Here’s How I’m Preparing for Destiny 2: Beyond Light

In less than a month, Bungie’s Destiny 2 will transition into a new version of the now free-to-play looter shooter with the launch of it’s latest expansion Beyond Light. Since I haven’t played the game since the launch of their last expansion release, Shadowkeep, I had a lot of work to get my account prepared, so this is what I've been doing to get myself caught up and somewhat ready before the game enters it’s next chapter. 

Full disclosure: I'm not preparing for the traditional World First race that occurs within the community when a new raid launches in Destiny 2, nor am I rushing to be one of the very few to reach the game’s new Power soft and hard cap. Those are for those that have played the game religiously even before the game’s launch back in 2017. 

I’m here to simply enjoy a game I love coming back to every time a content drop happens, especially when it’s a big one like an expansion. I’ve been a fan of how tight and satisfying the shooting was in Destiny back in the first game and the progression and various activities have improved dramatically through the years, and going back and playing it again last week reminded me as to why Destiny 2 is highly considered one of the kings in the looter shooter space. 

So, how does one like myself, who hasn’t touch his account in months, play catch up when there’s only weeks left before launch? 

Here’s a few things I have myself planned, and if you’re in a similar situation as me, this might help you out. 

I’m saving all of my Vanguard and Crucible tokens and upgrade items

If you’re going through the Strike playlists or doing some pvp in the Crucible, every completed event will score you tokens for each activity you did respectively, and these can be turned in for loot at a specific Power level. With other stuff available like the ongoing Halloween event, dailies/weeklies, and doing various quests and activities, you’ll find it easy to reach for current Power level soft cap, leaving you with an opportunity to save those precious tokens.

Despite the changes that will occur once Beyond Light launches, these tokens are standard and will likely carry over nicely. So, i’m saving these tokens for when i’m progressing through the new expansion so I can get a few upgrades easily.

I’m also saving as much enhancement cores, Ascended Shards, and Upgrade modules as possible. I take a visit to the Gunsmith to get his daily and weekly bounties on each of your characters to stock up. I also head over to the Spider in Tangled Shore for enhancement cores thanks to his weekly bounties.

I’m trying to reach at least tier 30 in Season of Arrivals

Season of Arrivals (season 11) went live in July and is the longest season thanks to Beyond Light being pushed back to a November release, and sadly I didn’t take the advantage and get all the rewards available in the Season Pass. 

But with weeks left for the season, I won’t be buying it but I would like to try and pick up Falling Guillotine, a sword weapon you can earn for free if you reach tier 30 in the Season Pass. The first one you get has standard perks but this sword is considered the best one out now, so I don’t want to miss out. It also looks amazing and a must-have for my collection.

In just a week of playing I was able to reach tier 15 by always doing the dailies and weeklies with multiple characters, so I'm confident I can reach this one, and if you’re in the same boat as me, ending the season past 30 is a decent spot to be in once the expansion goes live. If you are in the position where there’s still time to farm, maybe reach rank 45 in order to get different version of the Falling Guillotine in the hopes of a god roll.

If you’re not interested in what’s available in Season of Arrivals, then it’s best you still do your dailies but not turn them in just yet. There’s no expiration as to when you should turn your bounties in and they stack, just sitting in your quest log. Since experience past the level cap becomes tied to the Season Pass pass, it only makes sense to save the experience you get from the bounties for when season 12 becomes available.

There’s a chance Bungie will change how bounties provide experience once the expansion drops, but it doesn’t hurt to keep them in store just in case everything stays the same. I’ll be doing the same once I've earned my prize at tier 30. 

I’m planning to finish some old quest/activities before it goes away

Once Beyond Light launches, the Destiny Content Vault (DCV) goes live as well, and this is Bungie’s way of compressing a game that has growth large after 3 years. Select planets and it’s activities, game modes, plus select items will be removed from the game and will be placed in this vault with the purpose of bringing it back to the game in the future. 

Here are all the content leaving once the Beyond Light expansion goes live on November 10:

Planets/Destinations

• Io

• Mars

• Mercury

• Titan

Strikes

• The Pyramidion

• The Festering Core

• Savathun’s Song

• Strange Terrain

• Will of the Thousands

• Tree of Probabilities

• A Garden World

Gambit maps

• Cathedral of Scars

• Kell’s Grave

Crucible maps

• Meltdown

• Solitude

• Retribution

• The Citadel

• Emperor’s Respite

• Equinox

• Eternity

• Firebase Echo

• Gambler’s Ruin

• Legion’s Gulch

• Vostok

Crucible game modes

• Supremacy

• Countdown

• Lockdown

• Breakthrough

• Doubles

• Momentum Control

• Scorched

Raids

• Leviathan

• Eater of Worlds

• Spire of Starts

• Crown of Sorrow

• Scourge of the Past

Campaign and other activities

• The Red War campaign

• The Trials of Osiris campaign

• The Warmind campaign

• Cinematic on vaulted locations

• Adventures and patrols on vaulted locations

• Lost Sectors on vaulted locations

• The Whisper secret mission

• The Zero Hour secret mission

• Mercury’s Forge

• Escalation Protocol

• Black Armory quests and weapons

• Black Armory Forges

• Reckoning

• Season of the Drifter Quests

• Gambit Prime

• The Menagerie

• The Tribute Hall

• Season of Opulence quests

Exotic items 

• Bad Juju

• The Huckleberry

• Izanagi’s Burden

• Legend of Acrius

• Polaris Lance

• Skyburner’s Oath

• Sleeper Simulant

• Telesto

• Outbreak Perfected

• Whisper of the Worm

• Worldline Zero

Exotic quests

• Sturm

• MIDA Multi-Tool

• Rat King

• Legend of Acrius

• Sleeper Simulant

• Polaris Lance

• Worldline Zero

• Ace of Spades

• The Last Word

• Le Monarque

• Jotunn

• Izanagi’s Burden

• Thorn

• Lumina

• Truth

• Bad Juju

Plan accordingly as to what is worth doing for your account because again we only have a few weeks to get some of them done before November 10. If you do get all of them done, I salute you. I’ve done a few old exotic quests leaving the game like the Rat King and the MIDA Multi-Tool and plan to do more as I would like to have these weapons in my collection. 

I’m making sure all three characters are ready to enter Beyond Light

Last but not least, I’m utilizing all three character slots in my account by preparing all 3 of my Guardians (Warlock, Titan, Hunter) to be close as close to thecurrent Power level cap with all of their gear sorted and their quest logs cleaned. Also, i’m doing each of their dailies and weekly bounties since each Guardian has their own set, that’s three times the amount of experience and upgrade materials you can earn at a given time. 

Set aside all the gear that will not go past Power level 1060

When Beyond Light goes live, all weapons and armor during Season 1-8 will be sunset to 1060. What is sunset? it’s Bungie’s way of retiring old gear by not allowing you to increase its power level, making it ineffective for pve content past power level 1060, which is Beyond Light content.

All gear before Season of Dawn (Season 9) will be sunset. But take note that all exotics will not be affected. Also, get that are sunset are not entirely useless as power level doesn’t affect game modes like the Crucible.

That’s how I'm currently tackling my return to Destiny 2. I’m also open to other suggestions to best prepare for the launch of the Beyond Light expansion because despite the DCV removing content, there’s still a lot to take in.

Destiny 2’s Beyond Light expansion is set to launch on November 10, 2020 on the PS4, Xbox One, and PC.

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