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"It's Time Guardian, The City Needs You": A Beginner's Guide to 'Destiny 2'

Newcomers may find themselves a bit overwhelmed as they begin to find their footing in the massive new world of 'Destiny 2'.

By Dustin MurphyPublished 6 years ago 7 min read
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[Credits: Bungie]

Since its launch, Destiny 2 has become one of the largest releases of this year, and rightly so thanks to many of its outstanding changes. While PC gamers are still having to wait until its release on October 24, newcomers may find themselves a bit overwhelmed as they begin to find their footing in this massive new world.

While it is still definitely about shooting, there's quite a bit more to it, and that's all thanks to the game's massive amount of quests and group based activities to partake in.

Since Destiny 2 does feature quite a few new mechanics, there's a lot to keep in mind as you begin to play. So here's a few tips to help get you started.

'EDZ on Earth' [Credits: Bungie]

Explore, take your Time, and level 20 will come rather quickly.

While playing through the game, you may find yourself burning out slowly as you get through its intriguing, and overly cinematic story. If you're like me, you've no doubt beat the campaign, but if you aren't - take your time. Don't rush it. The game has an insane amount of terrain for you discover, and you'll only notice some of the game's most beautiful scenery when taking your time to adventure through the worlds of Los, Titan, and Nessa. Once you've finished the story and reached max level there's a whole lot more post-game content to dig into.

[Credits: Bungie]

Don't destroy your starting Exotic in 'Destiny 2' — you can infuse it with another item.

Are you questioning the value of that beginner exotic? Trust me, I did too, and I am glad that I ultimately decided to keep it. Later in the game I quickly realized that I would be able to obtain the needed amount of Legendary Dust (A new currency within the game used to upgrade legendary items and exotics). Just throw it in a vault once you get better blue or purple items and return to it later.

If you skipped your chance to enjoy the story for PvP and strikes, go back.

As someone who adamantly disapproved of #Destiny due to its DLC scheme and short story, Destiny 2 is a much different beast. If you decided to skip through the story for the Crucible and Vanguard Strikes, I highly urge you to take in this astoundingly well told tale. If there's anything that Destiny 2 improved on, it is definitely the amount of available story, and sheer amount of content to do.

[Credits: Bungie]

The new maps can be confusing — here's what you need to know:

If you are new to the franchise you may find the map a bit overwhelming. Even if you aren't new, it can still be a bit too much due to the insane amount of newly added features we didn't have access to in the previous game. Because of this, and the lack of a legend, you may want to use the following to help you get started in Destiny 2.

Adventures: These are shorter missions in comparison to the main story quests. I highly recommend doing these side quests as you complete each planet and before you move onto the next one.

Public Events*: These bad boys are huge public events, which encourages large groups of players in the zone to work together in order to overcome almost impossible odds. These missions vary from taking down the big spider-tanks that the Fallen deploy, destroying a glimmer mining area by holding down the locale (why couldn't they just bring Warsats back?) or even taking out an enemy that could be a rather large boss. Regardless, they are fun, and they offer some awesome rewards.

Lost Sectors: If you've come across these guys, awesome. These are mini dungeons hidden throughout each planet. You'll run into them by finding a strange sigil placed on part of the terrain (the sigil looks like two spooning upside down Us with a dot in the center) at the mouth of almost every Lost Sector. Dive into these bad boys, kill the bad guys, defeat the boss, and earn a key that opens a chest at the end of the dungeon. These are a fun and rather rewarding distraction when exploring each of the new planets. They're also repeatable.

Heroic Public Events(*): This little feature is new to Destiny 2, giving players a chance to meet secret conditions during a Public Event. This more difficult version can be unlocked, as stated, by meeting secret conditions. This mode leads to more and/or deadlier enemies being thrown at your group. This difficulty also means better rewards if you can meet the conditions of completion. If you are struggling to meet the conditions as a group and/or on your own, you can check out the video below for a rather well done guide to these heroic events.

Patrol Missions: If you've played Destiny then you are well acquainted with these missions. These are the quests you will want to complete during your free time. These are small missions that include tasks such as killing an elite enemy, killing specified mobs for their loot, or even looking at a location for 30 seconds. Since these guys are so short, they are definitely worth picking up whenever you have a chance.

Strikes: These are the bread and butter of the post-game. These missions are long, group oriented activities, which will put fireteams against rather large enemies and odds that are not in their favor. If you play an MMO such as Final Fantasy XIV or World of Warcraft, these are the equivalent of raids and will provide you with high-end rewards for completing them. If you want my honest opinion, these are one of my favorite things to do when I'm not tearing it up in the Crucible. These are awesome as you can just jump in with a few friends, grab a cold beverage or three, and just chat the night away while blowing those annoying Cabal up.

Skipped out on 'Destiny' and need to get caught up?

If you aren't quite sure what's going on in Destiny 2 because you missed out on the first story, you may want to catch up. The Destiny team put together a great video that you should check out.

It gives a nice big look at the previous title by explaining why everyone loves that big glowing ball in the sky and why your resurrected character plays a huge role.

What about all the customization options like Shaders and Mods?

Once you hit level 20 there's a new customization option that is readily available to you. These shaders and mods are easily earned by leveling up your reputation with factions and by earning Bright Engrams. They allow for you to customize your armor to fit how you play. If you want an energy weapon to be arc instead of solar, slap a mod in there in order to change its element type and see what it can do.

Want your armor to help with your ability cool downs or health regeneration? These mods offer you a chance to do so by swapping them in and out armour slots as required. Just remember, like shaders these mods do have a single use, so you may want to save them up and ensure that they are deployed for the right situation.

Unlike mods, shaders are a bit more diverse in what they can do. Since they can alter the colors of your armor, weapons, ship, speeder, and even your ghost; you may want to ensure that your color scheme is what you want it to be since they all have a single use. If you have specific ones you want, just remember where you got them so that you can farm more of them, and set your shader scheme how you prefer.

[Credits: Bungie]

And the final suggestion — Join a clan.

Whether you know it or not, Clans are a big part of Destiny 2. Clans aren't a group of people you are going to be forced to game with against your own will. These ladies and gentlemen will be the people that can share your experience with. You can even help to perform clan tasks and earn unique rewards whether you group with them or not.

This is where Destiny 2 plans on excelling in comparison to its previous title. It's going to require you to focus on working with others, if that means becoming part of a clan or using the mobile app.

first person shooter
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About the Creator

Dustin Murphy

A video games journalist and Content Creator. He has been featured on sites such as AppTrigger and MoviePilot. He's the president and editor-in-chief of the independent news publisher Blast Away the Game Review.

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