Destiny Leveling Up Guide

Destiny Leveling Up Guide by ariiieell

As some of you may know, there is going to be a new requirement by October 9th, which will be that you will need at least 1 class in level 27+ to stay in the clan.

Leveling up after 20 can be difficult, especially if you don’t have a goal.
This guide is a how to level up from level 1 up to 30 and should be within the timeframe of 3 weeks (playing an average of 2-3 hours daily).
Level Up Guide:

Levels 1-20: These levels are a piece of cake as you only need experience to level up, here are some tips to level up faster
• Story Missions: Play the missions in Hard (one level above the easy one), the first missions are really easy and you can get 3000 or 5000 for completing the mission just one level above (instead of the 1500 or 2500 regular xp), after 4 or 5 missions played in Hard, the Hard level is actually the level you are on, so they start getting easier.
• Bounties: Bounties are your allies; you can get up to 5,000 xp just for completing a story mission, or for killing 100 enemies, just be on the lookout for easy bounties on PVE, e.g. Kill 20 enemies with melee attacks, Kill 100 hive enemies, Get 200 headshots from fallen enemies; Most of these bounties will be automatically completed just by playing, but focus on the objectives to finish a bounty alongside a mission.
• PVP: If you are a fan of PVP , play it, every xp from PVP goes towards your class, and not only that, you also get crucible points, and crucible rank, which will help you a lot in the later levels. (I’ll explain in the Levels 24-27)
• PVE: If you are not a fan of PVP , you can always play PVE, there are patrol missions that will give you vanguard points and vanguard rank, which will help you a lot in the later levels. (I’ll explain in the Levels 24-27)

Levels 20-24 (• Level 21: Requires 21 Light • Level 22: Requires 32 Light • Level 23: Requires 43 Light • Level 24: Requires 54 Light): Here is where the fun begins, after level 20, your experience is no longer based on XP, it’s now based on Light, which comes from armor that you equip, here are some tips on how to get armor:
• Daily Heroic Missions (easier level usually 20): Every day there’s a mission with a Heroic modifier, you’ll get engrams and pieces of armor as rewards for completing the mission.
• Weekly Heroic Missions (easier level usually 22): Every week there’s a mission with an Heroic modifier, you’ll get engrams running the mission, and at the end if you complete it you’ll get strange coins (will explain their use in Levels 24-27)
• Strikes: Play strikes around your level, on every strike you’ll average 3 or 4 engrams per run plus the rewards for completing the strike
• PVP: There are tons of rewards for playing PVP (armor, weapons, class items, ascendant materials), so if you like PVP give it a go; you will also get crucible points, and crucible rank, which will help you a lot in the later levels. (I’ll explain in the Levels 24-27)
• PVE Vanguard Points: If you are not a fan of PVP, the similar way of acquiring XP and points for legendary armor are Vanguard points, which can be earned by completing PVE bounties and Patrol missions.
• Factions: there are some factions you can join after level 20, for 2500 grimoire you can purchase a class item with the faction colors, which will start stacking Faction Points from vanguard missions, PVE, PVP and bounties, after reaching certain levels with different factions, Legendary armor with a base of 18 LP can be purchased.
• Queen’s Missions (Limited time): for every Queen bounty that you complete, there’s a “Queen Order”, which translates into an assassination mission, once its completed you’ll get a piece of armor (Helmet or Chest) with 18 light points.

Levels 25-27 (• Level 25: Requires 65 Light • Level 26: Requires 76 Light • Level 27: Requires 87 Light): Here is where it gets tricky; everything you have done during the earlier part of the game comes to use here.
• Weekly Heroic Missions (hard level usually 24-26): Every week there’s a mission with an Heroic modifier, you’ll get engrams running the mission, and at the end if you complete it you’ll get strange coins, the higher the level, the more coins you get.
• Xur: Strange coins come to use here, strange coins can be acquired from the weekly mission as a reward, you may also find strange coins as rewards during missions, farming, decrypting blue/purple shards, and then use those coins to purchase “Exotic armor” from Xur. Exotic armor comes with at least 21 light points as a basic, plus the upgrades it can go up to 30 light points.
• PVP: Remember those crucible points and crucible rank? by now you should at least be rank 2 and have 150 crucible points, well guess what? There’s legendary armor for 60 crucible points, that will give you a boost in the light level as it comes with a basic of 18 LP. (rank 3 for weapons)
• PVE Vanguard Points: Remember those vanguard points and vanguard rank? by now you should at least be rank 2 and have 150 vanguard points, well guess what? There’s legendary armor for 60 vanguard points, that will give you a boost in the light level as it comes with a basic of 18 LP. (rank 3 for weapons)
• Factions: If you played your cards right and equiped the Faction item for a long time with rewards, you should be rank 1 and a half here, try to get up to rank 2, you’ll be able to purchase pieces of armor with 18 LP as basic. (rank 3 for weapons)

After level 27: After level 27 it depends on the armor and upgrades that you have for it, this list was posted before in the forums and It’s really helpful to know when to use your Ascendant Shards (which are extremely difficult to acquire). Here is a guide to the requirements for the last few light levels in terms of armor and crafting materials, since it can get really confusing.
• Level 27 requires 87 light: A full set of legendary missing just the shards-dependent upgrades (4 * 22 = 88)
• Level 28 requires 98 light: A full set of legendary, missing the last upgrade on each, and another upgrade on one (3 * 25 + 23 = 98). This will require 42 ascendant shards.
DO NOT UPGRADE ALL YOUR LEGENDARY ARMOR ALL THE WAY (see level 29)
• Level 29 requires 109 light: Two fully-leveled legendary pieces (27 + 27), one fully leveled exotic (30) and one legendary with all but one upgrade (25). Note that four fully-leveled legendary pieces will not do the trick (27 * 4 = 108). This will require 64 shards.
• Level 30 requires 120 light, which is the maximum currently possible: One exotic and three raid set pieces (dropped only in Vault of Glass), fully leveled. This will require 79 shards.

Combinations of different pieces of armor can be done, like 1 exotic fully upgraded (30 LP), 2 legendarys in their basic levels (18 LP) and one legendary missing just the shards-dependent upgrades (22 LP)
30+22+18+18 = 88 LP = Level 27 (minimum requirement for Clan after 10/9)

After Level 27 the raid is your friend, play it as much as you can, the armor rewards you get are the only pieces of armor that will fully upgrade up to level 30 so far.

To level up faster focus in an specific part of the game, PVE or PVP, and grind it like crazy, I believe going for PVP plus some Heroic missions, strikes and queen missions (limited time), could be the fastest way.