Destiny Frequently Asked Questions

Destiny Frequently Asked Questions by KilledbyDice

How many classes are there?

There are 3 classes. The Hunter, The Warlock and the Titan. Each of these is split into 2 Sub-classes. For the Hunter there is the Gunslinger and the Bladedancer, the Warlock has the Voidwalker and the Sunsinger and the Titan has the Striker and the Defender. Once you get to level 15 on ANY class it unlocks the sub-classes for every future class and character.

What is the level cap?

There is a soft level cap of 20 which you can obtain through gaining XP through kills, missions and bounties. After level 20 you gain Light, which is part of the equipment you obtain. The more Light you have equipped at one time the higher your level. The highest current level is 30 which is only obtainable with complete raid gear or 1 exotic, all of which give 30 light points each.

How do I take down enemy shield and what are they?

Enemies with shields can be spotted by their coloured glowing shield surrounding them. Long story short you match the colour of their shield to the element of your weapon in order to take it down quickly to then cause them damage. It’s worth noting that the bonus damage you do to the shield (coloured text) is only done to the shield and not the enemy itself. Using the wrong element or no element at all will show the “resist” text. This doesn’t mean you aren’t damaging the shield it just means it’ll be harder to take down their shield.

Shield Details:

• Solar – Red/Orange
• Arc – Blue
• Void – Purple

What is Reputation for? What are the Factions?

By default every player is in the Vanguard faction, you gain reputation for this faction by completing Vanguard bounties and specific daily/weekly missions. You can choose to join other Factions within the Tower by wearing their specific class item, this in turn gives you Faction reputation instead of Vanguard. Levelling up a Faction gives you access to exclusive Legendaries, Emblems and Class items. After level 3 in a faction you are given a random Legendary engram for each level. It’s worth noting that you can only gain reputation for 1 faction at a time, either the Vanguard or one of the other 3 within the Tower. However you can gain Vanguard reputation AND Crucible reputation at the same time, but if you equip a faction item ALL reputation goes towards that faction including the Crucible.

What are Marks?

Marks are the first form of premium currency you will come across and can only be obtained after level 18, they are split into Vanguard marks which are gained through daily/weekly missions and Public Events and Crucible Marks which are gained through competing in Crucible matches. PLEASE NOTE You can only gain 100 of each Mark per week this is shown on the Director Screen (level select) with the blue and red bars going around the Strike and Crucible icons. ALSO You can only HOLD 200 of each in your inventory at a time, any marks gained after you have 200 are lost so it’s worth-while spending them to ensure you don’t lose any. You can also trade in resources like Spinmetal for Marks at particular Vendors. For turning in resources to a vendor you get 5 marks, 250 glimmer and 50 faction reputation.

What do I spend my Marks on?

There are Vendors in the Tower who only accept Vanguard Marks or Crucible Marks, they sell Legendary equipment weapons and Sparrows. It’s worth noting that the element on those Legendary weapons may change on refresh, so if you’re really after a particular sniper rifle with solar damage you can hold out for it changing.

What are Bounties?

Bounties are optional missions you can obtain after hitting Level 4 from Xander 99-40 in the Tower. They change each day and are separated into Vanguard (PvE) and Crucible (PvP). They reward Marks and XP on completion and sometimes other rewards such as Ship Schematics, Strange Coins, Motes of Light and Exotic Bounties.

Exotic Bounties and Equipment

Exotic bounties are rare quest-chains that send you on an adventure to gain one of the sought after Exotic weapons. Some of them have easy requirements such as go here, find this. Others have you battling out in PvP trying to keep a high K/D ratio. NOTE: Everyone should be aware that you can only equip 1 Exotic piece of equipment and 1 Exotic weapon at a time. You can still however hold them in your inventory and switch when you like.

How do I get Exotic Bounties?

Pray to RNGesus, it’s completely random when you hand in Bounties, you may get an exotic one in return which then allows you to choose between 3 different Exotic Quests, the quests don’t list what the bounty gives you so it’s a good idea to read about them here. NOTE: Some players claim that handing in 5 bounties as once has given them an exotic bounty multiple times. In my experience it is completely random.

What does dismantling an Exotic give you?

The exact same items that you would get from dismantling a Legendary. Also please note you can’t break down inventory items or Engrams for resources, if it says “Destroy” you will literally just delete it and gain nothing.

