The new major expansion of Destiny 2 arrived on Tuesday, October 1st, and with it the game went free-to-play. If you played the game at the very beginning, you probably missed many changes. Here's how to get started on the license.
New players: choose your class
If you are a beginner, you will have to choose your class. You will have the possibility later, to create up to 3 characters and thus be able to play all the classes of the game: Hunter, Titan and Warlock (from left to right below)
Destiny is a MMOFPS well apart from other games in the same category. You will not find very specific roles such as Tanks, Healers or DPS. The game has its own gameplay, you can play alone or in a group, regardless of the class. In addition to your weapons, your Guardian can control, thanks to the Light, three types of Energy called Void, Solar, and Arc.
- The Hunter is versatile, rather agile, recommended by many to start solo. It will be slightly more vulnerable to damage but its super-solar and cryo-electric will allow you to devastate your opponents. His abyssal doctrine is highly sought after for group play, especially in end-game activities (dark night, raid etc)
- The Titan is considered as the 'tank' of the guardians: it allows to set barricades to protect oneself, it is more resistant to damage and its melee attacks are rather effective. Its abysmal doctrine has a dual use: it acts as a shield, but also as a bonus to weapon damage.
- The Warlock is a bit of a mixture, he is the 'magician' of the guardians. He can be powerful in combat thanks to his super but also has a supporting role thanks to his flaw which allows either to increase the damage or to heal the team and himself.
Each class can be played solo, but in groups the abilities of some can be combined very well with those of others. An Arcstrider Titan can, for example, place a bubble to increase the squad's weapon damage while the arcanist heals the team with his rift and the Arcstrider Hunter binds and weakens enemies with his arrow.
Progress and experience in the game
Unlike the first game and the beginning of Destiny 2, players will no longer need to upgrade their characters. The new Guardians on New Light will go directly to maximum level (formerly 50) and 750 power after completing an introductory mission. Gone are the days when you had to campaign the game on each character.
With Season 8 starting this October 1st, Bungie is integrating a new experience system thanks to the season pass and its artifact. Each 3-month season, you will have access to a season pass with 100 ranks and rewards such as cosmetics, armor or materials. Each rank will require 100,000 EXPs when completing activities or contracts. Shadowkeep players will have access to additional rewards.
From rank 7, you will unlock your season artifact to obtain season-specific mods and thus compose the build you want to play according to the activity. The artifact also incorporates a new bonus power mechanism for your characters each time you pass the EXP rank of your artifact (different from the season pass) you will earn a bonus power point. This system has no limit for season 8.
The ramp-up system
Destiny 2 is part of the category of looteurs / shooters in the MMO / RPG way. Every week, the weekly activities are reset on Tuesday at 7pm (summer time). To increase your power, you will therefore have to carry out activities that give you powerful equipment through milestones, contracts or quests.
- Minimum threshold 750: Each goalie who starts Destiny 2 in free-to-play version or with Shadowkeep will be at this minimum.
- Soft cap 900: this is the lower limit of the game, i. e. all loots will allow players to reach this power. We therefore recommend that you keep your strong milestones (contracts, quests, weekly activities etc.) until you reach this limit.
- Hard cap 950: to get up to this level you will have to do your powerful activities available from the celestial map or through weekly contracts that the NPCs offer
- Prestige cap 960: this is the maximum limit of the game only available with higher level activities like raid (available Saturday 5/10) or dungeon (available Tuesday 29/10).
Another source of Power will be unlocked once the soft cap is reached: the perfect engrams. You will randomly find engrams by killing superior enemies or bosses who will give you powerful equipment. Be careful, these perfect engrams are limited in number every day.
To fully enjoy the game, we recommend that you have 3 characters, one from each class. When you have completed all your activities for the week, you can transfer your weapons to another character and continue your ramp-up. This will allow you to progress faster than with a single class.
Equipment and farming of components / materials
As you progress through the game, you will get weapons and armor of different rarities and higher power.
- Rare (blue) equipment: equip yourself with it during your ramp-up to 900. After this stage, this equipment will no longer be useful to you, you can dismantle them to obtain materials.
- Legendary equipment (purple): since Year 2, this equipment has had random statistics: inspect this equipment before removing it. Dismantling will give you more materials
- Exotic (yellow) equipment: this is the rarest equipment in the game with unique perks that give an extra advantage. We recommend that you do not delete them unless you have duplicates.
As soon as you get legendary and exotic equipment with the statistics you are looking for, you can infuse them to increase the power of the equipment or improve them in 'masterworks' to apply better mods. Infusing or improving will require a lot of resources. We have prepared a list of the materials you will encounter.
Basic game currency: is available everywhere and is used to purchase most contracts or as a basis for infusion and equipment upgrades.
Basic materials: is obtained by dismantling legendary equipment and is used for infusion and advanced equipment improvement.
Base materials: unique to each planet, obtained by harvesting from the planets or completing activities on the planet. Used for infusion and improvement of the planet's equipment.
Advanced material: sometimes obtained by dismantling equipment or completing certain contracts. Used for infusion of equipment and improvement of equipment in masterworks.
New material: obtained in end-game activity awards. Used to improve masterworks of your armor.
New material: obtained in end-game activity awards. Used to improve 'masterworks' of your armor.
New material: can be purchased from the gunsmith and allows different equipment to be infused with power.
Optimization of your equipment
Once you get to the top level activities, you will have to think about optimizing your equipment as you go along. First of all, know that your guard can only be equipped with one exotic weapon and one exotic armor at a time. Weapons are universal, however, armors are specific to your class and some exotic armors are only useful with a certain doctrine or abilities.
Depending on the activity you are going to do, you will have to think about building yourself an adequate build and probably improve your weapons and armors in order to equip specific mods. You can therefore improve your weapons and armor in "masterworks". Each rank of improvement will give you one energy point up to a maximum of 10. These points will therefore be used to apply mods to your equipment that will require between 1 and 6 points depending on the mod.
- The weapons are still in version 1.0, so the mods are applicable and reusable on all legendary weapons only without minimum points. The improvement in "masterworks" of your weapon will allow the creation of orbs to recover your super faster.
- Armors 2.0 are therefore compatible with mods 2.0. The general mods are compatible with all legendary or exotic armors. On the other hand, the specific mods are only applicable to armors corresponding to their element (solar, cryo or abyssal). The total of the mod points you wish to apply to your armor must not exceed the energy points of your armor.
You are ready to face the darkness with Destiny 2 New Light and Shadowkeep now available on PC (Steam), PS4 and Xbox One.
Field upgrades are items or abilities that will be most useful to you during your games. Here is a guide that will help you choose the right upgrade regarding the way you play.
