Destiny 2 returning player guide

Coming back to Destiny 2 after a long break can be confusing. The game has changed a lot, especially since The Edge of Fate, so it’s easy to get lost or overwhelmed.

In fact, players returning to Destiny 2 might as well be playing “Destiny 2.5″ due to the sheer amount of new systems, such as gear tiers, armor 3.0, and a stat rework.

Here’s our guide for returning players in Destiny 2, with a breakdown on the most important tips anyone should know when coming back to the game after a long pause.

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• Power Levels and difficulty
• How to raise your power level in Destiny 2
• Gear Tiers, explained
• Stat rework: 100+ Points and Armor 3.0
• How to get higher tier gear in Destiny 2
• Attunement, explained
• Best things to do for returning players in Destiny 2

Image via Bungie If you’re logging in from before The Edge of Fate, your Power level has been reset to a meager 10. You’re not weak again, though: Destiny 2 has drastically changed how power and difficulty work. Your teammates can also temporarily bump up your power to access certain activities, but without affecting your rewards.

With Monument of Triumph, power goes from 10 to 550, but you don’t have to grind all that. Your drops will fast-track you to 300, which is essentially the new soft floor. Even better, you can skip straight to 300 by buying weapons and armor from Zavala in the Tower and infusing them on your gear. Bumping up your level is the next part of the journey.

Image via Bungie As of The Edge of Fate, the Portal was the main way to level, with Renegades‘ Lawless Frontier showing up later. With Monument of Triumph, however, power and tier will seemingly be related to activity difficulty. Higher difficulties should grant you bigger boosts, but for the most part, almost anything in the game should bump up your power. Until then, the Portal is your safest bet.

You’ll notice your drops may have some diamonds on them, which relates to their tier—another addition from The Edge of Fate, which we’ll break down below.

Screenshot by Destructoid With The Edge of Fate, both weapons and armor have gear tiers. The higher the tier, the more valuable the loot. Any drop added since that expansion is tiered by default.

Weapons get different upgrades depending on tier. Anything T2 or above gets the benefits of having enhanced perks, but more importantly, T4 and T5 drops roll with extra traits, so it’s easier to get a good roll of them. Your weapons still work if they’re not part of the tier system, however, and crafted weapons can be upgraded to have similar benefits to a T5 (though you won’t get any extra perks added to an existing weapon).

Screenshot by Destructoid Screenshot by Destructoid Armor tiers, on the other hand, indicate the total stat points on a given piece. Tiered armor has deterministic drops, with a fixed primary and secondary stats and a random tertiary stat. Your stat spikes depend on your armor’s archetype.

Screenshot by Destructoid Well-rolled old armor has equivalent stats to the new T3. T4 pieces have 70-75 stat points, and T5s are guaranteed 75s with a little bonus called a tuning stat. That’s five points on a random stat in exchange for as many in a stat of your choice. New armor also has set bonuses for wearing two and four pieces, regardless of their tier.

With this many stat points, you’re gonna get over 100 on a given attribute easily. That’s good: with the stat rework, your attributes can go up to 200.

Screenshot by Destructoid The Edge of Fate stat rework lets you turbocharge your builds by giving you up to 200 in all stats, without breakpoints. For Grenade, Class, Melee, and Super, any number between 0-100 boosts how much ability regen you get from all sources, with points above that threshold giving you bonus damage or an extra effect.

You’ll notice two new stats as well: Health and Weapons—previously Resilience and Mobility, respectively. The former heals you on orb pickup (like the Recuperation mod) and the latter buffs your weapon damage and reload, with more benefits after 100.

Naturally, your stat priority will depend on your build, though you’ll probably want over 100 on your core stat(s). The 0-100 band affects all sources of regen, including orbs of power and scalars. Tweak them however you like according to your build and playstyle.

Image via Bungie As of Monument of Triumph, gear tiers depend on your power level and the difficulty of the activity you’re facing, not counting other potential bonuses. Drops may depend on performance (Crucible) or feats (raids and dungeons). For patrol zones, you get T3 gear on public events and T4 for their heroic versions, with a chance of T5. Distortions drop gear one tier above the normal.

With The Edge of Fate, fireteam boosting lets you access higher difficulties but doesn’t improve your rewards past your maximum. In other words, if you tag along in an Ultimatum activity, you’ll still get gear that’s around on par with what you can achieve, so you can’t get powerleveled.

Image via Bungie Attunement surfaced during Into the Light and rolled out across the board with Monument of Triumph. Attuning to a weapon vastly improves the odds of getting it as an activity reward. You can target one weapon at a time for each active pool by going into the Attunement tab in your Inventory menu. Make sure you’re focusing on weapons before jumping into activities.

Image via Bungie If you’re coming back to Destiny 2 after a long break, you may need some time to acclimate yourself. Destinations will drop at least T3 gear, while Heroic public events can drop T4-T5. Distortions—those ominous red portals in the sky—will bump that up by one tier.

The old Portal Ops playlists offer you some ideas on what to do depending on fireteam size, from solo to six-man missions, and each type has its own loot pool. Pinnacle Ops encompass old Exotic quests, so they’re a good way to add something powerful to your arsenal (like Choir of One in Encore) since they’re not tiered.

Onslaught has a few iconic weapons from the franchise’s history, and the horde mode is one of the most fun, unique activities available. The Coil is another favorite of ours. Just mind the traps.

Crucible and Gambit are also good choices, given their designated drops. For Gambit, just summoning the Primeval is supposed to get you T5 drops, so go bank those Motes. It’s unclear if this has any other requirements, however, like higher Guardian Rank or power. On the flip side, try Sparrow Racing League (SRL) if you’re feeling confident on your driving for a shot at unique weapons and armor.



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