Many of our editors have been spending time over the last week digging into The Taken King, and discovering that there are several smart approaches to keep in mind while leveling. We’ve gathered some of the most relevant tips here. Most of these ideas are targeted to players just getting started with the new content, but even veteran players may find some suggestions worth remembering.
Leveling and Light
The biggest change on hand for The Taken King is understanding the difference between character level and light.
Character level is pretty straightforward, and it’s not going to take you long to hit level 40 if you’re playing on a daily basis. All you need to do is kill enemies and complete quests. You should also make a point to pick up any and all bounties you can to speed the process along, because lots of good things open up at level 40, including the option to equip the most powerful gear in the game. Also, remember that if you're not just a Taken King beginner, but you're starting Destiny for the very first time, then the game includes an option to boost a single guardian up to level 25 right away. To so so, just use the Spark of Light that arrives via the Postmaster.
Most of the rest of this article is focused on light value and other aspects of character development, which improves your guardian over a much longer stretch of time.
Understand Infusion
One of the most common questions that has cropped up among the player base is understanding how and when to use infusion to improve your gear. Ultimately, it comes down to personal choice, but here are some things to keep in mind.
First, make sure you grasp the essential concept. Use infusion to improve an item that you like, but that might have a lower light value that you want it to. To improve that value, you need to have a second piece of gear from that same slot that you’re willing to sacrifice. Select the weapon you want to improve, select the Infusion option in its upgrade screen, and then select the item to sacrifice. This expendable piece needs to be a blue or purple item from The Taken King, and it needs to have a higher light value than the piece you’re aiming to improve. One other important note – the item to be sacrificed needs to be unlocked, so that it’s available for dismantling.
So when is it worth completing an infusion? In most cases, the answer to that question is going to be governed by your current stock of Legendary Marks (which we’ll discuss more later). If you’re a little short on this valuable currency, infusing weapons and armor all the time is a bad idea. But especially as you hone in on gear pieces you really enjoy (whether for functional or cosmetic reasons) infusing those items to make them better is a great option, especially since The Taken King tends to provide a healthy number of high-powered blue and purple gear pieces once you hit level 40.
When completing an infusion, you want to maximize for the greatest light value improvement. Again, this becomes a matter of how many legendary marks you have on hand. If you’re flush, then consider incremental improvements for best results. Here’s what we mean: Let’s say you have a purple sniper rifle you really like at 250, a blue fusion rifle at 260, and a purple shotgun that you don’t like very much at 290. Each time you infuse a weapon, it’s going to move its light value up by approximately 80% (there’s some rounding that happens). Thus, if you really want to get that first purple 250 sniper rifle as high as possible, you should sacrifice the 260 fusion rifle first, and then sacrifice the 290 shotgun. But to do so, you’ll pay a high premium in the infusion cost, which is going to hit you hardest in Legendary Marks.
[Next Page: Making the most of your engrams]