PUBG’s 10.3 Patch Is Live On PC Test Servers, Patch Notes Revealed

The 10.3 patch for Player Unknown’s Battlegrounds is live now for PC players. This patch is expanding Season 10 with new features including a new Weapons Sound Selection System, lighting improvements for Karakin, and team emotes, alongside additional performance upgrades.

Now players can choose between the original and remastered versions of certain weapons with the new Weapons Sound Selection System, including the M249, M416, Kar98k, and SKS. You can set this to your preference in the Settings menu under the Audio tab.

The overall quality of the lighting for Karakin has been improved with a lighting pass. Each area has had its lighting enhanced to give it its own distinctive vibe. Other bugs have also been fixed, improving player experience.

Certain emotes can now be used together with your teammates while playing. You’ll now be able to sync up eligible emotes with teammates within a 15 meter radius of your character. You can check out each emote and see how many players can sync-up with you by accessing the Customization section of the main menu and selecting the Emotes section.

The reputation system that was introduced in patch 10.2 has also been updated. Now if a player exits a match in the starting area prior to boarding the plane, it will not negatively impact their reputation. This is only applicable to normal games, not Ranked ones.

PUBG 10.3 Patch Notes

Squad Emotes

  • Sync-up your emotes with players within a 15 meter radius of your character in game or in the lobby.
    • You can choose to stop emoting at any time, independent of the person who had initiated the emotes.
    • Free-look camera is supported while emoting in TPP only.
  • View each emote and the maximum number of players who can sync-up with you at once under Customization, Emotes, on the main menu.
  • You’re unable to use other interactions while emoting, such as vaulting or picking up item

Weapon Sound Selection System

Supported Weapons:

  • M249
  • M416
  • Kar98k
  • SKS

Select your preference from the Settings Menu, under the Audio tab.

Karakin Lighting Improvements

Karakin has received a major lighting tune up raising visibility and enhancing the atmosphere. Other additional improvements have been made to the map to improve playability.

Kicking AFK Players in Training Mode

  • Much like in TDM, players who are AFK in Training Mode will be removed from the session, with a 10 second warning prior to removal.
    • Players will receive a message after being kicked, to let you know why you’ve been removed.
  • Players who are AFK in Training Mode after queuing for Ranked with our Dual Matchmaking will be removed from the Training Mode session, but remain in their Ranked queue.

Improved Store Experience

We’ve made a few changes to the store to make in game shopping a more intuitive experience.

  • Improved G-Coin messaging on purchases to ensure players understand the value of their G-Coin purchase.
    • Previously, any bonus G-Coin was bundled into one G-Coin total. Now, bonus G-Coin is also displayed as an independent figure.
  • Added Currency Filter
    • You can sort and browse the items by BP or G-Coin.

Season 10 is Wrapping Up

Haven will only be around until the end of Season 10 so get your close quarters fix while you can!

Survivor Pass Schedule

Survivor Pass: Breakthrough comes to an end on March 24. You still have two weeks from that point to claim all your rewards and access the coupon shop. Although, you’ll no longer be able to purchase or use Level-Up Tokens, purchase the Premium Survivor Pass, or complete missions from that date.

  • March 23, 7 PM PDT
  • March 24, 11 AM KST
  • March 24, 3 AM CET

Reputation System Update

The Reputation System introduced is one of our newest features, designed to encourage positive player interactions within the community. We have received lots of player feedback and a common trend we’re seeing is that some players feel certain penalties are too harsh.

We heard your concerns and are making the following changes with Update 10.3:

  • Normal Matches: Exiting a match while in the starting area, prior to boarding the plane will NOT negatively impact your reputation.
  • Ranked Matches: You will lose reputation for exiting Ranked Matches, even if exiting while in the starting area prior to the plane leaving. There are some exceptions, which you can read below.
    • You can leave a Ranked Match up to 5 minutes after (but not before) the plane has taken off without losing reputation, in situations where matchmaking has provided you with a random teammate who has then exited the match.
    • Additionally, the same applies if matchmaking fails to provide you with at least one random teammate after queuing for Ranked Squads.

