Coins

[mannon]

I've never managed to buy anything from Xur, but I'm getting close to being able to. (Might have been able to this last weekend, but I couldn't play until Sunday and he was gone... thanks Bungie.)

What are the best ways to earn coins (fast coins) and what levels are the worth doing at? (Particularly, is there anything I can grind on a couple hours rather than just doing once every day, but those are good too for the long run.)

[hebbnh]

Weekly heroic strikes are the only guaranteed source of coins, a maximum of 9 per week per character. You get 3 for completion at level 22, 6 at 26, or 9 at 28. If you complete it at 28 you're done for the week, but if you do it at a lower difficulty you can go back later on a higher difficulty to earn those rewards minus whatever you've already received. For example, if you complete it on 22, then on 26, you'll get 3 coins from 22 then another 3 from 26 (the original 6 minus the 3 you earned at 22 = 3 coins). Again, you'll only ever be able to get 9 coins a week this way, so if you can do it at level 28, you'll only have to run it once, so that's the preferred route.

[mannon]

Hmm I'm only level 23, (maybe 24 after I buy my boots tonight) but with only blue weapons, no legionaries or exotics. So, i srsly doubt I can get the 9 coins, although I'd REALLY like to get them for this weekend. Unless some kind hearted bros decide to carry me through the 28 strike, anyway. Although I can self revive so maybe I can do better than my level suggests.

[wittyscorpion]

I am probably the most obsessed player on coins, so much so that I plan my weekly schedule around how to get the most of them

A few notes on coins:

1) see hebbnh's post for guaranteed way of earning them;

2) you can also get them from blue engram decryption. The chances are small though. Regarding blue engrams, the odds are in the following order: blue items matching the category > MoL > Coins > Legendary for random class;

3) Coins are the biggest reason behind my pitch of having 3 characters. 3 level 22s can easily produce 9 coins per week, while a single character can't easily get that many if < 28 (you can attempt the 28 weekly solo when you reach level 25, but unless you have an OP weapon you'll get murdered. How to get an OP weapon? The sure way is to buy from Xur, which requires coins...);

4) Xur seems to have the following price table for stuff:

Exotic armor pieces: 13
Exotic special/heavy: 17
Exotic primary: 23

[mannon]

hmm... If I can get a couple I could prolly buy armor this weekend, but maybe I should save them for a possible weapon next weekend or the one after so I can get me a weapon. I dunno.

It's my understanding that I'll need one exotic armor and others legenary to get enough light to srlsy raid, though. Also does wearing an exotic armor prevent you from using an exotic weapon since you can only use one exotic item, or is it one weapon and one armor? (I'm sure it's been asked, so forgive my lack of searching, but it seems like it may be a bit esoteric question to search for.)

[hebbnh]

Oct 23, 2014 12:04:18 GMT -5 mannon said:

hmm... If I can get a couple I could prolly buy armor this weekend, but maybe I should save them for a possible weapon next weekend or the one after so I can get me a weapon. I dunno.

It's my understanding that I'll need one exotic armor and others legenary to get enough light to srlsy raid, though. Also does wearing an exotic armor prevent you from using an exotic weapon since you can only use one exotic item, or is it one weapon and one armor? (I'm sure it's been asked, so forgive my lack of searching, but it seems like it may be a bit esoteric question to search for.)

You're allowed to equip one exotic weapon and one exotic armor piece at the same time.

[TheHawkNY]

mannon: If you have 23 Motes of Light, I'd spend them first on the exotic engram from Xur and hope it ends up being armor for your character. If not, unless the weapon he has is a must-have, I would recommend getting armor from him. Doing so increases your level more quickly, which in turn will allow you to earn higher levels of rewards sooner. If an armor piece gets you up to level 25, we can carry you through a normal mode raid fairly easily, which will likely yield at least something useful as well.

[mannon]

I only have about 7 motes so those will wait. Armor sounds like a plan. Maybe I shouldn't have already bought chest and arms if I wind up replacing with exotic, but then who knows. Any chance he'll have exotic boots? Maybe I shouldn't purchase those until I know. If he does have boots I could save my marks for a helmet.

[wittyscorpion]

mannon: first of all, for light math read through my post on Armor's Light.

