Iron Banner is here this week July 19th to July 26th 2016

Iron Banner is here this week and will be running from July 20^th till July 25^th, so basically till the next weekly reset.

Although Iron Banner is here, things aren’t all going as smoothly as they can. Some people, myself included, have received the ‘Contacting Destiny Servers’ message on more than one occasion. There have been complaints about lag and poor matchmaking connections as well.

However if you are lucky enough to find yourself in an Iron Banner Match here are a few things to take a note of:

This week’s Iron Banner game mode is Control, one of my favorite game types. The team that controls the most zones  AND gets the most kills wins.

The rewards for this Iron Banner are especially good:

Boots – Boots are up for grabs both from Lord Saladin after Rank 3 as well as from post-match rewards. Boots can drop up to 335 Light Level depending on your own Light Level. I’ve seen items in Iron Banner drop anywhere from 2-5 levels above your current Light Level. So the Closer you are to being Light Level 335 the higher chances of 335 drops. This is not only for Boots but ALL Iron Banner post game drops. Obviously the gear sold by Lord Saladin himself will only be 280 Light Level as before. Keep in mind that buying Boots from Lord Saladin will cost you 40 Legendary marks.

Gauntlets – Gauntlets are also up for grabs from Lord Saladin after Rank 3 as well as from post-match rewards. Just like the Boots Gauntlets can also drop up to 335 Light Level depending on your own Light Level. And again as with the Boots the Gauntlets sold by Lord Saladin will only be 280 Light Level as before. As it can sometimes be hard to get 335 Guantlets in Destiny, Iron Banner is an amazing way to nab a 335 Gauntlet item either to finally reach level 335 or infuse your other awesome Gauntlets to 335 Light Level. Keep in mind that buying a Gauntlet from Lord Saladin will cost you 40 Legendary Marks.

Weyloran’s March – This is Special Weapon(Sniper Rifle) you can buy from Lord Saladin after reaching Rank 4, and is also available as a post-game reward but probably only as you reach a higher Iron Banner Rank. As with everything else if you get this from a post-match drop then you can get one up to 335 Light but the one you can buy from Lord Saladin will only be 280 Light Level. Again keep in mind that buying this from Lord Saladin will set you back 90 Legendary Marks. However, this isn’t the greatest Sniper Rifle in game and will probably not be worth it if you have to buy one using Legendary Marks. You are better of trying to get this as a post-match drop as you get perks like hidden hand or quick draw or a combination of other decent perks making it a half decent sniper.

Nirwen’s Mercy – This is a Primary Weapon (Pulse Rifle) you can buy from Lord Saladin after reaching Rank 5 in Iron Banner this week. You can also get this gun as a post-game drop but only if you are higher in Iron Banner Rank. As with the everything else if you get this from a post-match drop then you can get one up to 335 Light Level but the once you can buy from Lord Saladin will only be 280. Again keep in mind that buying this from Lord Saladin will set you back 90 Legendary Marks. However, unlike the Sniper Rifle this is one of the better Pulse Rifles in the game and will probably be well worth the Legendary Marks if you have to buy one. Again look out for post-match drops of this gun with better perks like counterbalance and perfect balance as well as third-eye for the last perk.

If you are a PlayStation user Iron Banner is usually slightly better for you as there are PlayStation Exclusives Iron Banner armor that you can also get both from Lord Saladin himself as well as from post-match drops. Even the PlayStation exclusive gear can drop at Light Level 335. Some of the PlayStation exclusive gear such as Helmets only have minimal changes from its regular counterpart but changes in Gauntlets are much more noticeable in the PlayStation exclusive Iron Banner gear so keep your eye out for those as well.

While Iron Banner is one of my favorite game modes to play in Destiny these days, this week’s Iron Banner seems to be riddled with bugs thanks in part to whatever Bungie are trying to fix. The deal was that were supposed to be fixing major match-making issues but that update was supposed to be rolled out over the weekend even before trials started. There seems to be some lingering issues or after effects however making this Iron Banner less that fun to play.

Regardless of the issues if you can get a few games in you definitely should as Iron Banner is one of the methods you can Level up especially quickly to Light Level 335. Most of the times drops between 1-5 Light levels so you can level up especially quickly using this method over the course of the week. The Rank 5 packages from completing Iron Banner also do give you guaranteed 320 Light Level ghost and potentially anther 335 Light Level item at random. Keep in mind that these rewards are also directly related to you CURRENT Light Level so don’t expect 335 Light Level items while being 320.

