It’s mail call time in Defiance and everyone is excited. While most people are getting letters and packages, Nolan is getting ready to escort Rynn to Las Vegas Prison. He’s also guarding the city’s money that Amanda will using to get a train line going through Defiance. Amanda comes across and E-Rep Ambassador that she’s been ignoring correspondence from because she doesn’t want anything to do with the E-Reps. The Ambassador and her two husbands will be traveling with Nolan and Amanda. The only other passenger is a bible salesman.

Meanwhile, Irisa sees someone she thinks she knows. She follow the mystery man into the bar and keeps an eye on him. When he leaves out the back, she confronts him and knocks him out. When he awakes, he’s strapped to a chair in a basement or something. Irisa says she know who he is and she’s going to torture him like he did to her when she was a little girl. He says she’s got the wrong person, he’s just a traveling salesman of trinkets.

While Nolan, Amanda and others are riding along, there’s an explosion in the driver’s cab and the vehicle comes to a stop. Nolan opens up the back doors and sees a couple rollers coming up and figures out they are getting jacked. The bible salesman reveals he’s the one behind the explosion and takes the towns money. A shootout ensues. One of the Ambassador’s husbands is shot and killed, the bible salesman is shot in the leg, but he was able to take the Ambassador as a hostage.

Back to Irisa, she is walking through town heading back to her torture basement carrying a bag. Tommy the deputy sees her, thinks something might be up and follows her. Once inside she shows the mystery man that she brought a snake to torture him with. Tommy shows up and tries to stop her. She ends up handcuffing him. Tommy does ask how she knows this is the person that tortured her as a child. She knows his smell. She recognized one of the trinkets in his bag as a symbol he used. She says he has the same twitch under his eye. The mystery man, closes his eyes and challenges her to tell him the color of his eyes. She says blue. He opens his eyes to reveal that they are orange. She lets the snake bite him anyway.

Night has fallen and Nolan, Amanda, Rynn and the surviving husband are in a standoff with the bible salesman who says he will trade the Ambassador for the town’s money. Nolan decides he will go make the trade, but believes one of the salesman’s cohorts will try to gun him down from atop one of the hills. She he tells Amanda to sneak out while he distracts them and to take out the guy on the hill. Nolan hands over the briefcase of money and the Ambassador heads back to the disabled vehicle. The salesman is going through the briefcase and sees that under the money on top is just a bunch of bibles. He’s upset that Nolan tricked him, he pulls a gun and Nolan pulls out one he had hidden. Nolan gets the shot off first and takes down the salesman while Amanda takes down the guy on the hill that was about to shoot Nolan. Nolan tries to find out who hired him to make to steal the money. He won’t tell Nolan, and dies.

While all this was going on Rynn had picked up a paper clip during the first shootout and picks the locks on her handcuffs and shackles. The surviving husband sees what’s going on and she threatens to slit his throat, so he sits quietly while she slips away. Once Nolan, Amanda and the ambassador get back to the vehicle, they create a camp fire and get water and keys from the bad guys rollers. Just when they think they made it through a pretty rough day, the ambassador pulls a gun and says she’s taking the money and killing Nolan and Amanda. She gets richer, Defiance has to rely on E-Rep to get a train and she will even get a promotion. She even reveals that she set the whole charade up. Just as she’s about to take out Nolan and Amanda, the Ambassador is hit in the throat by some kind of weapon and drops her gun. Rynn shows up and takes the guy. She’s taking a roller and says she will kill anyone who tries to follow her. The husband asks if he can go with her to the next town, since the Ambassador planned on killing him too. When asked why she came back, Rynn replied, ” A man who risks his life for another cannot be left to die.”

When we get back to Irisa torture basement, the mystery man says the snake’s bite has given him clarity and he starts confessing. He was following the prophecies to find the Chosen One. He had told Irisa’s parents that she was special and he wanted to see if she was the one he was looking for. The freely gave her up and were even there to watch as he tortured her because he said it was needed to make her embrace her true nature. She was the only one who was able to survive all of the things put potential girls through. Her final action to kill a person that was a sacrifice. As they were about to make her do it, Nolan and others blast through the door and shoot down most of the people in the room, including her parents. The mystery man was able to slip away. He now realizes why he was brought to Defiance, he is the sacrifice for her to fulfill the prophecy. She decides that she will uncuff Tommy and let him arrest him. Tommy takes the opportunity to start beating the crap out of the man. Irisa has to stop him. Irisa decides to just let him go. Tommy is confused by this, but she says that for him to return back to his boring life and being unsuccessful in his Messiah search would be the worst punishment of all.

