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    Destiny 2

    Game » consists of 4 releases. Released Sep 06, 2017

    The full-fledged follow-up to Bungie's sci-fi "looter shooter", streamlining much of the previous game's mechanics while featuring larger worlds and new abilities. It was later made free-to-play.

    Information and Leveling Guide: Shadowkeep

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    Hestilllives19

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    #1  Edited By Hestilllives19

    With Destiny 2: New Light and Shadowkeep launching on October 1st, I wanted to do a major update this guide once again. Keep in mind everything in this guide will be as of October 1st as I will be updating it prior to that date, and post October 1st, much of this information could change since this is based on updates/post's by Bungie rather than the actual October 1st launch.

    Note: This post will is in a constant state of updating. I try to update it with as much relevant information as I know when I can. The latest update date should be in the title.

    General Information/Content Ownership

    With the release of Destiny 2: New Light and Shadowkeep on October 1st, all players will be coming into Destiny 2, both new and old, for at least the same base experience, and a new updated adventure. Both will release on PS4, Xbox One, PC (Steam, moving from Blizzard), and Google Stadia.

    New Light

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    On October 1st, 2019, Bungie is releasing a new base version of Destiny 2 called New Light. It is an updated version of the Destiny 2 release, that includes the Year 1 & 2 Season Pass Content (Curse of Osiris, Warmind, Black Armory, Joker's Wild, and Penumbra), and is being released for FREE on all 4 Platforms. Things included in New Light.

    • All Player Characters will be auto leveled to Level 50 and 750 Light.
    • Brand new Player Intro starting in the Cosmodrome like Destiny 1.
    • The entire Destiny 2, Curse of Osiris, and Warmind Campaigns.
    • Black Armory Forges (now launching from Orbit), Gambit Prime, and The Menagerie.
    • Every PvP/Gambit/Strike Mode, Maps, and Playlists. This includes the new PvP Map, Fragment, two reprising D1 PvP maps of Twilight Gap and Widow's Court, and two brand new Strikes (The Festering Core and The Scarlet Keep).
    • Access to the complete all D2 Patrol Destinations, even including the brand new Moon.
    • All Year 1 End Game Activities, such as the Leviathan Raid, Eater of Worlds and Spire of Stars Raid Lairs. They should also have access to End Game Missions such as The Whisper and Zero Hour.
    • All Pinnacle Weapon Pursuits including 3 new, changed Pursuits that are easier but provide less powerful weapons.
    • All Y1 Destiny 2 Exotics.
    • New Exotic Weapon Pursuit for Eriana's Vow.
    • Access to Shadowkeep's first Campaign Mission.
    • The free line of the current Season Rank Rewards, and any future free Season Rank Rewards (see Season Passes for more details).
    • Access to all future In-Game Events, such as Iron Banner, Festival of the Lost, The Dawning, Crimson Days, The Revelry, Solstice of Heroes, etc.

    Forsaken

    Going forward, all DLC's will come in packs. As a part of this, Bungie just gave the Year 2 Annual Pass away to anyone who owns Destiny 2: Forsaken, which includes the Black Armory, Joker's Wild, and Penumbra content updates. Though they have yet to fully explain it, they also said anyone who owns the Forsaken Annual Pass will either get a discount on Season Passes (explained below under Shadowkeep) for Season 8, 9, 10, and 11, or will be given that amount of savings at the end of Season 11 in Silver (their micro-transaction currency). Going forward, the Forsaken - Complete Collection should be available for $39.99 (though it's currently on sale on PSN/XBLA for $24.99). Here is what comes with owning Forsaken.

    • Forsaken Campaign Missions.
    • Black Armory/Joker's Wild/Penumbra Story Missions.
    • Exotic Weapon Pursuit's for Thorn, Last Word, Truth, and Lumina.
    • End Game Activities such as the Last Wish Raid, Scourge of the Past Raid, and Crown of Sorrows Raid. This also includes the first ever 1-3 player raid like activity called a Dungeon, The Shattered Throne.
    • All Y2 Exotics, which includes Quests for DLC Exotics like LeMonarch, Jotunn, Izanagi's Burden, etc.
    • Access to 9 new Subclasses tree's, one for each: Well of Radiance, Nova Warp, and Chaos Reach Warlock; Blade Barrage, Whirlwind Guard, and Spectral Blade Hunter; Thunder Crash, Banner Shield, and Burning Maul Titan.

    Shadowkeep

    On October 1st, 2019, Bungie is releasing a new DLC called Shadowkeep. It will launch on all 4 available Platforms for $34.99. They are also selling the Shadowkeep Digital Deluxe for $59.99 which includes all 4 Y3 Season Passes (see below) and typical bonuses like an Emote/Ghost Shell/Emblem. Shadowkeep itself will include the following...

