First Steps in Destiny 2

Taking the first steps of your journey in Destiny 2 can be an overwhelming experience. The game has an expansive, lore-rich universe, countless guns with tens of thousands of perk combinations between them, and loads of different activities filled with their own systems and rewards. Every Guardian at one point was exactly where you are now. The information below is here to guide you through those first crucial moments while preparing you to fight against the enemies of Humanity.

Create Your Guardian

Choosing your Guardian's Class is the very first step you're going to take in Destiny 2, and one of your most important decisions. There are three classes to choose from: Hunter, Titan and Warlock. Each Class has numerous unique playstyles and fantasies available to them, split across their different Elemental Subclasses. Don't worry if the first class you choose isn't your favorite, you have the slots to create one of each Class!

• Hunter: Agile and daring, Hunters are quick on their feet and quicker on the draw. They utilize their Dodge Class Ability and Double Jump Movement Ability to outmaneuver their enemies. Hunters embody the classic fantasy trope of a Rogue or Ranger.
• Titan: Disciplined and proud, Titans are capable of both aggressive assaults and stalwart defenses. They rocket onwards with the Lift Movement Ability and use their Barricade Class Ability to hold the line. Titans embody the classic fantasy trope of a Knight, Barbarian, or Paladin.
• Warlock: Studied and masterful, Warlocks weaponize the Elements of the universe to sustain themselves and devastate their foes. They conserve momentum while using their Glide Movement Ability and support their team with their Rift Class Ability. Warlocks embody the classic fantasy trope of a Mage or Sorcerer.

Character Customization

After you select your class, customize the way your Guardian looks. Characters are created as one of three races: Humans, Awoken and Exos. Tailor your character exactly how you want! You can change your body type, face, hair and markings at any time via the character selection screen.

Note that your Guardian's chosen race is permanent. This does not impact gameplay, though certain pieces of dialogue vary depending on your race.

Complete A Guardian Rises

You've created your Guardian, watched the opening cutscene, stopped being a corpse, and have taken your literal first steps out into the Cosmodrome. It is dangerous here, enemies of Humanity scavenge the remains you were risen from - your objective is to reach The Last City, Humanity's safe haven.

It isn't long before your Guardian comes across their first friendly face, Shaw Han - a seasoned Hunter. His questline helps you learn some of the basic mechanics of the game. By the end of it, you earn your very own Sparrow to traverse open areas quickly and a Jumpship to transport you throughout the Solar System - and the rest of the game.

If you ever feel lost during these initial steps, Destiny 2 provides a quest tab in the director for you to check your next steps and track individual quests. You access the director by holding the 'tab' key on your keyboard, the menu button on Xbox, or the touchpad on Playstation.

New Light Tutorial Skip

Next to Shaw Han, there's a terminal you can interact with to sync with Shaw's ship. This gives you the option to skip the opening questline and jump right into the rest of the game. We don't recommend doing this unless you have an experienced friend helping you learn the game!

• While there is a lot of valuable information in these quest steps, this tutorial doesn't cover many of the core mechanics that it should - that's where a friend comes in.
• If you're finding the Guardian Rises questline to be unenjoyable, you can skip it at any time! Just remember that this is irreversible.

Use this skip on subsequent characters you create, this questline does not offer worthwhile rewards to justify replaying it.

Head to the Tower & Meet Ikora

The opening questline takes you to the Tower, Destiny 2's main social hub - this is among the most important of your first steps. The Tower is home to many of the game's most important vendors, many of which the questline introduces you to. Among them is the Warlock Vanguard, Ikora Rey. Her role is incredibly important to a New Light as she unlocks Subclass components in exchange for Glimmer.

• Glimmer is Destiny 2's most commonly used currency and crafting material. You earn it for doing just about anything, like completing activities and killing enemies.
• You need lots of it early on to unlock Subclass components. A great way to easily get tons of Glimmer is to complete Public Events and Patrol-missions within Patrols on many of the game's various Destinations.

Ikora also gives you a New Light Kit. These are curated sets of weapons, armor, aspects and fragments along with a quest that awards an Exotic armor piece when completed. Note that only one New Light Kit is available per Character. Basically, pick a curated Starter Build made by Bungie. Ikora Rey is found in the Bazaar, on the West side of the Tower.

Progression

What is Progression in Destiny 2?

Destiny 2 is a huge game with a lot of things to do in it. To the question of "what are the first steps of progression in Destiny 2, and how do I complete them?", our answer is "it depends on what you want to do." - there are many things Guardians find themselves working towards while playing, here's some examples to give you a better idea:

• Some Guardians wish to experience Destiny's cinematic stories, they progress through the game's various Campaigns and questlines to experience it all.

