Destiny Beta, Release Date: Bungie Explains the 16 Hour Raid, Normal and Hard Difficulties, Raid Looting

What are Raids going to be like when Destiny launches? 

In a recently weekly update, Design Lead Luke Smith answers questions about Raids, the “toughest content” Bungie will be offering to date.

Smith reveals that communication will be key if teams wish to avoid spending 45 minutes just to open a door to the Raid. 

“For the majority of Raid encounters, you’re going to need to work as a group. That group of six is trying to form a metaphorical key which opens a given encounter’s lock,” he said. 

“By design, we don’t provide much in the way of information to groups in Raids.

“There aren’t waypoints to follow, or objectives explaining what to do in a given situation. 

“Realistically, for many players, they'll be turning to the Internet for help on how to do a bunch of the Raid. 

“Once your group understands how to open the Vault, it’s not going to take anywhere near 45 minutes.”

Smith also explained the rumors behind a “clan” being unable to complete a Raid after more than 16 hours of play. 

First, it was a shooter game clan that took part in the test, and not “Raiders from other games.”

“They are a group of people used to working together primarily in competitive multiplayer games, and hadn’t been exposed to an experience like this before,” said Smith. 

Understandably, while two of the four groups made the final encounter, they were unable to beat it. 

If anything, this anecdote highlights the point that while Destiny is a shooter game, beating Raids will boil down to proper strategizing and coordination, and will probably not be beaten by a team going in all guns blazing and little more. 

Still worried that it will take forever to beat a Raid? Players have up to a week to make something happen, because the game saves players’ progress until the Tuesday of each week, when a Weekly Reset will take place. 

Difficulty wise, Raids will come in Normal and Hard mode. Smith notes that “Hard modes demand execution” as players will face “deadlier combatants, tighter tuning windows for encounter mechanics and a handful of targeted differences,“ as well as ”harsher death penalty than Normal mode.”

Looting wise, Smith points out that players will not be able to get the same loot twice with the same character “in a given calender week” via a“Lockout,” but will be able to do so the following week. 

Destiny is set to launch for the Xbox 360, Xbox One, PlayStation 3, and PlayStation 4 on September 9.