Destiny Iron Banner Playlist Launches With New Patch

Update: The servers are now live with the Iron Banner event.

Original article: Today Bungie will launch the Iron Banner event in Destiny. Iron Banner puts a twist on the usual player-versus-battles battles in the Crucible.

The event, which runs until October 14th, brings a new 6v6 playlist to Destiny. In these matches, player's gear stats won't be normalized. In other words, someone with high Attack and Defense ratings will hit harder and resist more damage than someone with worse ratings. In other words, it's going to be a great week for folks with the Vex Mythoclast.

While competing in this playlist, players can complete new Iron Banner-specific bounties given by Xander 99-40. Doing so earns them reputation with the Iron Lords faction. Earning a new rank unlocks more gear that can be purchased from Lord Saladin. Here's what you'll get with each rank:

• Rank 1: Players unlock an Iron Banner emblem and shader. Each provides a stacking 10% boost to reputation gain with Iron Banner.
• Rank 2: Players can get an Iron Banner class item. This item also has a 10% reputation gain bonus which stacks with the emblem and shader bonuses.
• Rank 3: Players will get access to armor from the Iron Banner, along with new emblems and shaders.

Lord Saladin will sell both Legendary armor and weapons during the event in exchange for Crucible Marks. The shaders, class items and emblems will cost Glimmer.

Destiny's servers are down as of this writing. Bungie brought the game offline so that they could apply Patch 1.0.2.1. This update will prevent players from quick scoping with certain weapons. Other than that, though, you may not notice much of a difference from the patch.

"Most of the changes included in this update will improve the technology that enables players to connect to Destiny," Bungie said yesterday. "The player experience will remain unchanged, aside from the stability for some users who have encountered issues connecting to servers."

Patch 1.0.2.1 was preceded by a much larger update last week. That update, Patch 1.0.2, cleaned up the loot system by making Engrams more likely to give players quality equipment. It also made a couple small changes to the Crucible map rotations and time limits.

This poll is no longer available.