This guide aims to help you locate and complete Lost Sectors while preparing you for their harder and Champion-riddled counterparts. These areas are miniature dungeon-like locations that require Guardians to slay the boss and loot the chest at the end. If you're looking for a challenge and have a need for speed, Expert & Master Lost Sectors are well worth your time and have an abundance of rewards waiting for you.
Discovering Lost Sectors
Lost Sectors are found in every major destination. This includes Europa, the Moon, the European Dead Zone (EDZ), Nessus, Neptune, Savathun's Throne World, the Cosmodrome, the Pale Heart, and the Dreaming City.
These areas are marked on the map by a symbol that looks like an archway with a dot in the middle. After going to the location marked on your map, check your surroundings for this symbol. The marker is usually spray-painted on a wall or object near the entrance.
Base difficulty Lost Sectors - the ones you come across as you explore - drop Glimmer and Gunsmith Engrams out of the locked chest that only opens after defeating the boss. Want to do the Lost Sector again? Leaving the instance fully resets it.
Expert & Master Lost Sectors
Base Lost Sectors aren't difficult enough to require dedicated planning to complete. Expert & Master Lost Sectors on the other hand absolutely do, though they are well worth your time if you're able to complete them alone.
Warning: you won't be able to see or access a Expert or Master Lost Sector until you clear the base version of that particular Sector for the first time!
- Only one of these Lost Sectors is available at a time, rotating daily.
- Each Lost Sector has specific Activity Modifiers which Overcharge certain Weapons types and Elements. Combatants also receive certain Elemental bonuses and special modifiers. Plan around these accordingly.
- The Lost Sector rotation is a predetermined cycle that changes Seasonally. Certain Third Party tools are great for keeping track of this.
- Expert & Master Lost Sectors are Power Enabled and have relatively high Activity Power Caps, so they're extremely difficult if your Power Level is below the Soft Cap.
- Champions are a core part of their difficulty and are NOT optional if you'd like to actually be rewarded. Be prepared to take on many of them.
- Respawns are limited. If you die too many times you are ejected from the activity. However, killing Champions gives you more "lives" to work with.
Rewards
Expert & Master Lost Sectors reward a chance at Exotic Engrams, specific World-Drop Weapons, Enhancement Cores, and Gunsmith Engrams.
To have a chance at receiving the bulk of the rewards from Expert & Master Lost Sectors, you:
- Need to be alone. Your friends cannot help you do this.
- Must defeat ALL Champions before opening the locked chest at the end of the Lost Sector.
- Failing to do this means that you don't receive "Platinum Rewards".
Master Lost Sectors are significantly harder than Expert ones. There's more Champions and the higher Activity Power Cap means that all enemies hit harder while tanking more damage. So, what's the point?
- Compared to an Expert Lost Sector clear, Exotic Engrams have a significantly higher drop rate in Master Lost Sectors.
- You get a World-Drop Weapon every single time versus just having a chance at one dropping.
- Additionally, these specific Weapons also drop with an extra perk in Column 3 or 4!
- This means that any given drop has a 50% higher chance of being what you're looking for!
- Additionally, these specific Weapons also drop with an extra perk in Column 3 or 4!
With this in mind, if clearing a Master Lost Sector doesn't take too much longer than an Expert clear would, you should primarily do Master Lost Sectors.
Currently, Expert & Master Lost Sectors have a limited Weapon drop pool of specific Weapons which rotates daily. You can't view these in game, you need a third party tool for this!
- What they have in common is that they're all from the previous 3 releases, but not the current one.
- The Final Shape's release introduced a new iteration of Truthteller as a World Drop Weapon. This specific Weapon wouldn't be available from Lost Sectors until the following Seasonal release.
- World Drop Weapons that are older than the previous 3 releases are instead available at Banshee-44 for focusing.
- This is a good to use the absurd amount of Gunsmith Engrams you get by farming Lost Sectors.
Farming Expert & Master Lost Sectors is a great way to raise your Reputation with the Cryptarch due to how often Exotic Engrams drop when farming them!
Strategies
The best way to get tons of loot out of Expert & Master Lost Sectors is to do them very quickly. Of all the activities in the game, these are the least random - it pans out to plan it out.
Here are some general tips to help you plan out your farming sessions:
- Plan around Champions. Being unable to dispatch them quickly and safely lends itself to lost time and thus lost loot.
- Of the three Champion types, only two are present in any given Lost Sector.
- Some Lost Sectors feature significantly more of one type of Champion than another, which equates to requiring less uptime on that specific Champion's Stun.
- Consider the Elemental Debuffs you're able to apply between your Weapons and Subclass.
- If you have high uptime on Radiant, your Anti-Barrier options are covered.
- A Special Ammo Weapon with Chill Clip is more than enough to stun Overload and even Unstoppable Champions via Slow and Freeze.
- If all else fails, fall back on Anti-Champion Artifact Mods to get the job done.
- Of the three Champion types, only two are present in any given Lost Sector.
- You start with max Heavy and Special Ammo - build around this.
- Considering that most Expert Lost Sectors take less than 4 minutes to complete - Master isn't much longer - with a modicum of skill and planning, you can afford to spend ammo frivolously if it means clearing faster.
- Not dying often in your clears? Consider Reserve Mods which allow you to be even more careless with your Heavy Ammo.
- Some Heavy Weapons are much better than others when it comes to efficiently clearing Lost Sectors. Xenophage, Gjallarhorn, Dragon's Breath, Leviathan's Breath, and Microcosm come to mind.
- Finding that you're not needing a Primary Ammo Weapon to Stun Champions? Don't use one! Double Special is great if you can get away with it. Special Ammo Grenade Launchers are great for burst damage against Champions and Crowd Control without slowing you down too much, especially if they have Auto-Loading Holster.
- Some Lost Sectors are easier and faster to farm than others, by a lot. Certain ones aren't worth farming at all.
- If a Lost Sector is taking you way too long to complete or is far too difficult, there's nothing wrong with waiting for the next easy one.
- For example, I've cleared Master Perdition in under 2 minutes. It would take me over 6 minutes to clear a Master Lost Sector on the Moon - this is not worth my time in my eyes, so I'd rather wait.
- If a Lost Sector is taking you way too long to complete or is far too difficult, there's nothing wrong with waiting for the next easy one.
Summary
- Lost Sectors are effectively "mini-dungeons" with a locked chest and a boss holding the key.
- There are Lost Sectors in every single location. Locate them through the distinctive symbol that marks their location on the map. It's also spray-painted onto a wall near the entrance to one.
- Basic Lost Sectors reward Glimmer and Gunsmith Engrams, while Expert & Master Sectors reward those, Exotic Engrams, specific World-Drop Weapons, and Enhancement Cores.
- Expert & Master Lost Sectors rotate daily, have activity modifiers, Champions, and require the elimination of those Champions while being alone to receive loot from them.
- The best way to get tons of loot out of Expert & Master Lost Sectors is to do them very quickly. There are tons of strategies to help you do this.
Credits
Written by: Xtra37
Reviewed by: AbbyHour, Tenkiei