With the launch of Destiny 2: Lightfall, new players are coming in droves to try and find their place in Bungie’s sprawling looter shooter. However, all of them are encountering the same problem; where do I even begin? Destiny 2 is not only a huge game at this point, but is also missing some of the content it launched with due to Bungie trying to save on storage space. So new players, or “New Lights” as they’re known, have a conundrum to face. There’s no great start point to begin the journey right now, and there’s no great stepping stone path to endgame content. What do you do? Lucky for you we have this trusty Destiny 2 New Player guide!
Well, in this guide, I’ll help walk you through the steps from being a rookie Guardian to a true God-killing machine. With a bonus on catching up on all the missed story along the way! Here’s GameDrudge’s step-by-step Destiny 2 new player guide in 2023!
Step 1: Catch up on some required reading
There’s an unfortunate truth about starting Destiny 2 nowadays, and its that you’ve missed a lot over the years. For better or worse a lot of Destiny’s previous story campaigns, destinations and seasonal content have been “vaulted”, and that is a lot of missing story and context to be missing when you jump into the middle of Lightfall. Luckily, there are plenty of resources to catch up on what you missed over the whopping 9 years of storyline.
To say that Destiny’s story today to a newcomer is… complicated is an understatement. To say that its utterly incomprehensible to a new player, now we’re getting somewhere. The story of Light and Dark seems like a simple one, but there is a lot of character nuances and events that have transpired over the years that will make jumping into Destiny, no matter which expansions you buy, a nightmare to try and decipher.
Trying to spell out the entire story would take an insane amount of time that neither of us have, so I’ll direct you to 2 destinations: YouTuber My Name Is Byf is a great resource for the overarching plot of Destiny. The Ishtar Collective is your one stop shop for all of the in-game lore books both new and old.
Step 2: Know What You Want
By far the hardest part of starting Destiny 2 completely blind is knowing what expansions and add-ons to buy. Destiny 2 is “technically” free-to-play, but if you really want to sink your teeth into it, it won’t satiate you for long. If you just want to play the newest content, that’s easy; Just buy Lightfall (Check out my Lightfall review while you’re at it), and maybe hit up Witch Queen, as its very good and also recent. Other than that, its going to be complicated, time-consuming, and–worst of all–expensive. No way around it, Destiny 2 is an expensive hobby, and if you want to experience EVERYTHING, its going to cost you a pretty penny. So, if you don’t have that kind of cash on hand, do some research. I would say for getting into Destiny right away, Lightfall and Witch Queen are necessary.
However, if you’re a bit on the fence on if you want to go all in, the Legacy Collection is decent bang for your buck, and includes all of the recent major expansions except Lightfall.
Step 3: Choose Your Class
Phew, that was a lot just to get to the character screen, huh? Luckily, now we can get to the fun part. Choosing a class in Destiny 2 to “main” is possibly the most important decision you’ll make as a Guardian, and even if you’re like me and end up playing all 3 classes, you’ll always have a special attachment to the first character you make. Here’s a rundown of each class
Class Rundowns
- The Titan: The backbone of any fireteam. Capable of aggressively pushing the frontline with devastating close-range abilities along with mounting a stalwart defense against overwhelming odds and buffing your teammates while being able to shake off fire that would be crippling to any other class in the right scenarios. Any fireteam worth their salt has a Titan at the helm, leading the charge. Its also my personal favorite class!
- The Hunter: Agile, slippery and wily, the Hunter is the Yang to the Titan’s Yin. Specializing in hit-and-run tactics and high burst damage, the Hunter excels in short bursts of hyper-mobile violence in contrast to the Titan’s proficiency in extended combat, and tools to help themselves make up for the lack of survivability, with several tricks up their sleeve to help out when dealing massive damage.
- The Warlock: If you wanted to be a space wizard, the Warlock is for you. By far the most “mystical” of the 3, the Warlock utilizes their abilities to both dish out massive damage and help buff both themselves and their teammates in the heat of battle. Working both as a support and a damage class, the Warlock is a great pick for those who want to do a bit of everything well.
