Welcome to Destiny 2 Returning Player Guide! Where I explain everything that changed lately in Destiny 2, and also where you should start. Additionally, I provide useful links to guides and websites to help you faster and strong come back to Destiny 2.
Sunsetted weapons and old armor
If you have played from the launch of D2 and stopped there a lot of your weapons and armor have been Sunsetted meaning that they can no longer increase in power. The way to tell if they have been sunsetted is to see if they have a grey border. This indicator shows us that this weapon can no longer be increased in power and it will not be useful in high end content like Trials Raids and Grandmaster Nightfalls. This sunset also applies to Armor 1.0 the game used to have a system where armor had static rolls and stats
This has been completely taken out of the game and replaced with Armor 2.0 Which is an amazing system that allows for Build crafting and allows for more specific armor stats to make you powerful.
By now you are wondering if I should get rid of all my old stuff. The answer is Yes. Do not let this bring you down because there are tons of weapons and armor to get and go for. The Grind is not that long as you have seen me in 2-3 short weeks be able to do high end content without being carried as much.
Sunsetted and Armor 1.0
Non Sunsetted and Armor 2.0
How to get better armor stats
Before you launch any activity make sure to equip your Ghost with 2 of the following mods BLINDING LIGHT which gives Increase XP gains by 12%. And goes in the first slot. The next mod is going to be based on what class you play to get a targeted stat on your armor the mods are RESILIENCE ARMORER for titan RECOVERY ARMORER for warlock and MOBILITY ARMORER for hunters. This mod allows for a minimum of 10 and an increased chance to get a higher stat total to that specific stat. With this Your Ghost will allow you to get more Experience and any random armor that you find will have higher stats.
Your Ghost should look like this
Powerful Vs Pinnacles
You want to hit the max power cap in the game and have no idea if you should go and get Pinnacle drops first and then do powerful. To start of Destiny has 3 different Walls or gear caps that you need to know about. The first one is Soft cap, the second cap is Hard cap. Finally we have Pinnacle cap. To start, soft cap can be obtained with any blue and purple gear that drops from any activity. Hard Cap is best obtained with powerful drops and Pinnacle Cap can only be reached with Pinnacle drops. Destiny 2 has tons of activities to help you reach the max power level. At first and with any game that you have played it is a huge grind but, once you hit pinnacle cap in a season it becomes easier for every season going forward.
Destiny Item manager and bungie app
Get this amazing application for destiny you can either download it from the microsoft store for free or go to the official website. This website is fully supported by bungie and will not get you banned. With this tool you can transfer time between characters, move items to and from your vault, and collect some drops from your postmaster. This tool is perfect for continuing your grind without the need to go back to the tower and clearing your inventory. The Bungie app which is for your mobile device allows you to pick up bounties from the tower so long as you are in Orbit. Bounties help you gain experience to increase your season rank and artifact power. Also doing bounties from Zavala Shaxx Banshee and Drifter Can give you powerful drops.
What activities should I do to get stronger
- Vanguard Ops – Has matchmaking and a pinnacle drop if you use the weekly elemental modifier
- Dares Of Eternity – Has matchmaking on normal, High stat armor drops, and Strong Weapons
- Nightfall strike on Heroic – Has matchmaking powerful and pinnacle drop if you reach the 100k score.
- Crucible – Even if you are bad or hate pvp, play 3 games a week to get pinnacle drop you do not need to win
- Gambit – play 3 games a week to get pinnacle drop you do not need to win
- The Weekly Rotating Dungeon has a pinnacle drop at the end.
- Legend Lost Sector will have a chance to give you specific armor Exotics
- Xur has a random engram every week to help fill your exotic collection (where is Xur click)
- Weekly Raid Offers Pinnacle drops at the last encounter
Powerful Gear Sources
- Strike, Gambit, Crucible playlist activity completions *
- Rewards from each of the six Vanguard (Strike), Crucible and Gambit ranks **
- Completing eight Bounties for a vendor
- Season pass drops
- Trials of Osiris (third win)
- Prime Engrams (drops at random; essentially a permanent Three of Coins buff in-all-but-name)
- Exotic Engrams
- There are also a handful of ‘one-time’ sources of Powerful Gear, such as Exotic quest rewards
* A welcome change from Year 4 onwards is all playlist activities have a chance to drop Powerful Gear after each completion, even if you have completed their respective weekly challenge.
** From Season 13 onwards, you have to return to these activity vendors in the Tower to get a Powerful engram after you rank up. You can bank these if you so choose, so visit when ready.
