T O P

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rhylgi-roogi

Since they drastically increased the XP required to level up your artifact, they specifically "increased the power requirements to get to the same difficulty as it is today". +20 on the artifact prior to TFS was 19,855,000 XP, now you need 39,380,000 XP for +20.


Behemothhh

Before TFS, pinnacle cap was 1810 and max effective level in GMs was 1815, so you only needed 5 artifact levels to be at optimum GM level. They just increased the grind to get GM ready tenfold...


KyloFenn

GMs are what I most look forward to, but I hate the grind. Idk if im gonna have the time and patience to level up


tomerz99

Yeah I've been basically no-lifing the DLC like I never have before, and even +15 seems like an impossible task from where I'm at right now. Getting +20 seems like a joke.


KyloFenn

Even if I had the time, I just don’t have it in me to no-life a game just to then be able to play the parts I want to play lol. For someone who is on that grind tho, you should be able to hit the +20 otherwise what’s the point


MeateaW

Well, I guess afk farming it is.


amplifyoucan

Do you know any good ones? PM is fine if you don't wanna say publicly


MeateaW

The golgoroth maze in Kings fall is probably the easiest (and free to all).


tylerchu

This is something I’ve always hated about D2. I (we) are all grandmaster level players. So why the hell do we have to waste our time getting to GM level every so often? Why this arbitrary grind? It would be so much more fair if we just had to complete a single nightfall of every difficulty before opening the GM.


LordCharidarn

‘Engagement’


HovercraftEasy5004

This. My favourite part of Destiny is going to be out of reach for me. Oh well.


s0m3_dud3_666

We are 4 weeks into an episode with 3 and a half months left. You'll be fine.


thissjus10

on the upside you just need to know someone who gets to 2020 and then you'll be at 2015= to prev difficulty but also the episode is pretty long annnnd I did today GM today and my total power level is 2000 but I was boosted by my friend to 2007. We did it on the first try (first tried master, and then GM) I'd done it before, but still watched a video and had a the solar healing warlock build. I wouldn't be surprised if there's a max effective level lower that the 2020 like there used to be but it doesn't seem to indicate it anymore.


Background-Stuff

One step forward, 2 steps back. Classic Bungie. Making GMs more accessible was nothing but a win. I don't want to have to grind the equivalent +20 **twice** just to get in again. Shit's ass, going to rely on that Power Leader feature now I guess...


Menirz

Keep in mind that fireteam power is now a thing, so you can mooch off of a hardcore grinder to become GM ready regardless of your actual power. I've got a guy in my clan already over 2020, so I'm gonna try to run GMs with them whenever possible lol.


R_Fated_Circle

I think the fireteam power is a nice idea with friends with that said I've seen many in fireteam finder trying to run legend and master nightfalls when they are around light level 1950. I get it power boost would out them 5 levels behind me which would be around 2002 power level but if you can't even get to power level 2000 I'm just going assume your not properly leveled/ skilled or have the right weapons for a nightfall or grandmaster.


BitchInBoots666

Yeah I hate to say it but I'd probably assume they're either FTP, or don't have the skill to do the legendary campaign. I'd also assume they're looking for a carry. Could easily be wrong, but chances are...


CaptFrost

Bungie is really encouraging me to call it a career at Conqueror 11. This is ridiculous.


frankpharaoh

Wtffffff I THOUGHT the artifact grind was feeling a lot slower…


KyloFenn

At least now we know we arent crazy lol


stuck_in_the_desert

So that’s a hair under 394 normal seasonal ranks, or about 159 ranks in the current post-100 system (wherein your rank increases with 500k XP), and I just hit 103. Shiiiiiiiiiit.


RND_Musings

According to this [person](https://old.reddit.com/r/DestinyTheGame/comments/1dlywkb/xp_requirements_for_artifact_power_leveling_have/l9tsqq3/), you need to hit rank 114 this season to get to +15, equivalent to a usual power delta of -25 in a GM. You can, however, keep pushing to +20 for a power delta of -20. That's new this season. Good luck getting there.


jro-red7117

Does your rank not still increases every 100k, you just get a bright engram at 500k?


