'Destiny: Rise of Iron' delivers a new challenge in Archon's Forge
Archon's Forge isn't a centerpiece mode for Destiny in the same way that the raids are, but it's a brand new and potentially rewarding public activity in Rise of Iron.
Remember Court of Oryx? Destiny: The Taken King's public fighting arena allowed anyone wandering around the Dreadnaught to jump in and fight bosses together.
Archon's Forge takes the all-are-welcome philosophy from Court of Oryx and wraps it around more extended combat encounters, similar in some ways to the wave-based challenges in Prison of Elders. Fight a bunch of enemies with friends and strangers alike, reap some rewards.
To start an Archon's Forge challenge you need to activate a machine right outside of it using a special key. These keys are random drops and, similar to the Court of Oryx runes, they come in three different rarities. Rarer keys call up tougher challenges, and promise better rewards.
Once an Archon's Forge challenge begins, no one on the outside is allowed to jump in unless they possess a special Splicer's Key (also a random drop). The same holds true for anyone that dies inside the Forge; unless someone on the inside revives you, you're going to respawn outside the arena.
Based on the handful of challenge keys we tried -- each one is tied to a specific type of foe, apparently -- Archon Forge encounters start with open combat against (primarily) one specific type of enemy. Once you have a 100 percent kill total, there's a boss round. Finish that and the challenge ends.
The only thing we're not clear on is how gear drops work. The feature didn't appear to be active on our test server and all Bungie would say is that there are Archon's Forge-specific gear sets to pursue.
Archon's Forge -- which you can see for yourself in the three videos included in this post -- is just one piece of the new Plaguelands exploration space that Rise of Iron adds to Destiny. There are also new patrols, public events and secrets tucked away.
You'll be able to start exploring very shortly after diving into the campaign when Rise of Iron launches for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One on Sept. 20.
Topics Gaming
Adam Rosenberg is a Senior Games Reporter for Mashable, where he plays all the games. Every single one. From AAA blockbusters to indie darlings to mobile favorites and browser-based oddities, he consumes as much as he can, whenever he can.Adam brings more than a decade of experience working in the space to the Mashable Games team. He previously headed up all games coverage at Digital Trends, and prior to that was a long-time, full-time freelancer, writing for a diverse lineup of outlets that includes Rolling Stone, MTV, G4, Joystiq, IGN, Official Xbox Magazine, EGM, 1UP, UGO and others.Born and raised in the beautiful suburbs of New York, Adam has spent his life in and around the city. He's a New York University graduate with a double major in Journalism and Cinema Studios. He's also a certified audio engineer. Currently, Adam resides in Crown Heights with his dog and his partner's two cats. He's a lover of fine food, adorable animals, video games, all things geeky and shiny gadgets.
