Destiny 2 is in a bit of resurgence at the moment since the Forsaken expansion came out September 4th. Everyone expected it to be Taken King level but turns out it’s even bigger than Taken King and is rare territory being in contention to be one of the best add-ons of all time! I really enjoy playing the game so I may be a bit biased, but trust me when I say that it’s awesome and so epic!
Now, having said all that, the landscape of the game has changed and new/returning players are coming back. It’s consistently in the top 10 games being played on Twitch so it’s being played a lot right now. With all these people coming into the world, people are likely to not understand all the changes or how all the systems work. It’s all pretty simple and easy to get in the habit of doing, but not all of it is obvious at first and realistically most of the stuff on this list won’t be a thing until players hit the level cap. The main story needs to be completed first.
This list is going to be 25 things that current players are doing wrong and need some course correcting. Some of these are little things to make life easier, but others are pretty big things to not do! It’s ultimately a video game, though; play how you want. But if you’re needing some advice, let's get to the list!
25 Pick Carefully
With Forsaken came a huge update to the world and the economy of the game. Infusing weapons and armor have always never been a big deal. You get a higher power weapon/armor piece and you just infused it using shards and glimmer and you moved on. Well, it now costs planetary material and masterwork cores to infuse, and it has become more of a commitment. So don’t go around infusing everything just because you get a new thing. Wait till you get something you love and then go nuts!
24 Get Bounties
Bounties have made a big comeback in Destiny 2, and literally every vendor has some to get. The bounties you get from Spider only give you glimmer, but have a chance of getting an exotic. I’ve seen the Lord of Wolves drop from one, so getting those can be very important.
They have a chance to drop exotics.
Getting Crucible and Vanguard bounties give tokens to get more weapons/gear to rank up faster. The most important ones to get are the ones from Petra in the Dreaming City because they can give powerful gear from doing the weekly ones.
23 Cap The Points
When Destiny 2 first launched, they changed up Control and the point didn’t capture any faster regardless of how many people were on it. People were not happy about that and they have recently changed that to where it does go faster. They also used to have one point already captured and that’s gone as well. So when a game starts, there's no reason to not go for point A or C and capture it with your team. It’s free points and may put your team in the lead! I see people go off to B at the start of so many matches and there’s no reason to.
22 Clan Up!
If you play Destiny 2 at all past the stories of the main game and DLC, then joining a clan is something you’re going to want to do. They have daily and weekly bounties to get clan points and give you and your classmates gear and weapons.
You basically get free engrams.
Joining up with a clan from a streamer might be a good idea if you don’t have many friends that play, cause they are usually around 90 deep and get all the free ones during a week.
21 Chill Out
A thing I see all the time is people wanting to run through a strike and not take down all the enemies on the way. I get that people just want to run the three weekly strikes and get the powerful gear, but running through some can be a whole thing. I’m playing a first-person shooter and want to use my weapons! Most strikes have an enemy barrier up where you have to clear them to pass anyway. Plus, it’s easier to do Vanguard bounties running the strikes as intended.
20 Use That Super!
A thing that makes Destiny 2 different from a lot of FPS games is the ability to use supers. Most supers in the game can take care of large groups of enemies or get a few takedowns in the Crucible. A mistake I see all the time is people saving them till the last minute or for the opportune time. They recharge decently fast now so pop those supers if you’re about to go down, don’t save them for a hero moment every time!
19 Same For The Same
I already mentioned the infusing system changing, but let’s talk about infusing the same weapon/armor piece into a duplicate. Don’t just dismantle the lower light one for the higher light one if you’re low on materials. You can just use glimmer when infusing two of the same now!
It makes things so much easier.
It took me a while to figure this out but it was so nice when I found out. So you can keep those god rolls and just infuse them up from now on!
18 Purple Stuff
Mods completely changed with the release of Forsaken and are now much harder to come by. You can get them in the wild and by completing bounties but you mainly get them from dismantling something with a mod already in it.
Dismantle all of your old mods.
Banshee 44 sells two different mods every week and seeing what those are is something most people probably aren’t doing yet. They are kind of expensive but worth getting a few if he has some good ones.
17 Glam It Up!
Shaders are still a weird thing but the economy is better than it used to be. They are still a single-use item, but you can buy them in the collections tab now. So if you get a single shader you like you can use it as much as you want as long as you have the materials to buy more. There’s no need to conserve them anymore so go nuts and put them on everything you want! I see people walking around with basic weapons and armor and you don’t have to do that anymore!
