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0 Are you not entertained?
Many in the Destiny community have felt the past two months linger. General sentiment for Episode: Revenant so far is low. The tonics system for loot makes Onslaught: Salvation feels lacklustre in the gameplay department. Narrative deployment has also shown cracks. Some players feel the story has few stakes, despite the enticing set-up of the Eliksni’s “Kell of Kells” prophecy.
With Act 2 now out, does nostalgia turn the page on this Episode for the better?
Story
Act 2 focuses on Fikrul’s incursion of a long abandoned fan-favourite space: The Prison of Elders. First featured in Destiny 1, we first met Fikrul and the Scorn here during the Forsaken expansion six years ago.
Now Fikrul is back to search the ancient ruins for something. It’s down to us to go through the challenges of the prison to locate and neutralise Fikrul. A mix of Cabal Shadow Legion, Scorn, Dread, Taken, and Lucent Hive awaits you. The power of the Echo changing the prison and its inmates from what you remember in Destiny 1. You’ll see them in this act’s activities: Tomb of Elders, and Contest of Elders.
There are new tonic recipes to discover through more of Eido’s Fieldwork missions. In Act 1, Fieldwork missions were bugged as voice lines did not appear. I caught up thanks to this video by Esoterickk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nki5-VoporU
Bungie fixes this in Act 2 and adds two more entries as well. The dialogue in these missions acts as vignettes between our allies. These focus on Eido feeling the pressure of the task at hand, Misraaks’s violent curse worsening, and Variks and Eramis’s mentorship. I sympathised with Eido during the Moon Fieldwork. Eramis scolds Eido for not being perfect and guilt-tipping her. It reminded me of Osiris’ frustration during the Lightfall campaign. We wasting time and shouting “We need to do better!” at us when learning about Strand.
Act 2 concludes with three main threads going into Act 3.
Fikrul was searching the Prison of Elders for the corpse of Skolas, the former Kell of the House of Wolves and self-proclaimed “Kell of Kells” during the House of Wolves expansion of Destiny 1. Guardians killed Skolas in the original Prison of Elders activity, as part of the “Skolas’s Revenge” event in 2015. After our failed attempts to interfere, Fikrul used his abilities to reanimate Skolas. In the process, we learn of Riis’ collapse, a glimpse of the Reef Wars, and important details of the Echo on Fikrul’s staff. Importantly, the “Echo of Riis” (fan-name) is alive, can sing, and is searching for someone worthy enough to possess it.
Through Eido’s Fieldwork, we found a communications device in the Prison of Elders. It allowed us to talk to Ixis, the lost House Salvation Apothecary. She agreed to help Eido with the tonic that could cure Misraaks’ curse, once we locate and free some of Fikrul’s captives – including herself.
Finally thanks to bribing Spider with a comic book in exchange for a pocket-sized EMP device, we free Eramis from Vanguard custody. Crow turns a blind eye to us breaking Eramis out. Eido convinces him that Eramis is worthy of redemption, or at least a chance to try. Crow also admits that we need help to take down Fikrul, a task he trusts our Guardian with. Any mistake Eramis makes is ours to bear as well, which the Vanguard won’t view favourably. For now Eramis is on reconnaissance, attempting to track Fikrul’s next location after escaping the prison with Skolas.
Activities
The main activity of Act 2 is the Tomb of Elders and Contest of Elders. Both are built as a rogue-like activity similar to Riven’s Lair and The Coil from Season of the Wish. In both, you’ll be completing a lap of encounters around the Prison of Elders, going between combat encounters in themed cells, traversal puzzles, and a boss encounter. In Tomb of Elders, you’ll face just a single lap of the prison (4 encounters total) with limited rewards.
The real meat is in the multi-lap Challenge of Elders. Not only is this mode more difficult as standard, but also adds a reputation mechanic – Warden’s Judgement. In each encounter features bonus objectives to complete, success or failure of this task determines if the Warden Servitor favours or judges you unworthy.
