Destiny 2:Forsaken has been out for a week and just like every other DLC that has come out for Destiny in the past there is always plenty of expectation and what you actually end up doing. Forsaken is the largest if not the largest DLC expansion since the Taken King and just like the Taken King, this DLC makes huge changes in the story usually by involving a new big bad ass boss who wants revenge against the Guardians. This time around, it’s not just about the villain wanting revenge but the Guardians wanting revenge as well. How the dynamic has changed. What happened?

Cayde-6 was murdered by Prince Uldren (the one we thought Oryx killed) and his Barons. Who are the Barons? They were once Fallen that have become corrupted and now fight along side of Prince Uldren. There are 8 of them and they’re no joke. Revenge is the motive and although Zavala doesn’t want any part of this. You (your guardian) is taking on this endeavor alone. It’s not going to be easy and you have to formulate a plan if you want to ultimately defeat the Barons and get to Uldren. So instead of focusing on the story of the game and the gameplay. This first impression is going to be more of a guide to help maximize your light level in the order that I did it while describing each new element of the game. Of course, you can take another path but as of right now I’m currently at 522 light which should make me somewhat raid ready at a basic level come September 14th. First things first, let’s show you what to do and then what’s new.

WHERE DO YOU START IN FORSAKEN?

Clean out your inventory

Cleaning out your proverbial weapons closet is the first thing that you should probably do. Get rid of old weapons and weapons that you’ve been hoarding either for sentimental value or just for the sake of hoarding them. They’ll do you no good here. Light level is 600 and the soft cap is 500. So if you’re still holding onto old weapons. Don’t. If you have special or hard to find exotics definitely keep them just store them. Weapons like the Whisper of the Worm for example you’ll want to keep to infuse later. Make a choice about what you want to keep. Weapon and armor drops are directly affected by what you are carrying and not what armor you have equipped. So only keep a few pieces of high level weapons and armor on you to get higher level drops.

Do Public events, as many as you can

After you complete the initials story mission and open up the Tangled Shore reef area. You have work to do. First thing to do is link up with Petra Venj and she will introduce you to pider who is kind of the Godfather of the Tangled Shore. He wants Uldren dead just as much as you and he knows where all of the Barons are but the only way he’ll tell you is you put in some work for him on the Tangled Shore. Everything begins here but don’t jump in all the way right away. Do some public events. Nothing is more essential to leveling up before you actually attempt the full story mission or campaign. I cannot tell you how much easier it is to level up your character by doing public events. There are a ton of advantages to this approach, you’ll always get a drop of some sort. Other players of higher levels will always join in and make things easier. It’ also good to know how to make each public event go heroic to get better drops and the level max is 50 now so if you’re starting the new campaign at 30 that’s 20 levels that you have to account for and most of the weapons that you want to use which are Forsaken legendary or 500 light level weapons require a minimum level of player level of 43 to use. Public events are essential. Yes, they are mundane and require a lot of patience but the Baron battles while not difficult are so much easier when you have powerful weapons combined with high light and player level.

Complete the story, Beat the Barons

After you’ve cleaned out your inventory and got your light level up now you can go ahead and take on Uldren’s Barons. Level 50 isn’t needed to take them on but the higher the light level the better because depending on which Baron you take on first you could be facing a Baron with a low light level requirement or a much higher one. There are 8 Barons in total scattered throughout the Tangled Shore. Find them. Stalk them. Beat them.

NOW THAT YOU’VE COMPLETED THE STORY, GET YOUR LIGHT LEVEL UP

Now that you’ve completed the story you should be close to level 50 and light level 500. If not, no worries. This is where the “fun” begins. The part of Destiny that practically ever player doesn’t particularly care for but understands that it has to be done. THE GRIND. Now is the time to grab your bounties, do more public events, explore, run strikes, missions and crucibles in hopes to get to the optimal level for the raid. Why? The raid is the most important event in the Destiny game. It’s the hardest thing to do and it gives away some of the most coveted loot and if you have it, then you’re somebody in the Destiny universe. You can’t be afraid to spend 6 hrs each time you play to get everything you need. Keep reading to find out what’s new that you need to do to get that loot.