Performance Enhancements

Here’s a rundown of the latest updates we made to improve performance.

  • Improved performance for low core count CPUs.
  • Optimized the pipeline for lighting calculation methods to improve performance.
  • Improved CPU performance by processing both character animation and vehicle physics calculations in parallel.
  • Improved memory optimization of character models through memory cache optimization.
  • Improved memory and processing optimization cost.
  • Optimized CPU/GPU performance with improved character creation/deletion logic.
  • Optimizations have been made so that objects such as furniture and stairs, can be viewed normally while ADS even at medium/long distances.

Items and Skins

  • Victory Dance 39
  • Slow-dodge
  • Victory Dance 40
    • Sales Period
      • 2/10 2021 11 AM KST – 2/22 2022 11 AM KST
      • 2/9 2021 6 PM PST – 2/21 2022 6 PM PST
      • 2/10 2021 3 AM CET – 2/22 2022 3 AM CET

Red Hood and Big Bad Skins – February 13, 11 AM KST – March 13, 11 AM KST

  • RED HOOD’S BUNDLE
    • Red’s Scar
    • Red’s Hood
    • Red’s Jeans
    • Red’s Gloves
    • Red’s Boots
  • BIG BAD BUNDLE
    • Big Bad’s Hood
    • Big Bad’s Jeans
    • Big Bad’s Boots
  • Bloodlust Weapon Skins
    • Bloodlust – SKS
    • Bloodlust – Vector
  • Emotes
    • Victory Dance 41
    • Victory Dance 42

Bug Fixes

Gameplay

  • Fixed the issue where sometimes respawns wouldn’t work correctly in TDM.
  • Fixed a clipping issue when Racy Reindeer Top and Lv. 2 Vest is equipped at the same time.
  • Fixed a clipping issue when a female character equips Sinister Skull Mask and PGI.S Hood.
  • Fixed a clipping issue when a female character equips Gen.g Jersey and Madsy Utility Belt.
  • Fixed the issue where the female character’s hair disappears when wearing Shiba Crew Hood Jersey and a hat.
  • Fixed the clipping issue when Christmas Party Jacket clips with the main weapon.
  • Fixed the issue where reporting a player in Custom Match – Observer didn’t function.
  • Fixed an issue where the livestream displays wouldn’t function correctly with certain PC configurations.
  • Fixed an issue where the video on livestream displays would stop working correctly.
  • Fixed the issue where when using a controller, the r-stick and d-pad on didn’t scroll or change focus when navigating the inventory in certain occasions.
  • Fixed the issue where certain vehicle parts were sticking out too low onto the ground.

UI/UX

  • Fixed an issue with an out-of-date Key Guide on the loading screen.
  • Fixed the issue where when selecting Emotes in the menu, the wrong sound effect played.
  • Fixed an issue where the size of a character in the PASS 10-2 loading screen was too large.
  • Fixed a translation setting issue for Japanese in the Reputation System.
  • Fixed an issue where filtering didn’t work when entering a banned word after pressing [CTRL] + [Backspace] before entering chat.
  • Fixed the issue where other players’ reputation levels were not displayed correctly.
  • Fixed the issue where the number of daily/weekly missions did not match the actual number of missions.
  • Fixed the issue where the previous season points are incorrectly displayed.
  • Fixed an issue where the weapon icon in use was displayed as a steering wheel when the observer is watching a player who is shooting while driving.
  • Fixed the issue where certain nicknames are displayed in the wrong position when the observer zooms in on the map.
  • Fixed the issue where the visible/invisible hat icons in the inventory weren’t aligned correctly.
  • Fixed the issue where the Hero section in the News Page wasn’t displayed properly under certain conditions.
  • Fixed the issue where the attachment UI disappears when switching back and forth fast between the driver’s seat and the passenger seat in a vehicle with the inventory window open.