Nolan and Amanda are back in Defiance and they are sending the handcuffed Ambassador on her way to the Las Vegas jail. An officer leads her on to the transport vehicle. Once they are inside, the officer removes the handcuffs and apologizes saying it had to be done to keep up appearances. The ambassador now has it out for Amanda and wants to do whatever she can to take her and Defiance down.

In our final scenes we get to see Irisa and Tommy in the Lawkeeper’s office. She asks why he start taking it to the guy and he says he’s not the only one that has nightmares. They take a few beats to stare deeply into each other’s eyes, and start ripping their clothes off and going at it.

That about does it for this week. We didn’t get to see Datak or Stahma and only got a couple of scenes with Alak and Christie. I think Rafe had a cameo on the street, but that was about it. Also no Kenya and it’s been a couple episodes now without seeing Doc Yewll. But I guess that it’s better that they do some deeper stories on a few characters rather doing a bunch of shallow story lines and cramming everyone in to every episode. Once again, another solid episode that didn’t disappoint.

A few weeks ago, those who watch Defiance on Syfy were introduced to a character with some less-than great intentions — an Irathient named Rynn. We first met her briefly as part of the group of raiders in the pilot episode, and she made her return when attempting to destroy the town of Defiance by unleashing a massive hive of Hellbugs. As a punishment for her crimes, she was sentenced to two years in Las Vegas prison, but has since escaped custody (we’ll leave the details and spoilers to the recap article being posed very soon).

Last we saw her, she was told that she should consider bounty hunting. We do not know her geographic location at the time of her escape, but we know she has a roller and Las Vegas isn’t too awfully far from San Francisco.

So we were left with two questions…

Is Rynn’s character going to make it to San Francisco and join the video game cast? If so, will her character be helping players or will her evil intentions continue?

Well, it has been confirmed that Rynn will be joining the video game, and that she will (sorry for any fans of hers) be carrying on her unsavory ways and unleashing swarms of hellbugs throughout the city. If you find Rynn, be ready….it’s time for us to do our jobs and send her back to Defiance!

Just in case you have any lingering questions about how the Salvage Matrix system works in Defiance, Trion released an intel video explaining the breakdowns of the system, which aspects unlock when, and how to break down and modify weapons using the system. One interesting tidbit was revealed in this video which directly corresponds to the topic of an improved Salvage Matrix system that Nathan Richardsson touched on in yesterday’s Letter to the Community.

It seems we’ll be gaining the ability to reset a weapon’s mastery points in the future:

Very cool! Keep reading to take a look at the full video.

In yesterday’s letter to the community posted by Nathan Richardsson, Executive Producer of Defiance, one very interesting set of details was announced– the contents of the first upcoming Defiance DLC (downloadable content) pack. The release date for this first DLC pack, which is being tentatively called “Enter the Castithan”, has not been announced yet, but we do know that there will be three types of content added: Paid DLC content that will set players back $10 unless they have purchased the Season Pass, free DLC content that will be available to all players, and additional, optional in-game store content.

And yes, our first new playable race will be the Castithans! Castithan fans celebrate! So, what other types of content are we going to see? Let’s check it out. Keep reading to take a look.

