How to Level Up Fast Guide

This guide is outdated.

• Here is a quick edit to bring it up to speed with Year 2
• All levels are now acquired by basic experience. Vanguard Bounties, Story Missions, and quests are a good way to level up fast. Focus on bounties first then complete story missions. Once you reach level 40, work on leveling your light level.(an average of ALL attack and defense of your equipped gear)

Level 1-4

• Do Story Missions on normal difficulties. The storyline will introduce basic game mechanics along with NPCs in The Tower.

Level 5-10

• Obtain Vanguard Bounties from the Bounty Tracker in The Tower. Avoid Crucible Bounties because they are slower. Be sure to check the Bounty Tracker every day for new bounties.

• Continue to do Story Missions along with the bounties. Do Story Missions on Hard Mode for large Experience bonuses. You should also make sure that you are at the same or higher level as the Hard Mode missions.

• If you are not at the same or higher level as the Hard Mode Story Missions, you should complete bounties first to level up.

• You can obtain additional bounties from the Postmaster NPC. You can only have 5 bounties at a time, make sure you choose the easier ones and do not pick the ones that require you to complete tasks in Locations you've yet unlocked.

• Do not do Strikes yet. They are quite difficult at your current levels.

• Always open chests and collect materials such as Spinmetal on Earth, Helium Filaments on Moon, Spirit Bloom on Venus and Relic Iron on Mars.

Level 11-20

• Prioritize bounties over Story Missions. Bounties will grant you a lot of experience points and allow you to level up fast.

• Only do Story Missions you have not done or if the bounty calls for it. Only do Story Missions on Hard.

• Do a Public Event once a day and make sure you complete it on Gold Medal rating. You will obtain a guaranteed Ascendant Shard or Ascendant Energy from Postmaster.

Level 20

• Level 20 is highest "Level". You can achieve levels beyond 20 by equipping armor with Light stat. These armors are usually Rare, Legendary and Exotic rarity.

Level 21-25

• Level up your reputation with the Vanguard Faction by completing Vanguard Bounties and Patrol Missions.

• Acquire Vanguard Marks by completing Public Events and Strikes from Strike Playlist.

• Note that you can only obtain 100 Vanguard Marks per week.

• Use the Vanguard Marks to purchase Legendary gear from Titan Vanguard, Hunter Vanguard or Warlock Vanguard.

• Helmets cost 120 Marks each while other Armor pieces cost 65 Marks each.

Level 25

• At Level 25, you unlock Level 28 Weekly Heroic Strike and Nightfall Strike. You can get a few high-level friends to escort you through these Strikes. Just sit back, let them do all the work and try not to die.

• When you complete the Weekly Nightfall Strike you gain a buff that boosts all of your Reputation, Mark and Experience gained by 25% for the next of the week. The buff resets every Tuesday. Make sure you complete it on that day.

Level 26-27

• When you get more and more Legendary gear, you will want to level them up. You want to unlock all of their upgrades BUT DO NOT actually purchase all of them. By levelling un-wanted Legendary gear you can dismantle them for more valuable upgrade materials such as Ascendant Shard from armor and Ascendant Energy form weapons. When dismantling, fully levelled gear yield more material than under-levelled ones.

• Obtain Strange Coins through Heroic Weekly Strikes, the only guaranteed method to obtain them. By completing it on the highest difficulty, players will obtain 9 Coins. Players can also try to acquire the Coins through Weekly Nightfall Strike or rare Engrams. Obtaining Coins form these methods are not guaranteed.

• Players can use Strange Coins to purchase Exotic Armor and Weapons from Agent of the Nine. The NPC appears only on the weekends. Please remember that you can only equip 1 piece of Exotic Armor and 1 piece of Exotic Weapon at a time.

• Do Vault of Glass raid to acquire all the Vault of Glass Armor. VoG armor are the best in game. They are better than normal Legendary armor and are on-par with Exotic armor.

Level 28

• Players need Ascendant Shard to Upgrade Defence of their Armor. The more you upgrade their Defences the higher light they will have.

• To reach Level 30, players will NEED a full set of Vault of Glass Armor. One piece can be replaced by an Exotic armor.

• Aside from dismantling Legendary and Exotic Armor, players can acquire Ascendant Shards from Public Events, Weekly Heroic and Nightfall Strikes and The Crucible. To obtain shards, players should do the activities in that order.

• Do Vault of Glass Hard Mode. The Helmet piece of VoG gear set can only be obtained in the Hard Mode

Level 29-30

• Players can obtain level 29 by upgrading regular Legendary gear but they will need Vault of Glass gear to reach level 30. Players should save their Ascendant Shards to upgrade Vault of Glass gear and Exotic gear in order to obtain level 30.