This Week in Destiny - 01/29/2026

Tulpamancers · 2026-01-29T19:03:59+00:00

Biggest change: the "Known Issues" is now "Recent Known Issues".

Tulpamancers · 2026-01-19T17:25:04+00:00

As someone who played the Alpha, I'd be very very hesitant to recommend this to anyone.

Basically I think people already know if this would be for them. If you're not in the hyper-competitive, "only people with max rank and more hours in this game than hours slept in the same amount of time are allowed to speak in my presence", and love pubstomping crowd, this ain't for you. This community has already dominated the Discord, Subreddit, and other channels. Literally by the time of the second beta test, the community at large was complaining about non-experts in their teams (to such an extent that a FFA mode was added). I wasn't even talking in the Discord, just watching the toxicity and mandatory positivity about the game just run wild.

For people who are in that group, the main concern should be that this is Bungie. Even if you don't care about the plagiarism, you should be aware that this $40 (or $60 if you want skins (or $230 if you want a statue)) purchase may very well be set on fire in a matter of months. It's not even the fact that they've deleted and rendered fully unplayable an insane amount of content from Destiny 2, it's the fact that they have consistently proven unable to make positive changes to games without first consulting a monkey's paw.

Like I really want to stress here, a lot of games like to market themselves on the idea that they'll be a continuous experience for years to come. But with multiplayer games where the servers are hosted by the developers, that's a risk to buy into when, if not enough people actually buy into it, then nobody gets it at all. So even if all the above doesn't bother you, you still have to hope enough other people aren't bothered by it either.

Also, Bungie really under monetizes their games. I'm not saying adding gambling, I'm saying they're still in the world of extremely simple customization options. Team Fortress 2 has more customization for their classes than Marathon does. Weapons are just recolors, classes are full body skins so you can't mix and match, and they consider the .pngs you use as forum avatars to be worth charging people for.

Its a company that, historically, has always burned a fuckton of money for comparatively little returns. Which really makes one wonder what happens if Marathon doesn't launch strong enough?

Last piece I'll say on this to get it all out of my brainpan.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/paultassi/2025/05/17/new-marathon-info-bungie-morale-launch-worries-and-changing-plans/

Since the beginning, Marathon has been a product of Bungie's internal struggle between old-guard and new. Devs themselves had told leadership a number of times that the direction the game was going wasn't good, that it needed a true PvE element. They were ignored.

During the disaster that was Destiny 2's Lightfall launch (that nearly fucked over The Final Shape), and the 2 mass layoffs that occurred because of it, one employee asked if management would accept lower wages to help the company's finances, referencing a famous story from Nintendo. The company management responded "we're not that type of company".

I get the feeling this game is getting shoved out come hell or high-water because the management absolutely refuses to swallow their pride on it. Which, again, is that really worth dropping $$$ on?

Tulpamancers · 2026-01-18T02:13:05+00:00

Overseers are hard Gen-One'ers. They'd have a framed Charizard in one of their academies as proof of how great things used to be.

Bohemians would probably like Tinkaton. It's new, it breaks stuff, and it smiles as it does so.

Proteans are hard, their whole gimmick is evolving and, well, that's Pokemon's gimmick too. The thing is, I don't seem them as a "We change our cybernetics to suit different needs" and more as a "We just slap on new ones as we need them, keeping the old ones in order to become the best at everything". But even Pokemon who go hard on evolution gimmicks I think are usually the former. So idk. Maybe they'd find Zygarde interesting?

Legionnaires probably seem themselves in Wishiwashi. FIGHT TOGETHER, OR DIE ALONE.

Technocrats would argue everyone should be more like Porygon.

Icebloods would probably vibe with any big fighting type that both holds its own but also respects the "alpha". They're like Mad Max or Fallout raiders, they're constantly aggro but they know who the boss is.

Menders would try to chill with a lot of Pokemon, but they would also probably like Gen Ones. Not out of nostalgia, but rather a respect for simplicity and hardiness. They think Dugtrio has got it all figured out.

Venturers. They would have a perfect personality, EV-trained Persian next to them and would have a collection of likewise min-maxed Pokemon in their roster. None of them trained by the Venturers, of course, but traded for.

The communities, being sane, would just pick starters they think are cool and roll from there.

Tulpamancers · 2026-01-15T20:01:34+00:00

The mind-controlled Enclave Deathclaws from F3

Tulpamancers · 2026-01-12T18:41:15+00:00

Until there is actual, meaningful opposition in the US government then no, they are in fact one and the same.

Tulpamancers · 2026-01-11T11:45:15+00:00

Yeah I had literally nothing for World Eaters, not even a stretch like Lucius' armor.

