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Beginner's Guide to Destiny 2 Gameplay

So you're thinking about trying Destiny 2. Guys, I would argue and say that right now may be the best time ever to try Destiny 2. Considering Bungie has really opened the doors up, I'm making a lot of the content in Into the Light absolutely free. Now, I won't lie to you. Destiny 2 can be overwhelming. It's a massive game. And I think as veteran players, we forget just how big this game actually is.

But the goal of today's video is to bring you up to speed. To get you... on board with the systems that are in place in-game, and ultimately help you get started in the world of Destiny. What I do ask is that any of my veteran players that have any suggestions down below, please comment them.

And whether you're a new light player or just a returning player, you'll be amazed how much you can pick up from just the comments. Now, we're going to start where all MMOs really start, and that's in character creation. If you're a new light player, you're going to be faced with the decision of being a Titan, a Hunter, or a Warlock.

Now, each class can be greatly customized to your desired playstyle. Now, I'm going to be generalizing a bit here, but Hunters, you guys prefer to roll on the ground, shoot your weapons. Titans like to punch a bunch, and they're also known as the best class in the game. And Warlocks like to do magic tricks.

Now, the beautiful thing about Destiny is that you're not locked to just one class. A lot of what we're going to be going over today will be for Hunters. I know you're probably like, Cross, we knew you were a Hunter main. No, I'm only doing this because, unfortunately, Hunter is the most popular pick amongst gamers at Pick Up Destiny for the first time. But what I do love about this is that you can just try out a bunch of different things.

You try different characters, different subclasses within those characters, and there are no penalties whatsoever for switching up your playstyle. So if you see something and it resonates with you, go for it. Now, after creating your character, you'll immediately be put in a tutorial mission. And this is where you're going to learn the basics like using abilities, shooting your weapons, how to follow an objective.

You'll even meet some characters. Now, directly after this mission, you'll be brought to Shaohan's camp. Now, this is kind of the hub for the tutorial experience. And essentially, before moving on to anything else, you'll be tasked with completing one more mission requiring your guardian to bounce from objective to objective until you encounter Nevada. Now, after this mission, you'll be able to return back to Sha Han's camp.

And this is where you're met with one of the best changes Bungie has ever given the new player experience, and that is tutorial skip. Now, I know, you're probably like, Cross, shouldn't I be doing the tutorial? Listen, yes, but at the same time, not really.

I mean, kind of. but you don't have to. If you're just even remotely familiar with what Destiny has to offer, I would recommend just skipping this altogether, which by the way is available at any time.

Now, if you are a completely brand new player, yes, you probably should continue the tutorial, which will bring you up to speed with the current systems in the game, at least some of them. Now, once you start at that next mission, you'll be granted your first aspect. You'll essentially follow the tutorial banner to equip that new ability and make sure you read what it does. I know some of my new like players are like, Cross, I don't even know what I'm reading. Look, I get it.

Believe me, we're going to get into everything in more detail. But for instance, if you're a hunter and you choose Gunpowder Gamble, this is essentially a supercharged grenade that becomes available after you score kills with solar abilities, as well as your weapons. Now, if you equip your new aspect, you continue with the mission following the waypoint and then meditate at the wells of light along the way. Now, this is a great opportunity to just familiarize yourself with your abilities, as each well of light gives you increased ability regeneration.

And this gives you a peek of what you can do with your weapons. how you can effectively use your grenades, your melees, your class abilities, hell, even your supers, without worrying about wasting them. Now, at the end of the mission, after defeating these thick Balsheim knights, you'll be granted another piece of your guardian, a fragment. You'll follow the tutorial banner to equip it, and make sure you read what it does.

The fragment that we chose was Ember of Combustion. This causes our super final blows to cause an ignition, that being an explosion. And the beautiful thing about these keywords, these special keywords, is you have these little descriptions here. that will guide you, telling you what they are.

Now, this is one of many fragments, and this is what we're going to use to fine-tune our guardian while we use aspects to define our guardians. Now, once you've equipped that and completed the mission, you'll continue the new light quest line until you're rewarded with your first legendary weapon, Night Watch. Ah, yes, a classic. The tutorial banner will tell you then to inspect the Night Watch. and it will inform you about all the possibilities legendary weapons bring with them.

And there are hundreds of legendary weapons within Destiny, all with many different perks. And that's really Destiny in a nutshell. Finding these weapons, finding these different traits, finding that right perk combination, and ultimately, obtaining the God Roll.