    • 1 Season Pass, for the Season in which you purchase Shadowkeep (Season 9: Undying, if you purchase at launch).
    • The Shadowkeep Campaign Missions.
    • New Raid, Garden of Salvation, launches on October 5th, and is set in the Black Garden from Destiny 1. Raid Challenges launch on 11-5.
    • Nightmare Hunts which are remnants of previously defeated foes. Two Nightmares shown are Crota (looks like at least the final fight of Crota's End if not more of that Raid from D1), and Phogoth the Untamed from Destiny 1's Strike Summoning Pits (also not sure if this is the entire remade Summoning Pits Strike or just the final Boss Fight). Hero and Legend Difficulty Hunts start on 10-8, with the Master Hunts launching on 10-15.
    • New Dungeon, set in the depths of the Moon will launch on 10-29.
    • Exotic Quest: Xenophage will launch on 10-29.
    • Also unlocks the 9 new Subclass Tree's from Forsaken, even if you don't own Forsaken.

    Season Passes

    Similar to a lot of free to play games (Fortnite, Apex Legends, Clash Royale, etc), Destiny is adoption a Season Pass model going forward. Each Season will be individually priced and sold for $9.99 each. The Season Pass gives you access to Premium Season Rewards for each level (1-100) you earn by playing the game that season. Each level earned actually adds to your overall Power Level, and will allow you to tackle End Game Activities even if you are below the recommended by the amount of your Season Pass Level (the power comes from that Season's Artifact, and will be reset at the start of each Season to 0). Similar to other games, if you are playing New Light for Free, and you decide to purchase a Season, you will be able to continue where you are currently at on the Free Rewards and obtain all previous level rewards. Shadowkeep's purchase also unlocks whatever current Season Pass is Active from Oct. 1st through the Fall 2020 content release for free. The Shadowkeep Digital Deluxe also includes all 4 Season Passes for $59.99 (basically saving you $5 on the Season Passes). Also, if you purchased the Y2 Annual Pass, you will be able to purchase the Season 8, 9, 10, and 11 at a discount, though Bungie has still been vague on how much of a discount. If you do not use your discount (you purchase the Digital Deluxe version of Shadowkeep for example) you will be refunded your discount in Silver after Season 11. Content included in each Season Pass will vary by Season, but should include similar offerings to what happened in Y2 with Season of the Forge, Season of the Drifter, and Season of Opulence. Season launches are as follows and will includes the content listed below...

    • Season of the Undying (10-1-19) - Black Garden related Story Missions, Vex Offensive 6 player Matchmade Activity (10-5), Exotic Quest Leviathan's Breath (10-22), and an update to Vex Offensive called Final Assault (11-19).
    No Caption Provided

    Note: Players who are unable to complete Level's through 100 will be given the ability in the last few weeks of each season to Purchase the rest of that Season's Rewards. Price is unknown at this moment.

    Cross Save

    Cross Save was activated in August. The link provided for Cross Save will allow you to activate it, and play 1 account on every available Platform. Having used this myself, it was extremely easy to setup and understand, and I was able to play my PS4 Account on PC already rather easily. It does however force you to use 1 Clan for all Platforms, which creates a situation where there may be few players that utilize both of your Platforms. For example, there only seem to be about 5-10 players in my PS4 Clan who have played on PC, so finding teammates might be harder on your not prefered platform. I highly recommend using the Giant Bomb Destiny Discord in situations like this.

    PC Migration To Steam

    Bungie is moving PC players from Battle.net over to Steam after the split with Activision. On the player end, you will need to simply link your Steam Account on Bungie.net first to be able to resume play after downloading the Steam version on October 1st. You can do so here. All current Destiny 2 purchases from Battle.net will transfer over to Steam for free. This even includes your PC Silver balance. If you are coming from another Platform than PC to Steam, activating Cross sets that Platform as your Cross Save Account, so you only need to link your Steam Account. Your Battle.net friends stay on Battle.net, so you will need to make sure those friends are on Steam for them to show up on October 1st when you log in. Usernames may be different on Steam than they were on Battle.net, so talk to your friends accordingly.

    New Player Guide

    I highly recommend New Light players, and even returning players, check out the video above by xHoundishx. It does a great job of explaining the world of Destiny in a rather short and succinct way.

    Since it would take far too long to explain the world of Destiny in as much detail as is needed, I'm mainly going to be talking about the various Activities Players will encounter in their Destiny journey, and some tips on how to accomplish some rather hidden mechanics within them (like Heroic Public Events).

