Destiny: a smarti's guide to Armor's Light
Oct 17, 2014 11:57:30 GMT -5
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Post by wittyscorpion on Oct 17, 2014 11:57:30 GMT -5
(I was going to title the thread "an idiot's guide", but to my taste that sounds too insulting to the readers:). So "smarti's guide" it is).
Disclaimer: with the DLC 1 out, many of the points made in this post are now obsolete
Purpose
Destiny has an interesting and rather complex leveling system, at its center is the concept of Armors & Lights, which has significant amount of info buried inside the game. The purpose of this post is to collect everything there is to know about this aspect.
Facts
1) The max level can be reached through accumulating XP is 20. After that, your character's level is determined by the amount of Light carried by your armors;
2) There are 4 armor pieces that can carry Light: Helmet, Body (aka Chest), Gauntlet, and Boots. "Class" armor pieces (Hunter cloak / Warlock bond / Titan Mark) do NOT carry Light;
3) Only rare, legendary, exotic, and "Raid Gear" can carry Light. White and green items do NOT;
4) You can only have 1 exotic piece equipped at any time;
5) Non-helmet Raid Gear pieces can only be obtained by beating VoG (must reach lvl27+ to have a realistic chance) on normal, and helmet Raid Gear pieces can only be obtained by beating VoG on hard;
6) Legendary, exotic and Raid Gear's upgrades cost Ascendant Shards (AS). AS can only be farmed in small quantities (see appendix for more details);
7) Each armor piece has a starting Light amount (the amount of Light without any upgrades), a max Light amount (the amount of Light after all the upgrades), and a max "AS-less" Light amount (the max light amount reachable without spending any Ascendant Shards);
Stats table 1 - Light requirement by level
1) The following table shows Light requirement by level:
There is a very easy to remember how many Lights per level (with the exception of 21):
rightmost digit = (level - 20)
second digit = rightmost digit + 1
For example, let's say you want to know how many Lights are required to reach level 28:
rightmost digit = (28 - 20) = 8
second digit = 8 + 1 = 9
---> Light required = 98
Stats table 2 - Starting Light, Max Light & upgrades by armor rarity
Leveling considerations
To level up, players need a strategy on what pieces to acquire at what rarity to maximize efficiency. Some considerations:
1) At level 20 - 23, rare (blue) pieces are sufficient. You will get plenty of random drops to keep leveling up;
2) At the same time, you need to think about your strategy on acquiring legendary and exotic.
a) These can be obtained from random drops, but with pretty small chances. The most common occurrences are getting legendary from decrypting rare engrams. When this does happen, Cryptarch enjoys playing a cruel trick on you, by giving you a piece for a different class.
b) The sure way to get legendary gear is to buy from your class' Vanguard. You need to reach Vanguard Rank 2 first, then it will cost you 120 Vanguard Marks for a helmet, and 65 Vanguard Marks for body/gauntlet/boots;
c) The sure way to get exotic gear is to buy from Xur during his weekly sale every Friday to Saturday. He will sell one piece for each class, the cost is 13 strange coins. Keep in mind though you can also buy exotic weapons from him using strange coins, and a great weapon is always favored over armor pieces. So spend you hard earned coins wisely.
He also sells 1 exotic engram at 23 Mote of Light. This is THE best way to spend Mote of Light (the only other way to spend it is to buy cosmetic stuff from the Speaker, they look great but don't give you in game benefits). The engram will tell you what category it is for, but not what class.
d) Keep in mind that all the legendary gears you obtained will later be replaced by Raid Gear, so don't get too emotionally attached to them;
e) Because of the fact that helmets in legendary are almost twice as expensive as other pieces, while the helmets in exotic cost the same, IMHO you should favor exotic helmets when buying stuff from Xur. Of course this is not a hard rule;
3) Upgrade considerations
a) Due to the fact AS are hard to come by and the legendary pieces you have will be replaced by Raid Gear, the rule of thumb is to minimize AS spending on upgrading legendary pieces. Prioritize the shards on exotic upgrade first.
b) Although you are going to discard the legendary gears in the future, it still makes sense to upgrade them, as long as it does not cost you an arm and a leg to do so. Why? Because the more upgraded it is, the more shards you can get when dismantling them.
c) Don't spend any shards until doing so would increase your level. Being closer to the next level makes no difference, and by the time you are able to reach the next level, you may have obtained new armor that makes you regret that investment.
d) If you are going to invest shards in legendary, non-raid armor, do so first in leg armor. Leg armor is the only type for which there is no Exotic armor, meaning you will not be tempted to replace it with Exotic armor. Because leg armor gives the least bonuses, it is also where you will have the highest tolerance for continuing to use sub-optimal armor because you have invested shards.
