Tales from The Taken King: It’s great to be a noob again

Like all longstanding games or series, Destiny’s greatest problem has always been stagnation, which is something many different elements, such as narrative strength and activity variety, have both alleviated and worsened over the past year. In any case, the second Destiny runs out of content, it runs out of players. Its weekly rotation, supported by the likes of Nightfalls and raids, has helped keep players around, but even the most tenacious of grinders have a limit. There needs to be something to work toward, a reason to keep playing. For some time, Destiny came up short here. But following the release of The Taken King expansion, the game has motivation in spades.

New is the word on every Guardian’s tongue. New areas, new gear, new mechanics—The Taken King is new to its core. It makes radical, much-needed changes to dozens of core systems on top of adding more content than the game’s previous expansions combined. It fleshes out the old and applies the same depth of care to the new. As a result, Destiny is once again rife with challenge and, more importantly, discovery.

Discovery is the driving factor here. At this point, early adopters and even 2015-adopters know every nook and cranny of Destiny, including The Dark Below and The House of Wolves. Their strategies, rewards and secrets are commonplace. So for veterans, The Taken King is an opportunity to restart, to re-experience the sheer joy of having no idea what they’re doing. Everyone’s a newcomer this time around. Everyone has to find new gear, learn the new subclasses, mentally map out the new areas, devise new boss strategies and plenty more.

But the playing field is at once equal and divided. It’s open to and fair for everyone, but not everyone playing plays the same. Veterans who have braved the Vault, slain Crota and trounced every Elder in the Prison know what makes Destiny tick. They have the skills and knowledge to most effectively approach The Taken King’s newness, which is an appealing challenge in and of itself. How can I level up fastest? What’s the best source of gear? What are the most effective skills? How do I spend these new-fangled resources? And why the hell does that boss have so much health? These are the questions that drive Destiny’s most dedicated, which makes for a very different experience than “Should I do my weekly raids or Nightfalls first?”

This is also apparent in gear. With the new Light system, Attack and Defense values are everything, so there’s no time to get sentimental. Year Two equipment is leaps and bounds above everything before it, meaning all that Crota, Vault and Trials gear is only good for standard Crucible and fashion contests. Shard it, store it, throw it out—make way for the new outfits.

Now, it’s easy to look at this sort of progression and think, “Wow, all my old stuff is worthless now.” An easy counter to that would be the fact that leaving old gear behind is a standard for MMO expansions that Destiny should be expected to follow. But both views are shortsighted, and pessimistic to boot. And that’s coming from a terminally pessimistic person.

“The old stuff” is far from worthless. In fact, it’s as valuable as the strategies gained from playing through past raids and Nightfalls. The old stuff set the standard for gear, the bar that new equipment will be held to. How else would you know what type of guns you like? And how would we start earning new gear without old stuff to wear out into the field? No, for veteran players their now-antiquated gear is as valuable as their play time; it’s the reason they ask and answer the big questions, and why they can approach TTK so shrewdly. The Taken King doesn’t dismiss old gear; it demands it, at least if you want to scale it quickly.

For many, The Taken King rests atop a foundation of experience. And that foundation reinforces just how different Destiny has become. Engrams are dropping like candy; bounties, missions and quests yield valuable, impactful rewards; we’re fighting Cabal, Fallen, Hive and Vex Taken at the same time. It’s madness out in the Dreadnaught, and even in reconfigured vanilla content. Nobody knows what they’re doing, not fresh-faced newcomers or seasoned veterans. We’re all figuring it out as we go, building our wings mid-fall. But, and that’s a towering Zealot but, we have a foundation to work from. That is precisely why it’s so fun to be green and directionless again: We have no idea what we’re doing, but we know we can do it.