THE DREAMING CITY

After you defeat Uldren you find out that the reasoning behind Uldren killing Cayde-6 is more complex than just a simple act of revenge. We learn that Uldren wasn’t necessarily having crazed visions of his sister Mara Sov. He was being manipulated by an intergalactic power known as Riven. Who based on how things have played out thus far seemed to have used the visions of Mara Sov to manipulate Uldren to steal a piece of the travelers light to reincarnate itself. Unfortunately, Cayde-6 had to die for it to happen. Why is this important? The Dreaming City is ultimately where the “LAST WISH” raid will be held. Once you get your levels up and you’re ready to take on the challenge of the Dreaming City there are a ton of new secrets. Petra Venj has new daily and weekly bounties for you there and there are some high level public events you can also jump right into. The Dreaming City gear and prime engrams will have advantages in terms of the power of the weapons you’re using and for your light level

THE BLIND WELL

Just like the Curse of Osiris introduced the Escalation Protocol, the Dreaming City brings us the Blind Well. It’s basically a horde mode arena environment where you bombarded with scorn enemies that you have to fight off in droves all while staying underneath a protective bubble with whomever is with you switching every 2 minutes to a new. The objective is to stay alive and build up and deposit the light by killing scorn. Throughout the fight you have a shielded yellow bar mini boss called the Servant of the Plague that you must defeat each time so you can switch to a new well, before you can kill that boss you need to kill a certain scorn called an Anathema which will drop a Harmony orb that you need to grab that will allow you to now damage the Servant and break his shield and ultimately a big boss. As of right now there are 3 Tiers each with 4 waves of scorn before fighting a final boss. Each tier gets more difficult and if you’re lucky enough to get past all of the levels once again, you’ll face a boss. The caveat? For each Tier you attempt you get an additional boss. So, Tier 1 you face a single final boss, Tier 2 you face two final bosses and Tier 3, you get the idea. Each time you do this you increase your chances of getting some very needed items most important of them all, Seeds of Light. You’ll need these to gain the ability to add the third and final subclass ability tree to whatever respective character you’re using. I can’t express the importance of trying to do the blind well as much as possible. To do it successfully and quickly, just like the escalation protocol, the more the merrier. Get 7 of your friends preferably at level 510 to start and get it going. Do

GAMBIT

Gambit is easily the most fun I’ve had playing Forsaken thus far. The concept is simple. Kill a random set of enemies selected by the drifter. You and three other fireteam mates go across the map killing these enemies for motes. It’s essentially Gambit currency that you bank in the middle of the arena. The objective is to get to 75 and summon the Primeevil which a huge yellow bar boss that you have to kill before the other team in order to win the round. Simple enough right? Oh no. Gambit has a ton of things to either help your team or severely derail your teams’ efforts. Dying on the map is one way to lose motes. You can collect a maximum of 15 motes at any given time and bank them to increase your score but the problem is getting back to the bank without dying because if you do, you lose all of those motes and precious time trying to get them back after you respawn. While you and your team is collecting motes, so is the other team. If any player at any time banks 5, 10 or 15 motes it closes off your bank and summons an enemy invader which a taken that blocks the bank and until you and your team kill the taken invader you can forget about banking anything. The worst part? The other team can send enemy invaders to your side constantly as long as they’re collecting motes. This can slow down your progress immensely. Last thing and probably the one thing you should worry about the most is the invader from the competing team. After you bank a certain number of motes there’s a portal that will open up adjacent to the bank and someone from your team or someone from the other team can invade either side of the map and kill each other and their whole team. The bad part is you never know where the invader is coming from right away and the invader is protected by an overshield until you kill them. You could lose a ton of motes if you’re not paying attention. It gets worse. If an invader kills you while you’re attempting to kill a Primeevil your death will heal the Primeevil and you’ll have to take that energy back thus prolonging your battle with the Primeevil. Gambit is an intense back and forth battle and there is a constant sense of urgency when you play so you can’t slack off. That’s why it’s such a great addition to Forsaken. Play it, play it often because it does net some pretty good drops.