Leveling recommendations
I have thrown out a lot of information out there, it could be overwhelming. This section is designed to provide concise and easy to follow steps on road to level 30:
1) Rely on randomly dropped rare (blue) pieces to get through the lower levels;
2) Do the weekly at the appropriate level to get strange coins. You want to accumulate enough to buy an exotic, preferably helmet (note: this is still debatable);
3) At the same time, work your Vanguard reputations to level 2, and at the same time accumulate Vanguard Marks, so you can buy the remaining pieces in legendary from the class' vanguards. In the worst case scenario, you need 65 * 3 = 195 Marks to buy the 3 pieces. Less if you got lucky from loot and engrams.
4) At the same time, you also want to accumulate AS. Upgrades are expensive:
a) 21 shards to fully upgrade one raid gear
b) 16 for exotic
Total = 21 * 3 + 16 =79 shards (per character), this is assuming that you spend nothing on non-raid-gear-legendary upgrade. That's a lot considering at the maximum you can earn at most ~60-70 per week (1 per day from public event, 2 per day from lvl28 daily, over 3 characters), So start working on them even if you are at low level.
5) What to do on legendary upgrade?
Ideally you want to minimize AS expenditure on legendary, because they will be replaced by Raid Gear. However, in order to earn Raid gear you need to reach level 27+ to be able to have a shot at VoG on hard. Let's do some math:
lvl27 requires 87 Light. You can get 30 from a fully upgraded exotic, and 22 each from legendary without spending any AS. That will give you 30 + 22 * 3 = 96. More than enough to get you there
6) Once you reach lvl27, you are at the mercy of Raid RNG for Raid Gear because they are dropped randomly. Keep beating VoG week after week and hope for the Raid Gear to drop. As you replace regular-legendary pieces with Raid gear, you will be able to level up to 28+, at which time you can start working on VoG hard, which will offer more and better stuff when beaten;
Eventually you will get to level 30. Once you get here (for all 3 characters), you are done . At least until the expansion pack 1 drops.
Appendix 1 - activities vs. rewards matrix
Note: Nightfall's rewards are random, you could get several Ascendant Materials and/or several coins and/or weapons/armors/engrams. Empirical evidence shows that the following could be dropped:
1) 7 - 12 Ascendant shards;
2) 9 Strange Coins;
3) Legendary/exotic weapons/armors;
All very good stuff
Appendix 2 - what can be obtained from decrypting blue engrams
1) Rare item of the designated category - very common
2) Mote of Light: decent chance
3) Strange Coin: rarely
4) Legendary item of the designated category (but for random class): even more rarely
Disclaimer: with the DLC 1 out, many of the points made in this post are now obsolete
Purpose
Destiny has an interesting and rather complex leveling system, at its center is the concept of Armors & Lights, which has significant amount of info buried inside the game. The purpose of this post is to collect everything there is to know about this aspect.
