Destiny is giving guardians the chance to acquire some House of Wolves loot prior to the launch of the upcoming DLC. It’s being done through a Queen’s Wrath event, just like the one that occurred closer to launch except with a slightly different way of rewarding players. This time around, players will hunt down powerful targets of the Fallen’s House of Wolves and take them down with extreme prejudice.
After defeating one of these opponents, players will be granted one Ether Key which is used to open a random chest that appears and lasts for 90 seconds. The Fallen Treasure Chest will always be somewhere within the area where you dealt with your target, although it is not always easy to find. If you do manage to open it, there are engrams, materials, ammo syntheses, and a potential Treasure Key inside. If you are able to find the chest, there is a way to double-dip, and gain rewards from the same chest once more. This will require a bit of finesse, and is easiest when done with the two Venus targets. This is also easier when playing with at least one friend since communication can expedite the process.
Follow these easy steps and you should be rolling in gear, materials, and keys just in time for the launch of House of Wolves.
Once in the game and your selected guardian is all situated with weapons and items, head on over to the Venus Patrol mission. Once spawned in, hop on your speeder and make a beeline to Ember Caves which will be to the left of where you began. You should recognize the area since a lot of Destiny‘s missions brought you through this location, as well as two of its Strikes. Once you get here, just wait. Get comfortable with the area, locate the path that leads to The Citadel (you’ll need this later), and shoot some fallen for practice.
Now just wait for the Pack of Wolves to patrol, it will say so on the bottom of your screen, right above your ammo count. Clear the waves of enemies and the target will eventually appear. Once defeated, all players will receive a notification and a countdown timer in the same location. Now this is when timing and speed are most important.
What makes the Ember Caves location on Venus so perfect for this method is that it is a relatively open space, and it is very close to the next area. All of the chests’ potential spawn locations are out in the open so with two people scanning the area, it is usually found within seconds. Once you find it, loot it and call it out for your friends (because that’s the right thing to do) then hop on your speeder. It’s time to make a dash towards The Citadel, but not completely.
What players will want to do right now is travel until The Citadel pops up on the lower left-hand corner of the screen, indicating a change in location. Once this happens, immediately head back to the same chest and smile in delight as you loot it once more. Players may even dip a third time provided that there is enough time. The chest will disappear once the counter hits zero even if a guardian is in the middle of looting it. Bungie didn’t want to make obtaining House of Wolves gear too easy, after all.
Once this chest is looted to oblivion head on back to The Citadel.
The magical thing about Venus is that both Queen’s Wrath targets spawn pretty damn close to one another. Adding to the sheer awesomeness is the fact that they tend to happen one after the other, meaning players could potentially defeat the Ember Caves target, loot that chest, then immediately beat the target at The Citadel and do the same.
The target will appear on the upper platform where the two minotaurs spawn. If he falls off the platform, he will teleport right back onto it so don’t worry. Defeat him, locate the Chest, and use the method from the last step. Wait for Ember Caves to pop up on the lower corner of the screen then rush back.
Doing this for a while will net players a ton of engrams. While Legendary drops are rare, they do certainly drop. Pictured above are the spoils from about 35 minutes of using this method, and it doesn’t include the stuff still held by my guardian since it couldn’t fit in the vault. Do note that these engrams are being stored because they cannot be decoded. Players will have to wait until May 19th, when the House of Wolves goes live to get their hands on some sweet loot.
Also note that Treasure Keys are a potential drop in these chests although they are extremely rare. They depend entirely on chance, so the more chests you open the closer you’ll get to obtaining one of these super rare items for use in the Prison of Elders.
So how did this method fare for you? Do you have any tips for you fellow guardians? If so, feel free to share. And, as always, safe travels guardians.