If you are in good standing (Warden’s Favour) more loot chests will spawn at the end of each lap, and you can skip a number of earlier encounters of the next lap. This comes at the cost of encounters becoming more difficult with traps, stronger enemies, and time limits for bonus objectives becoming shorter.
Being in negative standing (Warden’s Punishment) loot chests spawn, and the encounter difficulty is decreased until you regain Warden’s Favour.
You’ll face 4 laps of the prison (16 encounters total) in Challenge of the Elders. I frequently found myself at maximum favour with the Warden, so the average run was around 30-40 minutes. Faster times are possible with coordinated fireteams, according to developers.
Loot and Artifact Additions
Act 2 adds one reprised Splicer weapon and two new Dark Ether weapons. All are earnable through tonics and both Prison of Elders activities.
Many Guardians that favour the Crucible are excited to see the return of Gridskipper, a Rapid-Fire fire void pulse rifle. The Splicer’s Surge origin trait perfectly fills the low handling and reload speed gap of the rapid fire archetype. Combined with a range of perks aimed at improving the weapon’s consistency such as Lone Wolf, Zen Moment, Headseeker, and Perpetual Motion, it’s worth taking a look at.
Noxious Vetiver is the first of the Dark Ether weapons from this act, and is a precision frame Arc SMG. The overflowing magazine from the origin trait makes it interesting for PvE players. Those extra rounds can apply pressure to priority targets through combinations like Attrition Orbs & Target Lock or Loose Change & Jolting Feedback. Alternatively, you can mow down hordes with classic combinations like Unrelenting paired with Desperate Measures or Redirection.
Finally, Scavenger’s Fate is a void precision (no slugs) shotgun in the same style as Retold Tale. It features the tried and true PvE combination of Repulsor Brace & Destabilising Rounds for void builds. Beyond that, it’s hard to see where this weapon might fit into your loadout. It is the preferred archetype for PvP, but lacks perks outside of Discord & Harmony, or Slideshow & Closing Time. PvE is not much better outside that void synergy roll. Feeding Frenzy & Surrounded isn’t anything new but it does the job.
If there are any weapon rolls we’ve missed that you like, feel free to let us know in the comments!
Additions to the artifact focus on Arc playstyles and getting in the thick of combat. The list includes:
- “Authorised Mods: Melee” – Energy costs of all armour mods affecting your melee are heavily discounted (eg. Heavy Handed, Hands-On, etc.)
- “Emergency Flare” – Emergency Reinforcements armour mod consumes all but 1 armour charge when activated.
- “The Thick of It” – Rapid final blows while surrounded grants armour charge.
Tonic of Brawling boost: While surrounded, weapons have increased handling. Swords gain increased heavy attack charge rate instead. - “Curative Orbs” – Creates an Orb of Power the first time you break the elemental shield of a PvE target, or the shield of a Guardian using their Super in PvP/Gambit.
Tonic of Brawling boost: Grants a small amount of health when you pick up an Orb of Power, Elemental pickup (Stasis Shard, Solar Firesprite, Arc Ionic Trace, or Void Breach), or destroy a Strand Tangle. - “Arc Compounding” – Targets affected by Blind take more damage from all Arc sources.
On top of this you’ll want to check out changes to roaming supers. As part of the developer livestream, Bungie stated they wanted to move these styles of supers towards using them on cooldown to clear waves of weaker enemies. In patch 8.1.5, the charge rates of these supers have been increased by roughly 3x when in-combat, and given a 33-50% damage increase to high-priority PvE enemies (Champions and Mini-bosses) to align with that aim.
Act 2 Holiday Events
As the episode draws on beyond the narrative content, you’ll be wondering what else there is to do besides chase down rolls or other challenges.
If you are a PvP minded-player, Iron Banner returns November 26th until December 10th 2024. Overseen by Valus Saladin Forge, this contest of heroes rewards unique armour and weapons for those that dare to enter.
Even if you aren’t a PvP player, the new Iron Intent armour set is set to be a hot-ticket item for fashion. It moves away from previous sets with a distinctly Nordic stone-carved theme. A direction the community has been wanting for a while, closer to the original knightly Iron Companion and Rise of Iron sets.