Facts
1) The max level can be reached through accumulating XP is 20. After that, your character's level is determined by the amount of Light carried by your armors;
2) There are 4 armor pieces that can carry Light: Helmet, Body (aka Chest), Gauntlet, and Boots. "Class" armor pieces (Hunter cloak / Warlock bond / Titan Mark) do NOT carry Light;
3) Only rare, legendary, exotic, and "Raid Gear" can carry Light. White and green items do NOT;
4) You can only have 1 exotic piece equipped at any time;
5) Non-helmet Raid Gear pieces can only be obtained by beating VoG (must reach lvl27+ to have a realistic chance) on normal, and helmet Raid Gear pieces can only be obtained by beating VoG on hard;
6) Legendary, exotic and Raid Gear's upgrades cost Ascendant Shards (AS). AS can only be farmed in small quantities (see appendix for more details);
7) Each armor piece has a starting Light amount (the amount of Light without any upgrades), a max Light amount (the amount of Light after all the upgrades), and a max "AS-less" Light amount (the max light amount reachable without spending any Ascendant Shards);
Stats table 1 - Light requirement by level
1) The following table shows Light requirement by level:
Level | Light |
21 | 20 |
22 | 32 |
23 | 43 |
24 | 54 |
25 | 65 |
26 | 76 |
27 | 87 |
28 | 98 |
29 | 109 |
30 | 120 |
There is a very easy to remember how many Lights per level (with the exception of 21):
rightmost digit = (level - 20)
second digit = rightmost digit + 1
For example, let's say you want to know how many Lights are required to reach level 28:
rightmost digit = (28 - 20) = 8
second digit = 8 + 1 = 9
---> Light required = 98
Stats table 2 - Starting Light, Max Light & upgrades by armor rarity
Rarity | Starting Light | Max Light | Max "AS-less" Light | # Upgrades | Light increase per upgrade | Total AS needed for full upgrade |
Rare | varies | varies, best ones can reach 15 | ||||
Non Raid Gear Legendary | 18 | 27 | 22 | 5 | 2-2-1-2-2 (last 3 require AS, 6 each) | 18 |
Exotic | 21 | 30 | 25 | 4 | 2-2-2-3 (last 2 require AS, 8 each) | |
Raid Gear Legendary | 18 | 30 | 23 | 5 | 2-2-2-3-3 (last 3 require AS, 7 each) | 21 |
Leveling considerations
To level up, players need a strategy on what pieces to acquire at what rarity to maximize efficiency. Some considerations:
1) At level 20 - 23, rare (blue) pieces are sufficient. You will get plenty of random drops to keep leveling up;
2) At the same time, you need to think about your strategy on acquiring legendary and exotic.
a) These can be obtained from random drops, but with pretty small chances. The most common occurrences are getting legendary from decrypting rare engrams. When this does happen, Cryptarch enjoys playing a cruel trick on you, by giving you a piece for a different class.
b) The sure way to get legendary gear is to buy from your class' Vanguard. You need to reach Vanguard Rank 2 first, then it will cost you 120 Vanguard Marks for a helmet, and 65 Vanguard Marks for body/gauntlet/boots;
c) The sure way to get exotic gear is to buy from Xur during his weekly sale every Friday to Saturday. He will sell one piece for each class, the cost is 13 strange coins. Keep in mind though you can also buy exotic weapons from him using strange coins, and a great weapon is always favored over armor pieces. So spend you hard earned coins wisely.
He also sells 1 exotic engram at 23 Mote of Light. This is THE best way to spend Mote of Light (the only other way to spend it is to buy cosmetic stuff from the Speaker, they look great but don't give you in game benefits). The engram will tell you what category it is for, but not what class.
d) Keep in mind that all the legendary gears you obtained will later be replaced by Raid Gear, so don't get too emotionally attached to them;
e) Because of the fact that helmets in legendary are almost twice as expensive as other pieces, while the helmets in exotic cost the same, IMHO you should favor exotic helmets when buying stuff from Xur. Of course this is not a hard rule;
3) Upgrade considerations
a) Due to the fact AS are hard to come by and the legendary pieces you have will be replaced by Raid Gear, the rule of thumb is to minimize AS spending on upgrading legendary pieces. Prioritize the shards on exotic upgrade first.
b) Although you are going to discard the legendary gears in the future, it still makes sense to upgrade them, as long as it does not cost you an arm and a leg to do so. Why? Because the more upgraded it is, the more shards you can get when dismantling them.
c) Don't spend any shards until doing so would increase your level. Being closer to the next level makes no difference, and by the time you are able to reach the next level, you may have obtained new armor that makes you regret that investment.
d) If you are going to invest shards in legendary, non-raid armor, do so first in leg armor. Leg armor is the only type for which there is no Exotic armor, meaning you will not be tempted to replace it with Exotic armor. Because leg armor gives the least bonuses, it is also where you will have the highest tolerance for continuing to use sub-optimal armor because you have invested shards.
