Keep Doing Heroic Strikes
The recommended light level for the raid in Destiny: Rise of Iron is 370, though you can easily jump in and get through it with the help of a coordinated team from 360 light and above. However, if you want to get the highest light level possible before doing the raid, the best way to get yourself past that 365 threshold is by completing Strikes in the Heroic playlist. Once you’ve hit 350 light, start doing Heroic Strikes and infuse all the blue drops into your purple gear to bring your level up. By the time you hit 365, you’ll realize that the only pieces of gear holding you back from going higher are your Ghost and Artifact, and that’s because there are no specific engrams for either of these items.
This is mostly RNG-based, but keep in mind that Strike bosses have a chance of dropping Ghosts and Artifacts, along with other blue gear once you defeat them. Do make sure that you’ve equipped all of your highest light gear though; that way, you’ll get better drops with light values two or three points higher than your current level.
Faction Packages
Whenever you’re out doing Strikes or other public events and patrols, use a Vanguard rep booster and equip a class item that increases your rep gains. This will allow you to gain faction rep quickly, and you’ll be able to claim faction packages with each rank that you gain. If you haven’t joined a faction already (Dead Orbit, New Monarchy, and Future War Cult), be sure to do so before starting your level grind in Rise of Iron. The faction packages will give you a choice between weapons, armor, and chroma. Always go with the gear package that you have a lower light level for. So if you have more armor pieces with lower light level than your weapons, choose the armor faction package to bring your armor light level up.
All faction packages have a chance of rewarding you with a new Ghost and Artifact too, so it’s always worth cashing these in with your reputation gains.
Hoard Your Exotic Engrams
It might be tempting to decrypt all your Exotic engrams once you get them, but I recommend holding off on doing that until you’re above the 360 threshold. By decrypting them at a lower light level, the levels on your Exotics will be significantly lower than what they could be if you were to decrypt them at 365.
While you can always infuse your higher level blue gear into the Exotics, this is a waste of resources, and will require you to have multiple Exotic Shards on hand as well. If you keep them until you reach 365, your Exotic engrams should give you higher level stuff that you can choose to either equip or infuse into your existing weapons. Don’t forget to pop your Three of Coins before each Strike boss too, as that will increase your chances of getting an Exotic drop from them.
Open Strike Hoards
Strike Hoards appear at the end of each Strike in Destiny: Rise of Iron, and these will give you a chance of getting some Strike-specific loot if you have the Skeleton Keys for it. Aside from special weapons and pieces of armor, these chests also have a chance of dropping a Ghost and Artifact – both of which will likely be what you need once you’ve hit the 355 and 365 bottleneck. Don’t be discouraged if you get a blue Artifact instead of Legendary gear; the Artifact will likely be two or three points higher than your current light level, and you can use it to bring your current Artifact level up as well.
The only tricky thing about Strike Hoards is the rarity of Skeleton Key drops and actually getting them so you can open the chests. Bungie has mentioned in their patch notes that Skeleton Keys have a higher drop rate in Heroic Strikes and the Nightfall, so keep that in mind if you’re looking to farm for Keys. They do also drop in the regular Strike playlist, but the drop rate seems to be much lower.
Crucible
If you’re tired of PVE, the Crucible also offers up high level gear, though I recommend coming here only once you’ve hit 364 or 365. Each match completion has a chance of rewarding you with two pieces of gear, and if you’re lucky, you might even find weapons and armor that go beyond 365. The decrypted blue drops will also be a few points higher than your current light level, so those can be used as Infusion materials as well.
Not to mention, playing Crucible matches also gives you rep gain for both the Crucible and your faction, which means that you can claim faction packages from your chosen faction and Lord Shaxx. To make the most out of your time in the Crucible, don’t forget to use a rep booster item. Remember that Crucible faction packages also have a chance of rewarding you with higher level Ghosts and Artifacts too.
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