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Destiny 2 | Guide for increasing your Power Level

I did a search and found no dedicated thread. This info always gets buried in the OT and folks keep asking. Stuck at 271 light me if old or unwanted.

So I've had a few folks ask me about the order to do things in Destiny 2. As a disclaimer, this is the most optimum order to gain light (power level technically but same difference) in Destiny 2 at launch and until they make any tweaks to the system, but it is by no means the only way to play the game. You WILL continually increase in power level week to week just by doing the weekly milestones. It may take you longer, but if you want to play casually just enjoy the game and do the milestones as you go along and you will be fine.

Note: Powerful Rewards are once PER CLASS, per week. Making 3 hunters is not going to help you much.

I may call kinetic - primary, or energy - secondary, or power - heavy, or power level - light level. I am still in a Destiny 1 mindset, forgive me.

I will start with a roadmap of the order of activities to do in Destiny 2 in order to maximize your power level gain. In this list, you will see me mention "optimizing power level on gear by checking mods". There will be a deeper explanation of the mod system below the roadmap of activities order. This list assumes you are starting on a fresh character and are new to Destiny 2. Your 2nd and 3rd characters will gain light faster, and can piggyback off the first. That will be explained after the mod system explanation. I made it to 284 on my first char (Titan) and 290 on my 2nd char (warlock) week 1 before the reset doing exactly these steps. On to the list:


ORDER OF ACTIVITIES FOR A DESTINY 2 NEWBIE:


1. Level your first character to 20 while playing through the campaign. At various points in the campaign you might have to branch off and do public events, lost sectors, strikes, etc as certain missions are gated off by your level.

2. Once level 20, do Public Events (most efficient), lost sectors, adventures, strikes, or crucible in order to get blue and eventually purple gear. Every time you get a piece of gear, simply swap it out with your current gear if it is higher than the current piece. Don't worry about infusing anything until you have a piece of LEGENDARY gear WITH A +5 MOD. If the new gear is higher than the current gear, simply swap it out unless you have a purple gear piece with a purple mod on it. Continue doing this until you are at power level 250. Along the way, OPTIMIZE POWER LEVEL by checking new gear against current gear and looking for +5 mods (can be on gear drops but rarely). DO NOT SPEND FACTION TOKENS AT THIS TIME. Stockpile them. Also if you have one, use a Fireteam Medallion while running public events. These can stack 3x, so if you are running with a buddy or two, have everyone use one. This increases exp (for bright engrams) and exotic engram chances. ALWAYS DECRYPT engrams, even legendary and exotics, as soon as you get them. They are locked in at the moment they drop, so saving them only hurts you in the long run.

The only caveat to that is you might want to save one exotic engram from a low 200s power level in order to use it for one of the exotic quests. Legendary engrams drop often enough that those don't matter too much.

3. Once you are 250, begin turning in faction tokens. Only turn in enough to get ONE faction reward package at a time. Check the loot from it against your current gear, optimizing power level and watching for any +5 mods. If you get a +5 mod from a faction reward, put it on the piece of gear it can go on if that piece is a) Legendary and b) doesn't already have a +5 mod on it. More on mods below.

4. The faction rewards should easily get you over 260 if you stockpiled them. Whenever you run out, just go back to doing public events, lost sectors, strikes, etc. You can also begin working on your weekly milestones at this time, but DO NOT TURN IN the final step (the one that has POWERFUL REWARDS) yet. Just do the first few steps in the chain and save the final step. DO NOT do any exotic primary quests yet.

5. Once you are 265, turn in any faction rewards you may have amassed since the last turn in. Watch for any +5 mods and keep optimizing gear by infusing into your current legendary gear if it has a +5 mod, or installing a +5 mod onto them, or switching to the newest gear pieces you get if those have a +5 mod. Again, optimize power level by infusing into the pieces that have a +5 mod if possible (more below on that).

6. By this point you should be between 265 and 267. Claim any CLAN REWARDS from the clan NPC, EXCEPT for the powerful rewards one. Do not claim that.

7. Do in your FIRST exotic primary quest right now. I recommend doing Sturm first as it is the worst one. Equip the energy weapon you get during the quest chain if it is higher than your current one (it should be, and you have to use it for the quest anyway). Equip Sturm once you finish.

8. Turn in two Powerful Rewards milestone completions, ONE AT A TIME. Check the gear you get against current gear and optimize.

9. Do the 2nd exotic primary quest. I recommend doing Rat Pack at this time and saving MIDA for last. Equip it once you get it as it should be higher than Sturm.

10. Turn in all remaining Powerful Rewards milestone completions, one at a time, optimizing gear after each reward.

11. Do the 3rd exotic primary quest. This should be your MIDA multi tool. Make sure to reorient your gear to get your power level up as high as it can be at least once before turning it in so that the MIDA drops at the highest power level possible. You don't have to keep the gear on, but you have to attain a power level at least once before switching back to your favorites for the game to register it as your highest power level, at least in my experience. This is especially true if you have gear with a +5 mod on it that could benefit from infusing a new drop into it. If I have a 270 helm with a +5 on it and I get a 270 helm with no +5, as far as Destiny is concerned my highest helm slot is 270 until I infuse it into my current one to make it 275. This is why you always, always infuse INTO an item that HAS a +5 if possible. More on mods amd infusing below.