Ah! Now, the main thing to do when you first start off is just read the perks, become familiar with it, and then just shoot the weapon. A lot of what we've discovered in Destiny is just trial and error.

I'm not going to overwhelm you with what you need to be chasing on any weapon roll. You'll get to that. at some point in the future. God rolls are a very important part of Destiny, and we put out videos showcasing weapons and their god rolls, but this is really applicable to each individual guardian.

One guardian's god roll may not be the next guardian's, but generally, there are good trait combinations that transcend others, that I would say most guardians will value no matter what. Now, once claiming all this, you can then pick up Maeve's Key, which unlocks the chest behind you. This will give you your first exotic weapon.

Now, exonics, in some cases, This is or the best in slots in comparison to their legendary counterparts Hence why bungee limits us to only one exotic weapon in one exotic armor piece with that being said though The role of an exotic is to be that an exotic. It's unique. It has something that legendaries don't possess And in some cases, exotics are actually not more powerful than their legendary counterparts.

But they do offer some level of utility that normally outmatches legendaries when built into those things. They can be incredibly powerful playstyle defining weapons. Now, in this case, we got Tractor Cannon.

This is a heavy shotgun that debuffs enemies. Now, equip that bad baby and continue with the quest line until the next mission. Now, after you completed that and returned to camp, Shaw will have disappeared, leaving you a sparrow. Think of this as your noble steed. That will allow you to get around quicker.

Macross, I've seen the trailers. Where's the skimmer? Money. Money is the only way to get that at this point. Welcome to Destiny.

FOMO! And if you're not familiar with that acronym, that is fear. Fear of missing out. But fret not, young light. This barrel will work just fine.

He may not have the style points of a skimmer, but he'll still get you around just fine. Now, you'll be prompted to do one last mission in order to rescue Shawhan. Now, if you defeated Yamada and rescued Sha, the next time you speak to him, he will give you your first ship.

And the tutorial banner will tell you how to reach the tower. This is the main social hub. Now, this is where everything really takes place outside of the seasonal stuff. But this is where you're going to go to start this mission.

And they will introduce you to some important characters. They'll also give you some new weapons. They'll teach you about a very important system. And that is how to unlock new abilities, new aspects, and new fragments.

And you can do this all from the character Ikora. Now, each one of these is purchasable with Glimmer. This is the main currency of Destiny. And if you follow the tutorial banner, this will guide you through the unlock process. But I would advise becoming familiar with this.

As a new player, you'll be returning here often. Now, if you're looking at your Glimmer like, dude, what the hell? How am I supposed to afford all this? Don't worry. We're going over that in just a moment.

First, let's finish this tour of the tower. I'm going to talk to a few more NPCs who each offer you some new- loot and the last NPC will unlock the season pass for you. Now this is how we can unlock some passive rewards by simply playing as well as engaging with the seasonal content. Now granted we're keeping this guy in DLC free so all you need to know is that as we get XP you can claim things off the top reward track.

Now you talk to one person that means Zavala and the tower tour will be finished now. Now at this point the new light quest line will take you into a strike. Here you'll be match made with two other players and if you're wondering what a strike is it's a three-man activity for you.

go in, you do a mission, you kill bad guys, you stay alive, and you get loot all under the name of the Vanguard. Now, when you complete this strike, you'll acquire a new quest called a Spark of Hope. And this is what we're going to be following now.

Once the strike totally ends, you'll immediately be brought before Ikora. Now, for anyone that took the tutorial skip, this is exactly where you're going to be brought to and also instantly be given the rewards that you would have gotten while progressing through the tutorial. Now, this is a big deal because Ikora has these things called New Light Kits. And this is This is a new update Bungie's recently given us.

And the purpose of this is to serve as a way to give new players some very powerful weapons and instantly unlock a good portion of a chosen subclass. With each kit, you'll get an exotic weapon. You'll also get some legendary weapons, new subclass abilities, some better armor, and a quest to get an exotic armor piece.

And this quest is the same for each kit on the class. Now personally, guys, and again, my veteran players, you could chime in on this as well. I recommend you choose anything but the recommended kit.

as well as the Arc kit. The reason why is if you choose something besides the Regimentum one, you'll instantly unlock that subclass, bypassing the short quests you would have needed to do otherwise. And if you choose Arc, the exotic weapon you get is Wrist Runner.

