Destiny tips and tricks – A guide to help get you started

Destiny release date: September 9 for Xbox One, PS4, PS3 and Xbox 360.

Helping you get the most of out Destiny at the start 

Destiny is finally here and you can buy it now on a number of platforms, including the Xbox One and PS4 – the latter of which you get some exclusive content with. If you’ve only just started sinking in your teeth into the game, we’ve picked up some handy tips along the way that will help you get started in the mammoth adventure that is Destiny.

Don’t be put off by the fact that a huge amount of players will have already reached level 20 or beyond. Destiny is accessible for everyone, and you’ll benefit from having some higher level players in your Fire Team as you’re levelling up.

We’ve also been given some special advice from Bungie itself for things to watch out for in The Crucible.

See also: Destiny review

Destiny Storyline Tips and Tricks

1. A second sub-class opens up at level 15

For further customisation opens, you’ll be able to open up a second sub-class for your Guardian at level 15. These are unique to each class and you can tailor them to your personal play style.

2. You can’t sell items in the store

Instead you’ll need to disassemble them in your inventory, or store them in the Tower Vault to share with your other characters. When you disassemble them, you’ll get some Glimmer currency and some other valuable materials, so don’t worry about scrapping the lower level weapons and items you no longer need.

3. Each player can have up to three Guardians

Although you might want to focus on a single Guardian to begin with, you can actually have up to three active Guardians at any one time. It’s a good idea to train them up as you progress through the game, just in case you know you’re heading into a Strike that would be better tackled by a different Guardian to your main character for example. Having multiple characters also means that you can share all the weapons, armour and other items you collect between them, rather than having to scrap valuable items when your vault is full.

4. There are 41 Trophies/Achievements to be had

Destiny has 4 confirmed Trophies and Achievements to be obtained. Some of these will require a lot of dedication or specific weapons. For example, you won’t want to try and get the Bane of the Emperor achievement until you’ve got the Superior Sniper Rifle, as it requires you to take out 25 Cabal with precision shots in a single mission without dying.

5. Take time crafting your character

Although
it may sound fairly obvious, take some real time (if you haven’t
already for the alpha), to create your character. This will really
affect how you play Destiny and your combat style too.

Firstly,
you’ll have to choose from one of three classes, Hunter, Warlock and
Titan, which will provide the basis for your character’s abilities.

Destiny: Hunter
The
Hunters are basically the Destiny equivalent of a thief or rogue. They
specialise in stealth attacks and long range weapons, but are also
pretty handy with a blade.

As a Hunter you’ll have to keep
moving to stay out of the line of fire, since you recover slowly from
blows and shots and die really quickly if you don’t hoof it away from
where the action is most intense.

Destiny: Titan
The
Titans are specialists in heavy weaponry along with light machine guns,
and thanks to their 80 per cent armour ratio, they’re the strongest too.

Playing as a Titan, you’ll won’t be moving as fast as the other
two classes, but you’ll be able to take quite a bit of damage while you
dish out some serious short-range attacks.

Destiny: Warlock
Finally,
there’s the Warlock, one of the more interesting classes, acting as the
mage-type for Destiny. They are only lightly armoured, but recover
health much more quickly than the other two.

If you choose the
Warlock class, you will have to focus on using their powers from behind
cover, learning how the different magical abilities affect foes.

Beyond
these three classes, there is a whole skill tree to explore as you
level up. You can only reach level 8 in the beta, but you’ll see a few
strands of the tree open up to you as you progress through it
nonetheless.

We had some time with all three classes and the play
style of each class, even at the lowest levels, is very distinct, so
choose wisely.

6. It’s better with friends

While
playing the storyline campaign on your own is totally immersive, with a
fantastic score and excellent lighting details, there’s just something
about playing with friends that makes Destiny even better.

We
had a go in a Fire Squad of three, whiling away the hours by completing
the four storyline missions offered in the beta, and blasting away as a
team at enemies such as the the Knights and Wizards.

There are
several benefits of playing as a squad: not only can your teammates
revive you if you’re downed, but it’s the fact Destiny ramps up the
intensity to compensate for your increased firepower. You’ll find that
heavies are tougher the more members of the team you have and the
enemies will increase in veracity and number too.

This is where
Destiny really comes alive, fighting gets tough unless you’re prepared
to work as a team and it gets even more interesting when you have a mix
of classes.

Although Destiny is still fantastic on your own, co-op is where it’s at for Bungie’s latest title.

7. Make use of your supercharged state

When you’ve chosen your class and got into the game a bit, you’ll want to make sure to use your supercharge abilities.

If
you kill enemies in the supercharged state, enemies will spawn what
Bungie is calling “Orbs of Light”. These can be collected by your Fire
Squad team mates and will help them get into the supercharged state too.

The supercharged abilities are fantastic, as they’ll often help you get out of a tight spot when you’re surrounded by enemies.

Each
Destiny Class has its own supercharge ability, which are accessed by
whacking the first two shoulder buttons simultaneously . The Hunter has
the Solar Golden Gun that disintegrates your enemies using Solar Light.
The Titan’s supercharge ability is Fist of Havoc, which lets you smash
the ground and fry any surrounding enemies in a whirlpool of Solar
Light.

If you’re looking for a bit of Hadouken action, the
Warlock’s supercharge move is the Nova Bomb, which hurls an explosive
bolt of Solar Light at the enemy, vaporising any that get trapped in its
path.

8. Don’t forget your secondary weapons

Although
your main weapons are strong, over-reliance on them could see you miss
out on some of the most useful secondary weapons.

