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Lttp on Destiny, is there a way to avoid the grind?

mattiewheels

And then the LORD David Bowie saith to his Son, Jonny Depp: 'Go, and spread my image amongst the cosmos. For every living thing is in anguish and only the LIGHT shall give them reprieve.'
I'm wondering since I bought the collection that includes the two expansions, can I beeline my way through to that stuff, or are you still forced to grind the base game's content like I kept hearing about to reach any of it? That's one big thing that kept me from playing the whole thing, that the base content was boring and forced repetition of it was beyond boring. But the collection was $29, can't argue with that as long as they don't gate all the good stuff behind a lot of tedium...
 

SlimySnake

Flashless at the Golden Globes
The grind is for the end game stuff. Just play the story missions (you can skip all the year 1 and year 2 stuff) and do the daily bounties until you hit level 40 and then the real grind starts.

P.S if you dont like the grind, dont play destiny.
 
Å

Åesop

Unconfirmed Member
From what I remember the whole game is about grinding
 

Gator86

Member
I'm pretty skeptical of Destiny basically all the time, but people picking up the collection now shouldn't have much grind until Rise of Iron content. They did a really good job smoothing over the early expansions when TTK launched. That said, they promptly fucked it all up again once you hit 350 light at the end of Rise. It's nothing but grind from there and it's fucking abominable.
 

vctor182

Member
I'm wondering since I bought the collection that includes the two expansions, can I beeline my way through to that stuff, or are you still forced to grind the base game's content like I kept hearing about to reach any of it? That's one big thing that kept me from playing the whole thing, that the base content was boring and forced repetition of it was beyond boring. But the collection was $29, can't argue with that as long as they don't gate all the good stuff behind a lot of tedium...

You get an item to make 1 character max level instantly and unlocks every planet. You'll need to hunt for better gear though
 
The grind is the game.

Tbh, most of the campaign missions are kind of tedious. The real fun is the end game stuff like high level strikes, raids, PVP and grinding for the best weapons, armor, max light, ect.

But I don't think you need to complete all of the old content. I think you can just play the first couple of vanilla story missions, use the level 40 booster and then dive into some of the newer content.
 
mattiewheels, your mistake was not simply going to the Destiny |OT| and asking us. Because here, you've already got lots of unhelpful shitposts and so far, zero actual information that you're looking for.

First of all, how do you define "grind?" Does it refer to a monotonous path to max level? Because as it exists now, there is no "grind" in Destiny. If you play every story mission in order I guarantee you'll hit level 40 before the final mission in the latest expansion. There is a ton of content in the current $60 package.

Destiny is all about the gunplay. Shooting guys, jumping around, using special abilities. That is the core of the game. You will shoot a ton of guys. If that sounds boring to you, then yes Destiny is an incredibly "grindy" game.

Anyway, leave these suckers behind and come hang out with the OGs in the OT http://neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1286480
 

NawidA

Banned
mattiewheels, your mistake was not simply going to the Destiny |OT| and asking us. Because here, you've already got lots of unhelpful shitposts and so far, zero actual information that you're looking for.

First of all, how do you define "grind?" Does it refer to a monotonous path to max level? Because as it exists now, there is no "grind" in Destiny. If you play every story mission in order I guarantee you'll hit level 40 before the final mission in the latest expansion. There is a ton of content in the current $60 package.

Destiny is all about the gunplay. Shooting guys, jumping around, using special abilities. That is the core of the game. You will shoot a ton of guys. If that sounds boring to you, then yes Destiny is an incredibly "grindy" game.

This guy is right. Destiny only becomes a grind in the endgame. If anything, it's kind of disappointing that you don't have to do prior endgame grinding (old raids and PoE) to get to the RoI endgame.
 

Marvel

could never
There's an item that shoots you to Lv.40.

Then you get the rad endgame stuff, "Grind" is a little subjective. There's work to do sure but imo most of it fun. You'll have lots of gear thrown at you pretty quick.
 

The Goat

Member
Anyway you slice it, Destiny will at some point involve some grinding. I love the game though, so the grind isn't really that much of a grind for me. YMMV
 

Blam

Member
How much of an advantage can I get buying a bunch of silver? Or is that just cosmetic stuff?

It's cosmetic stuff and XP Boosters for Vanguard, Crucible and PoE. You have to do the grind for your classes there is no way around it.

Silver is just cosmetics.
 

tebunker

Banned
Avoiding grinding in a loot game? What?
Its like folks have never played any loot based game.