Here is the gist on road from 20 to 30:

1) Step 1: reach vanguard rank 2, accumulate enough marks to buy 3 legendary armor pieces, and upgrade them. Without spending any Ascendant Shards, this will give you 22 Light each for 66 total, and with a >= 10 Light rare you'll reach level 26 (Light >= 76);

2) Step 2: buy an exotic armor. Out of the gate it will give you 21 Light, and can upgrade to 25 Light without any AS and 30 with 16 AS. Combined with 1, this will get you to level 27 (Light >= 87). Good enough for VoG;

3) Step 3: things get a little tricky here. With 30 from exotic and 66 from AS-less legendary, you will be 2 Light short from reaching level 28 (Light >= 98). You have 2 options: a) do VoG and hope for a Raid Gear drop, and then upgrade that; b) Put 14(!) AS into a legendary to get 3 Light (a bit of a waste because they will be replaced by Raid Gear later);

4) Reaching level 28 = you can do normal VoG without feeling being carried. Keep doing it week after week, hope for the Raid Gear to drop, upgrade them, and get to level 29;

5) At level 29 you can attempt VoG on hard, which gives better loots. Keep doing it week after week, hope for the final Raid Gear pieces to drop, upgrade them, and reach 30;

Note: step 1) & step 2) are intertwined, as you need to know what exotic you can get from Xur and plan the legendary purchase accordingly. Ideally you want an exotic helmet because legendary helmets are expensive (120 marks, while the other pieces only cost 65. Considering that it will be replaced by Raid Gear or exotic later, the extra marks are a bit of a waste).

[mannon]

I'll probably opt to put 14AS into a legendary rather than waiting for a raid armor unless I just happen to get one before I have the chance. Reason being, I won't get a lot of chances to run VoG, and I tend to enjoy doing the public events so I've got a handful of shards already banked and will probably continue getting them faster than I'll need them unless RNG is really really good to me. ;3

[wittyscorpion]

Oct 23, 2014 12:51:29 GMT -5 mannon said:

I'll probably opt to put 14AS into a legendary rather than waiting for a raid armor unless I just happen to get one before I have the chance. Reason being, I won't get a lot of chances to run VoG, and I tend to enjoy doing the public events so I've got a handful of shards already banked and will probably continue getting them faster than I'll need them unless RNG is really really good to me. ;3

Keep in mind you want to prioritize these precious AS on Exotic and Raid Gear. Of course, if you can earn them plenty and don't have a lot of chance for Raid Gear drops, by all means spend the shards on legendary upgrade.

So your game plan is:

1) Reserve 16 AS for the exotic upgrade;
2) Get an extra 14 AS to upgrade legendary;

So you need 30 AS to reach level 28.

Also, keep in mind that daily story missions offer 1 Ascendant Material (either shards or engery) for level 24 difficulty and 2 for level 28 difficulty (which you can attempt starting at level 25). Do these when you can to earn more shards. Also, you'll need energy more than shards soon once you have legendary/exotic weapons to upgrade. You need powerful weapons to be competent enough in Raids.

[TheHawkNY]

Oct 23, 2014 12:33:02 GMT -5 mannon said:

I only have about 7 motes so those will wait. Armor sounds like a plan. Maybe I shouldn't have already bought chest and arms if I wind up replacing with exotic, but then who knows. Any chance he'll have exotic boots? Maybe I shouldn't purchase those until I know. If he does have boots I could save my marks for a helmet.

There are no exotic boots.

[wittyscorpion]

Yeah, boot purchase is a safe buy, you have to get a legendary.

This also makes Raid Boots drop the biggest hurdle to clear for reaching level 30. For the other 3 you have the option to either go with exotic or raid gear, for boots you have no choice.

[markopolo]

Send me a message on the PS4 tonight Mannon... I'll do a weekly strike with you if you want someone to die with We're pretty much in the same boat together character wise, and I think we're both Central time zone.... so lets do it. Maybe another PS4 bro can carry us :>

[wittyscorpion]

Oct 23, 2014 13:51:36 GMT -5 markopolo said:

Send me a message on the PS4 tonight Mannon... I'll do a weekly strike with you if you want someone to die with We're pretty much in the same boat together character wise, and I think we're both Central time zone.... so lets do it. Maybe another PS4 bro can carry us :>

The key is to know where to fall back to when things go bad. When in doubt, always run the hell out of the danger in the direction of where you come in

[markopolo]

Yea... you might be right

[mannon]

I was wrong I have 17 motes and like 9 coins. Only got to play for a bit really late so I got my boots and turned in some bounties. Got me up to level 25, though. Yay! Maybe this weekend I can go for the coins, but I'm not sure how much time I'll have.

[markopolo]

You're in the denk clan, right Mannon?