Pinnacle Gear sources
- Weekly playlist challenges for Crucible, Strike and Gambit
- Earning Clan XP for Tower vendor
- Latest Raid (King’s Fall) encounter completions
- Latest Dungeon (Duality until December 9th) completion
- Completing final encounter of legacy Raids or Dungeons highlighted in the latest weekly rotation *
- Preservation completion (post-campaign The Witch Queen mission)
- Vox Obscura Champion / boss defeats (mission unlocks during Dead Messenger quest)
- Trials of Osiris (seven wins, flawless)
- Nightfall: The Ordeal reward for scoring 100,000 points or more
- Dares of Eternity (score 250,000 or more)
- Iron Banner Bounties
* Unlike the most recent Raid or Dungeon, Pinnacles will drop on completion only – not for each individual encounter.
Getting weapon/armor mods
When armor 2.0 got released Destiny changed for the better you can mod your armor to suit your playstyle and be able to come up with some crazy builds, Please check the website. To get these mods we have to go to Ada-1 in the tower. She sells mods for a small price and those mods rotate everyday so make sure to collect them. Banshee sells Weapon mods and his mods rotate every day just like Ada-1. The Raid Last Wish has a Weapon mod known as taken spec that allows your legendary weapons to do more damage to taken combatants. Grand Master Nightfalls Offer adept Mods that can be put on Adept weapons to offer A crazy boost to Either a specific Stat or Increased Damage to Both Bosses And Major enemies. Also Check out the website to see the mods that they are currently selling.
Free to play activities
Destiny Offers free to play activities if you still are unsure if you want to buy the Dlcs for the game. I still recommend to buy the dlc to Enjoy the game to the fullest.
- Vanguard Ops F2P
- Dares Of Eternity F2P
- Prophecy Dungeon F2P
- Vault of Glass And Kings Fall Raid F2P
- Crucible F2P
- Gambit F2P
Weapon Crafting and Weapon Leveling
With the release of Witch queen Dlc you can finally craft weapons to have and make your own God Roll. To do this you must first do the first mission From the witch queen campaign until you reach the Enclave where you can make your own weapon. So far there are lots of craftable weapons and a good majority of them are used in the high end content. To Craft a weapon, You need to unlock it’s pattern. Check the patterns and catalyst section in collection to see progress. Weapon Patterns are primarily unlocked by Attuning red-border weapons. A few Patterns can also be unlocked through the completion of specific quests.Dismantled weapons with Deepsight will provide Pattern progress if a Pattern is available. When a Deepsight weapon with a Pattern is dismantled or extracted you will be notified that a Pattern progress has been made.
In order to get your God Roll crafted weapon you need to level it up. This makes it really fun because you get to test out the weapon as you level it to get an idea of what perks you wanna put on it. You can choose the master work you want for the weapon at level 7 and at level 20 every stat gets a nice little boost. Crafted weapons also offer enhanced versions of perks that either increase a single stat or extend the duration of the buff. To level your weapon you can get kills with it equipped and by completing any activity provides a huge boost to your weapons level.
How to get Past Exotic weapons
There is a Vendor in the tower known as The Monument to Lost Lights that is located between the two vault kiosks in the Tower. There you can purchase Exotic Weapons that are now unobtainable do to the activity/quest has been removed. The cost to purchase exotics from the Monument to Lost Lights require an Exotic Cipher, which can be acquired through Xur (Xur Guide) with a weekly quest that he offers called Xenology which requires you to complete Vanguard playlist activities, or win matches in Crucible or Gambit. Extra progress is awarded for more challenging activities and for succeeding with clanmates. All exotic weapons cost Ascendant Shards and Glimmer and most also require World Materials. The Raid Exotics from the past require Spoils of Conquest instead of World Materials.
When can I raid?
Before you jump back to raiding you need to prepare yourself both in game and mentally. Raids in destiny 2 have become a key point in becoming powerful. I recommend you do some activities on harder difficulty to get reacquainted to the content this game has to offer. Legend Nightfalls, Legend Dares of Eternity will teach you basic steps in Raids like when to use Supers, learning mechanics, and modifiers that can either buff or debuff you. I also recommend to have at least 80-100 resilience to take less damage from enemies. As always be respectful and listen to the Raid leader when you go in always ask questions that last thing you want to do is Wipe the whole team do to some silly mistake that could of been avoided. The meta for Boss Damage is Linear fusion Rifle the TAIPAN-4FR is great and craftable. We have a perk guide on the website So you can make this weapon your best damage weapon for now.
FOLLOW ME