Destiny 2: Rite of the Nine

Dungeons featured in the event contained three modes: Explorer, Eternity, and Ultimatum. Explorer served as a tutorial mode with a decreased systemic difficulty and explanations of mechanics. The exact approach varied in each dungeon but certain changes were universal.

• Tooltip style text boxes teach mechanics and appear alongside the gameplay elements they explain.
• Waypoints guide players through encounters and traversals.
• "Darkness" phases where encounters would traditionally fail if all players died are removed
• Timed boss damage phases are extended requiring players to deplete at least one-third of the boss's health before it becomes invulnerable again.

Eternity and Ultimatum contained mechanical additions or twists to provide a fresh experience for regular end-game players. Eternity Mode was roughly equivalent to the traditional dungeon difficulty while Ultimatum Mode contained an increased systemic difficulty. Ultimatum Mode also added encounter timers and enrage damage phase limits and served as challenge for experienced players wanting to test their skills.

For Explorer Mode in Spire of the Watcher I designed, wrote, and implemented all the tutorials and changes present. It not only contains the universal changes, including tooltip tutorials and waypoints to guide players, but also includes certain other changes to assist players. The first traversal of the dungeon contains one the most difficult jumps in the game so guide platforms are raised once one player makes it to help others along without creating a shortcut. Additionally, the mid-boss contains a pre-damage mechanic that can be difficult to understand. If players fail this mechanic the next main mechanic phase is shortened, ensuring players can get back to this learning moment more quickly and approach it from the same location.

Spire of the Watcher's Eternity and Ultimatum modes received a variety of both mechanical additions and twists. I was responsible for the design and implementation of all the changes present in the dungeon.

The introductory encounter and first main encounter both had simple additions. A boss was added to the introductory encounter along with a chest to provide players with more rewards. Additionally, a new respawn point and rally flag were created as a quality-of-life improvement for players who failed the encounter. The first main encounter had mini-bosses added to the first two phases of the encounter and a large boss added to the end to cap off each phase.

The second main encounter (the mid-boss) featured a more intensive addition. A Vex "cypher" consisting of different shapes was added to the center of the arena with each wire being assigned a different shape. Completing the wires in this specific order added additional time to the damage phase while diverging from the specified order started a 30 second wipe timer which could only be cleared by completing all wires.

The mini-encounter after the mid-boss introduces the quickdraw system. Ordinarily players must activate all the nodes within a short time limit, but I added the additional requirement of the nodes opening in a random order. This enforces a specific activation order requiring quick action or careful coordination. The final boss encounter contained the same cypher mechanic as the mid-boss and the changes to the quickdraw system bringing the entire package together.

I assisted with the creation of the Prophecy dungeon's Explorer Mode in a variety of ways. This included adding waypoints during traversals and creating the tooltips to explain the primary dungeon mechanics both during the introductory encounter and the final boss.

Additionally, I created several set paths for the Hexahedron encounter rather than the pure randomization the dungeon used previously. Some paths with pure randomization required the player to go through more mechanic phases than others. This could lead to frustration in Ultimatum mode when the encounter gained a failure timer.

I assisted with iterations on Explorer mode for Ghosts of the Deep. I modified the design of and writing for the tooltips teaching mechanics. Additionally, I added waypoints to mechanics and traversals.

In Eternity and Ultimatum modes for Ghosts of the Deep I turned a much-maligned extended traversal section into a small encounter. Each pocket of combatants along the route received a barrier and Hive rune blocking the exit. A Runekeeper ogre must be killed to break each rune present and lower the barrier. In the final pocket killing both ogres summons a boss who must be defeated to destroy the final rune. Upon completion players were given a chest to provide value to this long traversal.