The new weapon to chase from Valus Forge’s armoury is a Stasis-flavoured rocket sidearm – Tinasha’s Mastery.
December 10th marks the start of the next holiday event: The Dawning. Eva and her paracausal oven will be back until December 31st. Bake cookies, deliver them to NPC vendors, and earn gifts in return – beyond the warm fuzzy feeling of the festive spirit!
This year, the event armour’s theme is “celestial space dragons” as shown from the Bungie developer livestream. This armour boasts improvements to the shader placement system, focusing on animated textures and glows.
You may also be interested in the new Mistral Lift void adaptive burst linear fusion rifle. It contains a range of perks useful for boss damage including Withering Gaze, Reconstruction, Envious Assassin, Bait & Switch, Firing Line, and Precision Instrument alongside the VEIST and Dawning origin traits. If LFR’s aren’t your thing, the full arsenal is being reprised including Avalanche, Albedo Wing, and Glacioclasm.
Dawning also has some quality-of-life updates, Bungie reports as part of their developer livestream. Drop rates for all ingredients are being increased, as well as the drop rate of Xur’s Strange Coins during the event – as an alternative to exotic class armour focusing in Festival of the Lost. Finally, the Dark Frosting ingredient now works with both Strand and Stasis elements.
Closing Thoughts
Act 2 of Revenant brings the narrative punch that was missing from Act 1, with a few nods to veterans of the series, but still feels strangely hollow yet also claustrophobic. It’s clear where story progression has been streamlined to remove the time-gates. I tried to play a little slower this time around, doing Eido’s Fieldwork missions before tackling the Prison proper. Despite the detour, I managed to understand the gameplay loop and complete Act 2’s story quicker than Act 1.
The Prison of Elders has always been an interesting location in Destiny’s universe, yet with it put on show here for a third time, it really feels how it looks. Worn, tired, and pushed out for the sake of nostalgia with no real payoff or locations that veterans really remember. Not even from Destiny 2’s original iteration in the “Warden of Nothing” strike. There are minor hints to the old Prison layout, audio cues, and enemies, but not much of substance.
Upon reflection, the Vesper’s Host dungeon added a lot of meat to Act 1’s bones. This is despite not being directly tied to the episode’s story, and being locked behind a separate purchase or the Final Shape deluxe edition. The Ice Breaker puzzle quest to get the catalyst, unlocking the bonus chest for deterministic dungeon loot, the sheer chaos of the final boss encounter of that dungeon adds to the experience that Act 1’s activities lacked.
In Act 2, there is nothing hiding the fact that you’re going to be in the Prison of Elders for a long while. As the only activity on offer, besides the Dawning or any hidden events, I’m not confident that the Contest of Elders will keep people playing. It does pay out well in materials, and can be shorter than Onslaught if you demonstrate some level of gameplay expertise, but repetition will wear down desire eventually.
Hope for the Future
I fear that will be the story of the whole Episode: a compelling narrative with flawed delivery. Activities that don’t sink their teeth in. Loot that I’ve largely outgrown the need for, and the reintroduction of inflexibility and fear-of-missing-out (FOMO). I might not need these weapons right now, but there might come a day with the right build or balance changes when these weapons will fill a niche. If I don’t hoard them now, I can’t get them ever again due to the lack of crafting. Yet I can’t bring myself to grind for them through activities that aren’t satisfying to play.
Unfortunately, it’s a negative loop that feeds itself. Ultimately the community is looking ahead at Episode: Heretic, hoping the content delivery changes work better with forward planning rather than a rushed experiment. That is unless Revenant Act 3 can deliver a bombshell – both in narrative and gameplay. Something that makes players pay attention and remember the episode for the better.
The final review of Episode: Revenant will come when Act 3 launches in January 2025.
Check out the previous article on Act 1 here: https://www.thumbculture.co.uk/destiny-2-episode-revenant-act-1-review
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