I'm wondering what others experiences are with these drops. I have played for 33 hrs and I am half way through level 24. I have not had one Legendary item drop at all since I have started playing. I have done a lot of Strikes, Crucible, Weekly stuff. Excluding vendors is anyone having the same experience with no Legendary items to be found? On the other hand is anyone getting them at a frequent rate?

I'm a level 28 Warlock and easily sunk over 100 hours into the game and I've seen maybe... four purple drops in the game; and even then, they were decrypted into blue class items, gear for other classes, or legendary materials.

You'll lose your mind waiting for purples to drop. Your best bet is to find the Faction that has the gear that jives with you the most, buy and equip their class item and start griding rep so you can buy legendaries from them.

Within 10 minutes of finishing the story and getting the Stranger's gun, a purple gun dropped on a patrol mission on earth. That's the only purple that's dropped for me, I'm 25 now.

Yep same here almost 100 hours in the game and I got maybe 4 or 5 legendary engram drops, and of those only 3 turned out to be anything useful, it's pretty crazy.

Fun fact, 2 of the purple engrams I got dropped doing stupid moon patrol missions, and both of them turned out to be something nice, the third good purple engram I got from that robot lady that gives you stuff like bounty opportunities and all, I think it may have been for me getting rank with the cryptarc, not sure, and it was a legendary hand cannon which is awesome.

So yeah it's absolutely and completely random plus ridiculously low chance, mission difficulty don't seem to matter at all, you could do every mission at highest difficulty, or the higher strike playlists for hours and get absolutely nothing and then you go for a moon patrol, kill a dreg and out a purple engram comes.

I had a similar experience. The only legendary engram I've seen dropped for me during my first multiplayer match right after I hit 20. Actually, I think I saw one more a while after that too. They both decoded into blues, though.

I had maybe 10-15 during the heady days of the loot cave, but since then not so much.

I've had purples from pvp, and strikes and patrols.

I seem to have more drop now I'm a higher level than when i was around the 23-25. but it's still not very common.

At least when you do get your drop you will not be getting blues.. that Cryptarch Jerk owes me, big time.

I've had a couple drop pre-patch, but only one drop post patch. Like others said it's easier just to grind rep and marks and get what you want/need that way.

I've gotten several purples even s yellow.

I've seen one purple drop mid-mission and it turned out to be a rocket launcher that I already got from... I don't know, multiplayer or some random end-of-mission drop or something.

I have no purples at level 22, other than upgrade mats from public events. I'm currently grinding out patrols and public events until I max the weekly limit, then swapping to a faction grind in the crucible so I can complete 2 sets of bounties per day. This way I get vanguard armour and faction weapons, hopefully at about the same sort of time. I'm about 75% done on my vanguard level 2 rep and I have a couple hundred marks saved up so... soon.

Waiting for random drops will destroy you. You might as well just set the disk on fire.

I have gotten three purple items, two guns and a set of Titan Gauntlets (I'm a Hunter so, yippee) and those were from decoding blue engrams. I am level 25, almost 26. I didn't get any purples before hitting 20+ though.

But my purple shotgun and fusion rifle are bad ass, so I am cool with my stuff so far. I just wish I could get more stuff. I have been sinking a lot of time into grinding helium and relic iron, and for the work I'm putting in, the loot has been disappointing at the end game, at least for me.

Purple drops are real but super rare. The most reliable way to get legendaries is leveling up the cryptarc, buying them, doing the nightfall, doing the raid and leveling factions from lvl 3 on (that one is long as fuck and not really worth it).

About 42 (REAL) hours put in, and I've seen about 7.

They don't call them legendary for nothing...

I've seen about 4 drop on the ground, another 3/4 from random rewards, before the patch they turned all into blue's, only had 1 drop after the patch. Yesterday though I had a Legendary weapon from a BLUE engram o_O.

I'm level 26 and I've had one legendary drop when replaying a mission for a bounty.

Nope. Countless hours spent in the crucible. Buncha strikes, missions, bounties.

I have never had a purple drop for me once. The only purple I ever got was through leveling up the cryptarch - it was a rocket launcher.