To maximize your chances of getting a character to 335, you might want to focus playing Iron Banner with one character even after you hit Rank 5 in Iron Banner with that character because that's when the chances of getting better drops is at its highest.

This might also seem obvious but as you get higher Light Level gear don't forget to infuse your current gear so that the next time you get post-match drops you can get even higher Light Level gear.

Happy Iron Banner to you guys and I hope that Bungie are able to fix these annoying issues as quickly as possible so we truly enjoy the rest of the Iron Banner in peace.

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Destiny Year 2 Yearbook is now out in the form of Moments of Triumph Year 2

Ok so it’s not exactly called a year book by Bungie, but rather a ‘Moments of Triumph’ book. It does however, very much resemble a yearbook of sorts and I think for the NEXT ‘Moments of Triumph’ Bungie should release one with pictures or screenshots of the special moments as well, that might take quite a bit of work but would be absolutely awesome.

So, What is Moments of Triumph?

It is just a collection of challenges for Year 2  Destiny that you can complete in-game and keep track of in order to unlock certain rewards. Now the rewards aren’t anything spectacular like a secret weapon or armor item, but rather more bragging rights than anything else. Year 1 had its own separate ‘Moments of Triumph’ which was for Year 1 in-game challenges and can no longer be obtained if you didn’t pick it up in year 1. The Moments of Triumph this year and last year was both released on July 7^th and it’s to commemorate Bungie Day. Bungie Day had actually been started by the community long before Destiny came along but is a tradition that has since been upheld to celebrate everyone who plays Bungie’s games.

How to get Moments of Triumph?

You can pick up the Moments of Triumph book from the Postemaster when you log in any time after July 7^th. Once you pick up the book with your character it will display all the achievements you have obtained so far.

What are the rewards for completing the in-game challenges for ‘moments of Triumph’ Year 2?

Like I mentioned previously the rewards aren’t anything all that great and are more for bragging rights than anything Else. The rewards are actually split up into 4 Ranks.

For Rank 2 you get a unique Shader.

For Rank 3 you get a unique Emblem to match the Shader from Rank 2. 

For Rank 4 you get another Shader different to the one from Rank 2. 

For Rank 5 you get an Emblem to match the Shader from Rank 4.

What are the in-game challenges or achievements for Year 2 Moments of Triumph?

There are 8 Challenges in Total to complete which Include:

• Complete any of the Exotic Sword Quests from Shaxx.
• Collect all 50 Calcified Fragments.
• Defeat Oryx in the King’s Fall Raid on Hard difficulty.
• Complete the April quests “At the Gates” and “Return to the Prison”
• Complete the Crucible questline culminating in “The Mountaintop”
• Complete The Taken King’s main Story Questline, culminating in “Regicide”

Now most people will have completed at least a few of these quests from naturally playing Destiny over this past year. There might however, be one or two challenging achievements depending on how you play. If You mostly play PvE content then you might have already defeated Oryx in the Heroic version of the new King’s Fall Raid but may not have The Mountaintop completed which is mainly a PvP quest, and quite a pain in the ass I might add. Conversely if you only concentrate on PvP gameplay then you would have completed the PvP quest long ago or most of it at least from natural gameplay but may not have done the King’s Fall Raid yet.

Either way the two hardest achievements for most people in my opinion are probably:

The Mountaintop – This one mainly because just getting to The Mountaintop alone takes quite a bit of PvP gameplay with a few challenging quests in between.

Beating Oryx on Heroic is the second hard achievement I see that players may encounter if they are solo players or have a hard time finding an LFG for the raid, especially if they haven’t even completed the Raid on Normal mode yet.

The other achievements like Collect all 50 fragments and Completing the story till “Regicide” are all fairly easy and there are multiple guides online for those questS and one only needs to follow those guides with minimal skill involved, especially since the Max Light Level increase to 335. Even the exotic Sword quest Strike, which might seem hard, has matchmaking so can still be done with a fairly competent fireteam.

Keep in mind that Moments of Triumph is also ACCOUNT based and not character based which means you don’t necessarily have to do all those achievements three times for three different characters but rather once on any given character. Bungie themselves have said that all you need to do is maybe log in to each of your three characters if you have them and then the achievements from all three should just register in the book.

