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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
There’s an unnerving air of mystery to Paradise Lost, a game that sees you explore an abandoned bunker that once housed a group of Nazis before becoming home to the Polish rebels that overthrew them. In this first-person adventure game set in an alternate timeline, Germany won World War II, nuking the Allies and plunging most of western Europe into a nuclear winter.
I had the opportunity to sit through a brief demo of Paradise Lost alongside game director Bogdan Graczyk and producer Chris Panas-Galloway. As I watched protagonist Szymon puzzle his way through the bunker, Paradise Lost slowly began to reveal small narrative threads that Graczyk and Panas-Galloway promise will connect in unforeseen ways going forward, all culminating in a story that’s about grief–both personal and societal.
“In this godforsaken world, [Szymon] lived with his mother and his mother dies one day, and that leaves him all alone and with no real good idea on what to do next,” Graczyk explains to me. “That’s when he finds this photo, and that’s when he realizes that the search for answers of where he came from, how he ended up [on his own], and what’s the answers behind the mystery of his mother might help him cope with the loss.”
Working Through Grief
Paradise Lost is structured to reflect the five stages of grief, with each level of the game both figuratively and literally representing each stage as Szymon works through the trauma of losing his mother. You’ll first play through his denial, then anger, bargaining, depression, and, finally, acceptance. It’s an emotional process that traditionally takes weeks or months, sometimes years of time in the real world, but developer PolyAmorous is condensing it into a matter of hours in order to fit the pacing of the game.
“For dramatic reasons, it might not be the most realistic pacing,” Graczyk admits. “There is a sense of epicness in this journey because it begins in a different place spatially. It’s a long way for Szymon to get to the bunker, which we’re not necessarily showing, but it sets this specific mood. The empty bunker is also a character. And this journey, each story is also, as I said, thematically connected to the grief, but on a different level–the grief of the world, like there’s a lot of broken dreams and horrific things happening in this world.”
“We’re based in Warsaw, Poland,” Panas-Galloway added. “So, we’ve lived in the midst of the history of the aftermath of the Second World War. A lot of the places here–for people that have connections to them and their families–serve as genuine catalysts for really strong emotional experiences. If you’ve ever come with a Jewish person to Auschwitz, they’ll have very strong reactions a lot of the time because there’s just so much emotion tied up in the stories that they’ve told each other of the generation. So this [bunker] is that to Szymon, it’s a catalytic place. It’s something that will trigger something in him after the loss of his mother–that’s the way we’re staging it.”
Changing Time
I wasn’t able to see how this would play out during the demo, though both Graczyk and Panas-Galloway spoke about how Paradise Lost would react to player’s choices as they navigated Szymon’s emotional journey through the game. As you navigate Szymon’s grief, you’ll be getting a glimpse into what happened to the group of Polish rebels that once occupied the bunker and how they dealt with their own grief. The technology of the bunker is interwoven with a mysterious, Slavic paganism, allowing your actions in the present to be reflected in the past, which then result in effects to the present.
“You make the decisions that the bunker’s system have already made to solve the problems, so it actually has different outcomes,” Graczyk explained. “The monument [seen in the demo] can have different variance based on the outcome of the insurgency and based on the players’ decisions. It’s like a hidden interactivity where you’re reshaping the past of the bunker, and it has an influence on the gameplay portion.”
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He continued: “It’s not any kind of time travel or reshaping the past. It’s rather that the events recorded by those systems are recorded via the perspective of the AI systems that were controlling the bunker. So there’s like a [sentient artificial intelligence] behind it–the moment that Szymon is experiencing those past events, we let the player become the actual AI from the past and make those calls.”
You won’t be making these decisions in a vacuum–discovering small details, leftover notes, and discarded correspondence will provide context to the world around. In this way, you’re encouraged to get as much out of Paradise Lost’s story as you’re willing to put into it. And that, in turn, ties back to the game’s message about grief. How you choose to interact with the world and understand Szymon’s grief will inform your ending–there are more than one, and your actions will determine which you get.
“Since it’s, first and foremost, an emotional journey, we tried to make sure that different endings, different outcomes, different routes have different emotional impacts,” Graczyk said. “So from this perspective, replaying the game can be a different emotional experience. Just looking at [the same events] but from a different perspective, gives you a fuller understanding of what has happened, what actually has happened.”
