Savvy Destiny player hacks a controller to level up on autopilot

By Will Fulton January 21, 2015

play destiny robots can auto levelling

Ingenuity knows no bounds when it is in the service of laziness. Reddit’s Yavin427 has shared a scrappy controller hack that allowed him to leave a Destiny character overnight to slowly level itself up without any player input.

Yavin rigged up the controller with scotch tape and two servos hooked up to an Arduino microcontroller. The setup was then programmed to repeatedly punch, shoot, and walk forward slowly. All Yavin had to do then was set up the character in the Moon’s “The Dark Beyond” mission (“We’ve woken the Hive!”) such that he would punch and shoot a few Hive until dying, then respawn, rinse, and repeat.

Finding just the right balance took a few iterations, because Bungie is wise to the possibility of exploits such as this and would boot the player to orbit when the mechanically repetitive sequence of actions ran on for too long. Adding in a bit of shooting and movement seemed to remedy the problem.

Left overnight, Yavin’s auto-Guardian went from level 16.5 to 20, logging about 3,600 kills and 900 deaths. That’s not fast by any means, and it involves, well, building an actual robot, so don’t expect Bungie to crack down on this as another Loot Cave exploit. Yavin was quick to admit its inefficiency and dismiss the critics as missing the point.

“I did it more for the hell of it, and I’ll be the first to admit I could have done it much faster manually. To those saying it’s pathetic, I dont disagree with you. Thats why my post title shows some confliction. But it’s much less an exploit (least effective way to level up ever) than a bit of fun, just to see if it could be done, and no one else was negatively affected by it. Some people did get some laughs out of it though.”

The trick is reminiscent of similar exploits from the 16-bit era of consoles when third-party controllers with programmable “turbo” buttons would let you set up infinite grinding loops like this. One noted example was a section early in Final Fantasy VI where the party could loop infinitely around part of the Lethe River, abusing the temporary character Banon’s healing ability to grind experience and gold indefinitely.

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Will Fulton is a New York-based writer and theater-maker. In 2011 he co-founded mythic theater company AntiMatter Collective…

Gaming

With Bungie purchase, Sony is playing on Microsoft’s level

Destiny 2 character in gold armor holds and gun while looking toward the camera.

Sony Interactive Entertainment announced its intended $3.6 billion acquisition of Destiny developer Bungie on January 31. Less than two weeks after Microsoft's bombshell announcement of its intention to acquire Activision Blizzard, Sony responded by showing that it's willing to compete when it comes to spending lots of money to acquire popular developers. On top of that, Sony seemingly plans to keep Bungie a multiplatform studio.
While Sony Interactive Entertainment CEO Jim Ryan told GamesIndustry.biz that "these conversations have been a number of months in gestation, and certainly predate the activity that we have seen this year," it still demonstrates a significant change in Sony's gaming mentality in light of Microsoft's acquisitions of Bethesda and Activision Blizzard.
For years, Sony focused on maintaining a refined and exclusive ecosystem of games and studios, but Microsoft's flurry of acquisitions over the past couple of years pushed Sony out of that comfort zone. After several smaller purchases, Sony has finally indicated that it's ready and willing to play on Microsoft's level and will do whatever it takes to stay on top in the gaming industry.

Taking a king
Sony's Bungie acquisition is just as symbolic as it is sensible from a competitive standpoint. Bungie used to be owned by Microsoft and created its biggest franchise, Halo. It split off to gain independence in 2007 and stayed that way for some time despite close partnerships with Activision and Google.
While it currently seems like Bungie will remain an independent and multiplatform studio, this is still a show of force by Sony. This acquisition means Microsoft can never truly get the developer who made Halo back and gives Sony a presence on Xbox platforms that extends beyond MLB The Show.
And as Ampere Analysis analyst Piers Harding-Rolls pointed out on Twitter, it also prepares Sony for potentially losing Call of Duty by giving it a first-party shooter game that's consistently updated as a live service. Of course, this isn't as direct of a response to the Activision Blizzard acquisition as it may initially seem, as this deal was in the works well before Microsoft's January 18 announcement.
The Bethesda acquisition is likely the deal that spurred Sony to acquire Bungie. Still, the Activision Blizzard deal affirmed why Sony had to make that move in the first place. Currently, the video game industry is on an acquisition spree from the top-down. Microsoft is one of the studio's leading the charge with the biggest and boldest deals.
While Sony may not have as much money to throw around, it still made plenty of smaller acquisitions, like Bluepoint, before the Bungie deal. Sony knows it needs to acquire studios and grow to stay competitive, and this is its first move to indicate that its willing to spend billions. The Bungie deal sends a clear message to Microsoft that Sony is still relevant and a force to be reckoned with.
What's mine is yours
That's not the only message Sony is sending either. It's also playing platform-exclusivity mind games. One of the most nebulous topics of debate with Microsoft's Bethesda and Activision announcements is whether or not the games from acquired studios would be exclusive to Xbox. Microsoft's current approach is to honor existing deals and keep multiplayer titles supported across platforms, but make brand new games like Starfield and Redfall into Xbox console exclusives that will also come to PC and Xbox Cloud Gaming. With Bungie, Sony seems to not be worried about exclusivity for once.
In the past, Sony has always wanted to keep its first-party games on PlayStation for as long as possible. Only recently has it chosen to port games like Horizon Zero Dawn, Days Gone, and God of War to PC and been forced to put MLB The Show on competing platforms. But from the get-go, Sony's messaging is that it's OK with Bungie staying creatively independent and multiplatform.

Gaming

Here’s what Sony’s Bungie deal means for Destiny

Guardians from Destiny 2

Sony is in the process of acquiring Bungie, and while that's a pretty big deal for the games industry, anyone who doesn't play Bungie's games may not have much of a reason to care. For Destiny players though, the acquisition throws the franchise's entire future into the air. Previous acquisitions, like Microsoft's purchase of ZeniMax Media, have led to franchises that used to be cross-platform becoming platform exclusives.

So, what does Bungie's acquisition mean for the Destiny franchise and the game's fans? Let's break it down.
Is the Destiny franchise moving off Xbox?
Executives from both sides of this deal -- Sony Interactive Entertainment CEO Jim Ryan and Bungie CEO Pete Parsons -- have stated that the Destiny games won't suddenly become PlayStation exclusives.

Gaming

How to make a clan in Destiny 2, and where to go from there

Three Destiny 2 classes covered in ice.

Although the majority of content in Destiny 2 is playable whether or not you're playing solo, you’re going to want to join a clan to get the most out of Bungie’s latest shooter. In Destiny 2, clans not only give you a convenient and easy way to communicate with your friends and organize for raids, but they also offer additional rewards as your clan progresses through various challenges and raises its level. If you're clueless about how to make a clan in Destiny 2, the detailed guide below will provide you with everything you need to know.