Now, this is not me hating on Wrist Runner, but understand you're going to get that weapon anyways. The Spark of Hope quest already has Wrist Runner as its reward. So if you're looking at Wrist Runner and you're like, dude, I want that, you're going to get it. Which is why I'm saying here, instead of choosing Regimentum or Arc, I would choose the Solar kit. to get the exotic hand cannon sun shots or the void kit to get the exotic pulse rifle graviton lance both of these are excellent weapons and i recommend this regardless of whatever class you're playing as you would essentially be throwing away an exotic trust me you don't want to miss out on either one of those weapons now past that if you want my personal choice for each class for titans i like the solar kits you'll get the ragnar hill kinetic shotgun sun shot solar hand cannon and the marcelin c heavy solar grenade launcher for hunters go with void you'll get the ragnar hill shotgun again but Graviton Lance, which is a phenomenal add-clearing pulse rifle, and the Quag Zephon 5 Heavy Void Machine Gun.

Now, for my Warlocks, Pravi's Tote. I think my Warlock mains know why. For my New Light players, just know LFG, which is looking for group, which is essentially you matchmaking with other people.

It can be kind of toxic if you're a Warlock not playing well at Radiance, and that's a super that gives you health and your teammates health and a buff. Let's just say, for the time being, you may just want to have that, and you'll always have a nice spot on a fire team playing good old support. Now the beautiful thing about Destiny is that you're never locked to one subclass. You can unlock everything else simply by just purchasing things here from Icorra. But before we talk about speeding that process up...

I'm gonna continue this Spark of Hope questline. This is where you're gonna talk to Zavala and be introduced to Guardian Ranks. Follow the tutorial banner to claim your first objective. When you do that, you'll get this pop-up that sets the tone for what Guardian Ranks are. Now, outside of following your current quests, Guardian Ranks exists as a way to guide you through this game.

From starting where we are now, to completing the hardest content like raids and nightfalls. The purpose of Guardian ranks is to gradually build up your skills and knowledge in a natural order. Now to rank up and take your next step, interact with the pedestal at the tree behind you.

This will rank you up to Guardian rank 2 and unlock Ghost Mods. Now Ghost Mods are an important part of expediting the unlock process for all sorts of things. And we're going to get to that in just a moment. For now though, I would just socket the plus 5% Glimmer mod.

Then after talking to Zavala again, you'll get a tutorial and a quest for completing the first mission of the Lightfall campaign. Now, this is free, but we're going to skip it for now. Instead, we're going to continue with a Spark of Hope and return to Ikora.

Here, she'll tell you about timeline reflections, a way to get caught up with Destiny's story while getting loot like exonics and legendary weapons. Now, you can do these at any time, so feel free to experience that at your leisure. Back at Ikora, she'll also grant you the ability to unlock new subclasses.

Now, if you took our advice earlier and grabbed a new light kit that was different from the recommended one, you'll only need to complete one quest to unlock your last subclass. Granted, these aren't difficult to complete though, but you can pretty much do those passively as we continue through our quests. But to continue processing a Spark of Hope, just follow the instructions.

You'll head to the EDZ and talk to this NPC. You're jumping to a law sector, which are indicated by these symbols here. And then you'll be launching this mission.

Now this mission is fairly straightforward. And after some combat and a jumping puzzle, which by the way, you need to get used to. Bungie loves jumping puzzles.

It will then reward you with the exotic submachine gun, Wrist Runner. alongside its catalyst. Now, catalysts are not present on every exotic in the game, but the ones they're present on, some of them make a big difference as they normally grant big buffs to that exotic. If you do ever come across exotic catalysts, though, out in the wild, you definitely want to complete the objectives to fully masterwork and apply it to your exotic weapons because they make a big difference. Now, after you dispense the boss in the next room and return to the tower, speaking to Zavala will complete the Spark of Hope quests.

This pretty much finishes the On the Rails new line experience. What guides us now is unlocking the rest of our subclasses, any quests we get from Ikora, and our Guardian ranks. Luckily for us, all of these new pursuits have been designed to be accomplished in tandem. If we head back to Ikora and we have all three subclasses unlocked, she'll offer us three quests that each reward us with an exotic armor piece specialized for each of our subclasses.

Now these quests can be done anywhere and involved using the related subclass to kill enemies in a certain way. For example. To unlock the six coyote exotic chess piece, one of the objectives is to kill enemies affected by jolt, which it tells us right here.

Now the spark of shock fragment causes our grenades to jolt, so as long as we're paying attention to the demands of each quest, we can do these passively as we pursue other things, which is pretty much the destiny way. You want to overlap objectives. We also have armor quests for earlier that came with our new light kit. So right off the bat, we have four exotic armor pieces for each class that we can chase.