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Lego Movie Studio Working On Wizard Of Oz Movie About Dorothy’s Dog Toto

Australian animation and visual effects digital studio Animal Logic has been tapped by Warner Bros. to produce Toto, a musical adaptation of the book Toto: The Dog-Gone Amazing Story of the Wizard of Oz according to The Hollywood Reporter. No release date has yet been announced.

The film, based on the 2017 children’s book of the same name from author Michael Morpurgo, retells the classic The Wizard of Oz story but from the dog Toto’s perspective. This being a musical, it’s safe to assume that the film will not subscribe to the widely held belief that dogs cannot understand English but only tones.

This version comes from writer John August (the recent live-action Aladdin, the 2010 Prince of Persia: Sands of Time movie adaptation), and will be directed by Alex Timbers (Mozart in the Jungle). Animal Logic has worked on animated features including The Lego Movie, The Lego Batman Movie, and Happy Feet.

Additionally, since the publication of the original The Wonderful Wizard of Oz in 1900, there have been many reboots, remakes, and reinterpretations–this upcoming film continues that tradition, but is not even the only new version currently in the works. It was also announced on Tuesday that Nicole Kassell (The Woodsman, HBO’s Watchmen) will be directing a new movie adaptation as well.

Riot CEO Accused Of Creating Hostile Work Environment In New Lawsuit

In January, former Riot executive assistant Sharon O’Donnell filed a lawsuit with the Los Angeles County Superior Court accusing Riot CEO Nicolas Laurent of creating a hostile work environment. The allegations in the suit range from unwanted sexual advances to demeaning remarks about O’Donnell’s femininity and tone. Additionally, the filing alleges that O’Donnell was stripped of work duties and eventually terminated in 2020 after reporting Laurent because she didn’t reciprocate his advances.

Riot denied the nature of O’Donnell’s termination in a statement to the Washington Post: “The plaintiff was dismissed from the company over seven months ago based on multiple well-documented complaints from a variety of people. Any suggestion otherwise is simply false.” The statement also says that Riot has a special committee of its board of directors conducting an investigation with the help of an outside law firm to ensure impartiality and transparency.

In a January 7 filing obtained by the Washington Post, O’Donnell alleges that Laurent invited her to travel and work from home alone with him and directed several sexual comments at her, including one about how his underwear fit. According to the filing, Laurent asked O’Donnell if she could “handle him when they were alone at his house.”

The lawsuit alleges that Laurent became angry and hostile after O’Donnell turned down his advances, limiting her workplace duties until she was eventually terminated. “[O’Donnell] believes that by this conduct Laurent explicitly and implicitly conditioned job benefits and the absence of job detriments on [O’Donnell’s] acceptance of sexual conduct,” O’Donnell’s attorney Michael Baltaxe wrote in the filing. O’Donnell’s attorneys have not yet responded to the Washington Post’s request for comment.

Riot made headlines in 2018 after a Kotaku report detailed a culture of sexism within the company. This produced a class action gender discrimination lawsuit and two separate investigations by California regulators. In 2020, Laurent published an open letter to other leaders in the games industry reflecting on Riot’s internal audit and the steps the company took to improve its culture. This was the same year O’Donnell was terminated from the company. According to the filing, Laurent’s harassment was consistent from when she was hired to when she was terminated.

In a statement to the Washington Post, a Riot spokesperson said: “Our CEO has pledged his full cooperation and support during this process, and we’re committed to ensuring that all claims are thoroughly explored and appropriately resolved.”

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Sandra Bullock And Brad Pitt Will Finally Work Together In Crime Film Bullet Train

It’s kind of hard to believe, but somehow Brad Pitt and Sandra Bullock have never worked together, despite all the times they probably shared movie theater marquees and “highest grossing” lists. That’s set to change in the upcoming film Bullet Train, as Sandra Bullock joins Brad Pitt for the film according to Deadline.

