[u][b]EDIT: Guide is out of date, it will be updated when I have the time. So give it a week or two. The guide will be changed to 20 - 34.[/b] [/u] [b]Gearing Up And Progressing After Level 20[/b] [i]Getting to max level in Destiny takes a lot of work, I am here to make this more simple for you. This guide was written 100% by Forexalised from experience and hours of gameplay[/i] So you have gotten to level 20, you might have a lucky legendary armour or a full set of blues or greens and you want to get stuck in to raiding and endgame. You still have some work to do and it involves bounties and reputation. [b][u]-Step 1[/u][/b] As of now, there are currently five vendors you can get legendary armour pieces from. Those are; 1. Vanguard Armoury [i](located at the northern point down the stairs from the vaults, one vendor for each class),[/i] 2. Crucible Armoury [i](Down the stairs before you reach the Vanguard vendors on your right),[/i] 3. New Monarchy Vendor [i](Take a left and follow the path down two sets of stairs and take a hard left),[/i] 4. Dead Orbit Vendor [i](Take a right and follow the path, the vendor is dressed in black and white on your left),[/i] 5. Future War Cult Vendor [i](Take a right and follow the path and get to the highest point north you can up some stairs),[/i] [b]Important Information[/b] The Vanguard and Crucible vendors sell two different sets of Armour differing in different perks for each class. You can mix and match to get the best perks for your play style (Different vendors are available for Crucible and Vanguard weaponry). The Faction vendors (NM, DO and FWC), sell two sets of armour and four weapons. All vendor gear will have 33light on each piece, attaining 33light in every piece of gear will make you level 31, you can do the Nightfalls, Iron Banner, Vault Of Glass (Hard) and Crotas End (Normal) efficiently at this level. You can also buy an exotic piece from Xur, who appears randomly around the tower selling random stock from Friday 9am GMT to Sunday 9am GMT. You need strange coins to buy from Xur and each armour piece costs 13 strange coins. You can get 9 per week if you do the Weekly Heroic Strike on level 30. The Weekly Nightfall Strike is once a week too and gives a chance to get a random legendary or exotic at the end, or coins. [b]What Do You Want?[/b] What you want to decide is what gear to go for, some of it will take longer than others and if you want to buy gear from two different vendors then it will take double the time but you will eventually do this later on if you would like to have a great PVP set to switch to. So if you are a crucible only player, you could do the crucible bounties everyday and rank up crucible reputation (which has no impact on anyway you play crucible or you could choose a faction. If you are a PVE only player, you can only do vanguard reputation, if you decide to rank up a faction you still need marks from playing crucible to buy from them. [b]How?[/b] With factions, you need to wear the faction class item (Bonds, Marks and Cloaks) which you buy for 2500 glimmer from the corresponding faction. You can turn crucible and vanguard reputation (which you get from strikes, crucible matches, bounties, patrols etc) into faction reputation so that if you are an all rounded player you can half the time it takes to get your first set. The only down-side to this is that if you also want to buy weapons, each faction only sells four weapons, each a different type. [b]Prices[/b] Helmets - 120 marks, 1 commendation Chest - 75 marks, 1 commendation Gloves - 75 marks Boots - 75 marks [b]Commendations[/b] In order to buy the suits or helmets, you need a commendation. You attain these from reputation packages. After ranking a reputation rank to 3, you get a package of rewards. It could have legendaries, a rare ship, motes of light, strange coins etc.. but most importantly it contains a commendation. You get one package every reputation rank up after 3. All factions and Crucible use Crucible Commendations. Vanguard uses Vanguard Commendations. These commendations sit in your inventory where your materials rest and stack. [b][u]-Step 2[/u][/b] So now you have figured out what set you want, try to do bounties whenever you play. Grab the ones with +100 reputation before the +50's and don't even bother grabbing a fusion rifle bounty if you never use one (but you could, if you have the time). If you decide to pop on for one match then turn off your console, go to the tower and grab as many of the best bounties you can so your next play experience is more fun and more rewarding. You can also get lucky from legendary engrams which come from every part of the game but if you want to plough through these, play the vanguard strike playlist as you will get tons of blue engrams in a small amount of time, which will turn into crap armour which you will constantly destroy for upgrade materials.. you need these for your future legendaries. [b]Ascendant Materials[/b] You need Ascendant Energies to upgrade legendary weapons and Shards for armour. You can get these by destroying legendaries but what you will need to do is run through the Vault of Glass raid. [b]Vault Of Glass[/b] This is available at level 26 on normal difficulty and contains chest which contain the materials and also chances of getting raid gear. You can do it as many times as you want but only get rewards once a week. You can do Normal to get rewards from the normal drop table or hard to get some other extra items (none of these are guaranteed). [u]Because there is no matchmaking for Nightfalls, Daily Heroics or Raids you need to find teams or players yourself. This might seem hard if you have no friends but you can use a great tool to see who is available or list yourself for people to add you. Create a private party chat and list yourself on http://www.destinylfg.com/ and be honest if its your first time raiding, just apologise in advance and ask politely if they could explain what to do if you get stuck, there are some which will rage at you and there are those who will help you do it patiently and become future raid/nightfall friends. [/u] Here is a guide which you should watch a couple of times before you attempt it blindly, attempting it blindly could get you kicked or raged at in a party chat. [spoiler]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JgyD9eU9xqw[/spoiler] What most people don't know is that you can loot the Exotic Chest and get Rewards from Atheon (final boss) twice if you play on normal then hard. Doing normal and then hard will give you double the chances of getting an exotic. So you could do hard and get double rewards yet one chance of an exotic on the Gorgon chest and Atheon or do normal then hard to get the same rewards but get two chances of an exotic. The Vault Of Glass only drops gear which contains 30light so you can use it as temporary gear before you get the vendor gear or save it for PVP or a trophy from completing it. Example, I've got a legendary helmet, gloves and boots on my titan who is level 26. My goal is to save up 75 more marks, rank up one more faction level to get a package and a commendation to buy the suit or I could buy an exotic chest piece (if he sells one that is worth it) and after upgrading, I will be level 31. In the meantime, while I go for that chest piece I might use a lucky Vault Of Glass chest piece to go up to level 27 temporarily before replacing it. The last 3 defence upgrades of each legendary armour piece needs 6 - 7 shards per upgrade. Each defence upgrade also upgrades light level. Once you hit level 30+ Start running through Vault of Glass normal mode and then hard mode, once a week. Here is a hard mode guide [spoiler]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LxW1OeaOcT0[/spoiler] [b][u]Step 3[/u][/b] So now you're level 31, you want to start running Crotas End once a week. If you have lots of willing friends, get them to take you along for Crotas End Hard Mode but for now, you will be doing normal mode. You will still complete Vault Of Glass on normal and then hard mode for quad exotic chances (two chests, two atheons) before or after you complete Crotas End every week. Depending on what exotic armour slot item you have will determine what gear you will go for. What you will want to try and attain is an exotic that will heal you when you pick up orbs. For example, for my Warlock I have Light Beyond Nemesis which helps me spawn more orbs (extremely beneficial) and it heals me when I pick up an orb. This perk is mandatory once you go on to hard mode and useful in normal mode as the only way to heal yourself in the end boss fight, Crota, is to hold a chalice of light but you want your swordbearer to hold on to that most of the time. In hard mode, there is no chalice of light. Instead of explaining it, I will leave these guides here for you to learn how to complete it. [spoiler]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7R7i3ROe2BI - Chest locations https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i1ovBOq5ZZE - Part 1 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gpR2jcjaQco - Part 2[/spoiler]