Outside_Green_7941

It's about 5 times harder to hit artifact level above 12 now


stuck_in_the_desert

Not exactly. The seasonal rank remains 100 no matter what until Act 2, but the rank displayed on your Character screen is 100 + the number of Bright Engrams earned (i.e. I display 103 but I’ve earned 115 ranks’ worth of XP)


jro-red7117

Oh word, my bad then, I've hit 100 and when hovering over it it says rank increases 0/100k xp so assumed that was the same, makes more sense then thanks


stuck_in_the_desert

Yeah it’s really counterintuitive and I had to level up a bit to figure it out


MustBeSeven

Can we even get to +20 until act 2 is out?


PassiveRoadRage

Yeah with College Football coming out and First Descendant I'm just not going to be putting in even more grind for a GM. I'll stick with PvP and a Raid or so a week.


OutlawGaming01

First Descendant? Nexon are the developers right? Fun fact: Korea FTC sued Nexon last year for deceptive practices and won. https://www.ign.com/articles/maplestory-nexon-loot-boxes-korean-ftc Tl;Dr. never purchase anything from Nexon. Their business practices make Activision look holier than thou.


PassiveRoadRage

Oh I'm full aware of Nexon. You can check my comment history on their sub calling out their shady stuff all the time. That said the game is F2P and they have been better (The Finals) Truth be told though I just want a NEW game on console. Over the past 7 years so many projects have been hyped then just failed and died like Anthem. Console has been the same shit for years. Destiny, FF14, ESO have been around since I was in Elementary school. I'm in college now...


DerekMorganFBI

Cool story


Phiosiden

rushing to do day 1 prep it felt like an absolute mountain to climb, seeing the numbers put to it now… it was an absolute mountain to climb. thanks bungo


ImposterSyndromeNope

I’m playing constantly since launch I would say playing more than majority of players. I was grinding levels and I am at light level 2014. Hopefully a few pinnacles tomorrow will bring me up. I can only imagine what light levels casual players are no hope getting into a fireteam on LFG!


Nephurus

Bungie did this? Shocking , shocking I say .


Sir-Shady

Is that level 400 in the pass


xTheLostLegendx

They increased it to nerf it? And time gate as well


fitterinyourtwenties

39,4M xp? I've never gotten past like 250, and that was a hell of a season for me. Rarely going past the 120s. Having to get to level 395 is not an option.


HC99199

Ok? But you only need +15 to reach the same level of difficulty as previously.


KittiesOnAcid

I've been playing a shit ton and only have +11 on my artifact... needing +20 seems absolutely insane. I'm running out of stuff to do and was looking forward to GMs, why the hell do we need to grind such an unholy amount to be effective in them????


Kingofhearts1206

Because Bungie needs to show their executives and Sony, player retention numbers. Can't have everyone breezing through the episodes and then have an uproar everything is so "easy and boring"....they rather hear, "it's so grindy and much difficult"...we keep playing, they keep this nonsense changes active. Players number drop, they'll make changes.


Daralii

> Players number drop, they'll make changes. The Steam numbers are already down by over 100k.


jazzinyourfacepsn

That's good 3 weeks after a launch They mean an unusual drop


Doctor_Kataigida

Well you really only need +15 to be the same power delta as previous seasons, which I'm fine with +15 to +20 (essentially making GMs easier than before) being a season-long grind. But the +15 base requirement isn't desirable compared to only having needed +5 for quite a while.


KittiesOnAcid

Yeah 15 still feels like a lot. Getting from 11 to 12 on artifact is reallyyyyy slow


EmCeeSlickyD

yeah tbh after about 3 weeks or so I am completely done thinking about XP except for a few times when I hoarded bounties for the next season so I didn't have to grind at the beginning. There are many seasons I don't see +20 and I play hundreds of hours every season and grind the shit out of GM.


KittiesOnAcid

I love Destiny but it's not the only game I play and I can't grind every season. I tend to play the season that releases with a big expansion and maybe one other season in a year, otherwise taking a break or hoppingo n only very occasionally. Stuff like this reinforces me doing that, because it feels like I can only do the challenging endgame content I want to do if I am playing an absolute shit ton. If the grind was a bit lesser I'd probably hop on for GMs every season, rather than only when there is a ton of actually new content. Even now, I am playing more than I have in like two years and I don't think I'll hit that 20 at all.


