The quickest way to reach max light in time for Destiny: Rise of Iron

Destiny: Rise of Iron is just a few weeks away and if you are looking to get into the action, then you will need to try and be the highest light possible when the expansion launches on 20 September.

We can expect the gear that drops in the first hour of Rise of Iron to be pretty high-level, but you will need to be the highest light possible to survive the first few missions. As a hardcore Destiny fan and Clan owner, I am forever helping guys max out their light.

Although most of the time, these players cannot just jump into a Raid, so the process to get them up is pretty simple.

Strike Farming

Playing through Strikes is the best way to get you up to 330 light and above. Sure they might be tedious, but they offer a pretty fun way to get good gear in the form of Legendary Engrams. These items drop from the bosses of each Strike, and when you decrypt them you will get high light gear.

It is also important to remember that the Strike rewards multiplier stacks up to 5, so you will not truly benefit until you have played through 5 Strikes. Once you have reached 5, then every one of them you play through will give you the same reward chance.

You should also remember to pop your Three of Coins, which if you don’t know, is an item that gives the boss of the Strike a chance to drop an Exotic Engram. These engrams should always be decrypted while at your highest possible light level, so you can get the highest light stat from it.

Court of Oryx

Now before you get into raiding and such, the Court of Oryx offers a great way to get Artifacts. This activity is located on the Dreadnought and requires runes to get going.

Once you have powered up your runes to level 3, then you can place it in the pedestal and complete the last challenge. This challenge is best done with friends as it is pretty tough alone. Every week it changes too, so it is important to make sure that you go back every week to get the Calcified Fragments from defeating the boss.

The Court of Oryx is the best way to get Artifacts, which are not easily obtained in the game. As you level up by doing other activities, be sure to come back and do the Court of Oryx again to get a higher Artifact until you get a 335 one.

Oryx Raid

Once you are well into your 300 light, it is time to now hit up the Raid. Be sure to get a good team who are familiar with it, as it could be a disaster if you are not supported by a strong team.

Being at a lower light level, make sure you are tasked with the easiest of the tasks as you will die faster than the other players. Raiding is the best way to guarantee high light gear, and making it all the way to the end will make sure you at least have a chance of getting a piece of equipment.

Challenge Mode

Now that you have raided, it is time to take on the Challenge Mode. Every week there is a new challenge in the Raid that rotates between Oryx, The Warpriest, and Golgoroth. If you complete this part of the Raid and stick to the challenge requirements, then you will be guaranteed one or two drops of 335 gear.

The challenge of the week will affect on the gear up for grabs. For example, Oryx requires you to detonate all spheres at once, and he will drop 335 helmets and class items. Golgoroth needs each Fireteam member to take the gaze, and will drop 335 boots and arms.

The challenges might seem a bit daunting at first, but once you have done them once, you can do them blind folded. They are indeed the best way to guarantee 335 gear drops.

Challenge of the Elders

To be honest, Challenge of the Elders is the worst thing to go through in the game, but then again, it is another way to make sure you get guaranteed 335 gear. There is nothing worse than playing for hours and not getting your gear you want.

Challenge of the Elders sees you and two friends take on the Prison of Elders, but in a new Taken light. You will be given bounties and you will need to rack up score in a certain way in order to complete these bounties. When you turn them in, you will then get your gear you are in dire need of.

Why is the game mode so terrible? Well, many of the week’s resets have offered unpleasant ways to complete your bounties. For example, one week we had to get grenade kills, but the modifier in place increased our grenade cooldown. This saw us spending 3 hours running the same challenge to fill up our bounties.

Compared to the other available options, the Challenge of the Elders is a mindless activity, that unless you are really into playing with your friends, you would avoid. Saying that, the gear drops are there, so if you are desperate, then it is something you need to do.

Tips to remember

Always make sure you are on the highest light whenever you pick up an engram in a raid, they scale to your light level. The same goes for Nightfalls and decrypting Legendary and Exotic Engrams.

Always equip your best light gear when turning in a Challenge of the Elders bounty, as it will always try and give you higher light gear than you already have on.

Remember, you can always swap gear around to your second and third character for infusion. So if you are battling to get through an activity, do it with your strongest character and then transfer the obtained gear to you weaker characters to benefit.

Destiny: Rise of Iron is out on 20 September 2016 for PS4 and Xbox One.