Doing all this should easily get you to 279-284 on your very first character, fresh to the game. Now, for an eplanation of the mod system and how to maximize.

Another note: any time you are at 90,000+ glimmer, go to the weapons vender and buy the 'random mod' (blue) for 2500. Do this and spend all your glimmer down to around 15k-20k. Stockpile these blue mods so that once you hit 280 you can make loads of purples. If you have a +5 class item mod already for your current class, it helps to buy the random mods on different classes. The blue weapon and armor mods dont matter, but if the random mod you get is a class item mod, it will be for the class that purchased it in my experience. It is best to try and get at least one +5 class item mod for each class if you plan on playing all three.


MOD SYSTEM BREAKDOWN:

There are many types of mods in Destiny 2, but only two main categories: blue or purple (rare or legendary). Blues don't matter if they are on a piece of equipment, so ignore them. The blues that the weapon vendor sells (2500 glimmer for a random blue mod) are important, however, because you can stockpile them in order to make purple mods once you hit 280 power. The PURPLE mods are the important ones. If a piece of gear (primary, energy, heavy, head, arms, chest, boots, class item) has a purple mod, that purple mod gives the item +5 power level as well as a perk. The perks are irrelevant to this explanation (you'll figure out which ones you like eventually). What matters is the +5 power.

If a piece of gear has a +5 mod on it, then its TRUE power level is 5 points less than what it says when you highlight it. So if I have a chest piece that says it is 300 power level with a +5 mod on it, it is actually only a 295. The +5 mod is what gets it to 300. This is important, because if I get a 297 chest piece WITHOUT a +5 mod, then that new chest piece is truly 297, two points higher than my current 300 chest. I can infuse that 297 chest INTO my current chest. Now, it will be a 297 with a +5 mod on it, making it a 302 overall.

So, what you want to do is get a full set of legendary gear, all with +5 mods on them, as soon as possible. It is exceedingly rare to get a piece of gear with a +5 on it from an engram or faction reward, but it CAN happen. You can also get +5 mods themselves from faction rewards. As soon as you can, get a +5 mod on every slot. After that, fashion be damned, always infuse new gear that you get INTO the current gear you are wearing, UNLESS the new gear already has a +5 mod and is higher power level than the current piece. At that point, you can simply wear the new piece, or infuse it into your current piece anyway if you prefer your current one's look/perk/both to the new one.

Exotics ALWAYS have a +5 mod on them already, and it cannot be changed. Legendaries allow you to change the mod to a new one if you wish, but if you do so, you lose the old mod. Here are a few examples:

1. I have an exotic primary that is 270 light. I get a new legendary primary drop that is 272 light that does not have a +5 mod. I would infuse that into my current exotic, bringing it to 272.

2. I have a legendary primary that is 270 light, but it does not have a +5 mod. I get a 272 primary drop that also does not have a +5 mod. I would simply swap that out and use it. Although I could infuse it into the current one if I wished to do so.

3. I have a legendary primary that is 270 light, but it odes not have a +5 mod. I get a drop that is 270 light, but it DOES have a +5 mod. That means the new one is truly only a 265. I can infuse my CURRENT 270 (with no mod) into the new 270 (that has the mod) to make the new one a 275.

4. I get a +5 weapon mod from a weapon vendor faction reward. It will either be a +5 kinetic mod (used only for kinetic weapons), or a +5 void/arc/solar mod (used for either energy or power weapons). I would immediately look and see what my HIGHEST power level weapon combination would be across my three weapons. For instance if I already have a 270 energy scout rifle that has a +5 on it, but I have a 269 energy weapon and a 269 power weapon, neither of which has a +5 mod, I would put it on the power weapon. If I put it on the energy weapon without a mod, it would be a 274, vs the current 270 in that slot. If I put it on the power weapon, that would be a 274 also, vs the 269 in that slot.

Even with this explanation the mod system may confuse you. My explanation itself is likely confusing for some. Don't hesitate to ask me questions via commenting below.

PIGGYBACKING 2nd Char:

1. When you start a 2nd char, transfer over your best three weapon combination (likely Mida multi, mida mini, and your highest power weapon) to the new character once it hits level 20. You can also make +5 mods for your 2nd character's head/arms/chest/feet if your first char is 280.
 

dc89

Member
I hit Level 20 yesterday and I find this very informative. Great stuff and thanks for doing this.
Let the grind begin.
 

bosseye

Member
Awesome, thanks for this. Exactly where I am now, currently at 269 and wasn't entirely sure how to best proceed.
 

bebop242

Member
Welp just hit 20 and spent all my Faction tokens before reading this. Guess I'll throw the game into the garbage now.
 
