How to Get Started with Destiny 2
Destiny 2 is an online multiplayer first-person shooter video game released by Bungie in 2017. With the release of Destiny 2: Shadowkeep in October of 2019 every expansion is considered stand-alone meaning that players aren’t required to own previous premium content in order to play and a cross-save feature was added along with many other changes. Destiny 2: Beyond Light came out in November 2020 with more changes. Most players like the direction the game is going but it Destiny 2 can be a little confusing when you first start out. To help those new to Destiny 2 we have put together a guide to help get you started.
Choosing a Class
The first thing you will need to do before playing Destiny 2 is to choose a class for your guardian. Each class comes with different abilities and skills that will affect how you play the game. There are three classes to choose from:
- Titans: Titans are able to take a fairly large amount of punishment, and they are also good at dealing it out. They possess a special class ability that enables them to put up a wall for their teammates to hide behind
- Hunters: Hunters are rogue-like, possess throwing knives and can dodge and move quickly while dealing bursts of damage and reload
- Warlocks: Warlocks have the ability to use magic and can buff and heal their allies
Each class has four elemental subclasses: Solar, Arc, Void and Stasis. The subclass determines the damage type. Each subclass has its own grenade, melee and Super ability. You can switch subclasses depending on your needs but your main class can’t be changed. However, every player can have up to 3 characters so you will have a chance to play every class.
Destiny 2 Weapons
Weapons in Destiny 2 will fall into 1 of 3 classes:
- Kinetic: Deals out extra damage to unshielded enemies but doesn’t do any elemental damage
- Energy: Does elemental damage and extra damage is dealt to shielded enemies with matching elements
- Heavy: Very powerful weapons that do elemental damage but require heavy ammo which is harder to come by.
Characters all have 1 slot per weapon class so you can have 1 weapon of each class equipped at all times
There are also three types of ammo in Destiny 2. These ammo types can be used with certain types of weapons:
- Primary Ammo: Auto Rifles, Hand Cannons, Pulse Rifles, Sidearms, Scout Rifles, Submachine Gun
- Special Ammo: Fusion Rifles, Shotguns, Sniper Rifles, Trace Rifles, Single round Grenade Launchers
- Heavy Ammo: Linear Fusion Rifles, Multi-round Grenade Launchers, Rocket launchers, Swords
Primary ammo is the easiest to come by followed by Special Ammo with Heavy Ammo being the rarest.
Character Power Level in Destiny 2
The characters power level works differently in Destiny 2 than in many other games such as World of Warcraft Classic. Every character starts out with a power level of 1050 which is high enough for you to be able to take on many of the games core activities right from the start. As you progress some activities will require a higher power level with the maximum being 1260. Your power level is the average of the power level of all the gear you are equipped with. To increase your power level you have to get better gear.
Getting Weapons and Gear in Destiny 2
You can obtain weapons and armor in Destiny 2 by completing different activities or through random drops. Dropped items will be 1 of 5 different rarities:
- Common: White
- Uncommon: Green
- Rare: Blue
- Legendary: Purple
- Exotic: Gold
Common and Uncommon items don’t show up much in the game anymore. Exotic armor and exotic weapons like that earned in the Mysterious Box quest are very rare. Only 1 piece of exotic armor and 1 exotic weapon can be equipped at a time so ultimately you will be seeking out a lot of legendary equipment. Every weapon and piece of armor comes with randomized stats. The stats for weapons are as follows:
- Impact: Damage dealt
- Range: Distance before damage drops
- Stability: Recoil
- Handling: Speed that you can switch to the weapon or put it away
- Reload Speed: How long to takes to load the weapon
Here are the stats for armor:
- Resilience: The amount of damage that can be taken
- Recovery: How quickly health is regained after damage
- Mobility: Walking speed and jump height
- Intellect: Super ability recharge speed
- Discipline: Grenade recharge speed
- Strength: Melee recharge speed
Weapons and gear may also be acquired from a variety of vendors in the game.
Destiny 2 Activities
Once you have completed the story missions in Destiny 2 there will still be plenty for you to do. Here are some of the major activities you can take part in:
- Vanguard Strikes: These are missions that require a team of 3 players. The team fights their way through a mission and in the end defeat a boss. Successful strikes generally reward players with Vanguard Tokens and a rare piece of gear although rarely some legendary gear may drop
- Crucible: The Crucible is a PvP arena in Destiny 2 where Guardians can face off against each other. There are different types of matches such as the Trials of Osiris and you can win Crucible Tokens and rare or legendary gear. It can be intimidating for new players and some may use a Destiny 2 trials carry service to assist them.
- Gambit: Gambit combines PvE and PvP by sending 2 teams of 4 to see which team can kill a Taken Primeval first.
- Dungeons: Dungeons provide a challenging PvE experience for teams of 3 players. Besides fighting you need to solve a puzzle in order be rewarded. Dungeons fall in-between Strikes and Raids as far as difficulty level goes.
- Raids: Raids require a team of 6 and are the most difficult missions in Destiny 2. Raids may take several hours to complete but offer some great rewards.
This barely scratches the surface of what Destiny 2 has to offer but it is enough to get you started on the right foot.
