Destiny Crucible Tips and Tricks

Destiny Crucible Tips and Tricks by DutchessGumyBuns

Welcome Guardians!

As much as it pains me to do so at the risk of making my crucible encounters less.. decisive, I’ve decided to throw down some tips on how to be better. A little introduction of myself, I’m a PS4 user who mains a Hunter class. “Of course it’s afilthy hunter making a crucible guide. This information won’t help me.” Yes it will! I’m going to try and break down information that is helpful to all into a few categories. Namely basics, gear/weapons, and strategy. I mostly play control so some info may be slightly geared that way but I will try to make it more generalized. (I apologize in advance because I know this is going to be very chaotic as I’m writing this on little sleep. It’s also my first post on reddit that isn’t a comment so the formatting might be off. I will try to answer any questions you have and if I forget anything or you want/need clarification I will do my best to get back to you). Well let’s get to it!

Basics

This is going to be some more simple stuff about the HUD and even more generally how you look at your screen. I’m putting this in the most simple and extensive terms I can so that I don’t forget anything, on top of maybe shedding light to people that may have neglected to notice something. This is all really simple and mostly for people new to online shooters. You may want to skim through this if you’re a veteran with shooters, unless there’s something about Destiny that just doesn’t click with you. When looking at the screen you want to position yourself (not your Guardian, the person holding the controller) in a way that you can see everything on the screen without having to move your eyes around too much. You also want to be close enough to the screen so that you can see small details like the glow of a sniper across the map. Positioning yourself like this is going to help a lot by not diverting your attention away from any point on the screen.

So let’s get to the HUD. Starting with the bottom right of the screen are the scores. In team games, the team on top is winning, the team on the bottom is losing. Your team is indicated by the white arrow to the left of the team bar. In rumble the scores will be yours, and the top player’s, or if you’re the top player then the score of the player closest to you will be displayed. Moving on to the bottom left corner of the screen, you have your weapons/ammo displayed neatly. The largest of the three will indicate which is equipped (if you couldn’t tell). They are designated by white (primary), green (special), and purple (heavy). This is also shows the cooldowns on your grenade and melee abilities, as well as your super energy. ALWAYS know when you are close to having super and ALWAYS know when your cooldowns are up, down, or GOING to be up. This is crucial. You don’t want to go into a fight thinking you have a grenade when to your surprise you press L1 or LB and nothing happens. You can also turn a fight around by surprising enemies with a super. There is no way to know someone has the super charged until they activate it.

Now for the most important part of the HUD (imo), the radar. The radar in Destiny is not like the radar in other games. This can be found in the top left corner. It shows general direction and closeness of an enemy or enemies. A locked bar outside of the circle means the enemy is at a fair distance in whichever direction the red bar is. An unlocked bar (unlocked meaning that the bar rotates freely around the circle as you look around) means that the enemy is in a vehicle. Inside the circle there are eight sections. These simply indicate direction. These will fill up a dark red as an enemy closes in in that direction. Note that the red will get brighter and more opaque as the enemy gets closer and closer. If an enemy is in a vehicle, you will be given their exact location signified as a red dot surrounded by a white circle. Keep these things in mind when you are approaching enemies as well, not just when they are approaching you. You aren’t the only one with a radar.

Lastly, the health gauge. This is in the center of your screen towards the top. The first two thirds are your shield, and the last bit is your health. If you are in the red, you are easy pickins. A few more shots or any melee will kill you at this point, get to cover. If you get into the red, your health will regenerate, then the bar will pause for a few seconds, followed by your shield regeneration. So that is your HUD and some simple stuff about it! I touched on some tactics in there that I will get back to later on.

Gear and Weapons

Good gear and weapon selection are imperative for the crucible. Now when I say good I mainly mean the effects of the gear and weapons. Damage and defense ratings are normalized in the Crucible. Weapons and gear keep their effects, such as, “This weapon reloads faster when the mag is empty” or for a piece of gear, “Increases reload speed with auto rifles.” Good is also subjective, so keep in mind you want to formulate a gear/weapon set that fits your play style in the crucible. I recommend keeping gear with effects you like, even if they’re those damn greens the Cryptarch won’t stop giving to you, because the attack and defense ratings aren’t as important for now. (This WILL change in Iron Banner however so if you intend to play in the Iron Banner, get used to the gear you PvE with).

So an example of gear that fits your play style would be as follows. “I like shotguns. I should find a shotgun that holds more bullets because I won’t have to reload in a big group of enemies. If I paired this with a set of gauntlets that increased shotgun reload speed, I could take myself out of the action when I’m empty, using the opportunity to regenerate health and get back to the action quicker with my increased reload speed.” Keep your subclasses in mind when making a build. You want to be able to affix gear that complements your subclass as well. You know why that hunter runs around with a shotgun? It’s so that when you think he’s running away from you at close quarters and you go to chase him, he can slash your throat with his arc blade the second you round the corner. If you didn’t quite catch what I meant, the bladedancer hunter is using a weapon that he can keep close to his enemies with so that when his special is ready, he won’t have to spend half the special bar looking for someone to gut.

Another example, for say a striker titan, a close range weapon may not be as necessary if you can manage to keep your super up and use it effectively, either as a tool to clean out a room or zone, or use it to spare yourself a death. (I recommend using it for multikills since this will increase your score, even if it means a death for saving it as this only gives the opponent 100 points [on usual terms.]) To touch on weapons a bit more, don’t be afraid to use something because others considerate OP. I think the game has an exemplary balance and maps that can complement any play style by using different sections of the map. Shotguns work and I don’t think they’re OP. There. I said it. They can get one shot kills at close range and that’s that. They aren’t OP because in big open areas, like sections of First Light or Bastion, they don’t do you any good. All guns are accessible to everyone.