THINGS TO LIKE ABOUT DESTINY 2:FORSAKEN

The new weapons system – The weapon inventory in Destiny 2: Forsaken is much more manageable and customizable. Unlike before where you had to use one type of weapon in one slot and another type in another this new system focuses on individual play style more so than just focusing on the weapons you’re using. A person like me who loves auto-rifles and scout rifles can use two of the same gun or one of each and go back and forth and shave time off of reloads. The new inventory system is much improved and a welcome change.

So much to do and so much fixed – There is a lot to do in this new DLC and it makes the overall grind much less mundane. This DLC from what I gather is Bungie not only giving us a ton of new content but taking the time to address glaring player issues within the new DLC.

Last Wish Raid – Every Destiny player plays this game and goes through all of that grinding for one reason and one reason only. The Raid. This time around we have an all new raid and an all new Big bad boss. Not sure what route Bungie chose to take with the raid this go round. Is it going to be like the Taken King which was packed with bosses and a ton of mechanics or will it be like Wrath of the Machine, fast paced with minimal mechanics overall but the boss requiring a great deal of mechanics. Who knows? As I said earlier, the raid is where we separate the casual players from the serious ones. Bragging rights are up for grabs with the raid and only those who complete it can talk.

THINGS IN FORSAKEN NOT TO LIKE

There are a few things that are in Destiny 2:Forsaken that I can’t understand why they exist in this DLC at all or are just stupid issues that needs to be patched. As good as Forsaken is, these issues I have with the DLC overall go right into the stupit s*%t category. Why Bungie? Here are some of the things that bother me and to be fair this could just me being super petty and Bungie can fix it with an update but nonetheless they’re annoying, maybe these issues have annoyed you too.

Collecting materials for infusion – This again Bungie? Frikkin why? It seems to me that every other DLC you guys find some way to attempt to incorporate more things to do in the game. How about some additional strikes or a weekly drop for a new legendary, prime or exotic engram? Why this? NEWSFLASH Bungie, Destiny players HATE collecting materials just for the sake of infusion which you find yourself having to do often in this game. Why are masterwork gems so hard to come by? So many questions. The system that was in place prior to the Forsaken DLC wasn’t great but it was just fine. Explain to me the need for this unnecessary change?

Repetitive legendary drops – If I get the Misfit auto rifle one more time I’m going to throw my PS4 controller against the wall. It’s not just the Misfit, I’ve the gotten the same weapon drops repeatedly 6 or 7 times, the same weapons. I thought it was random but it keeps happening.

Glitches, Patches, missing drops, lack of exotics – Umm, Bungie? Fix it…That is all

Is Destiny 2: Forsaken a good pickup?

If you’re a fan or a serious player of Destiny then there’s no question that Destiny 2: Forsaken is a great pickup. I haven’t been this excited about a Destiny DLC since the Taken King. This new add-on offers so much for existing players and new players who want to get into Destiny. There’s new game modes like Gambit that offer another activity for Destiny players who aren’t very good at crucible but want to play head to head matches against other players. This is for them. The raid is for the best of the best and it’s the most anticipated and most fun event in all of Destiny. This DLC is for them. What’s not to like? There aren’t many negatives with the Forsaken DLC. Loot drops and the other stupid issues that exist will eventually get fixed but for now they’re annoying as hell. Even still, it doesn’t take away from how well done this DLC is and how much fun you’ll surely have. Overall, I love this new DLC and if you were apprehensive about getting the DLC or getting into Destiny 2, don’t be. Get this game, play this game and you’ll understand the hype.