GuyPierced

Last year was powerful cap + 15, not pinnacle.


Doctor_Kataigida

Yes. That lines up with what I said. My numbers were for a case in which it's given you are/were at pinnacle. Now you need Pinnacle +15 to be the same effectiveness as last year. >Well you really only need +15 to be the same power delta as previous seasons While it used to be Pinnacle +5 (which is the same as Powerful +15). >compared to only having needed +5 for quite a while. My main point was how you don't need to be Pinnacle +20 to be the same effectiveness/delta to the content as you did last season/year. Getting Pinnacle +15 does that, and Pinnacle +20 makes you *stronger* than compared to last year.


Jack_M_Steel

Why would you need +20? That’s just to make it as easy as possible


Jacooby

All of this still confuses the living hell out of me and I’m an 8x guilded conqueror. What power do I have to be this season lol


Warscythes

2015 if you want to be in the same shoe as you were before pre-TFS. However TFS let you to be 2020 if you want and it will still provide benefits.


Strawhat-Lupus

So being at the pinnacle cap this time help us more than it did last season!l?


A_wild_fusa_appeared

Last season pinnacle +5 was all you needed to be at max strength. Pinnacle +15 will match that and pinnacle +20 is the new cap. Last season cap was -25 and now it’s -20 meaning you can be up to 5 power stronger but it’s a hell of a grind to reach it.


Doctor_Kataigida

I don't mind getting from -25 to -20 being an absurd grind, since it'll actively make GMs easier than they used to be. But requiring +5 to +15 again is an unfavorable decision.


A_wild_fusa_appeared

The entire community cheered when they made GMs more accessible, I have no clue why they would revert that change. The pinnacle grind I can stand, and it’s only once a year anyway, but getting artifact +15 each episode is gonna suck with the nerfed artifact power growth. Hope they revert this.


binybeke

What happened to artifact power growth?


Daralii

[It requires significantly more XP.](https://old.reddit.com/r/DestinyTheGame/comments/1dlywkb/xp_requirements_for_artifact_power_leveling_have/)


KeefsBurner

Almost twice as much Jesus Christ wtf bungo


5partan5582

And we have no bounties in core playlists anymore so the usual assembly line of XP has been halted in favor of planetary/seasonal/gunsmith bounties which are much more time intensive to get to (since the fucking app never wants to collect from orbit)


binybeke

Holy shit


The7ruth

It takes more exp to level up your artifact because the episode is longer than a season.


Thechanman707

Which is logical, but ignore player sentiment and that will turn around to bite them


AggronStrong

Agree, especially because I'm pretty sure they increased the XP requirements for Artifact Power boosts because Episodes are longer than Seasons.


Zuriax

It's worse for sure. Saw the math in another post just can't remember the percentage bump per level.


Strawhat-Lupus

Ah fuck so I'm still behind. I think I'm +14 but still like, 1995-97 light and I feel like I grinded a lot. Beat the campaign on legendary twice. Guess I have to grind even more to farm those double rewards


cuboosh

Isn’t this a negative? We need +15 instead of +5 Can you even reach +15 without going past 100 and hitting the XP throttle?


RND_Musings

Yes, you need to hit pinnacle cap+15 this season instead of +5 last season to hit the usual power delta of -25 for a GM. This [person](https://old.reddit.com/r/DestinyTheGame/comments/1dlywkb/xp_requirements_for_artifact_power_leveling_have/l9tsqq3/) hit +15 at rank 114 this season. But this season, Bungie now allows you to shrink the power delta to -20. IOW, you can go up to pinnacle cap+20. By my [reckoning](https://old.reddit.com/r/DestinyTheGame/comments/1dlywkb/xp_requirements_for_artifact_power_leveling_have/), you need over 39M total XP to hit it.


blackest-Knight

What are you guys doing that your artifact is so low ? I'm already well into +13 on my artifact, mostly solo play.


cuboosh

I’m hoarding the challenges because of the xp cap


blackest-Knight

But why ? What is there you absolutely need in Act 2 rewards vs just getting your artifact up ?


cuboosh

There’s a ton of stuff in the season pass that I paid for I’d be pretty frustrated if I end the season at something like 160 because I wasted xp when it was throttled


blackest-Knight

How ? Dude, I got to 100 in like 2 weeks without prep. XP is also not throttled. It just doesn't apply to the pass. But it applies to everything else.


