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Destiny 2’s Gambit Prime – Kill the Envoys and other tips

Destiny 2’s Season of the Drifter is now live and it brings with it a number of changes, quality of life improvements and two new gameplay modes.

We’re not going to go over the weapon and armour changes here, you can find the patch notes here to pour over at your own leisure.

Today we’re going to be talking about one of the new modes in Destiny 2, Gambit Prime.

Moving forward, we’ll be assuming that you’ve played Gambit before and have a basic understanding of how the mode works. We should also point out that Gambit Prime is only available to owners of the Annual Pass.

So, Gambit Prime, what is it?

Unlike a match of Gambit which takes place over three rounds, Gambit Prime takes place over one round. Players need to bank 100 motes of light and slay a Primeval that spawns once they’ve banked the required motes.

While it sounds like your regular Gambit, the enemies you face here are much less forgiving and there are a few new mechanics at play here.

The game starts off in much the same way as other Gambit matches do. You load in, slay some enemies and fill the bank with motes. Only now you need to seriously focus on team co-ordination and communication.

For one, the blockers you send over have changed. With Taken goblins (small blocker), captains (medium blocker) and knights (large blocker) now being sent over you’ll want to pair a small blocker with one of the others. This is because goblins are able to give other blockers immunity and you’ll want blockers to stay on the field for as long as possible because of the next point.

When two or more blockers are on the field they drain motes. This means that you always want to be sending across at least two blockers and dealing with blockers as they arrive on your side of the field.

In light of this we’d like to offer something of a tip. When dealing with adds have one person hang back a bit. This person should have a long-range weapon to help deal with adds but the moment ol’ Drifter announces a blocker has arrived or the audio queue plays, they should turn and focus on the blocker.

Keep in mind that invaders will be coming in every 25 motes (that’s four invasions before the Primeval spawns), deal with them quickly as a fireteam and try not to lose motes.

Once you have deposited your 100 motes of dark things take a different turn.

The Primeval will spawn but unlike in regular Gambit it will have a shield. How do you bring the shield down?

Shortly after the Primeval spawns you will notice two markers on the HUD. These markers are Primeval Envoys and they MUST be killed before you can focus the Primeval. At this stage we’d like to mention that even in a regular match of Gambit you should focus on the Primeval Envoys as well because killing them nets you a buff that makes killing the Primeval easier.

Anyway, back to Gambit Prime. Killing the first two Envoys will spawn a third – usually in an area with vision of the Primeval – that will drop a glowing rift upon death. Step into that rift to get a Primeval Slayer buff which increases your damage.

At this point you might be tempted to unload everything into the Primeval, don’t.

The Primeval appears to have protection from being killed in one phase. In a game last night my fireteam and I went against my advice and attempted to melt the Primeval in one phase. We knocked down half of its HP and its shield returned. An invader spawned, wiped the team, and we were left sans power ammo and scrambling for orbs while the Primeval was fully healed.

With this having been said, it is possible to two-phase the Primeval even if you have to knock the beast down from full HP in the second phase.

In terms of loadouts, a perfect loadout has not yet been discovered but you’ll want weapons which clear adds quickly. I’d liken the amount and variety of adds you’ll face to the Shuro-Chi encounter in the The Last Wish raid, on that a good Kinetic, Shotgun and Power weapon with the ability to sustain damage should be your go to. A good mix of elemental damage is recommended as well, particular Solar and Void to deal with the shielded Envoys quickly.

Once you’ve successfully melted the Primeval, you’re done. Take note of the in-depth stats in the scoreboard and get ready for the next bit of the gameplay loop – The Reckoning.

We’ll chat more about The Reckoning shortly but we highly recommend starting the grind to 700 light level to make that mode a bit more forgiving.

After two nights with Gambit Prime we’re well impressed with how a few small changes have changed the mode for the better. Bungie really has turned Destiny 2 into a great game and if Anthem has left you wanting perhaps you should consider giving this game a try.

Hell, I swore the game off after Warmind and over the last four months I’ve played it every day.

The loot is great, the content is vast (and will only grow as the year progresses) and Bungie is actively working to make the game better.

If that isn’t enough temptation perhaps the latest ViDoc will be.

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