Unsurprisingly Destiny is peppered full of easter eggs and pop culture references that
you might have missed while you were busy fighting the forces of darkness, and with
Destiny 2 on the horizon we wanted to take a look at some of the most interesting and
humorous ones the game has to offer!
A reference to one of the most iconic moments from Predator can be found in the name of
the PvP medal you're awarded for getting a kill with a throwing knife
You probably noticed that the Ascendant Energy material bears a slight resemblance to a pokeball,
but this isn’t the only reference to the pocket monster franchise in Destiny.
If you visit Mars and explore the structures on the planet you’ll find some of the doors
also look strikingly similar to the classic pokeball design.
The exotic helmet, Mask of the Third Man has a quote as its item description which reads,
“It wasn’t me.
It was the Third Man.”
Which is quite likely a reference to the classic Jim Carrey comedy “The Mask”
Interestingly this was actually a reference to another movie called The Fugitive starring
Harrison Ford.
The Ghost Angel Cloak item description reads “We are and army of the chosen dead”.
This phrase doesn’t seem out of place in the story of destiny, but this is almost certainly
a reference to Dark Souls where the player character is known as “The Chosen Undead”
That's not the only Dark Souls reference either.
The Heart of Praxic Fire’s exotic modification is called “Praise the Sun” and its icon
shows 2 hands reached up towards the sky.
Praise the sun is an emote in Dark souls that, you’ve guessed it!
Raises your hands up towards the sky.
In Old Russia there is a Patrol Mission called “All in the Game” where you need to find
Wire Wraps.
This is almost certainly a reference to the HBO classic “The Wire”.
The mission’s title relates to the final scene of the first season where Omar Little
declares "It's all in the game, yo.
All in the game."
Of course Bungie couldn’t miss out on the opportunity to create an homage to the most
iconic character from the Halo series, the Master Chief.
During a Mars strike mission you can find this tower that looks a lot like everyone's
favorite spartan.
A second reference to the Chief can be found at the end of the Cayde’s stash mission.
There are a number of pods around the room and if you approach one of them you can one
scan it [Pod #10201.
A guardian with exceptional Light sealed himself inside.
He's been in there for centuries.
Before I found you, I tried to ressurect him, but he preferred to sleep.
He said the last war was enough for a thousand lifetimes.]
At the end of the first core trilogy of Halo games he locked himself into a pod and told
his AI Cortana “Wake me, when you need me”.
Its not just Bungies most famous game that gets a reference either, the Exotic ship “Manus
Celer Dei”, which is Latin for “Swift Hand of God” is a direct reference to the
dreadnought of the same name in Marathon 2.
Which is pretty cool if you're a long time Bungie fan, but what's even more awesome is
that the description of the ship is Bungie's corporate motto, which translates to “Don't
make us kick your ass”.
“Four arms good, Two Arms Better” is an Old Russian patrol mission that takes its
name from George Orwell's classic Animal Farm where the pigs introduce the commandment “Four
legs good, two legs better” when they opt to walk on two legs rather than four.
Some references are less subtle, such as the TFWPKY 1969 hand cannon, a throwback to Butch
Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
And then the Doctor Nope auto rifle is almost certainly a nod to the classic James Bond movie and novel Doctor No
Bungie studios is located in Seattle, the home of the Seahawks and Bungie have shown
their support for the local team by hiding the team's logo in plain sight as the Sunbreaker
titans flaming hammer!
Many weapon and armor pieces also use the Seahawks colours!
Gjallarhorn is one of Destiny’s most well known weapons, but the origin of
the name is actually pretty cool.
In Norse mythology the Gjallarhorn is the horn sounded by Heimdal to warn of the onset
of Ragnarok, the Norse apocalypse.
After completing the World's Grave mission on the moon you can find a chest that contains
the Jade Rabbit Insignia.
This is actually based on the Moon Rabbit, a famed figure in Chinese, Japanese and Korean
folklore, the rabbit lives on the moon and creates herbs for immortals.
One of the most crazy things about Destiny is actually how many other games and TV shows
have made references to it.
For example Nathan Fillion, the voice of Cayde 6, managed to slip a wink to the game into
his day job on “Castle”.
Peter Dinklage, voice of the ghost in vanilla destiny and star of Game of Thrones shot a
scene in which he sat in front of a window with a very familiar design.
Its one hell of a coincidence if that’s not meant to be a ghost.
In World of Warcrafts Legion expansion the character Xur’ios was added to the game,
a clear reference to Destiny’s mysterious item vendor.
Dying Light also snuck in a joke about Destiny’s infamous loot cave that saw players killing
thousands of Hive until it was patched out of the game.
Hidden in the top right of the Dying Light map is a cave.
Venture inside and “Your destiny is to build your legend (and get loot).”
Appears as a message on your screen.
After fighting a hoard of zombies a new message appears that reads “Enough” Patch 1.0.2
has been released!
Do more Quests!”
During the Netflix show Travelers a reference is made to 5 of Destiny's guns.
One Destiny easter egg actually remained hidden for years inside of Bungie's previous game,
Halo 3: ODST which was released back in 2009.
A sign can be found in game that shows an image of the earth with a white orb floating
above it, a reference to the traveller and above it the sign reads “Destiny Awaits”.
Unfortunately the sign has been changed in the remastered version of ODST as by the time
it was released Halo was no longer in the hands of Bungie.
Back to Destiny itself again and there are of course references to Bungie's lucky number
7 throughout the game.
If you have followed the studio for a long time you will be familiar with their obsession.
From the 7th column logo to the 7 Halo rings and even their studios 7 pillars of design,
its a number that means a lot to the team, so its no surprise in Destiny you can find
things like the 77 Wizard Fusion rifle, the 7 Seraph faction, an achievement for for getting
a Grimoire score of 777 called “Lucky 7s”, a “seventh column” medal for scoring 7
kills in rapid succession, even the Dead Orbit logo looks like a 7.
There are also numerous references to Vladimir Komarov throughout the game.
Vladimir was the first human to die while on a space mission and Bungie have gone to
great efforts to honour his memory in various pieces of armor as well as the “Cloak of
the Cosmonaut”.
In Destiny’s Age of Triumph update a little easter egg to one of the most infamous lines
from Peter Dinklages performance as the ghost was added to the game.
Nolan North of course replaced Dinklage as part of the Taken King expansion, but now
if you complete the mission “The Dark Within” the ghost will revert back to its previous
voice actor for a few moments.
"That Wizard came from the moon"
Lastly, during the Kings Fall raid you can find a hidden room with a basketball court,
its not a special reference or anything, but a pretty cool easter egg nonetheless.
Do you know of any easter eggs or jokes that we missed?!
Let us know in the comments below!
As always this is James for Curse saying thanks for watching, and enjoy the game!