【Writer's Bullpen (2009)】

Archon's Forge isn't a centerpiece mode for Destinyin the same way that the raids are,Writer's Bullpen (2009) but it's a brand new and potentially rewarding public activity in Rise of Iron.

Remember Court of Oryx? Destiny: The Taken King's public fighting arena allowed anyone wandering around the Dreadnaught to jump in and fight bosses together.

Archon's Forge takes the all-are-welcome philosophy from Court of Oryx and wraps it around more extended combat encounters, similar in some ways to the wave-based challenges in Prison of Elders. Fight a bunch of enemies with friends and strangers alike, reap some rewards.

To start an Archon's Forge challenge you need to activate a machine right outside of it using a special key. These keys are random drops and, similar to the Court of Oryx runes, they come in three different rarities. Rarer keys call up tougher challenges, and promise better rewards.

Once an Archon's Forge challenge begins, no one on the outside is allowed to jump in unless they possess a special Splicer's Key (also a random drop). The same holds true for anyone that dies inside the Forge; unless someone on the inside revives you, you're going to respawn outside the arena.

Based on the handful of challenge keys we tried -- each one is tied to a specific type of foe, apparently -- Archon Forge encounters start with open combat against (primarily) one specific type of enemy. Once you have a 100 percent kill total, there's a boss round. Finish that and the challenge ends.

The only thing we're not clear on is how gear drops work. The feature didn't appear to be active on our test server and all Bungie would say is that there are Archon's Forge-specific gear sets to pursue.

Archon's Forge -- which you can see for yourself in the three videos included in this post -- is just one piece of the new Plaguelands exploration space that Rise of Ironadds to Destiny. There are also new patrols, public events and secrets tucked away.

You'll be able to start exploring very shortly after diving into the campaign when Rise of Ironlaunches for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One on Sept. 20.