In a world filled with games as service titles, Destiny has certainly established itself as a premiere live service franchise, cultivating a dedicated and passionate playerbase over a number of years. Indeed, the reach of the series is extensive, and, from time to time, references to Destiny even find their way into other media. Case in point: a new Hearthstone campaign makes direct reference to Destiny and everyone's favorite merchant, Xur.
The Hearthstone campaign in question is The Dalaran Heist, a single-player game mode that was added to Blizzard's popular digital card game just last week. In this new campaign, which is part of the Rise of Shadows expansion, players encounter a number of bosses, and one of these bosses has a name that may catch the attention of savvy Destiny fans. Specifically, the name of this Dalaran Heist boss is Xur'ios.
If the name of this Hearthstone boss is not enough to pin him as a Destiny easter egg, his dialog offers additional evidence. For example, if players choose to battle against Xur'ios using the Hunter class, the boss opens the match by saying, "A Hunter! Where's your Golden Gun?" Certainly, this seems to be a clear allusion to Destiny's Hunter class and its Golden Gun Super Ability.
Moreover, if a player faces Xur'ios using the Mage class, the boss says, "This encounter was fated. Our... destiny." Emoting at Xur'ios also prompts him to respond with "greetings, traveler," a possible reference to the Traveler in Destiny.
To note, this is not the first time that Blizzard has used Xur'ios in one of its games. In fact, he was first introduced as a vendor in a World of Warcraft expansion, and many of his wares were named using apparent Destiny references, such as Ingram's Puzzle, Gjallar's Horn, and Mote of Light.
With these references to Destiny well established, it is safe to say that there must be some big fans of Bungie's shooter on the Blizzard staff. Furthermore, it seems that there also some Guardians amidst the crew behind American Dad, as a Destiny 2 joke appeared in a recent episode of American Dad as well.
Destiny 2 is out now for PC, PS4, and Xbox One.