. 

Hey, Mitch! Thanks for chatting with us, how are you doing? Would you introduce yourself for a little bit, tell us about your gaming habits and comment on what you like most about Destiny. 

Hey, Bruno, first of all I would like to thank you, Hippy, and the rest of the team for considering me for this opportunity. My name is Mitch, (Mitchy or MitchySlaps also works). I’m a husband, a father to an adorable Little Light who just turned one, and a stepfather to a highly intelligent young man who makes me feel stupid with how smart he is sometimes. I’m also a licensed physical therapist assistant with a focus in the geriatric population as well as having a certification in dementia care. I like to lace up the skates, toss on a helmet, and slap some hockey pucks around. I’m also a cat-dad to… well, too many cats — even a foster cat who I’m getting more and more attached to each day.  

As for gaming habits, I have mostly (as of recent) been grinding those Pinnacle drops and raiding (on that search for those Deepsight raid weapons). When I am not gaming, I am staring at my Stream Deck wondering how I can improve the input tool. What is great about Destiny, time-wise, is that you can plan ahead and get a group going, play for a few hours by yourself, or you can just pop on for 15 to 20 minutes and get in a strike or two. I feel like there is more to do now than ever and the power climb is quick.  

I could say that what I like most about Destiny is having the Warlock Devour build with the Void 3.0 class rework or I could say something like, “All the people I’ve met over the last five years playing this game.” Yeah, it’s corny but it’s also true for a lot of Guardians out there. Destiny is one of the first games where I sought out communities to find people to play with. I’ve met a lot of cool Guardians out there, and if it weren’t for those groups and communities I probably wouldn’t still be as invested in gaming as I am today. 

Let’s talk about your work. My friends wouldn’t believe me when I told them how I was able to input the raid callouts in chat so fast. How did you come up with the idea of making such a helpful little tool for raiders? 

It started out as a way to prevent my raid group from dying while typing in callouts. We were sitting in the first encounter, figuring things out during day-two of Contest Mode and we made the decision to start typing the callouts (also, thank you for actually giving names to the glyphs). But typing the callouts led to dying unnecessarily so I dusted off the ol’ Stream Deck and decided to input the callouts tied to a multi-action macro. It’s a fairly simple process and I’m not the most tech-savvy person; honestly anyone could have made it. I say that to encourage others who are sitting on projects they don’t think are worth working on.  

Is there any way to edit or adapt your work to other languages or use different words? Because I know a lot of Spaniards use “Betis,” the name of a local football team, for the “Commune” glyph. Or Brazilians, they call the “Ascendant Plane” one “Brasilia,” because of a local monument. I love the callout variety we have. 

100% there is a way to customize. You can edit the title which will display directly on the button. I decided to use thumbnails of the glyphs with the English name already on the picture as it was clear to read, and I didn’t have to type in a title for each button I made. If you wish to add a title for another language, I suggest placing the header of the title at the top of each button so that it doesn’t overlap the English on the bottom of the thumbnail.  

There are also ways to edit what input comes out. Just go into the software for Stream Deck, click on a button and all of the hotkeys will show up. We can use Fireteam Chat input for an example. It’s three hotkeys:  

1. Enter. This opens your fireteam chat. 
2. This is the text that will show up in the fireteam chat. 
3. Enter again. This sends the text from step two to your fireteam. 

You can go into that middle hotkey and type in whatever you’d like to be input into fireteam chat, so it’s completely customizable and you can use it for so many applications in many facets of the game.  

I see that your tool has grown a lot and you have callouts for a lot of other activities in Destiny. Could you tell me a little bit about that and how it can be used outside the raid? 

I want to thank the Destiny community, and the gaming community in general, for their glowing support. I was so delighted to read so many positive reviews, but I also received some great feedback, such as, “This is great but what about console players?” That’s where the other three input methods came into existence.  

I found an extension for Stream Deck on GitHub that allows you to directly message a Discord channel through webhooks which sends enlarged pictures to said channel. You need to grant permissions to use them, but these special callbacks are really helpful and allow you to send requests from one app to another very easily. This method is great if you would like to see larger images of the callouts as they’re entered into Discord. It’s also great because it works on the same computer as Destiny without interrupting the game if you choose to play that way. All of the steps to set this up are in the Readme file on my GitHub. I’ve had people tell me that they pop their phone up in front of their TV to see the callouts in Discord.  

The other two methods can be used for Discord as well (as long as the Stream Deck is plugged into the computer running Discord). Plug your Stream Deck into the computer that has Discord. For the picture mode or the text mode you simply go into the Discord channel you plan on communicating with your team in and start clicking buttons on the Stream Deck, Stream Deck enters its command, and it’s sent to that channel automatically through the macro, whether is a picture or text. I don’t recommend using these methods on the same computer you’re playing on because you have to tab out to go into Discord. 

As for activities outside the raid, I decided to add Gambit, and I would like to eventually add Trials and PvP maps. I would love some feedback as to what callouts people would like to see added. For Gambit, it’s a pretty simple layout as I couldn’t think of too many callouts required other than where the invader is located (but I also added a time-to-bank input for all those Guardians collecting 15 Motes when there are already 97 in the bank. Wink, wink. (Everyone, please, always bank those 15 Motes fast! Drifter’s hungry!)

Do you have any advice for those that would like to build some accessibility tools for themselves or to share with the community? 

