Hey there, Guardians!

The newest season of Destiny 2, the Season of Arrivals, started on June 9th, and as the gaming landscape has changed, you may have taken a break from Destiny. As a returning player you might be wondering, “Where the heck should I start?”. Below are a few highlights of how to best use your time to maximize your XP and increase your light level steadily to take on some of the best content in the game!

Bounties, Bounties, Bounties!

While you earn XP through normal PVE and PVP activities, the fastest way to maximize the amount of XP you gain on a daily and weekly basis is through bounties from the vendors highlighted below:

Once you reach Season Level 100 on the Season Pass, DO NOT stop completing bounties each week! These bounties continue to provide valuable XP and rewards, increasing your power bonus from the Seasonal Artifact!

The following vendors in the tower provide daily and weekly bounties, with the weeklies resetting each Tuesday, and dailies resetting at 1:00pm ET.

A few additional notes regarding bounties:

• It is important to review the bounties to see which bounties are specific to a given activity and which bounties can be completed in any activity. This will help to maximize your time when playing and complete the greatest number of bounties in a single activity. For example, the Vanguard weekly bounties require strikes to be completed in the strike playlist, however some of the Vanguard daily bounties may only require specific weapon-type kills, which can be completed anywhere in the system.
• Tower Vendors have the option to pick up additional bounties that will have random objectives to complete (ex: Solar kills, auto rifle kills, etc.) These bounties provide additional XP and Bright Dust, however these bounties are worth 66% XP of regular daily bounties
• Several additional vendors in the Tower provide bounties, however these bounties do not provide additional XP and are usually specific to targeted activity completion:
  • Ada-1: Forge-related Bounties
  • Drifter: Gambit Prime bounties
  • Bendict 99-40: Menagerie-related bounties

Additionally, the following destinations have destination-specific bounties which can be completed for additional XP:

A few additional notes regarding location-specific bounties:

• Several of these vendors have weekly bounties which fall under the following conditions:
  • The weekly bounties on Io, Titan, Mercury, and Mars are specifically related to the content for the current season
  • The weekly bounties from the Moon and Lectern of Enchantment do not provide additional XP
  • Spider at The Tangled Shore has, in addition to his daily bounties, 14 Weekly Wanted Bounties, hunting specific targets across the system
  • Dreaming City: not listed above, however none of these bounties provide XP and are specific to activities related to The Dreaming City

Season Pass, Seasonal Artifact, Prismatic Recaster

During the Season of Arrivals the newest seasonal artifact, the Seed of Silver Wings, will provide fantastic mods to help enhance your PVE or PVP experience. As you increase your light level and gain XP, you will unlock 12 mod upgrades from the seasonal artifact.

Once you hit 12 mod upgrades from the artifact, DON’T STOP LEVELING UP! While you may not be able to gain additional mods, additional leveling increases your power bonus beyond those first 12 levels, allowing you to increase your light level well beyond 1060!

In addition to the artifact, the Season Pass tracks provide additional materials to help you increase your power, level up your Recaster for Umbral Engrams, and provides materials, enhancement cores, and upgrade modules to infuse your gear to the highest light possible. Within the season pass are also XP bonuses that can benefit you and are always active once unlocked:

The Prismatic Recaster is the newest enhancement to your daily engram grind this season, as it allows you to focus Umbral Engrams for specific gear and weapons. The Recaster also has weekly and daily bounties that provide XP and materials for umbral engram decoding. The Recaster is tied directly to the weekly ‘Interference’ mission (Pinnacle activity), and also has several mods that will be beneficial in your PVE and PVP activities. As you complete weekly and daily bounties, you will unlock additional levels of your Recaster.

Weekly Pinnacle Activities

With each weekly reset, you will have the opportunity to complete Pinnacle reward activities. Several activities in the game provide Powerful rewards, which are usually only +1 or +2 above your base light level (your light level without the seasonal artifact power bonus), however Pinnacle rewards provide gear or weapons that are +3 above your base light level. Therefore, those activities should be prioritized above activities that will only provide powerful gear, especially when leveling up early on in your gaming experience.

Maximize Your Time!

Now that you are armed with all of this information regarding the most streamlined methods to gain XP, you might be asking yourself “How do I keep up with all of this?”. With the varying activities and bounties each week, the best tips for maximizing your play time are as follows:

• Upon first login of the week, grab all of your weekly bounties from each of the vendors in the tower, and grab the daily bounties from Banshee-44 and the Prismatic Recaster. Review the bounty requirements and adjust your loadout to complete as many of these bounties as you can while completing the weekly ‘Interference’ mission from the Prismatic Recaster.
• After completing the weekly Recaster mission, focus on completing the Pinnacle activities around Vanguard strikes, Crucible matches, and Gambit matches. Before launching these activities, grab the daily bounties for each one and adjust your loadout accordingly to complete as many of these bounties during each activity.
• Achieving 1060 light (with the seasonal artifact) is incredibly beneficial for completing most activities in the game, and is the optimal light level to complete the newest Pinnacle activity in the game, the Prophecy Dungeon. Completing your weekly and daily bounties, along with the basic Pinnacle activities, will accelerate your journey to 1060 light.
• Several of your ghosts have the perk Guiding Light available, which provides a +10% XP bonus when you are with your fireteam and opening bounties. Make sure you have this ghost equipped and make sure the perk is active when opening bounties! This perk will show up on your Character screen, on the left side as a small triangle.

• Shared Wisdom is another XP perk that is activated by opening bounties with your fireteam, providing an additional 10% XP boost (only applies to you).

• Activities such as Escalation Protocol (Mars) and Altars of Sorrow (Moon) are great for completing multiple bounties at one time.

There you have it, Guardians! These are the best pointers for how to maximize your time in Destiny 2, and level your Titan, Hunter, or Warlock as quickly and efficiently as you can. Have fun out there!

Your Favorite Titan,