Has Bungie Divided the Destiny Community with Faction Rallies?

FTC Statement: Reviewers are frequently provided by the publisher/production company with a copy of the material being reviewed.The opinions published are solely those of the respective reviewers and may not reflect the opinions of CriticalBlast.com or its management.

As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases. (This is a legal requirement, as apparently some sites advertise for Amazon for free. Yes, that's sarcasm.)

Submitted by S.J. Mitchell on Wed, 09/27/2017 - 08:27

Not in a hateful way, mind you, but the division is real. And mostly playful.

In the world of DESTINY 2, the 2017 sequel to the smash hit video game DESTINY, the faction provide some familiarity to a world decimated by the 'Red Legion'. Guardians fought hard to regain their light and defeat the orchestrator of destruction, Dominus Ghaul.

Now that the dust has settled, the three factions have come out of hiding to seek your allegiance:

Future War Cult
Dead Orbit
New Monarchy

So which faction is best for you? Well, it's not that simple of an answer for some. As a matter of fact, because it's a fictional world, in the OG many people bounced around with ZERO amount of loyalty. They were treasure seekers, looking to combine the best weapons and armor of each faction. Maybe they wanted style over substance and just sought out a sweet looking shader. Then there were those who pledged to a faction, and remained loyal throughout their entire run with the game.

No matter where your loyalty lies, there's always some playful banter to go along with it:

Future War Cult is often mocked for their hideous color scheme and war mongering. While peace is a utopia we can all dream of, the Future War Cult doesn't consider it an option. Knowing that war is inevitable, they are always preparing for it. They take great pride in predicting the Red War and the lives they saved because they were ready to fight.

If you're Dead Orbit, expect to be labeled as a coward. Dead Orbit believes in seeking refuge among the stars. They don't consider Earth a viable option for the safety of humanity anymore. Their color shaders lack color and members probably worship statues of Tim Burton while his movies play on an endless loop.

Lastly, if you have pledged allegiance to New Monarchy you are most likely to be criticized for joining a wannabe facsist regime. While it's not there yet, the final of the 7 tenets declare that they hope to one day abolish the consensus in favor of one ruler of unimpeachable character. Many would agree that the first 6 tenets are noble causes, but that last one scares a lot of people off. And what causes people to ignore the threat of facism? Sweet looking armor. New Monarchy has a brilliant red, gold, and white color scheme that will lure you in with it's sparkle.

After you've pledged to a faction, your mission is to destroy the supplies of other factions that are hidden across the EDZ (European Dead Zone). But only the person who delivers the final shot, gets the reward for doing so. And since this is a free roam, open world environment, you will be competing against everyone that isn't you.

Even members of the same faction.

Why? Because Bungie's faction rally is not just about which faction can earn the most tokens. In the process of turning them in, you unlock weapons, armor and shaders. So if you are in a fireteam with another member of New Monarchy and you fire off the last shot, you've helped the faction, but prevented an ally from upgrading their gear.

What sense does that make? It eliminates the need for a fireteam. But don't despair, there is some hope if you prefer working together.

During public events, you will be tasked with securing locations. Everyone participating will be rewarded with faction tokens. This means if you're in a fireteam with other members of the same faction, now you've doubled or tripled down on the number of tokens to be turned in towards the final total. Just doing those public events, I collected 45 tokens in about an hour. Had I been in a fireteam with three other New Monarchy members, that would've been a total of 135 tokens collected for the cause.

While Bungie has included ways for Guardians to compete against each other, even within their own faction, the most productive way of helping remains working as a fireteam. Just make sure everyone in your fireteam is supporting the same faction. And if you aren't sure what faction is right for you, the YouTuber "My Name is Byf" is doing an excellent series of videos that breaks down the lore of each faction to help you decide.

Leave a comment below to declare your allegiance!

I've embedded one of Byf's videos below, just for reference purposes. There is in no way any sort of propaganda behind this particular video.