[mannon]

Yes. I just don't jump in the PS4 voice chat or pester people very often.

[mannon]

Upgraded my boots and made level 26 yay!

Thinking I may pass on Xur this week even if I get the coins. Everybody saying the warlock armor sucks and I'm probably not going to need it right away anyway. Mebbe I should hold out and pickup exotic armor next week. Gives me an easier deadline on doing the heroic mission too since I probably won't get much time to play with bros unless my RL brother doesn't play this weekend. (He doesn't have much time so he's nowhere near level 20 with his titan. I keep my Hunter at his level so we can play when he does have time. Though maybe when he has his vacation soon...)

[malgato]

Oct 25, 2014 15:10:12 GMT -5 mannon said:

Upgraded my boots and made level 26 yay!

Thinking I may pass on Xur this week even if I get the coins. Everybody saying the warlock armor sucks and I'm probably not going to need it right away anyway. Mebbe I should hold out and pickup exotic armor next week. Gives me an easier deadline on doing the heroic mission too since I probably won't get much time to play with bros unless my RL brother doesn't play this weekend. (He doesn't have much time so he's nowhere near level 20 with his titan. I keep my Hunter at his level so we can play when he does have time. Though maybe when he has his vacation soon...)

I would pass on the Warlock armor (Voidfang) if you are tight on coins. Heart of the Praxic Fire is much better, and you will probably be running Sunsinger in the raid. Hope Xur is kinder to Warlocks next week.

[wittyscorpion]

My finger is crossed for a great warlock piece next week. Have been misses for a few weeks, about time for a change.

[iamthehater]

I'm confused why you're blaming Bungie for missing Xur last week when a whole week later you still don't have then coins to buy anything.
Regardless, just keep grinding the bounties everyday (when you can). Most people have to buy at least two pieces of legendary gear so they can level it up for raid runs. Don't put on a faction banner, that will set you way back (this early in light creep).

[wings]

Oct 26, 2014 1:48:44 GMT -5 iamthehater said:

I'm confused why you're blaming Bungie for missing Xur last week when a whole week later you still don't have then coins to buy anything.

He's only guaranteed to appear on a Saturday as he's not in The Tower for 72 hours so that night be an issue for some. And if you are based in Europe you might be on the end of regular disconnects, which have happened over the weekends in the past.

[mannon]

I have almost enough coins. If Xur had armor I want I could have probably managed the heroic weekly to get the coins, and it bugs me because I'm likely to miss him again as I often don't get to play until Sunday night on weekends. It just sucks for people who's schedules conflict.

[psychlon]

Oct 26, 2014 11:18:18 GMT -5 mannon said:

I have almost enough coins. If Xur had armor I want I could have probably managed the heroic weekly to get the coins, and it bugs me because I'm likely to miss him again as I often don't get to play until Sunday night on weekends. It just sucks for people who's schedules conflict.

Altervatively you let someone else buy it for you via your account?!

[dm]

I can't see that working as the coins would still need to be earned. Letting someone have access to your account is never a good idea in my view.

[mannon]

You bros are cool, but I'm not giving any of you my account info. ;3

[psychlon]

Oct 26, 2014 16:37:37 GMT -5 dm said:

I can't see that working as the coins would still need to be earned. Letting someone have access to your account is never a good idea in my view.

That option is considering that the coins are already earned and while sharing account information with strangers and such surely is highly questionable... considering that no in game trading exists, there is even less of a potential knock out unless of course the guy is on a complete rampage and deleting save files/ buying stuff on the store but I somewhat firmly believe that not everyone is such an ass (otherwise I would be one as well ;-) )

Anyway it was just an option and surely not one I'd prefer either. 

[iw5000]

i wouldn't worry about the issue of trying to save ascendant shards. That is, if you are currently level 27 and saving those shards for Raid gear. I would suggest using what you have to level up to Lv28. Especially if you are now doing the VoG.

Two reasons for this. One, if you are doing VoG now, you will start getting AS's by the buckets. You'll have to many of them after a few raids. Famine to feast. I went from needing them badly, to suddenly having fifty sitting around now unused. Two, i think some opponents in the VoG are level 28 by the end. If you play the VoG with a level 26 or 27, you will be taking a penalty on your attacks. (maybe someone can check this for me?) That makes things really difficult. Obviously, that can be offset by being carried, having a fully maxed out high-level gun, ...and of course, knowing the VoG very well. Those three things can add a hypothetical level +1 for you.

So level up to 28. It will make your life easier doing multiple raids.