99% of the fun is that chase for better crap. We get it. Not for everyone, but damn its fun when a new shiny falls in your lap and you can add some power.

The grind is really from light level 350-360, which you wont touch until ROI end game.

I've just decided its more fun to do a couple activities with my wife and brother every day or other day and just enjoy it. May take longer but then the game loses its appeal faster.
 
... did you not know what you where getting into when you got the game? I would still play through all the story missions, but yeah, if you want any of the cool endgame stuff you are going to need to grind, there is no way around it.
 
This guy is right. Destiny only becomes a grind in the endgame. If anything, it's kind of disappointing that you don't have to do prior endgame grinding (old raids and PoE) to get to the RoI endgame.
Yeah; I'm hoping OP can give us more information on what he means by grinding.

You do have to grind a bit once you reach endgame and only if you want endgame level gear, but there are so many valid options right now that give you max light level gear that you don't have to repeat any content that you don't enjoy.

There's an item that shoots you to Lv.40.

Then you get the rad endgame stuff, "Grind" is a little subjective. There's work to do sure but imo most of it fun. You'll have lots of gear thrown at you pretty quick.
I'd argue that using the level booster increases the grind, because while you'll be level 40 and ready to do the latest content, your subclasses are not leveled up at all and you'll have to run through the latest content a bunch of times to level it all up.

Best to just do it organically from the beginning and use the level booster for an alt character.

How much of an advantage can I get buying a bunch of silver? Or is that just cosmetic stuff?
Zero. It's all cosmetic.
 

Levito

Banned
The grind to get to Rise of Iron content is pretty horrible. Basically just grinding out the god awful PVP for legendary marks and buying gear as you go.
 
The grind to get to Rise of Iron content is pretty horrible. Basically just grinding out the god awful PVP for legendary marks and buying gear as you go.

You can get to Rise of Iron content without touching PvP. Also PvP is not god awful lol

What is it about Destiny threads that attracts so much misinformation?
 
What grind are you specifically worried about? Taken King (The expansion from last year) did away with most of the grinds as far as leveling is concerned.

Rise of Iron has expanded on most of that.

I'll try to elaborate as best I can with what I can imagine you would consider the grind to be:

Leveling:
Characters can reach level 40 with a traditional XP bar. At this point in time, there are enough story missions, strikes, quests and bounties, that you should be able to hit this without really having to replay anything more than once.

Light Level:
There is a second leveling system called Light that is basically the "value" of your weapons, armor, and gear. This is more of a way to show you how you progress in the game, but you'll likely finish the story missions of the game without being quite near the Light Level cap.

The last main story mission for the latest expansion suggests you be LL (Light Level) 340. This number should be quite easy to reach and surpass.

However, around 350-370, progress slows down a little bit. Instead of seeing gear jump up by 10-20 points a pop, you'll be finding gear with 1-4 points of improvement instead.

Now, if you have no desire to do any raids, then LL doesn't matter to you. As LL is only really a tool to do the 3 activities in the game. Raiding, Iron Banner, and Trials of Osiris.

Raiding, of course, is a 6 man PvE activity.
Iron Banner is a 6v6 PvP activity that usually last a week, but only shows up about once a month.
Trials of Osiris is a 3v3 PvP activity that pops up every weekend.

These are the only game modes that Light Level matters, so if those don't mean anything to you, then the grind for Light Level doesn't really exist.

Other than these two major things, there are a handful of quests that require a certain level of grinding, but those are usually for high endgame rewards. To one of the three original exotic swords requires a large amount of grinding. To get three of the four raid exotic weapons (potentially) requires a lot of grinding.

Really, though. Bungie has gone through some pretty far lengths to remove grinding from the game. It might still pop up on occasion, but it is no where near the main proponent of the game as it once was.
 
You can play everything up until Rise of Iron normally, at which point you need about 270 light level to even access Rise of Iron content, which will require a decent amount of grinding.

Then Rise of Iron itself is a big grind, because the actual main story missions take like an hour in total to do.
 

mattiewheels

And then the LORD David Bowie saith to his Son, Jonny Depp: 'Go, and spread my image amongst the cosmos. For every living thing is in anguish and only the LIGHT shall give them reprieve.'
Leveling:
Characters can reach level 40 with a traditional XP bar. At this point in time, there are enough story missions, strikes, quests and bounties, that you should be able to hit this without really having to replay anything more than once.
That's really all I had in mind when I worried about the grinding people mentioned when it first released. Sounds good.