So for those that don’t have all the challenges/achievements completed you have until September 20^th, 2016 in order to get them done as that is the release date of Rise of Iron expansion and will probably signify Year 3 in Destiny History.

Another cool bonus of completing all the achievements in-game for Moments of Triumph of Year 2 Destiny, is that you also get a code to unlock a T-Shirt from the Bungie store for Year 2 Moments of Triumph. I thought that was pretty neat and clever marketing tact by Bungie because now it might actually make you want to get that T-Shirt. Keep in mind though that just by completing Moments of Triumph doesn’t get you a FREE T-Shirt, you still have to pay for one sadly. The T-Shirt just ‘unlocks’ for you upon completion at a price of $24.99.

As much time as I spend playing Destiny I still have a few achievements to complete myself, as you can from the images posted above. Personally I have 3 achievements that I need in order to fully complete Moments of Triumph Year 2 to 100%. I never had the chance to complete it for Year 1 so I will definitely be looking forward to completing this one.

The three achievements I have left for Moments of Triumph Year 2 are:

Collect 50 Calcified fragments, but like I mentioned this one isn’t as hard as it seems.

Complete the Crucible questline culminating in “The Mountaintop” Again I only started this one a few days ago and am already about half way through, I see only a few really challenging parts of this one, well for me personally anyways.

The last one is to beat Oryx on Heroic. This one is a bit of struggle as I am mostly a solo Destiny player, I do play in a fireteam of 3 every so often but have not yet had one full completion of the King’s Fall Raid on either Normal or Heroic but I’m looking to change that in the coming weeks.

Let me know whether or not you have already completed Moments of Triumph Year 2 or which in-game achievement you still have left in the comments section below.

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Xur is Here - July 8th, 2016

Where is XUR located this week?

This week XUR is located in the Tower. He is more specifically located in the North Tower where the Speaker is located. Once you spawn at the tower you can either go straight and then left or just go left immediately and then straight into the North Tower. Once you are in the North Tower, XUR is located right opposite the speaker entrance. You go towards the speaker’s entrance and look to your right and you should be able to see XUR.

This week XUR’s inventory contains:

The Armamentarium (13 SC) – Exotic Chest for Titans where the main perk is ‘And Another Thing – Gain and additional grenade charge’ This might one of the best, if not THE best exotic for Titans, at least where PvP is concerned. I cannot understate the value of an additional grenade, especially where titans are concerned as using 2 stickies could make them more formidable than a warlock Sunsinger with double grenades. Definitely buy this exotic if you are missing it as it is one of the better ones for the Titan, especially for PvP like I mentioned.

Bones of Eao (13 SC) – Exotic legs for Hunters where the main perk Is ‘Not Bound By Law – Upgrades Double Jump with an additional jump.’ The Hunters jump is already a bit different than the Titans and Warlock’s glide like abilities, making some jump tasks harder even with the triple jump. But having triple jump AND this exotic equipped gives the Hunter FOUR Jumps thus making the Hunter jump plain unfair sometimes. If used strategically for PvP this can be a pretty good exotic although this one is more suited for PvE as there are probably better exotics for PvP depending on the Hunter Subclass. Definitely get it if you have the coins to spare as well is if you are more PvE focused.

Purifier Robes (13 SC) – Exotic Chest for Warlocks where the main perk is ‘Burn Brighter – Activating Radiance from death distorts nearby enemies’ Now I know what your thinking that this exotic seems incredibly useful especially for Warlock Sunsinger who rely on radiance but this is not the case. While the perk seems great its actually effect in PvP is no that great from personal experience. While it might be able to blind an enemy long enough to stop them from shotgunning you in the face, it does little to prevent getting sniped in the face right after a rez. Therefore while a seemingly good exotic for PvP, there are certainly better options out there. The exotic does perform slightly better in PvE but again there are probably better exotics to be used. Not the greatest exotic for warlocks but still worth picking up if you are missing it, to at least give it a try.

Looks like this week’s winner is the Titan with the best exotic beating out the warlock and hunters exotics. This week was not as close as some of the others if you main a titan or even have a Titan and you don’t have the Armamentarium then definitely pick it up.