Bullet Train is based on the best-selling Japanese novel Maria Beetle by Kotaro Isaka. The story, described by the publisher as a dark, satirical thriller, centers on a comically luckless assassin named Nanao who is tasked with getting a suitcase off a train. Once onboard, though, he discovers that other assassins, including a baby-faced sadist and a pair of twins named after fruit, are after the same piece of luggage. The English-language translation of the book is scheduled to hit shelves in August 2021.

Bullock and Pitt will share the screen with Bryan Tyree Henry (Atlanta), Zazie Beetz (Deadpool 2, Atlanta), Michael Shannon (Knives Out), Masi Oka (Heroes), Joey King (The Kissing Booth), Aaron Taylor Johnson (Avengers: Age of Ultron), Logan Lerman (the Percy Jackson films), and Andrew Koji (Warrior). David Leitch, who directed Deadpool 2 and produced John Wick, will direct. Zak Olkewicz will write the film.

The actors haven’t yet been formally attached to specific roles just yet, and being that Bullet Train is originally a Japanese novel, we’re willing to bet the roles will undergo some significant adaptation for western audiences before we hear more about it.

Bullet train doesn’t have a release window just yet.

Image credit: Getty Images/Daniele Venturelli/Contributor

Destiny 2 – Season Of The Chosen Battlegrounds Gameplay

Destiny 2

First Released Sep 6, 2017

released

  • PC
  • PlayStation 4
  • PlayStation 5
  • Stadia
  • Xbox One
  • Xbox Series X

Humanity’s last safe city has fallen to an overwhelming invasion force, led by Ghaul, the imposing commander of the brutal Red Legion. He has stripped the city’s Guardians of their power, and forced the survivors to flee. You will venture to mysterious, unexplored worlds of our solar system to discover an arsenal of weapons and devastating new combat abilities. To defeat the Red Legion and confront Ghaul, you must reunite humanity’s scattered heroes, stand together, and fight back to reclaim our home.

Bloodborne Modder Releases 60 FPS Mod

Lance McDonald, AKA ManFightsDragon, AKA the guy who’s known for data mining games like P.T., Bloodborne, and the Dark/Demon Souls series for cut or hidden content, has officially released his 60 frames per second mod for Bloodborne.

McDonald previously announced he had created a 60 FPS mod back in October, 2020, but was waiting for Sony to clarify if it had any future plans for Bloodborne.

The patch allows players to alter the 1.09 version of Bloodborne (the latest update) and modify the game engine to increase the framerate cap to 60 FPS, and optionally lower the resolution to 1280×720.

[ignvideo url=”https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/11/16/demons-souls-review-ps5″]

In a previous video demonstrating the 60 FPS mod (which you should absolutely watch), McDonald shared that accessing Bloodborne’s debug mode and altering the framerate only served to speed up everything in the game to twice the speed, creating a comical Benny Hill effect. The PS4 Pro afforded some older games a boost mode that improved framerate and other performance metrics, but Bloodborne appeared to be locked behind what McDonald calls an “arbitrary” 30 FPS framerate, something Dark Souls 3 and Sekiro weren’t restricted by on the Pro. IGN has reached out to McDonald to clarify how well this patch could work on a base PS4, if at all.

You can find McDonald’s mod and instructions on his Patreon, but make sure you know what you’re doing. Altering your PS4 console in such a way will almost certainly void any warranty you have should something go awry. You’ll have to mod it to run homebrew software in the first place.

[ignvideo url=”https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/12/30/beyond-plays-bloodborne-episode-1″]

McDonald is an old hat when it comes to modding and data mining beloved games. He was originally the one to discover that P.T.’s ghost is programmed to always be behind the player, that the ghost actually walks around while you’re locked in the bathroom, and managed to explore the spooky Silent Hill city seen in the ending cutscene featuring Norman Reedus.

