Finish the Story Missions
Before you hastily jump into any of the endgame activities with your friends, make sure that you finish all of the story missions available in Destiny: Rise of Iron first. While you may not particularly care for the game’s story, each mission will give you some good 320 rewards, which serve as valuable gear items to give you a significant level boost, especially if you’re just starting out in the game or if you didn’t reach the level cap in The Taken King. Most of the engrams you receive will be Rare, but remember that you can also infuse your existing Legendaries with these blue engrams if you don’t want to use the new stuff.
Completing the story missions will also reward you with a cool looking 340 Exotic sword, which you definitely want to have. Not only that, beating the main missions will unlock a slew of smaller quests that will set you on the path to getting stronger Exotic weapons, and other high level items.
Do Activities Instead of Hoarding Engrams
Once you hit 350, the leveling process will slow to a crawl. This is because your Legendary and Exotic engrams will now have a 50% chance of giving you items that are only one point higher than your current level. This means that mass decrypting all of your stored up engrams is definitely not an efficient way of getting over that 350 hurdle and pushing you towards 365.
Instead of hoarding engrams and decrypting all of them in one go, consider doing the other activities available in Rise of Iron instead. The Strike playlists (both normal and Heroic), the daily Heroic mission, and the new Archon’s Forge challenge arena are all great ways for grinding up those levels and obtaining more valuable loot. You can also head back to the Challenge of Elders, as Variks will now reward you with higher light level items as well. If your level is high enough, you can also consider tackling the Nightfall mission, though I advise bringing in a fireteam, as these missions tend to be pretty brutal.
Grab the Available Exotics
At the moment, there are three classic Exotic weapons that can be obtained in Rise of Iron: the Gjallarhorn, the Khvostov, and the Thorn. Of course, having Exotic weapons doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll automatically perform better in a fight, but Exotic weapons do come with special perks that can really give you an edge when you’re facing off against tough enemies.
Having the available Exotic weapons at your disposal will certainly help you out in the raid, as you’ll have different weapon options to choose from, allowing you to adapt to any given situation.
Level Up Your Factions
Another great way to boost your light level is by gaining experience points and reputation with your factions. If you haven’t joined a faction already, head back to the Tower on Earth to join up with one. Currently, the three available factions are New Monarchy, Dead Orbit, and Future War Cult. Engaging in public events or just doing strikes and challenges at Archon’s Forge will give you reputation points for all three factions. PVE events will give you points for Vanguard, while the PVP events will give you points for the Crucible faction.
Each time you hit a new level with your faction, you can speak to the respective faction leader to claim a faction package. These can include new Legendary weapons, pieces of armor, resources, and other valuable items like Strange Coins and Motes of Light. Oh, and speaking of Motes of Light, don’t forget to level up all of your equipped gear before the raid too.
Visit All the Vendors
The Gunsmith at the Tower will now sell you Armsday orders for weapons with higher light levels. If you haven’t done so already, feel free to take on some experimental weapons and fulfill the necessary requirements with those weapons. The more you fulfill, the more Armsday orders you’ll be able to place. While the weapons that you order won’t arrive in time for the first day of the raid, these can still be useful options for you to have for future raid attempts.
Xur will be making his Rise of Iron debut appearance this Friday as well, and you can bet that he’ll be packing some serious firepower. Make sure to save up all your Strange Coins (these are easily obtained through Strikes and other in-game activities), and pick and choose the Exotic gear that looks the best.
Prioritize Your Light Level
Bungie has previously stated that the new raid, Wrath of the Machine, will be more dependent on your light level rather than your familiarity with the technical aspects of the raid and its unique mechanics. Simply put, this means that your light level will play a very big part in determining whether or not you can survive the raid this Friday. That said, you should definitely work to make sure that you have the highest possible light level before jumping straight into this challenge.
Infuse all of your weapons and armor pieces, and equip the best stuff you have before attempting the raid. As usual, it’s also important to have a coordinated team of six before going in. If the past raids are any indication, this is a challenge that will require you to communicate and work with your fellow teammates if you are to have any hope of completing it.
Good luck, Guardians!
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