Welp just hit 20 and spent all my Faction tokens before reading this. Guess I'll throw the game into the garbage now.
Don't worry about it. Reset is on Tuesday, so just get to 260 and grab your powerful rewards before reset. Infuse up your legendary items when you start getting 260 blues.

Actually, get as many of your powerful rewards before reset no matter what light you are, but try to get it as high as you can.

Honestly, people worry too much about this crap. Unless you plan to fight the raid boss (don't expect to reach him easily), you don't need to hit 295+ in one week. With 2 weeks of powerful loot, you'll be fine.

The one thing you SHOULD do, though, is save your exotic quests (the blue crowns on EDZ, Nessus, and... Titan?) until after next week's powerful rewards. They drop at a high light.
 
Your step 11, I thought the game checked in the background now automatically for your highest possible score, without needing to equip it all to show it?

Other than that, fantastic guide!
 
Your step 11, I thought the game checked in the background now automatically for your highest possible score, without needing to equip it all to show it?

Other than that, fantastic guide!
I got screwed in the Raid because I had a lower exotic equipped than my highest one. It took my equipped light (297) rather than my highest (299) for loot rolls. I'm only bringing legendary items next time.
 
Your step 11, I thought the game checked in the background now automatically for your highest possible score, without needing to equip it all to show it?

Other than that, fantastic guide!

I don't buy it that Bungie did it perfectly. I seem to be able to get better rewards hand-picking my gear.
 
The moment I hit 265 it became 10x harder to level up. I understand why, but Bungie should have at least have some strikes in this game that still has a small chance of having legendaries drop above 265.

Just having 1 Weekly Nightfall Strike per week is not enough. I don't understand as to how the entire strike system has not been overhauled. We should at least have standard strikes with a recommended power level of 230-240.

The only thing that is happening now is that people do the milestones in 1-2 days and then just play another game until the next reset has arrived. It's a cheap way of having the game feel longer then it actually is.

The guide is great once you finish the story but it still takes dozens upon dozens of hours if you eventually want to reach 280-290.
 

Laughing Banana

Weeping Pickle
Uhhh, exotic weapon quest? How can I get me one of those? lol.

I am at 271 right now and I can't seem to recall any clues or activities hinting about these.
 
The moment I hit 265 it became 10x harder to level up. I understand why, but Bungie should have at least have some strikes in this game that still has a small chance of having legendaries drop above 265.

Just having 1 Weekly Nightfall Strike per week is not enough. I don't understand as to how the entire strike system has not been overhauled. We should at least have standard strikes with a recommended power level of 230-240.

The only thing that is happening now is that people do the milestones in 1-2 days and then just play another game until the next reset has arrived. It's a cheap way of having the game feel longer then it actually is.

The guide is great once you finish the story but it still takes dozens upon dozens of hours if you eventually want to reach 280-290.
It took me 20 hours to hit 292. My second toon took 11 to hit 295. My third took less than 10 to hit 297.

If you're doing it right, it's pretty trivial. I'm actually kind of upset at how easy it was because now I don't have much reason to raid.
Uhhh, exotic weapon quest? How can I get me one of those? lol.

I am at 271 right now and I can't seem to recall any clues or activities hinting about these.
After you get your exotic from Zavala, there will be blue crown quests on each planet. 3 of those quest chains put legendary items in your inventory that require you to do specific things to empower them. They'll turn into exotics at the end of the quest chains. 2 of those quests also give legendary energy weapons at your current light, so put them off until after your powerful engrams imo.
 

Kalnoky

Member
The only thing that is happening now is that people do the milestones in 1-2 days and then just play another game until the next reset has arrived. It's a cheap way of having the game feel longer then it actually is.

I've really been digging Destiny 2, but this is sort of my complaint about the max level gameplay loop as well. I realize all MMOs have gating, but it just feels weirdly designed in Destiny 2. I think the systems and mechanics involved in increasing character power (public events for flashpoints, nightfall strike for group content, etc.) are all a lot of fun, but I wish I had more reasons to do any of it past one time each week.

Feels weird to simultaneously really want to play a game because mechanically it's fun and engaging while also really not wanting to play it because you've run out of meaningful ways to progress for the week. Dat Skinner box, yo.
 
I think I'm done with Destiny 2 for now, since it sounds like there are parts in the Raid that are straight up frustrating for the sake of it according to some Raiding vets here on GAF. I'll get back to it once the PC version drops. Hopefully they've fixed these problems by then.

I'll definitely use this guide to catch up, especially since I will miss the first two weeks of the PC version due to being in Japan on a vacation. Thanks for this!
 
The moment I hit 265 it became 10x harder to level up. I understand why, but Bungie should have at least have some strikes in this game that still has a small chance of having legendaries drop above 265.

Just having 1 Weekly Nightfall Strike per week is not enough. I don't understand as to how the entire strike system has not been overhauled. We should at least have standard strikes with a recommended power level of 230-240.

