About every week brings something new Fate 2, whether it’s the story rhythms, new activities, or exciting new combinations of elements that allow players to wreak havoc on each other in Crucible. Iron Banter is our weekly look at what’s going on in the world of Destiny and summarizes what’s caught our attention across the solar system.
The season of looting This isn’t the first time Bungie has brought some fun into Destiny 2, and true to form, the pirate-themed season has a hull filled with pirate-themed puns. In the first mission of the season, you recruit a crew of pirates from the Forsaken expansion’s crime lord quest giver, Spider-Man, whom you can call upon on missions to help you face off against Pirate Lords you’re tasked with sending to Davy Jones’s Star Storage throughout the season.
Early in the season, though, there’s something about these alien pirates that I can’t stop baffled, and it turns out to be even more annoying than a pinprick full of debris. Those are my crew’s names, each one clearly different in some ways in particular. Each pirate you recruit is an Eliksni character, a race of aliens whose members tend to have names ending in sounds like “siks” or “raaks”. Thus, the crew that joins you on your missions includes venerable space sailors Flotsiks, Jetsiks, Ransiks and Halsiks.
The jokes behind some of these names are pretty obvious. Flotsiks and Jetsiks is a pun on the term “flotsam and jetsam”, the spoils of a ship lost at sea. My immediate assumption for Ransiks is that it’s a “ransacks” game, although others I’ve consulted suggest “ransack” would hold better with the established pattern. by flotsam and jetsam. Both are unwholesome activities that scammers have engaged in. All make sense.
But then we got to Halsiks, and… nothing. I racked my brains and consulted pirate-minded friends who spent a lot of time reading history and/or playing Sea of Thieves, but nothing came up. I checked the dictionary for words starting with “hal”, but there, I ran aground too. I felt mired in the fog as I struggled to solve Bungie’s riddle about the infamous Halsiks.
Finally, I’ve had enough. In a recent interview with Destiny 2 director Joe Blackburn and Destiny 2 general manager Dan McAuliffe, I seized the opportunity to grab the answer right from the source. Joe and Bungie’s communications director, Carlos Ascencio, are, unfortunately, just as lost as I am. They committed to getting the team to write Destiny 2 and come back with a resolution to my frustration. That moment, we discussed the tone and mood of the Lightfall expansion, and its many venerable inspirations.
Then a message arrived in the electronic post; Carlos talked to the writers of Destiny 2. He knew the truth about Halsiks’ identity.
As it turns out, Halsiks is hard to find because the name has nothing to do with some of the tongue’s seafaring actions; it is a reference to a really pirate. Halsiks is a pun on Halsey, the private surname of John Halsey. Bungie writers describe Halsey as a “good pirate” who acted as a private in the War of the Spanish Succession in the early 1700s.
If you’re not familiar, privates are pirates working for the government – in Halsey’s case, he received what’s called a “Letter of Marque” which allows him to raid ships on behalf of the British Empire. Spain. Many famous pirates of this time also began in a similar way, engaging in legal piracy in the Atlantic as part of their government’s war effort. And, like many other pirates, when Halsey’s commercial letter expired in 1705, that didn’t mean he gave up a life of raiding ships and stealing their goods. Instead, he continued his life of piracy with no legal retribution. Halsey spent the next few years pirating near Madagascar and in the Indian Ocean, before dying in 1708 after his fleet was ravaged by a storm and he succumbed to a fever. .
In the book “A General History of the Pyrates” in 1728, author Captain Charles Johnson wrote this by Halsey:
“He was brave in his Man, polite to all his Prisoners, lived beloved and died regretfully by his own People. His grave is made in a watermelon orchard. , and fenced with Palisades to prevent him from being taken up by wild Hogs.”
Clearly a good guy for a player, making him a good candidate for Bungie to attract when naming its crew. The studio also confirmed another side of the puzzle: Ransiks is, in effect, meant to be a play about “ransom,” although Carlos said the writing team also prefers an alternative interpretation of “ransom.” . And personally, I think we should go with the Ransiks ransom – there’s a boss that players face in Ketchcrash missions called Ransaaks, and that’s just a better pun.
This is by no means the only pirate pun in Season of Plunder, though none are quite as mysterious as Halsiks. Along with the Ransaaks, there is also the Ketchcrash boss Aye-I (not Aye-1, but Aye- “i”) and Skiffiksand in addition to Halsiks, you can recruit a waiter called SCUR-DRAW for your crew, along with some melee fighters known as Skiffblades. However, Halsiks is different – it seems to be the only name that specifically refers to a real pirates, which raises the question of whether Halsiks might have a bigger part to play this season than just helping snipers on a tomato’s bow in our airplane actions. or not.
Although it’s not that The long ride, the adventure of uncovering the truth behind Halsiks, and the voyeuristic taste of Season of Plunder in general, has me looking for more pirate history to discover, especially about John Halsey. I also hope we find more pirate puns than just the ones we’ve seen so far throughout the season. Halsiks, Flotsiks, Jetsiks, and Ransiks are pretty cool, but honestly, none of the games are quite as good as Destiny 2’s ultimate pirate pun. It didn’t appear in Season of Plunder, but much earlier. – come back Grasp of Avarice Dungeon themed with hidden treasures inspired by Goonies.
Like other puns, this is the name of a Fallen enemy, a humble but annoyingly accurate sniper who tormented many treasure seekers as they approached the X on the map. Of course, I’m talking about the R-M80. Read it out loud.
As we’re looking toward the horizon for the rest of Season of Plunder, the GameSpot Destiny 2 team is also looking to the past. September marks the fifth anniversary of the release of Destiny 2, and it makes us think about all the ways the game has changed, evolved, and evolved over the years. Stay tuned for more content geared towards the anniversary of Destiny 2 and the journey we’ve all taken over the past five years.
In the meantime, drop your best pirate puns in the comments, speculate on Season of Plunder’s future story, rant or rave about King’s Fallor leave fun facts about John Halsey and any other spoilers that catch your fancy.
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