Tip: After you reach level 9, you should grind XP by going to the Tower’s Bounty Tracker and simply buying and playing/completing these The Crucible bounty missions. Even if you don’t win them all, you’ll notice that winning is not always the requirement. So you’ll gain lots of experience points fast. As you “Level Up”, the game will give you on-screen messages with each level increase to let you know you can upgrade one of your Abilities. To do that press the Options/Select button on your controller to open up your Character screen. Important: Although there are 20 proper character levels, after reaching level 20 you can get “Motes of Light” — a form of currency — with which you can buy gear that has “Light” stats, since earning experience points now creates “Motes of Light”. These “Light” gear items will help further boost your level to effectively reach the true maximum character level, level 29! About Legendary & Exotic Items: Use your “Motes of Light” to buy Legendary and/or Exotic items from vendors — like the game says “find and equip armor which contains Light to increase your level above 20″ — as these gear items will have the better “Light” stats and abilities you’re looking for! The four armor pieces that can contain Light are: the helmet, breastplate, gloves, and boots.