What are Public Events?

Public events are random events that happen during patrol missions on planets, they reward XP Marks and Ascendant Materials. You can easily track when an event MIGHT happen by going to DestinyPublicEvents.Com

What is the Queen’s Bounty/Wrath? – This is a timed event that ended October 6th 2014

The Queen’s bounties are a limited-time event in which 5 additional bounties with a mixture of PvE and PvP were added to Xander’s bounty list. Completion of these bounties offered Queen’s Reputation which is a separate “faction” used to purchase Queen’s Wrath items and allowing access to special “Kill Order” missions, these missions rewarded exclusive Queen’s equipment (basic Legendaries) and exclusive weapons. Once you obtain a Queens Wrath item from completing a bounty you can acess the Queen’s Kill Order mission on the director screen at the left. The Queen’s Wrath legendaries were a great way to get easy Ascendant Shards before it was patched in a hotfix.

What is the Iron Banner? – This is a timed event that ended October 14th 2014

The Iron Banner was an “unbalanced” PvP mode where player equipment, weapons and level were supposed to count during the fight however a large majority of players have said that it felt exactly the same as playing a match in the normal crucible modes and was a greatly overestimated event. The event offered exclusive event emblems shaders and equipment that could only be bought after attaining a certain rank during the Iron Banner crucible matches.

What are the Trials of Osiris? – Limited timed event which has not started yet

The Trials of Osiris are a limited time event in which players face off in 3vs3 battles and the rewards become greater the longer your win streak, however if you fail 3 times you are kicked out of the event. More information will be added when the event officially starts.

Who is the Cryptarch/Rahool

He is the ultimate evil and the hardest boss in the game… At least he was until a patch. Rahool the Cryptarch decrypts engrams that you bring him. If you hover the cursor over the engram it will tell you the possible outcomes. He also has a seperate level-up bar and he will gift you rare and legendary engrams every time you level them up, you can find them at the post-master.

Who is the Post-Master and what are Lost Items?

The Post-Master is Kadi 55-30 and she receives gifts from factions and Rahool that they send you once you level them up. She also maintains any “Lost Items” that you didn’t pick up during a mission or that wouldn’t fit into your inventory. It’s worth noting that you should always pick up any engrams you see and don’t rely on them being “posted” to you. Players have reported missing engrams. You should also be aware that only Blue (rare) and Purple (Legendary) engrams are ever posted. Never Green (uncommon) or White (common)

How do I obtain Engrams?

• ANY enemy drops them, some bosses have reported to drop them too.
• Chests
• Gifts from factions/Rahool
• Crucible Rewards
• Tiger Strike Playlist
• Daily Story Mission

How do I get Legendary/Exotic Gear?

The easiest way to obtain Legendary equipment is to level up the Vanguard faction and buy the equipment from the vendors using Vanguard marks. Alternatively you can do the same for Crucible marks and the other 3 faction vendors who all accept crucible marks in exchange for Legendary equipment. Legendary engrams can be obtained through the same methods as above.

Who or What is Xur?

Xur is a strange and mysterious Vendor that we know nothing about. He only shows up from Friday to Sunday and at random locations throughout the Tower, he sells exotic equipment and sparrow upgrades. he accepts premium currency known as Strange Coins and Motes of light.

What are Strange Coins? And where do I get them?

Strange coins are a currency accepted by the mysterious Vendor Xur. You can purchase exotic items and Sparrow upgrades with them. Methods of obtaining Strange Coins:

• The weekly strike on the hardest difficulty gives you 9 coins each lower heroic difficulty gives less coins.
• Decrypting Engrams
• Loot Chests
• Bounty Rewards
• Crucible and Strike rewards
• Rewards from leveling up factions or the Cryptarch

How do I upgrade Legendary or Exotic Gear?

If you are lucky enough to nab yourself a Legendary or even an Exotic you may notice a significant addition to the upgrade options compared to their rare counterparts. Firstly most of the upgrades require one of the 4 resources found on the planets (details further down) and depending on the type they will always use Legendary rank resources too. All Legendary and Exotic weapons need Ascendant Energy and all Legendary and Exotic Armour uses Ascendant Shards. Details on the best places to find these are below.

What are Motes of Light? And how do I get them?

