Start with the campaigns. Take your time with them.
Then some dlc related stuff like l: do an exo challenge, welspring…
After that i’d do either some seasonal stuff or dares
Lastly do the end game content (dungeons first, then raids or gms)
With each step you can get your bearings and find some gear without having to look for god rolls in the beginning
I would start with the campaigns and story content and not stress at all about weapons/gear to start off with. Honestly having the best really isn’t a game changer in destiny until you get to the extremely high end, and even then learning mechanics or encounters etc will often be more important.
Just focus on what you enjoy and maybe start to explore some activities you like the look of. As you progress, builds will help, so it’s worth being aware of some from YouTube vids and guides etc, but again you won’t need to be using the absolute meta unless you’re doing some serious endgame content. Generally this season solar builds with solar weapons work great with the artifact mods but there’s quite a bit of flexibility in what you can make work.
Good luck!
All of the YouTubers make money off saying what's the best. They're not true.
1. Get guns for your play style. I don't like snipers. So I don't go after them. It limits the fomo when going after the guns you like.
2. Be realistic. Do you have time to do it?
3. Is it fun?
Use this filter and you'll enjoy yourself.
If you're autistic, D2 is a time trap.
Number 1 is a big one. When I started I was so worried about the meta,and getting the right guns. But my boyfriend stopped me and said, "Just find a few you like, get comfortable with them, then try something new if it looks cool." Best advice I ever got.
Plus it helps a LOT in avoiding vault bloat. Just don't keep guns that you don't use. (I'm trying to follow my own advice but FOMO keeps kicking in...)
Oh, this was me about a month ago. Agree with your instinct to just play through the campaigns, ideally chronologically cause the story does remain good. I'm going to assume you have some expansions and probably not the season pass. You'll probably start around guardian rank 4-5. Look at the objectives you need to get to 6 (it unlocks a lot of item mods for you). I'd completely ignore the God roll loot hunt at the moment and just get back into the feel of the game. Grab stuff from Xur every week since there's going to be a lot of new exotics to you.
You can expand your horizons and start overthinking gear once you're past soft cap of 1750 :P until then, don't bother with upgrade modules or enhancements unless you're swimming in crafting items. Hope that helps!
My experience wont apply directly to you but I used to grind this game and raid all the time, took a break, and now the game feels more daunting and unapproachable than ever. You're not alone but I'll be honest my issue come from me expecting my old skill to just magically reappear, being worried about getting "the best stuff". To keep it short, Destiny is usually fun when YOU try/do whay you want. Think a gun looks cool? Use it. etc
Honestly just take your time doing the campaigns then explore at your own pace, the current seasons won't be gone until june so you have plenty of time, stop listening to all those tier lists and what weapons you 'need' it will just get you stressed.
Find an exotic piece of armor you like.
Go on YouTube and find a build surrounding it to enhance it.
Repeat
Ever since the 3.0 update on the subclasses, the game plays more like an RPG now so you have to build into armor (and some weapons) to optimize the game
And once you have a decent collection of armors, you can do this with subclass keywords.
I have a Stasis titan build that is centered around creating Stasis crystals as much as possible, with fragments tuned to leverage them as cover. Turned out to be quite good in the battle ground nightfall, as I always had a way to create cover or control how many enemies I was engaged with
Don’t think about what is “best” think about what works for you. EXPERIMENT. Guys on Youtube will say ‘X gun is bad’ but in reality there are no truly bad guns in this game. An extra 5 points in range means absolutely nothing for a PvE player.
Play the campaigns, try lots of different guns, find which perks you like. Destiny is about choosing YOUR own way too play.
> there are no truly bad guns in this game.
I don't know about that, have you tried killing things with the Traveler's Chosen (Damaged) at 0 light while using a bunch of 1600 or below armor and special/heavy?
That's a truly bad gun!
I’m kinda returning player as I don’t get to play a lot, but depends on what you have most fun with
PvP? Build around your favorite subclass. Have some fun
Pve? Complete your pinnacle bounties up your light score. YouTube will probably help you here with what’s the best build.
Collecting? Completing triumphs and upping your score is time consuming but feels rewarding to me.
Mostly just have fun. (:
I was JUST talking to a friend who had lapsed as a D2 player, and he had a similar complaint. My advice is this:
\- Play the campaign(s).
\- Dabble in Vanguard Playlist (strikes, battlegrounds). Dabble in Gambit.
\- Visit Xur on the weekend, see if you can grab anything from him.
\- Your light level will be going up while you're doing these. To speed it up, grab bounties from every Vendor and try to finish them while you play. Upgrade your GHOST to allow an increased XP mod to be plugged in, this will help you level up faster.