    • Campaigns - These are the major story beats within the universe, and will contain almost all of the cutscenes there are in the game. Listed below are the Campaigns Available. All previous Campaign's can be obtained and started by visiting Amanda Holliday in the Tower under Legacy Content.
      1. Red War - This is the Campaign that launched with Destiny 2. It is centered around the conflict with the Cabal, and is the major Campaign available to New Light players. You will explore the EDZ, Titan, Nessus, and IO throughout the Campaign.
      2. Curse of Osiris - This is the first D2 DLC. It is much shorter and centered around Osiris, the former Warlock Vanguard and Commander before Zavala and Ikora Rey. This DLC is centered around Mercury.
      3. Warmind - The 2nd DLC, is one about the AI Warmind Rasputin. Also a pretty short Campaign. This DLC takes place on Mars.
      4. Forsaken - Last years major expansion, centered around a new threat called the Skorn that are invading the Reef. This is a rather long Campaign like Red War. This takes place on both the Tangled Shore and Dreaming City locations.
      5. Shadowkeep - The current DLC, and major expansion, centered around a Hive resurgence on the Moon. Those who have purchased Shadowkeep can launch it from the director simply by visiting the Moon Destination. Unlike what was hinted at in the Quicklook, the Moon is the only new Destination.
    • Adventures - Each Destination has a series of smaller story missions. These are story related, but do not contain cutscenes. You can launch them by going up to them on a Destination and launching them. Heroic versions of these will exist as well. They will only be available when that Destination is the Flashpoint (see Powerful Rewards).
    • Lost Sectors - Each Destination will also have a series of hidden tunnels, that each lead to a smaller unique Boss and Loot at the end.
    • Public Events - These are randomly spawning World Events that you will see load up on a Destination Map. Each Public Event has a hidden objective that will start a Heroic Public Event if you complete it. These objectives vary widely from Event to Event. Linked are Public Events from before Shadowkeep, how to do them and what the Heroic triggers are.
    • Strikes - These are longer missions with a Unique Named Boss at the end. These Encounters often include actual mechanics, but nothing as complicated as Raids/Dungeons. Listed below are the locations they can be launched from (are located) and the names.
      • EDZ, Earth - The Arms Dealer, Lake of Shadows.
      • NPA, Titan - Savathun's Song.
      • AV, Nessus - Exodus Crash, The Inverted Spire, The Insight Terminus.
      • EM, Io - The Pryamidion, Festering Core.
      • FoG, Mercury - Tree of Probabilities, Garden World.
      • HB, Mars - Strange Terrain, Will of the Thousands.
      • TS, Reef - Broodhold, Warden of Nothing, The Hallowed Lair.
      • DC, Reef - The Corrupted.
      • OoS, Moon - The Scarlet Keep.
    • Raids - The main draw of Destiny is End Game Activities. Nothing exudes this more than Destiny's Raids. These are rather complicated Activities, designed to be tackled by 6 players. For a complete list of Destiny 2's Raids, and what content you need to own for them, see Raids/Guides.
    • Dungeons - This Endgame Activity is designed as a smaller Raid lite for groups of 3 rather than 6. Currently there is only The Shattered Throne (see Forsaken Specific Activities for more details), and it's only available to Forsaken Owners. However, there is a new one planned for launch with Shadowkeep on 10/29.
    • Crucible - Destiny's player vs player (PvP) arena. Coming in many shapes and sizes, these modes are all about testing your skills as a Guardian against other Guardians.
    • Gambit/Gambit Prime - Destiny's new player vs enemy vs player mode (PvEvP), allows players to fight against the forces of darkeness, while directly competing against other Guardians (think FPS Moba type mode).
    • Black Armory Forges -
    • The Reckoning - This Gambit Prime sister activity launched with Joker's Wild, and allows you to use tokens obtained in Prime to forge Prime Perk'd Armor and also some unique Weapons.
    • The Menagerie - A matchmade 6 player Activity that allows you and 5 other players to do mini Quests to fight one of five unique Boss's, and using a the Chalice, can allow you to customize your rewards to a pretty distinct level once it is leveled up. The Menagerie still has some of the best Weapons available in Destiny 2 as rewards.

    Multiple Characters

    Everyone is allowed 3 Character slots in Destiny. Playing multiple Characters/Classes (the Class part is important because Activities such as Raids, etc drop Loot account wide by Class per week) is essential to Power Leveling in Destiny, and always has been. It is highly recommended that if you run multiple Characters, to also run multiple Classes, rather than the same Class on all 3 Characters. During the Power Leveling part of the process, once you've maxed out your Level and hit the softcap for Power Level (will explain later), done all your powerful gear activities for the week, to then switch to another character to do End Game Activities on. Though do not feel obligated to run more than 1 Character, as for low time investment players, there is more than enough Activities for 1 person to do per week, even for New Light only players.

    Forsaken: Seeds of Light and Perk Tree's

    There are a lot of unknowns how Bungie will handle the 9 Forsaken Subclass Perk Clusters with Shadowkeep for players who do not already have them unlocked. What we do know, is that anyone who owns either Forsaken or Shadowkeep (or both) will have access to them. During Forsaken, these Perk Clusters were unlocked via an item called a Seed of Light. Those were unlocked via 3 methods: Beating the open world Dreaming City's Blind Well on Tier 2 or 3, finishing a Curse Week (every 3rd week) Offering Quest and vising a certain mystery character, or by finishing the first encounter of the Last Wish Raid, Kalli. The 9 new Subclass Clusters and an overview of them are linked here.

    Power Level and How To Increase It

    Leveling in New Light and Shadowkeep is probably the easiest it has ever been both to understand and to do. Bungie has removed the traditional Leveling Destiny 2 had from 1-50, and made all players start at the highest Power Level possible from last season, 750. Even players jumping in for free with New Light will be starting here at 750. Bungie also released an Artifact that is unlocked at Rank 7 of the Season Pass. Leveling Up past this point can unlock Artifact Tiers, that often amount to free Power Levels. These Artifact Levels do effect the Level you are relative to all enemy combatants, but do not increase the Gear drops, as they are based on your True Power Level (an average of all of your Gear, TPL). Note: Gear and Power Level will always be referenced as True Power Level, and Activity Requirements will be based on TPL + Artifact Level.

