Destiny loot progression explained during tour of The Reef

Bungie just lifted the lid on plenty of news pertaining to the House of Wolves expansion coming to Destiny next month. Here's the main points from this evening's Twitch broadcast.

For starters The Reef is the new social space for Destiny, and you'll be able to access it even if you've not bought the DLC. It'll have all the usual amenities, including vendors, a bounty tracker bot, and a vault to stash your gear in (it's the same vault across both spaces). There also looks like there'll be areas that unlock further down the line - much like in The Tower - although community manager Deej didn't confirm this outright.

You'll be getting the bulk of your quests from three new characters. Petra Venj is there on behalf of the Queen's Wrath faction, and she's giving the quests for the main story missions (you may remember her, she has appeared in The Tower before). Once Petra's story missions have been finished, players will be able to tuck into the rest of the new content coming in the expansion.

The new PvP mode, Trials of Osiris, is overseen by Brother Vance, and the event will run from every Friday through to the weekly reset. Meanwhile Variks (a Fallen character) is involved with the Prisons of Elders co-op arena mode. All three main characters will also have gear to sell you.

Using Etheric (or was it Ephiric?) Light players will able to boost their legendary and exotic gear to the new level cap. Weapon damage is up from 331 to 365, while armour now upgrades to level 34. Etheric Light can be obtained via the new end-game content (Prison of Elders and Trials of Osiris), however, and this is important, you can also earn these materials in Nightfall Strikes and during the Iron Banner - you don't have to have the expansion to hit the new level cap (although it will certainly speed things along if you do).

Heading back to see the Speaker in The Tower will allow players to swap their materials for the other materials they need to upgrade, which should speed up the grind somewhat. For a small charge (50 Glimmer) players can swap Radiant/Ascendant Shards for Energy, and vice versa. You can also swap Shards for Glimmer/Motes of Light. The Speaker will also let you to purchase Shards for Motes of Light. That should mean more options for players looking to upgrade.

Another interesting addition is the change to Legendary weapons. New guns can now be reforged by the gunsmith in The Tower, and this will randomly change a weapon's perks, which should mean more variety for dedicated players who have a wide range of end-game guns. Also, there are going to be perks on DLC weapons.

The Reef itself seemed like an interesting space, a tonal change to The Tower that we all know and love. Better than that, it seems that Bungie has learned its lesson after the misstep with The Dark Below, and the loot progression here seems much clearer, and more common sense.

There's no doubt more that we missed during the stream, so expect more details to emerge in the coming days. As soon as the video is available we'll either link it here or add it below. It's also worth noting that more of these streams are on the way, for more details head here.

The House of Wolves expansion is coming to Destiny on May 19, and it can be downloaded either as a solitary purchase or as part of the season pass.