Xur is also selling:

Mida Multi-tool (23 SC) – Exotic Scout Rifle where the main perk is ‘Mida Multi-tool – This weapon boosts move speed and fires on a hair trigger’ The MIDA is quite possibly one of the best weapons in Destiny if not THE best weapon. The weapon was so overpowered it was actually nerfed a bit after the April update and its hidden stagger perk was removed. However this gun still remains one of the top tier PvP weapons. Aside from its final perk which helps when firing the weapon as well as overall agility, the MIDA also has third eye meaning you can see the radar when scoped in, making it an ideal scout rifle for sniping across maps while still being aware of your surroundings. If for some reason you don’t yet have a MIDA, don’t even hesitate and just buy this and if this is the only thing you can buy from XUR this week, it’s well worth the strange coins.

Legacy Engram (Chest) – This week’s legacy engram is an exotic chest engram and probably not worth spending your coins on unless you have tons to spare and are looking to complete your year 1 collection. Getting a chest piece you are missing in BOTH year 1 AND year 2 would be optimal but at 31 SC, you are probably better off saving your strange coins for something else. Remember too that you can get a chest piece for any class so if you have only one character the odds are definitely against you.

If you already have most of these exotics or nothing really appeals to you, spending your Strange Coins on Three of coins is still probably your best bet.

Below is a video showing you exactly where to go when you first spawn in the Tower if my instructions at the top were a bit unclear. The video also shows the various items XUR is selling this week so you can have a look at those as well.

Overall a pretty good week for XUR especially for Titans getting one of the better exotics as well as one of the best primary weapons in Destiny on sale. I am still waiting on my Jade Rabbit however, and hope that XUR brings it one of these weeks.

Let me know if XUR bought you something you really wanted this week or if you are waiting from him to bring a specific exotic in the comments section below.

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How to fix Output Storage is Full problem in Tropico 5?

What does Output Storage is Full in Tropico 5 mean?

Basically what this message is telling you is that the building or buildings with this problem cannot produce any more goods and the goods they have already produced are still in storage and nothing is being done with them. The resources you have and are producing are currently not being moved around your island as they should. You will see a certain symbol on top of these buildings that have this issue. The symbol looks like a sack or bag with a red line across it.

How does Output Storage affect gameplay?

Many different types of buildings can be affected by the ‘Output storage is full’ problem such as mines, farms, lumber mill and plantations. Other buildings such as Docks, Jewel factories, power plants, cigar factories and rum distilleries can ALSO be affected as a side effect of this problem and often have their own message saying that there is no resources or more specifically ‘Production cycles are not producing.’

One of the major side effects of this is that docks don’t get the proper resources it needs to trade and might make little to no money or not enough money as expected.

If power plants stop producing because they don’t get coal, then all buildings that rely on electricity, which is quite a few in the Modern Era, will all stop functioning properly.

Basically your island can come to a complete standstill and loose massive amounts of money all from one single cause of your 'Output Storage being full' error in Tropico 5.

When does Output Storage is Full usually occur in Tropico 5?

This problem usually only tends to occur or be noticeable in the Modern era but can also happen much earlier depending on a number of factors.

So you see a message on one of your buildings, maybe on the Power Plant that there isn’t any resources. The power plant consumes coal you see. But that’s ridiculous, you know for a fact that you have 2, maybe 3 coal mines. So you select the coal mines and notice the message ‘Output Storage is Full’ What kinda sorcery??

How do you get rid of Output Storage is Full problem?

One word – Teamsters

Bet you forgot all about Teamsters offices. What a Teamsters Office does is facilitate goods around your island, basically moves the goods from storage facilities to other buildings that need the goods or to the docks to be traded away to foreign lands.

BUT “I HAVE a Teamsters office, I was given one when I started this game” you say. Yes, but by the time you moved through the different Era’s 1 Teamsters office is no longer sufficient and you now require more, MUCH more depending on how many docks you have, how many mines, plantations and farms you have along with all the industry buildings that are also now producing goods.

Often times the initial Teamsters office that you are provided with gets bogged down at the docks, depending on the number of docks you have built up. By the modern era people usually have 10-20 and often times more than 20 docks to bolster their income. ONE Teamsters office is not enough to service 20 docks let alone the rest of your island.

The best thing to do would be to build a bunch of Teamsters office but scattered across your island.  Build a few Teamsters Offices even in remote locations to service some of the remote areas of your island. There is no concrete number of Teamsters offices that will solve ALL of your Output storage problems but there is a recommended value floating around, that you should have at least 1 Teamsters Office for every 100 people on your island.

