Now that EBongo and I have spent a few hours with Destiny, we've worked out a few strategies for optimal early play. We'll share our early game tips and tricks in this Destiny early-game guide!

# What is the Level Cap?

The level cap in Destiny is currently 20. Past that point, you can kill all you want and you won't get any more experience.

However, it's possible to bypass this level cap, up to a max level of 30. The way you do this is by buying or finding armor with the "Light" attribute. When you hit the level cap, you can earn various currencies like Vanguard Points that will allow you to buy legendary gear. You can also find it randomly in the world. All enemies have the same chance to drop legendary and rare gear.

# What Are Orbs of Light?

Ah, Orbs of Light. This is kind of a confusing topic for new players, one that Destiny doesn't really tell you anything about...

Orbs of Light are dropped whenever someone does damage with their supercharged special skill (ie, the one you get when you press both shoulder buttons together).

Orbs of Light will charge other players supercharge meter by quite a bit. They can only be picked up if you have less than a full supercharge meter. Otherwise you can run over them and nothing will happen. They despawn after a little while.

This means that if your fireteam is using their special abilities, you should probably do the same - everyone will drop Orbs of Light, and everyone will get more charge on their supercharge meter as a result.

# What is the Vanguard Armory?

The Vanguard Armory is a special shop in Destiny that contains some better-than-average items. If you preordered the game, inside the box is a code for early access to the Armory. If you don't have this code, you'll unlock the Armory at level 10.

You can find the Armory in the Tower. It's near the vendor for new ships.

# What Good Are Grimoire Cards?

Grimoire Cards are little collectible items that can be unlocked by performing various actions in Destiny. For instance, finding and activating dead Ghosts unlocks more cards. Also, there are cards that unlock as you kill enemies or play certain missions.

Grimoire Cards give you Grimoire points, which are just for show right now. There is an achievement tied to getting 50 of these cards, which should just happen during normal play. You can accelerate the process by looking for dead Ghosts and farming kills, but right now the rewards just aren't that awesome.

You can also view the cards, which contain a lot of lore about the game. You can do this via the Destiny mobile app, or on Bungie.net.

# Why Did My Chest Disappear?

If you're playing Destiny in a Fireteam, you will see chests that everyone on your team can loot. However, (and this is a big however), once a chest is opened it will fade out after a short delay. This delay is somewhere around 30 seconds.

Everyone on your Fireteam can loot it, but only if they get there fast enough after it spawns. It pays to communicate with your team and get everyone together before opening a chest for maximum loot opportunity.

The exception to this appears to be Golden Chests - they are unique for each player, and there are a limited number of them per zone. (For instance, there are 5 in the Russian Cosmodrome map)

# What's the Deal With Gold Chests?

Gold Chests in Destiny only appear once per character. Collecting them gives you some cool loot. You can check to see how many of them you've found on the mission select screen. For each map, there is a count of how many you've found and how many there are total.