You get this when you buy the DLC for $10:
– Access to play the Castithan Species
– Access to a new Story Mission Line with new Battle Arena Game Mode
– Access to the new Castithan Battle Arenas
– Castithan Charge Blade & Ceremonial Mask as a reward from Story Mission Line
– A unique version of the Raptor, a new 4 player truck of doom
– A unique Castithan version of an outfit
– A Charge Weapons Starter Pack
– Access to New Pursuits
– New Xbox and PS3 Trophies and Achievements

You get this in the DLC for free:
– Access to the new Charge Weapons Class and Castithan Blades
– Access to Sieges, a new Open World Game Mode
– Access to the new Monolith Major Arkfall
– Access to a new PvP Map – Military Academy
– Join a friend into the Battle Arenas Game Mode
– Duel your friends and neighbors in the Duels Game Mode
– Enemies, lockboxes, and events can drop Charge Weapons
– Select a new voice for you character
– Multitude of game improvements from UI to content

You can buy these individually from the store:
– New Mods that tint the color of your Castithan Blade
– Lockboxes have a chance to get Charge Weapons
– More versions of the Raptor, the new 4 player truck of doomed compensation
– Character Customization changes: Appearance change, name change, or everything change

Trion’s goal seems to be to push new, optional story content as well as new races through paid DLC content while allowing all players to take part in new multiplayer maps, PvP activities, and gameplay options together. Nathan Richardsson also touched on other improvements that will be made in the weeks to come along with his personal thoughts on the game’s state as a whole. Check out the full letter here.

Defiance Junkies is looking to add a few more enthusiastic, talented writers to join our team.

All that we ask is that you’re a true fan of the game and/or show and can show us that you know a thing or two about writing. You’re more than welcome to set your own schedule and write whenever you feel inspired.

If you have any questions or would like to apply to become a writer for Junkies Nation and Defiance Junkies, please feel free to contact Jason at dreagon@rerollz.net or John at johnp@rerollz.com. Make sure to have a writing sample handy when you contact us!

We are also looking for writers for Elder Scrolls Online site, so if you or anyone you know is as pumped as we are for its release, please get in touch or share this article with them!

As our team works towards the next major patch release 1.020 (details coming soon). We are working to provide smaller updates and hot-fix issues that can be addressed server side only.

DEFIANCE Patch 1.014

- Freight Yard is back…again. (See additional info regarding Freight Yard here.)
- Svushinnira, “the rain of pollution”, grows ever more severe. Horribly mutated Hellbugs dot the Paradise landscape as the Hellbug mating season continues. Nano-effect imbued Hellbugs are now more common and many familiar encounters now carry a new and dangerous change. This includes more Electric and Syphon Monarchs and mutated Hellbugs now appearing at Parraba Ranch, Happy Pow, Bug Basin, Ridgecrest Mine, Big Stone Reach, and Diablo Station.
- Completing Ranks of Echelon now gives you a second outfit to equip in competitive matches.
- Some EGO rating 1900 to 2000 weapons were not getting their rarity bonus’s appropriately. This is now fixed.
- Fixed a crash that could occur when hitting Ctrl-Q.
- Fixed a crash that could occur when resetting missions.
- Fixed a crash associated with Dogtown Mine.
- Removed some of the level up spam that happened upon load in.

Later in the day, the above Patch Notes received an amendment:

We unfortunately missed a few items that were pushed live in today’s 1.014 patch. The affects this had were significant to some of our players and we apologize for this oversight. We also had a shotgun magazine mod adjustment that was incorrectly applied, this will be adjusted to pre-patch settings in a hot fix in the next 48 hours.

I would however like to note that our design team is looking at weapons and mods and how those items affect gameplay vs. all the other weapons in the game. While this magazine mod was not meant to go live, we will be addressing balancing shotguns as needed in upcoming patches. With these changes you can look forward to some in-depth details on why changes are being made.

Added Patch 1.014 Notes:
- Vehicles can now only be found as specials on vehicle vendors.
- Vehicle special price has been increased.
- Additional Challenger variants added.
- Mine 99 rewards have been reduced.

To start off this episode, we see Nolan taking the fight to Datak by busting some of the guys that work for him through selling drugs. When he searches their car, he finds a bunch of weapons. He wants to send a message to Datak that he is going to take him down.

We then see Datak busting into a city council meeting. He says that Nolan’s actions have spooked his supplier. Both the mayor and the audience learn that since the stasis net went down, a plan has been set in motion to stockpile weapons in case they were needed to protect Defiance. Amanda is not pleased that she was left out of this decision.

On the street Amanda is approached by a woman who is upset that the mayor’s sister is sleeping with married men– hers in particular. Amanda explains that it is a legit business and the husband is not being forced to spend his money there. The woman says that Kenya is a slut and Amanda slaps the lady before she can finish.

