Destiny Guide: How to Increase Your Light

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Addiction to engram hunting is a serious problem affecting many Destiny fans. This addiction is perpetuated by the evil Cryptarch dishing out depressing blue (rare) gear to Guardians from all over the globe. However, there is hope. You don’t need to obsess over those colorful balls of loot. Whether you’re a veteran of the loot cave or you give up and log off whenever the Cryptarch doesn’t give you what you want, I’m here to tell you that there is a better way.

When you go out hunting and hoping for engram drops, it’s akin to going out to the casino each night expecting to hit it big. Sure, there are some times when you will win, but the constant sting of defeat tends to outweigh the times of triumph.

Here is my character. It may not be much, but on average I probably only play about one to two hours a day. Other than my auto rifle and shotgun, all of my gear shown here was bought.

Although Bungie doesn’t want to admit it, Destiny is very MMO-like. Which means there is going to be a fair amount of grinding necessary to get higher levels and better equipment. Instead of going to the casino every night, it’s time to get yourself an honest job.

What I’m going to tell you isn’t groundbreaking or new, but Bungie doesn’t do a great job of explaining on how things work, and it winds up being lost on a lot of players. There are still plenty of players out there that do not understand that sitting in the newest loot cave or playing Crucible expecting a purple engram every time they come in first is NOT the best way to make consistent progress in Destiny. Let me run you through a day in the life of an efficient Destiny player.

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Before you do anything, you need to decide which reputation you to want to focus on first. I would strongly suggest going for one of the three factions (New Monarchy, Dead Orbit, or Future Cult). This is because everything you do (PvP or PvE) will be funneled into that reputation, allowing you quick access to good items as long as you’re willing to do some PvP for the crucible marks. If PvP isn’t your thing, then definitely go all-in on increasing your Vanguard reputation.

As long as you don’t mind PvP, focusing on a faction is the quickest way to getting access to quality legendary armor and weapons.

Next, you’re going to want to visit the bounty tracker in the tower, Xander 99-40. Completing his bounties will drastically increase the speed at which you level up your reputation and your weapons/armor. Try and go for PvE bounties that will coincide with some of the events you’re going to be doing anyway (which I’ll go over in a second). Some examples include: completing six patrol missions, meleeing 30 enemies without dying or completing a strike without dying.

Stay on the look out for simple bounties such as these that can be easily completed while doing other tasks.

Now it’s time to start your rotations. Start by doing the daily heroic story mission at the highest level you can handle. You start seeing the best returns when you are able to do the level 26 or higher mission, as that will get you a guaranteed ascendant shard or energy, used to upgrade armor (which increases your light) and weapons.

If you only have time for one mission and you’re at least level 24-26, do the daily heroic story at level 26 or higher for the extra ascendant materials.

Here is where it gets tricky. You’re going to need a group to do the weekly heroic strike. It is definitely a flaw in the game, but that’s just the way it is until they patch it in matchmaking. If you have a Facebook, there are tons of Destiny groups out there just for finding fireteams. I am in a few and rarely have trouble finding people who need to complete the strikes.

Be on the look out for this guy every Friday and Saturday for easy exotics. Just don’t forget to bring your strange coins!

Still, it is worth all the effort since completing the weekly strike (again go for the highest difficulty you can handle for the most reward) will net you strange coins. These coins are used to purchase exotic items from Xur: Agent of the Nine, who appears every Friday and Saturday at the Tower. Also, the motes of light you get from gaining XP after turning 20, can be traded in for an exotic engram. Be careful with the exotic engram however, because what you get is completely random (including stuff from other classes). However, don’t fret if you get something “useless,” as you can always break it down for ascendant materials.

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After you’ve completed the daily heroic mission and the weekly heroic strike, you have some options. If you’re at a high enough level, try and find a group to tackle the difficult vault of glass raid or the weekly nightfall strike. These aren’t for the faint of heart but offer excellent rewards if you can complete them.

If you’re not ready for that yet, then you probably need better gear, which means you need to start collecting marks. You will need rank two reputation to start purchasing legendary armor and rank three to get access to weapons. Remember, complete bounties to quickly rank up your reputation.

Do your best to collect as many marks as possible throughout the week by completing strike playlists and crucible matches.

If you started by working on your Vanguard reputation, then get to work on the strike playlists (again always going for the highest level you can handle). These fortunately have matchmaking, so no need to gather a group if you don’t want to. If you went with a faction or the crucible, then head over to the crucible (make sure to bring some bounties along with you!) and get to work. You might even get lucky and score an engram. Don’t be fooled into thinking strike or crucible grinding for engrams is the way to go, though. The marks and reputation gains are what you really want.

Trust me, do business with these people and the other vendors around the crucible instead of the cryptarch.

That’s pretty much it! Once you get some marks visit your local quartermaster and shop away. Just be sure to do that daily heroic mission so you have a consistent flow of ascendant materials to upgrade your shiny new gear. If you need some extra ascendants, you can camp out for a public event while in patrol. These are good for getting the ascendant material in a pinch, but that too is based on luck and could start driving you crazy if you let it.

Follow my words of advice, and I promise (PROMISE) before long you’ll be in the upper 20s decked out with legendary and exotic gear. Sure, you can skip the line if you’re lucky with getting engram drops, but more often than not, you’ll be sitting around with rare gear equipped much longer than you need to be.