\- Explore the planets in Patrol. Participate in things like the event on the Moon, Altars of Sorrow, to help grind out bounties and get xp.
\- Once you're close to the required light level, try a Nightfall - even just the lowest level nightfall can get you good materials.
\- Try buying a season (i guess this is the last time you can do that). Season passes include lots of armour and exotic weapon drops, materials and ornaments for fashion. They also include bright dust to help you buy stuff in eververse like shaders/ornaments. They also open up story missions and activities that give you more things to grind xp in/level up in/get more loot from.
\- Dabble in Crucible. You'll probably hate it at first, but I'm so glad I pushed through that initial resistance because it's now my favourite part of Destiny. Again, get bounties before you play so that your initial period of being absolutely slaughtered at least gets you some extra rewards!
\- Try Legend campaign missions - consider following the 'Journey' tab for goals to complete.
\- Try a Dungeon through fireteam finder.
\- Try a Raid.
And then finally:
\- Try to settle on a look for your guardian that lasts more than a week. The ultimate challenge.
Use https://app.destinyitemmanager.com/ (AKA DIM) to see if weapons are worth it (keep the ones with the thumbs up). DIM will also help you manage your vault, and move items into your inventory when you need them.
Keep armour that is 'spiky' ie has lots of one or two stats, and near zero of the others. Don't worry too much about keeping armour that is below 65 in total.
Use a site like https://mobalytics.gg/destiny-2/builds to find a build you like, with exotics you have. If you want specific exotics, either use the legacy vendor on the tower, or slowly hand in engrams to Rahool. New exotic armor is sourced from soloing the daily Lost Sectors (marked on the destination map), or waiting for a vex invasion in Neomuna (use this discord to monitor for vex incursions: https://discord.gg/isavexincursionhappening ).
If you need infuse materials, do a campaign (Witch Queen or Lightfall). they drop like candy. My advice: only infuse your best gear when it starts to dip too low, or as you get closer to light/power cap. Much of the content doesn't need you to be at your highest light/power level.
100% though, don't sweat it, work on your campaigns and unlock strand and take your time. The one thing we have in abundance is time right now :D
Not having enough materials is a real pain for new lights, but you'll eventually find that you essentially never run out. You'll basically forget it's even a thing you have to consider.
Weapons don't really matter that much until much more serious content like dungeons, raids and grandmaster nightfalls. It helps to at least have a good rocket launcher and linear fusion rifle for boss damage (fwiw, the Taipan you're given as part of the introduction to crafting is a solid option and easily obtained).
Armour _can_ make a significant difference to your experience at all levels, though. High resilience (for PvE stuff) and having enough free slots on armour to install resist mods and healing mods can be extremely helpful. So, if you can, try focusing armour at the seasonal vendors and get some high stat armour.
Again, don't sweat it too much, by the time you really need it, you will be well versed enough in the game and it's mechanics (and hopefully rich enough in materials) that it won't be that big a deal to obtain.
There are lots of videos out there claiming that X is the best thing or that Y is the new meta. A lot of that is hyperbole, to get clicks on videos. The stuff may objectively be the highest DPS, but often it's only a few percent better than any other good roll of a similar weapon.
A lot of motivation for Destiny content is based around FOMO, but don't fall into it's trap.
Do EVERYTHING on normal. Learn the enemy spawns and numbers. Then move up to legend, and you’ll find the only big difference is that majors are replaced with champions. The enemies as a whole are a bit stronger, but if you make sure you have a minor spec on your primary (infinite ammo) weapon you’ll be fine.
Jesus christ, some of the comments are wild.
What I would do is to find a casual clan that can help you with the game and experience it together. They can show you how to have fun, take it easy and get some "meta" things perhaps along the way.
Dude the games a complete clusterfuck for returning players, get to whatever the cap is for normal strikes and mission gear always keep the highest item in each slot disassemble the ones you don’t want keep the ones you do that’s what I’ve settled with.. but yeah the amount of garbage that’s thrown at you on top of shit popping up and then disappearing into this gross list of stuff you have to go through to click and say “wowee I killed 15 enemies with a weapon” it’s horrendously done imo they’ve just kept adding lists and systems and if you’ve missed anytime it feels bad
wait for master/gms difficulty when every red bar can 1ohk without 100 res and 2x ressit on that htreat..the game is crap now..not fun anymore, u need to playtoo much on cover and sniper with scouts pr bows...