Don’t get your hopes up for an official 60 FPS patch from FromSoftware or Sony anytime soon, as neither company has even alluded to any intention of revisiting the game’s code. Considering the Demon’s Souls remake looks astounding at 60 FPS, we can still only hope they’ll see fit to do so.

Pokemon World Championships 2021 Canceled

The Pokemon Company has canceled this year’s Pokemon World Championships. In a statement on the official Pokemon website, the company explained that the competition will be moved back to 2022 in accordance with public health guidance, while all sanctioned Play Pokemon events will remain suspended this year:

“After careful review and pursuant to guidance set forth by local, regional, and national health authorities, as well as the World Health Organization, Public Health England, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, we have made the difficult decision to move out the next Pokemon World Championships to 2022. This event is planned to take place in London.

“With the continued suspension of the Play! Pokemon event series, all sanctioned Play! Pokemon events including League Challenge, League Cup, Premier Challenge, and Midseason Showdown will remain suspended until further notice. We look forward to celebrating the accomplishments of all our competitors at an expanded 2022 Pokemon World Championships in London.”

This marks the second year in a row that the Pokemon World Championships have been postponed; the 2020 World Championships were similarly canceled because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Pokemon Company says that all invitations to the 2020 competition will still be honored in 2022, although it has not yet announced any further details on next year’s event.

The Pokemon World Championships feature dedicated competitions for the Pokemon Trading Card Game, mainline video game series, and Pokken Tournament DX. The 2020 event were slated to be the first featuring Pokemon Sword and Shield, the series’ latest mainline installments.

While the Pokemon World Championships may have been canceled, this year is still shaping up to be a notable one for the series. This month marks Pokemon’s 25th anniversary, and The Pokemon Company is celebrating with new merchandise lines, announcements, and more activities, including a collaboration with Katy Perry.

Now Playing: Pokemon – Official 25 Years Of Memories Trailer

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Persona 5 Strikers: How Long Does It Take To Beat?

Persona 5 Strikers is the follow-up to the iconic RPG from developer Atlus, Persona 5, and it’s a continuation of the story with the same core characters of the Phantom Thieves. It features action-based combat that uses mechanics from the main game’s RPG system, and also has some light social sim elements that bring it closer to the core Persona experience. However, Strikers isn’t nearly as long as the main RPGs in the series, yet it still has a lengthy runtime.

How Long Is Persona 5 Strikers?

Upon finishing the game for review, I clocked in around 42 hours. This included completing the main story with all its dungeons, doing a large majority of the side quests called Requests, and experiencing the story elements at a normal pace. Your mileage may vary, but I would say that the estimated playtime for Persona 5 Strikers is around 35 to 40 hours. Completionists are likely to spend 45 hours or more.

This is quite lengthy for a musou-style game from Koei Tecmo and Omega Force, but considering how closely Strikers adheres to the core Persona format, it may not come as a surprise. For reference, it took me 125 hours to finish Persona 5 Royal and experience the content added from the original release.

The game makes good use of its runtime–in my Persona 5 Strikers review, I concluded it saying: “For all its shortcomings, Persona 5 Strikers reminds me why I loved the Phantom Thieves to begin with and shows how they’ve matured since we last saw them. Once you get your head around it, the action-RPG combat is a challenging thrill, and no one can pull off flourishes in the same fashion as these characters. I almost forgot I was playing a musou-style game developed by Koei Tecmo and Omega-Force, and I think that’s a testament to how sharp Strikers is as a Persona game. If you have any love for Persona 5, what say you save the world one more time with some old friends?”

For more on the game, you can check out my article on some of the smaller things I really like about Persona 5 Strikers in the early hours, or read my review referenced above. If you’re interested in getting into the series and haven’t given it a shot yet, be sure to read my Persona 5 Royal review.

Although the game has been out in Japan since last year, Persona 5 Strikers launches on February 23 in the west (or February 19 for those who preorder the deluxe edition) for PlayStation 4 (PS5 backwards compatible), Nintendo Switch, and PC.

