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Destiny: Rise of Ironmay be Watch Swap (2024) full movieless than a week away, but there's still plenty we don't know about it.

That's slowly changing this week as details emerge from a recent press trip to Bungie's Washington-based studio. We spent a bunch of time playing Rise of Ironwhile we were there, but we also sat down for a group chat with the creative leads who have been assembling this new chapter in Destinysince January.

SEE ALSO: The new Strike in 'Destiny: Rise of Iron' has an unkillable boss

The far-ranging conversation covered a lot of topics, including the new raid, the evolution of Destiny's endgame, the move away from last-generation consoles and plenty more. Read on for a rundown of the most enlightening bits we picked up on.

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1. The benefits of ending support for old consoles

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Rise of Ironis the first Destinyadd-on that is exclusive to PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, effectively ending the game's development on PS3 and Xbox 360. The older versions will continue to function, but they won't host any new Destinycontent.

So what does that mean for current-gen players? Improved visual effects and more features, at least to start with.

"The snow stuff that [appears in the new Rise of Iron locations] is one of the things we kept pushing because we coulddo that," said Shi Kai "Shiek" Wang, the add-on's art director.

It's not that you'll see a graphics overhaul in Rise of Iron, but both the number and quality of visual effects get a boost.

The new social space, Felwinter's Peak, also gets a bump. Since only Rise of Ironplayers can access the new zone, Bungie was able to increase the lobby size to 16 players.

The move away from last-gen support was necessary to accommodate the scope Bungie had in mind for Rise of Iron. It won't be a big deal for most players; according to Bungie, roughly 90 percent of Destiny's playerbase is on PS4 or Xbox One.

One thing we can confirm: don't expect PS4 Pro support for Rise of Iron. The door is still open for a patch to be released later, but nothing's been built or discussed as of now.

2. What to expect from the new endgame

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Rise of Iron's story-driven campaign is shorter than The Taken King's, but its endgame -- which is to say, the stuff you do to max out your Light Level after you finish the story -- offers more ways to progress than before.

There's the raid, of course. Iron Banner and Trials of Osiris aren't going anywhere, either. A new Strike playlist (and a Heroic variant of the same) gives Rise of Ironplayers a chance to tackle harder versions of both the new Strike and the newly updated older Strikes.

Weekly Nightfall challenges have had their loot tables updated as well. Most importantly, all rewards and engrams stick to the changes introduced in Destiny's April 2016 update.

"All of the faction packages and engrams, no matter where you earned them, will give you upgrades relative to your Light," said Christopher Barrett, Rise of Iron's director.

"We have updated the Prison of Elders faction packages and Queen's Bounty faction packages, and all factions in the Tower."

Existing activities like the Dreadnaught's Court of Oryx or the Challenge of the Elders will still function at their old recommended Light Levels, but the package rewards you collect from vendors in the social spaces adhere to the new rules.

The April update made it so that all loot drops on level-appropriate activities sported a Light Level that was close to or slightly higher than the player's current Light Level.

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Prior to that, Destiny's loot drops were entirely random. So the April update introduced a steady, reliable sense of progression.

3. Trickle is still around, sadly

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It's true. Trickle, the most hated activity modifier in Destiny, is still in the game. Technically.

"It exists in Rise of Iron," Barrett said. "I know we've tried to use it a lot less, and only when appropriate. I would say you'll be seeing it a lot less for sure."

The modifier was originally introduced in the House of Wolvesadd-on, released in 2015, as part of the then-new Prison of Elders mode. When it's active, any time-limited ability in your toolbox -- specifically, melee abilities, grenades and Supers -- charge significantly slower than normal.

"The original goal was to try to introduce some new modifiers that changed up players' behavior and added some interesting variety," Barrett said.

"I can totally understand that the game is a little less fun when you can't use your Super, so it's something we'll continue to look at and make adjustments to."

4. Expect bigger, beefier events

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In the months after The Taken Kinglaunched, Destinywas host to a number of limited time activities, some of which were pegged to real world events. For example, "Festival of the Lost," in Oct. 2015, riffed on Halloween; Crimson Doubles, in Feb. 2016, was a nod to Valentine's Day.

Those events were crafted by Destiny's "live team," the group tasked with creating and maintaining the game's ever-changing roster of activities. Notably, the live team is alsothe crew that built Rise of Iron. Expect bigger and more involved live events as a result.

"Even with events like Festival of the Lost or the winter event that's coming, I think we'll see some cool new additions. We're trying to make those events even better than last year."

Note that the "winter event" Barrett referred to was realized in 2015 as the Sparrow Racing League. The month-long event added a whole new mode of play to the game that let players compete in races with the game's Sparrow hoverbikes.

Bungie remains cagey about how Sparrow Racing League will evolve in 2016, but the coming event that hosts it -- this December, if it follows the 2015 timing -- will involve more than just that.

"One of the things last year is [the winter event] was just Sparrow racing. We want do something a bit bigger than that," said Scott Taylor, Rise of Iron's executive producer.

"Basically, we're saying: the winter event, featuring the return of Sparrow racing."

5. The raid gameplan

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Rise of Iron's new raid -- Wrath of the Machine -- will be activated on Sept. 23, the Friday after the add-on's release. The recommended Light Level for the raid will be 370.

Destiny: Rise of Ironwill raise the game's Light Level cap to 385 at launch, with another leap to 400 once the "hard mode" version of the raid is released (it's not yet clear when hard mode will be live).

Based on past raids, the 370 recommendation is just a starting point for Wrath of the Machine. You'll want to be at least that far along to startthe raid, but -- if the past is any indication -- finishing the raid will be challenging for players that aren't close to or at the 385 cap.

As usual, Bungie doesn't have anything substantial to say about the raid before it's out.

6. Iron Banner and Trials of Osiris

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Destiny's two PvP-focused endgame activities won't be changing significantly in Rise of Iron, but that doesn't mean there's nothing new.

The core rules of Trials won't be changing at all, but bounties are "a little more generous," according to the live team's PvP lead, Derek Carroll. There's also, obviously, new gear to chase.

Iron Banner also brings along new gear and revised bounties, but that's not all. The lore that fuels the story in Rise of Ironis also where the origins of Destiny's monthly PvP tournament lies.

The biggest and most obvious change: Saladin, the vendor that peddles Iron Banner gear in the Tower when the tournament is live, will be moving to Felwinter's Peak. He'll be there full-time in Rise of Iron, so that's where you'll visit him to collect bounties and gear rewards during Iron Banner.

The move also means that Iron Banner won't be accessible to anyone that doesn't own Rise of Iron. Since Saladin will now live at Felwinter's Peak and that social space is closed off to players running older versions of Destiny, there's no way for those players to interact with him.

The first Iron Banner after Rise of Ironlaunches will feature the game's new Supremacy PvP mode. A carbon copy of the Kill Confirmed mode from Call of Duty, Supremacy encourages team play and close-quarters combat.

UPDATEDSept. 23 1:22 p.m. ET A previous version of this article erroneously stated that the Light minimum for "Wrath of the Machine" is 360, based on what was printed in press materials provided to Mashableby Bungie. It turns out that the recommended Light for the raid is actually 370. We've corrected the inaccuracy and regret the error.

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