It's funny that they have this super-convenient lv40 booster for new players like me, but you still have to grind those sub levels anyway. But not having to repeat missions is all I really feared.
 
That's really all I had in mind when I worried about the grinding people mentioned when it first released. Sounds good.

It's funny that they have this super-convenient lv40 booster for new players like me, but you still have to grind those sub levels anyway. But not having to repeat missions is all I really feared.

Destiny is nothing like it was when it first released. You'll be good. Enjoy all those missions!

And when you complete them all, hit us up in the OT with some requests and we can do endgame stuff together!
 

Gator86

Member
You can get to Rise of Iron content without touching PvP. Also PvP is not god awful lol

What is it about Destiny threads that attracts so much misinformation?

No, I agree with them that the pvp is pretty awful. It's infuriating to be forced into crucible for random questlines and I hope they do more to segregate them in Destiny 2.
 

mattiewheels

And then the LORD David Bowie saith to his Son, Jonny Depp: 'Go, and spread my image amongst the cosmos. For every living thing is in anguish and only the LIGHT shall give them reprieve.'
Destiny is nothing like it was when it first released. You'll be good. Enjoy all those missions!

And when you complete them all, hit us up in the OT with some requests and we can do endgame stuff together!
Thanks man, I'm betting my ADD will keep me from getting anywhere near the Taken King stuff, but let's hope I at least get to the end of the first expansion
 

Gator86

Member
Thanks man, I'm betting my ADD will keep me from getting anywhere near the Taken King stuff, but let's hope I at least get to the end of the first expansion

If you wind up just doing main campaign stuff, it'll go by pretty quick, especially given that the first two expansions were hilariously short. You're in for a fun time. Fresh into Destiny now is a pretty smooth ride.
 

AlexBasch

Member
Thanks for the thread OP, I just double dipped on the Xbox One version because why the hell not for cheap, and now I'm kinda dreading doing 100000 missions to play Crucible/PVP stuff, specially since I play alone.

Just one question, that thing that jumps you to Lv.20 or something like that doesn't unlock the rest of the skills?
 
No, I agree with them that the pvp is pretty awful. It's infuriating to be forced into crucible for random questlines and I hope they do more to segregate them in Destiny 2.
No one is forcing you into anything lol

Just abandon the PvP quests that you get. It has zero affect on the story, other quests or your character in any way.

and FWIW the Destiny community as a whole loves Crucible and plays it consistently. The consensus is that it's pretty darn fun.
 

GhaleonEB

Member
I'm wondering since I bought the collection that includes the two expansions, can I beeline my way through to that stuff, or are you still forced to grind the base game's content like I kept hearing about to reach any of it? That's one big thing that kept me from playing the whole thing, that the base content was boring and forced repetition of it was beyond boring. But the collection was $29, can't argue with that as long as they don't gate all the good stuff behind a lot of tedium...

The grind is primarily confined to the endgame right now. There's a very large amount of content to work through, after which you have a of of activities just below the hardcore endgame to play around with.

I bought Rise of Iron, and then started a new character, since my old Hunter was maxed out and after nearly a year away from the game I wanted to start fresh.

The campaign is huge now, and it's a steady climb from the ground up. So far I've played through the main campaign missions (excluding Rise of Iron, which I'll get to in a week or so) and most of the strikes, which add up to about 50 activities without repeating any. Toss in the patrols and other events, and I have yet to actually grind anything. I have 16 quests in my queue that I'm nibbling away at (only a couple of which are repetitive), strikes I have not run, new missions opening up, and all of Rise of Iron left.

Ctf4XMtUEAAjQNT.jpg


About 2/3 of the way through he light level climb and I have yet to repeat activities (a couple strikes from the playlist aside, which is fine).

I hear that once you hit the upper level, 350 light, the advancement tapers quite a bit. But you've got a huge amount to do well before then.

The game is very, very different than it was in the first couple of years. There are no walls to crash into until you are at the very tail end of progression, nothing to grind.
 
Oh, you must be new...

Remember when you have to do the same damn missions and raid in order to get random pieces of loot that never came to reach lvl 30 in vanilla? Asshards? RNGeesus, I don't know exactly why I endure all of that.

It's pretty grind free nowadays. You can set your own way to upgrade and just do what you want. This game came a long way.