The only thing that is happening now is that people do the milestones in 1-2 days and then just play another game until the next reset has arrived. It's a cheap way of having the game feel longer then it actually is.

The guide is great once you finish the story but it still takes dozens upon dozens of hours if you eventually want to reach 280-290.
I don't really like the endgame grind either. At 265 it basically turns into farming for Exotics, as those are the only drop that are going to have a higher power level than your current power level. That seems incredibly flawed.

I've dropped the console version for now while I wait on the PC version to release, but I hit 287 on console, and I didn't find it all that enjoyable to get to that point. I'm playing Path of Exile right now, and they've managed to make the endgame grind enjoyable, much like most games with an endgame grind. I feel like I'm improving, and not solely based on having unique/exotic item drops. The item level of drops scales with the difficulty I decide to tackle, so I as the player decide how far I want to go. This has lasted me 200+ hours so far.

Destiny 2 on the other hand lets you easily get to 265, then basically tells you to stop progressing unless you want to farm a shit ton or wait a week for milestones to reset. That's a bunch of bullshit, and I don't see any reason why this should exist. This makes sense in a subscription based game where you don't necessarily want players to be playing as often as possible, but instead want to drag them along months at a time in between content releases. This doesn't make sense in Destiny. This actively discourages me from playing for more than two weeks at a time. I don't want to play the game right now, because I know the only way I can progress is by farming boring ass public events which are broken as fuck because Bungie did a terrible job at connecting you with other players without spamming fast travel until you land in an instance with other players.

Exotics don't actually even feel worthwhile to use in Destiny 2 either. The best thing they have going for them is improving the power level of my legendaries when I infuse them.

I think I'm done with Destiny 2 for now, since it sounds like there are parts in the Raid that are straight up frustrating for the sake of it according to some Raiding vets here on GAF. I'll get back to it once the PC version drops. Hopefully they've fixed these problems by then.

I'll definitely use this guide to catch up, especially since I will miss the first two weeks of the PC version due to being in Japan on a vacation. Thanks for this!
Yup. There's one section of the raid that's really bad, and is probably a big reason so many people won't put in the effort to finish it. On top of that, the loot sucks, so it's not even worthwhile.
 
Yeah it is SUPPOSED to calculate your max light in the background, but in my experience it doesnt do it until you have REACHED that max light on that character. I transferred my weapons to my 2nd char and loot drops didnt go up. I then equipped them one time amd loot drops immediately went up. Just my experience.
 
Yup. There's one section of the raid that's really bad, and is probably a big reason so many people won't put in the effort to finish it. On top of that, the loot sucks, so it's not even worthwhile.
:( Hopefully they fix those things first thing before touching anything else. I think Vault of Glass was the main reason why Destiny managed to get such a strong, loyal following. The endgame not being worthwhile could really hurt the playerbase in the long run.
 

Laughing Banana

Weeping Pickle
I just kinda dislike that a great deal of activities don't seem to matter anymore once you reach a certain threshold... 265? Like lost sectors, adventures, etc etc....
 

Toki767

Member
Yeah it is SUPPOSED to calculate your max light in the background, but in my experience it doesnt do it until you have REACHED that max light on that character. I transferred my weapons to my 2nd char and loot drops didnt go up. I then equipped them one time amd loot drops immediately went up. Just my experience.

I basically put all my max power level exotic weapons that I don't use in the vault so all my characters get that boost without needing to constantly transfer.

Right now my Warlock is 283 and getting 280 drops from blue engrams.
 

aeroslash

Member
Sorry guys... but where is this weapons seller who sells a random mod (blue) for 2500?

I have plenty of cash and i would like to do things right for once. I have already missused all the rewards...lol.

Thx for the help!
 

Zampano

Member
I wish I hadn't read this because now I realise how much time I've wasted cashing in rewards and infusing early.
 
Sorry guys... but where is this weapons seller who sells a random mod (blue) for 2500?

I have plenty of cash and i would like to do things right for once. I have already missused all the rewards...lol.

Thx for the help!

Facing cryptarch at the tower (traveller) look to your left.

He is the one that takes weapon parts from dismantling stuff for faction rewards.

I wish I hadn't read this because now I realise how much time I've wasted cashing in rewards and infusing early.

Dont lose sleep over it. Weekly milestones will advance you no matter how you play. Just slower.
 
Sorry guys... but where is this weapons seller who sells a random mod (blue) for 2500?

I have plenty of cash and i would like to do things right for once. I have already missused all the rewards...lol.

Thx for the help!

You'll find him at the Tower on your right just as you spawn there.
 
Haven't had an opportunity to read through it all yet so apologies if it's covered but one caveat that's often missing is that people should complete all that they can complete before the weekly reset – for everything that resets – if they don't feel they're going to hit the 'wait for' light before then.

Also worth emphasising that this really is only essential for min-maxing. Playing how you want will always have a lead (thanks to tokens) to get better loot and I've done what I've wanted thus far (though admittedly I'm very up to speed on Destiny systems) and am sat at 275+ on two characters.