Accessibility comes in many shapes and forms. And it can benefit numerous people even if it’s not clear to you in the beginning whom it may help. If you have an idea for a tool, make it anyway and you may surprise yourself. Personally, the tool helps me raid because my mind sometimes has a hard time focusing on everything going on all at once and my anxiety can start to creep in. My raid buddy CyborgSasquatch, said, “It’s not about the idea, it’s about execution. Also, you got a killer beard.” I may have embellished a bit at the end there. But that put my mind at ease because I felt like I didn’t deserve all this attention for something so simple, but I had done the thing. I am also going to assume that I’m not the first to use the Stream Deck for accessibility purposes and hopefully I’m not the last. Tinker with the tools you have available to you. I’m sure there are people reading this that already have stuff they’ve made, be it macros, or maps, or anything else that helps you with your gaming experience, share it. You can only help others by doing so.  

The accessibility that this project provides wasn’t clear to me until I started reading the feedback. The fact that there were people saying that because of the input tool they were able to participate in mechanics rather than be the ad- clear made me feel like the project had true value. Some Guardians have been missing out on experiences in Destiny and I’m happy to provide a way for people to participate and thrive in a game I love so much.  

Being a therapist, one of my goals is to make the world more accessible to my patients and one of the major ways to do so is through adaptive equipment (walkers, canes, wheelchairs, etc.). I guess you could consider the Stream Deck a form of adaptive equipment for gamers, making the world of Destiny more accessible.  

As for software, this tool was made with only the Stream Deck software that’s free to download from Elgato. You need a Stream Deck (or the app on your phone to use the software). I don’t know how to code, and I’ve never taken any classes. But my buddy Clarksy has successfully coded a workaround to insert webhooks into the Deck’s profile. There are still some steps involved and I am currently working on refining the walkthrough so that it’s easy to follow. 

For those of you interested in accessibility in gaming, last February Liana/Hippy did a Community Focus with Steve Taylor, the Blind Gamer. It’s really worth your time, I promise.

One of the things that I noticed when we first spoke is that you are a proud Warlock main. How have your builds evolved with the introduction of Void 3.0? I’m using my ‘friend in robes’ a lot and having tons of fun with Contraverse Hold. 

Void 3.0 subclass with the Void buddy, Nezarec’s Sin, 2x Elemental Ordinance mod, 2x melee Wellmaker mod, 1x Bountiful Wells mod, Volatile rounds mod, and a Funnelweb (still chasing that god roll). I don’t think I’ve taken this build off honestly. Cycling through grenade, melee, and a Void buddy rift, you’re going to almost always have your abilities at your disposal. If you’re quick enough, you can get two Void buddies out at once. That’s a hoot. I also like to run a very similar loadout on Titan with the Cuirass chest piece but right now I’m only really using my other two classes to raid due to time constraints with play time. 

We are so proud of our Child of the Old Gods! And now, let’s look into the future: What changes do you expect for your class with the Solar and Arc updates that we have coming? 

As a person who gravitates towards a healing class, I feel like Solar is the perfect opportunity to do so. Void 3.0 really focuses on self-healing with Devour. I would love to be able to make a loadout that caters to shielding/healing/buffing others as a priority. Yes, I know Titans can overshield their teammates and Hunters can make others invisible, but to have a true team healing loadout would be cool. Some synergistic loadouts with Lumina perhaps? Or an attunement/Fragment that lets you throw/shoot your Rift to other locations similar to Divine Protection for your grenades but…a Rift. Who knows I’m a simple man and will probably be happy with whatever they’re cookin’ up in the studio. Look at Void 3.0. What more could you ask for? 

As for Arc. I want speed. I want electricity everywhere. One of the coolest animations (in my humble opinion) is the Storm grenade. Let me feel like Thor. Lightning from above. Pools of electricity below. Let electricity flow around me, shocking everything in my path, charging my abilities while staying mobile.

We all feel the need… the need for speed! But for now, let’s keep it slow and safe. As a physical therapist assistant, you probably know a lot about that. I’m sure a lot of our Guardians would love to hear about some exercises and stretches to do after long raid or Trials sessions. Free advice, please? 

Every time I talk to someone about posture it reminds me to straighten up a little. Make sure you’re hydrating, taking breaks, and step away from time to time. Listen to your body. Get outside and touch some grass or whatever the kids say these days. For your setup, try to maintain 90 degrees at your ankles, knees, hips, and elbows. Neutral wrists if you’re on mouse and keyboard. I like to use a gel wrist rest. Carpal tunnel syndrome is not fun to rehab. If you plan on long sessions, I also recommend a standing desk if possible (obviously disregard the 90/90 rule for hips and knees if you’re standing. You’ll just look silly all bent over for no reason). I just got a converter for my current desk so that I can sit or stand and it’s honestly a game changer. Standing up and playing is refreshing. As for stretching and exercise, again I would recommend listening to your body. Look up a couple stretches for each muscle group and go from there. There are some really easy entry-level yoga instructions on YouTube. Staying flexible coupled with proper posture can help prevent some of the common issues that arise from prolonged gaming sessions.  

Ok, I think I have a lot of work to do after all of your comments. Anything else you want to tell us before we say “adios” and I change my whole setup? 

I’d like to take a moment to thank a handful of people. First and foremost, @Danfinity. Dan’s a real swell dude. You all know that. We all know that. Dan knows that. This project really started gaining attention because of Dan and I’ll be forever grateful because it’s given me the opportunity to help others. To those who are working at Bungie who have commented saying that they use this tool or how helpful this project is, thank you. It’s mind boggling to think that there’s people at the studio using this thing. To those working in accessibility to include everyone in gaming, stay awesome. To all the Guardians I’ve met because of Potato Thumbs Podcast, Guardian Down Cast, Guardian Hub: thank you. (Also check out those podcasts, they’re all good people.) And thank you to everyone that talks about Destiny and have great communities to interact within and given many people safe places to call home and feel welcomed. I know there’s so many more communities out there that are great, but these are the ones that I can attest to first-hand.  