    There are a few numbers you need to take note of. 900 is the softcap for any gear that drops in the world. After you hit 900, all other gear will drop between 0 to -2 Power below your current highest (TPL). From 900-950, you will need to acquire Powerful Gear to make any real progress.

    Powerful Gear

    Powerful Gear is now marked on the Director pretty clearly at what Activities are needed to be done to obtain. The only catch is it now has multiple tiers. Below are the Tiers and how much of a Power increase you can expect from a drop.

    • Tier 1 (+3 above your TPL) - This is the most common form of Powerful Gear, and also includes any Prime Engrams that drop for you.
    • Tier 2 (+4 above your TPL) - These are rarer, but include Activities such as Gambit and your Weekly Clan XP.
    • Tier 3 (+5 above your TPL) - Any Quest Exotics, Vex Invasion, and Ikora Weekly should be the places to obtain these.
    • Pinnacle (+5-7 above your TPL) - These are obtained from the new Raid and 100k Nightfall each week.

    950-960

    In Shadowkeep, the max Power is 960. After you reach 950, the only rewards that will grant positive progress will be Pinnacle Rewards. But, these go from +5-7, to only +1's. You will be extremely limited in what Pinnacle Rewards are available each week (Raid x4, 100k Nightfall, and Dungeon likely x2 once released), and it will likely be almost Season 9 in December before we see any players at that 960 cap. For the vast majority of the Destiny playerbase, you should be very content once you hit 950 TPL.

    Infusion/Armor 2.0/Weapon Mod Changes

    Infusion has been pretty drastically altered this season. It is seemingly much cheaper to perform specific gear infusions for Power Level. You will only need 1 Upgrade Module. These can be obtained via the Season Pass Rewards and Banshee. You can also infuse any same item with a higher PL item of the exact same for only 1k Glimmer.

    Armor 2.0

    Bungie launched a new Armor system with Shadowkeep called Armor 2.0. In this system, Armor only drops with core stat values, and an Elemental Affinity. Each Armor has 6 stats that effect Ability Recharge rates (Dicipline - Grenade, Intellect - Super, Strength - Melee), Shield Values (Resiliance), Speed (Mobility - Movement Speed and Jump Height/Speed) and Health Regen (Recovery). Armor 2.0 Gear can also be upgraded from 1 to 10, and sometimes drops already at higher levels (I've got up to 5). Masterworking an Armor all the way to 10 is really expensive, but grants a +2 roll to all stats on an Armor piece. Armor is now modular and can equip any perk available for that Elemental Affinity (Arc/Solar/Void). Each Affinity also has specific perks it pushes (Void - Precision, Solar - Explosive, Arc - Other).

    Mod Changes

    All Shadowkeep Gear can be equipped with Mods. Those Mods, are no longer one use items, but rather unlocks that require Glimmer to equip. For Armor, Mods have values and costs, and you can only equip a value equal to that of your Armor Level (1-10). This allows for a rather extensive Customization options for Armor Perks. You can keep old Armor/Weapon Mods to equip in Y2 gear though.

    Forsaken Specific Activities

    The Blind Well and Dreaming City Activities

    Keep in mind with the release of Shadowkeep, all Power Level values have been adjusted, so every player is far outleveled now for all Forsaken content, so no worries about if you are able to do those Activities now. So ignore any mentions of Power Level in the above video by Datto.

    The Dreaming City has one major Activity in free roam, The Blind Well. This is a 9 player location that is it's own instance (so all players there should be trying to do Blind Well, unlike Escalation Protocol on Mars). Players can be in 3 player Fireteams. The Activity has Tiers 1-3 that increase in difficulty, and require an offering of that Tier to Activate. Players need to kill as many enemies as quickly as possible to charge the Well. If players leave a Well during the Activity, they will sustain a small tick of damage each second until they die, so try to stay near the Well's. Players must clear 5 Wells, and then the Boss Phase. During these phases you will notice two enemies that stand out. Servents of the Plague and Anathema. Servents cannot be damage unless players have a buff called Harmony. Player obtain this buff by kill Anathema enemies (will be glowing) and picking up the Orbs they drop. The Harmony buff also has the added benefit of generating Ability Energy extremely fast (think Mayhem). During the Boss phase, only players with Harmony can damage the shields of Boss's. Tier 1 Well's have 1 Boss, Tier 2 Well's have 2 Bosses, and Tier 3's have 3 Bosses. Killing all Bosses clears The Blind Well Activity.

    Hint: Use Harmony to generate Super, then destroy Bosses with Super while having Harmony up. Try to always maintain Harmony.

    Note: Petra's Weekly Gateway Between World's Bounty requires completion of a set number of Blind Well Activities. Tier 1 BW's are worth 10% and Tier 2 are worth 20% (I do not yet know how much Tier 3's are worth, probably 30%). You are required to complete 100% to finish the bounty and obtain an Oracle Offering. SGA: After update 2.0.2, the Oracle Offering has been bugged. Make sure there is ample space in your Consumable Inventory, otherwise it will disappear and be unable to be retrieved. Another bug is also that you cannot Fast Travel with an Oracle Offering in your Inventory or it will also disappear. It is highly recommended that you hold onto your completed Bounty, go directly to Queen Mara's Palace, and turn in your Bounty right before presenting it to her there so you do not lose it. In a way, that Offering is worth 2 540 Powerful Gear drops each week, so losing it is a big loss to your Power Level.