• Others are here for buildcrafting - they want to feel powerful, unstoppable, and extremely deadly. They dabble in every one of Destiny's systems and activities to become as powerful as they possibly can. We also dabble in this.

• Some are here for the challenge, they dive headfirst into Destiny's iconic puzzle-combat hybrid encounters within Dungeons and Raids, walking away with well earned armaments and prestige.

• Competitive Guardians mostly stay within the Crucible - a collection of Destiny's PvP game modes - the experience here is unlike any other game on the market! These players forever hunt for better and better Weapons to shoot their fellow Guardians with.

• Fashion Savvy Guardians often find themselves spending hours inspecting a Shader's textures in an effort to create their next iconic look as they express themselves. Though, they do need to occasionally play the game to get to that point.

We at Maxroll understand that you probably aren't ready to decide what it is you wish to play Destiny for, and that's okay! We've prepared progression recommendations that help you get ready for anything at all you may want to do in this game's vast galaxy!

We recommend progression for the sake of unlocking things, doing what you can to unlock new systems, activities, and build-crafting elements to get a taste of everything the game has to offer. Doing this helps you decide what you're gonna stick around for. Find what that looks like below:

Progress through the Guardian Ranks

The most important thing to do as a new Guardian is to progress through the Guardian Ranks. This system is critical for new Destiny 2 players, taking your first steps through it unlocks key build-crafting components and introduces you to more of the game's systems. Since it makes you interact with many different parts of the game, you can better figure out what content you enjoy and would like to do more of.

Complete Campaigns and unlock new Subclasses

One of Destiny 2's strongest points is its narrative, with Campaigns being the cornerstone of that. Playing Campaigns is a great way to immerse yourself in Destiny's canon and organically learn more about the game as you play it. This is Destiny 2's most approachable content, it doesn't require serious build-crafting or Power Level progression, unlike much of the rest of the game.

All players have access to the Shadowkeep and Beyond Light Campaigns - regardless of whether or not you own their respective DLC pack - and in Beyond Light's case, completing it permanently unlocks your character's Stasis Subclass!

There's also the Lightfall and Final Shape Campaigns, completing them unlocks your Character's Strand and Prismatic Hunter Prismatic Subclasses, respectively.

Raise your Power Level

Power Level in Destiny 2 is similar to Gear Score systems present in other MMOs, though here it is significantly less impactful. A low Power Level prevents you from accessing certain types of content alone - if you're playing with friends, Fireteam Power kicks in and raises your Power Level to just under the Fireteam Leader's. This system is important enough to keep in mind, progress through it passively to unlock new types of activities!

• Every Weapon and piece of Armor drops with a Power Level, which is basically it's Gear Score.
  • Your Character's Power Level is the average Power Level between your 3 Weapons and 5 pieces of Armor. Artifact Power is added on top of this.

• Legendary and Exotic equipment can be Infused by using Upgrade Modules, raising their Power Level. While you won't be doing this often during your first steps into Destiny 2, it's critically important to keep this mechanic in mind for later.
  • Upgrade Modules are bought from Banshee-44 using Glimmer as well as Enhancement Cores, which can be easily earned by completing Banshee-44's Gunsmith bounties. Enhancement Cores also often drop through gameplay and dismantling equipment!

• The Power Level of future Weapon and Armor drops is based on your current maximum Power Level - this is based on the highest possible Power Level one of your Characters can reach from equipment you own.

Loot in Destiny 2

Destiny 2 is a Looter as well as a Shooter, and you're going to find that loot drops fairly often. It's important to hold onto the Loot you want, and get rid of the Loot you don't - otherwise, your 700 slot Vault is going to fill up extremely quickly!

Loot Rarities Explained

Loot comes in 5 different rarities: Common, Uncommon, Rare, Legendary and Exotic.

• Common and Uncommon Loot is fully irrelevant, and stops dropping within minutes of creating a new character. Rare Loot is important for raising your Power Level early on, and then stops dropping.

• Legendary Weapons and Armor are bizarrely the most common type of Loot found.
  • Legendary Weapons have random Traits - aka Perks - and each particular one has a limited pool of what it can possibly roll. Perks massively impact a Weapon's performance and damage output, and are the most important thing to look out for as far as Weapons go.
  • Legendary Armor has more Stats than Rare Armor, though the quantity of Stats may significantly vary between individual pieces of randomly rolled Armor. These are set to get reworked in the future and will have Set Bonuses similar to systems found in other MMOs. For now, learn more about how Armor currently works with our Stats Guide and our Loadout Optimizer guide!