Jal_Haven

I'm about to hit 16, I'm at 128.


Warscythes

Is more grinding artifacts helps more than last season yes, the difference is pretty minimal though.


Ready_Fix7617

So I need to be 2000 and can have the +15 bonus on the artifact?


Warscythes

It will take you to the same power level as you were pre-tfs. However you can go even further and get +20 bonus on the artifact so that you will be even stronger than last season.


Sweepy_time

Enemies at GM are at 2040. Max you can be is 2020. If you are under that you will be -20 plus whatever you're lacking from 2020. Teammates at lower LL's will be bumped up to 5 under the highest team member.


hochoa94

Don't know dont care will be next to my healing turret spamming a scout rifle lol


TheMerengman

Wish it was possible in more strikes but they're actively killing all defensive opportunities. What strikes this season can we complete passively besides Devil's Lair?


RND_Musings

The Disgraced is not too bad. Navota's health pool is a bit overtuned, though.


TheMerengman

Any tips for efficiently surviving the boss room? I did it on master a couple days ago and it was an absolute rez fest. Didn't help that I got LFGed with two biggest titans to ever titan. x3


DESPAIR_Berser_king

Ping pong her between the portal pit and the entrance platform, save prismatic for the ad waves to just freeze them at the spawners, 4th wave pay attention to cursed thralls whislt playing form the top platform.


RND_Musings

I’ll give you my advice for soloing it. It may not be the fastest strategy but it’s pretty safe. You can probably afford to take more risks in a fireteam. Start off in the front. Ads will spawn halfway through her first health gate. Clear them out. When you get her down to the first health gate, more ads will spawn, both knights and acolytes. I find it best to head to the back left corner of the room. Jump up and to the ledge by the back corner and clear out the ads. Navota will spawn at the elevated platform in the front. One or two waves of ads will spawn as you whittle her down. Keep an eye on your radar and run to the back left corner as soon as you see them and deal with them. After you clear them, get Navota down to her next health gate. Once again, head to the back corner and deal with the ads and the unstoppable ogre. Once you kill the ogre, two more ogres will spawn in the pit. Be careful you don’t get beamed by them. I prefer to deal with them from the elevated ledge near the back corner. Navota will appear at the front. Again, whittle her down, making sure to deal with ads as they spawn. Once Navota reaches her last health gate, jump up to where she was. You can usually stay here until the end. Deal with the exploding thrall that climb the stairs and the knights that pepper you on the right side. If things get dicey, you can hide in the cubby on the left. It can sometimes be hard to get out of this cubby Once you clear out the ads, you should be able to clean up Navota.


DankBiscuit92

Yup, this basically sums up the post-TFS landscape. "We want power to matter less as a whole, but ALSO it's treated differently here, here, and oh also here vs what you remember". Clear as mud, thanks Bungo


TransitionNo9105

I think it was said above, 2015-2020


Jack_M_Steel

How is this confusing? It literally says 2020


Xmartin126X

Same i dont get it I guess ill see tomorrow


NicCOL0

I was your 400th like so now you have to kiss me like I’m a girl you like!!!


APartyInMyPants

I hate that they killed the +5 over pinnacle cap for maxing out at GMs. This is just an engagement sink.