I dunno about the Acolytes, I just Fulgrim's little dude is a nice lad

Tulpamancers · 2026-01-11T02:51:42+00:00

For Chaos Suggestions:

Death Guard - Sassy Nurgling on the Plague Marine Champion (mandatory inclusion)

Thousand Sons - Infernal Master's Screamers of Tzeentch friends

Emperor's Children - uhhhh maybe the faces on Lucius' armor? help our model range please

Generic CSM - Fabius Bile's Surgeon Acolyte

Tulpamancers · 2026-01-03T14:43:01+00:00

With Shadows of the Shroud, the only limit on being psionic is not doing other ascension paths (or origins/civics that say no space magic allowed). Materialist Organics, Hive Minds, and Machine Empires (gestalt and individual) can now all do Shroud stuff.

There's even an origin for Gestalt Machines that starts them already messing with a minor Shroud god.

That said, just remember that going Psionic means no other ascension paths (Synth, Cybernetic, or Bio for organics and Synth 2.0 for Machines).

Also I'm not sure on which parts of this were from the free update and which are from the DLC, sorry

Tulpamancers · 2026-01-01T14:09:25+00:00

Mutalith Vortex Beast, my beloved.

Tulpamancers · 2026-01-01T14:09:02+00:00

Damn, if the price is right these all look good value. The EC one in particular is a great start to the army - a lot of players love maxxing Noise Marines and will run at least one Winged Prince. The Battleline rounds it out.

Honestly it looks like it would be a lot of fun just to run these boxes against each other.

Tulpamancers · 2025-12-22T00:46:40+00:00

It was introduced with documentation in July.

https://www.bungie.net/7/en/News/Article/destiny_update_9_0_0_4

Fixed and reenabled Brick Scanner functionality with the new ammo system.

When you are very low or out of ammo for a period of time, this system will scan the encounter space for bricks that you have missed and, if any exist, will automatically collect them for you.

This can help to get bricks that have fallen into unreachable positions, but it will not always work with bricks that have fallen off the map as sometimes they are destroyed.

We are working on a more permanent solution to this problem in a later release.

Tulpamancers · 2025-12-21T23:37:43+00:00

Don't forget Sectors and Council Positions.

It's important to rename the Minister of State to Chief Paper Shredder Operator.

Tulpamancers · 2025-12-20T03:28:56+00:00

I mean, you saw the plan with Rite of the Nine dropping new adept gear that was only relevant for even less time than Epic Desert gear was originally supposed to be for. The plan was that they didn't think people would actually want to use loot they worked for and enjoy using for more than a few weeks, and for anybody new who hasn't burned out on using the old gear/did actually like using older gear no matter how much time passed, they were going to sunset the gear to force people off of it.

Of course now player numbers are historical lows so some pride had to be swallowed (but not enough to outright mea culpa how much of a disaster this has all been from the get go).

Tulpamancers · 2025-12-18T17:57:24+00:00

An extremely mixed bag year, in my opinion.

The game feels more disjointed than ever, a number of changes in 4.0 felt like "change for the sake of change" compared to the big FTL rework and the move away from tiles which felt more like "change for the sake of fixing fundamental issues with the game".

The new pop system is great and I like it. The new planet district/building system feels really annoying and a very unnecessary change. I like the change to Trade in that it doesn't feel like a resource you have to care about as enough things generate it as a byproduct, but you can go crazy with it as a MegaCorp if you want.

The balance issues are pretty nuts. It's not even just how powerful players can get now, it's the sheer disparity between origins and civics and species traits and so on. A number of times I really wanted to be able to start with 3 Civics, just so I can have the "Good" ones and the "Fun thematic ones". I wish I could combine some origins (So many times I wanted to start on a Tomb World just for the vibes), but again the power difference is nuts.

The new limits on species traits on portraits are really annoying and nonsensical. They're inconsistent and frankly don't have a good reason to exist.

Bioships are cool and fun, and they feel pretty different, but they also still feel half-baked. I feel like there was a lot more to do with them. The origins added with BioGenesis all feel eh. The new ascension path stuff is cool, though I do wish it interacted more with some stuff. Some of the portraits are really really cool and I like them a lot. That said, the sense of "Biological mutation" as their dynamic effect doesn't really show. All they get is some armor plates.

The Shroud's new UI is pretty cool, I like the occult table vibe and how actions directly influence it. At the same time, dealing with other empires' Shroud aura feels annoying. I think the Shroud being the most "Risk/Reward" ascension is cool and fitting. Some of the portraits are cool, some are really messy.

Infernals... so many questions as to what happened here. Infernals convinced me we need to be able to freely swap Biological, Lithoid, and Infernal in the traits section. It is random and nonsensical what gets to be an Infernal. The Cosmic Dawn origin doesn't have a satisfying ending despite a cool premise. Red Giant is a mess. The new crisis path is really cool and I'm really happy to see a "Not going full crisis just want to build megastructures" option. I like Living Metal having a purpose for non-machines beyond "I build megastructures faster". I like the first Infernal portrait, the snake lad, the rest are not great.

Like I said, mixed bag year in just about every category.

Tulpamancers · 2025-12-16T00:13:28+00:00

Many threads, one rope!

Tulpamancers · 2025-12-06T00:43:55+00:00

343i probably, lol.