Now Playing: Persona 5 Strikers Video Review

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Destiny 2 Season Of The Chosen: Seasonal Challenges Guide

With Season of the Chosen, Bungie has introduced a new seasonal challenges system to Destiny 2. Certain bounties have been removed from the game in favor of a new setup that grants you more time to complete objectives (and thus earn rewards). Here’s how it works and all of the seasonal challenges available so far.

Table of Contents [hide]

How Do Seasonal Challenges Work?

Seasonal challenges are accessed from the Quests tab, and they consist of a wide variety of objectives–so far they have involved tasks such as acquiring the new Cabal Gold currency, completing certain activities on Europa, and defeating Guardians in Mayhem with your Super. Each of these objectives has its own corresponding reward, which always includes XP. Other rewards include bright dust, emblems, weapons, and–perhaps most notably–War Table reputation, which is a new mechanic for Season of the Chosen.

A total of 10 challenges comprise Week 1’s lineup, and a new set of challenges (ranging from three to 10) will be introduced for the first 10 weeks of the season. Notably, you won’t only have that week to complete them: These challenges will be available for the duration of the season. Bungie has done away with certainly weekly bounties in favor of this system, which won’t penalize you for taking a week (or three) off during the course of the season. You’ll also have a period of time after the introduction of the Week 10 challenges to take care of those and any earlier challenges you haven’t already completed. Season of the Chosen will see 75 challenges offered, and completing them all will fulfill the requirements for the Master of All seasonal challenge, which nets you a bunch of bright dust.

Challenges can only be completed once per account, and there’s no process for obtaining them–when they’re released each week, they’ll be directly added to your challenges system. Other bounties do still exist and will need to be claimed as usual, but don’t forget the Destiny app now allows these to be claimed while in orbit. You don’t need the season pass in order to do seasonal challenges, but some (around 40% by Bungie’s estimate) will require you to have access to season-specific content.

Season Of The Chosen Challenges

Week 1

  • Contender’s Ascent
    • Challenger’s Proving quest completed
    • Cabal defeats with rocket launcher (75)
  • Golden Reaper
    • Acquire Cabal Gold (100)
  • Crash and Converge
    • Tribute Chests smashed (5)
    • Engrams focused (5)
  • Lenses in Focus
    • Lenses unlocked
  • Challenger’s Aspiration
    • Weekly playlist challenges completed (3)
  • Icebound
    • Europa bounties completed (10)
    • Europa progress earned (bountiest, patrols, public events, Lost Sectors)
  • Hail of Bullets
    • Calibrate kinetic weapons on Europa
  • Dredgin’ Up Victory
    • Complete Gambit matches
  • Flourish of Power
    • Defeat Guardians in Mayhem with Supers (50)
  • Dominance Operandi: Fallen
    • Defeat Fallen combatants in Strikes

Week 1’s challenges are reasonably straightforward. Advancing through the new seasonal content will get you on the right track with a number of objectives, such as setting you up to complete the Challenger’s Proving quest. That involves obtaining the Hammer of Proving and then socketing it with a Challenger Medallion, which is done by obtaining Cabal Gold (another Week 1 challenge). Other tasks will simply involve making sure you pay attention to what you’re doing, like playing Mayhem and killing other players with your Super or using kinetic weapons on Europa.

Seasonal

  • Master Of All
    • Complete all seasonal challenges (75)

For more, check out a list of known issues and all of Season of the Chosen’s new Exotics and gear in the season pass. Those who own the pass can immediately pick up the fun new Exotic bow.

