Legendary gear - 80 materials Exotic gear - 64 materials It probably takes an hour to farm 70-100 materials, big whoop right? But did I tell you it's going to be the most mind numbingly boring thing you've ever done? Edit: Alternatives, buy with glimmer or marks buy with coins or motes earn via missions; amount scales by difficulty earn via crucible Material bounties Trade weapon parts or class materials for Earn during patrols and public events Edit2-update: You know it's boring when your ascendant materials out number your planet materials 451 ascendant materials 182 planet materials I even have more strange coins than I do planet materials... Edit3: Math Will take you 21.76 hours to farm 1,632 materials if you're gathering 75 per hour on average. To hit level 29 it will take 304 materials if you have one exotic piece. To hit level 30 you will most likely replace those pieces with raid equipment. That's another 240 (304+240)3 = 1,632 1,632/75 = 21.76 21.76 very boring hours This is not taking weapons into consideration.