    Tier 4 Heroic or Unstable Charge

    Fallout Plays has a great guide on how to Activate the Unstable Charge. Players must first complete a Tier 3 Blind Well. Once completed, quickly approach the Blind Well Pillar and slot in an Unstable Charge into the Tier 3 slot. This will Activate the Tier 4 Heroic Blind Well Activity. Be mindful, this is a 580 Activity, so it will be very difficult, but the rewards are worth it as it counts as a Raid Tier (580, or Encounters 1-3) drop of Gear.

    Note: Each week the Boss Encounter for Tier 4 has changed, so be mindful on your first attempt as it will not be the same mechanically as the week before. There are 3 distinct Heroic Blind Wells with varying mechanics.

    • Week 1: Requires you to kill Screebs near both bosses to take down their shields. Then damage the Bosses.
    • Week 2: Kill the Wizards in the back left corner, charge Orbs by tossing to another player, and throw at Ogre Boss. Damage Boss. If he doesn't die, go kill Ogre's in the back right corner. Do the same thing, throw to other players to charge, then throw at Boss. If he still isn't dead, there will be 2 Knights at the back center. Same thing.
    • Week 3: This is simply the Eye of Riven story mission in the Blind Well. Do damage to Inomina, kill the Blights, damage, kill Blights, damage, kill Blights, and hopefully he's dead.

    Ascendant Challenge

    The Ascendant Challenge rotates each week. Players are required to find/purchase a Tincture of Queensfoil item first. These are often located around The Dreaming City in Region Chests, Lost Sector Chests, Blind Well Chests, and hidden Ascendant Chests (which already require you to have used one). There is also a rather hidden vendor that sells them for Baryon Boughs. Once obtained, consume the TQ which will turn you Ascendant and allow you to see things from the Ascendant Realm in The Dreaming City. There are many hidden Ascendant Chest (one located right by Petra), but the main thing you are looking for each week is the Ascendant Weekly Challenge. It is highly recommended that you check outside sources each week for the location of this Challenge, as you only have 30 minutes with the Ascendant buff per TQ. I will try to keep an update of each Week's Ascendant Challenge below.

    The Shattered Throne

    As the Curse progresses to Week 3, the final week of the Dreaming City Curse, a new Activity become available, The Shattered Throne. This is Destiny's first Dungeon, a 590 3 player Raid like experience. Like a Raid, it has multiple Encounters, high tier Powerful Reward drops, involved Mechanics within the multiple Boss Encounters, and a hidden Quest for the Wish Ender Exotic Bow (see Wish Ender under Exotics). This Dungeon will only be available during the Curse Week 3, so after Oct. 1st, it will no longer be available again until Oct. 23rd. Below is Datto's Video Guide on how to complete it.

    Raids/Guides

    Raids are the ultimate PvE content in Destiny and generally require 6 dedicated players working in concert with each other to accomplish. So far in Destiny 2, there were 1 Raid, and 2 Raid Lairs in Y1, one released on 9/14, and another that is to be released on 12/7. Listed below, are the names of those Raids available to the players who own those content packs.

    • Leviathan (Destiny 2 - Raid)
    • Eater of Worlds (Curse of Osiris - Raid Lair)
    • Spire of Stars (Warmind - Raid Lair)
    • Last Wish (Forsaken - Raid)
    • Scourge of the Past (Black Armory - Raid)
    • Crown of Sorrows (Penumbra - Raid)
    • Garden of Salvation (Shadowkeep - Raid)

    Note: Revive mechanics have been altered in all Raids. Players no longer only have 30 sec to pick up a revive, but rather 2:30 for each encounter, but it doesn't reset after each player is revived. In other words, teammates can only be down for a total of 2:30 per encounter now, but that could be 1 teammate, or 5 at the same time.

    Raid Guides

    I created a few Guides for the Destiny 2 Raids. For anyone that is interested, some of the strategies may be slightly different, but these Guides should give you a pretty good idea of how each Raid and Raid Lair work.

    Weapons/Mods/Armor/Masterworks

    Since release, Destiny 2 has undergone some major changes to the way a lot of the background systems work. Some of the biggest changes to weapons/armor need to be discussed here though.

    Weapon Slot Changes

    With the 2.0.0 update released on Aug. 28th, 2018 for Forsaken, weapon slots received a massive update that drastically changed the face of Destiny 2. Destiny 1 players will notice a game that more directly reflects the game they played for the first 3 years of this franchise. Snipers, Shotguns, Fusion Rifles, and Single Shot Grenade Launchers have been moved from the Power Slot back into not only the Energy Slot, but also the Kinetic Slot. So we now have 3 types of Weapons. These weapons drop in specific slots (Kinetic/Energy/Power) by weapon and can't be changed, but allows us to see a large variety of loadouts impossible before 2.0.0.

