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Destiny 2’s Fifth Subclass May Have Just Leaked From Bungie Itself

Normally I’d put up a spoiler warning for a leak post like this, if you want to go in blind to whatever a new subclass might be in Destiny 2, presumably revealed alongside Lightfall during the August 23rd, showcase, but whatever this is, it’s hard to extract too much detail from it. Only that a new subclass does seem to exist.

The image above comes from the page of a Bungie artist who was showing off an existing finisher animation in a video. The problem? That would be this strange looking subclass UI in the bottom left, as seen above, which probably wasn’t supposed to be kept in there. Some things to note:

  • It’s green. That reflects the long-running theory that the next subclass would probably use a green color, given the existing palette so far. This leans into theories about a poison or decay-based subclass, though we don’t have any confirmation of that here, just the color.
  • The new subclass/super symbol. This is not anything I recognize from anywhere else in the game, and the implication here is that this is a new super. It’s two lines surrounded by a circle, and even though usually these symbols are easy to match with heir super, I genuinely don’t know what this one is meant to be.
  • Placeholders. It’s possible that symbol is a placeholder and not the final version. Similarly, the grenade and melee symbols are existing ones, repeated, so presumably those are placeholders. We are over six months away from Lightfall, after all, and I would not expect these to be finalized.
  • Three melee charges. That’s something you don’t see every day, so it’s interesting to note. Again, the “charge” melee symbol is there, but that is likely not final.

In short, despite the excitement of what appears to be a fifth subclass leaking, there isn’t a whole lot we can confirm about this. The biggest news is probably the green color and the new super symbol, but it’s hard to extract all that much past the surface level here.

The assumption has very much been that Lightfall would indeed bring a new subclass to the game, after Witch Queen did not give us one with Bungie opting to do 3.0 element reworks all year long. We are also supposed to get Arc 3.0 information soon, or maybe even during the showcase. it is not a guarantee that even a Lightfall reveal would definitely debut the new subclass, as that could be something they save for later. I’d be a little surprised, but it’s possible.

The main theories revolve around Egregore, the corruptive darkness plant on the Leviathan, or a more generalized poison theme. Older theories used to be that we could be getting a Hive soulfire class, but that rumor seems to have mostly dissipated.

While we will get a final reveal, most likely, on August 23, it’s still two weeks until then, and that’s plenty of time for more leaks. We’ll see what comes out next.

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Technology

Halo 2’s ‘Impossible’ $20,000 Challenge Finally Conquered

Master Chief stands next to Sergeant Johnson in Halo 2.

screenshot: Bungie/IGDB

They said it was impossible and, for nearly two decades, that seemed to be the case. But last night, a streamer named Jervalin beat Halo 2‘s “LASO deathless” challenge, earning a cool $20,000 in the process. Talk about finishing the fight.

Let’s rewind. Earlier this summer, the YouTuber Charles “Cr1tikal” White Jr.. posted a $5,000 bounty to beat Halo 2 on the highest difficulty setting, with every bonus challenge modifier turned on, without dying. In the 18 years since Halo 2‘s 2004 release on Xbox, no one had ever published evidence of completing the challenge. White’s challenge stipulates that the whole run is streamed, either on YouTube or Twitch. By July, no one had successfully stepped up to the plate, so last month, White tacked an extra $15,000 onto the bounty.

Most observers keeping tabs on the challenge had their money on Jervalin—a relatively private streamer who’s picked up a modest following for setting world records on a variety of Halo challenges—being the first person to complete it. Sure enough, late last night, I’ve crossed the finish line. (Here’s the archived stream.)

Bungie/Jervalin

Neither White nor Jervalin could be reached for comment in time for publication.

Jervalin was remarkably chill for finishing what some people, including White Jr., have called the “hardest challenge in all of gaming,” addressing viewers in the even-handed tone you’d use while moving on to the next addendum in a mostly empty community board meeting.

“All right, chat,” he said. “I think we did it. I think we fucking did it. Imagine that. Two years ago, I said, ‘I think this is impossible.’ Imagine fucking that.”

Whether or not Halo 2‘s “LASO deathless” challenge really is the “hardest… in gaming” is, of course, a subjective measure. But it’s definitely up there. You have to activate all of the game’s skulls, or gameplay modifiers that typically ramp up the difficulty. The Catch skull, for instance, makes enemies toss grenades more frequently. Famine, meanwhile, means enemies drop half the ammo they usually would. Mythic doubles the health of all enemies, while Angry increases the enemy’s fire rate. Blind removes your HUD. Assassins turns enemies invisible. (It’s not technically there skulls, however. For the challenge, Envy is left off, because that one grants you invisibility too, which does not make Halo 2 more difficult, for obvious reasons.) All together, when you turn every skull on and play on Legendary, the game’s highest difficulty setting, you more or less create a set of conditions that ensures you die instantly if you take any damage.

Jervalin had to rely on a few exploits to finish the challenge. To wit: He brought a banshee, a violet-colored aerial vehicle with a powerful cannon, into the final boss fight against Tartarus on the “Great Journey” level. That final fight takes place on a series of circumferential platforms hovering over an abyss. With pinpoint precision, he used the banshee’s cannon to send waves of foes careening off the edge as they spawn—before they get a chance to really even fight.

I’ve been covering the Halo community for a while now, and can’t recall a time where I’ve seen players pretty unanimous in an opinion, let alone a positive one. Sure, halo-infinitethe latest game in the series, has its issues, which players are not shy about criticizing. But there remains a reverence among even the biggest names for Bungie’s original games since the mid-2000s, and the mind-bogglingly impressive feats players are able to pull off.

The run garnered praising desde Halo streamers like Remy “Mint Blitz” and Luc “HiddenXperia.” Emanuel Lovejoy, the coach for Cloud 9, arguably the best professional Halo team on the planet right now, called Jervalin to “legend.” so did Spacestation Gaming’s UberNick. the Halo pro Kyle Elam noted how yesterday’s scrims—basically, matches between pro players that don’t count toward the official seasonal record—were put on pause so players could collectively watch Jervalin get it done. “Gonna need Jervalin to make a Twitter so we can actually @ this legend [clapping hands emoji],” Halo esports analyst and caster Alexander “Shyway” Hope said. It has been a genuine delight to witness such universal acclaim from all corners of the community.

But the most heartwarming moment—the sort of moment that proves Este, not the toxicity that inhales so much oxygen out of the room, is what video games are all about—happened in the final seconds of the stream: Jervalin’s family runs into the stream, embracing him in an almost suffocatingly tight bear hug. $20,000 is nice. That’s nicer.

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