How to Join a Faction in Destiny

Wandering around The Tower, you’ll spot a number of faction representatives, often selling high-level gear to those who have managed to build up enough reputation with them.

 

 

Why join a faction? I hear you cry… Well by being a member of one of the three optional factions, you’ll be able to purchase some of the fancy gear that they have in stock for faction members, and in addition each faction grants its members a couple of bonuses that will give you an advantage throughout the game, whether that’s as you’re taking on the main story, or kicking back with your clan in the Crucible.

These bonuses work by giving a boost to two of three stats available to your Guardian, these are:

Intellect: Reduced cooldown time for Super
Discipline: Reduced cooldown time for Grenades
Strength: Reduced cooldown time for Melee

Each faction gives a boost to two of these stats, so you should really be thinking carefully about which one will suit your Guardian best.

Here is what each faction has on offer:

Dead Orbit: Discipline and Strength (Grenades and Melee)
Future War Cult: Intellect and Discipline (Super and Grenades)
New Monarchy: Intellect and Strength (Super and Melee)

All sound good? So how do you actually join one of these factions? Well despite sounding like it would simply be a case of walking up to one of their representatives and asking, and maybe doing a short mission to earn their trust, the actual process is actually really simple, so simple in fact that it’s really easy to miss.
So here’s a step-by-step guide:
1. Buy a piece of equipment from the faction representative
2. Put it on
And there you have it; you have just joined a faction! See, told you that it was deceptively simple.

Now that you’re wearing a piece of their equipment to let everyone know who you’re representing, you can start building up your Faction Rep and, at level 18, Marks. All you have to do to start earning them is to play PvP, complete bounties, and take on a few strike or patrol missions, basically anything that isn’t a story mission will see you start working your way to some of that fancy equipment that is only available when you have high Faction Rep or purchasable with Marks.

Still having trouble deciding which faction you want to go for? Maybe you’d be a little bit more comfortable knowing what each faction fights for:

Dead Orbit:
Dead Orbit believes that the Guardians’ destiny lie not with the Traveler, but out amongst the stars. They seek to leave the Earth and travel to a new home.

Future War Cult:
The Future War Cult believes in the inevitability and, indeed, the necessity of conflict. They seek not to leave or to rebuild, but to wage war, in all its forms.

New Monarchy:
New Monarchy believes that together, the Guardians can rebuild their lost Golden Age, and that true leaders for the City can be found… or forged.

So which path appeals to you most? Or if you don’t find yourself loyal to one faction in particular, there’s nothing stopping you from jumping between each one at will, just change your piece of faction specific armour over. Make note though that you can only represent one at a time, so there’s no shortcut to earning rep and marks for all of them unfortunately!

Which Faction will you be joining, and why? Let us know in the comments below!

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