Just don't want people to feel like they have to do it this way otherwise they'll be stuck at a snails pace. Otherwise, great work on the guide friend. Great to see and going to be useful for people who want to know the recommended ways to get the best gains.
 

Laughing Banana

Weeping Pickle
Hmmm... Just checking, basically doing strikes, adventures, lost sectors, patrols, and maybe Public Events? are basically useless if I want to raise my powers beyond my current level, which is 271... since the rewards don't go higher beyond a threshold that I think I already surpassed?...correct?
 
I've heard Cayde's treasure maps can also give relatively high level drops, above the usual soft caps. I can't check myself since I'd already done this week's maps before I hit 265.
They're a good way to burn off some excess glimmer anyway.

I'm a little annoyed that worthwhile activities drop off a cliff after 265.
Until 265, you get useful stuff form basically everything. Adventures, lost sectors, public events, high-level targets, strikes - it's all good. After 265, it's just the powerful rewards stuff. Nightfall, raid and a few events for the flashpoint.

And I just know that my first legendary kinetic mod will be bound to that shitty legendary sidearm (extra damage on first shot - wooooo!). I seem to constantly have that dropping as my best PL kinetic (which gets infused ASAP).

Anyway, good guide but people should realise that you don't need to stick to it 100%. It's not hard to get to around PL 265 and you won't cost you too much time if you hand in some vendor tokens early or whatever. Just avoid handing in "powerful gear" rewards and doing exotic quests until you are above 265.

Also, the weekly reset is tomorrow morning (tonight USA) so make sure you complete the nightfall and flashpoint (and Cayde's maps) if you haven't already.
Getting these done before the reset should be the #1 priority for everybody. They guarantee a powerful reward.
 
I'm a little annoyed that worthwhile activities drop off a cliff after 265.
Until 265, you get useful stuff form basically everything. Adventures, lost sectors, public events, high-level targets, strikes - it's all good. After 265, it's just the powerful rewards stuff. Nightfall, raid and a few events for the flashpoint.

Hmmm... Just checking, basically doing strikes, adventures, lost sectors, patrols, and maybe Public Events? are basically useless if I want to raise my powers beyond my current level, which is 271... since the rewards don't go higher beyond a threshold that I think I already surpassed?...correct?

Technically yes for Adventures, Lost Sectors and Strikes as it's true for the rewards you directly get from them, but don't forget that you get tokens from them to hand in for loot that can be better, and anything that isn't your light can be crushed down for Gunsmith parts, which you can hand in to try and get a better item that way.

Public Events (and Strikes) can drop exotics that will decrypt at higher light also, but PE's are much quicker to get done so they're preferable in that regard.
 

kraspkibble

Permabanned.
honestly, you don't need to follow a detailed plan to level up your character. if you want to then yeah go for it but it's not essential.

i just played the game how i wanted. yeah, sure, there are things i'll be doing differently when i pick up the PC version next month but i managed to get to lvl 282 without much bother. i can handle enemies in the raid no problem. the thing with the raid isn't so much how powerful you are but being able to working as a team.

i finished the campaign at lvl 20 (214). while you're doing the campaign you can buy gear from vendors to lvl up quicker but you don't need to and this is pretty much the only time those pieces of gear are of any use and you're showered in glimmer so you might as well do it. when you finish the campaign you get an exotic engram. i decrypted that right away.

at lvl 20 you can start redeeming tokens. if you want to be efficient then keep them until lvl 260 but personally i just started redeeming them lol :) for me between finishing the campaign at 214 and until 260 i just played public events/adventures and did challenges/lost sectors/loot chests. there is a lot of stuff to do so it doesn't feel like a grind.

after 260 you should redeem your tokens if you've kept them. start doing exotic quests and milestones like crucible/trials, nightfall, flashpoints, raid. also might be worth doing Cayde's treasure maps. at a point you'll start to really struggle. for me it was 275-279. this is when i started modding weapons.

tl;dr: just play the game and have fun. that's what i did.
 

Brandon F

Well congratulations! You got yourself caught!
Welp just hit 20 and spent all my Faction tokens before reading this. Guess I'll throw the game into the garbage now.

This for me. I spent the campaign and beyond submitting all milestone rewards and faction tokens brazenly.

I just assumed Bungie was smarter than adopting a "wait! Ignore the flashing map icons right now you fool, it's all snake-oil before lvl XXX" attitude for appropriating loot-driven gear rewards. I was wrong.
 

aeroslash

Member
Facing cryptarch at the tower (traveller) look to your left.

He is the one that takes weapon parts from dismantling stuff for faction rewards.



Dont lose sleep over it. Weekly milestones will advance you no matter how you play. Just slower.

You'll find him at the Tower on your right just as you spawn there.

Thx! Then i should get to the tower first! Haha.
Just unlocked the Jupiter moon!
 
