Here's Your 'Destiny: Rise of Iron' Pre-Game Checklist

Destiny: Rise of Iron, the fourth DLC release for the 2014 action-shooter, is on its way. If you want to get the new goodness on opening day you’re going to need to be ready. In order to get ready, you’re going to need to take some practical steps and also hone the skills you developed rocking through The Taken King. Here’s your pre-game warm-up checklist.

1. Play Through The Taken King

Not only do you need it installed on your machine to play Rise of Iron but, judging by the rave reviews, it’s a good bet the new release is giving us all the same stuff in a different aesthetic package.

2. Pre-Order It

If you enjoyed what The Taken King delivered, odds are good you’re going to enjoy Rise of Iron. So, if you take the plunge and pre-order the new expansion you’ll get the opulent, gaudy and completely badass Iron Gjallarwing Sparrow to tool around on.

3. Meet Thorn

At one point, the bane of any PvP player’s existence was a hand cannon called Thorn, which was some complained was so powerful that its use was borderline cheating, so thus was removed from the game… until now. Thorn is back, baby.

4. Don’t Drop Any Goodies Between Now and Then

The overall level cap is staying at 40, but the light level is getting a healthy boost to 385 from its current 335. It will eventually be kicked up to 400 when “Hard mode” releases. What this means is Rise of Iron will allow for some pretty powerful combinations of weapons and armor.

Of course, if tradition holds, we’ll be getting slammed with enemies who can shred our most powerful combinations with ease.

5. Make Friends

At its core, Destiny really wants you to blow shit up with friends. That means some of the most rewarding content is also essentially impossible without a group. The problem is, even with The Taken King expansion, there’s no endgame matchmaking. So, get into the Tower and start chatting. You’re going to need all the help you can get when Rise of Iron kicks off.

6. Play the Old Stuff

When new content comes out in any title, many have a tendency to abandon the old stuff without much fanfare. Destiny was no different when The Taken King came out. If there’s anything you’d like to play with company, now’s the time to get on it.

7. Get Ready to Bling Out

Rise of Iron will allow players an unprecedented level of customization. According to Game Informer, there’s “a new aesthetic customization feature that allows players to enhance the geometry and appearance of individual armor pieces, as well as change the appearance of exotic weapons.

8. Don’t Expect Wolves

You saw them in the trailer, but they’re not in the game. In case you were curious.