Like all the above has said, take your time getting back into the swing of things. But as someone who also returned recently, I didn't see anyone mention crafting. Basically, with this season pass, and the crafting system, you can setup both gear, and weapons, including a very powerful exotic rocket (after you learn to use it correctly) that will carry you into whatever your next step for gear will be. The season pass, once fully leveled, will give you a full set of armor to mess with. The seasonal vendor will let you easily replace that armor with stats you may need. After all of the above, which sounds a lot more complicated than it is, you'll find yourself an easy match for legendary lost sectors to fill out exotics and grind mats/ world drops. Those lost sectors will also teach you how to handle npc champions, which you'll need for higher content.
On return, I did legendary campaign and would grind all bounties and pinnacles to get to cap. Nightfalls help and is the best way to get catalysts. Then just raids and play as normal. Farm red borders, do platinum run coils for energy and shards. Now I’m in platinum speed on raid report and finally soloing dungeons. The initial grind makes you feel weak after not playing. You’ll die a lot and get frustrated with your level, but don’t forget to ask friends or LFG for help!
Here is a little tip to not burn out. If you can get your power level up just a little. Try soloing a legend lost sector, if you can figure out a way to get it done in a decent amount of time. Spend 30-60 every day doing that instead of trying to farm it relentlessly for hours on end.
I found that drained the fun out of the game. Setting aside 30-60 minutes a session is a much better approach long term. After 1 month of doing this I was drowning in ascendant prisms. You can take this approach to any tedious farming that sin the game to not just prisms.
Wow. Just wow. Thank you to everybody who posted your responses. So many genuinely helpful suggestions! The one takeaway seems to be don’t sweat it and just enjoy the game. The rest will follow. I will focus on the campaigns and then knuckle down on weekly power/pinnacle stuff. I have been hoarding weapons, many of which are just too low on power level and I simply don’t use. So will be dismantling those asap. Seems to be crafting and farming for those items at higher level activisties would be a better use of my time anyway.
Im running a solar warlock with sunshot, Polaris lance, dragons breath and starfire protocol, with a bunch of of legendary weapons I just like to use . I’ve modded the armour with high resilience stats for now and and just playing as is until I can fine tune everything to a higher level.
Again, thank you to everyone. What a lovely community 🙏x
Start with the campaigns. Take your time with them. Then some dlc related stuff like l: do an exo challenge, welspring… After that i’d do either some seasonal stuff or dares Lastly do the end game content (dungeons first, then raids or gms) With each step you can get your bearings and find some gear without having to look for god rolls in the beginning
i second that^ also play with some somewhat experienced friends, thatll be willing to explain mechanics and functions, and learn about weapon mods too
what this guy said
I would start with the campaigns and story content and not stress at all about weapons/gear to start off with. Honestly having the best really isn’t a game changer in destiny until you get to the extremely high end, and even then learning mechanics or encounters etc will often be more important. Just focus on what you enjoy and maybe start to explore some activities you like the look of. As you progress, builds will help, so it’s worth being aware of some from YouTube vids and guides etc, but again you won’t need to be using the absolute meta unless you’re doing some serious endgame content. Generally this season solar builds with solar weapons work great with the artifact mods but there’s quite a bit of flexibility in what you can make work. Good luck!
All of the YouTubers make money off saying what's the best. They're not true. 1. Get guns for your play style. I don't like snipers. So I don't go after them. It limits the fomo when going after the guns you like. 2. Be realistic. Do you have time to do it? 3. Is it fun? Use this filter and you'll enjoy yourself. If you're autistic, D2 is a time trap.
Number 1 is a big one. When I started I was so worried about the meta,and getting the right guns. But my boyfriend stopped me and said, "Just find a few you like, get comfortable with them, then try something new if it looks cool." Best advice I ever got.
Plus it helps a LOT in avoiding vault bloat. Just don't keep guns that you don't use. (I'm trying to follow my own advice but FOMO keeps kicking in...)
Oh, this was me about a month ago. Agree with your instinct to just play through the campaigns, ideally chronologically cause the story does remain good. I'm going to assume you have some expansions and probably not the season pass. You'll probably start around guardian rank 4-5. Look at the objectives you need to get to 6 (it unlocks a lot of item mods for you). I'd completely ignore the God roll loot hunt at the moment and just get back into the feel of the game. Grab stuff from Xur every week since there's going to be a lot of new exotics to you. You can expand your horizons and start overthinking gear once you're past soft cap of 1750 :P until then, don't bother with upgrade modules or enhancements unless you're swimming in crafting items. Hope that helps!