In the Modern Era with most of the industry buildings and such, I would suggest having AT LEAST 10 Teamsters Offices strategically placed across your island. You can then just build more as needed over time. Remember that the way you have structured your island and the layout has an effect on things and that Teamsters can often get stuck getting from place to place making them less effective overall.

I have lots of Teamster Offices but am STILL getting the ‘Output Storage is Full’ message, what do I do?

If for whatever reason you think you have a sufficient number of Teamsters offices and you STILL get the ‘Output Storage is full’ message with some buildings make sure your Teamsters offices are actually effective.

What I mean by effective is their location as I mentioned before, people actually working at the Teamsters offices, hire more if you have to. Remember by the modern Era lots of other buildings need graduated workers, so if you only have a few schools then people might choose to work elsewhere other than the Teamsters office and that can be an issue. Lastly, remember about budgeting for your Teamsters office buildings. I recommend at least setting the budget to MAX for a few key Teamster Office buildings in key locations, not to mention the first ever Teamsters office you were given.

One last trick I would suggest is that if you think you sufficient Teamsters offices, have enough people and budgeted properly AND are placed strategically but you still have a problem, pause the game and check roads and traffic. When you pause the game, inspect the roads and intersections, if you see an area with a Truck that is stuck then maybe delete the road and rebuilt it in a more efficient way if possible. This can also help traffic flow more easily through your island and should fix your Teamsters getting stuck in traffic problem ultimately fixing your ‘Output Storage is Full’ problem.

The whole Teamsters Offices thing should have been implemented more efficiently in Tropico 5 I feel but there are still workarounds like I mentioned to keep the game playable. These problems were encountered on the PS4 but I am sure they are universal problems and can be encountered on any console as well as on the PC.

Tropico 5 was a PS Plus game for subscribers for the month of May and is quite a fun game, except for a few frustrations such as the ‘Output Storage is Full’ problem.

If you encountered this problem as well and know of any other solutions or fixes, please feel free to comment below and they can be added to the Article.

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Destiny Weekly Reset July 5th, 2016

Let’s start off with the weekly Nightfall for this week which is Cerverus Vae III.

Since the April update the Nightfalls have gotten a bit harder, not in terms of overall enemies or difficulty but more so in terms of Light Level requirement. The NEW recommended Light Level for the weekly Nightfall is 320. This is due to the fact that the new max Light Level was increased to 335 with the April update. If you were already 320 before the April update, the Nightfall should be only be slightly more difficult, barely noticeable if you are 320. The problem arises if you are below 320, then you can still do it, depending on what Light Level you are, you just have to be more cautious and take your time with it.

From my personal experience every 5 Light Levels makes the biggest difference, so if you are 315 you should be able to complete the nightfall with a few struggles. At 310 it becomes MUCH more difficult as you will find yourself dying more often, depending on the special perks of the nightfall. Being 320 doesn’t guarantee that the nightfall will be easier; it just means that you have more of a margin for error. Similarly being ABOVE 320 Light level and closer to the max of 335 gives you an even greater advantage for the nightfall and you should really have no trouble whatsoever doing it at those Light Levels.

With that in mind the nightfall this week isn’t the longest or the toughest Nightfall of the lot. I think this particular Nightfall can still be completed fairly easily with 310-320 Light Levels, however for maximum ease I still suggest being above 320 or as close to the max Light Level of 335 for obvious reasons.

The perks for this week’s Nightfall include:

Epic – As with any Nightfall, Enemies are heavily shielded and highly aggressive enemies appear in great numbers.

Arc Burn -  Arc Damage from any source is greatly increased. Something like the Zhalo would be extremely effective here. Even a 1000 Yard Stare with Arc burn will make this week’s Nightfall that much easier.

Brawler – Guardian melee damage is greatly increased. I think this one is self-explanatory and Warlocks will probably benefit the MOST from this one, especially Sunsinger Warlocks but since this specific nightfall favors Arc burn the better choice is probably Stormcaller.

Fresh Troops -  Some enemy squads have been fortified with additional reinforcements. This one is just more annoying than anything else and should only really be a problem for people trying to solo the nightfall. In a fireteam of 3 I don’t see this one posing too much of a problem.

Ironclad – More enemies have shields. This just means even more of those annoying Psions will have shields and be harder to kill.