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Panas-Galloway added: “All the endings are equally valid. We left it really up to the player, how they experience Szymon’s story. The game is about perspectives on the past and on the present, and if you want to explore those perspectives and try to understand the world in a different way, then yeah–you’re encouraged to replay and find out what they are.”
I, for one, will be combing through the bunker in Paradise Lost with a fine comb once it comes out–the small tidbits of lore that I got to see in the demo are already intriguing enough for me to want to see the whole campaign through. It was, admittedly, a very small 15-minute chunk of the game so who knows how well the rest of the experience holds up, but the demo left off at what seemed to be a cool revelation and if Paradise Lost can maintain that sense of mystery and imbue it with a satisfying story about dealing with grief, then I think it will turn out to be a pretty good game. You’ll have your chance to play through Paradise Lost later this year, as the game is scheduled to launch for Xbox One, PS4, and PC in 2021.
The 1939 classic film The Wizard of Oz, widely considered to be one of the greatest movies of all time, will be getting the remake treatment via New Line Cinema and director Nicole Kassell (Watchmen). This is not the first time a remake or re-imagining of the 1900 children’s fantasy novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz has been attempted, and it’s likely not to be the last, but Kassell’s involvement via HBO’s Watchmen of all things is incredibly intriguing.
According to Deadline, an extensive search for a director ended with Kassell being hired because she “acted as a meticulous world-builder in overseeing every step of the Watchmen production, setting the show’s striking visual tone with no detail overlooked and weaving visual cues from the panels of the comic into the series as delicate Easter eggs for fans.” In other words, the exact strengths Kassell brought to realizing DC’s classic, New Line Cinema is hoping Kassell will bring to Oz.
“I am incredibly honored to… [be] bringing this beloved classic to the screen,” said Kassell. “While the 1939 musical is part of my DNA, I am exhilarated and humbled by the responsibility of re-imagining such a legendary tale. The opportunity to examine the original themes–the quest for courage, love, wisdom and home–feels more timely and urgent than ever. These are profoundly iconic shoes to fill, and I am eager to dance alongside these heroes of my childhood as we pave a newly minted yellow brick road!”
According to Variety, previous versions of the screenplay for this upcoming remake were written by Darren Lemke (Shrek Forever After) and the duo of Neil Widener and Gavin James (Now You See Me 3).
From February 9-15, Minecraft players will have access to special curated content and free items to help celebrate the Year of the Ox, even though it can’t be in-person.
Traditionally, Lunar New Year celebrations involve in-person gatherings, whether those celebrations involve trips to flower markets, festive parades, dances, or big feasts with family and friends. As noted in Minecraft’s blog post about the event: “All over the world, people come together to clear out the previous year by cleaning their homes, getting rid of clutter, and replacing or repairing broken items.”
But since that isn’t possible for many this year, Minecraft has added special curated Lunar New Year content and free skins so players can throw their own digital festivities if gathering in-person isn’t safe. “Since that type of gathering still isn’t possible we hope that you can find other ways to mark the occasion. If you want to welcome the Year of the Ox in Minecraft, you can find free skins in the Marketplace and Character Creator that will help make your celebration a little more festive!”
The Lunar New Year of the Ox skin pack features multiple “cultural elements,” including Hanfu (a type of traditional Chinese clothing), Tang suit (a type of traditional Chinese jacket), dragon lion dance characters, and ox in different festive costumes. You can snag it for free in the Minecraft marketplace.
The last time the Year of the Ox rolled around was in 2009, the same year Minecraft originally debuted. Back then there were no cows in the game (they weren’t introduced until 2010), but things have come a long way since then. Players can create all kinds buildings and decorations in the game’s servers now, so whatever kind of digital celebration you’re looking to hold Minecraft should be able to accommodate it.
Presidents Day (February 15) is coming up this weekend in the US, and whether you’ve got the day off to relax or still have to wake up for work on Monday, you can take advantage of some sweet deals on tech and more. As with practically any other holiday, retailers use Presidents Day as an excuse to throw big sales, and you’ll find some of the best prices around since Black Friday. You don’t have to wait until Monday either (though some deals will kick off that day); many of the best Presidents Day deals are starting to go live already. We’ll be updating this story throughout the week as more Presidents Day sales go live.
