In Destiny 2 there are new ways to upgrade your gear since Shadowkeep. Where to get the somewhat rare materials and how to use them properly, you can read here.
Since the major autumn expansion Shadowkeep, much has changed in the Destiny universe. In addition to new missions and weapons, new resources have also found their way into Destiny 2.
To level up your weapons and Armor 2.0 gear and make them stronger, you will now need: enhancement cores, upgrade modules, legendary shards, as well as enhancement prisms and ascendant shards – to keep track, let’s take a closer look at upgrading gear.
These are the relevant materials and their sources:
- Legendary shards, you find by dismantling legendary gear.
- Enhancement cores, formerly known as masterwork cores. Can be obtained rarely by dismantling gear, completing activities or bounty runs, and from the Spider.
- Enhancement prisms are rarer and can drop from high-level activities and can be purchased from the gunsmith in the Tower.
- Ascendant shards, you get from the hardest activities in the game or can be purchased from the gunsmith in the Tower at a high exchange rate.
- Upgrade modules are also available from the gunsmith and can be obtained from different reward sources.
You can earn all mentioned resources through the season pass.
Infusion
If you want to keep your beloved weapons and armor, you must always infuse your gear. This means you “sacrifice” an item with a higher level to increase the power level of your weaker weapons or armor.
For example, you can infuse any other kinetic weapon (power level 920) into your exotic revolver “The Last Word” (power level 750). After this process, “The Last Word” itself will be at level 920 and the other weapon will be gone.
This is how infusion worked so far: The process costs varying amounts of glimmer, legendary shards, or enhancement cores depending on the level difference or rarity of the gear.
Here’s what you need to know about infusion in Shadowkeep: Since Shadowkeep, every infusion process always costs just one upgrade module.
The only exception is identical gear. For example, if you infuse the new raid gloves into the identically named pair of gloves, this process usually costs you only glimmer. This way you can cost-effectively level up the gloves with the better stats.
Upgrading Gear
This is how upgrading gear worked so far: You could upgrade your weapons and armor up to level 10. For weapons, this improved a stat by up to 10 points, and with multi-kills, you created orbs of light. The armors provided better damage reductions.
Each level became more expensive and required not only glimmer and legendary shards but also many enhancement cores. Once a piece of gear reached level 10, it was referred to as a “masterwork” in Destiny 2.
Here’s what you need to know about upgrading gear now: The process essentially remains the same. The difference is that upgrading an item from level 7 to level 9 now requires enhancement prisms.
You need the ascendant shard to make the final step to level 10 and have a full-fledged masterwork.
With the switch to Armor 2.0, the functionality of your masterwork armors also changes. All armor pieces have an energy value from 1 to 10. With each masterwork level, the available energy value increases and allows you to use more intensive mods.
Furthermore, all Armor 2.0 gear now gives you a boost to your abilities:
- Mobility (increases speed and jump height)
- Resilience (increases your maximum health)
- Recovery (affects health regeneration after taking damage)
- Discipline (determines how quickly your grenade charges)
- Intellect (determines how quickly your super charges)
- Strength (determines how quickly your melee charges)
Every 10 points, you gain a skill tier. Once you have leveled an armor piece to a complete masterwork, you receive a bonus of 2+ on each of the 6 stats.
Your masterwork weapons behave just like before Shadowkeep.
What do you think of the new upgrade system – unnecessarily complicated or well thought out?