Streamers, podcasters, artists, musicians. You make Destiny a unique experience. Get out there and create, Guardians.  

And again, thank you, Bruno. Hey, you made it through your first Community Focus! 

This is another great example of how great the Destiny community is. I have no doubt it is the best in the gaming world. You keep building tools that help others in numerous ways and that really amazes us at Bungie. Thank you for that.  

“¡Hasta luego!”  

Br1   

News | Bungie.net”>

News | Bungie.net”>

You may be looking at this Community Focus and thinking to yourself, “Self, that’s a lot of words. Ain’t nobody got time to read all that.” Let me just say: 1) stop it 2) trust me, it’s worth it. Omni Props, as an entity, has made a name for itself in the Destiny community for impressive builds, creative takes on the game, and it doesn’t hurt that the creator behind the masks is a precious cinnamon bun that must be protected at all costs. So, it’s a cosplayer lover’s delight for us to introduce you to Javier Martinez, the creative soul behind some wildly impressive contributions to our lovely microcosm of incredible people.  

Without further ado, let’s dive right in and talk about the creative cycle of translating digital love into real-life works of art while also paying special tributes to those that helped him find his style along the way:  

First off! How the heck are ya?! Go ahead and introduce yourself to the Destiny community. Who are you, what do you do, what is the answer to life? 

Hiya everyone! My name is Javier Martinez (everybody just calls Javi) and I run a cosplay project called Omni Props. I’m a costume/prop fabricator that loves to bring famous cosplays and props from video games and movies to life. My work includes building battle-worn foam armor, 3D printed weapons of destruction, and ornate stitch work on fabrics. I also dabble into digital art from time to time! I like to think of myself as a one-man army, especially when dressed up like my boy Variks.  

As for the answer to life? Depends on how I feel. Playing video games is a good on-brand answer, but chocolate milk is always a good solution for anything.  

I’ll get back to you on that one.  

The things people will do for choccy milk, I swear. Speaking of- in a segue that makes absolutely no sense whatsoever – I absolutely adore your cosplay! It’s so functional and transformative, when and why did you decide to start honing your craft? 

Ever since I was a kid (and, well, to this day), I’ve always played with Legos. Sure, yeah, sometimes I would follow the instructions, but I usually just let my imagination run wild and ended up building some wild stuff like a robotic dinosaur that shoots studs out of its tiny arms inspired by one of my favorite movies: Jurassic Park. Of course, I grew up watching fantasy and sci-fi classics, but the one that stood out to me was the one about cloned dinosaurs, apparently. Just watching these giant life-like dinos on-screen made mini-Javi go, “How did they build that?!”

Since then, I wanted to let my creative juices run wild, but I was stumped on how to do so. Then, around my time in high school, I came across some YouTube videos that all talked about this “cosplay” thing. So, I jumped in and instantaneously, I was hooked. My parents were super supportive about it and helped me buy my first batch of cardboard and EVA foam to get started. 

In my freshman year, I built a custom Halo ODST cosplay out of everyday materials and I thought I was an actual Hell Jumper of the UNSC. I told myself, “I want to do something even cooler next. Like, something really cool.” Then, I heard about this little game called Destiny coming out the next year and once I saw the Hunter in the live-action Law of the Jungle trailer, I told myself this is it: I’m going to build Destiny stuff. In my my sophomore year, I built my first Destiny-related cosplay, which you might already have guessed was a Hunter.

When my high school had a costume day, I decided to walk around in full Hunter glory. And let me tell you, it was amazing! Not just seeing people’s creations, but actually feeling like I was walking around the Tower and nobody could even think about going toe-to-toe with me. On that day, Omni Props was born. 

Since then, I graduated high school in Florida and moved to Virginia where I obtained my degree in Technical Theater at JMU and built many ambitious things such as my Cayde-6 and Variks cosplays! 

I can’t imagine the process of learning to create entire builds to be easy. Can you tell us some of the more challenging aspects of cosplay creation? What about some of the more rewarding aspects? 

Well, when it comes to cosplay and prop fabrication, you get into a sort of groove, right? At least, I do. The first step is to just get started, know what you’re hoping to get out of cosplay. Then, make the template, cut the foam, paint it, and then call it day. (I’m going to go ahead and say sorry for making other builders cringe by making it sound so simple but hear me out!) The crux of it? When you keep repeating the same steps over and over (and over and over) again, it’s possible to just… get bored of the process. The creativity is still there, sure, but where’s the room for improvement? Where is the spice to it? 

Because of that, I started making it a personal goal to always add something new or different for the next build. Whether that be LEDs, fabric, metal bits, latex, etc. It didn’t matter; it just had to challenge me to get out of my comfort zone. My Variks cosplay is an excellent example of this, where I went from my usual EVA foam armor comfort zone to a wide variety of new (to me) materials like LED eyes, 3D prints, and fabrics (oh, my!). 

I also must mention when all that hard work finally pays off! Back in Guardian Con 2019, I was in my Cayde-6 cosplay and I was in line to meet the loremaster himself, My Name is Byf. Suddenly, the showroom’s lights went out due to an outage. I was confused, but then I noticed Byf and everyone else turned around to face me in this sort of awe-like manner. That’s when I realized, the LED lights I challenged myself to build were the only things lighting up in the building! Moments like that, although one hundred percent not planned, are truly rewarding. 

