Destiny Crota's End Hard Mode Coming Next Week

Finding Destiny to be too easy? Tired of waltzing through the game’s supposedly top tier content as if it’s a walk in the park, laying waste to enemies before they ever have a chance to touch you? Well, Guardian, you’re in luck! It looks like Bungie has heard your cry for an even greater challenge, and will be answering back next week with a new “Hard Mode” being plugged into the latest raid, Crota’s End.

So now that folks are breezing through Crota’s End solo or in the span of just a handful of minutes, it looks like the team at Bungie are in the market to crank up Destiny’s difficulty curve a few degrees. To be fair, I doubt anyone can claim that Crota’s End isn’t already a challenge when played straight, but loads of people have now figured out the best tactics and tricks to cheese their way through the mission that typically puts a team of six’s skills to the test.

Now that the developer has actually patched out a lot of those bogus exploits, their looking to offer up an additional Hard Mode for the challenge, as outlined in a recent blog post.

“Hard mode for Crota’s End is ready. We know you are, too,” reads the statement. “The first Fireteam to sink their teeth (and their sword) into the final boss (and by opposing, end him) will set the pace. We’ll be watching. We might even send the World First finishers some swag from the Bungie Store.”

So if bragging rights weren’t enough to entice you, maybe the draw of free goodies will do the trick, yeah?

The new mode is set to go live next Wednesday, Jan. 21, at 10 a.m. Pacific time. All you have to do is head to the moon, set the destination to the Crota’s End map, then ratchet up the difficulty to hard mode. The new level is 33, by the way. For those of you who have lost count, your player level is capped at 32, so good luck with that.

“Prepare to take better care of your teammates,” continues the announcement. “You’ll have fewer options for healing yourself, and each other. The enemies you’re about to face are stronger and more prone to temper tantrums. Be brave.”

And since Destiny is all about the loot, you better believe that there’s some new in-game gear to be had for besting Crota himself. You’ll want to check out the original post for full details, but new gear includes one of each primary weapon type, as well as a bonus auto rifle called the Necrochasm. There’s also a new ship and a new color shader to be found, so happy hunting.

We’re still a couple of months away from Destiny’s next piece of DLC, House of Wolves, but at least smaller updates like this new hard mode will help tide us over.