So no, purple drops aren't real, not in my universe anyway.

I've got 110 hours clocked, and I've had 8 purple engrams drop for me. The weird part, is that all of those were within a 5 hour period, just before I dropped the game. One turned into an exotic rocket launcher, one into a legendary fusion rifle, and the other 6 turned into worthless blue garbage.

Whats a real bummer, is pre patch every time you leveled up the cryptarch he gave you three legendary engrams. So you had a shot at a strange coin or a legendary three times. But now he only gives blues when you level him up. Sucks. I actually got a 10 or so strange coins and four legendary items from him from leveling him up before the patch.

The droprates of Legendary Engrams have plummeted since the loot patch two weeks ago. And even pre-patch, they were extremely uncommon. Even the Cryptarch level bonus has pared back the frequency with which it awards legendary engrams.

The only reliable way to acquire Legendary equipment is to buy it, since post-patch Engrams have a high-percentage likelihood of converting into ascendant materials.

I have only gotten one legendary drop and it turned out to be an engram that turned into a blue item. I'm just trying to get enough Vanguard coins now so I can buy the legendaries instead of hoping I'll get a drop.

I'm level 26 and I finally got my first legendary drop after about a solid week of daily playing. Then I immediately got another one from leveling up the cyptratch. Go figure.

I'd say merchants are your best bet for good weapons. Forget drops. Even when the loot cave was up, you were still better off trying to grind marks and strange coins

That's what I though had happened. Pre-patch I had 2 weapons and 1 armor from drops. I haven't had a single one since and I've played every day.

Based on my experience and some of my friends, it seems that you start getting legendary engrams when you hit around 25 and it became much more common (pre-patch) when I hit 26. I've gotten probably a dozen legendary engrams or more, but most of them have usually resulted in blue items or materials. Since the patch, I think I've only gotten one or two at the most though.

I've had it drop twice. One was a fusion rifle, the other was a piece of armor for another class. I'm almost level 25. It makes me very sad.

Just to follow up, I'd like to say that even with the harsh drops, I don't feel like the progression in general is THAT harsh. I've gotten one purple legs from drops, but I got a helm and a chest from the queens mission and bought gloves with vanguard. Next week I'll have enough strange coins to buy an exotic piece of armor and I have an exotic weapon bounty.

After that I feel like I'm kind of done, right? I mean, I guess it will be a while to level up the gear fully, but as far as collecting the gear I think I have it under control. It wasn't that bad at all!

I've gotten a fair number though I'm going on 6 days of playtime or so. I can say that nearly all of them were during strikes but I'd say that getting your rep up and then buy gear with marks to get to 26 or so. Then do the raid and weekly strikes where you're much more likely to get legendary or exotic drops.

Around 30 hrs in and I have yet to get a purple drop except for one that turned into a strange coin. I've seen a lot of them in the crucible but I've never got one from there.

Doesn't seem that off for me.
I've gotten quite a few purples, so have the folks I play with.
They seem random and rare enough to me I guess.
If you need to level your light more just buy whatever legendary fits your character from the vangaurds/factions and upgrade them.

before they patched the engram decoding, i saw a bunch of legendary engrams that never turned into legendary items. Since then i've seen a few that have turned into legendaries but they've been duplicates of stuff i already had or for another class. that's what the vault is for i guess. I actually just purchased my first 2 exotics from a Xur this weekend. I've only ever seen one of those drop and it was in the crucible but it does happen so there's that.

Loot cave aside, I think I've seen maybe two purples drop in the wild. Only yellows I've gotten have been from Xur. Stuck at that level 27 wall where I don't have shards to upgrade all my armor and wondering why I keep grinding.

@alwaysbeclothing: that is me right now! everything seemed to be moving until i bankrupted myself on crafting mats upgrading my legendary armors. If i had known i would need them in the late game, i would've paid more attention to them starting out but the game does such a terrible job at explaining itself.

I've played 28 hours and had 2 Legendary engrams drop, both of which decoded into Legendary gear (gauntlets and chest).

look at my 5 uniques, they so shiny!