You are really heckin’ cool, you know that? With Community Focus pieces that highlight cosplay, I love giving cosplayers the opportunity to pay it forward a bit to those just starting out: do you have any advice for newbie cosplayers hoping to leave their own mark on the world?

Oh boy, I love this question! Oftentimes, people turn away from cosplay because they see the professionals out there and think, “Bro, what?! I could never. No time and no money.” And I won’t lie, I still feel like that sometimes. But here’s the thing: when you get up in the morning and put on your favorite t-shirt and a pair of jeans, surprise! You are cosplaying! You are portraying how you want others to perceive you, how you want your look to impact those around you. How you look – how you walk, talk, act – you are your own character! And you should be heckin’ proud of how you look, but why not take that one step further? 

“But Javi, I want to look like a Titan or a four-armed alien!” Well then, I challenge you with this: go get some carboard. Yes, the cardboard that you have in your closet or the trash. Get some duct tape and go ham. The cardboard can be a full raid armor set if you look at it through a creative lens, or even something as small as a Ghost. Watch videos online, learn from them, and then, send me your creations! I want to help, because the cosplay world is amazing and anyone that wants to be a part of it should be. My DMs are always open for anyone interested in how to get started, advice, or just wants to talk about the craft. 

If you could build your dream cosplay, what would it be and why should it be Taniks just so we have an excuse to bring him back again? 

“TaNiKs HaS nO hOuSe. He-” Sorry. Force of habit. Building Taniks would be a meme-love-letter to the Destiny community, I’ll give you that. But memes aside, if I had to pick one, phew – ever since Variks, I realized that I really liked the challenge of making more non-Guardian cosplays. If it’s going to be in the Destiny universe, I have always had my eye on the Vex. Perhaps a Minotaur? They just look so imposing! But I’m trying to have the patience to wait and see what Lightfall delivers, so much opportunity awaits! 

OK, OK, Destiny, right, focus, Hippy – let’s talk gaming! What is your go-to class and what’s your build like? 

I need to treat lightly here, don’t I? Well, I’ve been running Hunter since the Destiny 1 beta, but ever since Beyond Light I’ve been switching it up every Season with my Warlock and my Titan. They need love too, OK!? I just like playing all three. Guess you could call me an Omni Guardian (aye, get it, puns!). One thing all of my Guardians have in common is their love for Arc. You’ll find my Arcstrider Hunter flowing like lightning, chaining arc throughout enemies and clearing rooms in seconds. Chaos rains from my fingertips as a Stormcaller Warlock and nothing is too big for my earth-shattering, Thundercrashing Titan. 

Whenever the opportunity allows it, Trinity Ghoul is my go-to Exotic. Though, I do have a notorious reputation with Tractor Cannon in the Crucible… Needless to say, I am very excited for Arc 3.0. I’m sure that’s totally isn’t obvious with my gushing, [laughs].

Speaking of your own personal tailoring of the Destiny experience with a build that feels cozy: if you could add anything to Destiny 2 – even a brand-new subclass – what would it be? And no worries, no judgement here, I’ve said I wanted pettable animals in the past and body pillows, so go nuts [laughs]. 

The day I can pet my Ghost, that’ll be the day! He’s gone through so much. If I could add anything, it’s got to be a room for our Guardians at the Tower. Where do they sleep? What’s their setup? Do they have an obscene amount of RGB lights to gamerfy their sweet digs? I need answers! Just a small space to show off the trophies we’ve obtained out in the wilds of space. Whether that be the head of Taniks or a framed expired ramen coupon on the wall. (Bungie, I refuse to dismantle mine.) Also… can I just hug Variks, please? Is that too much to ask? 

You’ve talked about The Witch Queen on your channels, looking back at how the game has evolved since launch, what are your thoughts on how the game has changed? Any changes you’d like to see implemented in future updates? 

I’ve pretty much grown up with Destiny, it’s been my go-to since the start of high school and now as a college graduate. The future looks bright for Omni Props, and I just have to think Destiny (and the team at Bungie!) for helping me find my spark. Seeing the game grow from a shooter with story elements on the side to now having its story front and center without sacrificing the fun of hacking and slashing aliens is truly remarkable. I always grab some popcorn for the raid races and love actively feeling the sense of excitement as a secret mission has been discovered by the community. I also noticed a big change with our Guardians and how they are actively participating in the story as it goes on. It was something I really wanted, and I hope it can be expanded on even further in the future!

But the best part, crossplay! Playing with longtime friends and not needing to worry about what playform they play on is so special to me.

If you could say one thing to the Destiny community at large, what would it be? 

Keep on forging fantasy into reality, Guardians. Continue to make the difference in people’s lives that I’ve seen you all do time and time again, be it with charity initiatives like the Bungie Foundation, or just helping others feel at home. And if you can spread some creativity and kindness, go wild! Just keep being you, that’s all I have to say. 

Thank you so much for hanging out with us, Javi! We definitely need to do it again in the future. Before we let you go forth and create even more epicness, is there anyone you want to shout out in your Community Focus? Also, where can folks find you to support your future work? 

I want to firstly thank my family and loved ones for cheering me on and supporting me ever since I started building Lego sets. You know who you are! Thank you to the Destiny cosplay community for the support and new friendships that I’ve made along the way; let’s keep crafting some crazy stuff! 

And, of course, thank you to everyone at Bungie for allowing me to live my sci-fi fantasies, and thank you Liana for taking the time to set up this Community Focus. This seriously one of my biggest dreams being fulfilled, and little Javi with his Hunter cosplay back in 2014 would be freaking out right now! 

