Published on: Nov 1, 2014 @ 15:34

As of now, the Exotics we earn have set upgrades, and after that they’re pretty much stagnant. When the Dark Below is released, will those pre-expansion Exotics still be viable?

The answer is yes!

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Ultimate Exotics

When the Dark Below expansion drops, new and more powerful Exotics are undoubtedly going to become available. We’ll be facing more difficult challenges, and as such, we’ll need ‘Exoticer’ gear.

As we reported on a few days ago, the following items are coming with the Dark Below expansion:

For making ultimate improvements to high-quality armor.

For making ultimate improvements to high-quality weapons.

[divider]Improving Our Gear

What do these materials tell us? Well, admittedly not much. However, they do give us some insight into how Bungie will be supporting the pre-expansion Exotics. It’s clear that using these materials will allow us to improve our Exotics.

The actual enhancements, and what we’ll need to do to activate these “ultimate improvements” is still unknown.

In the latest weekly update, DeeJ hinted that he will be unveiling more about these new Exotic materials soon.

He said that the Dev Team is preparing notes to cover “exactly how Weapons and Armor will be updated and upgraded” and he says that those notes will be available in the coming weeks.

He went on to say that,

We promised to make all of your Exotics worth the price of ownership, and you should expect to hear more about how they’ll continue to be prized possessions in the short term future.

For those unable to acquire and upgrade the new Dark Below Exotics, or even the quality 80+ Legendary gear, you’ll still be able to compete with your current Exotics!

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Creating an Exotic?

Another Exotic material that’s much more ambiguous is the “Vex Raid Rare” – possibly a way to craft an Exotic weapon?

Vex raid rare material for Vex exotic weapon blueprint.

This item could either provide a way to craft an Exotic, or perhaps it’ll be used exclusively to upgrade the Vex Mythoclast.

The description of this item seems to be a placeholder though, so hopefully DeeJ sheds some of the Traveler’s light on this item.

Slivers of glass used by the Vex. Isotopic dating suggests their age ranges across billions of years – past and future.

Perhaps we’ll need this mysterious Legendary material in addition to the Vex Raid Rare for the “blueprint”? What do you guys think the Epoch Splinter will be used for?

Translucent shards of non-baryonic matter, trembling with contained energy.

Maybe this will be used for upgrading Rare to Legendary items?

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First Look at Ship Shaders

While we’re on the topic of the Dark Below, the image below has a few of the ship shaders featured.

We reported on ship & vehicle shaders a few days ago, and as you can see in the first image, the bland grey ship design we showed off has an orange/green color scheme.