    • Primary (White) - These include Hand Cannons, Auto Rifles, Pulse Rifles, Scout Rifles, SMG's, Sidearms, and the brand new class of Bows (after Forsaken launches). These are both Kinetic and Energy Weapons.
    • Special (Green) - These include Sniper Rifles, Shotguns, Fusion Rifles, and Single Shot Grenade Launchers. These are both Kinetic and Energy Weapons.
    • Heavy (Purple) - These include Rocket Launchers, Drum Fed Grenade Launchers, Swords, and Linear Fusion Rifles. All of these weapons are locked to the Power Slot.

    All existing Weapons in the Primary Class stayed in their current Slot. All existing Weapons in the Special Class moved to the Energy Slot, except for (Hawthorne's, Alone As A God, Perfect Paradox, Baligant, Frigid Jackal, Shepherds Watch, Silica Neumera) a few which moved to the Kinetic Slot. Another 4 outlier Exotics in the Special Category remained in the Power Slot due to their significant Power Levels above the other Special Weapons. Those are Legend of Acrius, D.A.R.C.I., Tractor Cannon, and Whisper of the Worm.

    The ammo economy for PvE stayed the same, with the new caveat that picking the corresponding ammo crates (White/Green) only fills half of each Weapon, if you are running 2 of a Class rather than 1 of each of the 3 Classes. The same goes for PvP. The other change for PvP is that you now only start a life with 2 rounds of any Special Ammo (running 2 Specials only gives each 1 Round).

    Note: Here is a link to Mercules904's Massive Breakdown of Weapons. It is a great resource to see what the best guns/archetypes are, how quickly they do damage, and which ones are worth your time investing in.

    Armor 2.0

    Released with Shadowkeep on October 1, 2019, the new Armor System gives players drastically more flexibility to loadouts, while also adding in 3 new stats from D1: Intellect, Strength, and Dicipline. Each base Armor comes points allocated into each of the 6 stats at differing values, totals which range from 45-60 at base (Pinnacle Armors tend to roll in the higher part of that range). Additionally (and this is the part people aren't liking right now, myself included), Armor will roll in 3 different Affinity's: Solar, Void, or Arc. Each Affinity can roll different perk variations, so be a lot more careful what Armor you decide to use based on your more frequent Weapon choices.

    Mods and Masterworks

    Mods and Masterworking has also changed pretty dramatically with Forsaken and again with Shadowkeep.

    Weapon Mods are now stored as unlockable's rather than Consumables in the Mods Section. Once you have 1 Mod, it now just costs Glimmer (usually 5k) to attach that Mod to a Weapon.

    Armor Mods saw the biggest change in Shadowkeep. Now all Armor Mods come as individual Mods that also unlock by the account as reusable. Some older Mods and Raid Mods can still be obtained and slotted into older non 2.0 Armor, but the vast majority of stuff you use. Each Armor has up to a Level 10 Masterwork, and can drop anywhere between 1 and 5 (the highest I've seen so far). Masterworking Armor takes increasingly more expensive Materials, culminating ultimately in Rank 8-9 taking Enhancement Prisms, and 10 taking an incredibly rare Ascendant Shard. The higher your Armor Masterwork Level, the more and better Mods you can equip, as all new Mods require a certain Power threshold.

    Fashion Customization

    When viewing a Weapon/Armor, if you press down on the D Pad (likely just down arrow on PC), it will take you to the Customization Menu. Here you can apply any owned Shaders and Ornaments. For non Exotic Armors, players will have access to any previously owned Eververse Armors as customization options here, that each work like a Transmog system in that you can make any armor look like Eververse Armor sets. If an Ornament is owned for an Exotic, it can also be equipped on that Exotic here.

    Buffs/Debuffs/Damage Stacking

    With the release of Shadowkeep, Bungie has toned way down how many buff's you can have at once and the value of both buffs and debuffs. Now only 1 buff, and 1 debuff can apply at once (highest buff counts), and no longer stack multiplicative, but additive. All Weapon Perks stack multiplicative onto any buffs still. Below are those changes.

    Buffs - Increases Outgoing Damage

    • Frontal Assault - 20%
    • Sun Warrior - 20%
    • Well of Radiance - 25%
    • Guiding Flame - 25%
    • Empowering Rift - 25%
    • Weapons of Light - 35%
    • Blessings of Sky (Lumina) - 35%

    Debuffs - Decrease Enemies Resistance

    • Hammer/Shatter Strike - 30%
    • Shadowshot - 30%
    • Repulser Force (Tractor Cannon) - 30%

    Buffs That Stack Still

    • Hawkeye Hack (Nighthawk) - 500% Golden Gun
    • Cross Counter (Liar's Handshake) - 200% Melee
    • Vengeance (One Eye Mask) - 5%
    • Biotic Enhancements (Synthocepts) - 200% Melee
    • Overflowing Light (Heart of Inmost Light) - 30% Abilities
    • Peregrine Strike (Peregrine Greaves) - 428% Shoulder Charge
    • Burning Fist x5 (Wormgod Caress) - 650% Melee
    • Warlord's Sigil x5 (Winter's Guile) - 650% Melee
    • Whisper Breathing (Whisper) - 35%
    • Trench Barrel - 50%
    • Firing Line - 25%
    • Kill Clip - 33%
    • Rampage - 10/21/33%
    • MultiKill Clip - 17/33/50%
    • Swashbuckler - 5/12/19/26/30%
    • Box Breathing - 30.5/36.6% Snipers, 40% Linear Fusions, and 66.6% Scouts.
    • One Two Punch - 200% non-Ultra, 350% Ultra.
    • Surrounded - 30%

