...and veterans making alternate characters. This is my suggested list of objectives to complete for players creating new characters in Destiny. [u]The purpose of following this "itinerary" is to progress through the level system efficiently and with as little stress as possible.[/u] This is [i]not[/i] a mad dash to level 30, I personally think trying to rush it is a bad idea but that's a different discussion for a different time. Show this to your friends who are new to Destiny, if you think this is good advice. Comment your thoughts below, constructive criticism is welcome. [b][u]1-19[/u][/b] 0. For veteran players who are making alternate characters, using your vault to gift weapons/armor/etc. to your lower level alts is a great way to keep them stocked with good gear. Anything you have or find that's level 10 or higher, reconsider dismantling it right away and maybe consider letting your alt use it while it's still useful to them. The Stranger's Rifle, for example, is a great weapon for characters between 16 and 20. 1. Start the game, choose your class, and customize your character. You'll be able to get a better look at yourself shortly after the starting mission ends so if you really care about it you can fairly easily restart and try a different species/hairstyle/etc.. 2. Get to level 4 ASAP. Level 4 unlocks daily bounties which are the most efficient way to gain experience and reputation (if you're completing them on a fairly regular basis). These will be your bread and butter for upgrading yourself and your equipment in Destiny but for now your only focus is increasing your base level. To avoid unnecessary stress only work on the bounties that you won't hate. Example, I don't like PvP so I only do Vanguard bounties, I also ignore that "kill 2 enemies with 1 fusion rifle shot" bounty. Don't worry, even if you're only doing 2 or 3 a day you should still be able to keep up to par as far as level requirements go as long as you keep on them on a regular basis. Your main goal right now is to get to level 20 ASAP. 3. Complete story missions and strikes in order by level and type. Even if you're on par with story missions complete any that are of lower levels than you first, first time completions net large amounts of XP. This combined with completing daily bounties will help keep you over-leveled for much of the story. It's also a good idea to wait to do Strikes until you're over-leveled for them, this will help make dealing with your dependency on other players less annoying as you should be able to carry some extra weight yourself. 4. Participate in every Public Event you run across, no matter what you happen to be doing at the time. Your low level might make it hard to complete them but if you're lucky enough to have a higher level nearby it shouldn't be too much trouble to get a gold rank. The reward of Ascendant materials will be well worth it later on, you'll want to stock up on as many of these as you can. (Ascendant Energy for weapons and Ascendant Shards for armor) 5. By the time you complete The Black Garden mission you should be between level 18 and 20. Just keep doing whatever you like to do to gain XP to hit level 20. [b][u]20-28[/u][/b] 1. Now that you've gotten to level 20 you start increasing your level through acquiring, upgrading, an equipping higher "light level" armor as opposed to simply gaining XP. You'll want to ignore any armor that is either below level 20 or below the Rare (blue) rarity level. Your ultimate goal for this part is to reach level 29 which you will accomplish by obtaining a fully upgraded set of Legendary (purple) Armor + 1 fully upgraded piece of Exotic armor, so needless to say your new focus is equipment acquiring and upgrading. Class items (Warlock bonds, Titan marks, and Hunter capes) do not matter, they're mostly just cosmetic 2. You should now be able to access the Daily Heroic Story Mission. Once you hit level (insert the level of the Daily Heroic that awards you with ascendant materials, I'm not looking at the game right now) you should start doing that regularly alongside your daily bounties. Ascendant materials will be essential to fully upgrading Legendary and Exotic gear. 3. Speaking of daily bounties, you'll want to keep completing them for 3 reasons: - Firstly, you'll now want to fully upgrade your armor and weapons as much as possible. Do whatever you can to get to the very next level, one at a time, trying to wait until you have all Legendary gear will take even longer as you will not be strong enough to get it easily. - Secondly, even though you've already hit the max level through XP, the skill tree for your chosen subclass will not be maxed out yet. You'll want to have as many options available to you as possible, even if you don't perceive them being useful just yet, you never know what you might learn later