Bungie clearly said "[u]On average[/u] they will decrypt higher or at your current light."

At 393 right now and the past 10 exotics have all been 392 or 393 :/ only thing that was higher light was a 396 artifact drop from forge. As a solo player the only way of me getting to 400 is through exotics, crucible for weapons or iron banner when it drops so this is annoying af. Fix it please!

I'm 399 light with everything at 399 or 400. Exotic engrams were working fine up til a few days ago. Decrypting exotics was how I got to my current light I'd say 1 out of maybe 3 exotics decrypted at a higher light for me, then all of a sudden they're only decrypting at LL instead of above. Over a dozen exotics now and every single one of them decrypted at 399. Someone even said that Bungie themselves told them it's a known bug but I haven't seen Bungie publicly acknowledge it. (If they have I've missed it) It would be nice if they did, but let's be real this is Bungie we are talking about, I'm not holding my breath.

Same here. Been 392 for a week; twenty exotics decrypted at 391.

I think it is just destiny trying to slow down maxing a character so you play it more ps. Nice gamertag

The game itself uses tiers in virtually every aspect of the game. That's the point of having different light levels and a constant level cap. In any style mmorpg, FPS or otherwise, you can always trace your specified gear to a certain tier, range, which allows you to get certain gear at a level, and some at another. For instance, the entirety of TTK, I never decrypted anything with my maximum light after I hit the cap of 335. My focus was to lower my light level as much as humanly possible to obtain good stat rolls on my armor pieces. You can notice now in ROI that the same pieces of gear, decrypting at the same light level will give different bonuses to stats. When you decrypt enough things at the same level you can then gauge how good the item is based off of things you've gotten in the past. You then choose the ones that buff the stats you want for that specified piece, so you can benchmark things at certain light levels. I'm sure that you have noticed that armor dropping at 340 when we first started might have the same, if not better, total stat bonuses than the items you get from the raid (normal or heroic). Even the disparity between raid drops (rolls on armor, stat bonuses, etc.) show you what you can expect to see when looting armor. While it is all random for the most part, you do have the chance to get a high end piece at LL 300, which can be infused with proper gear giving it a higher potential stat value. The idea behind that being to infuse it as many times before the light level cap and then be able to compare something that drops at LL 400. I can almost guarantee that it will surpass what you are being dropped. I don't have all of the numbers in front of me, but I know most helms add between 90-115 and 95-110 on legendary gear and exotics, respectively. Gauntlets have a low end of mid 80s for their combined stats and ~100 for the higher end of the spectrum. I aim for bonuses in the mid 140's on chest armor, and boots seem to be about 125-135. Ghost shells and class items seem to max out at +25/+35. I know this doesn't help your predicament of hitting 400, but that will come with time, undoubtably. I wouldn't however discount the items being dropped. If you get an item at 391, don't automatically dismantle it when you see it's not that great. Put some experience from bounties into it, and dismantle it then for the maximum materials, motes of light and legendary marks. I have also noticed if you max out a crappy 391, and infuse it into a 390, you're more likely to get something that has jumped a light level to 392. That has become pretty useful on some of my faction stuff from year two, especially. My ghost shell from dead orbit (dread explorer shell) give max stats, spinmetal bonuses for looting all the green items as well as blue engrams, and more glimmer for killing fallen. The archons forge becomes an infinitely more valuable resource because the glimmer turns into weapon and armor materials from shiro or banshee. When all those stacks of spinmetal and free materials can be traded for faction reputation, you get more gear for finding more gear. Taking that into consideration, blues cap at 365 now, legendary engrams decrypt to 385, and since I'm not LL400 yet, idk what exotics will decrypt at once you hit the next tier for loot. I can say that you should expect to see higher rewards for activities, rather than engrams because they all seem to have a cap on their return. I hope the perspective helps a little bit, happy hunting!

ok it goes off your lowest light at times example: if you have a 385 ghost but you are 392 armor n weapons can drop at 386 crappy mechanic but what can ya do

Still have yet to see an artifact drop in the Forge after many, many, many offerings. Gave up and just grind for skeleton keys (which typically just give me a class item).

At least you are getting exotic drops. Did 20 hard mode strikes and not one exotic even while running with 3 of coins.

I've opened more then 40 exotics since hard mode. Not a single one gave me lower light then my current LL. And 20 i've saved for when i was 400LL. Every single one after 400 was 400.

It's all random. The one exception is being 400, in which case everything that you receive which CAN be 400 WILL be

If everything you have is 395 except for let's say your ghost is at 390. There is a high chance you cannot push past 395 until you get you ghost equal or higher than 395.

I had 10 and decrypted them after hard mode... They all decrypted at 5 light lower... What's with that?

What were you trying to bring up? I only use exotics on armor pieces that are the lowest. I had everthing above 396 and had some 398, 399 pieces. My boots were 390 for ages, then finally got an exotic to get them to 397. You can get 400 gear from strike chest. Save your engrams and get a few 400 pieces first. Especially the boots and chest pieces because there's no strike chests that give boots or chest.

Bump. I'm 392 as well and this has happened several times.

Bump this cause I'm having the same issue.

Yes. It's happening to me too. Thought Exotic go up to 400 light level

Bungie wouldn't want you to hit max light after 1 week lol, how did you not see this coming? An update like the april one will be out in a year in the meantime please give us your money to make the same s*** for destiny sequels and dlc.

The same things happened to me..more than 75% of exotic engrams decrypted below my current light level. Very angry with this..!! I tried to see the pattern. I upgrade the alt too...thinking they check the alt too. But still feel the same...idk. Now I just use engram if the item LL far below average LL. Life after 90 is not easy....

Its about 50/50 for me.