Leveling recommendations
I have thrown out a lot of information out there, it could be overwhelming. This section is designed to provide concise and easy to follow steps on road to level 30:
1) Rely on randomly dropped rare (blue) pieces to get through the lower levels;
2) Do the weekly at the appropriate level to get strange coins. You want to accumulate enough to buy an exotic, preferably helmet (note: this is still debatable);
3) At the same time, work your Vanguard reputations to level 2, and at the same time accumulate Vanguard Marks, so you can buy the remaining pieces in legendary from the class' vanguards. In the worst case scenario, you need 65 * 3 = 195 Marks to buy the 3 pieces. Less if you got lucky from loot and engrams.
4) At the same time, you also want to accumulate AS. Upgrades are expensive:
a) 21 shards to fully upgrade one raid gear
b) 16 for exotic
Total = 21 * 3 + 16 =79 shards (per character), this is assuming that you spend nothing on non-raid-gear-legendary upgrade. That's a lot considering at the maximum you can earn at most ~60-70 per week (1 per day from public event, 2 per day from lvl28 daily, over 3 characters), So start working on them even if you are at low level.
5) What to do on legendary upgrade?
Ideally you want to minimize AS expenditure on legendary, because they will be replaced by Raid Gear. However, in order to earn Raid gear you need to reach level 27+ to be able to have a shot at VoG on hard. Let's do some math:
lvl27 requires 87 Light. You can get 30 from a fully upgraded exotic, and 22 each from legendary without spending any AS. That will give you 30 + 22 * 3 = 96. More than enough to get you there
6) Once you reach lvl27, you are at the mercy of Raid RNG for Raid Gear because they are dropped randomly. Keep beating VoG week after week and hope for the Raid Gear to drop. As you replace regular-legendary pieces with Raid gear, you will be able to level up to 28+, at which time you can start working on VoG hard, which will offer more and better stuff when beaten;
Eventually you will get to level 30. Once you get here (for all 3 characters), you are done . At least until the expansion pack 1 drops.
Appendix 1 - activities vs. rewards matrix
XP (~35K -> 1 Mote of Light?) | Ascendant Material | Vanguard Mark | Vanguard Reputation | Strange Coin | Mote of Light | |
Patrol mission - VIP | 25 | |||||
Patrol mission - non VIP | 10 | |||||
Public event gold finish (first of the day) | 4 | |||||
Public event gold finish | 4 | |||||
Public event gold - RNG right after finish | 1 | 1 | 1 | |||
Lvl18 Strike playlist (Eagle) | 10 | |||||
Lvl20 Strike playlist (Viper) | 2 | 12 | ||||
Lvl22 Strike playlist (Wolf) | 3 | 14 | ||||
Lvl24 Strike playlist (Tiger) | 6 | 25 | ||||
Lvl20 Daily Story | 4800 | 5 | ||||
Lvl24 Daily Story | 6000 | 1 | 5 | |||
Lvl28 Daily Story | 7500 | 2 | 5 | |||
Lvl22 Weekly Strike | 3 | 150 | 3 | |||
Lvl26 Weekly Strike | 6 | 250 | 6 | |||
Lvl28 Weekly Strike | 10 | 400 | 9 | |||
Nightfall Weekly Strike | +25% earn rate for the week | Chance to reward 7 - 12 (?) | +25% earn rate for the week | Chance to reward several | ||
Vanguard bounties (type 1) | 2500 | 50 | ||||
Vanguard bounties (type 2) | 5000 | 100 |
Note: Nightfall's rewards are random, you could get several Ascendant Materials and/or several coins and/or weapons/armors/engrams. Empirical evidence shows that the following could be dropped:
1) 7 - 12 Ascendant shards;
2) 9 Strange Coins;
3) Legendary/exotic weapons/armors;
All very good stuff
Appendix 2 - what can be obtained from decrypting blue engrams
1) Rare item of the designated category - very common
2) Mote of Light: decent chance
3) Strange Coin: rarely
4) Legendary item of the designated category (but for random class): even more rarely