More Details on Destiny's New Court of Oryx Mode and a Big Raid Tease

Bungie has shared the first details about Destiny's upcoming "Court of Oryx" mode, which will be introduced as an end-game activity in the upcoming Taken King expansion. First, this new mode--which takes place in The Taken King's new Dreadnaught location--is accessible after you hand over a rune that you either purchased from a merchant or looted from the game world.

Senior design lead Sage Merrill explains in the latest issue of Edge that there are four tiers of runes in the world, which correspond to four different difficulty levels once you make your sacrifice.

"Rather than the waves of increasingly powerful enemies found in public events, Court of Oryx battles are fights that, like The Taken King's campaign missions and Strikes, are more about mysterious mechanics than colossal health bars," Edge wrote.

In one encounter, three evil Wizards appear, and a team of Guardians must work together to kill each at roughly the same time. Take too long to kill one, and the other two will respawn.

Another encounter sees players taking on an Ogre who is immune to gunfire, but is instead susceptible to the splash damage caused by his underlings. These are Cursed Thralls who explode if you land a headshot. Yet another battle will see players taking on Boomer-wielding Knights whose shields can only be brought down when they are standing next to each other.

That sounds tough.

The Guardian who spent the rune to activate Court of Oryx will receive the best loot drop, but everyone on the team will be rewarded. Bungie will share even more details about the Court of Oryx next Wednesday, September 2, during an hour-long livestream broadcast.

Also in Edge are a few details on The Taken King's new raid, King's Fall. Unfortunately, Merrill wouldn't provide much in the way of specifics, instead electing to speak about it at a high level.

"You have to raise the bar," he said when comparing King's Fall to Destiny's previous raid, Vault of Glass. "The raid team always has the challenge of having to push itself a little further because expectations continue to go up, you know? It's our biggest raid to date--in terms of encounters, of spaces, of the conclusion. It is our most epic finale.

"The way we developed King's Fall was different to the other raids," he added. "We developed Hard mode first this time, then scaled to Normal. And we have one more thing we're not talking about yet that's pretty special. It's a twist I'm excited about."

Pressed for further details, Merrill said: "It's not just going to be Normal and Hard mode."

Finally, Destiny: Taken King creative director Luke Smith spoke generally about Bungie's approach to raids, a topic that has been much-discussed of late after the House of Wolves expansion did not include one.

"One of the reasons raiding is something I enjoy is that it's an opportunity for a group of people to come together and solve a problem," he said. "We've created a bunch of problems, albeit at smaller scale, for people to solve with the Dreadnaught. It's a series of problems, mysteries, and mythologies, and players are going to come together and figure out how it all works. The Internet's going to put this thing together and develop a strateegy guide for playing on the Hive ship, and that is so exciting to us."

The Taken King launches on September 15 across all platforms. It will make major changes to the overall Destiny experience, including weapon balance tweaks and lots more.