Strategy

You will want to formulate your own but I will go over a few that have worked for me and that I have seen work for others. Again your strategy should complement your gear and subclass. For all strategies it is true that you should STAY MOBILE. Never let your left thumb sit in the center of that control stick. You want to be able to dodge bullets by moving around and jumping as much as you can while keeping an eye on your target. That being said I recommend a higher sensitivity. If it’s too much of a jump to go way up in speed, gradually adjust by moving it up one or two at a time. I play at seven and have pretty good success. The higher sensitivities are too much for me and I can’t keep track of what’s going on so I stick to seven, but if you can handle a higher sensitivity, even better. You will be able to turn on opponents quickly giving yourself a fighting chance. If someone begins to shoot you in the back and you try to turn around on a two sensitivity you will not be alive by the time you turn around to see him/her. Sorry, got off track, but again STAY MOBILE.

My personal favorite strategy is heavily aggressive. Shotgun equipped at all times (aiming down sights at close range heavily increases your chances of a one shot kill by the way), I try to run at every radar blip I see that isn’t a vehicle because in shooters, having the jump on someone is the best way to win a fight. Can’t beat what you can’t see. Now if I get caught in a pinch I like to run away into small corridors where they won’t be able to see me right when they enter but I can see them. If they’re chasing you and you’re nearly dead while they have a full heath gauge, they won’t expect you to stop, turn around and have your shotgun in their throat the second they turn the corner. This goes back to having the jump on people. You want to catch people off guard, people camping corners, people shooting other players, or a situation like I just gave are easy prey.

For a sniping strategy (I only typically pull this one out for first light but if you can pull it off on a smaller map with less alleys like Rusted Lands have at it) I like to stick to places with multiple ledges I can snipe from (Towards Alpha spawn on First Light is a good example) so that when the guy I just got a headshot on comes back to the exact same spot he was to come looking for me with HIS sniper, I won’t be exactly where he expects. With snipers you want to always aim for the head. It’s a one shot kill and by eliminating your enemy quickly, you increase your chance of survival. Pro tip: If you haven’t noticed yet, a sniper will give off a red glow kind of like a light reflection when they are aiming down the sights to shoot. Note that you give this off too so you want to minimize the time you are aiming down your sights to keep from being seen before you shoot. So look out for these red glows and make sure you don’t get seen by aiming down the sights too long. If you get caught in a game where you end up having a lot of sniper battles with a specific enemy and they keep winning, DO NOT let them keep killing you. Switching strategies is perfectly viable mid game. While you’re dead you can change your gear sets. Keep in mind switching special weapons will reset the ammo to zero which brings me to one of the most vital points to winning in crucible.

Ammo crates. You’ll notice I’ve hardly discussed primary weapons. This isn’t because they’re bad, in fact auto rifles work very well at mid-range, but because I always keep my sniper or shotgun stocked with ammo at all times as you can quickly close in on a mid-range enemy or increase the distance between the two (or more) of you by STAYING MOBILE. You keep special ammo stocked via the green weapon crates. Those crates are your lifeline. With special ammo crates, work on pressing the square or x button at the right time while sprinting past them because you can pick them up that quickly and not even have to look at them. Heavy ammo crates take longer to pick up but are paramount in getting lots of easy points for your team or self. Rocket launchers are my personal favorite as they can one shot and reduce your chance of losing the ammo, which happens upon death. If you are in a safe place when picking up a crate, wait by it for some teammates. The crate will drop ammo for everyone within 10-20m (speculation on distance, need confirmation if anyone’s got it) of the crate. Don’t be a jerk and keep the ammo or yourself. By allowing multiple teammates to pick it up you increases your chances of getting a bigger lead, or catching up to your enemy. They can also quickly take out turrets, vehicles, and groups of enemies clustered onto a zone.

My next piece of advice would be to use supers, frequently and effectively. If you have your super charged half the game waiting for the perfect moment to use it, you won’t get any points for it. Even if you think you might die, use that golden gun or that nova blast. It can get you out of a pinch and gain lots of points for multikills. On top of that, by using a super effectively you can generate lots of orbs for your teammates, which in turn will generate more orbs for you, allowing your team to have supers up at all times.

Conclusion

I know this was fairly chaotic and whatnot but it’s my first time attempting to type a guide. I would appreciate anyone pointing out any errors or anything I’ve missed, or if someone would even want to go through the trouble of re-typing this in a more organized fashion and posting it again that would be much appreciated. If you do the latter I would appreciate a credit, but in all honesty I may not even deserve it since organizing this mess is probably more work than I’ve put into it.

So to my fellow guardians that are taking a break from waking the hive or shooting into a cave to play the crucible, go out and fight. If this manages to get positive feedback I could try and breakdown each class and subclass to make a guide for each as well as a guide for individual maps or even the different playlists in general. If I can manage to pull myself away from the screen that is. Let me know which guides you would prefer if you want a specific one, so I can get on those. I would have to expand my arsenal into the other classes to get a better idea of specific builds though through playing I’m pretty sure I could do a half-decent job of explaining them.

I’m also gonna take a few sentences to say how great this community has been. From tips on patrol missions to tips on the raid everyone has been very helpful and since I hadn’t seen a crucible guide I thought I would try and do my part for the community. Love the way this community is growing, one hive-waker or cave shooter at a time. So yeah I guess I’m done. If anyone’s got some constructive criticism I would love to hear your thoughts, so long as you don’t give me the verbal treatment we’ve been giving Master Rahool.