The Cerberus Vae III Strike is one of the oldest most fun Strikes I remember doing. It is also a very short and relatively easy strike to complete these days compared to the newer ones added since Vanilla Destiny. Add to that, the fact that there are many cheeses to the Cerberus Vae III Strike, making it an even easier Nightfall to complete. The majority of enemies in this Strike are Taken/Cabal with the most annoying being the Taken Snipers and the shielded psions .

The first part of the Strike is relatively easy; all you do is activate a console then go to the marker on your map which is located in a bunker room. This is where the real encounter begins and this first part is relatively easy to complete as you just have to beat a wave of Taken right off the bat, for this encounter just remember to kill the Taken Blights as fast as possible to make your life much easier. Also watch for taken snipers up top to the right and left at the very far back of the room. If you are having trouble with the enemies just retreat to the back behind the door and get some cover. Once here you can easily kill enemies bit by bit on one side of the room at a time and go from there.

Once you kill all the Taken enemies in sight then you go ahead and you see there the next part of the bunker leads to a lower area. For this part you don’t actually have to kill ALL the adds to progress. All you need to do is defeat the Hydra that spawns by the door on the far end to your left. To do this you can stand behind cover on top and just snipe the Hydra with a good High Impact Sniper. Once the Hydra is defeated, the door behind it will open and then you can just jump down and run through. Just be careful to not die while running through and once you make it through the door you should be safe.

After you go through the door and progress through the tunnel to the other side you enter the second area of the nightfall and unfortunately here you have to kill all the adds before you can progress.

Once you kill all the adds in the front you then activate a console on a tower and once that’s done you kill 3 waves of adds. This part you just have to watch out for the snipers and captains. After the 3 waves are done you move past the tower to a lower area and at this part there will either be a tank or a taken minotaur. For the tank just snipe the 4 wheels from behind cover and make sure to avoid the tank blasts as it is usually a one hit K.O. 

For the taken minotaur you can again snipe him from cover and once you kill the minotaur the adds that spawn with him will automatically despawn.

Time to hop on your trusty Sparrow in order to ride through to the next section of the map. Again once you are out of a small tunnel there will be adds but you can just ride past them into the bunker you are supposed to go into. Keep in mind though that if you crash you will probably be shot to bits so just take your time avoiding the adds and going through. Once you are through the bunker entrance you go to a room full of adds and again nothing major just watch out for a few snipers that spawn on top and take them out as soon as possible along with the Blights. Once the room is cleared all that’s left is going into the next room for the final part of the Strike.  

Once you enter the final room there should be a few adds you need to clear out before the boss spawns. Once the adds are dead the boss will come out of the big doors at the end of the room. The final boss is a HUGE Cabal named Valus ta’aurc and he fires both a machine gun as well as consecutive rockets. If you get too close he can also do a slam. Valus Ta’aurc used to be pretty hard to beat in the old days and I'm pretty sure he also had more health back then. Now however he is pretty easy to beat and if you are high enough Light Level you can finish the boss encounter in under 5 minutes.

 As soon as he comes out you can snipe him while hiding behind 2 barriers that are on the side you came in from. As soon as he fires his machine gun or rockets you can duck behind the barriers for cover and then go back out and continue sniping him. You can do this till about almost half of his health. Then he will start walking towards the other side of the room and this would be your que to move to the side up top or underneath. At this point a few cabal adds such as psions as well as the ones with shields will spawn. Clear the adds out and then continue to snipe the boss from cover. You repeat this for 2 – 3 waves and that should be enough to take care of the boss pretty quickly. 

If however you are a lower light level and you seem to be struggling with not only the boss but the adds as well then there are a few places you can hide and sort of ‘cheese’ the boss encounter. One such place to hide is as soon as you enter the final room you would stick to the right side and go upstairs and to the other side and jump down into this crevice on your right, basically between the ramp going down on the other side and wall to the right. There are a few crates there to give you ample cover underneath the ramp as well. Just keep in mind that adds do come out from the door right beside this hiding spot and you will have to clear them out. From this spot you can shoot the boss by sticking your head out and sniping him and when he fires back you can just crouch and most of his rockets or bullets will hit the ramp or crates and therefore shielding you. Doing the encounter this way will obviously take you slightly longer and should only really be used if you are struggling.

