Progression

Once you have unlocked each of the destinations in Destiny and gained a few levels, the number of potential activities that you can participate in can become a bit overwhelming. If you’re wondering how and where to progress, heed these words of advice.

While you are leveling, you never need to bang your head against a mission that feels too tough or too high-level. You can always go back and play a lower-level mission. You can even select a tougher difficulty setting for a normally low-level mission to make it more appropriate for your level.

A good approach to your daily session is simple: tackle the daily missions, complete any daily bounties you have time for, and try to earn gold in at least one Public Event. If you have more time on your hands, go after Vanguard or Crucible Marks if you aren’t at your cap for the week. If you’re done with that, as well, try raising your reputation level with one of the Tower’s Factions.

Finally, going chest and Material hunting in Patrol mode while tackling Beacon missions and Public Events is a great way to earn some experience, rep, Glimmer, and Materials.

Timed Events

Destiny has a variety of events that change over time (in real time): some are daily, some are weekly. Some are special events only available for a specific amount of time, some are constant cycles.

Most vendors refresh their stock every several hours. You can revisit the Weaponsmith or the Cryptarch and find new gear frequently.

Bounties are refreshed daily, though any bounties you are carrying are not reset; only those on the bounty vendor are reset.

The Featured Story mission resets daily.

Featured Strikes update weekly. These are typically high-level Strikes with the Nightfall and higher-difficulty Skulls active.

Crucible bonus playlists are updated daily, and some special events like the Iron Banner playlist have time-limited access.

Most special events occur weekly, but keep an eye on Bungie’s social media for updates.

Your first gold score in a Public Event each day rewards you with some nice goodies mailed to you by the Postmaster. Public Events can occur anywhere in open public areas (that is, any place in the world where you can encounter other Guardians not in your Fireteam), and they have a chance of occurring periodically. If you’re hunting for Public Events, have your friends split up and spread out. You can then have everyone join a Fireteam when you locate one.

Out in the world on Patrols, you can find Chests, Materials, and Patrol Beacons. Chests and Materials aren’t always present in the same locations. Sometimes they spawn, sometimes they don’t. Patrol Beacon locations are the same, but the specific mission they grant can vary.

If you want to share Chests and Materials with your Fireteam, be sure they’re nearby to grab the goods, as they vanish from the world a few seconds after they are opened or picked up. Gold Chests don’t follow this rule, but they are one-time rewards for each of your characters.

Tackling the various timed events, particularly daily ones, is a good way to focus your efforts for your daily play session with your friends. Timed events almost all give bonus rewards, and if you piggyback bounty completions on top of them, you can maximize the returns on your time investment.

Experience and Level

The most basic progression comes from earning experience.

You can acquire experience from defeating enemies, completing missions, completing bounties, or turning in mission items in the Tower. All experience that you acquire goes toward raising your level, and leveling your weapons, armor, and specialization.

If you have any Uncommon or better weapons or armor equipped, any experience you earn goes toward unlocking mods on those pieces of equipment. Similarly, if one of your Class specializations is equipped and not yet fully maxed, earning experience unlocks new talents in the equipped specialization.

Remember to equip non-maxed weapons and armor before turning in a bounty or mission objective so you can get the most benefit from the experience! The same goes for swapping specializations if you have one maxed and equipped, but your second is still not complete.

As you gain levels, you unlock basic features, including bounties and the Crucible PvP mode. At Level 15, you unlock your second specialization. Finally, once you reach Level 20, you stop gaining levels normally from experience. Any further levels that you would gain from experience earn you Motes of Light, one for each “level” gained.

Equipment Upgrades

In addition to leveling your character (and your equipment), you need to continually upgrade your weapons and armor as you level.

You want to be looking out for improved rarity items (Uncommon, then Rare, then Legendary, and finally Exotic), as well as higher-level items.

While you are leveling, it’s enough to keep an eye on the Attack stat of weapons and the Defense stat of armor. As long as your current gear isn’t too far behind a new piece, you can keep the current piece if it has mods that you prefer to use.

Simply equipping new gear with better Attack/Defense stats and higher rarity as you find it will get you to 20 comfortably.

Don’t worry too much about investing a lot of experience, Materials, and Glimmer into fully upgrading weapons before Level 20. Barring a few very specific exceptions for PvP, all of them will be replaced with Level 20 Rares and Legendaries. You’re going to need every scrap of Material and Glimmer you can hoard to upgrade your Level 20 gear.

Once you reach Level 20, however, you need to start looking at outfitting yourself fully in Legendary equipment.

Save Your Gauntlets

This is necessary to tackle higher-difficulty missions in PvE, but it is also just plain fun. All the cool mod combinations are available to you on Legendary weapons and armor.

Beyond that, tracking down Exotics is your last gearing goal. Finding your first Exotic is an exciting moment, and later, when you have assembled an arsenal with multiple Exotic and Legendary pieces, fine-tuning full sets of complementary equipment will occupy your time.

Light Level

Your Light level is your level beyond 20. Once you stop earning levels through experience at 20, the only way to progress is to find armor with the Light stat on it.

Move your cursor over the Light stat in your Equipment screen to see how many points of Light you need to reach the next level.

High-level Rare, Legendary, and Exotic items can provide you with Light points, and raising your level is necessary to unlock the most difficult PvE missions in the game, including Raids. Raising your level also has an impact in matches where Level Advantages are enabled, though it is not quite as critical there as it is for PvE.