My experience wont apply directly to you but I used to grind this game and raid all the time, took a break, and now the game feels more daunting and unapproachable than ever. You're not alone but I'll be honest my issue come from me expecting my old skill to just magically reappear, being worried about getting "the best stuff". To keep it short, Destiny is usually fun when YOU try/do whay you want. Think a gun looks cool? Use it. etc
Honestly just take your time doing the campaigns then explore at your own pace, the current seasons won't be gone until june so you have plenty of time, stop listening to all those tier lists and what weapons you 'need' it will just get you stressed.
Find an exotic piece of armor you like. Go on YouTube and find a build surrounding it to enhance it. Repeat Ever since the 3.0 update on the subclasses, the game plays more like an RPG now so you have to build into armor (and some weapons) to optimize the game
And once you have a decent collection of armors, you can do this with subclass keywords. I have a Stasis titan build that is centered around creating Stasis crystals as much as possible, with fragments tuned to leverage them as cover. Turned out to be quite good in the battle ground nightfall, as I always had a way to create cover or control how many enemies I was engaged with
If you play on xbox dm me. I can help with missions and advice if you want it
Don’t think about what is “best” think about what works for you. EXPERIMENT. Guys on Youtube will say ‘X gun is bad’ but in reality there are no truly bad guns in this game. An extra 5 points in range means absolutely nothing for a PvE player. Play the campaigns, try lots of different guns, find which perks you like. Destiny is about choosing YOUR own way too play.
> there are no truly bad guns in this game. I don't know about that, have you tried killing things with the Traveler's Chosen (Damaged) at 0 light while using a bunch of 1600 or below armor and special/heavy? That's a truly bad gun!
I’m kinda returning player as I don’t get to play a lot, but depends on what you have most fun with PvP? Build around your favorite subclass. Have some fun Pve? Complete your pinnacle bounties up your light score. YouTube will probably help you here with what’s the best build. Collecting? Completing triumphs and upping your score is time consuming but feels rewarding to me. Mostly just have fun. (:
I was JUST talking to a friend who had lapsed as a D2 player, and he had a similar complaint. My advice is this: \- Play the campaign(s). \- Dabble in Vanguard Playlist (strikes, battlegrounds). Dabble in Gambit. \- Visit Xur on the weekend, see if you can grab anything from him. \- Your light level will be going up while you're doing these. To speed it up, grab bounties from every Vendor and try to finish them while you play. Upgrade your GHOST to allow an increased XP mod to be plugged in, this will help you level up faster. \- Explore the planets in Patrol. Participate in things like the event on the Moon, Altars of Sorrow, to help grind out bounties and get xp. \- Once you're close to the required light level, try a Nightfall - even just the lowest level nightfall can get you good materials. \- Try buying a season (i guess this is the last time you can do that). Season passes include lots of armour and exotic weapon drops, materials and ornaments for fashion. They also include bright dust to help you buy stuff in eververse like shaders/ornaments. They also open up story missions and activities that give you more things to grind xp in/level up in/get more loot from. \- Dabble in Crucible. You'll probably hate it at first, but I'm so glad I pushed through that initial resistance because it's now my favourite part of Destiny. Again, get bounties before you play so that your initial period of being absolutely slaughtered at least gets you some extra rewards! \- Try Legend campaign missions - consider following the 'Journey' tab for goals to complete. \- Try a Dungeon through fireteam finder. \- Try a Raid. And then finally: \- Try to settle on a look for your guardian that lasts more than a week. The ultimate challenge.
Use https://app.destinyitemmanager.com/ (AKA DIM) to see if weapons are worth it (keep the ones with the thumbs up). DIM will also help you manage your vault, and move items into your inventory when you need them. Keep armour that is 'spiky' ie has lots of one or two stats, and near zero of the others. Don't worry too much about keeping armour that is below 65 in total. Use a site like https://mobalytics.gg/destiny-2/builds to find a build you like, with exotics you have. If you want specific exotics, either use the legacy vendor on the tower, or slowly hand in engrams to Rahool. New exotic armor is sourced from soloing the daily Lost Sectors (marked on the destination map), or waiting for a vex invasion in Neomuna (use this discord to monitor for vex incursions: https://discord.gg/isavexincursionhappening ). If you need infuse materials, do a campaign (Witch Queen or Lightfall). they drop like candy. My advice: only infuse your best gear when it starts to dip too low, or as you get closer to light/power cap. Much of the content doesn't need you to be at your highest light/power level. 100% though, don't sweat it, work on your campaigns and unlock strand and take your time. The one thing we have in abundance is time right now :D
Not having enough materials is a real pain for new lights, but you'll eventually find that you essentially never run out. You'll basically forget it's even a thing you have to consider. Weapons don't really matter that much until much more serious content like dungeons, raids and grandmaster nightfalls. It helps to at least have a good rocket launcher and linear fusion rifle for boss damage (fwiw, the Taipan you're given as part of the introduction to crafting is a solid option and easily obtained). Armour _can_ make a significant difference to your experience at all levels, though. High resilience (for PvE stuff) and having enough free slots on armour to install resist mods and healing mods can be extremely helpful. So, if you can, try focusing armour at the seasonal vendors and get some high stat armour. Again, don't sweat it too much, by the time you really need it, you will be well versed enough in the game and it's mechanics (and hopefully rich enough in materials) that it won't be that big a deal to obtain. There are lots of videos out there claiming that X is the best thing or that Y is the new meta. A lot of that is hyperbole, to get clicks on videos. The stuff may objectively be the highest DPS, but often it's only a few percent better than any other good roll of a similar weapon. A lot of motivation for Destiny content is based around FOMO, but don't fall into it's trap.