One of the best Presidents Day sales live so far is over at Ebay, where you can find huge markdowns on certified refurbished tech, home accessories, and more. While it’s easy to write off refurbished products at a glance, these are all “like new” products that have been certified by manufacturers or authorized partners, and they come with both a two-year warranty and money-back guarantee. Combine the initial discount with the PREZDAY20 promo code that slashes another 20% off in checkout, and you’re getting an incredible deal.
We’re also starting to see Presidents Day deals go live from tech brands like Lenovo, which always throws a nice sale around holidays like this. This year is no exception–Lenovo has great discounts on monitors, webcams, and more this week. We also expect to see more deals from major retailers like Best Buy kick off as we get closer to Presidents Day, so keep checking back. For now, check out some of the best Presidents Day deals you can already take advantage of below. Plus, keep in mind another holiday is coming up soon–a few of these products might make good Valentine’s Day gifts.
Bose is one of the most well-known and beloved brands in the headphones game, but its products are sold at premium prices. During Presidents Day, you can snag the excellent Bose Noise-Canceling Headphones 700 for just $224 with promo code PREZDAY20 at checkout. These are sold directly from Bose via eBay and are in “pristine, like-new condition,” so you really can’t do better than this deal if you’re seeking a new pair of Bluetooth headphones for working from home. See our sister brand CNET’s Bose Noise-Canceling Headphones 700 review for more on why these headphones are worth the money.
iRobot’s Roomba is one of the top robot vacuum models for a reason–it’ll keep your floor sparkling clean by sucking up dirt, dust, debris, kitty litter, and more without you having to lift a finger. The Roomba 670 also comes with Google Assistant and Alexa integration so you can trigger it with the sound of your voice. Roomba smart vacuums can cost hundreds of dollars, but you can get this model for nearly 50% off at eBay during Presidents Day.
Need a new gaming monitor? This weekend’s a great time to pick one up for a fraction of the price. On sale for $200 with promo code PREZDAY20, the Acer KG1 28-inch gaming monitor has been professionally restored by an Acer-approved vendor and ships directly from Acer. This well-rated 4K monitor features a 60Hz refresh rate, a fast 1ms response time, and AMD FreeSync technology to reduce tearing and stuttering.
This 34-inch ultrawide monitor from Samsung is down to a great price as well. With promo code PREZDAY20, you can nab it for $240 via eBay. Once again, this is a certified refurbished monitor that’ll arrive in “like new” condition. While not suited for super heavy gaming, it’s a great option for those needing a wide monitor for both work and light gaming.
Lenovo’s excellent Legion H300 stereo gaming headset is $30 off, dropping its price to just $40. This is a quality headset at a budget price, delivering immersive audio, plug-and-play noise canceling, and a comfortable, lightweight fit. It’ll work well no matter what platform you play on, including PC, Nintendo Switch, PS5, Xbox Series X, and last-gen consoles.
Good webcams became a bit of a hot commodity in 2020 due to the huge influx of people working from home and taking video meetings from their living room. While webcam inventory has stabilized somewhat, it’s still rare to see discounts on webcams from name brands like Logitech, but you can find a great deal right now at Lenovo. The Logitech C925e HD webcam is $20 off for Presidents Day, dropping it to $80. Just plug it into your laptop and arrange it at the top of your screen, and you’ll have a clear and bright picture for video meetings.
For those who really just need a good monitor for working from home, the ThinkVision P27H is a fantastic option, especially while it’s on sale for $248. The 27-inch 1440p monitor has an edgeless IPS screen with excellent picture quality and vibrant colors, and it features a USB-C cable to easily connect to supported devices.
Let’s face it: We’re all going to be wearing masks for some time, and before you know it, the weather will start getting warmer again, which means any outdoor errands will result in the inside of your mask becoming a sweaty, gross mess. Now that you have that mental picture, here’s a better solution: Under Armour’s premium sports masks are on sale this week–normally $30 for one, you can grab two for $40 during Presidents Day. These masks are designed to be worn all day during high levels of activity, so they feature a structured design with better airflow that enhances breathability and comfort.