Loot

Loot is the good stuff, all the weapons and armor and goodies you can find or earn out in the wide world of Destiny.

You can find such items in the world dropped by enemies, looted from chests, awarded for completing missions or Crucible matches, awarded for ranking up a reputation level, mailed to you for finishing your daily Gold Public Event, completing a special bounty, or given as a reward for turning in mission items. As a general rule of thumb, the more difficult the loot is to acquire, the better it is.

Very difficult Vanguard Strikes and other PvE missions have a good chance of awarding you rare items upon completion, and the reward for gaining a reputation level can also be a quality item.

PvP varies depending on the mode in question. Normal Crucible matches rarely award you high-quality gear, but time-limited Iron Banner matches have better odds of granting excellent equipment.

Raid loot and loot purchased with Marks is guaranteed to be of excellent quality, but both are time-limited rewards, and you can only earn raid rewards and Marks up to your cap once every week.

You may find a certain special vendor in the Tower from time to time with particularly excellent equipment on offer, though he does not accept common types of currency…

Equipment Rarity

All equipment, weapons, and armor progress from Common white items to Uncommon green items, then to Rare blue items, and finally to purple Legendary items. There are also exceptionally rare orange Exotic items, but don’t expect to acquire those quickly without some amazing luck.

Engrams

Weapons and armor may be located within coded Engrams. Engrams share the same rarities as other items in the game, and they appear as glowing crystals in the world.

Any enemy can potentially drop an Engram, though Majors and Ultras have a better chance of doing so. A coded Engram displays the basic type of item within, but to discover the exact item, you must take these coded Engrams back to the Cryptarch in the Tower. You may find an Engram for a primary, special, or heavy weapon, or for a helmet, chest armor, gauntlets, leg armor, or Class Armor. The Cryptarch can analyze and decrypt Engrams, discovering the pattern for the weapon or armor contained within. Decrypting Engrams also has the pleasant side effect of raising your reputation with the Cryptarch. You can even buy Engrams directly from the Cryptarch. This instantly identifies the item within and grants you bonus reputation with the Cryptarch immediately. Very rare Engrams may contain additional bonus items, such as Glimmer or Ascendant Materials.

Vendors

You can purchase items from vendors in the Tower with various types of currency.

Some vendors sell basic items of Common or Uncommon quality, but you may also find Rare Engrams from the Cryptarch, or Legendary items that are purchasable only with Marks from various Factional vendors.

Some vendors refresh their stock every few hours, while others take longer or may not normally refresh them at all (until Bungie decides to change them, that is!).

Factions

Factions are groups of like-minded Guardians and other citizens of the Tower and the City who have banded together around a certain philosophy. It was not always so; Faction wars once raged in the City’s earliest days…

Factional Rewards

Each of the different Factions has different rewards, though there are a few gaps in what they offer.

Vanguard

The order of veteran Guardians devoted to the protection of the City, the best of the Titan, Hunter, and Warlock orders. All player Guardians belong to the Vanguard initially, as it is the Faction that you automatically represent when you begin the game. All reputation rewards for completing Vanguard Strikes, bounties, and Patrol Beacons go to the Vanguard Faction, unless you choose to represent another Faction.

The Crucible

Not a Faction precisely, but an organization formed to test the Guardians in battle against their most dangerous opponents—other Guardians. This live-fire training hones Guardians into lethal weapons against the Darkness. Sometimes being dead and having a Ghost that can revive you is convenient…

The Iron Banner

A Faction led by Lord Saladin, a veteran of the Battle for Twilight Gap, the Iron Banner seeks the mightiest of Crucible combatants to lead the war against the Darkness.

Dead Orbit

Dead Orbit believes that the Guardians’ destiny lies not with the Traveler, but out amongst the stars. They seek to leave the Earth and travel to a new home.

Future War Cult

The Future War Cult believes in the inevitability and, indeed, the necessity of conflict. They seek not to leave or to rebuild, but to wage war, in all its forms.

New Monarchy

New Monarchy believes that together, the Guardians can rebuild their lost Golden Age, and that true leaders for the City can be found…or forged.

Reputation

For PvE Factions other than the Cryptarch, reputation is earned in PvE by completing Vanguard Strikes, bounties, and Patrol Beacons, as well as special events.

You can earn Crucible reputation by completing Crucible bounties and competing in PvP special events.

Earn enough reputation with a Faction, and you can gain a reputation level. Reputation levels are required to purchase certain powerful equipment. Once you reach the cap for reputation level (generally 3 for most Factions), every level past the cap earns you rewards!

There is no upper limit to a reputation level past the cap; you can continue to earn rewards every time you achieve a new level.

By default, all PvE reputation you earn goes toward the Vanguard Faction. To represent another Faction, you must purchase a Class Armor item of that Faction and wear it while completing missions that award reputation.

Cryptarch

The Cryptarch is a unique character. Serving as the crypto-librarian for the Tower, he can identify Engrams that you find in the wilderness. Identifying Engrams, bringing him special items from each enemy race in the game, and purchasing Engrams from him all serve to increase your reputation with the Cryptarch. Earning sufficient reputation eventually allows you to purchase Rare Engrams from him, and further levels earn you rewards just as they do for any other Faction in the game.