Each session I have with crucible (I usually play for a couple hours) I generally see at least one person receive a purple engram. I've personally never received a purple engram but I did get a purple from a blue. Unfortunately they were boots for the Titan class and my main is a Hunter. So for now they are sitting in my stash.

In many hours of play, I am almost 28 I would be if I could get some MF'ing shards, I have seen two. One was prepatch one was post patch, the first became a blue the second became an exotic chest so I have never gotten a legendary out of a legendary engram

I got one purple engram from a drop and a few more from various other places (Crucible, Strikes, Cryptarch rewards for leveling him.) They definitely exist but as people have said they are not the way you kit out your character. You do that through grinding rep/marks and strange coins.

I am level 25 now and haven't had one purple drop but I have seen 2 other people get a purple engram from strike and crucible but I did get a purple auto rifle from a blue engram at 22 and this was before the patch so can't really complain but other than that I got an exotic from Xur and a legendary chest from queen mission. Also just got The Last Word from crucible match a few hours ago.

I've gotten a purple heavy machine gun and fusion rifle from purple engrams that dropped and i've gotten purple gloves and a purple chest plate from blue engrams (both for the hunter class and i'm playing a titan). I've played probably 40 hours or more.

Is there any place to check your playtime? I bet I have over 100 hours, but don't know specifically.

Anyway, in all that time, I've had two Legendary drops. One turned into armor for another class, the other into a rare.

My purple helmet engram turned into shards. :(

I like shards but I really needed a helmet.

@zevvion: I think you can see it in the Destiny app, when you go to stats or something.

Thanks. It says I've only played for 78 hours. That can't be right? Level 28 and a Level 18 character. Completed the Raid multiple times. Several Exotics, all Legendary gear. I'm fairly sure I've played this game more than that.

@zevvion: Man, everytime I do the Earth strike it feels longer and longer, maybe it's that ;)

No I don't know, I've clocked just over 40 hours and am level 27. I feel that's pretty accurate to me.

Purples do drop less frequently now than they did pre-patch because all that's left are the real purples. I'd imagine the rate you get a real purple drop is roughly the same both pre- and post-patch though, it just feels like less since you're no longer getting the purples that decode into bullshit.

That said, don't rely on drops. You'll go mad. Most of the legendaries and exotics I have came from the Vanguard (purchased with marks or given to me by ranking up), Xur, and the Vault of Glass. That's the only reliable way to do it.

legendary engrams dont drop until your lvl 20 and is still somewhat rare. i have found a few, and before the patch they never really gave legendary gear.
i have spend way to much time on this game and maybe found 6 or so lengedary ingrams, but trust me its not worth it. best thing to do in my opinion is basically to farm bounties since there is a chance to get a choice between 1 of 3 exotic bounties (i think there is a 2% chance with each one you complete and turn in) granted they are a hassle to complete but still. buy your gear from the vanguard store. of if your hugely in to the mp just buy it from there and dont worry so much about gear.
i basically did bounties and that lvled my vanguard up to lvl 2 really fast i then just bought all my gear still use it at lvl 28 since i have not found anything better. also use your motes of light and strange coins at xür for a exotic armor or weapon.
but all the gear race does not really matter since you can only equip 1 exotic weapon total and 1 exotic armor total.
so if you fully upgrade your vanguard lengedary and your 1 exotic gear you will get to lvl 29 and the only way to get better legendary gear is basically doing raids. and with only 1 exotic weapon its also kinda pointless since i wasted a lot of time getting a exotic pulse rifle, auto rifle, fusion rifle, shotgun and machine gun. i still have 2 exotic bounties to complete for the hand cannon and rocket launcher but what the point anyway

I've heard from a couple folks that it doesn't count time spent in the Tower. That's entirely anecdotal, though, so don't take that as gospel. And not that that time in the Tower would inflate that number significantly, either.

@historyinrust said:

Yeah, I'm almost certain it doesn't count time in the tower or on loading screens.

Correct. It only counts the time inside of story missions, strikes, patrol, raids and pvp. It does not count orbit (load screens) or the tower. Between my three characters I have played 155 hours.

Got my first drop 5 minutes ago legendary pulse rifle from the weekly strike on earth! A friend also got a legendary drop from the same mission