By Phil Hornshaw on Mar 07, 2019 02:02 am
Destiny 2's latest content update is Joker's Wild, a Gambit-focused expansion that adds two new activities to the game: Gambit Prime and The Reckoning. Both are top-tier activities that you'll want to work at to get the most out of the Season of the Drifter, and both introduce some new concepts to familiar Destiny 2 activities that can make them a touch confusing, and require a few new strategies. Gambit Prime is a lot like Gambit from the Forsaken expansion launched in fall 2018, but it makes a lot of changes to how that mode works. Gambit matches see two teams of players face off, but for most of the match they fight waves of AI-controlled enemies rather than each other. Defeating enemies creates "motes" that players pick up and take them back to a bank in the center of the arena--bank enough motes, and you summon a boss called a Primeval. The first team to kill their Primeval wins. A lot of those same rules apply in Gambit Prime, but with a bunch of new caveats. Gambit Prime matches consist of only one round, rather than the best of three structure in original Gambit. They're also a lot tougher, with stronger Primevals, more motes required to summon the bosses, and more difficult enemies to fight in each of the waves. Gambit Prime also works together with Reckoning, a new horde-like mode that lets you take your winnings in Gambit Prime and turn them into special gear. Both Reckoning and Gambit Prime are top-level activities, and they require a lot of coordination with other players. If you're having a hard time jumping into Gambit Prime, don't worry--we've got you covered. Here's everything you need to know about the tweaked Gambit rules, how to best aid your teammates, and what you need to know to be effective in Reckoning.
Find Your Role
Gambit Prime is an amped-up version of the original Gambit, which was often something of a free-for-all. A four-player team scrambled to kill enemies and snag the motes they dropped in order to return them to the bank, and thanks to daily and weekly bounties, often teammates would steal motes from each other in order to pull higher numbers. Although everyone was on a team, players were still mostly out for themselves and rarely worked together in matchmaking rounds. In Gambit Prime, there's more of a push for team synergy. That means that each person on the team should have a specific role: Reaper, Sentry, Collector, or Invader. The Reaper's job is to kill as many enemies as possible, while the Collector is meant to run around, grabbing motes and bringing them back to the bank, bringing in high totals and sending the toughest blockers to fight the opposing team. The Sentry's job is to smash blockers as they appear, and to focus on Invaders when they show up, while the Invader should focus on striking blows against the other team as much as possible. Knowing your role, sticking to it, and earning the right armor for it in Gambit Prime and Reckoning can make you highly effective in Gambit Prime--but if you and your team don't work together, you're very likely to get wrecked by people who do. Note, also, that just because you pick a specific role doesn't mean it's the only thing you can do. Experiment with multiple ways to play to find where you excel the most.
Aid Your Teammates
No matter your role, Gambit Prime is largely the same as Gambit: kill enemies and pick up motes. If you're not the Collector or the Reaper, that doesn't mean you shouldn't be helping out--just that you should stay out of those players' way and let them do their jobs. But it's also useful to shoot enemies, especially when they're near your Collector, as well as to help clear out blockers, to focus on taking down Invaders, and so on. Don't get so focused on your role that you forget about important things like blockers or Invaders that should immediately demand your attention. Gambit Prime is all about working together, and that means helping out your teammates as much as you can.
Watch Out For Mote Thieves
A big change in Gambit Prime over the original Gambit is the fact that you can lose motes from your bank under certain circumstances. When two or more blockers appear on your side, they'll start draining motes from your bank, and you'll want to clear them out as quickly as possible. You'll want to note also that multiple blockers are almost always joined by an Invader--so keep your head on a swivel. Drained motes can amp up your enemies at key moments; listen for the Drifter to warn you that your bank's under assault, and make dealing with it your priority.
Gamble On Tougher Blockers
The flip side of guarding against blockers that can steal your motes is sending blockers to steal the other team's motes. You can do that with any combination of two blockers, but if you want to do some real damage, you can't just drop small blockers on the opposing team and expect them to get the job done. Small blockers are weaker since the Joker's Wild update, and that means they're very easy for enemies to destroy. Combine small blockers with medium and large blockers to make for a more effective attack--small blockers can shield larger ones, making them a lot harder for the enemy team to defeat them. Medium and large blockers also have more health than before the update, so it's worth gambling on getting more motes in the bank to get send better blockers.
Invade, Invade, Invade
Gambit Prime is currently heavily weighted toward invasion. On your way to summoning the Primeval, you'll get three different opportunities to invade the other team, and you won't want to sleep on those chances to do some damage to the other team. Slowing down the opposing team is even more important in Gambit Prime than in regular Gambit. On the other hand, part of the Sentry's job is keeping an eye out for invaders and dropping them quickly--but really, you're going to need to whole team to be hypervigilant about enemy players. Especially during the Primeval phase, invaders can completely swing the tide of a match. When you're invaded, drop what you're doing and eliminate them, or you'll find yourself making zero progress against the Primeval--every death your team suffers heals the boss.
Eliminate Envoys For Buffs
When you summon the Primeval in a regular Gambit match, you'll also have to fight several Taken Wizards, known as the Primeval's Envoys, and killing them gives you a buff against the boss. In Gambit Prime, killing all three Envoys is a requirement, because they create an indestructible shield around the Primeval. When you kill the first two Envoys, a third spawns, and destroying that one creates a Well of Light that buffs you and your teammates against the boss. Make sure you're standing in the well when you attack the boss--and be aware that you're vulnerable to Invaders showing up with rockets or using their Supers to take out your entire team.
Take On The Reckoning
Completing a Gambit Prime match and finishing bounties will earn you items called Synths for each of the Gambit Prime roles. Once you advance the story a bit, the Drifter will give you an item called a Weak Synthesizer, which you can use to turn Synths into special armor motes. You'll need those for The Reckoning, a matchmade player-vs.-environment activity that goes along with Gambit Prime. When you starts a Reckoning match, take your mote and plug it into the Gambit bank you'll find at the beginning. You'll wager it on your success--if you win, you'll get a piece of Gambit Prime armor that can give you perks for your role in your next match, but if you lose, you'll lose your mote.
Reckoning Is All About Speed
Reckoning is similar to other horde mode activities in Destiny 2, like the Blind Well, in that your job is to kill a whole bunch of enemies. Unlike other modes, though, Reckoning is all about speed. You'll see a number on the right side of the screen called Dominance, which ticks up toward 100% as you kill baddies. Take too long between kills, though, and the ticker will start to reduce back toward zero. Keep an eye out for tougher enemies with yellow health bars, because they'll give you a lot more progress if you kill them. But overall, keep blasting away in order to win the match. Once the ticker reaches 100%, you'll face a Taken boss similar to the Primevals of Gambit, which you'll have to destroy before a timer runs out.
Revive Your Teammates!
Since Reckoning is about getting speedy kills, you'll want your team of four players at full strength as often as possible during every run. You'll notice if you fall in battle that the revive timers in Reckoning are pretty long--25 seconds--so leaving teammates down can result in some lengthy periods of losing progress. Stick close to your squad so you can back each other up, and revive each other if the worst should happen.
Build Your Armor Sets
When you finish a Reckoning run, your reward is a piece of Gambit Prime armor keyed to your chosen role. The more pieces of armor you put together for a role, the more bonus perks you'll get during Gambit Prime. Reckoning has three different difficulty tiers, and tougher tiers result in better armor. Take your better armor back to Gambit Prime, where you'll get benefits that'll help you win more matches and earn more Synths to build more armor.
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