Upon entering the Destiny Beta, the competitive-minded gamer, like many of yourself, will likely be anxious to participate in some Guardian vs. Guardian brawls inside the Crucible. But before you do, Bungie lead designer on Destiny, Lars Bakken, has a few things to share that you might want to take note of.
Destiny might play out like any familiar shooter when it comes to multiplayer, but there are a few nuances that set itself apart from other games. In order to get the most out of your experience in the Beta, we suggest reading up! As for the final game? Here are all of the game modes we know will make an appearance in Destiny multiplayer.
Now, we present a handful of tips and things to keep in mind when proving your worth as a Guardian of the light against others inside the Crucible, courtesy of Bakken and IGN.
The Crucible
Level Advantages are Disabled in Standard Crucible Matches.
In the standard Control playlist, we normalize incoming and outgoing damage to keep players on a level playing field.
People bring in all their own gear, and we Matchmake players based on Skill.
Control
Control is a Hybrid of Team Deathmatch and Objective Modes
The first team to reach 20,000 points wins. If the game goes to time, the team with the highest score at the end wins.
Players earn points for getting Kills and Assists, as well as Neutralizing and Capturing the Control Points.
Every action players do above the standard kill will give them more points. Getting kills with a headshot, melee, grenade, Super, Heavy weapons, or vehicle will all add additional points on top of each kill.
Most importantly, for each Control Point your team holds, everyone on that team gets a bonus modifier on every kill.
The great thing about Control is that as long as you are killing the enemy, grabbing Control Points, or getting Assists, every single one of those actions earns points and helps your team win.
Tracker (i.e. Your Radar in the Upper Left)
Friendlies always show up as dots and players can see their position relative to their own. If a player goes in with a pre-made Fireteam, the dots will be Green instead of the standard Blue.
Enemies always show up on the Tracker, so it has nothing to do with movement. If they are crouched, however, they will ping less frequently, but still show up. This greatly reduces camping.
The Tracker is broken up into segments, and we generally show where the enemies are without revealing the exact position. This means effective Tracker usage requires a combination of map knowledge and in-game situational awareness.
When lines appear outside the main segments, we are showing the general direction of enemies, and usually following that will get the player back into action.
When the center piece starts flashing that means an enemy is within 6 meters, and we call that the panic zone.
Ammo Crates
Ammo in Destiny uses our private loot stream tech, so any glowing ammo block you see on the ground is always for you.
Ammo Crates can be shared. When a teammate activates a crate, it will also create ammo for any nearby teammates. This is true of both Special (Green) and also Heavy (Purple). It’s a great idea to gather teammates around a Heavy Ammo Crate so everyone gets ammo, but beware that some enemies will try to bait you with this.
Primary ammo is plentiful, and players always spawn with it.
A small amount of Special ammo is available at round start, but after that it must be picked up from Special crates or dead enemies.
Players never spawn with Heavy ammo in Crucible, and the only way to get it is to get it from a Crate or kill an enemy who has it. If a player dies with Heavy ammo they drop it for their killer.
The announcer gives a 10 second warning before Heavy ammo comes in. Learn the locations in the map and listen for the warnings.
Supers
The Super comes back on a timer, and players will never lose progress on death.
The timer can be sped up by doing good things that help your team: Kills, Assists, and Neutralizing and Capturing Control points all speed up your timer.
Many Supers have a warm-up animation and vulnerability, so using it in the heat of battle is not always the best idea.
Successfully using a Super will generate Orbs of Light for any allied teammates in the private loot stream. Picking these up will make your Super recharge faster.