Destiny 2 Guide: What to do at Max Level

So completed the main story and reach level 20, now what? Well, I’m glad you asked because there is so much to do and so much opens up at this point. New missions, activities, gear, and rewards can be earned now that you are level 20. 

If you are someone, like me, who enjoys getting stronger and preparing for the raid — now is the time. I’m going to go over everything you can do after reaching level 20 and finishing the story — as well as what you should wait on completing.

Gear and Engrams

When you reach max level, your next goal is to increase your power level by obtaining stronger gear.

Engrams are the colored orbs you sometimes see when you kill enemies or loot chests and will decrypt into gear.

Blue/Rare engrams automatically turn into gear. Purple/Legendary and Yellow/Exotic engrams must be taken to a cryptarch in a social space like the Farm or Tower to turn into gear.

The current max is 300 power level and gear will usually drop at the same level or higher than what you have currently equipped with some exceptions:

• Rares stop at increasing at 260.
• Legendaries you get from normal engrams stop increasing at 265.

Rares and Legendaries can actually break this cap, but your overall power level must be at least 10 levels higher. For example, when you are 280, you will start getting legendary drops at 270.

Exotic are very special because they are usually much higher and you can only equip 1 weapon and 1 piece of armor at a time.

Activities

Now, let’s go over what you can do to get gear.

Strikes

Think of them as dungeons if you have played MMOs like World of Warcraft.

You go in with a team of 3 and battle your way through a mission until you reach the end boss. This boss will drop a chest that you can loot at the end for engrams.

Crucible (PvP)

You can compete against other players in 4v4 matches of different game modes that are randomly selected.

You get rewards at the end of a match whether you win or lose, and there is a chance for exotic engrams.

Adventures

Even if the recommended level is much lower than you, the gear will still drop around your level.

Public Events

This is the best method of farming gear until you reach 265-270. They are the timed event that happen frequently on each planet.

You can get gear, rep token. and even the chance for exotic engrams. You can get even higher rewards if you complete the heroic versions.

Lost Sectors

These are marked on your map by an arch. They are secret locations that has enemies and a boss you must kill. Once you kill the boss, you automatically get a key to open the chest somewhere in that area.

Meditations

These let you replay some of the story missions. Check out my full guide here.

Challenges

Strikes, Crucible, and each planet has challenges you can complete for rep tokens and Glimmer.

You can view these by pulling out your ghost and looking on the right side of the screen.

These involve killing certain enemies, using certain subclasses, collecting materials, and more.

There are also daily milestones that ask you to complete a certain number of challenges in a particular category, such as Strikes for example. These will rewards a bundle of rep tokens in addition to the normal challenge rewards.

Milestones

You can view these by holding down L2/LT when looking at the map. This is where your main quest appears, and as well as important quests you get from the vanguard — Cayde, Ikora, and Zavala.

Once you complete the prerequisites, you will have access to 3 weekly quests:

• Nightfall Strike – This is a hard strike with special modifiers and a time limit.
• Call to Arms Crucible – You must simply finish crucible matches to increase your %. Winning contributes more.
• Flashpoint – This changes locations weekly, but requires you to do public events on the planet of the week.

If you join a clan, you can also get a weekly milestone for contributing clan experience. For more details on clans and how they work, check out my Destiny 2 Clan Guide.

All of the above activities can only be done once a week and there is no limit to how high the rewards can go, other than the current max level. This means that if you want to get to the highest power level you can, save all of these for last.

Weapon Quests

Each planet gets an extra quest line you can complete once you finish the campaign. They each rewards gear, such as the Rat King, after completing the quest and required steps afterwards. These also don’t have a limit, so save them for last as well.

Raid

This is a long 6 person fireteam activity that grants some of the best gear in the game. Once it is available, you can only get rewards from it weekly.

Trials of the Nine

This is an endgame crucible activity that grants high level rewards. Your goal is to win a certain number of matches in a row so you can get the best loot.

Suggested Order of Activities

The great thing about Destiny 2 is that you can do whatever you want and still get gear. However, if your goal is to increase your power level quickly to prepare for raiding, you should do things in a certain order. This is mostly about what is the fastest way, and what not to do first.

Do Public Events and Other World Content

This is the fastest way for increasing your power level. Any content will allow you to increase it, but these are much faster.

Public Events are particularly useful because of how fast they are and the extra chance at exotics.

Gather Rep Tokens and Turn them into the Vendors

Each world has a vendor that you can turn in rep to. You get these rep token my completing any content on the world, and by finding the planetary materials scattered throughout the world.

When you get enough rep, you rank up. Every time you rank up, you get 2 Legendaries. These will also always be higher than your overall power level, up to 265.

You can also get tokens from strikes and crucible to turn in for engrams.

Hold off on Weekly Milestones and the Weapon Quests

These have no cap, so the best way to increase your level is by waiting on these.

265 should be the minimum before doing these if you want to be high level because that is when vendor engrams stop going up for a while.

At this point the only way to increase is by getting exotics, or doing the weekly milestones and weapon quests.

—

That’s all I have for what to do at Max Level in Destiny 2. Remember there is no rush — the suggested sections are meant for those that want to level up in the quickest way possible.

Let me know if you have any questions! 

And be sure to check our other Destiny 2 guides! Here are a few to get you started: 

• Destiny 2 Beginner’s Guide
• How to Replay Story Missions
• How to Get the Rat King Exotic Sidearm
• How to Get the Kill Tracker Ghost
• Clan Guide