Month: January 2020

This weekend’s visit by weekend vendor Xur in Destiny 2 marks the very first of the new year. As usual, Xur brings a host of Exotics that can help you fill out your collection get some advantages in PvE and PvP activities, as well as a handy Fated Engram to get you one item you don’t already have and that’s not in his inventory.

If you’re cramming activities to upgrade your Sundial obelisks or complete more baked treats for The Dawning, visiting Xur can be a great way to get yourself new items that can help. While you’re at it, be sure to check out our Dawning recipe guide to help you make all the treats you need to unlock the holiday event’s Exotic sparrow. Here’s where to find Xur from today until the weekly reset on January 7 and what items are in his inventory.

Xur Location

Xur is located on Io in the Giant’s Scar area this weekend. He’s offering Lord of Wolves as his Exotic weapon. For Hunters, Xur has ST0MP-EE5 leg armor; for Titans, it’s Dunemarchers leg armor; and for Warlocks, you can get Sanguine Alchemy chest armor.

To find Xur’s location, spawn in at the Giant’s Scar transmat zone, then ride your sparrow north through the archway. Head to the left side of the area and look for a cave set into the wall. Xur hangs out inside.

Xur Inventory

The inventory Xur brings to the solar system this weekend isn’t too impressive, although he does sport one Year Two item in Lord of Wolves. If you don’t have it, the shotgun is still a powerful tool in the Crucible, although the period in which it was nearly unstoppable and used by everyone has long passed, thanks to a patch from Bungie. For Hunters, the ST0MP-EE5 boots are also a must-have for some tougher platforming activities, so take the opportunity to snag these if they’re not already in your collection.

If Xur’s wares aren’t compelling, you can always roll the dice on the expensive Fated Engram he brings with him. This gives you a single Exotic from the limited pool of ones you haven’t already earned, for the price of 97 Legendary shards. If there’s something you’re missing from your collection and you want it sooner rather than later, it can be a good deal–starting with the Season of Dawn, all Exotic Engrams are Fated Engrams, but you’ll have to level up your Season Pass or wait for a random drop to get some. Be sure to purchase it on the character who’s missing the Exotic, and note that you can only get one per week, so choose wisely which of your characters makes the buy. If you’re a PC or Xbox One player taking advantage of cross-save, you can now potentially get Wavesplitter from the Fated Engram as well, thanks to the fact that it’s no longer exclusive to PS4.

Xur Item Lineup (January 3-7)

• Lord of Wolves (Exotic shotgun)
• ST0MP-EE5 (Exotic Hunter leg armor)
• Dunemarchers (Exotic Titan leg armor)
• Sanguine Alchemy (Exotic Warlock chest armor)

Lord of Wolves

Lord of Wolves is a shotgun that can do a ton of damage with its burst-fire mode, making it great for PvP.

Not too long ago, Lord of Wolves dominated the Crucible, but Bungie has since adjusted the gun to make it less dominant in PvP activities. It’s still a very handy weapon, however, thanks to its two firing modes. The standard firing rate is similar to most shotguns, while holding the reload button switches to Release the Wolves mode, which fires a longer, more powerful shotgun burst of several shots. Think of it like a shotgun that shoots like a fusion rifle–which makes it pretty devastating.

ST0MP-EE5 (Hunter)

If you’ve got touch jumps to make ST0MP-EE5 are a must.

Though they’re among the oldest Exotic armor in Destiny 2, for Hunters, the ST0MP-EE5 boots are a must. They increase your sprint speed, slide distance, and jump height, which makes them phenomenal for tough platforming areas featured in The Whisper or the Pit of Heresy. Those mobility bonuses can also make them great in PvP situations, too. Put these boots in your rotation if you haven’t already.

Stats:

• Mobility: 18
• Resilience: 6
• Recovery: 2
• Discipline: 10
• Intellect: 6
• Strength: 6
• Total: 48

Dunemarchers (Titan)

Sprinting makes your melee more powerful with Dunemarchers equipped.

It’s not just Hunters who can enjoy an Exotic that makes them quicker; Titans also get a boost to their mobility with Dunemarchers. These boots increase your sprint speed, but with a violent bonus–sprinting builds up a static charge that you can release on enemies when you melee them. Punching an enemy with a charge built up will chain lightning to their nearby allies.