However you decide to tackle the boss encounter you should follow this basic strategy for the duration of the boss fight. He spawn a wave of adds every quarter of his health I believe, I’m not entirely sure how often, if I had to guess I would say 2-3 waves. Regardless just remember to clear out the adds in that room FIRST and then proceed to  continue shooting the boss to make your life easier. Good weapons to use for this encounter is a high impact sniper to hit the boss with and possibly a heavy machine gun. I would avoid using rocket launchers as if you are too close to things you could accidentally blow yourself up, especially if you are using a hiding spot. The most annoying adds of this encounter are definitely the psions who are also more often than not shielded. I usually clear them out first and then clear the cabal centurions.

There are obviously many ways to approach this Strike and boss encounter but I found that using a good high-impact sniper is a MUST, especially for the captains that show up in the middle of the strike as well as for the boss encounter. The Raid machine gun is my heavy of choice or sometimes the Exotic Sword depending on weather I’m using the Black Spindle or not. Either are good choices and the Solar Exotic sword has a devastating upper cut and the Arc exotic sword has a good ranged attack to deal with adds.

Like I mentioned, one of the less challenging Nightfalls, and with a solid game plan it is definitely doable even at lower light levels.

Weekly PvP: Last week was Iron Banner which is now completed and I hope you got a chance to get some awesome IB gear.

This week the weekly PvP mode is Mahem Clash, one of the more fun crucible game modes. Not only do you get your grenades and supers especially fast, Heavy weapons also spawns rather quickly. Some people however love PvP and might not enjoy this fast paced game mode. Regardless of whether or not you like this game mode you should play a few games or at the very least one game, in order to get your weekly Sterling Treasure Chest.

Lord Shaxx and Petra will also have new bounties for the week so remember to pick them up as well.

Since the April update, there is a new weekly activity called Challenge of Elders and the bounties and event Sigil that is handed out by Variks each week. These reset on a weekly basis and will usually be different levels and bosses on a week to week bases. The bounties will also ask you to complete different tasks for each of the three bounties from week to week.

Remember to collect your Sterling Treasure Chest from the postmaster as well as 1 from doing the Prison of Elders Level 41 once this week and then another Treasure Chest for doing the weekly Crucible activity like I mentioned earlier.

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Xbox Ultimate Games Sale of 2016 has arrived

Xbox is having a MASSIVE sale on digital games both old and new. Some of the newest and hottest games of the year on Xbox are also up for grabs. Discounts go all the way up to 85% off Xbox games.

When is the Xbox Ultimate Game Sale 2016?

The Xbox Ultimate game Sale begins today July 5^th, 2016 and runs until Monday, July 11^th, 2016 so plenty of time to pick something up.

What console games are on sale for the Xbox Ultimate Game Sale?

Games from both the XBOX One as well as the XBOX 360 are available with massive discounts as well as some select games for Windows 10. For the first time PC games will also be a part of this year’s Xbox Ultimate Games Sale. The majority of games being discount lean towards the XBOX One but there are also plenty of decent games up for grabs for the Xbox 360 and PC.

How much are the games discounted for the Xbox Ultimate Game Sale?

As mentioned before discounts go up to 85% for certain games with Xbox 360 getting some of the higher discounted/sale prices. The vast majority of games however are in the range of 40% - 60% discounts. However, XBOX Live Gold members get an additional 10% discount on top of the already discounted prices.

What are some of the games on sale for the Xbox Ultimate Game Sale?

Tom Clancy’s The Division (XBOX One) - $44.99 Sale price | $40.19 with Xbox Gold

Call of Duty Black ops III (XBOX One) - $41.99 Sale PRICE | $35.99 with Xbox Gold

Dark Souls III (XBOX One) - $50.99 Sale price | $44.99 with Xbox Gold

DOOM (Xbox One) - $47.99 Sale price | $$41.99 with Xbox Gold

Mirrors Edge Catalyst (XBOX One) - $41.99 | $35.99 with Xbox Gold

Quantum Break (XBOX One) - $50.99 | $44.99 with Xbox Gold

Far Cry Primal (XBOX One) - $41.99 | $35.99 with Xbox Gold

Most of the Xbox 360 games can be found for under $10 to as low as $4 but the majority of games on sale for the 360 are older games. Still there are some very good games on the list such as Assassin’s Cred one and two, Borderlands, Fallout 3, Lef4Dead 2 and Red Dead Redemption.

There are obviously many more games on sale than mentioned above as I only took the libery of showcasing the major games mainly for the XBOX one.There are literally over 200 games on sale with massive discounts for Xbox One, Xbox 360 as we as PC. So make sure to check out the full list of games on sale here - XBOX Ultimate Games Sale 2016.

