Hello readers, I’m coming back to give you some of my thoughts on of Destiny: Rise of Iron. This post is coming a tad bit later than I wanted to write and post, but I wanted to make sure I wasn’t just reviewing the newest expansion through rose-colored lenses. I also had a full text write-up draft on my tablet ready to go, but due to sleepiness and forgetting to plug my tablet in, I lost all the work (lesson learned). Anyways let’s get right into it!

Right off the bat I’m just going to say, ROI is hype (fight me grammar police). Overall I love the content added and there is plenty to do to keep yourself busy. That isn’t to say that the expansion is perfect, far from it. I will be lightly touching on various things I enjoy and don’t throughout this post. I might make a more detailed write-up when I’m not having fun shooting and looting.

The new grind to current max light of 385 (400 when the Hard mode raid releases) is a rocky slope. Instead of the fluid climb to 335 after the April Update, Bungie has slowed the climb dramatically. Engrams cap out at various levels depending on rarity and the activity they are acquired from, excluding exotic. Nightfall and the Archon’s Forge are great ways to increase your light steadily, with the Heroic strike playlist being the main option for many players.

Despite Bungie changing the leveling system, the players will always find the shortest and easiest way to be maxed out. Players farmed the Omnigul strike as it was the only strike to allow double boss drops and veteran players knew this and capitalized on it to be ready for the raid which released 3 days after the expansion released.

The quests are great and nostalgic and really test what type of player you are. Originally Bungie touted that we would “become legend” through our adventures and completing these quests really proved it. I loved them all, especially the Gjallarhorn and Khvostov quests.

While the quests are awesome, I was not happy about finding out the steps needed to acquire the newest Raid Exotic Outbreak Prime. Let me tell you without spoiling anything, its intensive.

The biggest surprise of all though, was finding out in the raid Bungie added a very special enemy. If you’ve ever browsed the Destiny subreddit or the forums or heard of Randal the Vandal, you know he was named by the community and known to be more powerful than his level indicated due to a bug. Bungie patched him shortly after finding out about him in Year 1, but reverted that patch after players begged for him to remain as he was. Well Randal has been immortalized in the Wrath of the machine raid known as Rahndel the Perfected. My personal favorite of the expansion.

Like I said, despite my gripes and concerns, I managed to be raid ready by hitting 365 in about 2 weeks, and I enjoyed the ride. I can’t wait to join my friends and dive into the raid and continue enjoying all that Bungie has in store for us.