And like someone pointed out, there's tons of content today. If you start at 0, you'll reach lvl 40 way before the final mission in the latest expansion.
 

Phazon_Chaos

Neo Member
I'm liking getting a PS4 this fall, and I've been heavily considering picking up Destiny. What I'm getting from this thread is that even if I'm just going through the main campaign quests, I should be good without grinding until I get to the RoI content.

Following up on that though, will I need to be grinding earlier on if I'm wanting to play the older raids, which are also a draw for me? Or would I probably be best to just leave them until I hit the point where I'm needing to grind for light?
 

KJRS_1993

Member
Thanks man, I'm betting my ADD will keep me from getting anywhere near the Taken King stuff, but let's hope I at least get to the end of the first expansion

You absolutely will not need to grind to get to the end of the first expansion. I can absolutely guarantee you won't even need to grind to complete the Taken King expansion.

The amount of people posting in this thread who who have blatantly not touched this game since the vanilla game (if ever) is actually pretty impressive.
 
While i havnt played since the taken king, i started with the taken king conplete package. There is no grind till you finish all the story stuff. Thats when i basically stopped playing but it was fun till then (and i played totally solo).

For solo the new dlc isnt appealing to me alone but if you have never played i would say it's worth it.
 

eifer

Member
Destiny always has a bit of a grind. Luckily, the game is fun to play and therefore it doesn't usually feel like a chore.
 

Gator86

Member
No one is forcing you into anything lol

Just abandon the PvP quests that you get. It has zero affect on the story, other quests or your character in any way.

and FWIW the Destiny community as a whole loves Crucible and plays it consistently. The consensus is that it's pretty darn fun.

A number of quests require you to complete crucible objectives, especially a handful required to get exotic weapons. The First Curse requires you to get kills with a gray (i.e. garbage) pistol.

Not trying to derail as the thread is about grind, not pvp, but I'm not sure the insular Destiny community is a reliable measure of the quality of the pvp. It's like saying "pie lovers love pie and eat it consistently."
 
I'm liking getting a PS4 this fall, and I've been heavily considering picking up Destiny. What I'm getting from this thread is that even if I'm just going through the main campaign quests, I should be good without grinding until I get to the RoI content.

Following up on that though, will I need to be grinding earlier on if I'm wanting to play the older raids, which are also a draw for me? Or would I probably be best to just leave them until I hit the point where I'm needing to grind for light?

Not to the RoI content, through it. You can complete most of Rise of Iron with no grinding necessary.

You don't need to grind for older raids at all. Older raids were left in their older state, so they've been out-leveled pretty regularly. To the point there are videos out there of people completing one of the raids solo with a rock band drum kit.

The LL req for the first raid, for example, is like LL160. Which you'll hit without trying.
 

GhaleonEB

Member
yeah... not playing it

Åesop;218542202 said:
From what I remember the whole game is about grinding

It's all grind baby.

Destiny and grind are damn near synonymous.


Isn't that the point of the game?

It's very easy to tell who has not played the game in a long time, or not at all. He's asking about the entire collection, not the game that shipped in 2014.
 
I'm liking getting a PS4 this fall, and I've been heavily considering picking up Destiny. What I'm getting from this thread is that even if I'm just going through the main campaign quests, I should be good without grinding until I get to the RoI content.

Following up on that though, will I need to be grinding earlier on if I'm wanting to play the older raids, which are also a draw for me? Or would I probably be best to just leave them until I hit the point where I'm needing to grind for light?

If you're just going through story missions, you will not have to repeat any content INCLUDING RoI stuff.

Old raids never advanced in light level. You can do the first one at level 30? I think? And the second one at 32, and the third one at level 40 with light level 290 or higher. The fourth raid recommends 365 which like almost no one is at yet. So basically you can do all the story missions and the first three raids without repeating any content. If you want to do the current raid you gotta get that LL up which does require repeating endgame content.
A number of quests require you to complete crucible objectives, especially a handful required to get exotic weapons. The First Curse requires you to get kills with a gray (i.e. garbage) pistol.

Not trying to derail as the thread is about grind, not pvp, but I'm not sure the insular Destiny community is a reliable measure of the quality of the pvp. It's like saying "pie lovers love pie and eat it consistently."
I think you're confused. We're talking about story missions, and exotic quests and PvP quests do not affect the story at any point in time.

And I'd say a more apt analogy would be "pie lovers love the crust and eat it often," which is true. Did I just blow your mind?
 
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