I've really been digging Destiny 2, but this is sort of my complaint about the max level gameplay loop as well. I realize all MMOs have gating, but it just feels weirdly designed in Destiny 2. I think the systems and mechanics involved in increasing character power (public events for flashpoints, nightfall strike for group content, etc.) are all a lot of fun, but I wish I had more reasons to do any of it past one time each week.

Feels weird to simultaneously really want to play a game because mechanically it's fun and engaging while also really not wanting to play it because you've run out of meaningful ways to progress for the week. Dat Skinner box, yo.

I don't really like the endgame grind either. At 265 it basically turns into farming for Exotics, as those are the only drop that are going to have a higher power level than your current power level. That seems incredibly flawed.

I've dropped the console version for now while I wait on the PC version to release, but I hit 287 on console, and I didn't find it all that enjoyable to get to that point. I'm playing Path of Exile right now, and they've managed to make the endgame grind enjoyable, much like most games with an endgame grind. I feel like I'm improving, and not solely based on having unique/exotic item drops. The item level of drops scales with the difficulty I decide to tackle, so I as the player decide how far I want to go. This has lasted me 200+ hours so far.

Destiny 2 on the other hand lets you easily get to 265, then basically tells you to stop progressing unless you want to farm a shit ton or wait a week for milestones to reset. That's a bunch of bullshit, and I don't see any reason why this should exist. This makes sense in a subscription based game where you don't necessarily want players to be playing as often as possible, but instead want to drag them along months at a time in between content releases. This doesn't make sense in Destiny. This actively discourages me from playing for more than two weeks at a time. I don't want to play the game right now, because I know the only way I can progress is by farming boring ass public events which are broken as fuck because Bungie did a terrible job at connecting you with other players without spamming fast travel until you land in an instance with other players.

Exotics don't actually even feel worthwhile to use in Destiny 2 either. The best thing they have going for them is improving the power level of my legendaries when I infuse them.


Glad I am not the only one.

I find it weird that Bungie just puts all their focus on the endgame raid once again while they clearly should have added more ways to increase your light level after a certain treshold.

Those milestones are not cutting it. Public events rarely drop anything and lost sectors are just trivial mini dungeons that require no skill after a certain level. Why Bungie limits their playerbase to PvP and Raid once again is beyond me.

You can't give your PvE players only 2-3 Milestones and 1x Nightfall Strike per week. That is less content than the three expansions from Destiny 1 combined.
 
Glad I am not the only one.

I find it weird that Bungie just puts all their focus on the endgame raid once again while they clearly should have added more ways to increase your light level after a certain treshold.

Those milestones are not cutting it. Public events rarely drop anything and lost sectors are just trivial mini dungeons that require no skill after a certain level. Why Bungie limits their playerbase to PvP and Raid once again is beyond me.

You can't give your PvE players only 2-3 Milestones and 1x Nightfall Strike per week. That is less content than the three expansions from Destiny 1 combined.

If there were any other ways to gain beyond 265 it would defeat the purpose. The "loot grind" is already incredibly easy to reach 295-300 just by playing the game and turning in milestones weekly. The average player will not be aiming for 280+ in one week. If anything it is too easy at the moment. Destiny 1 was too grindy forcing loot cave nonsense. Somewhere in the middle woulda been good IMO. It isnt supposed to have more content at launch than Destiny 1 after three expansions (which made all previous content before them irrelevant anyway and thus dont count except for the final stuff). Thakfully they updated the older raids at the end, but after mlst folks had quit.
 
If there were any other ways to gain beyond 265 it would defeat the purpose. The "loot grind" is already incredibly easy to reach 295-300 just by playing the game and turning in milestones weekly. The average player will not be aiming for 280+ in one week. If anything it is too easy at the moment. Destiny 1 was too grindy forcing loot cave nonsense. Somewhere in the middle woulda been good IMO.

Plus Faction Rallies are incoming in Week 4 which,
since I assume they're going to be at the tower judging by the spaces for DO, FWC and NM
, will likely be a progression path for higher light.
 
The ๖ۜBronx;249200858 said:
Plus Faction Rallies are incoming in Week 4 which,
since I assume they're going to be at the tower judging by the spaces for DO, FWC and NM
, will likely be a progression path for higher light.

Yeah, I have a feeling power level increase will become even easier soon.
 

Kalnoky

Member
If there were any other ways to gain beyond 265 it would defeat the purpose. The "loot grind" is already incredibly easy to reach 295-300 just by playing the game and turning in milestones weekly. The average player will not be aiming for 280+ in one week. If anything it is too easy at the moment.

Yeah, I guess my feeling is just that the "progression treadmill" seems so... short, currently. I think I just might've had the wrong impression about Destiny coming into it. I never really played much Destiny 1 (grabbed it when TTK came out, played it to max level with some friends and basically never touched it again), but a lot of people I've talked to about it would frequently say things like "oh, I spent hundreds of hours playing vanilla Destiny", so I think I came into Destiny 2 assuming it was some kind of traditional MMO, WoW-style loot grind.