• Exotic Weapons and Armor are often the most impactful components of a Build, featuring unique Perks that massively change how you fight. Guardians can only use 1 Exotic Weapon and 1 piece of Exotic Armor at a time!
  • Exotic Weapons are (generally) not random, and can be reacquired through your collections at any time. While some drop through Exotic Engrams, most of them are acquired through questlines and the Monument to Lost Lights in the tower - here, you can spend Exotic Ciphers to unlock many of them!
  • Exotic Armor Pieces have random Stat distributions, though their exclusive Perks are (almost) never random. Almost all of them drop through Exotic Engrams, though some of these require special Focused Decoding from Master Rahool in the Tower.

Deciding to Keep or Dismantle Gear

Now knowing how Loot Rarities work, you're probably asking yourself "What Loot should I keep?". Our answer to that is "That's your decision to make". Though, we do have recommendations for players taking their first steps in Destiny 2

• Dismantle Common and Uncommon Weapons and Armor as soon as you can replace them. These are never useful.

• Rare Equipment is important for raising your Power Level early on, keep these until a higher Power Level replacement drops. These eventually stop dropping entirely!

• Try out Legendary Weapons that drop. Doing this helps you learn what types of Weapons you like, and which Perks you find impactful. Weapon feel is highly subjective - forming your own opinions based off your tastes leads to you enjoying the game more.
  • If you're not enjoying the Weapon, feel free to dismantle it. If it's your highest Power Level item in the slot, you should infuse it into something you like more.

• Beyond caring for their Power Level, keep Legendary Armor with high Stats, especially if it's high in Resilience. "High" is relative to what you already own - this may be 60 or higher total Stat points for you.

• Hold on to Exotic Weapons that you like, and dismantle the ones you don't. Remember, you can always reclaim them from Collections!

• It's important to always keep Exotic Armor Pieces early on, throw them into your Vault if you're not using them. It's difficult to reacquire these, and they can be highly random! You won't need to worry about getting rid of these for a long time.

Ammo Types and Elemental Affinities

While on the subject, Weapons are split into 3 different Ammo Types, 6 different Elements, and fall into 3 different Weapon Slots. These are:

• Primary, Special and Heavy Ammo Weapons.
  • Primary Ammo Weapons have unlimited ammo and tend to be highly versatile. They often deal significantly less damage than Special and Heavy Ammo Weapons, though.
  • Special Ammo Weapons have limited ammo availability and tend to be specialized for specific tasks and or ranges. They often have high damage output.
  • Heavy Ammo Weapons have extremely limited ammo availability and have incredibly high damage output. They tend to be specialized for dealing with certain types of enemies.

"Ammo Bricks" spawn through combat, allowing you to replenish the ammo of Special and Heavy Ammo Weapons.

Maxroll does not recommend using two Primary Ammo Weapons at the same time! This is because using just one tends to be plenty versatile, leading to redundancy and a steep opportunity cost for not using a Special Ammo Weapon.

• Weapons come in one of 6 Elemental affinities; Kinetic, Arc, Solar, Void, Stasis, and Strand.
  • Kinetic Element Weapons deal bonus damage to non-boss unshielded enemies and deal reduced damage to shielded enemies.
  • Arc, Solar, and Void are Light Elements, these Weapons often synergize with their respective Elemental Subclasses.
  • Stasis and Strand are Darkness Elements, these Weapons often synergize with their respective Elemental Subclasses.

Many enemy combatants have shields, which are tuned to a specific non-Kinetic Element. That Element deals significantly more damage to the shield and causes an Elemental explosion when breaking it.

• Weapons fall into the Kinetic, Energy, and Power Weapon Slots.
  • The Kinetic Weapon Slot contains Primary and Special Ammo Weapons using the Kinetic, Stasis, or Strand Elements.
  • The Energy Weapon Slot contains Primary and Special Ammo Weapons using the Arc, Solar, or Void Elements.
  • The Power Weapon Slot Contains Heavy Ammo Weapons using the Arc, Solar, Void, Stasis, or Strand Elements.

Kinetic the Weapon Slot is different from Kinetic the Element. Yes, we know this is confusing.

Summary

This Guide gives you everything you need to complete your First Steps in Destiny 2, and without the things you don't need to know as you're starting out.

• Decide what class you want to play and customize your Guardian.
• Play through the opening questline, learning the ropes of Destiny 2.
• Progress by unlocking new parts of the game:
  • Ascend through the Guardian Ranks.
  • Raise your Power Level.
  • Unlock new build-crafting components like Subclasses, Exotic Weapons, and Exotic Armor.
• Use Glimmer to Purchase Subclass components from Ikora Rey in the Tower. Select one of her New Light Kits to serve as your starter build.
• Understand how a Weapon's Perks, Elemental affinity, and Ammo Type play into its use while learning what to keep and what to dismantle.

Eyes up, Guardian! See you starside!

Credits

Written by: Xtra37

Reviewed by: Tenkiei