Get your Guardian on
Our Destiny review is coming along nicely. I just hit level 20 on my Warlock and I’m slowly making my way up to the soft cap of Light Level 25 to get raid-ready for next week.
Here are some tips I’ve come up with along the way to make everything easier.
General tips:
- Do the bounties. Always. Even if you think it may take you a while, actively have all your slots filled with bounties. They grant massive amounts of experience and can easily be done over time.
- Speaking of bounties, always equip all of the gear you want to level before you turn them in. The extra experience also applies to leveling up items.
- Odds are if you’ve completed the quest to use a vehicle, you can summon it in nearly any location or mode that isn’t indoors. Never forget that when you’re wandering from place to place. When in doubt, just check the select button menu.
- Also remember that you change out anything at any time. Need a sniper rifle on the spot? Change it. In a tunnel and want a shotgun or new subclass? Change it. You might lose some ammo in the process, but the system is very flexible.
Remember this for PVP, and take all of the tools for the job. In some levels you might need a shotgun, and others, a sniper is desirable. Keep a small armory on you at all times.
- See those computer screens that look like mini towers right when you zone into town? Those are vaults. That’s how you store your items. They’re easy to miss.
- If you’re wondering how to sell items — you do it completely by way of your inventory screen. Just hold the X or Square button to disassemble it for cash (Glimmer) and parts. Always remember that you can hold R2 to compare stats on items, even if the game doesn’t prompt you.
- If you target a fellow player and right click the stick, you can inspect or interact with them.
- You won’t unlock PVP until level 5. To unlock more modes, just complete the latest mode you’ve obtained.
- If you’re playing a PVP match and have heavy ammo, just waste it if you’re about to die — it drops after your opponent takes you out.
- Level 15 unlocks your subclass. This completely changes all your abilities and forces you to learn a new tree. If you’re doing a really tough mission or want to get ahead in PVP, switch back to your old class. If you’re doing something you’ve done before, use it as an opportunity to learn your new subclass.
- Save your generic class equipment item. Not only is this item typically aesthetic in value, but it also allows for you to gain reputation from certain factions later in the game — if you’re wearing the right gear. The catch is you may not want to limit yourself to a certain faction — but you also have to technically wear a class item at all times. So if you have a piece that overwrites all other factions and don’t have anything generic to switch back to, you’re out of luck unless your class vendor has one in stock.
- If a PVP mode shows up on the left side of your screen, it gives bonus XP. It’s randomly assigned based on the weekly demand, and will benefit you greatly if you don’t care which mode you want to pick.
Endgame:
- Here’s the deal with endgame. You can opt for generic reputation gains by completing Strike playlists (and bounties), Crucible reputation for completing PVP matches (and bounties), and faction reputation by wearing certain items from their vendors (which overwrites all other reputation gains). To level up past 20, you need to obtain more “Light” — a new statistic that lets you push past the cap that’s found on certain gear.
Faction and PVP marks can earn you gear that naturally has Light on it. Your objective past level 20 is going to be running Strikes (typically in playlists to earn more rewards) and PVP to get more tokens to buy Light gear, as well as earning random drops that may have Light on them along the way. Getting to level 25 will allow you to do raids.
Looking for raids by the way? The first one doesn’t drop until September 16th.