If you’re having trouble deciding, don’t worry. All classes are pretty well balanced overall, and if you don’t like one right away, you can always go back and start another class. You get a slot for all 3 classes, so don’t be afraid to experiment a bit and play everyone!
Step 4: Gather a Fireteam
This part is optional, but I really do recommend getting some friends to play with you, or making some. Anything is better with friends, and some of Destiny’s best experiences can only be had with a fireteam at your back. So, if you really want to get the most out of your Destiny experience, gather some friends of yours, or go join one of the many, many clans out there. I’ve made some great friends playing Destiny over the years, and its a great social engine for hanging with your buds.
Step 4: Understand Your Character
Your character in Destiny is built up of a few basic parts: Your gear, armor, stats, and subclass. Starting out, these screens won’t be super remarkable. But as you obtain more weapons, level up, and get better gear you’ll start to get a better idea. Lets run through some basics right now.
- Gear score-This applies to all of your weapons and armor, and is so easy a caveman can understand it: The bigger your number, the higher “level” it is. Leveling in Destiny is a bit different than a lot of other games. Your “level”, or Power, is determined by the average gear score of every weapon and armor you have equipped.
- Hovering over a weapon will show you its “perks”, and every weapon can roll with different perk combinations every time you get them. Obtain some copies of the same weapon and experiment to see what perk combos you like!
- Armor is much simpler than weapons at first class, but can be just as complicated. Your armor can be upgraded with mods to fit different builds, such as buffing certain stats or offering up buffs. Experiment with these to find a build you like when you get to mid/late game!’
Stats and Subclasses
Stats are a list of different, well, statistics, each governing a certain part of your character. They are as follows.
- Mobility: How fast your character moves. Its also tied to the cooldown of the Hunter’s dodge ability
- Resilience: How much damage your character can take. This is also tied to the cooldown of the Titan’s barricade ability
- Recovery: How fast your health regen starts after taking damage. This is tied to the cooldown of the Warlock’s rift ability
- Discipline: This determines how fast your grenade ability recharges
- Intellect: How fast your super recharges
- Strength: How fast your melee ability recharges
The higher each of the corresponding numbers are, the more substantial the effect becomes! When making a build, try to figure out what you want to specialize at, and apply the armor and mods that give you the most of that thing.
Your subclass might be the most important part of your character. Each class has up to 5 different subclasses (depending on what expansions you have). These are broken up into the different elements: Solar, Void, Arc, Stasis and Strand. Mix and match the different fragments, supers, and aspects to make your favorite build.
Step 5: Pick Something and don’t get too distracted
This can be a tough one for a new player. Destiny 2 has so much different content it can be hard to figure out what to do first! Fret not: Whichever expansions you decide to buy, there is a story campaign to get you started. You’ll naturally come into more powerful loot as you play the story campaign and get a feel for the overall gameplay, enemy races, and abilities of Destiny. Whatever you pick, stick with it until its end, then feel free to branch out a bit. You can also follow the commendation challenges to get a feel for a few of the different mechanics such as shaders, mods, and playlist activities.
Step 6: Experiment and have some fun!
If you’re a more seasoned veteran reading this, you might be yelling at me for failing to touch on some of the more complicated parts, such as weapon rolls, mods and other mechanics. But, if I’m being real, some of those could fill out a whole guide just on their own! If you’re a new player, follow these steps and figure out what you like. Once you’re a bit farther along, you’ll upgrade from Strikes to Nightfalls, and eventually you’ll be raiding with the best of em.
And just remember to experiment. People will try to swing you in a direction or build you may not like. Just always remember that at the end of the day, Destiny is a game about shooting aliens in the face and casting spells to disintegrate gods. Don’t feel bad for experimenting and finding what works for you in a given scenario. See you out there, Guardian!