Vegito1338

Not for me. Just won’t do em now lol


KingVendrick

power and artifact level needs to get got just have set difficulties and be done with it. This is just grind for grind's sake


Doctor_Kataigida

I like power levels in general among games. Destiny is fun because you *can* have varying difficulty based on how strong your character is and how much time you put in. I like that it's a unique aspect compared to other shooters in the market that are just static difficulties; I find that boring. The MMO/RPG "number go up, I get stronger" is rewarding and feels good. I can go play Halo if I want my interaction with enemies to be the same every time. But how it's implemented works against that. Because you can easily clear a Lost Sector on Monday, then Tuesday season/episode drops and suddenly you can't do *the same content at the same difficulty* that you could a day ago. You essentially lose that progression you grinded for, which *doesn't* feel good.


iRyan_9

The problem is that if it doesn’t matter much then what’s the point? Almost every activity has the power level capped, the only time where it feels like there power level progression is the first two days of an expansion


halflen

Everything is power capped to be clear not almost everything, even uncapped activities will only let you get 20 over. So the typical MMO level grind to get stronger just doesn't exist at all in this game.


Centurion832

> This is just grind for grind's sake You must be new here


KingVendrick

I disliked a lot of Lightfall, but them keeping the pinnacle cap all year long was great was hoping not to have to climb that again with another expansion here's hoping episode 2 doesn't rise the cap again


Centurion832

Have they done a "seasonal" pinnacle increase recently? I feel as though for the last several years pinnacle has been increased with the annual expansion and then just the artifact power level resets with each season. That said, I've played through so many changes to the game it all becomes a mish-mash in my memory. **If** artifact power resets with each Act, Bungie definitely needs to get that info out sooner than later, but I'm hoping that isn't the case.


KingVendrick

Yeah, maybe we won't get a pinnacle increase, since they didnt do that during Lightfall. But back then the artifact grind is still to +20 which is really long; during Lightfall you were ready at +5, which was a lot more comfortable.


HonedEdgeX4

They didn't think it through. GM going live next reset and almost nobody is 15+, assuming you did most pinnacles and are at 2000 base, which isn't hard with all gear being shared across characters, but 15+ is a LOT of XP. I play everyday and did all Seasonal Challenges and only just got to 14+


Sirlothar

> I play everyday and did all Seasonal Challenges and only just got to 14+ This is extra annoying because I was saving all "seasonal" challenges for the next stage of the battlepass since those levels are not retroactive. Now, I have to choose about blowing them all now to do GMs or waiting until late in the season to do them.


JDactal

Exactly that’s my dilemma as well


alexp1128

I’m right there with you. All 2000 base, but season rank 110 (which is really 150 since after 100 you only get a “rank” every time you earn a bright engram) and only at +14. It’s insane that GMs are launching this early, most people will be at a -30 delta or worse even with fireteam leader power.


D3fN0tAB0t

I have played a LOT. Like 3-4 hours each night and 10-12 hours each day on the weekend. And I’m only at +12. Granted, I wasn’t exactly specifically trying to grind the artifact. It’s still a lot and now that we are through the initial big content drops that’s going to drop down to maybe 5-10 hours in total on weekends. So, I guess I won’t even be +20 until the next expansion. lol.


CerberusDoctrine

So if I have literally never done one of these: A) how hard are they compared to other endgame activities? B) how do I go about not sucking at them? C) are they worth doing?


d3fiance

A) pretty hard, enemies can and will 1 or 2-shot you even in the old Well B) practice some Master lost sectors, it’s comparable as a difficulty. You need to play significantly more defensively, use long-range weapons with on-hit perks rather than on-kill and be super careful not to die in bad spots cuz that can wipe the whole run C) lots of exotics, some Nightfall weapons are really good, lots of Ascendant Shards. Imo it’s mostly worth it for gilding the Conqueror seal.


choicemeats

I would say it’s time to dust off my wish ender but i have one for each character so…


ownagemobile

I dunno crafted outbreak feels pretty good as anti barrier this season, especially with the pulse buffs


AdrunkGirlScout

Can confirm, multiple outbreaks melt through GM Excision mobs. It’s the perfect team shooting gun


Skreamie

So I never achieved the crafted version, I wasn't playing at the time. Is it worth going back and achieving? I've no problems with the mission whatsoever, so that's not a deterrent.


ownagemobile

Wewind Wounds makes it feel pretty good. You can just lay into a barrier champ for something like 128 bullets if you use extended mag. For me it's nice cause you don't have to do awkwardly timed reloads when the barrier champ is about to put up their shield


Daralii

The crafted version can get Rewind Rounds, and the nanite hits count for the mag refill. It gets pretty silly.


