Destiny 2 has become my life over the past week. I love hopping on my Sparrow, zooming around the open worlds and shooting bug-people in the face. I hadn’t played an MMO since my first gaming love, City Of Heroes, had its servers taken down, but Bungie’s space sequel is scratching that itch. Since I downloaded the game, I’ve powered through the story mode, collected (nearly) every hidden chest on Nessus and Io and gained enough gear to be considered a high-class Guardian, all without any help from other players. I managed to get this far, but to truly become a masterclass blaster and take on the Nightfall strike, I was going to need some friends.
The first weekly Nightfall strike “The Arms Dealer” is currently the toughest challenge in Destiny 2, a battle against time to beat a Cabal general that really wants you dead. You have to have at least a 230 power level before attempting it, and even then you won’t be strong enough until you’re somewhere around 260. The first strike you can do is a lot weaker and automatically groups you up with two other people to form a Fireteam. Since “The Arms Dealer” quest is so difficult and requires actual coordination, you have to find teammates on your own time.
Upon hitting power level 250, I decided my next step had to be completing this badass raid. First, I headed to the Destiny 2 subreddit to find compadres, but not a single soul was willing to take someone with such a low power level on such a difficult mission. I joined a clan looking for help, but even they weren’t willing to hold my hand through this ordeal. Downtrodden and forlorn, I looked to one last place the light of hope could be: Discord. The chatroom made for gamers was a perfect fit. After lurking around long enough, I found someone looking for a third player.
Specifically, he wanted someone to finish the Rat King’s Crew quest, a difficult journey that requires you to beat the mission with five minutes to spare. Completing a difficult mission on top of an already hard strike could prove to be my downfall, but I was ready to try anyway. Disturbed was the leader, who had a plan we had to stick to. His sidekick was Barnaby, a name I soon had etched into my brain. I was told to follow wherever they went, to equip my Arc powerset and only use it when he told me to. The only way I was going to get through this was by being a good soldier boy, even though it was hard to squash the League Of Legends player in me that wanted to yell.
The first few waves went fairly well, with Disturbed shouting out whenever he wanted us to switch guns or fast travel on our Sparrows. Upon facing the giant-floating purple eyeballs, Barnaby and I started to die. This pissed off Disturbed, who kept yelling “god damnit Barnaby, stop sucking.” I must have heard that same statement six or seven times before facing the final boss, a Cabal general with more health than the rest of the level’s dead enemies combined. With seven minutes to spare, we jumped headfirst into the fray, popping our supers on Disturbed's request. When the Arc energy was strong enough, we were supposed to cheese him with smacks until he died, but he unfortunately survived with just a little health. We then spent the next six minutes and thirty seconds shooting, dodging and screaming until the big bad boss went down.
I had accomplished my goal to beat the Nightfall, but my other allies were not as pleased. The Rat King’s Crew Quest remained and I was quickly removed from the team. Now that the weekly reset has taken effect and there’s a new Nightfall raid to try, I’ll be back on Discord tonight, saying “262 Hunter looking for Nightfall fireteam :)”.
