Some other random tips and tidbits I picked up over the past few days (full disclosure: I'm a PVE guy, so my focus has been Explore and Story; I'm also an XB1 pre-order - I was only undercover with a spare beta code for my dusty, ancient PS3 until Wednesday). This is all based on limited testing and observation, so it's not "official", and it may change in phase 2 of the beta or the final game. HOW DO THESE STATS WORK? The basic stats of Strength / Discipline / Intellect (gear) and Armor / Recovery / Agility (subclass) have already been widely covered, but when looking at gear, there are some other stats of interest. ATTACK: This is not a damage / DPS stat, but rather the shooter equivalent of "to-hit" from RPG's. But since all hits are based on player aim, shots don't hit or miss from this stat - instead, the damage of the resulting hit is scaled based on the difference between your weapon's Attack stat and the target's Defense stat. If your Attack exceeds the target's Defense, you'll do full damage. Otherwise, you'll do some reduced amount proportional to the difference. This is critically important if you're facing high-level mobs or participating in the Iron Banner PVP event, where gear stats matter. If you're just farming low-level mobs or participating in regular Crucible PVP, this doesn't matter nearly as much (in fact, for the Crucible, it doesn't matter at all since damage is normalized for all players). DEFENSE: This is the inverse of the Attack stat. Higher Defense applies damage reduction to all incoming hits that have lower Attack stat. Again, important for PVE and Iron Banner, but useless for regular PVP. Choose your gear accordingly. IMPACT: This is the actual per-hit damage stat on weapons. The "bar" for this stat doesn't seem to be universal though, in the sense that a 10% value for a Sniper Rifle will result in a much bigger hit than a 10% value Auto Rifle. It's only really useful for comparing different items of the same weapon type. RANGE: This is an indication of how far away a target can be hit from before damage penalties start being applied. You'll notice very quickly that the range penalty on Shotguns is severe, making them completely useless outside melee / CQB distance. DAMAGE TYPE: All shots from elemental weapons apply the listed damage type. The "Kinetic" damage type simply indicates that a weapon has no elemental effect. As mentioned, the only enemies in the beta that are susceptible to elemental damage right now are Hive Wizards (weak to Solar) and Fallen Captains (weak to Arc). Nothing is currently weak to Void. Note, this also means that Striker Titans' special attacks will destroy Fallen Captains and likewise with Gunslinger Hunters' specials and Hive Wizards. GEAR ARE ALL DIFFERENT Weapons and armor with the same name can still vary significantly in their special properties. Gear with the same "family" name will have similar properties that generally improve as the suffix improves (e.g. the common Jigoku SR2 Scout Rifle has a similar stat distribution as the uncommon Jigoku SR3 Scout Rifle, but the latter has slightly better values and more special properties). OPTICS: Green-quality or higher weapons come with unlockable optics, but the type of optics on any given weapon are random. You may end up with a Scout Rifle that only has iron sights and a red-dot, for example. You will have to hunt for that perfect combination. Even optics that look similar behave somewhat differently - the magnification, ADS time, and aim-assist behavior all appear to vary, even if there's no visible effect on the stats page. WEAPON SPECIAL PROPERTIES: The thing that really sets Green- and Blue-quality gear apart from their common equivalents is the added special property. These are also random. Some examples include: * Feeding Frenzy: Kills temporarily increase reload speed * Persistence: Weapon grows more accurate the longer it is fired * Full Auto: Allows automatic fire * Grenadier: Kills reduce grenade cooldown time * Reactive Reload: Reloading grants a temporary damage boost * Luck in the Chamber: One shot per mag does bonus damage * Third Eye: Radar stays up during ADS * Focused Fire: Fires slower but hits harder when ADS * Surplus: Find more ammo * ??: Kills refund ammo ARMOR SPECIAL PROPERTIES: These are less interesting than the weapon properties, and generally have the following effects: * Increase ammo carrying capacity for a specific weapon type * Increase reload speed for a specific weapon type * Melee attacks reduce grenade cooldown time * Increase grenade throw distance HOW DO I GET CURRENCY? Glimmer only rarely drops off of enemies, so farming it requires a different approach. Some strategies include: * Spinmetal: 40 Spinmetal (a material found growing in random spots on Earth) can be redeemed at the Vanguard Quartermaster or the Crucible