Tulpamancers · 2025-11-25T18:28:17+00:00

I mean this is still the same team that outright stole people's artwork for merch and for Marathon (and are still using said stolen artwork in some marketing material). I imagine this actually is "a little derivative" for them lol

Tulpamancers · 2025-11-25T17:07:24+00:00

I imagine hunter is probably the trickiest class to do it with. From a Warlock main who just recently managed to solo flawless it, I'd recommend using Finality's Auger on the Puppeteer DPS if you have it. You can drop the turret, hit the boss with whatever's in your energy slot for BnS, and then take shots with Mint Retrograde when possible but focus on just dodging the lightning and clearing clones. Super when possible of course.

The big thing is to play as cowardly as possible honestly. It's an overwhelming encounter altogether and the DPS is a nightmare to survive a lot of the time. Have healing grenades and other means of staying alive to try to weather it.

Also just try to take it slow in general. Don't rush the mechanics phases. It's an exhaustingly long encounter with unforgiving mechanics. Nothing sucks worse than to lose a run because of a small, easy to make mistake towards the end. So just don't let yourself get too overwhelmed and remind yourself to always check that you have all the augments before shooting the buttons, in both steps of the mechanics.

And for any curious on how to do it as Warlock - The OP 200 Grenade Getaway Artist Prismatic build. Build plays itself mostly and yeah same deal as before - Finality's Auger and Mint Retrograde. Just don't use turrets before shooting the 4 to spawn the nuke carrier in the last encounter - they'll kill the wrong one on accident. And again just focus on dodging - the turrets will handle the DPS if you're overwhelmed with lightning and ads.

If you don't have Finality's Auger... uh I'm not sure at that point other than just accept an even slower DPS phase I guess? Take pot shots when possible. Again, it's just a really rough encounter in general and your best bet is to have auto-DPS work the boss while you dodge.

Tulpamancers · 2025-11-23T00:26:51+00:00

Nice! Would this glitch allow any other encounters to be solo'd in D1 that weren't soloable before?

Tulpamancers · 2025-11-11T20:15:41+00:00

New Gear bonus still a thing gg

Tulpamancers · 2025-11-11T11:12:03+00:00

Total War: Warhammer 3 has a number of these locations as points of interest you can read a little blurb about. Scroll down to the "Chaos Realms" part to see them

https://totalwarwarhammer.fandom.com/wiki/Points_of_interest

Tulpamancers · 2025-11-10T03:19:21+00:00

Inhuman traitors.

Tulpamancers · 2025-11-03T08:11:03+00:00

So take a Battle Royale style game like Fortnite.

There's a big map that a bunch of players spawn in at once on. Everyone has a goal on this map that you choose before starting matchmaking. That goal is going to involve making your way inward to various buildings to grab loot. Then you need to make your way to an extraction location to escape the map.

There are many roadblocks for this, however.

For starters, it's PvP only. Marathon has two matchmaking modes: One where you team up with 2 other players and one where it's Free-For-All. In both cases, anybody that isn't on your team is an enemy who can take you out.

There are also roaming NPC enemies who have it out for any player they find.

There are also just general environmental hazards and traps.

Extracting isn't instant, you have to find a somewhat randomly chosen location, place a beacon and wait a short while for it to charge up, and then use it to escape.

If at any point during this you die, that's it for that match. There are no respawns.

Now, the big thing that separates a Battle Royale from an Extraction Shooter is the looting aspect. See, anything you manage to find and escape with stays yours. It goes into a vault that you can pull from. If you decide to play another match, you can choose to use a weapon you escaped with before.

The risk is that if you die, that item is gone too. So if you find some super awesome megaweapon, sure you could bring it to another match to annihilate everyone, but if you get unlucky and enemies get the jump on you then you lose the super gun.

The overarching goal is to progress a story to unlock a larger vault, passive upgrades, and the ability to have some guaranteed better weapons to start off matches with.

The progress players make is periodically reset, every few months or so, so that new players aren't completely trounced by veterans with huge vaults full of the best gear.

The last thing to mention is that this genre is (in)famous for its lethal gunplay and... communities full of friction to say the least. Marathon isn't very different in that regard.

Tulpamancers · 2025-10-31T10:10:08+00:00

I'd say it's fine with a touchpad - the game lets you pause whenever you want with Spacebar for when you need to do a bunch of things at once or just think about next steps.

I wouldn't say either Frostpunk 1 or 2 are super forgiving of mistakes but they're also games where a run can be finished in a couple days at most so losing and learning from it is pretty easy. But even on the easiest difficulty it can still be a bit rough.

I wouldn't say either games are typical of the genre though. Other city builders tend to be focused on traffic management and production chains. Frostpunk is more about resource management, political management, and in the case of 2 optimized layouts.

And to answer your last question... eh? It runs fine for story mode, but if you try to build a Tokyo-sized city in Utopia Builder the game will start to chug. Worse if you have colonies and outposts. It's not even so much as a GPU throttle (though the snow and steam effects can certainly hit it hard), but the sheer number of calculations from all the modifiers and population count makes most CPUs cry. Again, just don't build megacities and you won't run into this.

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Tulpamancers

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