to change your mind (trust me, I've experienced this a lot). Just treat your subclass like any other equitable item, upgrade it by gaining XP. Once your main is fully upgraded you'll want to upgrade your other subclass as well, again, you never know what you'l find useful in the future. - Finally, you'll want to choose a faction and increase your reputation with it to at least level 3. The easiest (guaranteed) way to get Legendary gear is to purchase it for marks (Vanguard and Crucible). Right now you're just trying to increase your level as much as possible so worry about style later. If you prefer PvE you have 1 option: the Vanguard. You can obtain Vanguard marks by completing Daily Heroic missions, Weekly Heroic Strikes, Weekly Nightfall Strikes, and any of the Strike playlists. If you prefer PvP you have 4 options: Crucible main, Dead Orbit, New Monarchy, and Future War Cult since all 4 take Crucible marks. If you've already been playing the Crucible than you may want to ignore the last 3 for now as you'd have to start gaining rep for them from 0 as opposed to whatever you've already gained for the Crucible main. You can only have 200 of each mark type at a time so make sure you're spending them while you've got them. Faction armor is available for purchase when you rank your REP with that faction to level 2, level 3 unlocks weapons. You increase you REP with DO, NM, and FWC by having their unique faction class item equiped whenever you gain Vanguard or Crucible REP. THIS MEANS YOU DO NOT GAIN REP WITH THE VANGUARD OR CRUCIBLE AND INSTEAD GAIN REP WITH YOUR CHOSEN FACTION SO BE CONSCIOUS OF WHAT CLASS ITEM YOU'RE WEARING. These are the only class items (so far) that in any way affect gameplay other then pure cosmetics. 4. As you start progressing through the light levels you should soon unlock the Weekly Heroic Strike. This will be extremely useful in speeding things up for you, mainly due to its guaranteed reward of some bulk amount of Strange Coins (exact amount increases with level of difficulty). As soon as you are able you'll want to get a piece of Exotic armor and your best bet of doing that is to purchase one from Xur for some amount of Strange Coins (usually 13). He appears on the Tower during Fridays and Saturdays in a random location. I suggest getting an Exotic helmet first, you'll understand why later, just don't be to picky about it. 5. Once you've got the gear it's all about upgrading. Once again, completing bounties will expedite the process. Pro tip; anything you want to upgrade but don't want to use until it's ready can be fairly easily upgraded by simply switching to said armor or weapon right before turning in your bounties. This way you don't actually have to use the item and the bounty XP will go to it when you do turn ins. On top of that, you will need Ascendant materials to fully upgrade every piece of Legendary and Exotic equipment. Farming common materials is easy and can be fun (if you enjoy tooling around in patrol mode) but Ascendant materials are quite rare in comparison. Consistently completing your Daily Heroic missions is the best way to guarantee a constant in-flow of Ascendants. 6. Eventually you'll get to level 28 and this is where things get interesting as now you can attempt a Weekly Nightfall Strike. Nightfall rewards are random but you are guaranteed at least 1 of the following: a random bulk amount of Strange Coins, a piece of Legendary gear, a Legendary engram, and/or a piece of Exotic gear. In addition to that, having completed a given weeks Nightfall will grant you an XP and REP boost for the remainder of the given week. This is certainly not necessary to reach level 29 but it can be very profitable if you feel up to the challenge, and who knows, you might get lucky. Both The Weekly Strikes do not have a matchmaking system like the others so you'll have to either solo them, team up with friends, or go online to find a group manually. [b][u]29[/u][/b] 1. Finally, you're just one step away from level 30, the current level cap before DLC. You should have at your disposal a set of armor including 3 fully upgraded Legendaries and 1 fully upgraded Exotic. Your weapons should also be fully upgraded and at a rarity level of Legendary or Exotic. You're now ready to prepare for the first raid, The Vault of Glass. The only way to reach level 30 (right now) is to have a full set of fully upgraded raid gear. Exotics armor pieces count towards this as well. 2. Before even looking for a group, do your research. Being able to advertise yourself as having a basic understanding of the raid will help encourage higher level players to be willing to invite you. 3. Participate in Normal level raids until you obtain raid armor for your torso, legs, and arms. The helmets only drop in hard mode. Don't worry about hard mode until you're a level 30.