How to power level effectively in Destiny 2: Beyond Light

The arrival of the Beyond Light expansion for Destiny 2 has brought a new Power level grind to the table, and players will want to get through it as fast as possible so that they're prepared to tackle the brand new Deep Stone Crypt raid coming on November 21. This time around, the grind starts at 1,050 Power and ends at 1,260 (though 1,250 is a fine stopping point). That may seem like a tall order, especially if you're trying to get through it before the raid arrives, but it will go by surprisingly quickly if you go about it the right way. Here's our guide to raising your Power level fast in Destiny 2: Beyond Light.

First, focus on farming blue gear

To get through the first 150 levels of the Power grind quickly, you should prioritize hunting for blue (Rare) gear drops. This is because from 1,050 to 1,200, blue gear will drop with a Power level that's higher than your Guardian's. Also, blue gear drops often and can be farmed easily, so it's a great way to get a large chunk of your progress out of the way early.

In general, the best way to get blue gear consistently is to complete Public Events and Lost Sectors across Destiny's patrol zones. Both only take a couple of minutes to do, and they almost always drop a piece of blue gear (or Legendary/purple gear, if you're lucky). Lost Sectors are superb for blue gear farming, as you can usually speedrun past all the enemies and kill the boss in under two minutes, run out, and then run back in for a repeat run. Additionally, you should try and make Public Events you do Heroic when you can (you can do this by executing a hidden mechanic) since this gives you a chance to get more than one gear drop per completion.

It's also worth hunting down each patrol zone's Region Chests, which are golden chests that have a plus sign symbol on them. These can only be opened once, but they're guaranteed to drop a piece of blue gear and the Power level of it will be even higher than the gear you get from Public Events and Lost Sectors.

Grind activities that drop Powerful Gear next

Once you reach the soft cap of Power level 1,200, the next step is to focus on completing activities that drop Powerful Gear. This is because from here, random drops of blue and purple gear typically won't provide any Power increases; Powerful Gear drops always will.

Here are all the current sources of Powerful Gear:

• Completing Nightfall: The Ordeal Strikes. (refreshes weekly)
• Winning seven rounds in Competitive Crucible/Survival (refreshes weekly)
• Completing eight bounties for each vendor on the Tower (refreshes weekly)
• Completing eight bounties for Variks on Europa (refreshes weekly)
• Gear drops from the Season Pass
• Finding Prime Engrams
• Getting random Exotic drops
• Exotic quest completion (the Exotic drops with a higher Power level)
• Clan activity completions (refreshes weekly)

It's also worth noting that with Beyond Light, Bungie has made it so that you can occasionally get small Power increases from gear that drops from Strikes, Gambit, and Crucible. Therefore, grinding these activities can be a good idea if you have no other Powerful drops to earn elsewhere. Powerful Gear drops as well as these smaller ones will both increase your power up to 1,250. You can also randomly get Powerful drops from ranking up in Gambit and competitive Crucible, so while playing those modes, do your best to win so that you can boost your rewards even further.

While at this stage, if you're having trouble getting a piece of Powerful Gear to drop for a specific armor or weapon slot, I recommend keeping an eye on random drops you get. This is because even though blues and standard purples will no longer drop at levels higher than your average Power Level past 1,200, they still might drop at your level, which can be useful if one of the pieces of gear you have equipped is lower than the rest and is pulling down your average a bit. Therefore, make sure to take advantage of instances where normal blues and purples can be used to balance your average out.

Don't forget about Pinnacle Gear drops

The hard cap for the Power grind is 1,250, but players can get up to 1,260 by earning Pinnacle Gear drops. Additionally, you can choose to get Pinnacle drops before reaching the 1,250 mark if you want, which essentially makes them extra Powerful Gear drops. This is what you should do if you're planning on completing the Deep Stone Crypt raid as soon as it comes out, as you'll only need to have a Power Level of 1,230 to be able to finish it. It's recommended that you go for Pinnacles after you finish all of your Powerful drops to maximize your gains.

Activities that reward Pinnacle Gear include:

• Completing three Strikes while matching the weekly elemental burn (refreshes weekly)
• Completing a Nightfall: The Ordeal Strike with a score of 100,000 or higher
• Completing three Gambit matches (refreshes weekly)
• Completing three Crucible playlist matches (refreshes weekly)
• Winning seven rounds in the Trials of Osiris (refreshes weekly)

Additionally, the Deep Stone Crypt raid itself is expected to drop Pinnacle rewards from each encounter.

Bonus: Complete bounties for extra Power levels

Throughout the entire leveling process, we highly recommend picking up and completing as many bounties as you can. This is because while the bounties themselves don't drop Powerful Gear, they do provide a lot of experience — and experience is what you need to level up your season artifact. Doing this gives you boosts to your Power level so that it's always a little higher than what your gear is. Additionally, it also allows you to unlock mods that will be important to use during Nightfall: The Ordeal runs. Experience is also what you level up your Season Pass with, so there's really no reason not to do bounties when you can.

Destiny 2: Beyond Light is available now on Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, Xbox One consoles, PlayStation 4 and 5, and Windows 10 PCs. It costs $40. The base game is free-to-play, and I highly recommend trying it out if you haven't already. Destiny 2 is easily one of the best Xbox One shooters on the market today.