Destiny 2 Power Level Guide: Tips and Tricks to Reach 300

Formerly called Light level, Power level in Destiny 2 determines your character’s overall strength based on equipped gear. Increasing one’s Power level is needed to make tough end-game missions more manageable, such as raids, with the first one on September 13 called World-Eater having a recommended Power level of 260-280. Increasing one’s Power level also unlocks certain trade transactions with various NPCs, helping you to steadily strengthen your Guardian.

Pre-Power Level 265

At first, increasing one’s Power level can be done naturally. Participating in any activity will drop gear that increases your current Power level. Public Events, Crucible matches, Lost Sectors, and decrypting engrams from NPCs are some ways to increase one’s power level before reaching the soft level cap at 265.

It’s worth noting that you don’t have to equip your highest Power level gear when decrypting engrams, as the game automatically calculates your character’s best loadout. Also, an engram’s level is based on your character’s power level upon obtaining the engram, so you should decrypt it right away before its rewards become obsolete (with the only exception of “Powerful Gear” or Luminous engrams, which is discussed below).

What’s important pre-Power level 265 is to avoid obtaining certain rewards this early on in the game, as this will make it harder for you to soar past Power level 265. Basically, don’t finish the Nightfall and Milestone activities until you reach 265, unless you’re already inching in the next weekly reset held every Tuesday, which refreshes weekly activities. Also avoid completing exotic quests (missions with a blue flag) until you reach a high enough Power Level.

How to Reach Power Level 300

Upon reaching 265, you can no longer rely on normal loot drops and engrams from NPCs as the Power level of rare gear (blue) will be capped to 260 while NPC’s engrams will cap to 265. The cap will be adjusted to a little over 270 after managing to reach this Power level. Basically, players can no longer rely on engrams and normal loot drops to increase their Power level. What you should focus on from this point is getting “Powerful Gear” or Luminous engrams.

In Destiny 2’s end-game, you’ll have four milestone activities per week that reward Luminous engrams. Unlike the other engrams, Luminous ones scale with your current Power level. At present, four Luminous engrams can be obtained per week. This can be done by completing the weekly milestones for Nightfall, Crucible, Flashpoint, and Clan EXP.

Getting weapons via exotic quests will also provide a huge boost to your Power level post-265 but is best done as late as possible to further push your Power level to 265. Exotic quests, which are unlocked after completing the main campaign, involve a series of tasks. Below is the quest line for each exotic quest:

Rat King

• Complete the Enemy of my Enemy quest on Titan.
• Complete the first Rat King’s Crew riddle by finishing three Patrols with a Fireteam partner.
• Complete the second Rat King’s Crew riddle by participating in two public events with a Fireteam partner.
• Complete the third Rat King’s Crew riddle by participating in two Crucible matches with a Fireteam partner
• Complete the fourth Rat King’s Crew riddle: Complete the Nightfall mission with five minutes or more on the clock.

Mida Multi-Tool

• Complete the string of missions on EDZ.
• Claim the Mida Mini-Tool from Devrin Kay.
• Visit the Gunsmith at the Traveler to get the Sight, Shoot, Repeat quest.
• Using a Scout Rifle, eliminate 50 enemies with precision shots and eliminate 25 enemies without reloading.
• Dismantle five rare or legendary Scout Rifles.
• Kill a total of 50 enemies with an SMG while airborne.
• Claim the Mida Multi-Tool.

Sturm

• Complete O Captain mission on Nessus to get the sidearm Drang.
• Talk to the Cryptarch at the Traveler to obtain Relics of the Golden Age.
• Decrypt five legendary engrams, an exotic engram, and defeat 10 Fallen on Nessus with Drang.
• Go to the Cryptarch at the Farm.
• Using the Drang on Nessus, kill 10 Fallen enemies without reloading and kill 10 powerful Fallen enemies.
• Return to the Cryptarch at the Farm.
• Kill Kendricks-7 in the Exodus Crash Strike on Nessus.
• Return to The Farm to claim the exotic hand canon Sturm.

Modding

Another way to inch through the top Destiny 2 Power Level is by modding. Putting legendary mods on your gear will increase its power level by five, though there some equipment comes with a legendary mod equipped already. You’ll unlock the option to acquire legendary mods from the Gunsmith upon reaching Power Level 280. You can also infuse equipment to increase the item’s base power level, though take note that legendary mods aren’t factored in the base power level of an item. Additionally, the infused item’s legendary mod will not carry over upon infusion.

Public Events

Another way to increase Power level is by getting Exotic engrams from Public Events (or Heroic Public Events) and the Crucible. Simply do as many of these as you want to acquire Exotic engrams. Note that Exotic engram drop rates are based on luck. You might also want to purchase a Fireteam Medallion at Eververse to boost your loot rewards for four hours.

Create More Characters

A last resort to improving one’s Power Level is to create more characters. Because gear is shared across characters, you’ll have more options to increase your Power level but can be a bit grindy as you’ll have to progress through the prerequisite story missions again. Nonetheless, you can triple your weekly milestone rewards if you have more characters.