As to where people can find me, I’m on Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok. I post progress shots, completed work, videos, and more of my projects from all types of video games. Stop on by and let’s forge fantasy into reality together. 

If you couldn’t tell already, we are absolutely enthralled by the creative passion that the Destiny 2 community has. Y’all are truly something special and we’re going to keep saying it until you believe us. Every single Guardian that leads life with an open heart, an inquisitive mind, and a kind soul is vital to making life just a little more beautiful. So, thank you for continuing to share your beautiful creations and inspiration with us, because let me tell you: you all never fail to surprise us. And more than that, you inspire us to keep reaching for the beauty of human connection and finding those things that spark joy and self-betterment.  

Until next time, be kind, kick butt, and never stop chasing your happiness. 

“I should go,” 

<3 Hippy 

This week at Bungie, it’s Mechs vs Monsters… evolved! 

It’s officially been over a month since The Witch Queen launched. Savathûn has been defeated. Rhulk dished out some literal kicks to the face in Vow of the Disciple. Worms have been launched, weapons have been crafted, and Guardians have dug deep into the Seasonal story. We had an accolades trailer released this week with some fun quotes about the experience of playing the expansion. We’re proud of where The Witch Queen landed, and we’re ever-thankful to all who jumped in to play. 

Don’t get us wrong, the train doesn’t stop with some nice quotes about the game! The future is bright, and we have work to do as we reach further into the stars. Season of [REDACTED] is just a couple of months out, and the team is hard at work tying down work items and jamming through test passes.  Once we get a little deeper into the Season, we’ll start talking about what’s to come in sandbox updates, general quality-of-life passes, and more. We have a few beats on our calendar to hit before then, spread between Grandmasters, Gambit Labs, Trials Labs, and Guardian Games. Next week is a bit packed, so we’re spending some time this week breaking it down. First up, we have a fun community vote to discuss… 

Mechs vs Monsters Evolved 

While we’re just reaching spring, it’s already time for us to start thinking about fall on the development team. We all had a great deal of fun last year with our first armor set community vote: Dinosaurs vs Monsters. Truth be told, we didn’t know what to expect! After 200,000 votes were cast, Team Dino won with 81% of the vote. We’ll always look back fondly at the wave of memes and fun that came, but it’s time to look forward… to Festival of the Lost 2022! 

This year, we’re hosting our second community vote. #TeamMechs vs #TeamMonsters is about to begin. Players will have the opportunity to vote for a featured armor ornament set in the Eververse, available to earn with Bright Dust or purchase with Silver. Anyone who casts a vote for either set and has played since 2/22/22 will qualify for a unique in-game emblem to celebrate participation. 

Monsters are clawing back. After a long soak in some radioactive waste, they seem to have… evolved?! Emerging once more from the caves, lagoons, and spoiled oceans of our world, monsters are looking to make a comeback this year. Dinos, you may have won last year, but watch your backs. These monsters may be coming for you if they secure the win. 

Mechs have entered the fight. Guardians are all about protecting humanity, but sometimes they need a little extra armor when engaging in battle against what some would call monsters hiding in the darkness of other worlds. Mobile suits aren’t just for cancelling the apocalypse, mind you. They’re also for show. 

So, how’s this going to work? 

*For players who are subscribed to newsletters and have been active since The Witch Queen but not getting any Bungie emails, we advise providing a new email address and going through the verification process on your Bungie.net profile.

We’ll also be keeping an eye out for fun community art. The amount of memes and killer artwork that we saw last year continues to impress, and we’re excited to see what you cook up this year! If you’re inspired by the concepts above and want to rally others to vote for your favorite, make sure to tag any of your creations with #TeamMechs or #TeamMonsters and #Destiny2Art as you share them! We’ll be pulling submissions for future Art of the Week sections. 

Cheers to all who vote, and let the best set win! 

Last Call: Unbroken 

Survival is the name of the game when it comes to our competitive Crucible playlist. We offer Powerful rewards to players who take on the challenge each Season as they reach for the Power cap, alongside a slew of Triumphs to earn. For those who wish to display their Crucible mastery, we offer the Unbroken Seal and Title. It takes three full Seasons of reaching Legend in the competitive playlist, alongside other Triumph requirements, to earn the Unbroken Seal. This week, we have a short update from the development team on future availability of this Seal. 

Dev Team: For the Season 19 release, we are taking a pass on Glory and how players engage with it in the Crucible. What playlists offer Glory? How do players earn it? What does “becoming legend” look like? While we can’t answer any of these questions just yet, we wanted to plant a flag in the sand for the timeframe. 

As part of our updates for Glory, the Unbroken Seal and Title will be retired. Due to the multi-Season requirements of ‘Glory (Reach Legend three Seasons in a row), Season 16 (i.e., right now) will be the last Season for players to start their journey to Unbroken. As such, we wanted to keep players informed on our plans. 

Currently, the Unbroken Seal requirements are significantly more time consuming than any other Seal, and we would like to bring it into line with the other Seals. Players who attain the Seal prior to its retirement will still be able to display it, including a gilding count. 

We are intending on replacing it with a similarly challenging Crucible Seal – just with less required multi-Season commitment. We will have more information on that as we get closer to Season 19. 

So, if you’re just starting your march towards the Unbroken title, now is the time to get your Legend ranks completed in the competitive playlist. We’ll have reminders each Season to keep players informed and will provide updates on our future Crucible plans over the next few Seasons. 

