The latest expansion for Destiny 2 is in our hands at last, and once you’ve gone through the story you’ll want to focus on leveling up so you can be as powerful as ever. Grinding levels is still pretty much the same experience as it was in The Witch Queen, but the caps have moved, so you need to know what you’re working towards.
We’ll give you some tips on how to get there.
Power levels explained – Destiny 2: Lightfall
The way all this works in Lightfall is that, as soon as you start it, all your gear will be boosted to power level 1600, and that can climb ever higher as your start earning new gear through random drops and mission rewards. You can also infuse that gear with your existing stuff to boost its power level.
Power level is calculated by taking an average of the individual power level on all your weapons and armor. It’s a bunch of math, but the short version is that, if you have one low-level piece of gear still hanging on, then it’ll drag your power level down, even if the rest is really high.
Your seasonal artifact can also up your power level as you level that up. This can theoretically be done infinitely, but you’ll find it has diminishing returns.
Destiny 2: Lightfall level cap
Here are the increased level caps for this expansion:
- Soft level cap: 1750
- Powerful level cap: 1800
- Pinnacle level cap: 1810
The soft cap is what you’ll hit by getting gear via any method. You can do basically anything to get to this cap, but the quickest way is undoubtedly by playing the campaign. Getting to that 1750 cap by the end of the campaign isn’t too tricky, and if you’re brave enough to play it on Legendary then you can hit 1770 instead.
Once you’ve hit this cap you’ll stop finding blue (rare) items entirely, which is a nice new quality-of-life feature Lightfall has introduced, but if you want Powerful or Pinnacle gear, you need to go to specific sources.
How to get Powerful and Pinnacle gear – Destiny 2: Lightfall
There are potential plans in the works that might overhaul the leveling system in Destiny 2, but right now we’re still working with the old system. So you’re going to have to get on the weekly grind to get the Powerful and Pinnacle items.
Powerful items are what you want to focus on first. Each drop will give you one or two points higher than your current gear, although what slot it drops for is random. You’ll have a limited number of chances to get Powerful gear each week, so don’t miss out. After that you hit 1800, you need to get yourself Pinnacle rewards to climb up to 1810, which is a bigger leap than it sounds. Like Powerful sources, these are limited.
Here are all the Powerful gear sources in Lightfall:
- Banshee-44 8x bounties
- Crucible 8x bounties
- Dares of Eternity 3x runs
- Gambit 8x bounties
- Nightfall strike
- Prime Engrams
- Trials of Osiris
- Vanguard 8x bounties
- Weekly campaign mission
- Wellspring 3x runs
And here are the Pinnacle sources:
- Crucible 3x matches
- Dares of Eternity 250k score or higher
- Defiant Battlegrounds seasonal activity
- Dungeon on weekly rotation
- Gambit 3x matches
- Hawthorne clan vendor rewards
- Iron Banner (when it is active)
- New raid (available March 10)
- Nightfall strike 100k score or higher
- Raid on weekly rotation
- Spire of the Watcher dungeon
- Trials of Osiris
- Vanguard 3x strikes with subclass matching elemental singe
- War Table seasonal vendor 8x bounties
How to level quickly in Destiny 2: Lightfall
There are a few other things you can do to quickly level up too, so here’s a quick rundown of tips:
- Play then Season of Defiance content alongside the campaign. You can do this by talking to Mara Sov at The Farm.
- Use your Upgrade Modules intelligently. They’re best used to infuse items that bridge large gaps in power points – we’re talking upwards of five-point gaps.
- Dismantle items you don’t want. There’s no use being a hoarder, don’t let all the fancy items tempt you into keeping stuff. If you have no use for it get glimmer and legendary shards out of it instead.
Following these tips should get you ready for the new raid when it drops on March 10, so get out there and get power-leveling.
Written by Tom Bramwell and Ryan Woodrow on behalf of GLHF.
