More cheese, please
Now, I wouldn't say that Destiny actively hates its players, but it sure doesn't do them any favors. Dailies, weeklies, reputation grinding, Crucible matches, raids there's a seemingly never ending demand on your time just to have a chance at finding a good new weapon or piece of armor. So, naturally, players have decided to work smarter, not harder.
It seems that high-level Destiny play isn't so much about the loot grind as it is about finding every single glitch, exploit, or 'cheese' as possible and taking advantage of it until Bungie decides to patch it shut. But there's always another piece of cheese around the corner. These are some of the best ones. Some of them still work, so get to studying, Guardian!
Beta: Infinite glimmer exploit
The Cheese: If you were playing the beta and were hard up for cash, this was a real quick and easy way to fill your coffers. Simply find a chest, open it up, hop on your Sparrow, and drive away for a bit. Once you're far enough out you can return and, lo and behold, the chest has reset, once again full of glimmer. Look at that; people trying to cheese the game even in beta.
Does it still work? Naw, this one got ironed out in beta. In the retail release, chests will only respawn if you return to orbit. Still, it would have been pretty hilarious if it had stuck around, huh?
The loot cave
The Cheese: Ahh, yes, the loot cave. This thing was a standby for months, where players would all line up outside of a cave in the corner of the Cosmodrome, fire at the infinite brigade of mooks pouring out of it, wait for the dust to settle, then round up all the shiny engrams they just dropped. There was no guarantee that what you got was any good, but since you picked up so much stuff it was usually worth it.
Does it still work? Nope, the loot cave has since been altered to prevent this kind of camping and loot gathering. Other areas have their own 'loot cave' moments, but they're usually patched out pretty quickly.
Shoot Phogoth through the wall!
The Cheese: You could fight Phogoth the normal way, by walking into his chamber and taking him head on while avoiding the neverending stream of Hive. Or, you can be smart about it and grab an armor piercing weapon, hang back in the previous room, and shoot Phogoth through the wall. He might move a bit, but he always seems to walk back to the same spot. Enough shots and boom - it's over.
Does it still work? Yep! You might have to watch out for some enemies creeping up on you, but otherwise, you're golden.
Parkour to victory against Sekrion
The Cheese: Now, in this fight, you could simply stand up at that tall ledge and shoot at Sekrion from on high (which is, in itself, a cheese), but you'll still have to avoid plasma shots and the Minotaur that spawns behind you. No, this is way better: by using some expertly timed boost jumps, you can parkour your way right above Sekrion, and nothing will hit you. Just watch this video for directions on how to do it. It's amazing.
Does it still work? As long as you can get up there, yeah. You have to be careful, though, because if you miss a jump, there's no way back up, other than restarting the whole damn mission.
Pushing the Templar and Atheon off their respective cliffs in the Vault of Glass
The Cheese: Got your crew of six? Got your grenades? Ok, you're good to go. Setting this cheese up is a bit involved, but once you've gotten everything coordinated, you can start chucking your 'nades at each boss, slowly inching the pair toward their respective precipices. After enough hits, off they go, plummeting into the abyss. Is it fair? No. But it sure is satisfying.
Does it still work? Unfortunately, no. This got patched out a little bit after the exploit was discovered. It was still a fun couple of weeks, though.
Crota chasm sword jump
The Cheese: During the Crota's End raid, a giant bridge will eventually materialize after you kill off enough bad guys, but there's a much easier way to make your escape. Simply off the Swordbearer, grab its sword, hop onto a ledge, and sword-swing your way across. If you do it right, you can skip an entire section of fighting. Sure, it looks silly as hell, but you can't argue with results.
Does it still work? Well, yes and no. The original method appears to have been patched out by throwing a ton of Thralls in your face, but there's another way to pull this off. It involves offing one of your team members while the other two players boost jump at the top of the tower, ascending slightly out of the intended playable area, thus causing the game to think everyone's dead for a fraction of a second. This despawns the Thrall, letting you kill off the Swordbearer and zip across the chasm. Brilliant.
Pulling the plug on Crota's End
The Cheese: Of all the cheese, pulling out your ethernet cable to defeat Crota is by far the cheesiest. First you need to make sure that the cord-cutting player is the session host, so have them be the first into battle with Crota. Once Crota's knee hits the ground (and is then vulnerable to attack), have that person disconnect from the game. The rest of the players can mop up while Crota remains permanently on his knee, and they can invite the other player back in once Crota's defeated. Vengeance is sweet.
Does it still work? Nope. All good things must come to an end, and this cheese got patched out relatively quickly. We'll always have YouTube.
Dark Within loot farming
The Cheese: Do we have another 'loot cave' on our hands? Simply load up The Dark Within mission, hop on your Sparrow, and follow the mission marker. You'll be doing some indoor driving, so take care, and make your way through until you get to the Darkness Zone where your Ghost opens up the gate for you. Right before that room is a sealed off passage. If you park your Sparrow right next to it and hop off, you'll clip through the gate. Walk through some unfinished geometry, and eventually you'll find a room with glitched out Thralls. They spawn quickly, and they don't move at all, so take 'em out to fill out your bounties and nab loot to your heart's content. It'll probably take ages, though, and you're probably better off doing Hive bounties in the Rocket Yard. Still, if you're keen on breaking the game a bit, this video will guide you in the right direction.
Does it still work? It's a new cheese, so it still works, but for how long is anyone's guess.
Soloing weekly heroic strikes post-patch
The Cheese: It used to be that Weekly Heroic and Nightfall strikes were either solo or Fireteam affairs. No matchmaking whatsoever. Bungie recently updated Destiny to add matchmaking for these options by making it default. That's right, there's now no way to solo any of these missions. So what's a hardcore lone wolf supposed to do? Well, where there's a will, there's a cheese. If you've got a PlayStation console, all it takes is changing your time-and-date settings. Set it to the future while you're in-game, and you'll get booted back to the title screen. Choose your character, and while your game is loading, switch it back to the current time. If you head to the Tower and no one's there, then the glitch has worked. Now, you can play without randos spoiling your fun.
Does it still work? This is new, but I'm sure Bungie is working on a way to prevent it from happening. Hopefully they'll put some work into giving players the option to solo without cheesing as well. Plus, it only works on PlayStation consoles; the Xbox 360 and Xbox One won't let you change the system settings while in-game.
Beat 'em at their own game
These were only a few of the more noteworthy cheeses and exploits in Destiny. There are a ton more, whether its exploiting some glitch in the scenery or simply hiding somewhere the developers never intended you to hide. Looking for inspiration on how to find your own cheese? Start with Destiny's patch notes, and go from there. If you find anything cool, let me know in the comments! I'll be updating this feature with more cheese as it surfaces. It always does.
Looking for more? Check out the games we want to see at E3 and some games that troll their players in hilarious ways.