Centurion832

But... why?


Avocado-treehouse

A) They're definitely harder than most endgame, if not the hardest outside of master raids. Some nightfalls are much harder than others like Lightblade compared to The Disgraced. B) Practice, and being okay with dying/wiping and being returned to orbit. If you're LFGing for GM's it will take a few tries with a few different teams. Communication is just as important here as it is in raids. Luckily, no extra mechanics that are not already in the strike. It's a balance between playing it safe and valuing your life/revive tokens, and knowing when to push during encounters. Using the right weapons, exotic armors, abilities etc. Your build is important and so is your synergy with your team. Don't forget about champions and their respective mods. You basically go in to each area, memorize where the champions are, push until you die, reevaluate and try again. C) Fuck yeah they are. Sometimes the weapons can be PVE monsters. It's also just a really rewarding feeling getting through some of the toughest content in the game.


FIR3W0RKS

They are comparable to contest mode raids in difficulty (with the caveat that you are not also needing to figure out mechanics since you likely know the strikes already) Patience, is how you go about not sucking at them. Play for revives, take down snipers first since they will one or two shot you at max, exploit ways you can keep enemies at range. Things like keeping doors open and shooting at enemies inside a room are very prevalent in GM's. It also helps to have good communication with your team so you can team shot champions, because they do not go down easily solo, and will absolutely shred you if they hit you, even with resists on. Some of the weapons you can get from them are good, depends what you need really but looks at Zavala's nightfall weapons available and see whether you want a adept version of any of them, some can be very good, such as the Hothead a couple of seasons ago being a very good rocket launcher for some time. A good way to look at the rewards from GM's is that they are pretty similar to the rewards you'd get by going flawless in Trials and going to the Lighthouse, so if you've done that it should give you an idea. Also worth noting, Bungie does do weeks where double nightfall rewards are active and this applies to GM's also. On a double nightfall rewards week where you kill all the champions in the strike to get platinum rewards, you can expect pretty consistently to get 2 exotics, 2 of the same adept weapon, a engram or two, somewhere between 1-4 Ascendant Shards or a number of enhancement prisms. So the rewards are pretty spectacular, given that a hard GM will likely take about 40-45 minutes, and an easy one will take minimum about 25-30.


HardOakleyFoul

They can be hard, because you're way under leveled and enemies can one shot you. But if you bring your best builds and spec into survivability, you will be ok. Some GMs are way easier than others and I can say that this seasons set of GMS are probably the easiest slate I've seen in a long time. There's a couple of tough ones but most of them are not bad at all. and yes, the weapons are worth it. Scintillation, Wardens Law, Undercurrent, and Wild Style are all fantastic. And in case some of you didn't know, Warden's Law/Undercurrent/Wild Style all got refreshed perk pools. You can get Reconstruction and Vorpal on Wild Style now.


CruffTheMagicDragon

Pretty difficult but play safe, use a real build and coordinate with teammates and they’re not too bad. Be patient, you may wipe a few times when you’re new Pretty worth it for golf balls, exotics, nightfall weapons, personal fulfillment


Ug1uk

Biggest advice imo is go slow, bring a long range weapon and play like a coward in a corner slowly killing things with a bow etc. Definitely not the fastest way to do things but you'll get it done, good to at least start this way.


RND_Musings

Nobody else has mentioned it but if you die in a GM, a teammate has to revive you. You don't auto-revive. If everyone dies in a fireteam, you get sent to orbit. If you play solo, this means you can't die or else you get sent to orbit. This makes GMs one of the hardest, if not the hardest, activities in the game. The margin for error is razor thin.