In WoW, I feel like each new expansion offers tons and tons of new content, lots of different possible things to be working on and towards at anytime, yet progression is much slower, or "gated". Each individual item upgrade, or reputation leveled, or cool new profession thing felt important because there was a not-always-insignificant amount of time attached to acquiring it. Even if you hit the wall down some path of progression (raid/dungeon lockouts, no more quests/dailies, etc), you likely still had another path you could head down. There's always more to do, and some reason to do it.

Keeping with the Blizzard comparisons, Diablo 3 takes the opposite approach. It offers a relatively small amount of unique content after you complete the story, and instead attempts to satiate you by bombarding you with constant, small bumps of progression. Hit max level? Here's Paragon leveling. Have good gear? Here, have more gear. Finished Greater Rift 75? Try Greater Rift 76. The only real gating is basically your own interest and attention span. There's always more to do, and some reason to do it.

To me, the design of Destiny 2's current endgame tries to capture aspects of both of these styles, much to its own detriment. You hit max level, and then you immediately begin to upgrade your gear. You're out doing patrols, doing public events, adventuring around, maybe doing some strikes. The game is rewarding you with constant loot, a constant feeling of progression. Awesome. This part of the game feels great. Then you hit 265. You finally turn in all those milestones for powerful engrams you wanted to min/max on so badly, turn in these exotic questlines, do your flashpoint/nightfall strike, and end up in the mid-270s to low 280s. At this point, everything stops. Yes, those patrols and public events and strikes are still there to do, but you're at the wall. Any sort of loot progression you make from here will be hugely RNG dependent. You're no longer building towards something this week, you're lucking towards something. You should probably just wait to play more until Tuesday. There's always more to do, and no longer any reason to do it.

I've really loved what I've played of Destiny 2 so far, and I don't want to seem like I'm shitting all over it or anything. It's just frustrating to have a game you like playing so much seem to show you that your time would be better spent not playing it so much. It's a weird "problem" to have, haha.
 
I've really loved what I've played of Destiny 2 so far, and I don't want to seem like I'm shitting all over it or anything. It's just frustrating to have a game you like playing so much seem to show you that your time would be better spent not playing it so much. It's a weird "problem" to have, haha.

Yeah I totally get that. I'm not one who gets offended criticism of my game du jour. Unless it's Ori. I'll cut a fool for talking bad about Ori!

The thing to keep in mind with Destiny is that it is not an MMO. It is a co-op shooter with light RPG elements. Bungie/Activ tried to coin this "shared world shooter" moniker, but other than running into folks at public events, the term carries little meaning/weight. Destiny is definitely not an MMO.

Think of Halo/CoD/BF. You do the campaign, then you do pvp. There is no 'reason' to be doing any of it. There is no reason to do anything in Destiny after max light level. The light level is akin to a 2nd campaign after the campaign is done. Once it's done, do the raid or strikes (aka horde mode, zombies, or Halo's firefight) or do pvp. No reason, just fun. It just isnt an MMO as much as folks like to compare it to one. And to be honest I am having far more fun helping folks through the prestige nightfall than doing the raid. Ran it 9 times this week, lol.
 

Falchion

Member
Just hit level 20 tonight so I'll be grinding up to the raid required levels and will use this guide. Hopefully it'll go by quick so I can raid with my clan.
 

maks

Member
A few things off the top of my head....

I didnt see Heroic Public Events or Cayde6 Scout Reports mentioned. Imo this is super critical for efficient leveling as soon as you hit pl200 and grind to pl265. Tokens are so abundant with this combo that you don't need to save them, use them now to make pl200 to pl265 go quick.

Also wouldn't suggest using up those +5 mods at pl250. Save them for items you really like or to increase lagging slots once you hit the real power level walls beyond 265.

Don't need to always equip highest power level items for drops (devs mentioned this) or infuse as often and early as suggested. I would save infusion to get over walls you start to hit beyond pl265 since Legendary shards are not that abundant and can be useful for buying stuff from xur.

When you are above pl265 and redeem a powerful engram or complete a weekly event i would go back to Heroic PE + scout report farming. The legendaries/exotics you get from weekly related events will give your other slots room to grow.

I recommend checking out reddit, someone made a spreadsheet that explains power leveling and shows you which slots are lagging you when you start to hit these walls.

Can you also add a cliffnotes version? Its kinda hard to pull out the specifics of what you suggest we do. Its alot to read.
 

Listonosh

Member
This is definitely a fantastic guide. Thanks for putting it together OP.

The one thing that sort of bums me out is how "short" the mmo experience is. I wonder if it's to keep players attention without gating various missions and planets by level or gear, but imo its sort of a bummer that in two weeks time, people are already maxing their level potential.

It's sort of like a Micro-MMO, where you do similar things, but instead of taking months to achieve it, you do it all in a week. I love Destiny 2 dont get me wrong, I was just hoping it was even more like an MMO this time around, with some longevity to leveling.
 