Now Playing: Destiny 2: Beyond Light – Official Season Of The Chosen Trailer

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Destiny 2 Battlegrounds Guide: How The Hammer Of Proving, HELM, And Umbral Engrams Work

With the launch of the Season of the Chosen in Destiny 2 comes a new activity called Battlegrounds. It pits you against waves of Cabal enemies to take down leaders before they can join the war council of Caiatl, the Cabal empress, and allow her to rally her forces in the solar system. It also provides you with a new rewards system for earning seasonal gear and leveling up your Guardian–but the whole thing is a touch confusing.

We’ve put together a full rundown of how everything related to the Season of the Chosen works, from the Battlegrounds activity to the new HELM War Table, the Hammer of Proving, and the new version of Umbral Engrams. Here’s everything you need to know to excel and earn your new Chosen gear.

Table of Contents [hide]

Complete The Challenger’s Proving Quest

You’ll get this quest as soon as you start up Destiny 2 during the Season of the Chosen. It’ll introduce you to the HELM and War Table and unlock your Bell of Conquests Seasonal Artifact and the Hammer of Proving, which you need to get the most out of Battlegrounds activities. Complete all the steps to get access to everything in the HELM area. You can enter the HELM from the Tower map in the Director.

How Battlegrounds Work

The Battlegrounds activities are a bit of a mix between a Strike and past seasonal activities like Contact. Your primary goal is to fight off waves of Cabal enemies, but you’ll need to push through three different phases of the activity in order to complete it. Currently, Battlegrounds come in two versions: an easier one launched from the Director map (find it on Europa), and a tougher playlist version found under the Vanguard Director node.

The phases you’ll face depend on which Battleground you’re attempting. For instance, in Battleground: Behemoth on Nessus, the first phase requires you to fight through waves of enemies until a tougher Cabal with the name Keymaster shows up. Once you kill three Keymaster Cabal Majors, you can interact with a terminal that allows you to drop a forcefield and proceed to the next encounter.

In Battleground: Hailstone on Europa, the first phase has you killing several Unstable Incendior enemies, which show up one per wave. Killing these guys drops an energy orb that you can pick up and then throw at a cylindrical generator called a Power Relay. There are three of these relays, which need to be destroyed before you can advance. You’ll need to be pretty accurate when you throw the orb, or you might fail to blow up the relay and have to wait for a new enemy to appear and bring you a new orb.

Each Battleground has objectives involved, so pay attention to waht you're asked to do as you fight through waves of Cabal enemies.
Each Battleground has objectives involved, so pay attention to waht you’re asked to do as you fight through waves of Cabal enemies.

The first two phases of a Battleground are mostly about fighting through waves of enemies, but pay attention to any objectives that are set for you along the way as well. In playlist Battlegrounds, you’ll also face Champions, and in some cases your objectives will involve defeating them before you can advance.

The last phase of the Battleground is a boss fight with a Cabal leader you need to take down. This bit enemy has a health bar divided into three sections. When each section is depleted, he’ll call on Major enemies called Shieldbarrers, who will create an impenetrable barrier around the boss. You need to kill the Shieldbarrers before you can damage the boss again, so clear them out as fast as you can.

When you’ve killed the boss, you’ll receive a chest for your efforts. In playlist Battlegrounds, if you’ve forged a Challenger Medallion, you can also smash one of the three forcefield-covered chests that spawns in behind the first chest at the end of the mission. This is the key element of how Battlegrounds get you new rewards–more on the Hammer of Proving below.

Each player on your fireteam should smash a separate chest for maximum rewards. Be careful about not bunching up, though, because it’s easy to use two hammers on the same chest by accident, which will rob you of a chance at the third reward.

You can upgrade the Hammer of Proving at the War Table. Use it to smash extra chests at the end of playlist Battlegrounds activities.
You can upgrade the Hammer of Proving at the War Table. Use it to smash extra chests at the end of playlist Battlegrounds activities.

How The Hammer Of Proving Works

The Hammer of Proving is how you earn extra rewards during playlist Battlegrounds activities by smashing the extra chests that appear at the end. To do that, you need to add a Challenger Medallion to the Hammer before you start the activity. You can create Medallions by clicking on the Hammer of Proving on the Quest screen, but in order to make those Medallions, you need to earn a currency called Cabal Gold.