Stats:

• Mobility: 13
• Resilience: 7
• Recovery: 6
• Discipline: 6
• Intellect: 6
• Strength: 12
• Total: 50

Sanguine Alchemy (Warlock)

One of a few Warlock Exotics that power up your Rifts, Sanguine Alchemy can help make you and your teammates more effective.

There are several Exotics that boost Warlock Rifts, depending on the effects you need for a given situation. Sanguine Alchemy gives you and your teammates “heightened senses” when you stand in Rifts. That effect maintains your radar even when you’re aiming down sights and marks powerful enemies, allowing you to see them even when they’re out of your direct line of sight.

Stats:

• Mobility: 12
• Resilience: 7
• Recovery: 8
• Discipline: 6
• Intellect: 12
• Strength: 6
• Total: 51

Most Poke jobs in Pokemon Sword and Shield list the type requirements, but others do not. Skip the guesswork and use our guide to do the best job you can, every time!

In Pokemon Sword and Shield, Eevee has eight different possible evolutions (aka Eeveelutions). The evolution you get depends on the method you use to evolve it. These Eeveelution methods are the same as previous games but evolving Eevee into Glaceon and Leafeon is now easier – and Sylveon can evolve with Friendship just like Espeon and Umbreon. And of course, you can always just catch these Eeveelutions – avoiding the work of evolving them all together. Here’s how to evolve Eevee into all its evolutions plus where to find and catch Eevee and its evolutions.

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With his 2016 directorial debut The Eyes Of My Mother, writer/helmer Nicolas Pesce had critics championing him as a bold new voice in horror for his black-and-white cinematography, dread-entrenched character study, and its bleak tale of love, isolation, and violence. In 2018, he returned to the spotlight of the Sundance Film Festival with Piercing, a horror-thriller about an aspiring killer and the sex worker he’s eying to be his victim. Now, this on-the-rise horror auteur returns to put his mark on a once-hot horror franchise with the star-stuffed, studio offering The Grudge. But horror fans might wish Pesce had let dead things stay dead. This Grudge is a trudge through muck, meandering plot, half-baked performances, and tired tropes that should’ve been retired by the end of the 2000s.

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Reports are coming out that Disney+, the company’s video streaming service, is starting to lose some films in its library including Pirates of the Caribbean and Home Alone.

The company confirmed that a small number of titles are leaving Disney+ temporarily due to existing legacy deals. But these titles will return once the deals expire and Disney can once again host those films.

Here’s a list of movies currently unavailable on Disney+ according to ScreenCrush:

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Warning: this article contains major spoilers for Star Wars – The Rise of Skywalker!

Amid all the big surprises in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, perhaps none is more welcome or unexpected than the return of Harrison Ford as Han Solo. Even more surprising, it turns out director J.J. Abrams didn’t have to work very hard to convince the notoriously Star Wars-wary Ford to reprise that iconic role one last time.

In an interview with Vanity Fair, Abrams revealed all it took was a simple phone call. “Well, I called him and I said, ‘We want to have a scene in the film between Kylo Ren and his father, would you do it?’ And he said, ‘Okay.’”

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While Netflix’s The Witcher is solely based on the books, the TV series and CD Projekt Red’s video game adaptation have now crossed over in an unexpected way. A popular song from The Witcher TV series can be seen in Geralt of Rivia’s first adventure, 2007’s The Witcher, thanks to a new mod.

You can add “Toss A Coin To Your Witcher,” a song performed by the show’s version of Dandelion at the end of the second episode, to the original Witcher PC game by downloading Hubert Wiza’s mod from Nexus Mods. Once installed, it appears as an in-game cutscene during The Witcher’s third chapter. The song replaces Dandelion’s performance at The New Narakort Inn.

The Witcher’s main campaign is lengthy and getting to the third chapter just to see the cutscene could take a while, so Wiza uploaded the full performance to YouTube for your convenience. You can check it out below.

This mod really capitalizes on The Witcher games’ recent resurgence in popularity. Since The Witcher TV adaptation debuted on December 20, the games have seen huge player spikes on Steam. CDPR’s third installment in particular, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, had more people playing than ever before since its 2015 launch. Though the show and the game remain separate entities, CDPR and author Andrzej Sapkowski recently settled a royalties dispute that “confers new rights” to the developer.

Prior to Netflix’s The Witcher receiving less than favorable reviews from some critics, the show had been picked up for a second season. In our The Witcher Season 1 review, we said, “If you’re utterly devoted to the world of The Witcher, you’ll certainly enjoy the familiar aesthetic and characters, but beyond that, this series is hard to recommend.”