Don’t worry, you’re not the only one trying to get their head around the new Destiny 2 gear tier system. Not only is Bungie introducing armour set bonuses and completely revamping armour stats and archetypes, it’s also adding a new tiered gear system for weapons and armour, compartmentalising the loot you get into five different levels.
No longer will you simply be able to enhance weapon traits using Ascendent Alloys and Enhancement Cores—now you actually have to raise your seasonal power and take part in tough activities in The Portal to be in with a chance of earning them. The good news, however, is that top-level gear tiers are stronger than anything that existed in the game before.
Here I’ll explain what each gear tier means for weapons and armour, plus how you can earn higher tier gear when The Edge of Fate releases.
Destiny 2 weapon tiers
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There are now five weapon tiers in Destiny 2 to categorise guns, offering added benefits such as enhanced or additional perks as you reach higher tiers:
|
Tier |
Bonus |
|
1 |
Equips seasonal mods once acquired |
|
2 |
Enhanced perks |
|
3 |
Drops with two perks per column |
|
4 |
Enhanced weapon components (like barrels and magazines), and can use enhanced weapon mods |
|
5 |
Enhanced origin traits, three perks per column, and access to a unique ornament and shader |
Destiny 2 armour tiers
There are also now five armour tiers, with each tier boosting the stat roll range you can get. The final tier offers an extra mod socket for a stat increase, similar to artifice armour:
|
Tier |
Stat range |
|
1 |
48 – 53 |
|
2 |
54 – 58 |
|
3 |
59 – 64 |
|
4 |
65 – 72 |
|
5 |
73 – 75 (this level also gains an additional mod socket that offers -5 in one stat for +5 in another, or a +1 increase for the three lowest stats) |
You can also masterwork armour, increasing the lowest of the three stats by one point for each masterwork level.
How do you earn higher tier gear in Destiny 2?
All players will start The Edge of Fate earning Tier 1 gear, with the occasional drop of Tier 2, but by raising your seasonal power and hitting certain accomplishments (most likely linked to the campaign), you’ll be able to permanently upgrade your Kepler gear reward tier. After you complete the campaign, you’ll be able to replay it on new difficulties to access higher tier drops from Kepler, and take part in the new destination activity.
Beyond this, adding modifiers to activities in The Portal and completing them at speed will increase their potential to give out higher tier rewards—this is the way most players will get access to the highest gear tiers. Once the raid race has completed, there will also be new challenges to acquire pinnacle tiered rewards, though we don’t know exactly what these are just yet.
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