Quartermaster for 250 Glimmer, Marks, and Rep. * House Banners: A vendor-trash item dropped randomly from bosses and higher-level enemies. Redeemed at the Cryptarch for 200 Glimmer. * Bounties: Once you reach Level 6, you can carry up to 5 bounties at a time for various PVE and PVP tasks. These offer fairly large Glimmer and XP rewards. * Consumables: Ether Seeds and Black Wax Idols are one-time use consumables that make Fallen and Hive enemies respectively drop Glimmer with every kill for 10 minutes. The consumables are themselves rare drops off of bosses and high-level enemies. * HVT-type Beacon Missions: Found in Explore mode throughout the world, this particular type of mission offers the best rewards (100+ Glimmer, Spinmetal, and Rep). * Chests: Silver and Bronze chests respawn randomly throughout the world. There are YouTube videos that cover some of the more common locations. The 5 Gold chests are fixed locations, but they can only be looted once. * Public Events: The first public event you complete each in-game day with Gold status (i.e. three stars - full completion) will get you a Glimmer reward from the Postmaster. * Selling Loot: This is not as lucrative as one would expect. Common items typically sell for less than 10 Glimmer apiece, with Uncommon items going for 15-20 Glimmer. On the plus side, you can sell them directly from your inventory, so no need to find a vendor. BEACON MISSIONS In the Explore game type (i.e. free-roam) there are up to three Beacons in any zone that provide short MMO-style missions for Vanguard Rep and Glimmer. The mission types can be identified by the icon that shows up in your Nav overlay: * Pyramid Icon: Collect material drops from a particular enemy type. This is a good one to pick up while farming mobs. Kills in any zone count, so no need to stay in one place. * Diamond Icon /w Four Arrows: Kill a certain number of enemies. Same as above, but even easier since any enemy type will count. * Ghost Icon: Scan an object (e.g. fuel dump, tech console, munitions from a tank). This requires a trip to a specific spot to scan, which may be in a different zone. I find these time-consuming and not worthwhile. * Compass Icon: Scout a location. Despite the description, you don't have to scan or look at anything in particular - just stand on the waypoint for a few seconds and you'll be done. Similar to the scanning mission, this may take you to another zone and is time-consuming. * Circled-Star Icon: Kill a high-value target (HVT). This is the best-paying mission type and is generally more fun than the others. A named mob with an entourage will spawn in one of several spots and you have to eliminate them. PUBLIC EVENTS These spawn randomly in various locations throughout the world. Note that there is no loot reward for these beyond whatever random stuff would normally drop from killing things - this may be a big let-down if you spent a ton of time killing a Devil Walker. * Kill Devil Walker: Just like the Strike mode mini-boss, but with a 5-minute timer. Focus-fire one of its legs until it collapses and reveals its core. Shoot the core for big damage. Repeat. * Kill HVT: A special mob with VERY high HP / Armor will spawn and walk a route with several waypoints. The mob must be killed before it reaches the end. This will require full firepower from several players. * Kill Extractor Teams: Three teams of mid-level enemies will spawn at different locations with a 60-second timer to clear each. Use your Sparrow to get to each location more quickly. * Defend Warsat: A satellite will crash to Earth and players must stay inside the white circle near it until it reaches 100% transmat progress. Waves of difficult enemies will keep spawning in. Don't worry about dying - respawn and run back into the circle! SECRETS There a few hidden things in the Beta, some provide rewards, some are just for fun: GOLD CHESTS: There are 5 gold chests hidden across Old Russia. If you collect all 5, you unlock an upgraded bike (faster and more durable than the default Sparrow). These upgraded bikes can be bought from the Tower Hanger too, but this one is FREE! Check YouTube for exact locations of the five chests. Note that one of them requires that you get to the Sepiks Prime boss fight in the Devil's Lair Strike. HIGH-LEVEL AREAS: There are at least a couple areas in the Beta where Level ?? (i.e. too high to identify) enemies roam. One is a large underground cave system that connects The Grotto to the Rocket Yard, filled with Hive. The Grotto end of the cave is guarded by a Hive "Shrieker" enemy that can't be found anywhere else. The Grotto can be found by taking a valley route on the north-east corner of the Forgotten Shores. The Rocket Yard entrance to the cave can be found by following the glowing green side-route near the mesh-hacking event seen in the Devil's Lair Strike.