In the short term, we do have another title coming to the Crucible. We know you’re howling for a bit more information but expect additional details on that when we get closer to next season. 

A Week for Rituals 

Next week, we have quite a bit going on in the ritual game of Destiny 2. Grandmaster Nightfalls make their first appearance of the Season, along with our first Gambit Labs week! If that’s not enough, we also have Trials: Freelance taking place  next weekend, so there’s something for everyone. 

Grandmasters of the Universe, Season of the Risen Edition 

On Tuesday, April 5, Grandmaster Nightfalls will make their return to Destiny 2. For those that may not have taken on a Grandmaster Nightfall before, this activity is the top of the mountain when it comes to strike content. Here’s a quick breakdown: 

Of course, what would the challenge be without a little loot at the end of it? The Conqueror Seal and Title can be earned by those who complete Grandmaster Nightfalls and associated challenges. If you’ve already completed Conqueror, you’ll have the ability to gild your title as well by completing all of the Grandmaster Nightfalls during a given Season! As a reminder, if you are gilding, all Nightfalls will immediately be available to complete – no more waiting until the end of the Season.

Next week, we have the return of some nice Adept rewards for you to earn. Palindrome and PLUG ONE.1 will be available to drop once you’ve completed the activity. Adept weapon mods, Ascendant Shards, and Enhancement Prisms can also be earned upon activity completion. 

Double Vanguard rep will also start flowing next week, so if you’re still enjoying reputation rewards from Zavala, it will be a great time to run through some Nightfalls, or a quick jaunt through the Vanguard Ops playlist. 

Gambit Labs: Invasion Swap

Next Tuesday, Gambit Labs will make its first appearance in Destiny 2! Now that we’ve gotten a slew of bug fixes and some minor tuning in place through the last few hotfixes, it’s time to hit the Labs. Both Gambit matchmaking nodes (Main and Freelance) will be updated to feature Gambit Labs: Invasion Swap. This iteration of Gambit will change up who gets invasions during the Motes phase of the activity. When a given team reaches 25 and 75 banked Motes, the opposing team will be given one invasion. 

Strategies might change in a few ways, for both invaders and bankers. Go for largest Blockers to start? Stagger large and small Blockers to keep your opponents on their toes? Invade immediately when the opposing team banks enough Motes, or stick back to fight Blockers and wait for them to build up a few Motes? We’re excited to see how players take on the twist. 

Gambit reputation will also be doubled for the week that Gambit Labs is active. We appreciate everyone who’s been hopping in and checking out all of the changes we’ve made to Gambit since the Season began! We’re looking forward to continued feedback around the mode as more Labs begin to roll out. 

Trials: Freelance 

Next Friday, April 8, Trials: Freelance will return. This playlist consists of Solo players only, so keep your head on a swivel. Communications will be limited, and you never quite know which one of your teammates will be a lone wolf.

This offer will appear as an additional matchmaking node in the Crucible Director. Grab your desired passage from Saint-14 in the Tower, maximize your Power, and give it a try. End up in a group with Guardians you vibe with? Keep an eye out for messages and party invites, as we’ve seen some great stories about players fireteaming up after a match and reaching the Lighthouse! 

As always, we’ll be watching player feedback throughout the week. Whether you hit Grandmasters, Gambit Labs, or Trials: Freelance, we look forward to hearing your thoughts! 

Another Hotfix in the Pipe 

 

Since launch, the team has been grinding out bug fixes left and right. Next week, we have Hotfix 4.0.0.6 going live on Tuesday, and the Player Support team has all the details on downtimes and downloads. 

This is their report. 

HOTFIX 4.0.0.6 

Next Tuesday, April 5, Destiny 2 Hotfix 4.0.0.6 will be released. View our Destiny Server and Update Status page for maintenance times, as well as the timeline below:   

For a full list of emergent issues in Destiny 2, players can review our Known Issues article. Players who observe other issues should report them to our #Help Forum. 

A TikTok for Your Thoughts?  

 

Hippy: OK, so. Bear with me here. Usually, we share gameplay clips, awesome musical tributes, and similarly styled videos crafted to creative perfection. They are awesome, don’t get me wrong, but this week we wanted to do something a little different, so we are diving into the wild world of TikTok and Snapchat. Yeah, big things. Wild things. Hold onto your butts.  

Movie of the Week: Accept my invite, you cowards 

Movie of the Week: Think Snapchat but then make it worm 

And for the cherry on top, a pretty nifty account that breaks down tidbits of Destiny goodness:  

Movie of the Week, Bonus: Rhulk 

Stomp to the Left, Stomp to the Right 

 

Sam: It’s Thursday, Guardians! This week we are back with Rhulk, because of course we are, as well as a very rad 3D-printed Titan we all know and love, wrapping up with friendship, because friendship.   

AOTW: –Vow of the Disciple— 

AOTW: Saint-14  

AOTW Bonus Round: The Fire of Friendship // [FIRE]TEAM

THE [FIRE] OF FRIENDSHIP //#Destiny2 #DestinyTheGame #DestinyArt #Destiny2Art #Blender3D @A_dmg04@FreebirdCreates @kaz_phd @SixF00tDwarf @TowerM0m @Cozmo23
@rDESTNYCREATION pic.twitter.com/wUGZc9OODR

— vism0kers-3 (@vism0kers) March 29, 2022

And for the millionth time, thank you so much for tagging us and using #AOTW #MOTW in your creative work. It’s truly a light in our week to see the magic you and your brain creates so keep it up, please. 😊 

Cap those Zones 

What are your plans for the weekend? I was running through my chores list just yesterday, slightly groaning at the notion of trimming trees, sweeping pine needles from the walkway, and washing windows. While somewhat tedious, I do know a treat will be waiting for me at the end of my labors. We have our first Trials Labs of the Season coming tomorrow. 

