A few tips for those who may be struggling to gear up. Edit: Quite a few small changes, updates and clarifications have been added based on feedback, including a suggested time to start popping purple engrams (Phase 4). [b]IMPORTANT # 1:[/b] DO NOT decrypt any blue or purple engrams at the Cryptarch just yet. Doing so will be a complete waste at lower light levels. Edit: People have asked "When should I decrypt?" repeatedly in the comments, so I'm updating this point: For me, I hit a wall at 250 light and around 260ish light where I wasn't getting any straight armor drops to boost my light level. I did decrypt some engrams at these plateaus. However, because I stockpiled blue engrams, I was able to optimize my upgrades and rocketed over 20 light in a span of a few hours. The method used to do this is detailed below. End Edit. [b]IMPORTANT # 2:[/b] DO NOT trash any special weapons... even year 1 weapons... you'll want these for a very easy Banshee quest that he offers at Rank 2 that asks you to dismantle a specific weapon type (differs for each class). This results in a 280 legendary special weapon reward. [b]IMPORTANT # 3:[/b] Get any blue/purple Heavy weapons that are higher than 200 light but are not better than your current best Heavy weapon? Use that lower heavy to infuse your sword! When your sword reaches 280 light (unlocking a 5th perk) level AND you've maxed out and upgraded that 5th perk, go see Shaxx for the Exotic sword quest line. He won't have a quest notification... just go talk to him to get "A Sword Reforged" quest. Note: as with all infusions, the heavy weapon you're trying to infuse into the sword needs to be higher than your sword's current light level. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Decryption works like so: At the moment of decryption, the game will roll an item's attack/defense value. Based on feedback and experience, this seems to most often be +/-20 of your current gear's light level. This means, if you decrypt a purple engram at light level 200, you'll most likely get an item with a light level that is somewhere between 220 and 180 light unless you get really lucky. This is not ideal at all. Save those engrams until you hit a wall where normal armor drops aren't getting the job done. Feel free to decrypt greens early on for a boost because... who cares about greens? Edit: The +/-20 roll range is not completely accurate, but, based on large amounts of feedback, it does seem that the vast majority of engram decryptions fall into this range, with the rarer possibility of a higher/lower roll. This guide's aim is to merely optimize chances at getting better rolls more consistently. [b]Phase 1: Leveling Up to 40, unlocking your subclass [/b] 1. Make sure to at least complete the 1st story mission so you unlock your subclass quest. Go get your third subclass. I recommend getting your subclass before you turn in any bounties so you can apply XP gains from bounties to your new sublcass. 2. You will likely hit 40 while doing the story missions, especially if you grab PVE bounties and complete them along the way. 3. Once 40, you unlock the ability to earn Legendary Marks. 4. Completing the story missions is very important because doing so unlocks the Phase 2 quest series and, as equally important, the ability to patrol the Dreadnaught. This is required for Court of Oryx. [b]Phase 2: Reaching Light Level 200+ and Earning Legendary Marks (LMs)[/b] 1. With the story missions complete, you begin the Taken War series of quests. Be sure to also go to the Reef to grab a quest from Petra/Veriks that you'll slowly complete as you do other activities. Many of these Taken War quests give Legendary Marks as rewards. 2. Once you hit light level 200, you can start doing your Daily PVP and Daily Story missions (Daily is recommended Light Level 240, so expect a rough ride at 200). These reward 15 LMs each. You do NOT have to win the PVP match in order to get your marks. NOTE: These Daily activities are [i]ACCOUNT-WIDE[/i], so there's no need to run them multiple times on different characters. You do seem to get a legendary item on your first run, however, so that may make it useful to run on alts. 3. Once you gather 75 Legendary Marks, go buy a 280 Ghost. You'll get weapons , armor drops and artifacts quite frequently... Ghosts, however, seem to be a bit more rare for drops, so that's why it's the best initial use of your LMs. 4. This 280 purchase should shoot your light level up quite a bit, hopefully high enough to start doing the Daily and 41 Strike playlist stuff a bit more comfortably. Your next goal is to do the Weekly Heroic strike playlist. 5. The moment that you get any sort of drop (weapon or armor) that is a light upgrade, equip it. This is especially true during a Strike or when playing the Court of Oryx. A reward's light value is based on your current light level, so any chance you can boost that current level before you trigger end-mission rewards will greatly benefit you. 6. Don't infuse low-level legendaries just yet... Infusion is pretty much a waste of LMs until you're at least light level 280 and the purchased items (280 light) from the Vanguard, speaker and PVP vendors become obsolete. See [url=https://www.bungie.net/en/Clan/Post/523657/154265530/0/0]my post on the Infusion Formula[/url] to know what the resulting light level will be before dismantling an item for infusion. [b]Phase 3: Pour Some Engrams on Me![/b] The two best ways to quickly collect engrams are to run the 36 Strike playlist (and then the 41 strike playlist once you're geared for it for increased drop rates) and the Court of Oryx. I'd say the Court is slightly faster if you have a fireteam and the runes for it... Strikes are nice because they don't have any summoning rune requirements, of course. Around light level 250, you may want to start decrypting blue engrams. Do NOT decrypt any legendaries just yet. The Decryption process: As mentioned above, the Cryptarch takes your CURRENT gear/weapon light level into account at the moment of decryption and seems to provide an item that is (ESTIMATED) +/-20 light levels of your current light. This means, in order to be efficient, you want to decrypt engrams one at a time, check to see if it's an upgrade. If so, wear it to boost your light. If not, see IMPORTANT notes at the top of this post regarding Special and Heavy weapons before dismantling. By following the tips mentioned here, I shot up 26 light levels in a span of about 2 hours. [b]Phase 4: So I'm holding this bag of Purples... [/b] Hopefully you're rocking a solid 285-295 light at this point. Decrypt those purples. If the resulting light level is lower than the blues you're wearing, check the perks and decide if you want to infuse your legendaries with your higher-level blues. Keep in mind the [url=https://www.bungie.net/en/Clan/Post/523657/154265530/0/0]Infusion Formula[/url]. You [i]will[/i] drop very slightly in light if the light gap between your legendary and blue is large enough. Make sure those perks are worth it. Final note--Gearing up Alts: Note that once your alts reach 40, you can transfer all weapons and your ghost to them, equip them on the alt, then decrypt a single set of blue armor engrams to massively boost their light level the moment they reach 40. Edit: Note that infusion is entirely based on ITEM SLOT, which means you can send your warlock's hand-me-down armor to your hunter and use that high light level hand-me-down warlock armor to infuse your hunter's armor. Happy hunting, Guardians!