Great Apple Watch deals aren’t too common outside of Black Friday, but both Walmart and Amazon are dropping the price on Apple’s smartwatch this week. Available for $169, the Apple Watch Series 3 (38mm) comes with a GPS and barometric altimeter to track how far and high you travel. It’s also water-resistant and comes with dozens of features, letting you set alarms, read and respond to text messages, measure your heart rate, and more.
Amazon’s Echo Show 5 is one of the handiest devices to have in your living room or kitchen. You can use it to follow along to recipes, hear the weather, listen to music, and even video call with friends and family. It’s also designed to work well on your bedside nightstand due to its compact design–it comes with a neat ambient sunrise lighting feature and various clock faces as well–but it’d work great wherever you spend the most time in your home. The Echo Show 5 is $30 off for Presidents Day at Best Buy and Amazon.
Each new season of Destiny 2 has been accompanied by the introduction of a new Exotic weapon, and in the case of the just-launched Season of the Chosen, that’s the bow Ticuu’s Divination. It’s a fantastic new addition to the game, and something you should check out even if previous bows haven’t been your thing. But the key to having a good time with Ticuu’s Divination and making the most of it requires you to understand how it works and how to best use it.
Upon drawing Ticuu’s Divination, you’ll notice that it highlights multiple enemies near the center of your screen with red diamonds. That’s the first component of the weapon’s intrinsic trait, Sacred Flame, which launches tracking projectiles at multiple targets when hipfiring. Any marked enemies will then explode when they die or if they’re hit by a second Sacred Flame explosion.
The Causality Arrows trait adds a further wrinkle to this, causing Sacred Flames to detonate immediately when you fire an arrow while aiming down sights. Landing a precision hit with the bow fully charged increases the power of the blast. So in the early going, it seems as if the best way is to ensure you’re mixing in both hipfire shots and ADS shots, marking targets to turn them into walking bombs and then detonating with precision ADS. Against weaker enemies that aren’t in groups, marking seems unnecessary as a single precision ADS shot should do the job, but you won’t be treated to a colorful explosion if you don’t mark them first.
Novelty of the auto-tracking shots aside, Ticuu’s Divination is a lot of fun to wield. With few exceptions, a bow is not the sort of thing I typically want to pull out when seeing a pack of enemies, but so far I’m loving the ability to use Ticuu’s to blow them up en masse. It’s almost like a version of Sunshot that fires more slowly but gives you the opportunity to put your mind grapes to use. Getting into an efficient flow where I’m rotating between marking enemies and detonating has been the real highlight in my first couple hours with the Season of the Chosen update.
Fortunately, free and premium players alike can get their hands on the bow. If you’ve purchased access to Season of the Chosen (either individually or as part of the year-long season pass), you can immediately retrieve it and a set of armor as a Rank 1 reward in the season pass track. (Making it to level 100 will net you a weapon ornament to change its look). Free players can also get the bow by leveling up the season pass to Rank 35. Hitting that point will take longer than it will for those with premium season pass access, due to the XP bonuses those players receive, but at least this fun weapon is within reach for everyone.
The Pokemon Go Tour: Kanto event is set for next Saturday, February 20. Ahead of the big celebration, developer Niantic has now shared some more details on what players can expect, including the full event schedule and what rewards await if you can complete all of the event’s Special Research and new Masterwork Research tasks.
Event Schedule
As previously revealed, the Pokemon Go Tour: Kanto event runs for 12 hours, from 9 AM to 9 PM local time. Each hour, however, Niantic will rotate through different virtual locations based on areas of the Kanto region, which will determine which Pokemon appear in the wild.
There will be five different themed locations in total, with the final two hours of the event featuring Pokemon from all of the previous hourly blocks. The full schedule is as follows:
9 AM – 10 AM: Pallet Town
10 AM – 11 AM: Pewter City
11 AM – 12 PM: Cerulean City
12 PM – 1 PM: Fuchsia City
1 PM – 2 PM: Pokemon League
2 PM – 3 PM: Pallet Town
3 PM – 4 PM: Pewter City
4 PM – 5 PM: Cerulean City
5 PM – 6 PM: Fuchsia City
6 PM – 7 PM: Pokemon League
7 PM – 9 PM: Pokemon from all previous hours
In addition to featuring different Pokemon, each hour will also have music inspired by the original Pokemon Red and Green versions. Niantic says this music was curated by Pokemon producer and original composer, Junichi Masuda.
