Ask any Destiny 2 player and they’ll tell you: The game is played best with other people. Whether you’re interested in the game’s PvP (player vs. player), PvE (player vs. environment), or PvPvE (player vs. player vs. environment) content, much of the experience of Destiny 2 involves interacting or sharing space with other players.
But what if you don’t have any friends who are interested in Destiny 2? Or even if you do, what if you’d like to make connections with other Destiny 2 players and extend your social experience beyond the confines of the game?
Enter Apexus Deft, one of Destiny 2’s largest online clans. With over 6,100 members, several “divisions” (as the game caps in-game clans at 100 members), and an automated Discord server, Apexus Deft sets a shining example for what online gaming communities can achieve.
Akumati, one of Apexus Deft’s co-founders and its manager, wanted to found a large-scale clan since he’d started playing the first Destiny. “What I came to realize is that it's the people you play with that makes games like this so amazing,” Akumati said.
Akumati, his girlfriend, and a friend from high school had been a part of a small Destiny clan when they started to grow dissatisfied with the game’s limitations. Upon Destiny 2’s release, Akumati began fantasizing about founding a clan with larger ambitions than the first Destiny could accommodate.
“I joined a large multi-game community Discord server and rose through their ranks to become their Destiny 2 leader,” Akumati said. “It had a lot of potential, but their leadership was holding us back. The other Destiny 2 clan leaders and I formed a coup and made Apexus Deft.”
One of the things that makes Apexus Deft so unique as a Destiny 2 community is that its Discord server is equipped with a number of automated processes that assist in everything from recruiting players to documenting player stats to kicking inactive members. As such, starting the process of joining an Apexus Deft division is as simple as sending an “au!join” message to the server’s recruitment channel.
Akumati painstakingly programmed much of the automation himself, all during his spare time. “The early days were a lot of work!” Akumati remembered. “I was spending 40 to 50 hours a week programming our clan's future automation in addition to working a full time job.”
Automation takes care of a lot of Apexus Deft’s heavy lifting when it comes to management and moderation. As a result, the clan’s leaders are allowed more time and energy to interact with their members and enjoy the game. “I believe the best way to keep the volunteers around that are helping to run the clan is to eliminate the busy work, so that’s exactly what I’ve done,” Akumati said.
Beyond that, Apexus Deft provides a wealth of resources to both casual and hardcore Destiny 2 players. For the former, Apexus Deft’s leadership is available for counseling and support regarding many things Destiny. “When you are part of a clan, other members are more willing to help you out,” Akumati said. “For example, if you want to learn how to do a raid, clan members are normally willing to spend twice as long in a raid to teach you how to do it.”
For more serious Destiny 2 players, Apexus Deft has a semi-hardcore division that’s intended for the ambitious and highly skilled amongst their ranks. Requirements for getting into Apexus Deft’s semi-hardcore division are less lenient than those for the casual divisions, but they help ensure that everyone in the division is worthy and capable.
Apexus Deft hosts a number of clan-only events, including PvP tournaments and raid teach-ins.
“I'm a PvP'er at heart, so for me, the private matches we host are awesome,” Akumati said. “One of my favorite moments was when someone got the bright idea to have everyone lower their field of view (FoV) to the absolute minimum. You can think of your FoV as a cone in front of you containing what you can see on your screen. The lower the FoV, the less you can see and the more zoomed in it gets. People were walking right by others and not realizing they were there.”
If you’ve ever been a part of an online community, then you know that these kinds of shenanigans are as fun and silly as they are capable of bringing people together. Whether you’re considering picking up Destiny 2: New Light or are an experienced player who had been eagerly awaiting Shadowkeep, joining a clan like Apexus Deft is worth considering.
“When you join a gaming community like ours, your age, race, religion, and sexual orientation make no difference to anyone,” Akumati said. “You'll meet like-minded individuals that you'd never have met otherwise. Your actions are the only things that dictate how people will treat you. This is why I believe communities like ours can make a huge difference in people's lives: You're judged for you and you alone.”
Learn more about how to join Apexus Deft here.
Destiny 2: Shadowkeep and New Light are currently available for PC.
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