16 Repeat Content
I totally get that you want to play all the new content with Forsaken, but doing the weekly milestones is crucial to raising your light. Yeah, you’re going to be doing strikes you’ve done a ton, but that’s the grind. Doing the Heroic story missions is new and that’s different. Also doing a Heroic adventure every week can get you powerful gear! Doing some of the older content is just part of the game and doing them real quick once a week isn’t that big of a deal.
15 Mix And Match
Right before Forsaken launched, Bungie changed the weapon system entirely. Some shotguns and snipers can be used as a Primary and Energy weapon now and I don’t see everyone taking advantage of that!
It feels like the original Destiny system.
If you go into the Crucible you’ll definitely notice that more people are using shotguns, but snipers are still rare from what I’ve seen. You always have ammo for all guns outside of Power weapons when you respawn so mix up the weapons you use and play around with the combinations!
14 Wait To Buy
Tess is always selling new things at Eververse every week and it can be tempting to go ahead and buy what she’s selling, but waiting is the better option. If you are going to be playing all week then you’ll get several chances to get what she has for free with the engrams you get for leveling up and you can save that Bright Dust. I get buying something if you're only going to play a day or two that week, though, or if it’s a cool emote you’ve been wanting, then go ahead and go for it.
13 Don't Watch And Play
I’m guilty of doing this all the time and that’s why I’ve included it on here. When I’m grinding I’ll pull up a stream on Twitch and watch that while I play. Now, if you’re doing PvE stuff then its fine, but once you play multiplayer maybe turn the stream off. I say that, but if you have really fast internet it’s probably fine, I don’t! If I’m watching a stream and playing then I’m usually the one on the team with a bad connection! I’ve gotten PSN messages saying I’m cheating when it’s just bad connection.
12 Ghost, Pay Attention
Since the materials on planets are useful again, that means paying attention to the perks on your Ghost can matter. Having a Ghost that can detect materials for each planet can come in very handy when looking for infusion material. Plus, some of the perks on a Ghost can give bonus XP on certain activities and some give bonus XP on all activities! I get wanting to pick a shell because it looks cool but the perks are way more important and can just make playing easier.
11 Competitive Is Competitive
Competitive play in the Crucible can be pretty tough! People found that out when trying to go for the Redrix Claymore last season with most people not being able to get it.
It can get pretty sweaty in there.
Unless you’re going in with a team, then you’re likely to struggle and just know that going in. I saw people complain about how it was really hard…well no duh, it’s called Competitive for a reason! It can be extremely rewarding to get wins in there, though!
10 Don't Delete That!
Random rolls are a thing again! You probably know this if you still play the game. This is going to be for the ones who left or haven’t played in a while. Bungie listened to the community and brought them back. It sounds weird to say this, but they feel even better than they did in Destiny 1. Some of the rolls I’ve gotten in Forsaken have been amazing! I see people delete weapons on streams now with good rolls and that’s become a no-no again!
9 Go To The Blind Well
The Blind Well is an important part to the Dreaming City and definitely a place you need to visit! It’s like a horde mode in the middle of the map. You can have up to 9 players there, just like Escalation Protocol, and you’ll need them for the tougher fights.
A tier 2 instance will give you a Seed of Light.
I’ve only done the first two tiers and attempted a tier 3, but couldn’t do any damage to anything. I’ve seen people doing all kinds of things looking for another Seed of Light but not going to the well!
8 More Than One
I main a Hunter class, but I also have a Titan I play with a lot. I get having a favorite class, but if you’re going to be playing to get to max light then I highly suggest having at least two characters. Yes, you have to play the story twice, but once you get both characters around the same light you’re getting double the amount of powerful rewards. I see people all the time with only one character and they are struggling to get higher light and this is a main reason why. It just makes the process faster!
7 ‘Whatcha Buyin’?”
Xur comes every Friday and stays around until reset on Tuesday. If you are a new player, then you need to be going to him every week because he sells exotics you can buy with shards. Don’t make the mistake if you’re a veteran player of not going to him, though, because the stuff he sells is light appropriate.
The stuff has random rolls as well.
Bungie has said that he won’t be selling Forsaken exotics yet, but you can still get the Fated Engram if you still need some older exotics.
6 Use The Guide
Guided Games is a flawed system, but at the same time it’s one that people need to take advantage of. Most people I played Destiny 2 with at the start have dropped off so my Raid/Trials/Nightfall experiences have mainly been through this system. You do have to wait a while most of the time if you’re seeking, but you get in with people who want to play and help you. When people complain about not having a party to play with and don’t use this system, that’s just a flat out mistake to me. It’s there, use it!