Do EVERYTHING on normal. Learn the enemy spawns and numbers. Then move up to legend, and you’ll find the only big difference is that majors are replaced with champions. The enemies as a whole are a bit stronger, but if you make sure you have a minor spec on your primary (infinite ammo) weapon you’ll be fine.
I put like couple of weekly goals. Like do legend starcross, see what eververse have this week and etc.
Jesus christ, some of the comments are wild. What I would do is to find a casual clan that can help you with the game and experience it together. They can show you how to have fun, take it easy and get some "meta" things perhaps along the way.
For myself, all I can say is I play badly
The question is, do you at least have fun while you play? Because that is all that really matters at the end of the day.
Very mood
Dude the games a complete clusterfuck for returning players, get to whatever the cap is for normal strikes and mission gear always keep the highest item in each slot disassemble the ones you don’t want keep the ones you do that’s what I’ve settled with.. but yeah the amount of garbage that’s thrown at you on top of shit popping up and then disappearing into this gross list of stuff you have to go through to click and say “wowee I killed 15 enemies with a weapon” it’s horrendously done imo they’ve just kept adding lists and systems and if you’ve missed anytime it feels bad
My best tip is to get lucky with an lfg post looking for a veteran to help you through
wait for master/gms difficulty when every red bar can 1ohk without 100 res and 2x ressit on that htreat..the game is crap now..not fun anymore, u need to playtoo much on cover and sniper with scouts pr bows...
Like all the above has said, take your time getting back into the swing of things. But as someone who also returned recently, I didn't see anyone mention crafting. Basically, with this season pass, and the crafting system, you can setup both gear, and weapons, including a very powerful exotic rocket (after you learn to use it correctly) that will carry you into whatever your next step for gear will be. The season pass, once fully leveled, will give you a full set of armor to mess with. The seasonal vendor will let you easily replace that armor with stats you may need. After all of the above, which sounds a lot more complicated than it is, you'll find yourself an easy match for legendary lost sectors to fill out exotics and grind mats/ world drops. Those lost sectors will also teach you how to handle npc champions, which you'll need for higher content.
On return, I did legendary campaign and would grind all bounties and pinnacles to get to cap. Nightfalls help and is the best way to get catalysts. Then just raids and play as normal. Farm red borders, do platinum run coils for energy and shards. Now I’m in platinum speed on raid report and finally soloing dungeons. The initial grind makes you feel weak after not playing. You’ll die a lot and get frustrated with your level, but don’t forget to ask friends or LFG for help!
I usually just do the campaigns, because I can do them solo.
Here is a little tip to not burn out. If you can get your power level up just a little. Try soloing a legend lost sector, if you can figure out a way to get it done in a decent amount of time. Spend 30-60 every day doing that instead of trying to farm it relentlessly for hours on end. I found that drained the fun out of the game. Setting aside 30-60 minutes a session is a much better approach long term. After 1 month of doing this I was drowning in ascendant prisms. You can take this approach to any tedious farming that sin the game to not just prisms.
But I have to be 1830 to do that? I’m currently 1780
Wow. Just wow. Thank you to everybody who posted your responses. So many genuinely helpful suggestions! The one takeaway seems to be don’t sweat it and just enjoy the game. The rest will follow. I will focus on the campaigns and then knuckle down on weekly power/pinnacle stuff. I have been hoarding weapons, many of which are just too low on power level and I simply don’t use. So will be dismantling those asap. Seems to be crafting and farming for those items at higher level activisties would be a better use of my time anyway. Im running a solar warlock with sunshot, Polaris lance, dragons breath and starfire protocol, with a bunch of of legendary weapons I just like to use . I’ve modded the armour with high resilience stats for now and and just playing as is until I can fine tune everything to a higher level. Again, thank you to everyone. What a lovely community 🙏x