(Well, April 1. I have no idea when you’re reading this, so might as well be specific, right?) 

Zone Capture is making a return, alongside some Double Trials reputation. No major tweaks to the mode, just a fun spin to push players out of cover, or to take different approaches to a given map as they seek a trip to the Lighthouse. I’ll likely be rolling solo a bit to prep for Freelance next weekend, so feel free to throw me an emote if we match up. Let’s stick close together and try to shoot the same targets. Who knows, maybe we’ll snag a W. If not, all good. There’s rep to earn and engrams to focus. 

Cheers, 

dmg04 

Happy Friday, Guardians! I don’t know about you, but these Community Focus posts have been such a fun addition to my week. Just speaking for myself, I have found dozens of communities that I would have never seen without them. As Liana mentioned last week, the variety of the Destiny community is magical, and today’s Community Focus is nothing short of that. 

Hullo, I’m Caseyroo! Also known as Casey, Gremlin, Gam Gam, and sometimes Grandma. Don’t let my youthful appearance fool you, I have a not-so-secret affinity for house slippers, naps, and early bird specials. I’m from Portland, Oregon, though I grew up in Southern California.  

Gaming started early for me, with my childhood best friends that lived up the street. We spent summers playing anything and everything on their N64 and sneaking in games on my eldest brother’s off-limits Xbox (Trevor, if you’re reading this, I swear I’m innocent). Many an afternoon was spent still in swimsuits wet from the pool, playing Goldeneye, and cackling at the top of our lungs. Our gaming preferences expanded alongside the evolution of consoles and eventually, I saved up to buy an Xbox of my own and started playing Halo. I was hooked.  

Content creation came much later, once I built my first PC. I was working from home and wanted to make more friends to play games with. Over the years, this has evolved into a creative outlet to share my photography, cooking, and art.

One of my favorite things about asking “How did you get started in gaming?” is reading those responses. As a kid who totally didn’t play on their parent’s PC when they weren’t home, I love that you totally never played on your brothers Xbox either.  

So how did you find Destiny and when did you start playing?   

Destiny 1, upon first hearing about it, felt like a side mission. I was still playing a lot of Halo with my friends and when one of them mentioned the upcoming release to me, I scoffed. There was no way I was going to sink any significant amount of time into that (if my life had a narrator, this would have been a perfect opportunity for them to point out how wrong I was). I preordered anyway and found myself completely in love. 

In June of 2017, I built a PC with a very specific purpose: Destiny 2 gaming. This evolved into gaming and streaming and connecting with friends online but originally it was, well, destined for Destiny. 

That almost sounds like Destiny was made to inspire friendships, I love it! So, what type of content do you like to focus on?  

If we’re talking about the content on my stream, I tend to jump around a lot. My passions away from my PC are cooking and art of all kinds, but my love for Destiny sort of trickled out and found its way there, too. 

I find tremendous enjoyment from painting impactful moments in the game. To take a single frame, study it, put brush to canvas, and share it for others to feel that same thing… That’s pure joy to me. That’s what really inspired me to paint the single frame of Cayde’s final stand. I’d be lying through my teeth if I said that I don’t shed a tear every time I watch that cutscene. Packing all of those feelings into a painting, it’s a sort of catharsis for me.  

As far as cooking and Destiny, I’ve spent ages going through the lore and finding any little mention of food so that I can take inspiration and cook delicious things. I’ve been planning a series of Destiny-themed cooking streams just to share a little bit more of the lore that some folks might have overlooked. 

If we’re talking about what sort of content I enjoy in-game, I love PvE and PvP each for different reasons.  

I enjoy casual PvP with my friends, goofing around and either rolling or getting rolled. For better or worse, we stick together and get those Iron Banana bounties finished. PvE of course has all of that juicy lore, and that has always been a driving factor in my love for the game. Raid day with my clan is every Friday, and it’s a day I start looking forward to on Saturday morning the week before. I’m lucky enough that my best friends play the game, and we’ve gotten to experience so much of it together. From everyday bounties to day-one raids, it’s just nice to be able to connect with the people I love despite the distance between us.  

I’ve said it so many times before, but Destiny provides a universe in which I love to exist. The depth of the lore, the beauty of my surroundings, engaging activities like dungeons and raids… I love it all.  

I’ve been into a few of your art streams and honestly (as seen in the photos above) you are magically talented, and your community is filled with some of the kindest beans I have met on the internet. 

Alright, you know I’ve got to ask. What is your main class and your absolute favorite weapons? 

Oh, boy. “Who do you main?” or anything along those lines is always a polarizing question and I am afraid I might have a rather boring answer. I have mained Hunter from the very beginning, creating my Titan and Warlock a few months into Destiny 2. This Season, however— with the release of Void 3.0 — I have a much harder time picking one character over the others. I’ve been saying a lot recently that before Season 16 I have never experienced a Season where I didn’t prefer one over the rest. Right now, I honestly love them all for different reasons. And I always keep my characters lookin’ fresh… Calliope’s Lullaby on Orpheus Rigs with the Seasonal Eververse armor? Chef’s kiss.  