In the meantime, Nolan is getting his groove on with Kenya. When it comes time to pay, she refuses and says that what they have is fun and she would like to keep it that way, as long as he doesn’t put a label on it. Around this time, Amanda walks in. She’s not thrilled that Nolan is sleeping with her sister and informs him that he messed up the weapons deal between the council and the Votan Collective. She also voices her displeasure about Kenya sleeping with married men.

Kenya doesn’t have much time to discuss the situation, because she has to chase down one of her girls that is accused of stealing money from a customer. She chases the girl into The Hallows and ends up catching her trying to buy some drugs from a Bioman. As she drags her away, the back door of the vehicle the Bioman was standing in front of opens and reveals people with duct tape over their mouths trapped in the vehicle. They take off and the Bioman chases them down and subdues them, dragging them off. In the midst of it all, Kenya dropped her communicator (which is called a “hailer”) and the locket that Amanda had given her when they were both kids.

Nolan is informed that Kenya had missed two appointments and that something might be up. He and Amanda go searching for her in The Hallows and find a kid that has her locket and communicator. The kid says that the Bioman took Kenya and the other girl. When asked about the Bioman, the kid says that he normally comes around at night and takes people away and by day sells drugs. Nolan rationalizes that the drugs are adrenals, which are made from draining adrenal glands from people. He also knows that the Bioman works for Datak and thinks they should pay him a visit.

We then get to see the Bioman dropping off the people to his boss, Niko. Niko is upset at the Bioman, Ulysses, who is only supposed to bring back citizens that won’t be missed. Since he knows that Kenya will mean trouble, he decides they should process their final batch for traveling money and then head south. He tells Ulysses to prepare the maze for the newest people.

Nolan and Amanda go to Datak’s house. Nolan forcefully demands answers from Datak since the Bioman works for Datak. Datak says he could help, but since he doesn’t get the respect from the community that he feels he deserves, he decides he won’t help. Nolan and Amanda leave and go their separate ways.

Stahma catches up to Amanda and says she could get Datak to help find Kenya, if he was shown a sign of respect. Amanda asks what she could do and Stahma says that appointing Datak to the city council would be a great sign of respect.

Obviously she made the deal, because the next day we see Datak leading Nolan around The Hallows in search of Ulysses’s ‘special friend’ that he spends time with, Mr. Skeever. When they find him Nolan questions him and finds out the location of the lab Mr. Skeever helped set up for Ulysses.

Kenya and the other girl are seen running through the maze while a Volge is stalking them. They find a hiding place, but make a noise that the Volge hears and starts tearing through the metal to get to them. Kenya wants to keep the girl calm and decides to give her the locket from around her neck, like Amanda did for her when they were kids. But– wait a second– Kenya remembers that she dropped the locket when attacked by the Bioman in The Hallows. She knows it’s all fake and wakes up. She disconnects herself from the tubes and machines being used to drain her adrenal gland and sees Niko across the room. She grabs a large beaker and hits him over the head, slicing into a vein in his neck with a chunk of glass. Ulysses comes in and sees what Kenya has done and is upset that she killed Niko. He is about to attack her when he gets shot from behind multiple times. Once again, Nolan saves the day.

During the end of the episode montage, we see Rafe and his son Quentin exploring in one of the mines. They come across a drawing on one of the walls that displays a figure holding in his right hand a gold artifact like the one Rafe’s other son, Luke, had found. In the figure’s other hand is a white version of the same object.

We also get to see Amanda introduce Datak as the newest member of the city council. There is a mixed reaction among the other members. Nolan sees Stahma knitting outside the door of the council meeting. He stops to tell her, “I’ve had my eye on the wrong snake. You’re the dangerous one.” It’s good to know that he figured out what we already know.

So to sum it all up, Datak is gaining the power he desires, Rafe is one step closer to figuring out what the artifact is for, and Nolan doesn’t have to pay for his sexy time with Kenya. Looks like everyone is getting what they want.

