Destiny 2 Beginner’s Guide (Joining During Witch Queen)
Welcome to Destiny, new guardian! Destiny is the premier looter shooter and for a good reason. The gunplay is smooth and the amount of stuff to do is super impressive.
It’s also had almost a decade of refinement of systems and gameplay, so it feels very polished.
However, all the content and systems that have built up over the years can make things overwhelming.
Sit back and relax as we guide you through the basics and keep you focused on having fun, not stressing about what you are missing out on.
If you’re looking for the best exotics, check out our Destiny 2 exotics tier list.
With The Final Shape now live in Destiny 2, there’s a new Prismatic Subclass to explore. Dive into the best Prismatic builds for Hunters, Warlocks, and Titans for an edge
Make sure you buy the Witch Queen Expansion to start
It’s as good a time as any to play Destiny. Everyone is on even footing and expansions offer fresh entry into the world.
I recommend the season pass so you can get more rewards, but it’s not mandatory by any means.
Don’t stress too much picking your class
All the classes play fairly similarly as the guns are the focus – this is not an RPG where one will cast spells and the other will use guns.
What defines the class is their abilities. Each has a melee, grenade, and super, along with some passives. There are four different specs for each class so there are multiple variations of each ability: Void, Solar, Arc, and Stasis
Warlocks have more ranged abilities with some healing, Titans have more melee-focused ones and are more durable, and Hunters are mobile with great gun enhancing traits.
If you don’t like what you choose, it’s fairly easy to switch especially this early on in the expansion. Everything you find is transferable between characters, and weapons are usable by any character. Armor is class-specific though.
Play the intro and then the campaign
Unfortunately, Destiny does a poor job of onboarding new players. The initial tutorial helps, and needs to be cleared, but things escalate fast from there and you can find yourself confused.
Don’t worry about too many things. Just play the campaign just like any other FPS campaign – the game guides you through it.
Use whatever gun and spec you want, I recommend void since it’s just been reworked and has some cool options.
Gear and Character Progression
Progression comes in the form of higher-level items. You will start at 1350 and work your way up to 1500 during the campaign. Just equip your highest level items as you go.
The goal is to progress all the way to 1560 to do the highest level content. You will naturally do that as you play the campaign, and find that you hit a wall at 1500.
After that, you can only get to 1560 through specific weekly activities. Let’s not worry about that for now , but if you want to jump ahead, you can find that info here.
Game Modes
Destiny has a variety of modes you can do once you finish the campaign. All give rewards and all have progression systems so you can do more, get more rewards, and be challenged.
Try them all out and do the ones you enjoy, and remember there is a lot to do, so don’t try to do it all at once, and play at your own pace!
Here’s a list of them grouped by PvE or PVP:
PVE: Strikes and Nightfall
These are your basic dungeons from other RPGs. They are done in 3 man groups and you can matchmake the easier ones.
Strikes are just dungeons, and Nightfalls are heroic versions of them with modifiers you need to pay attention to. You will need a group to do the second.
PVE: Raids
This is 6-man content and has some of the best experiences in the genre. You need a group to go with, but sites like LFG and the destiny companion app help a ton with that.
PVE: Seasonal Event
This is a matchmade event where you kill hordes of enemies, get rewards, and complete quests.
There are harder versions you can do but it’s normally an enjoyable way to progress through the seasonal goals.
PVP: Crucible
Standard PVP mode vs other players, where you can solo queue and fight others in many different modes from Point Capture to deathmatch.
PVP: Trials of Osiris
This is the ranked PVP of destiny. Queue up as a team of three and take your shot at a gauntlet of games where you can win incredible rewards with enough wins.
PVP and PVE: Gambit
This is a mode that combines the best. You fight enemies, collect resources, and prevent the enemy from doing the same. It’s super unique to Destiny and very fun. Try it out!
Remember that Destiny is a seasonal game, where the above modes get changes and the meta changes, so check back in to learn what’s new and how you can play stress free!
Bounties and Quests
Destiny has a really robust tracking system for all your story quests. You will pick up side quests all over the game too, and can track them too.
Usually, these will lead you to the game’s most prized items, Exotics- unique weapons and armor with awesome special abilities built-in.
The other system is the bounty system where several NPC’s give you activity-based quests that allow you to complete them while doing one of the above modes.
This will lead to the daily and weekly reward cycle of the game, where they update every day, and if you complete enough at the end of the week you will get the highest level rewards.
Artifact
Every season you have an Artifact. This item is equipped in your bottom right corner in the inventory levels up as you gain experience, which is gained from almost anything you do in-game.
As it levels it adds +X to your overall item level, and it also unlocks powerful mods. These mods are necessary for dealing with some of the stronger enemies in the higher level content.
Mods
Mods are ways to customize your gear so that you can play the way you want. It also allows you to optimize your loadout for specific content, PvP or PvE.
Here is an example of how this works:
- Champion enemies in this game are either Unstoppable, Overload, or Shielding.
- To bypass these traits you need the proper mods equipped on your armor.
- These are interchangeable at any time for a small cost, so don’t overthink it.
Exotics
This is why people play Destiny- awesome weapons and items! You will naturally get Exotics as you play the game, but there are certain things that you can do to help you get more:
Xur
Everyone who plays Destiny knows who this is and how to find him. Everyone else has no idea he exists.
He sells exotics and other gear every week when he appears on Friday.
Use this site to see which of the predetermined locations he appears in.
Lost Sectors
These are special areas that you can take on to get rewarded with a high chance for a specific exotic. They are very challenging and fun, so prepare wisely!
Quest Exotics
There are a few great quests that you can easily do to get some exotics, especially after the campaign. Make sure you finish them
Season Pass
Has a chance for many different exotics and it gives you an expensive resource called an ascendant shard which lets you acquire more exotics.
The Exotic Archive
Use ascendant shards to build exotics of the past. Check out our upcoming tier list to see what to craft first!
Download the Companion App
Destiny has an amazing companion app you can download on your phone. It lets you manage your character and inventory while away or in orbit so you don’t have to travel around the map.
It’s super impressive tech- I recommend using it early on when you finish the campaign.
Learn the Lore
This is optional but Destiny has a rich and storied world. If you want to learn more, access the history section from the top right corner of the world map and enjoy.
You can also dig deeper with this awesome article.
Closing Thoughts
Destiny has a LOT to offer, and I don’t think we can compress it into one article.
The above should be enough to get you started on your journey of learning and excitement.
Check back in with us as you get more progressed to learn about the stuff you need as it comes.
Thanks for reading! Sign up for the Destiny 2 Mobalytics Closed Beta, the all-in-one companion for Destiny 2.
