Feature: The PS4 Destiny Diaries - Day Five: Wasting Inordinate Amounts of Time at the Tower

When you really stop and think about it, Destiny's hub location dubbed the Tower is a beautiful thing. In a game where essentially all you do is shoot things in the head, the Tower provides a resting place where you can enjoy some downtime between stints of slaughter. You can introduce yourself to other players, buy new equipment, read your mail, pick up bounties, purchase new vehicles, partake in some dodgy parkour, and even sort of play football.

It helps that you explore the Tower in third-person, which gives the area a different feel to the rest of the game, as you'll be laying your eyes on your beloved character's full body. It's also the only place where other users will be able to take a peek at your avatar's face without a helmet obscuring the view, so if you're looking for somewhere to show off your lovingly crafted mug, this is where you want to be.

In Destiny's universe, the Tower acts as a headquarters for Guardians, and sits above the last city on Earth, which is also overshadowed by the all-important Traveller. As such, the location's design feels very much like a last bastion of hope. It's full of activity, while its structure almost feels hurried together, as such a location would be if civilisation was under the constant threat of war.

Relive Our Destiny Diaries

• Day One: Why Wouldn't You Want to Be a Robot?
• Day Two: The Exploration of Old Russia
• Day Three: The Crucible Presents Push Square vs. The World
• Day Four: Loot, Glorious Loot

The Guardian's home is split into four main areas: a frontal landing space that's wide-open and features several quick-stop vendors, a hangar where you'll find several more merchants and even a shadowy bar, an outside area that's home to the Speaker, and a downstairs meeting room where you'll find the three classes' Vanguard representatives and a long table that plays a perfect host to dancing competitions. At first, it can be a bit confusing as to what you can find where, but in time, you'll end up going to see the necessary people in an order that you create based on your own preferences.

But grabbing new gear and picking up bounties isn't all that there is to do at the Tower. As you may have already noticed if, like me, you've spent way too much time with the beta, there are a few rather unorthodox ways to pass the time when you're not out blasting things to pieces. For starters, you can test your platforming skills with some parkour activities. Jumping around like a lunatic is nothing new in Destiny, but your leaping prowess will be scrutinised as you try to get onto the roof of a vendor's hut, or some other strange place where you shouldn't really be.

The most popular platforming test comes in the form of the large, twisted tree that sits in front of the gun store. It takes some careful manoeuvring and some practice, but it's possible to hop your way to the top of this gnarled old piece of nature. You're bound to see a few people having a little sit down just beneath its leaves, but the real pros will tell you that using the tree as a launch pad in order to reach the canvas that sits above the gun store is the true goal for any time wasting Guardian.

Of course, being professional beta testers, we here at Push Square decided that such a feat must to be accomplished, and so I teamed up with Simon Fitzgerald and Joey Thurmond as we attempted to put Bungie's world crafting skills to the test. As you can probably tell from the picture above, we made it – even if it took us several tries to get that cursed final jump just right. And obviously, the prize is more than worth the effort, especially when you look down to see that other players are desperately trying to imitate your success.

If jumping around and making yourself look completely daft doesn't provide enough relaxation, you can also hunt down one of the Tower's infamous sports balls. There's a large, purple, floaty sphere that you can bounce around, as well as a regular-sized football to find, and both can provide some really stupid fun if you manage to get a load of onlookers involved in the action.

Even in the beta, the Tower genuinely feels like a place where you can recharge your batteries after hours of killing things. The peaceful atmosphere and promise of shiny new equipment to spend your money on make for a tempting place to spend some time, and there's no doubt that most players will get involved in some dumb but fun activity at least once. So what if you've got a high score in the Crucible – have you managed to conquer the tree of uncertainty yet?

Do you enjoy relaxing at the Tower? Is there anything that you'd like Bungie to add to its hub-like location? Tell us how many times you've jumped to some really awkward object in the comments section below, and remember to check back tomorrow for day six of our Destiny diary.