In a press release published yesterday, Trion Worlds announced that over 1,000,000 players have created Defiance accounts. The team also talked about a few other interesting details and statistics:

• The not so cute or cuddly hellbugs have put up a good fight, but gamers are showing an incredible love for dropkicking, exploding and decimating them by annihilating more than 500,000,000 hellbugs to date.
• Jumping on their ATV and cruising around the Badlands has led to gamers driving 50,000,000 miles around the terraformed Bay Area.
• Banding together, Ark Hunters have engaged in triggering and battling back an incredible 1,000,000 Arkfalls.

Now, it’s important to remember that the number of accounts registered most likely doesn’t correspond directly to the number of players who actually bought Defiance, but statistics are statistics, and as a bonus– that’s a lot of hellbug deaths.

Check out the full press release on Trion’s official site.

In yesterday’s Patch 1.013 update, Freight Yard briefly returned only to be taken offline later in the evening due to character and player disappearance issues that once again cropped up. Myll_Erik issued the following announcement via the forums:

Originally posted by Myll_Erik (Source)

---

We had some fixes in for Freight Yard to address disappearing vehicles and players as well as the crashing issues. Sadly, there are still other issues that persist with Freight Yard and we have taken it back offline. We’ll continue to work on this map (plus others we haven’t told you about) so we can get more content out to you folks!

Keep reading for the patch notes that did make it into yesterday’s patch.

Patch 1.013 Notes:
- New World Thugs data recorder has been fixed to always work regardless of your level
- Old Friends, Old Swords: Added failsafe to fix situations where the mission does not advance
- Project Aegis, Part 1: Set the turrets to disable 15 seconds after combat has been complete
- Project Aegis, Part 1: Fixed the issue where some enemies were spawning without using a spawn vehicle
- Increased the times and locations of the emergency necessary to fulfill the “Svushinnira: Just Business” contract
- Lowered the minimum level required to gain access to Contracts from 250 to 175
- Removed one of the runners from the Mount Tam crash site to improve driving paths
- Vehicle stats will no longer show up as zero in the vendor buy screen
- Weapons that require an EGO Rating of less than 250 have been added to Faction vendors
- Lowered the minimum level requirement for the Soleptor Excavation co-op map to 100
- Lowered the minimum level requirement for the Island of Lost Soldiers to 150
- Lowered the minimum level requirement for the Scrapworks Salvage to 225

We start off getting to see a guy who is getting ready to go for a jog. When everything we see is always dirty and gritty, this guy pulls out his pristine red running shoes. He obviously loves to run. Unfortunately, he’s about to die doing what he loves. All we can see is movement in the tall grass that keeps getting closer to him until he’s attacked and killed. For some reason I thought,  ”if he was driving a Dodge, he might still be alive.” Trion’s advertising must be having an effect on me.

The Spirit Riders are in town acting like a bad motorcycle gang. Irisa, as a deputy lawkeeper, has to step in and diffuse a situation between Sukar, leader of the Spirit Riders, with his ‘daughter’ Rynn and a local shopkeeper. Sukar tells Irisa that the offer is still open to join with them. She gets called away to check out the crime scene of the jogger.

At the crime scene we find out that the victim was a local baker named Dalton Tagert. They may not say it yet, but we all know that it has to be Hellbugs that killed him. Irisa sees a butterfly and has some sort of vision/flashback or something. It’s the 2nd time it’s happened this episode. Not sure what to make of it yet.

Mayor Amanda is meeting with Sukar, to try to ask him to have the Spirit Riders be a little less aggressive around town. He finally agrees to have his people assimilate with the people of Defiance, until they decided to turn on the Irathians like it happened in the past.

At the Need Want, the local whore house & bar, the owner Kenya is “working” on one of her customers. They discuss the safe word and then things get hot and heavy. She has him about to fire his gun, if you know what I mean, when he starts shouting the safe word, which just so happens to be ‘calamari’. She hops off, which is a good thing, because a Hellbug of some kind bursts out of his chest, killing him instantly.

When Doc Yewll gets to the scene and starts doing her thing, she figures out that it was a Hellbug, no doubt about it. Irisa sees the tattoo on the guy and has another vision. She is disturbed by these visions and doesn’t know what to make of them. The doctor lets them know that this guy, Bowen, and Tagert both had attack pheromones on them. The Hellbugs use them to guide the hive, but now someone is using them as a murder weapon.