Let me know if you guys picked something up for a really good price or if u were waiting for something to go on sale and were now finally able to pick it up. 

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Xur is Here – July 1st, 2016

This week XUR is located in the reef, a place he doesn’t visit often but is seen here more frequently after the April update, maybe something to do with the new update and all the new stuff at the reef?
If you have never seen XUR on the reef before then he might be somewhat hard to find as he spawns in a section of the reef that is usually closed off and only open for his arrival.

So, Where is XUR located in the reef?

As soon as you spawn on the reef you go ahead a bit and find the first stairs on your right and go down them and you will be head towards Brother Vance (Trials guy.) Keep going past him and turn right again and keep going along till you find a small opening on the left. This is the section I mentioned is usually closed off so it won’t be hard to miss. Go into the opening and XUR is directly on your right as soon as you enter.

You can also take the stairs right beside The bounty guy which are sometimes hard to see. The stairs are located to the left of him and then all you have to do is go straight down and straight ahead through the opening I mentioned was usually closed off and XUR will be on the right as soon as you enter

What does XUR have in his inventory this week?

Twilight Garrison (13 SC) – Exotic Titan Chest where the main perk is ‘Tactical Air Support – Press ‘circle’, ‘circle’ while airborne to evade. This is basically like the Shadestep of the Hunter Nightstalkers except can be done in the air. This exotic does take quite a bit of getting used to be able to be used effectively, but if used correctly can make the Titan a very airborne mobile threat especially in PvP. If you have the Strange coins definitely worth the buy even if it just to try out.

Mask of The Third Man (13 SC) – Exotic Hunter Helmet where the main perk is ‘Unstable Current – Arc Blade attacks use less Super energy.’ This exotic can make the Baldedancer an even more terrifying foe. I think the Blandedancer Super already lasts incredibly long as has a vast array of 'attacks' as well, and this Exotic just makes the Super last even longer. Thankfully Hunter Bladedancer’s have been nerfed recently in the June patch of Destiny BUT still and decent exotic worth picking up if you are missing it and often play the Bladedancer subclass.

Apotheosis Veil (13 SC) – Exotic Helmet for the Warlocks where the main perk is ‘Private Reserves – Immediately regenerate health, melee and grenade energy upon activating your Super.’ A decent exotic for the Warlocks all around especially of you dent to panic Super or only use it when you are in a pinch, then this Helmet will definitely drastically improve your survivability chances. I can see this being paired extremely well with the Stormcaller Subclass but can work well with the other 2 Warlock subclasses as well.

I think this weeks winners are definitely the Hunters after quite some time as any exotic that improves your Super is good for both PvE AND PvP therefor somewhat outshining this week’s Titan and Warlock Exotics.

XUR is also selling:

Bad Juju (23 SC) – Exotic Pulse Rifle where the main perk is “String of Curses – After each kill, this weapon will reload instantly and increase damage for a short time. Kills will help charge your Super.” So apart from this awesome perk the gun can also fire in FULL AUTO.  This gun also has a magazine size of 27 which is fairly decent and while all this seems really awesome, the impact on the gun really holds it back from bring a truly amazing primary. If the impact of the gun was buffed up even a bit it could be such an awesome weapon but sadly it won’t do all that well in PvP at the moment. While the gun does have its uses in PvP there are certainly other items to save your Exotic slot for. All in all this gun is not bad, it just could be so much better, if you have coins to spare it is definitely worth a try as it is still pretty fun to use in PvE.

Legacy Engram (Helmets) – This week’s legacy engram is an exotic helmet engram and probably not worth spending you coins on unless you have tons to spare and are looking to complete your year 1 collection. Getting a helmet you are missing in BOTH year 1 AND year 2 would be optimal but at 31 SC, you are probably better off saving your strange coins for something else.

If you already have most of these exotics or nothing really appeals to you, spending your Strange Coins on Three of coins is still probably your best bet.

Below is a video showing you exactly where to go when you first spawn in the Tower if my instructions at the top were a bit unclear. The video also shows the various items XUR is selling this week so you can have a look at those as well.

Overall a pretty slow week for XUR, for me especially, as he ended up selling a lot of Exotics I already own. Hopefully next week he can have a better performance as well as bring along something like the Jade Rabbit.

Let me know if XUR bought you something you really wanted this week or if you are waiting from him to bring a specific exotic in the comments section below.

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