Destiny 2’s New “Gambit” Mode Revived the Game’s Competitive Scene

Destiny 2’s competitive scene has always been a second thought compared to the co-op PvE activities. At the launch of Destiny 2 Bungie tried a different more team-play orientated approach with an all 4v4 pvp match-up. Over time players got tired of that formula, especially, the way players were strategizing. The only way to be competitive is to team-shot a player at long distance, this was the only way everyone played. This kept the matches long and stale. Bungie understood the frustration and decided that they will change something about the Crucible (PvP).

In July, Bungie pushed an update that changed the 4v4 format for Crucible to a 6v6, just how it was like in Destiny 1. Adding two more players on a team might not seem like a big change, but it completely changes how freely your team can strategize, this is especially true with solo matchmaking. Bungie knocked it out of the park with this change, of course they had a lot of help from the community. The community wanted this feeling of being a superhero in Crucible, to run around by yourself with a super destroying everyone in sight – this was the kind of feeling we wanted and Bungie delivered. Players are finally believing in Bungie again with these updates and the announcement of the new Forsaken Expansion.

While players are waiting for the new expansion Bungie invited a few content creators to a Summit at the studio in Bellevue, Washington to tryout and give feedback on a brand-new, never been done mode. Player were excited about what they played, shortly after, Bungie revealed that the mode will be called “Gambit” a combination of PvP and PvE. This was terrific, I couldn’t figure out a better way to blend both player-bases, the question is, how well balanced is it for both the PvE and PvP aspect of the mode for the players that are comfortable with only one type?

Luckily, last week Bungie was at GamesCom in Germany and announced that Gambit will have a free trial on Saturday, September 1^st for players that have the base game. This was the perfect opportunity to tryout this new PvP/PvE mode for myself.

After about 2 matches of not knowing what to do, my third match clicked with me in a way I didn’t expect. There’s so many things going on at one time it seems like it would take me 6-7 games to just wrap my head around the basics, but it wasn’t difficult at all. Bungie does a great job at splitting and personalizing parts of the map for easy identification. The map will have 3 parts that are very distinct and will spawn hordes, these hordes will rotate between those 3 areas and will drop motes when defeated. The middle of the map will have a mote bank which you must cash in to summon a boss, to win the match the boss must be killed. This is just the basics of the mode, there are so much depth and strategies you can conjure with your fireteam.

                                                                             

 Beach

 Ruins

Trees

 

The motes aren’t just there for your progression bar, but it is also a way to block your enemies from banking their motes. Depending on how much you bank you can summon a small, medium, and large blocker on the opposing side to stop them from progressing until they have defeated all the blockers you’ve summon. Banking 5-9 motes will summon a small blocker, 10-14 motes will summon a medium blocker, and 15 (max) will summon a large blocker. Using this effectively can completely halt your progression if your fireteam don’t be those blockers quick enough.

Most strategies revolve around your invader, the invader is the player that will invade the opposing fireteam, only one player can invade. This happens when your team banks 25 or 50 motes, once you reach 75 motes the portal to the opposing side will stay open and will be on cooldown once a player goes through. Your invader can do 1 of 2 things depending on the situation. First, killing an enemy will cause them to drop the motes they collected that they haven’t banked. This creates a hunt for the most motes, if they can’t bank they can’t summon their boss. Second is when an invader is invading and their boss is summoned killing enemy players will heal the boss. I can’t remember all the times we’ve came back because our invader wiped the whole team and the boss is back at full health. This was one of the most fun and most stressful moment in Gambit that ill do time and time again.

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Gambit was the refresh we players needed with all the same game modes we’ve had since Destiny 1. This type of mode isn’t just refreshing for that PvE player, but it connects with almost if not all Guardians. I give props to Bungie in keeping the gameplay hectic but very manageable with all the audio and visual cues, this keeps me focus on one thing even if I can’t communicate with my fireteam. I believe Gambit is just scratching the surface of what we’re getting in Forsaken, I can’t wait for Tuesday so Gambit is readily available for me and my fireteam to Fight. Bank. Collect. And Invade.