Destiny's April 12 update: everything you need to know

Destiny's biggest update since The Taken King is almost here, and this time it's free. Here's what to expect.

Destiny's April 12, patch 2.2.0 update: everything you need to know
Destiny's April 12 update, which takes the game to version 2.2.0, is by far the most significant upgrade Bungie's online loot shooter's seen since The Taken King last September. There's a large amount of loot and new activities to look forward to, including a complete new end-game activity, five new sets of armour, the return of year-one exotics and much more. Here's everything you need to know about the update and what it's going to mean to you, the player.

New challenges
We'll get to the loot in a second, but first here's how you're going occupy your Destiny time after April 12. While there's some rehashing going on here, the inclusion of a new quest line, two new strikes and 16 weeks of “unique” Prison of Elders end-game activity isn't to be sniffed at. Especially considering it's all free this time.

Challenge of the Elders – The main thrust of Destiny's April update is a new end-game activity, a reworking of arena shooter Prison of Elders. This is the only way you're getting to the new Light cap of 335, so listen up.

Prison of Elders will now be set two difficulties, level 41 and level 42.

Four new bosses and new modifiers will be added.

Level 41 includes match-making, has a recommended Light level of 260, and sticks to the normal PoE format. This drops gear up to 320 Light.

Level 42 will be called Challenge of the Elders, has no match-making, comes with a recommended Light level of 320 and is a point-based activity through which you can win 335 weapons and armour.

Challenge of the Elders is fought over three rounds, each with a boss. Your fireteam's score is tracked on a card called the Elder's Sigil.

High Score and Cumulative Score are both tracked. If a High Score of 30,000 is hit during a run, players will be awarded a guaranteed 335 weapon. If 90,000 Cumulative Score is hit over each week, players will be awarded a guaranteed 335 armour piece.

Challenge of the Elders resets every Tuesday, wiping your Cumulative Score.

The Challenge of the Elders is promised “a total of sixteen unique encounters” based on variations of bosses and gameplay modifiers in each of the three waves. So that's four months of shooting before you see its content repeating.

Blighted Chalice strike – The April update will bring with it a new quest line, including a new strike called Blighted Chalice. It's boss is a Taken hulk called Malok.

Winters Run strike – Winters Run, the strike ending with the fight against the Archon Priest, is being added back into the Heroic strike playlist. This time it's Taken-themed, and has a chance of dropping level-specific loot.

Difficulty increased across most activities – A new level of difficulty, and more powerful rewards, will be applied to Court of Oryx, Heroic strikes, Nightfalls and the King's Fall raid. The raid's Normal Mode will now drop loot up to 320, with Hard Mode gear going up to a potential 330 (although this will be boosted to 335 soon after the update hits via a hotfix). The Court of Oryx will drop artifacts up to 335.

All this information is taken from Bungie's first information stream about the April update. Here's Arrekz's video breakdown for the reading-challenged.

New rewards
Destiny's April update does provide new challenges, but let's be honest here: we're all in it for the loot. Post-update Destiny brings with it new gear, old gear and a bunch of fancy new customisation options alongside the new playable content. Find out what you're fighting for below.

Max Light increased – Yep, Destiny's Light cap will raise from 320 to 335 with the April 12 update.

How to get 335 gear – The only way to guarantee 335 gear after the update is to complete the new hardest level of the Prison of Elders, but it isn't the only route to the cap.

Challenge of the Elders guarantees 335 drops for hitting specific score levels (see above).

The King's Fall raid Hard Mode will drop gear up to 335 after a post-update hotfix.

Iron Banner and Trials of Osiris will drop gear up to 335.

The Court of Oryx will drop artifacts up to 335.

New armour sets – Destiny's April update contains five new sets of armour. Three are revamped faction sets – one for Dead Orbit, one for New Monarchy and one for Future War Cult – and the other two are completely new. The Spektar Armour is designed specifically for Chroma in mind (see below) and the Desolate set is Taken-themed. It uses the Prison of Elders gear models. You get this gear through Sterling Treasure, a new consumable (see below). You can see pictures of all the new armour pieces here.

Sterling Treasure – The April update will add a new consumable called Sterling Treasure. It gives new armour pieces and Chroma to colour weapons and armour. It looks like Hellraiser's Lemarchand's box. You can get three per week: everyone gets one just by visiting the Postmaster; you get one for completing a level 41 run in the Prison of Elders (see the section above); and the game also rewards one for completing a match in the weekly Crucible playlist. If you can't be bothered with any of that, you can also buy them with real money from Tess Everis in the tower.

Infusion system changed – As of the April update, Infusion will be changed to give 1-1 levels. No more approximations. If you infuse a 320 item into a 310 one, the resulting piece will be 320 Light.

Chroma – Having thankfully listened to justified moaning about Destiny's relatively terrible character customisation options, Bungie is to add Chroma colour-shading to both weapons and armour in the April update. It comes in white, blue, red and yellow. You can re-roll Chroma-capable gear to get the colour you want. Chroma isn't affected by shaders. They're separate things.

Year-one gear upgraded – Year-one weapons, such as Badger CCL, Shadow Price and The Devil You Know, are being taken up to current damage levels. They're going to drop from legendary engrams at 330.

Year-one exotics returning – A bunch of old yellows are returning at relevant levels, including Patience and Time and Sunbreakers. Check out the Destiny Instagram feed for all the weapons and armours pieces revealed so far.

"When one can wield the fire of stars, what use is flesh and bone?"

A photo posted by DestinyTheGame (@destinythegame) on Mar 30, 2016 at 2:24pm PDT

New emotes – There are going to be a bunch of new emotes included for sale in the April update, not least of which is Praise the Gun, a parody on Dark Souls. If you collect a full Taken-themed armour set, you get the Taken Shiver emote as a gift.

New PlayStation-exclusive exotic named Zen Meteor – A brand new exotic sniper rifle, Zen Meteor, is to make an appearance in the April update, but it's a PlayStation exclusive. Sorry, Xbox players.

HUD goes optional – As of the April update, you can choose to turn all HUD furniture off, both in social spaces and combat.

New live updates
Check VG247 on Wednesday, April 6, for all the April update details for PvP and live events.