Here is our insightful take after watching one and half hours of Prison of Elders. Everyone should be really really excited for the next expansion (we hate calling it an expansion) for many reasons! The new social space will be something new for everyone to enjoy. The Trials of Osiris is a fresh new take on PVP. Most of all, however, the Prison of Elders is going to kick some major butt!!
Here are some of the things we noticed during the Bungie Twitch preview of the Prison of Elders.
Once you complete the story missions the three man team Prison of Elders unlocks.
There are six total different challenges in the House of Wolves expansion. Four will be playable each week with varying levels of difficulty. Players will see a variety new additions that make this expansion different and re-playable. There are in game special weapons packages that will drop to crush enemies. There are five levels within each challenge that players will have to fight through to finish. In each phase you will see a buff that can help you or your enemies. Some of the buffs seen and mentioned in the twitch video were: Arc Burn, Small Arms (buff to primary weapons) and a buff to melee attack (I forgot the name). There are also a variety of objectives guardians will have to complete while facing hordes of enemies. Tasks such as diffusing mines and killing VIP enemies will keep guardians on their feet. At the end of phase five in each challenge a Boss will come out. . . kill him and take the loot!
Level 28 Prison of Elders: The Prison of Elders will have matchmaking! This is for those who don't want to take the time (or don't have the time) to put a team together. This can be completed over and over again.
The next two levels (32 & 34) are part of a rotation that resets each week. We assume that the names will be different from below, but could be the same.
Challenges
Broken Legion, Level 32:
Urrox's Grudge, Level 34: This is the level that they tried to complete in the twitch video and got to level four of five.
Skola's Revenge, Level 35: This is the ultimate endgame activity that will be the same each week along with the level 28 Prison of Elders. I believe it took the developers a few days to complete it for the first time.