At this point, I would say start looking at your guardian ranks to figure out what to do next. For example, I'm doing the starting mission of the lightfall campaign as that will give me some progress on my guardian rank and unlock the exotic helmet bow tracer, which is the reward here for my new light kit quests. Now while I'm doing this mission, I'm using arc abilities that will jolt to give me progress on my other exotic armor quests. So as you see, there isn't one way to go about progressing now, but there's a lot of ways you can overlap things.

But following that Guardian rank is a really good way to kind of carry you in the right direction. And you can do what you can to unlock some exotic loot, but in general, you really are at this point free to do whatever you want. Which takes us to the most recent DLC, Into the Light. Now this is a completely free DLC.

It has a horde mode, called Onslaught. It has some of the best loot in the game, and it is a catch-up mechanic for all new or returning players. Now, we have an entire guide on Onslaught and a number of build videos for Onslaught, but you can access this by heading to the Hall of Champions, which you'll locate here in your directory. And essentially, when you load in, head all the way to Shacks at the end, and there will be a chest that can be claimed on all three characters, by the way, with powerful loadouts inside.

You'll get some legendary weapons and armor. you'll get an exotic machine gun called Thunderlord and an exotic armor piece specific to your class. Like I said earlier, it has never been a better time for a new player to jump into Destiny. And the most beautiful thing about all of this is that claiming these items skips the entire power grind, as these items are already at max gear score. As for the rest of the Internet of Light DLC and the room that you're in, you don't even need to engage with any of the new content, but the option is there.

But what I will say is that before you really get... fully immersed into Onslaught and with Into the Light, I would suggest really unlocking all of your subclass, as this is going to make a big difference in your loadout potential. Destiny is all about builds, and if you're missing certain builds, fragments and aspects, this can really kill your build, which takes us of how to unlock every option within one subclass.

In order to do this, you need to reach Guardian Rank 4, as a good portion of the available fragments are locked until you hit that rank. So complete objectives for Guardian Rank 3 and Guardian Rank 4, which will have you exploring a couple of destinations and learning about gear modification. Take your time in this, guys. No need to rush.

Just take it all in. Understand the game as you go. Now, when you've interacted with the tree, and made it officially to Guardian rank 4. We can now start looking at the best ways to fill out the rest of our subclasses.

Now, the name of the game here is Glimmer, and more specifically, Glimmer Farming. Funny enough, the best way to do that is by completing public events. Now, honestly, you're probably pretty good with Glimmer at this point. It's very likely you have about 100,000 Glimmer on you. And if you're not in a rush to unlock the rest of your subclass, you can continue to accrue Glimmer passively.

But if you want everything available... Make sure you have your ghost mod on that gives you plus 65% glimmer. And then you just want to start doing public events. You see, each public event spread out across all of our destinations in Destiny. When complete, it will reward you a fair amount of glimmer.

With the heroic version of those public events rewarding you even more. Now, all of these public events have little objectives. For example, this Cabal Drill event will become heroic.

when we destroyed this aircraft. Now, there's been multiple guides of like all the public events and how to heroic them. But let me just say one of the best ways to really just see how to heroic a public event is just watch other guardians, especially higher rank guardians.

If you see them literally shooting a ship off in the distance while standing there in the public event zone, then that's probably what you need to be doing. Just observe what they're doing and you'll be able to jump in and cue in. on how to heroic that public events.

Now, public events can give upwards of 20,000 glimmer per completion. This is a great way to amass glimmer. And this is the main resource for everything in Destiny, especially going into the final shape. Now, I'm not saying you should go out there and completely max out glimmer and get to 500,000. By no means are you required to do so.

Again, glimmer is something you can just accumulate passively. Now, the last piece of advice that I can offer you as a new player is how to go about obtaining new loot and exotics. Here in the collection tab, you can see exotic weapons, as well as exotic armor, and even all of the legendary loot this game has to offer. I would say just scroll through these tabs.

See what stands out to you. You might find an exotic weapon that sounds busted or an exotic armor piece that fits the style that you want to build into. Whatever it might be, find something that interests you. and then just look up how to get it. Exotics and even legendary loot come from all sorts of different sources.

They'll come from quests, RNG drops, vendors, lost sectors, raids, missions. There's literally a kiosk right here in the tower between the vaults that has a ton of exotics that you can just outright purchase. A lot of people though, actually will start from the top. They'll actually tune in for a build video.

