The Leviathan raid is here, you want to do it… but first you need to bump your light level (item level, basically). How do you do that without going mad? We’re here to help. Read on for our quick guide to the activities you should be doing to raise your Destiny 2 Light Level over the hump and to 265 and beyond.
GET ON THE WEEKLY MILESTONE TRAIN
Milestones are essentially weekly missions doled out by Bungie. Completing these grants the Powerful Gear reward. This is basically a package that provides legendary and sometimes exotic items that are higher than 265, and usually even higher than whatever your current Light level is. Each weekly milestone missions one focuses on a different part of the gameplay experience.
- Flashpoints – These are all about exploring the planets. You simply complete public events (doing Heroic ones makes this go by quicker) and you’ll earn some sweet loot. The best for the casual or solo-minded folks.
- Call to Arms – This is a weekly Crucible objective. Get in a fire-team, and go kill folks in PVP. Harder, if like me, you’re terrible at PVP.
- Nightfall – These are tough, but have a chance to pay off really well. Take on a strike with some soul-crushing modifiers in the Nightfall modded dungeons.
- Clan XP – Not great, unless you’re in an active clan. We’ll be making an MMORPG clan come October!
Complete these on a regular basis, and you’ll be kitted out in no time. But wait, there’s more!
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GRIND THAT VANGUARD REP
Most of the vendors in Destiny 2 have a cap on the level of gear they’ll sell you… but not Zevala and Ikora Ray – especially the former. Zevala takes the Vanguard Tactician Tokens you earn from the Vanguard Strike Playlists. When you do so, he’ll usually give you two items – one that follows the standard 5 points less than your current light level, and one that is higher thanks to a legendary mod. You can then use this item or infuse it into some other loved item, and you’ll be increasing that light level steadily.
When it comes to Ikora, just do her random Milestones as she offers them (they return daily), and each week do her Meditation to get the tokens she offers. Both will help pad out your item level quickly.
FIRETEAM MEDALLIONS
Use these, often and plenty. Not only will your teammates love you for the extra XP and loot chances, but you’re increasing your own chances for loot as you do anything in the game. You can buy extras from the Eververse for 50 silver dust.
LASTLY, LEGENDARY MODS
One of the new gear wrinkles in Destiny 2, Legendary mods drop as random rewards from any vendor or chest, and they automatically increase the Power of any item they get slotted into by 5, a huge boost if you’re trying to get over the hump and go raiding. On top of it, the mods add perks like better healing, high damage modifiers, better regen, and so forth.
