This Week at Bungie was one hell of a juicy update. With the Guardian Games coming next week, we got a bunch of updates on how things will go down, and more importantly, what goodies we’re going to get our hands-on. Here’s a look at Destiny 2’s Guardian Games’ new structure and Heir Apparently Catalyst.
How Destiny 2’s Guardian Games Work
There’s a lot to break down here, so let’s briefly go over how this year’s format is going to work. Starting off, you’ve got to pick your medal case up from Eva in the tower. This case is how you store medals (more on those in a second) that you earn through various activities while the games are going on.
You deposit the medals from your case into the Guardian Games podium in the tower, and your team gets points for it. Simple. Your case can only hold a limited number of medals, though, so make sure you’re banking them regularly (unless you’re a Warlock or Titan, then you should waste all the medals you can.)
Speaking of medals…
Guardian Games Medals
There are four different medal categories, each of which is awarded for different activities. Depending on difficulty, you’ll be awarded either:
- Bronze: 1 Point.
- Silver: 2 Points.
- Gold: 5 Points.
- Platinum: 15 Points.
Guardian Games Laurels
Aside from medals, guardians are also going to be collecting laurels that drop while they’re out and about in the world.
These laurels can be traded in with Eva for Contender Cards, which add additional modifiers that allow players to bank up more gold and platinum medals for their teams.
If you’re serious about representing your class, then you should have one of these active during as many strikes as you possibly can.
How the 2021 Guardian Games Will be Balanced
Hunters dominate Destiny, and rightfully so. I’ve been rocking a Hunter since day one on Destiny 1. However, even I can ignore that Warlocks and Titans are at a distinct disadvantage during the games because of how many of us there are.
Bungie knows that too, and instead of cheating Hunters out of the crown-like last year, the devs have come up with an alternative solution to the population imbalance.
Every week, the class that loses is going to gain a permanent 10% bonus to medals earned for the remainder of the games.
This is a far better idea than trying to balance individual medal values based on player count like last year, so I’m all for it.
Guardian Games 2021 Loot
Okay, that’s all the techy nerd stuff out of the way, so let’s talk about why you’re all here: the loot.
As the title of this article states, the Hier Apparent is getting a new catalyst. Whether or not this will make it useable or not remains to be seen, but it’s nice that it’s getting some support. On that note, players that missed out on the exotic machine gun last year have another chance to earn it this time around.
Aside from that, we’re getting a bunch of ghost shells. There are class-specific ones (I’ll admit that the Titan and Warlock ones look absolutely phenomenal), as well as a few generic shells based around the Olympic-style aesthetics that the games have. One of these shells is a tennis ball, and if you think I’m not willing to hand my wallet over to Eververse for that, you’re dead wrong.
On the topic of Eververse, we’re obviously getting a bunch of new cosmetics blocked behind a paywall. While players get access to the Guardian Games class items, it’s looking like you have to pay cold hard cash to get the universal armor ornaments. It sucks to see Eververse continuing to get all the good stuff, but Bungie has been handling the store far better without Activision’s input, so I think we have to cut them some slack.
We’re also getting a few new emblems, which is par for the course, as well as a new jacket with class-specific patches that players can earn through Bungie Rewards. I still have my D1 Moments of Triumph t-shirt, so you can bet that I’ll be grabbing this, as well.
Overall, Guardian Games 2021 is shaping up to knock last year’s event out of the park, so let’s cross our fingers and pray that Bungie manages to pull through for us.