The good news is that Cabal Gold is easy to come by. You’ll earn it for doing basically everything, including completing playlist Rituals like Gambit matches, Crucible matches, Strikes, and Nightfall: The Ordeal runs. Gold also comes from public events, Lost Sectors, and battling in the Blind Well in the Dreaming City.

When you smash a Battlegrounds chest with the Hammer of Proving, you’ll earn a Hammer Charge. You can then bring those back to the HELM to use on the Prismatic Recaster and your Umbral Engrams.

The Prismatic Recaster lets you focus Umbral Engrams so they give you specific loot. For some, you'll need to build up Hammer Charges, which require you to use the Hammer of Proving in playlist Battlegrounds.

How Umbral Engrams And The Prismatic Recaster Work

The Prismatic Recaster is back from the Season of Arrivals, this time situated at the HELM. To use it, you’ll need Umbral Engrams, which drop from various activities, but specifically pop up as Battlegrounds rewards.

After finishing the Challenger’s Proving quest, you should have several options for tuning Umbral Engrams to make them decode for specific loot rewards. The first two, which give you armor and weapons from the world loot pool–the stuff you’d get from random drops off enemies as you’re playing–cost nothing but Legendary Shards and Glimmer. Once you have the Hammer of Proving, you can start to unlock Season of the Chosen rewards from Umbral Engrams. You can first tune engrams to drop either only weapons or only armor (or both, but just from the Season of the Chosen), and as you level up the Recaster, it’ll allow you to choose more specific loot drops.

This is where Hammer Charges come in. If you want to tune an Umbral Engram to give you Season of the Chosen loot, you’ll need to spend a Hammer Charge on it as well. So that means, to get a Season of the Chosen reward from an Umbral Engram, you’ll need to play various activities to earn Cabal Gold, use that to forge Challenger Medallions for your Hammer, then complete playlist Battlegrounds activities and smash a chest at the end to earn a Hammer Charge.

Each level for the Prismatic Recaster has different requirements, so pay attention to what you can unlock and how you can do so. Some levels require you to get a certain number of kills with a specific type of weapon, for instance, while others require you to unlock certain weapons from the Season Pass. Once you unlock those levels, however, you’ll be able to use the Prismatic Recaster to give you weapons and armor with specific perks and stats favored, allowing you to tune your loadout to your liking.

Ranking up the War Table gives you benefits for your Hammer of Proving, but to do so you'll need to complete seasonal challenges.

How The HELM And War Table Work

The last element of the season is the HELM and its War Table. The HELM is the new seasonal room you can access from the Director’s Tower map, which includes the Prismatic Recaster, the War Table, and several kiosks that give you a lot of the functionality of the Tower. You can use this room to access the Post Master and your Vault, so you can drop in here to do a lot of your Tower business and claim Battlegrounds rewards.

The War Table is your hub for a lot of season-related stuff. Here, you can claim Season of the Chosen bounties, upgrade your Hammer of Proving, purchase seasonal mods, and claim rewards as you increase your War Table rank.

Upgrading your Hammer of Proving at the War Table requires War Table Reputation, which is earned specifically from the new seasonal challenges tab on the Quest screen. These challenges replace weekly bounties you’d previously get from Zavala, Lord Shaxx, and the Drifter. Instead, you can earn these challenges anytime during the season, with new ones appearing each week. Several challenges dish out War Table Reputation; others give Bright Dust, weapons, and other rewards. So it’ll be useful to pay attention to your seasonal challenges before heading out to activities to make sure you’re progressing each one and earning everything you can.

We’ll update this guide with more information as it becomes available during the Season of the Chosen. Expect more Battlegrounds to become available alongside more seasonal challenges, so there should be plenty to do as you upgrade your War Table, Hammer of Proving, and Prismatic Recaster.

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