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Part 3: Gear
A big part of Destiny is the gear. Good gear figuratively, and literally, makes the difference between a high level player and a newbie. That said, all the details and complexities of Destiny's gear system can be very overwhelming at first. Here are some things to focus on:
14. Xur is an unpredictable commodity
Check Xur's offerings every time, and try and be in a position to always have enough Strange Coins to buy whatever he is selling. There are now plenty of resources where you can check how often he has sold a given item, and discuss the value of the items he's currently selling. Many folks lament not buying something he sold previously, as it may be a long time/forever before he sells it again.
15. Exotic Education
It's a good idea to familiarize yourself with each of the Exotic Weapon Bounties, even before you get them as a random drop while turning in normal bounties. The highlights are:
When you get a Vanguard Mentor Missive you'll get a choice of 3 Exotic Weapon Bounties. Google the names and make sure you pick a bounty for a gun you want.
The bounty "A Dubious Task" for the shotgun "Invective" requires you to trade in 50 Special Ammo Synthesis, so its worth hording a stack of them. Queen's bounties are great way to farm them, but you can also buy them from the Gunsmith or Variks.
The bounty "Shattered Memory Fragment" for the fusion rifle "Pocket Infinity" requires that you dismantle 10 rare or higher quality fusion rifles. Similar to Invective, it's worth hording them. Occasionally the Gunsmith sells a blue fusion rifle. Whenever that happens you can buy the balance of remaining rare fusion rifles you need to complete the bounty.
The bounty "A Light in the Dark" for the hand cannon "Thorn" eventually requires you to get void kills in the Crucible. While not impossible, this is very hard to do with a Hunter since you currently lack Void grenade or a Void super. Hypothetically, it should get easier after TTK comes out.
16. Before you dismantle
Check stats and perks on any new drops to make sure they aren't better than the one you are keeping. It's also worth a quick Google search if you are unsure about future value (particularly now since so many weapons are rerollable). A few other important notes:
It's not uncommon to get armor drops, particularly Exotics, with better stat bonuses than an older version. Watch for this, and when you get a dupe keep the version with the better stats (often the newer one, which means releveling it).
Hang onto the blue Stranger's Rifle that you get as a reward for beating the game. It performs pretty well in the Crucible, it's a great choice for power leveling 2nd and 3rd characters, and it's a cool novelty.
Similarly, you may want to hold on to Murmur from the Eris Morn Dark Below quest line. It's value is more debatable - but it's decent until your fusion stable gets crowded and once its gone, it's gone.
17. Load it up
Destiny doesn't have loadouts, but some awesome people made Destiny Item Manager that is the next best thing. Seriously... it's amazing. At first you can simply use it to switch between gear for each damage type (Arc, Solar, Void). As you get more gear, it is also very useful to keep a loadout for "gear to level up" that you can always switch to before turning in bounties. You may also find that you want to have separate armor loadouts for PvP vs. PvE play. Finally, for items you only really need one of (IB banner and shader, fast Sparrow, etc) you can move them between characters and save yourself the cost of multiple copies.
18. All that glimmers is Glimmer
There are four "Glimmer Consumables" (House Banners, Silken Codex, Axiomatic Beads, Network Keys), one for each enemy race. These give you 200 Glimmer when you turn them in to the Cryptarch, but it is actually much better to hold on to them and store them in your Vault. Over time you'll approach or hit the Glimmer cap of 25k, but the banked Glimmer Consumables will let you save much more than that limit. This can be extremely useful during the Iron Banner when you'll need to purchase multiple expensive items in a short window of time.
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