Special Research And Masterwork Research
The centerpiece of the Pokemon Go Tour: Kanto event will be a new Special Research story that Niantic says will shed more light on the original 150 Pokemon. If you manage to clear the entire Special Research line, you’ll earn a chance to catch Shiny Ditto, as well as unlock a new kind of challenge called Masterwork Research.
Masterwork Research seems to be even more involved than Special Research; Niantic says it will take “determination and skill to complete.” To clear the first page of the Masterwork Research, you’ll need to earn a platinum Kanto medal, and subsequent tasks will require you to reach level 40, catch 30 Pokemon of each type, spin 151 different PokeStops, and other activities. If you do manage to complete the Masterwork Research, however, your ultimate reward will be a chance to catch a Shiny Mew.
Collection Challenges
On top of the Special Research story, Niantic will hold 10 Collection Challenges during the Pokemon Go Tour: Kanto event. Among them will be Red and Green Collection Challenges, but how you complete these will differ slightly depending on which version of the event you choose. For example, players who choose the Red version will be able to catch Red Collection Challenge Pokemon by using Incense, but they’ll need to trade with a player who chose the Green version of the event to complete the Green Collection Challenge.
The other Collection Challenges will be based on the aforementioned virtual locations that will be available during the event. Niantic says all of the Collection Challenges will be available until 7:59 PM local time on February 28, giving you up to a week after the event ends to complete them. You can read more details on the official Pokemon Go blog.
In the meantime, Pokemon Go’s Lunar New Year event is now underway until February 14, and the game’s Valentine’s Day event will follow from February 14-18. The Legendary Eon Pokemon Latios and Latias are also back in five-star Raids for a limited time.
Comedy movie legend Judd Apatow is making a pandemic-inspired movie called The Bubble and it has added Pedro Pascal, Karen Gillan, and Maria Bakalova to its cast.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, the three are set to star in the film, joining the previously announced cast that includes Fred Armisen, Keegan-Michael Key, David Duchovny, Peter Serafinowicz, and Leslie Mann.
Filming is expected to begin next week in London, on the film, which is described as a “meta-comedy” that follows a group of actors who get stuck in a pandemic bubble at a hotel as they try to finish a studio movie.
THR said the movie is inspired by what happened in real life with Jurassic World: Dominion, as Laura Dern, Sam Neill, Jeff Goldblum, Chris Pratt, and Bryce Dallas Howard became stuck in the UK as they filmed the newest Jurassic World movie.
From THR’s report:
“While much of the details are being kept in the hotel safe but it is known that Gillan and Pascal will play the made-up franchise’s stars, a la Bryce Dallas Howard and Chris Pratt. Mann and Duchovny are avataring a duo like Laura Dern and Jeff Goldblum, playing a fictional, once-married acting duo who now find themselves under the same roof along with their teen-aged daughter, being played by Iris Apatow. (Dern and Goldblum were a couple in the 1990s.)”
The Bubble is reportedly headed to Netflix. It’s likely to be just one of many films touching on the global pandemic that continues to grip the world.
The latest patch for Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War has arrived, ushering in some important changes for the just-launched League Play event, while the Zombies mode gets more stability improvements, bug fixes, and more.
League Play kicked off this week and the new patch includes a series of fixes, one of which solves the issue that could cause classes to show up empty in some scenarios. The update also delivers some restrictions, one of which is that you cannot use any type of suppressor attachment, while a number of barrel attachments are also cut.
League Play is the new competitive-minded option for players looking to have a more serious and intense experience.
As for the Zombies changes, players can expect stability improvements as well as changes to the camo challenges. Orda eliminations now count for three eliminations, while the special enemy class now counts for the weapon camo challenges, too. As for the bug fixes, one of the issues that this patch addresses is how players could magically escape the village when using the Aether Shroud Tier III.
Elsewhere, the Tombstone Soda perk has been fixed so players no longer die when fast-traveling as a shadow, while a fix has also been deployed for a bug that could cause the player’s resources to fail to populate as they should.
The new Wonder Weapon also gets a small fix to address some of its visual effects, while the Dark Aether Artifact Intel should now be awarded normally in the main quest.
The February 9 patch for Black Ops Cold War does not contain any fixes or changes for the standard multiplayer mode, it seems. You can see the full notes below, as posted by Treyarch on the developer’s website.
