Destiny 2's Forsaken DLC ships next week, and in the run up Bungie is showing off one of its major new game modes for the next 24 hours starting right now - Gambit, a hybrid PvPvE mashup that blends Crucible with Nightfall. In we go...
Update after one hour - what's the best method?
If you are fearing the Competitive/Trials meta of teams of hunters with Antiope-D and Graviton, fear not.
Only one enemy Guardian at a time teleports through, and with that setup they would not be hugely damaging, it seems. The focus should be on your attack on the Hive/Fallen/Cabal enemies within, as that's what the majority of your scoring and progress relies on.
Heavy drops not only from the usual Heavy Ammo boxes, but from some enemies too so again you're not reliant purely on the PvP heavy ammo drop rates. Super kills when teleported seem to extend its duration, and you've no need to worry about non-Guardian enemies on the other side - they don't attack you.
Activision
Collecting motes to cash in at the dunk jukebox is vital - it's what will swing the game, and dying before cashing them in will lose them, so don't be greedy. You max out at 15 in your pockets, but can dunk any number you have. Motes show up on the map, and are on the floor as small white pyramids with beams of light rising from them so easy to see, but evaporate before long. Should an enemy Guardian from the other side be carrying motes when you kill them, they drop them - nice bonus.
Banked motes enable the teleporting to the other side (50 banked), while 75 will see your end boss, the Primeval, appear - that's your end game. Whichever team kills their Primeval first, wins the round - best of three. At 75, the teleportal is now open without motes being dunked, although there is a cooldown - so as soon as the Primeval spawns in, forget looking for motes.
Kills when teleported (for a maximum of 30s before being sent back, or when you die) will heal the elite boss the other team is desperate to kill, as well as simply slowing down the volume of enemy fire on it, so if it's super close between you it could swing the game.
Loot drop rates seem good, which for us makes this the D2 version of Court of Oryx/Archon's Forge. The Drifter, the Gambit announcer and... err... organiser, keeps you updated on where enemies are spawning in, but don't be so keen to get there you leave a bunch of motes to dissolve. Incoming enemy types rotate through the game's various types, so you'll face full gamut of them in terms of shield types etc.
You can keep an eye on your mote rates by the coloured bar at the top of the screen: grey shows possible motes that you and team-mates are carrying; blue shows actual banked motes (red for enemy motes). When the Primeval spawns in, the marker turns yellow and shows its health.
Another indicator to watch for is when you teleport to the enemy side: firstly, you will see all the enemies are nicely marked on the main screen - they can't hide. Second, the number above their head is the number of motes they are holding, so aim for the biggest first.
Lastly in our stream of consciousness - periodically each side can bank motes to spawn a blocker enemy on the other side. This is like the guy who refuses to let anyone else use the jukebox, and will cause the mote bank to retract and be unusable until they kill it, so watch for them and take them down fast.
We'll keep at it - come and join the fun, it's genuinely a hoot!
Original article: 10am PDT/6pm UK
The new Gambit gamemode sees two teams of four Guardians matched up in a pair of duelling arenas, where they individually tackle hordes of enemies and majors, grabbing and dunking orbs and motes to build a lead that allows one of their number to be teleported into the rival team's arena to cause havoc.
It will force players and teams to balance their strategies and loadouts between their regular PvP strike- and Nightfall-level gear and setup, with their Competitive and Trials Crucible setup.
Activision
From 10am Pacific Time, 6pm in the UK, and 7pm in western Europe, the standard destination director will show a new Gambit option at the base of the screen. No reloading or downloading required - you only need the base Destiny 2 game too, which is currently free on PS Plus.
Destiny 2 Forsaken goes live next September 4.
Activision
