SPOILER ALERT Warning: These impressions will be spoiling many aspects of the Deep Stone Crypt raid, including the final boss. Read at your own caution.
17 hours and 53 minutes later, Clan Mizpah gets the Day 1 Clear
The day 1 race has been over for nearly two weeks now and it seems like the Deep Stone Crypt has really left its mark on the Destiny community. With over 5000 teams clearing the raid, it seems that more players this time have attempted the legendary task of clearing a new raid in the first 24 hours. Deep Stone Crypt has been unique in that it has been easily one of the most cleared and most attempted raids in Destiny 2. (Check Out Our Destiny 2: Beyond Light Review!) Based on stats provided by Bungie in their 12/3 TWAB, nearly 30,000 players cleared the raid on Day 1 and after 10 days, over a quarter million players cleared the raid. Although this might make it seem like the raid has been too easy, many of the circumstances leading up to the raid can easily explain why there was such a large community wide attempt to clear the Deep Stone Crypt.
The Deep Stone Crypt, in Destiny’s lore, has been an item of intrigue for some time. Directly related to the development of one of the three playable races, the Exos, players have been theorizing on what the Deep Stone Crypt would look like. Clovis Bray’s experiments with Clarity Control and his ultimate plans for immortality are laid bare as the Guardians storm the Deep Stone Crypt. The Fallen on Europa have found the Crypt and if they were to gain the research into the Darkness that Clovis Bray had worked on, that could spell disaster on Europa. One of the most interesting developments that the raid has given veteran players is the return of our wretched House-less foe, Taniks. Taniks has served as a running meme in the Destiny community for the number of times he has returned as an enemy since Destiny 1 when he was a simple strike boss. He has returned infected with SIVA, as a Nightmare and now as a resurrected Shank hybrid. The reaction to his return has been mostly positive, although there are some memes raising concern that Taniks will find his way into the future DLCs The Witch Queen and Lightfall. At a lore and storybuilding level though, the Deep Stone Crypt opens a lot of doors despite reusing an old enemy. The discoverable Exo Stranger’s logs scattered throughout the raid add more context to many of the story beats introduced in Beyond Light. Those heavily invested in the story of Destiny will really enjoy all that the Deep Stone Crypt adds both during the raid and the quests and activities that released after the first clear.
Consisting of four encounters and only two real bosses, the Deep Stone Crypt is not the longest or most complex raid. As mentioned earlier, Taniks is one of the two bosses with the second encounter Atraks-1 being the most difficult to clear on Day 1. The real difficulty that the Deep Stone Crypt presents is not necessarily in its mechanics, but its raw DPS checks. Both Taniks and Atraks-1 have timers for how many cycles of damage players are able to deal. If the team does not do enough damage within a certain number of cycles, the team will simply wipe. For under-leveled teams doing the Day 1 Race, this was the biggest hurdle needed to cross and many teams spent hours banging their heads on Atraks-1. The raid has gotten significantly easier with the removal of the contest modifier so that DPS hurdle has lessened but for any Guardians hoping to conquer the Crypt, be warned. You’ll need a sword.
The real success behind the Deep Stone Crypt was, in my opinion, the way Bungie released it. There were some in the community that decried it as being too easy, that Bungie made the requirements for clearing the Day 1 too simple. However, based on the stats that Bungie released, this can’t be the case. Destiny’s community is so much bigger than 30,000 and how much of that quarter million that cleared it in the 10 days after release failed to cross that finish line on Day 1? Bungie, by having the raid release over a week after Beyond Light’s launch, by releasing it on a Saturday and even their streamlining of the power grind, has made it so that Day 1 raid experiences aren’t just for streamers and Destiny diehards. Availability, accessibility are good things. The race for World’s First is more exciting when there are thousands and thousands of people all racing against each other. What Bungie needs to keep in mind moving forward is just ensuring that the difficulty is there for the Day 1. The Deep Stone Crypt proves Bungie still knows what they’re doing when it comes to endgame PVE content and even in its tamer version, it is still an experience worth having.
The Future of the Season and the Next Year
So far, it seems Bungie has a pretty clear plan for this season. The length of the previous Season of Arrivals clearly burned out a lot of players so naturally there’s a lot of skepticism of the content and content stream that Bungie will be bringing with their next year of support. However, based on the first few weeks of the Season of the Hunt, it seems there is plenty of content available for players to grind for. The fact that a new raid has released with new armor and weapons to chase means at least dozens of hours spent fighting through Europa’s space station.
The seasonal Wrathborn Hunts also provide a gameplay loop that can allow dedicated players to sink countless hours into for gear and a way for time-strapped Guardians to still get new gear without too much busy work needed to get to the core of the seasonal activity. The limited way in which players can target their loot also gives the player a degree of freedom that ensures players won’t feel frustrated after a gaming session; unless you’re incredibly unlucky, you’ll make progress on whatever gear grind you have embarked on.
The biggest hurdle Bungie will need to clear is the PVP endgame mode: Trials of Osiris. Several weeks of cancellations has left many players upset, especially when the promise of newly updated Adept weapons have been teased. Bungie will need to really focus on fixing their PVP sandbox in the near future if they hope to strengthen all tenets of their game, not just the PVE and story content. Based on the most recent TWAB, it appears Trials will be back on track but we will have to see if Bungie will be able to support it adequately.
Based on a previous TWAB, Bungie seems to want to make seasonal activities that will last over the course of multiple seasons. Wrathborn Hunts expanding to additional planets, gaining additional weapons and armor sets as rewards and the potential for endgame difficulties are all ways that Bungie could develop the Hunts over the next year. This is great news and means that unlike the Sundial from Season of Dawn, Vex Offensive from Season of the Undying and the other seasonal activities from the last year, Wrathborn Hunts will be something players will want to invest into for the long run.
Bungie seems to have a pretty clear vision for Destiny 2 for Year 4 and any player who wants to will find a plethora of content to enjoy. With holiday sales on all platforms and a free to play path, Destiny is worth getting and really diving deep into. With new exotic weapons, including the beloved Hawkmoon, the Dawning event and the various activities already in the game, Bungie has filled Destiny with fun activities and rewards with something new to do every week.
For more information, please visit: https://www.bungie.net/7/en/Destiny/BeyondLight
Related: Destiny 2: Beyond Light Review for Steam
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My name is Matt Tran and I have been playing video games since I could remember holding a controller. I've always been a hardcore gamer growing up, from the hectic MW2 and Halo 3 lobbies, my many journeys through several Halo clans and my current exploits with my Destiny 2 clan. I love shooters and RPGs and overanalyzing every component of every game I've played, from weapon stats to ideal perks. When I have time to play other games, I currently play Genshin Impact and Star Wars Squadrons.
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