At the Tarr house, Christie has made a Castithan dinner of river otter for her soon to be husband and in-laws. Stahma comments that it’s too bad Christie’s father Rafe couldn’t make it. Christie says that he is busy at the mines. Datak mutters in Castithan, “I’d be busy too, if I had to choke on this otter.” Christie has been learning the Castithan language and understands enough to get up from the table and run off. Alak chases after her.

While he is comforting her on the back patio, we hear a rumbling in the ground and a Hellbug pops up. It seems like a no brainer, but they used the exact same sound effects that the Hellbugs have in the game, which was pretty cool. Datak shows up with his energy sword and dispatches the Hellbugs while the rest of them run out the front door to safety.

They all gather at Rafe’s house and when Doc Yewll get there, she quickly discovers that Christie was covered in the attack pheromones. The only connection they can come up with between Tagert and Bowen is that they had sold some property to Rafe. Nolan wants to see the paperwork of the transaction. This is a very tedious job since everything is done on paper and stored away, so it takes all night for them to find what they are looking for.

While going through all the old paperwork, Irisa sees a picture that sets her off again into another vision. They are becoming more intense. She thinks she knows who is behind the attacks and goes to confront Sukar. She wants to know where Rynn is, because that’s who she has seen in her visions. He doesn’t know, but convinces her to do an Irathian ceremony with him to help her connect to her visions and try to see them clearly.

She succeeds and sees that Tagert and Bowen wanted to buy the property that Rynn lived on with her parents. Tagert and Bowen showed up one day and demanded that Rynn’s father sell immediately. When he denied them, they killed the mother and father, but Rynn was able to escape. Through the ceremony, Irisa is able to see where Rynn is in the present. So Nolan, Irisa, Sukar and Tommy all go to the mine shaft that Irisa saw Rynn in.

They take the elevator down to the bottom floor where they discover the Hellbug matron. The control board on the elevator shorted out on the way down, so Tommy starts fixing it. Rynn shows up and shoots Sukar in the leg. She blames him for leading them to her. He explains that it was Irisa and that the gods have given her the sight. She has a pheromone grenade that she pulls the pin out of. Irisa tries to convince Rynn that her vengeance is complete because she killed the men that killed her parents. Rynn wants to take out the rest of the humans. Rynn throws the pheromone grenade, Irisa throws a knife into Rynn’s shoulder, Nolan grabs the grenade and throws it onto the Hellbug matron to get the babies to attack mama. It works and they get everyone into the elevator as Tommy is just finishing the repairs. Nolan throws the explosives they brought along near the matron. As the elevator is rising, Nolan shoots the explosives and the town has once again been saved.

Mayor Amanda has a small ceremony in her office where she explains that the land will be given back to the descendants of the original Irathian owners and in exchange they will lease it to the McCawley Mines. She feels this is a good first step in Defiance righting an old wrong. The people in attendance applaud and Rafe and Sukar shake hands. Christie is proud of her dad and Sukar tips his hat to Irisa.

We get a few clips to help sum up where all of the relationships affected in this episode are at: Sukar goes to check on Rynn. She is still bitter that he helped the humans stop her. He still cares for her even though she’s going to be imprisoned.

Over at the Need Want, Nolan sees Irisa sitting alone at the bar. He starts to walk over, but Sukar sits down beside her and they start talking. He doesn’t want to interrupt.

Rafe is walking and talking with Christie when they arrive at the Tarr house. She runs up to give Alak a hug. She gives a little wave to Rafe as she goes inside. He waves back, but is very sad to see his little girl growing up.

Irisa is having a nightmare, or is just upset while laying in bed. Nolan sits on the edge while holding her had.

I would say this was another really good episode. We got the see and hear the Hellbugs for the first time. Toss in a little bit of mystery and political positioning to spice things up. We had some sex that ended with a chest bursting open. That was a little weird. A couple of little action scenes and some humor to lighten the mood from none other than Datak. Definitely didn’t see that one coming. We didn’t get any cliff hangers for the end of this one but the preview for next week did show that we get to see a bioman again, so that should be interesting.