While the original Vault of Glass Raid was a nice addition, and The Dark Below was a great boost to the endgame, Destiny players have been waiting for something more, something that truly changes the way they play the game.

If things go according to plan, House of Wolves just might do that. It's still Destiny at its core, but Bungie has promised that a number of fundamental changes to the endgame are on their way. The latest Destiny expansion has seemingly been built around players who have already conquered the game, and, going by what the developer showed off earlier today, that might very well be the case.

As part of the lead-up to House of Wolves, Bungie showcased the game's new Social Space: The Queen's Bay, located within the Reef. This isn't just a carbon copy of the Tower, this is something else entirely...and it came with a few extra surprises.

While the House of Wolves DLC isn't required to access the Queen's Bay, the Social Space has been designed as the player hub for the expansion. Petra, the new Bounty Tracker and Story Agent, is the player's main contact in the area: she's the one that will assign new Story quests, as well as hand out specific House of Wolves bounties. Basically, she's one of the main reasons to head out to the Reef in the first place.

That being said, Petra's not the only person in the Queen's Bay, and several new shops have opened up. New weapons, gear, shaders and ship schematics are all available in the Queen's Bay, and while Bungie didn't go into specific details about them, the new vendors should do a good job of keeping players busy with all of the expansion's new content. One nice touch is that, while browsing everything new within the Queen's Bay, players will still have access to all of the Tower's facilities: the Cryptarch, Vault and Bounty Trackers will all be available at either location.

Then again, it wouldn't be Destiny without the Tower, and Bungie showed off quite a few new features. First and foremost, the Speaker now provides exchanges for upgrade materials: you'll never have to worry about needing a single Ascendant Shard while a pile of Ascendant Energy sits in your Vault ever again. Better yet, it's a 1:1 ratio, so you don't have to worry about getting cheated out of your hard-earned materials.

On top of that, the expansion's new Legendary items come with a new feature: the Tower's gunsmith can now reforge weapons, granting them new perks at the cost of any and all progression. It's a great way for players to try for that perfect gun, but it's not a cheap process, either: expect to shell out quite a bit whenever you want to re-roll your favorite weapon.

Bungie also confirmed a number of other, smaller details: namely, the Light level cap increase will be raised to 34, and players will be able to access all of the game's new Social Spaces without the expansion or Season pass. Finally, while House of Wolves isn't getting a Raid, Bungie promised that the new 'Prison of Elders' mode won't be a simple tower defense-style co-op mode, and will change on a week-to-week basis.

Frankly, it looks like Bungie is on the right track with House of Wolves. There's no way of telling what the actual content will be like yet, but it seems as if the expansion is designed to help streamline the endgame. It won't be any easier, but there should be a lot less frustration for players working towards that sweet piece of Legendary loot.

With any luck, the rest of the expansion will be just as promising: Bungie has already scheduled another Twitch reveal for next Wednesday, so check back next week for all of the updated details.

Until then, House of Wolves is set for release on May 19.


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