RiccochetJ

Gold Member
I wish I hadn't read this because now I realise how much time I've wasted cashing in rewards and infusing early.

Don't worry about it. I did the same as you. The weekly reset will let you progress. Play some pvp or level up a new character in the mean time.

There's a lot to do in the game.

I'm an old fart and with the people I play with, we all have kids and jobs. We're not going to be raid ready for weeks.

Then we have to get appropriate permission from our significant others to allow us to spend 8 - 10 hours dedicated to running a raid. It's going to be difficult. Some of us have infants and 2 year old spawns of satan who's only volume knows 11.
 
Once you've hit 265 you'll easily be raid ready (275) just by doing a set of weekly milestones or by doing all the exotic quests and getting random exotic drops that can be used as infusion fodder.

People are overthinking this a bit I think, it's rather easy to level. If bungie had made it possible to grind lost sectors and public events to 300 in a week, people would probably be complaining that the game was too easy to complete. I'm already 285 and I only took 2 days off work for launch, and have been focused more on having fun - exotic engrams and the like have still been dropping for me and increasing my PL naturally.

Instead of focusing on power level there are plenty of other things to do in the game such as working toward getting one of the unique location specific armor sets by getting tokens for that location, or practicing in the crucible, or joining up with a clan mate and helping newbies through nightfalls. I did the NF 3 times this week on the same character, two times not for loot and just for fun and to help friends out. Plenty of trials + crucible this weekend which also happened to increase my PL but I was playing for fun as well.
 
A few things off the top of my head....

I didnt see Heroic Public Events or Cayde6 Scout Reports mentioned. Imo this is super critical for efficient leveling as soon as you hit pl200 and grind to pl265. Tokens are so abundant with this combo that you don't need to save them, use them now to make pl200 to pl265 go quick.

Also wouldn't suggest using up those +5 mods at pl250. Save them for items you really like or to increase lagging slots once you hit the real power level walls beyond 265.

Don't need to always equip highest power level items for drops (devs mentioned this) or infuse as often and early as suggested. I would save infusion to get over walls you start to hit beyond pl265 since Legendary shards are not that abundant and can be useful for buying stuff from xur.

When you are above pl265 and redeem a powerful engram or complete a weekly event i would go back to Heroic PE + scout report farming. The legendaries/exotics you get from weekly related events will give your other slots room to grow.

I recommend checking out reddit, someone made a spreadsheet that explains power leveling and shows you which slots are lagging you when you start to hit these walls.

Can you also add a cliffnotes version? Its kinda hard to pull out the specifics of what you suggest we do. Its alot to read.

Making public events heroic is definitely preferred, but often blueberries will prevent that from happening. Regarding using your faction rewards in the low 200s: nope. You dont stockpile nearly as many faction rewards as you are suggesting if you play efficiently. If someone wants to do that then by all means do it, but it just isnt efficient. The light barrier stalls people around 260-270 from what I see in threads. My order of doing things makes that barrier nonexistent and takes a first toon to upper 270s or low 280s with only one set of milestones. I am not dictating the only way to play, just the most efficient one.

If someome follows this guide to the letter, their first character should hit 280 in 30-35 hours or so, starting from scratch fresh to the game. Scouting reports are for chests if I am not mistaken, which are great for getting additional tokens while you are doing public events, but it certainly isnt the most efficient path to 265. Blue gear drops and purple engram drops get you to 250 EASY without even trying. Since faction rewards go up to 265, it is best to save them. I went from 250 to 265 in a matter of 30 minutes just by going around getting faction packages. My first toon hit 284 in 30 hours and I was coming up with all of this more or less on the fly as I went along. Anyone reading/folllwing could go faster, depending on how slow they take the campaign.

You say infusing isnt necessary as often as I suggested. You will note that I only said to infuse IF the current piece has a +5 mod. If you understand the mod system, then you understand infusing is necessary in most instances once you have a +5. Consider this: If I have a 270 helm with a +5 on it and I get a 270 helm with no +5, as far as Destiny is concerned my highest helm slot is 270 until I infuse it into my current one to make it 275. This is why you always, always infuse into an item that has a +5 if possible.

Folks don't have to listen to me, but in my opinion this is the best method unless someone proves me wrong with a sub 25 hour 1st character 280+ (which apparently one poster above did, so I hope my layout follows how he did it lol). You are right about farming public events again post 265 if your light level increases, as the soft cap on blues goes up, allowing you to catch up other pieces that are lower. I thought this was implied by always infusing into a piece of gear that has a +5 on it to keep them as high as possible, but I will consider an addendum once I have time to read back over the OP with a critical eye.

I will, however, try to sum it up in a tl;dr for anyone that doesn't care to read the thorough version.
 

J3ffro

Member
As a casual D1 player who's been avoiding D2 streams, most of this flies over my head, but sometime after 10/24 I'll be back to revisit the advice. Seems like a great post OP.
 
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