Motes of Light are another form of currency accepted by Xur they can purchase an Exotic Engram which gives you arandom class of exotic armour. The Speaker also accepts the Motes for Legendary class equipment and Emblems. Methods of Obtaining Motes of Light:

• Any “XP” level up after level 20 rewards a Mote. You can check your progress after level 20 by highlighting “Level 20” in the character screen with your cursor.
• Decrypting Engrams
• Bounty Rewards
• Crucible and Strike rewards

What are Ascendant Shards/Energy? And where do I get them?

Ascendant Materials are a Legendary Class resource used to upgrade your equipment. Energy for weapons Shards for Armour. Methods of Obtaining Ascendant Materials:

• The Daily Story mission on the hardest difficulty gives you 2 of either
• Dismantling Legendary equipment
• Strike and Crucible rewards
• Daily Public Events
• Rewards from levelling up factions or the Cryptarch

Where do I get Spinmetal, Helium Filaments, Spirit Bloom or Relic Iron?

All resources can be found randomly throughout each planet or in chests. Turn to Youtube for the best farming guides for each.

• Spinmetal found on Earth, looks like silver plants and are usually growing out of a metal container
• Helium Filaments found on the Moon, are small clustered glass containers that glow yellow.
• Spirit Bloom found on Venus, float in mid-air and have a white/green glow.
• Relic Iron found on Mars, is deep red and can be hard to spot against the red terrian, look carefully.

Can I do the Vault of Glass more than once a week?

Each character can do the vault of glass twice a week, once on normal difficulty and once on hard you can do the Vault a total of 6 times a week over 3 different characters. Although you can do the Vault as many times as you like or help others out, you just won’t get the rewards if you’ve already done it with that character on that difficulty. You can check which parts of the raid you’ve done on level 28 or 30 by logging into Bungie.net clicking Legend, then advisors. You’ll see 4 boxes under each, each coloured box means you received the reward. NOTE: The chests in the Vault can only be obtained once per week regardless of difficulty and character.

What are bonuses and how do I find them?

Go to Bungie.net and log in, hover over the tab on the left side of the screen and then click Grimoire, at the top of the page you’ll see “Bonuses” this shows you all your completed bonuses and those which you are close to finishing. Some bonuses just give you extra glimmer for killing certain enemies when you have a glimmer boost active, however others give you better/more drops in certain areas or game modes.

Where do I find people to play with?

There’s no denying that Destiny is a co-op game. Sure you can run around solo as much as you want, even slog your way through a solo nightfall if you’re that much of a lone wolf, but at it’s heart this game is about getting together with a bunch of people and popping some heads. Below is a list of the best resources and methods to finding players:

• The Reddit Clan: Draw your eyes to the top of the Subreddit and you’ll see the “Reddit Clans” tab, join one of these clans and you’ll be able to find people from this Subreddit easily, I’ve found several new friends through the PS4 clan and using the chatroom. Special Mention: The Destiny APP is great for easily navigating this and it’s handy not having to sit infront of a PC/Laptop to access the information/clan.
• /r/Fireteams : Completely dedicated to finding other team-mates for Destiny
• DestinyLFG.NET: Great place to find people I use it often
• DestinyLFG.COM: I haven’t personally used this however other players swear by it.

What are Groups/Clans and how do I join them?

Firstly there is NO current method to joining groups or clans within the game, it is all done through the Destiny APP or website. Log into Bungie.net and click Groups in the left pull-out bar. Search for the group you want to join and join it, then click to set as PS4 clan or XBOX clan. A group needs at least 3 members who have manually set it to their clan before it will become a clan and will show up in-game.

Why is nobody using a Microphone?

We are, however the game doesn’t support open communication (yet) in order to talk to other people you have to be in the same fireteam, this does not include matchmade fireteams for strikes. Bungie are adding an opt-in function in a future update which means you’ll have to manually turn on open communication to talk to people not in your fireteam.

What is the Loot Cave?

The Loot Cave, or Cave of Wonders as I used to call it was a cave in the Skywatch area of the Cosmodrome that you could farm kills from, the enemies would spawn every 6 seconds and people used to line up to kill enemies here to farm engrams, this cave and others have been patched to stop it happening however players are constantly looking for new ways to farm these caves and rooms. UPDATE: The original loot cave has been updated by Bungie showing a pile of dead Hive that can be activated. Upon activation you can hear Rahool saying “A million deaths are not enough for Master Rahool.”