 As far as weapons go, Huckleberry will always be my baby and I still very much enjoy using Cartesian Coordinate, despite no longer having the particle deconstruction mod (insert “look how they massacred my boy” meme here). Back in the day, Better Devils was my PvP mainstay, and 21% Delirium was a blast in PvE. You’ll still find me zooming around the crucible with some kind of Hand Cannon in hand. Also, my friends and I have an understanding that if I put on three Shotguns, it’s gremlin time and I will be booping everything off the map. Let me live my life.  

You may have to teach me the way of the Shotgun because this (*cough* I’ve been playing for 6 years *cough*) Warlock still cannot figure out how to hit the broad side of a barn with one. What kind of vibe does your channel maintain?   

If you were to ask my community, I think the top descriptive words would probably be cozy and friendly… and Ruby (my little canine companion, she’s honestly the star of the show).  I have a relatively soft voice and a lot of people seem to find it relaxing, so adding the gently detailed brushstrokes of an art stream or the rhythmic sound of a knife on a cutting board makes for an especially tranquil setting. Destiny streams vary widely, sometimes they’re calm and sometimes they tend to be full of… I’m not sure what to call it, other than manic gremlin energy. Some days I will laugh-cry until my makeup is running down my face.

Whatever the feel of the stream may be that day, it will always be a safe space. We’ll respect your pronouns, we’ll celebrate your wins, and we’ll commiserate with you on the days that feel like losses. We can have open and honest discussions about mental health and laugh at cat meme videos in the span of one stream.  I couldn’t even begin to say how grateful I am for my community.  

I’ve just started a new painting of the Nine Lives Shell! I’m going to do a charity raffle for it once it’s finished. I haven’t quite nailed down the details, but I’ll have all of the info on my Twitter at the end of the month. 

Beyond that, I have about a million different Destiny-related art pieces I want to work on in the coming months, so there will be a lot of art streams to look forward to. I do cooking streams pretty often (they’ve been on pause alongside the release of The Witch Queen), and so Sundays will soon be for cooking streams once again. The March 27th stream will be Destiny themed! 

I stream on Twitch four or five evenings per week, usually starting between 4 and 6 pm Pacific. My schedule does vary though. The easiest way to keep up with me is on Twitter or Discord! 

You can also find me on TikTok and Instagram. If you’re swinging by Taco Bell, I’m two spicy potato tacos and some chips and cheese (and a Baja Blast, obviously), thank you. 

Destiny has brought an immeasurable number of enriching moments to my life. With each passing Season, I find more things to love about the game itself and the community at large. I am so grateful for the friends I’ve made and the bonds we’ve forged.  

To all of the Bungie employees that have and continue to make Destiny what it is: I am incredibly grateful to be able to enjoy every bit of it. Thank you for bringing a little bit of magic into our daily lives. I am so enamored with what you’ve created, and I am so excited for everything that’s on the horizon. 

To my stream community:  Your support over the years has been unconditional and invaluable. I feel endlessly lucky to know and interact with all of you every day. Thank you for allowing me to share with you, grow with you, and experience this game I cherish with you. To be able to share my passion for games, cooking, and even art… I’ve struck gold.  

Clarification of Account Security Policies

Player Support Report

Winter is over!

 

Another week, another report from the ever-diligent Player Support Team. This is the team that works tirelessly to track down all reported issues from players, no matter the size of the issue. They don’t have capes, but maybe they should. While we look into cape sizing, the team’s latest report centers around Rahool’s destination materials, Devour timers, and more.  

This is their report. 

Raid Emblem Update

We have hit a snag in our processes to send players who completed the Vow of the Disciple raid during the 48-hour Contest Mode. We hope to have a resolution soon and will notify players once the emblems are distributed. 

Hotfix 4.0.0.5

PS4 HDR Update

Known Issues

Takedown Clarifications

Google has confirmed that the accounts that have submitted fraudulent legal requests to YouTube have been terminated and will no longer have access to Google products. All fraudulent submissions from these accounts will be reversed (some have already, the rest should come through shortly). The processing of these takedowns was an enforcement mistake by Google, and beyond rescinding the strikes and reinstating the videos, they are also working on process improvements to reduce the likelihood of any similar mistakes in the future. Please be patient as we work with YouTube to correct the fraudulent DMCA notices. In the meantime, we ask that you please refrain from harassing any member of the community or any employee of CSC. 

Going forward we will be allowing certain Destiny music tracks to be uploaded to channels for archival purposes. For those creators interested in this type of content creation, the guidelines below should be reviewed:  

Movies and Thangs

 

Sam: Happy Twabsday, Guardians! Every single week you all make our lives so much brighter by submitting movies and art for us to go through. This week was another where we totally could have picked 4,000 winners, if we could, but honestly, I think out blog might crash if we hyperlinked than many posts. So, instead, you get these! 

Movie of the Week: Time to Improvise

Movie of the Week: Axion Bolts

If a Tree Falls in the Forest but No One Is Around to Hear It, Can It Win AOTW?

 

Hippy: What does the title of this week’s AOTW section mean? Who knows! Moving on. This week’s art picks are a hodge-podge of creativity, clever meme-ness (that’s a word, don’t look it up), and continued tributes to the Vow of the Disciple raid boss with legs for days. Here is this week’s Art of the Week picks!

Art of the Week: Drown in the Deep

Art of the Week: You Dropped This, Queen

B-b-b-b-bonus round! 

Art of the Week: Now we want basketball in Destiny, thanks…

Want a chance to get your art or nifty videos nominated for some limelight goodness? Don’t forget to tag and share with #MOTW, #AOTW, and #Destiny2Art to get noticed. Go on ahead and tag those Bungie channels to feel extra cozy with your submissions.