    Activity Modifiers

    • Singe - 25% to either Arc/Solar/Void
    • Heavyweight - 100% to Heavy Weapons
    • Brawler - 100% to Melee
    • Grenadier - 100% to Grenades
    • Unstable Essence - 20-80% (stacks for each obtained, +10% each)

    Exotics/Xur/Pinnacle Weapons

    The most powerful Weapons/Armor in Destiny are called Exotics. These items have unique Perks, only located on themselves, that grant extremely powerful bonuses. In D2, some are Story Quest Rewards, some are random drops for completing End Game Activities. Here is a list of all Destiny 2 Exotic Weapons and Armors.

    Quest Exotics

    Some of the most powerful of these Exotic drop specifically from Quest Chains or hidden missions. Below is a list of those and linked with Video Guides on how to obtain them.

    Xur

    Xur now does 3 main things. He sells Exotics each weekend (now any and all Exotics for Content you own up through Forsaken; No Shadowkeep Exotics) starting on Friday at reset through end of the weekly cycle (ends on Tuesdays at weekly reset). His inventory consists of 1 Weapon and 1 Armor for each Class. He also sells Fated Engrams, which include any Exotic you do not currently own from the current years content (again no Shadowkeep Exotics). He also sells a normal Nightfall item called Five of Swords that allows you to customize your own Nightfall (not to be confused with the new The Ordeal Nightfall each week). He also has some story missions from Joker's Wild that can be purchased and played through to gain more insight into The Nine and The Drifter.

    Pinnacle Weapons

    Over the years there have now been many Pinnacle Weapons, all with pretty powerful Perks. Players can still complete the Quests associated with them to unlock these weapons. These include: Redrix Claymore/Broadsword (PvP), Luna's Howl/Not Forgotten (Comp), The Mountaintop (Comp), Recluse (Comp), Revoker (Comp), Breakneck (Gambit), 21% Delirium (Gambit), Hush (Gambit), Loaded Question (Strikes), Oxygen SR3 (Strikes), and Wendigo GL3 (Strikes). All of these have static perks.

    With Shadowkeep, Pinnacle Weapons have been changed to Ritual Weapons. These are a bit less powerful, but have perks that can be changed. For Season of the Undying, players can obtain Edgewise (Machine Gun) through a Strike Quest. PvP players can go after a Scout called Randy's Throwing Knife. And finally, those into Gambit can look out for Exit Strategy, a SMG.

    Collections/Triumphs

    With the launch of Forsaken on Sept. 4th and update 2.0.1, Bungie is releasing both Collections and Triumphs. Collections will hold all Year 1 Weapons, Armor, Ships, Shaders, Ghosts, Sparrows, and Emblems a player owned/deleted from the start of Warmind onward. This will include all Exotic, Legendary, Rare, Uncommon, and Common items. Items a player is unable to obtain (such as Seasonal Rewards) will not display if a player did not obtain them. Another new feature is the Triumphs. Instead of having a Record Book or end of year Bounties, Destiny 2 will now have a dedicated place for you to track and go after in game achievements. This will act similarly to how Grimiore worked in D1, but will be clearly tracked in game, and players will know exactly where they need to go, and what they need to do to accomplish these achievements. Along with this, finishing certain Achievement Categories will unlock Titles for Players that display under their names when in places like a Social Space. This will show off to other players exactly what they have achieved.

    Titles

    Under Triumphs you will notice several Seal Triumphs. These, once completed will unlock a series of 6 different Titles you can assign to your player character. The difficulty in these range from a mind numbing grind over several weeks to months (Wayfarer), to almost complete RNG luck (Cursebreaker), to near impossible to complete and only 200 or so of the entire population of the game will obtain by the end of Y2 (Unbroken). Below are those Titles and a description of the Activities they relate to.

    • Rivensbane - Related to Raid Triumphs. Similar to Cursebreaker, in that RNG limits players who can obtain it. But it does have some challenging requirements such as all Clan Challenges Complete and a Flawless Raid which is darn near impossible currently due to a Guitar error.
    • Cursebreaker - Related to the Dreaming City. The hardest step is actually related to RNG drops of the Ship/Ghost/Sparrow. Most players will have completed all other steps just by playing the game. The Ship is RNG for an item that has to be spawned via Wall of Wishes after obtained. Sparrow is a random drop from Shattered Throne. And Ghost is just a random drop for completing Dreaming City Activities. I wouldn't pursue this unless you get lucky on 2/3 of these items.
    • Chronicler - Related to in game Lore. Pretty easy to obtain, just incredibly tedious searching the entire game for lore. Also under the impression this is impossible to obtain until sometime during Black Armory since 1 step can only obtain a single entry each 3x Curse Week.
    • Unbroken - Related to Crucible. Hardest step is 3 Seasons of max Glory rank of 5500 (which makes this easily the hardest to obtain Title for 99.99% of the community).
    • Dredgen - Related to Gambit. This is one of the easiest Titles to obtain as it really only requires 3x Resets of Gambit. You do have to deposit 100 Motes without losing any and win, and kill 10 Invaders in Super, which is actually harder than one might think now that most players rarely Super while Invading.
    • Wayfarer - Related to Destinations. This is the easiest to obtain Title, but extremely grindy and will require multiple weeks of Flashpoint resets.

