Earlier today, Bungie lifted the curtain on Act II of Revenant, which begins on Tuesday, November 19. As widely expected, the update will feature a repeat version of the Prison Of Elders activity, which has now become more roguelike – think The Coil and Riven’s Lair if you’ve played either of them. Interestingly, the novel mechanic will allow select fireteams to skip certain sections, with the trade-off being that they will face tougher enemies. Conversely, teams that are struggling will face longer hardships but less punishing opponents. I’m sure it won’t cause any toxicity in LFG teams.
The mode is now called Tomb of the Elders to reflect the fact that the prison has fallen into disrepair, and it looks promising. Enemy races from the aged version have been replaced with novel ones: Shadow Legion Cabal, Revenant Scorn, Lucent Hive and The Dread. Battles consist of fighting a immense number of enemies and tiny sections of traversal. There are also certain challenges to complete in each arena. In one example shown on the broadcast, a room filled with poisonous gas that had to be turned off. You’ll also encounter some of the novel negative modifiers that come with Strikes (including “Fake”, where ammo bricks sometimes explode, which everyone hates).
The only thing that worries me about Tomb of the Elders is the loot. Bungie promised a satisfying treasure chamber at the end of the activity, but didn’t show it on the stream. In fact, the only novel weapons mentioned are the SMG and Shotgun from the current Seasonal Set, as well as a rehash of the Gridskipper Pulse Rifle. If all Tomb of the Elders has is these and more copies of seasonal gear we’ve already been working on for weeks, it’s probably going to be arduous, no matter how fun it is. This is certainly my problem with the current version of Onslaught, which is great to play but not worth investing your time in considering you can earn the same weapon by shooting tonics and doing literally everything else.
The livestream also detailed other changes coming in Act II. In terms of cosmetics, the Street Fighter VI expansion will feature emotes, finishes (including the Spinning Bird kick and Hadouken), and a Blanka helmet ornament that can be worn by any class of guardians, similar to the Tiger we received for the 30th anniversary event. For guardians who are more into kawaii, Bungie has also prepared a set of “doki-doki”-themed armor for each class. Personally, the newest wizard’s Halloween costume is as crazy as I’d like, but I support your fashion choices. Below you can see some of the equipment via the data mine JpDeathBlade shared on X
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The other news that stood out was that the mid-season balance patch, which will also be released during next week’s reset, will include a major buff to roaming ultimates. Roaming Supers are ones like Stormcaller and Fists of Havoc, where you run around dealing a lot of damage, as opposed to ones where you drop a single nuke like Nova Bomb or Thundercrash, which are called “one and done.” The buff Bungie landed on is to dramatically raise the duration of roaming supers, not their damage. After the patch is implemented, you can expect roaming charges three times fasterwhich should make players feel more comfortable firing their ultimate when the cooldown runs out rather than waiting for a boss fight.
Honestly, this is an elegant solution that I haven’t seen much of before. (This is one of the many reasons why neither I nor most Redditors are game developers). Trying to buff roaming superheroes to compete with their one-off siblings in terms of raw damage would only lead to a novel arms race. It will be fascinating to see if changes are made to their damage resistance as well. Currently, Song of Flame – arguably the best roaming game – is at a whopping 90% DR. If older options do not achieve a similar lifespan, they may continue to have problems.