As with other
titles, you’ll find you can throw grenades by pressing the L1 button
(PS4). You only get one at a time, but they’re limitless if you wait for
them to respawn and are extremely useful for taking out, or at least
dealing some heavy damage to, a pocket of enemies.

Grenades are particularly useful when starting to tackle heavier enemies with
shields, like the Captains, as the explosions can make a big dent in
their glowing protection barriers.

There’s also the melee attacks, which
again range in type according to your class, but they can be very useful
for hordes of enemies, especially the en-masse attacking Thralls.

9. Explore each map for hidden goodies

A
great part of the beta is the potential for exploration. There are
useful hidden treasure chests dotted around the maps, but sometimes
these are protected by high level ogres or knights, so remember to take a
few pals with you. Of course, then you’ll have to fight over who gets
the spoils.

But there’s another resource you’ll want to keep an
eye out for in Destiny and that’s Spin Metal. These odd coral-like
metallic plants can be collected throughout the game and then traded in
for upgraded kit or reputation points to spend in The Tower.

10. The Tower is a great resource

The
Tower is a great place to do a bit of relaxing, buy some new weaponry,
armour and other gear or just to take a load off. Literally.

You
can use the Tower Vaults to drop off any unwanted weapons or other
items, which can then be passed to any other character in the game. It’s
a quick and easy way, a la Mass Effect, to make sure your team is
kitted out to the best of their abilities.

There are also bounty
missions and other side quests to be picked up in The Tower, so make
sure you take a break from mowing down enemies and head back there every
once in a while.

11. Make use of sniper rifles

Although you may not feel a sniper rifle is entirely appropriate for your class, you might want to keep one in your arsenal, just because of its amazing damage dealing capabilities. From whatever range you are from your enemy, sniper rifles will deal around 3 to 5 times more damage than any other weapon – especially a head shot.
 
Of course, sniper ammo is limited so you’ll only be about to shoot around 15 bullets before your ammo is depleted. However, a boss should be down by then if you’re hitting him in the head. Snipers are basically a godsend against Knights and other such enemies.

12. Get uncommon gear on demand

If you’re looking for some uncommon gear, make sure to repeatedly hit the Devil’s Lair Strike Mission. Every time you complete it you get rewarded with a piece or two of uncommon gear that gives you additional benefits over the average loot.

13. Changing your weapon loadout will cost you

Although Destiny will let you change out your weapon load at any time – even in the midst of a Crucible match – the privilege does cost you all your Heavy and Special ammo.
 
Ammo for these weapon types is rare, but you’ll notice there are drops during competitive multiplayer matches and you can pick it up from downed enemies in little purple ammo boxes.

Destiny Crucible Tips and Tricks

We’ve been given some fantastic advice for playing The Crucible by Destiny Game Designer Lars Bakken, which should help you survive a little longer and keep that kill to death ratio in the black.

Here’s 5 things to remember in The Crucible:

1. Level Advantages are Disabled in Standard Crucible Matches

“In the standard Control playlist, we normalize incoming and outgoing damage to keep players on a level playing field”, explains Bakken.

Don’t fret that you’ll be out-matched by your rivals either, as “people bring in all their own gear, and we Matchmake players based on Skill.”

2.



Control is a hybrid of Team Deathmatch and Objective Modes

Of course, the aim of the Control matches in the Crucible is to hold on to as many bases as possible for as long as you can. You get 10 minutes per match, so you either wait until the timer runs out or it’s the first team to reach 20,000 points that wins.

“Every action players do above the standard kill will give them more points. Getting kills with a headshot, melee, grenade, Super, Heavy weapons, or vehicle will all add additional points on top of each kill,” said Bakken. “Most importantly, for each Control Point your team holds, everyone on that team gets a bonus modifier on every kill.”

That last one comes in really handy too, as we’ve observed when the points are getting really tight in the closing minutes of the match.

3. Keep watching the Tracker in the upper left corner

For your own team, friendlies appear as blue dots, but your own Fire Team will show up as green dots instead of blue.

But, the tracker’s really great for helping you spot incoming enemies.

“Enemies always show up on the Tracker, so it has nothing to do with movement,” reminded Bakken. “If they are crouched, they will ping less frequently, but still show up.”

“The Tracker is broken up into segments, and we generally show where the enemies are without revealing the exact position.”

“When the centre piece stars flashign that means an enemy is within 6 metres, and we call that the panic zone.”

4. Ammo crates are useful, but can be traps

You’ll always spawn with primary ammo, but it’s the special and heavy ammo that you’ll need to scout out in the maps. It can be found in ammo crates strewn around the maps, but watch out because these can be used against you.

“Ammo Crates can be shared. When a teammate activates a crate, it will also create ammo for any nearby teammates. This is true of both Special (Green) and also Heavy (Purple). It’s a great idea to gather teammates around a Heavy Ammo Crate so everyone gets ammo, but beware that some enemies will try to bait you with this.”

You’ll be given 10 second warnings before ammo drops too, so you can plan your tactics for the good or bad.

Read more: Xbox One vs PS4

5. Supers can be your best friend

Your supercharged powers are on a timer and it isn’t affected when you die either, so make sure to take advantage of your Guardian’s special abilities.

“The timer can be sped up by doing good things that help your team: Kills, Assists, and Neutralising and Capturing Control points all speed up your timer.”

Although, use your Supers wisely, as Bakken reminds us that “many Supers have a warm-up animation and vulnerability, so using it in the heat of battle is no always the best idea.”