    Upcoming Changes/DLC

    The Shadowkeep Digital Deluxe includes 4 Season Passes, for Season 8 (Season of the Undying, the current Season), 9, 10, and 11. They last roughly 10 weeks according to Bungie, so we can expect a Season 9 to start sometime in Mid December, but that is all the information they have given out thus far. To stay up to date with all changes and news, check out Bungie's News. I will keep this as up to date as possible. For now, here again is the schedule for Season 8, Season of the Undying.

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    BeardDuder

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    burncoat

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    Without spoiling Spire, there are 5 possible chests. 1 from each encounter (though I can't remember if the first one is just a shader chest) and 2 hidden ones between encounters.

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    Hestilllives19

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    @beardduder: All I did was update the information of Zevvion's original Guide since he was unable to update it. The bones of it are still his, but a lot of information has changed over the past 6 months.

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    TheManWithNoPlan

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    I wanna say the first chest does give you a gear/weapon drop, but now I'm not sure. The secret chest is real fun to get.

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    LiquidPrince

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    For the record, upgrading legendary gear to masterworks cost 10 legendary shards, not the 15 stated in the post.

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    Hestilllives19

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    @liquidprince: Good catch, no idea why I put that, probably just working on both sections at once and mixed the 5 cores for Armor up with the 10 for Weapons. I was kind of in a hurry the day I wrote this, so if anyone notices anything else like that, let me know.

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    deactivated-61665c8292280

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    Just getting back into Destiny 2 for the first time since having played through the vanilla campaign. This game is overwhelming! Thanks for the guide work, @hestilllives19!

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    Hestilllives19

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    #9  Edited By Hestilllives19

    Lots of updates have gone into this lately. It should be pretty up to date for Forsaken stuff currently. I'll keep adding to it though, but it has some good info on Blind Well, Forsaken Heroics, Leveling in Forsaken, new Mods, Xur changes, Seeds of Light, etc. If anyone knows of anything that needs to be added just let me know.

    Edit: More updates to this guide. Specifically updating Powerful Rewards (how they work) and Dreaming City Activities. I also added video links on how to obtain all Quest Exotic Weapons (Vanilla, Warmind, and Forsaken).

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    Hestilllives19

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    Since the last post, a ton of updates have been implemented. Most recently is a section of Buffs/Debuffs and how they work, tracking Ascendant Challenges and how they work each week in The Dreaming City, some new Exotic Quests and how to obtain them, and a guide to last weeks brand new Dungeon, The Shattered Throne. The guide now pretty much has answers to any questions you might have, so please consult it. I will continue to update things like the Weekly Ascendant Challenge, and any new Exotic Quest that come up. As always, let me know if you notice something missing or wrong.

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    Hestilllives19

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    I made a Major Note under Purchasing Forsaken. According to the TWAB yesterday, all purchases of Forsaken after October 16th will include both Curse of Osiris and Warmind. I highly suggest players who only own Vanilla Destiny 2 to wait if they are considering purchasing Forsaken until this time. You will then only need to purchase Forsaken itself for $39.99. This is a pretty big shift in how Bungie sells DLC's, so I wanted to get this information out there to players.

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    Hestilllives19

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    #12  Edited By Hestilllives19

    Update: Changes for Black Armory have been included and I have rechecked the post to correct any errors Black Armory appeared to create in things like the leveling system and any changes that have happened over the past few months. Two of the most important things of note are that Black Armory increases the Power Level cap to 650, and it is now known that all 3 Annual Pass offerings will do the same, so we will be going into next Fall at 750 PL, but it appears we will be staying at Level 50. The other big mention is that unlike previously thought, the new Raid, Scourge of the Past, will actually be a full fledged Raid rather than a Raid Lair like last years Curse of Osiris offering of Eater of Worlds. It was compared by Bungie to Rise of Iron's Wrath of the Machine, regarded by many, myself included, to be the very best Raid Bungie has ever created in the Destiny Franchise. Bungie also hinted that for the first time there will be a Sparrow section in the new Raid. Pretty interesting stuff. I will continue to update this post as more information comes out.

    Note: Black Armory is said to not include any Story Cutscene Missions (even though some Cutscenes were shown and leaked), is confirmed by Deej to not have any Strikes, and both the Trials of the Nine PvP Event and Faction Rallies will not be returning during Black Armory, two events the community assumed would be back but Bungie says they still need more time to perfect before their return. This is actually rather important, especially the lack of Trials of the Nine, because that Activity was often the lifeblood of the Destiny Franchise for years, both keeping population numbers high in game and keeping Destiny in the top 10 on Twitch. It's numbers, especially on Twitch, have diminished greatly since it's absence.

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    Hestilllives19

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    Just FYI, this is basically updated for Shadowkeep.

    This edit will also create new pages on Giant Bomb for:

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