They'll see a build that they like and they're like, wow, it looks very dominant. And then they'll do the research from there. For instance, we recently put up a swarmer build with Final Warning. And yes, that is locked behind a DLC. But the point is, you can go and see that build and go, wow, as a warlock, I really like that build.

I want to use it. What are they using? And you'll notice in every one of these build videos, whether it's from me or other content creators, we always have something called a dim link. This is an external application that you don't necessarily have to use. But let me just say it makes a big difference for your overall play experience within Destiny.

You see, you can click. that link and it will transfer you directly to Dim, allowing you to link your account and then slot out the same loadout that I was rocking in that build video. Now, there are a ton of Destiny third-party websites that are fantastic for the game.

You've got websites that manage inventory, track progress, track weekly and daily activities, showcase loot. I don't really want to overwhelm you with all those, but I will say Destiny Item Manager is fantastic. You can immediately see what it is that we're using, and then you can go ahead and start doing research. And you can just Google how to get final warning. how to get swarmers and i know a lot of guardians will say just go out there and get everything and yes as a destiny player we do want everything but as a new light player that can be overwhelming instead of you enjoying what it is that you're playing with whatever build that may be you're out there just going through this checklist of items and loot that you have to get and that's just gonna cause burnout you gotta enjoy what you're playing with and i think it's best to start from the top with the build work with those dim links see what it is that you directly need for that build fragment combinations, aspects, exotics, and then just go get those things.

That way you're enjoying what you're playing with. The game doesn't feel like a chore as you're grinding for other things because you're playing with a fantastic build. I'm actually going to link a number of dim links down below in this video that are just builds that I feel like you guys may like that are potent in this current sandbox. Granted, we have final shape coming out, so it's all going to be about prismatic, but I do think those builds are still going to be pretty solid even in the future.

So again, I need to just reiterate one more time. You do not have to do literally everything in the game. Don't know life, lost sectors, day in and day out, trying to get every single exotic in the game.

Enjoy what you're playing. Mess around in different activities. Grab a build that you're having fun with.

Then go jump into Onslaught. Play around with the new activities, mess around in Crucible, fight against other players. And that's really what makes Destiny not get stealth for us.

There are just so many different things you can go do. Whether it's raids, nightfalls, dungeons, Crucible and player versus player, and things like Trials of Osiris. That really, as a new player to Destiny, you should just experience. Take your time with it, guys. As a veteran player, I think we assume Destiny is super simple.

But to a new player, and even a returning player, it can feel overwhelming. Now this takes us to what should you buy? You've been playing Onslaught, you've been enjoying Into the Light, you've been having a great time within Destiny, and now you want to start sinking some money into the game.

Well, let me just say this. Anytime a new DLC is coming, always just get the new DLC. Just my suggestion, guys. I love Witch Queen. The only really good thing out of Lightfall was Strand.

But Strand is phenomenal. But with us only being a month away from the launch of the biggest expansion in Destiny, I would just recommend... Just get in on the final shape.

You can actually get the DLC for like 50 bucks, which also includes the first episode, which is actually going to be the new structure going forward. Instead of us having seasons, we're going to have episodes. Yes, you can do the $100 version, which will commit you for the entire year, and all episodes will be included. But again, this is for my players that are still trying to dip their toes into Destiny. $50 I know is a lot, and I know there's some sales that come up for...

old content in the game. And I would definitely wait for those moments when those hits, because there are some great deals that come out that would just bundle all these DLCs together. But in my opinion, if you're like, look, I really just want to go head first into this thing. I'm enjoying Destiny. I've had a great time in Into the Light.

Then yeah, Final Shape is what I would recommend getting simply because you'll be on the same page narratively. And dude, we're getting prismatic. Okay.

I mean, look, our current builds are fun and all, but we're going to literally be able to mix everything. You want a solar melee on a... Void Super with a stasis grenade and a prismatic grenade that can combine different elements. That's literally the final shape. Oh yeah, you have exotic class items that can merge exotic armor pieces.

I know, to a new player right now, you're like, holy crap, what the hell's going on? Now you're overloading me. I know, which is why I'm saying, take your time, play the free stuff, check out some guides here and there, and if you get ready, you can jump into the final shape with the rest of us.

So guys, that is everything. To my veteran players, comment down below if we missed anything. If you got any recommendations, we would love to hear them. Fellas and ladies, thank you all for coming and watching. And as always, slap that like button like your mama told you, right?

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