Destiny update explained for exotic armour/weapons

Bungie has detailed how Destiny's array of loot will be affected by impending expansion The Dark Below.

Exotic items - the game's top tier of weapons and armour - will get upgrades. But players will need to completely reset their progress with an item to apply its new buff.

The Dark Below's launch will see the game's Light level cap raised from 30 to 32, and all existing exotics will soon be upgradable to this new level - whether you have the expansion or not.

Upgrading exotics will require a visit to Xûr, the game's travelling weekend merchant, who will offer to upgrade a specific handful of exotic items each week.

Each upgrade will require an Exotic Shard, the new upgrade material introduced in the game's 1st December patch which can also be obtained from Xûr for seven Strange Coins, or alternatively via dismantling another exotic item.

This will then unlock the upgraded form of your exotic item with a new upgrade slot - but it will also completely reset all of your progress with the exotic to date.

Some players have expressed dismay at this requirement, and argued that the impending reset makes any current progress upgrading exotics pointless.

Many have just spent large amounts of their in-game Glimmer currency buying and using destination materials to upgrade their existing weapons, using Bungie's just-introduced new method of buying these items over the counter at Tower vendors, rather than spending hours manually farming the game's planets.

Meanwhile, existing legendary items on sale in the Tower will be replaced. New legendary items will feature higher attack and defense values (likely Light level 30, up from 27 but still lower than fully-upgraded exotics at 32).

But to buy it you will also need Vanguard or Crucible Commendations, a new item received when levelling up your reputation rank in either PVP or PVE.

Raid gear from Crota's End, The Dark Below's new raid, will again hold a middle ground between standard legendaries and exotics, with the same higher Light level value as the latter.

Bungie has said that raid loot will drop at a more frequent rate in Crota's End than in the Vault of Glass. Drops will be fairer, too - the game will now track which items you have obtained already and how long it has been since you last acquired a major reward.

Raid gear will also now have its own upgrade currency - Radiant Shards and Radiant Energy - which are only obtained in the raid itself.

Crota's End will be available for level 30 players to explore as soon as The Dark Below launches. Its hard mode, designed for players at the new 32 level cap, will open in January and be the only way to acquire a selection of new raid-exclusive primary weapons.

So do you have to be lvl thirty before trying the dark below?

Interesting update. Thankfully I've been upgrading weapons not armour. All I can say is at least they've told us about this now before Xur's arrival tomorrow or I may have been caught out and used some exotic shards. That being said a lot of people who don't read this will be likely caught out.

So does this mean we HAVE to be 30 to do the new raid or can lower levels do it too but have to play story to unlock it?

I think I'll stockpile a few exotic shards and then hold onto them until I figure out what is going on properly as it's all a bit confusing without seeing the options in front you in the game.

Just reading the update and noticed
With the Light level increase to 32, Heroics and Nightfalls will be increased by 2 Light levels to keep up with new content, level increases, and gear items
So level 30 Nightfalls/Weekly from now on...

Fatboy Geezer wrote:So do you have to be lvl thirty before trying the dark below?

Does sound that way but reading into it the armour available in the tower might get us to 30 now so struggle to that should be less.

EDIT: It says in the update "Players at Light level 30 can lead a Fireteam immediately upon release" so that sounds like lower levels can go in but if you want to try it on the 9th you'll need a 30 to open the door so to speak.

Following clarifications have been made in the Bungie weekly update that may allay some fears in relation to the coming DLC update.

FAQ
“I can only upgrade one existing Exotic a week?”
No, Xûr will have many of them in stock.

“Is Xûr the only way to obtain new Exotics?”
No. They’ll drop as part of new loot tables.

“So I have to buy new content to keep up?”
No. All players will have options to progress.

“Is the upgrade automatic?”
No. You’ll choose where you invest the effort.

“Does this make all my gear worthless?”
No! I’ll be holding onto my Dead Orbit Heavy.

Scoring Them Upgrades

Let’s talk a little bit more about what’s motivating this new economy designed to propel the evolution of your Guardian and the arsenal at your disposal. Here are the facts:

• Destiny will continue to provide new ways to evolve
  
• Your existing items will still be effective in any encounter
  
• The Dark Below will contain exclusive options to level up
  
• More powerful Exotics will drop, or be sold by Xûr
  
• More powerful Legendaries will drop, or be sold by vendors
  
• More powerful Raid gear will drop - and more often!
  
• More predictable options will upgrade beloved Exotics
  
• Exotic upgrades purchased from Xûr replace weaker items
  
• Exotic upgrade paths require much less time and material
  
• An upgraded Exotic is more powerful right out of the box
  

If you’re a Level 30, you’re ready to tackle Crota’s End on Day One (more on that below). If you like your weapons just the way they are, you are welcome to keep them that way. You’ll find that they’re still enormously effective in just about any tactical scenario – even Iron Banner (more on that below).

In the months to come, your quest to become more powerful will have more avenues that lead to satisfaction. The last thing we wanted was for you to look at your favorite gun or helmet and decide that it had become obsolete. Since the reveal, we’ve read a lot of ideas for how this could have been done better. Your feedback is clear: The time you have invested in your stuff should be respected.

That conversation is already raging internally, as it always does. In the meantime, the existing plan is in place to make sure that, as consumers of The Dark Below start to become even legendier, those who don’t opt in aren’t left behind. We’re making these options available to everyone, whether they own Expansion I or not.

As always, the best way to evolve your Guardian in Destiny is to tackle new challenges and earn new rewards. We’re eager to see how you feel about this system once you’ve seen it in practice. If the past three months have proved anything, it’s that anything can (and often does) change in Destiny.

The Constant Gardeners

We’re touching a lot of code with our updates right now. Sometimes, squashing one bug can scare another out from cover. Here are the known issues we’ve discovered since the last time you installed an update, along with what we’re doing about them.

Pocket Infinity
Charges too quickly after the first shot
Fix in progress, to be released in a future update

Daily Event Reward Packages
No longer delivered by the Postmaster after a Public Event
Will be fixed automatically in The Dark Below update
All players will receive the fix when Expansion I goes live

Stay tuned! If the fix is not in the update pipeline, it’s being prepped and giftwrapped. Never hesitate to report these little buggers right here. We have a passion for tending to our garden.

Great info Gab cheers

So that sounds like: if I upgrade my maxed out exotic chest armour then even though I start again with upgrades to unlock, it has enough base defence/light level for me not to drop below my current level 29??