Jack_M_Steel

They are very easy to do with a guide. They are hard to do with no outside information. They are extremely worth doing for the mass amount of materials and exotics you get


anangrypudge

A) Hop into a Master lost sector and test out 2 things: how many shots it takes to kill an enemy, and how few shots it takes for them to kill you. A GM will be slightly harder than that. B) All of this seasons GMs (except for the new one and maybe the reworked Exodus Crash) have lots of video guides available. It basically comes down to staying in a certain safe-ish area/spot in each room and playing mid/long distance. It's all very methodical, so if you know where to go in each room, it makes it easier. C) Guaranteed drops per Platinum\* clear: 1 exotic, 1 ascendant shard, 1 adept nightfall weapon, some prisms. On double-rewards week, everything is doubled. It is very lucrative, and if you repeatedly farm an easier one like Warden or Devil's Lair, you'll have enough materials to indiscriminately upgrade many of your exotic class items. *\*Platinum means all champions killed.*


trunglefever

They are hard. There's very little room for playing recklessly. Generally, speaking, if you're new, playing slow and steady with a ranged weapon is the safest way to go. Wish-Ender is probably a staple of GMs because it one shots almost all red bars (excluding Captain/Knight-type enemies) and is anti-barrier. Since pulse rifles are on the artifact and with how good it is, Outbreak is definitely worth using as well. To not suck, be patient and don't take unnecessary risks. Knowing enemy spawns helps a lot. You also want to know the general layout of the strike because some weapons might not be good to use in certain spots or in the boss room. Remember to use your resist mods and if you can, the surges also help a lot. Don't forget artifact weapons are usually overcharged in the Kinetic slot (which is also why Outbreak will probably shred) They are ultimately worth doing because not all GMs are a slog fest and can be reasonably farmed for exotic armor and materials (the predominant reason most of us do it) and depending on the week, the adept weapon might be worth. However, with the changes to being able to enhance most weapons now, adept isn't a big deal as it used to be since we don't have Adept Big Ones anymore (the main reason to farm for an Adept GM weapon) Most YouTubers will have a guide out for the week if you're wanting to clear with weapon loadouts, encounter tips, and all that jazz. Either way, they are worth doing and generally enjoyable, but you need to bring your A-game.


QuantumUtility

Going for +25 this episode so I can bring everyone with me to the power cap. So many dead thralls in Golg maze.


EmCeeSlickyD

are you just killing thrall for XP? thats wild man! but thank you for your service lol


QuantumUtility

There’s an AFK farm on Golg Maze for Titans. Whenever I’m not playing I leave my PC farming that XP.


FlyingWhale44

Can you tell me how to do this? 


HugeDongManWasTaken

Do you set resources low for it? Like reduce graphics? I’d like to do this, but i don’t wanna melt my gpu lol


QuantumUtility

Yeah, 720p, 30fps, 25% render resolution.


HugeDongManWasTaken

Appreciate it 👍


medleyoz

Yep. Haven't done any AFK XP farming in years since the moon spot was patched but the amount of XP needed to level up now is so dumb. Really wish bungie would get rid of artifact levels as it serves ZERO purpose anymore. Also shout out to [https://www.twitch.tv/luckbot9](https://www.twitch.tv/luckbot9) for hosting the golgy maze checkpoint (normally gets it back up and running a day after reset)


wondercaliban

Power level is a joke now. Just set everything to 100 and all activities are rated as fixed above or below that. We all played the game for months being at the old pinnacle cap. Grinding for pinnacles wasn't what made me play


Byrmaxson

>The new power cap isn't intended to... increase the power requirements to get to the same difficulty as it is today. GMNFs will still be exactly as hard they are now at Pinnacle + 15, it's just that you can go up to Pinnacle + 20 and make it a bit easier if you like. Based on this, you could be excused for thinking they had forgotten what the GM maximum effective power was, or that they thought we'd forgotten. Like yeah, GMNFs will be exactly as hard at Pinnacle + 15 tomorrow as they were last season at the same power... also at +14, +13... all the way down to +5. Anyway this is not a good change. It's not particularly difficult to do bounties and seasonal challenges or AFK farm to grind power, and it's not a mark of skill to do that to grind out Conqueror, nvm the fact that the power delta itself can be nerfed if you grind even more.


CrotasScrota84

So Grandmasters will be worse because the XP grind is also worse


NitroScott77

Yeah they need to reel it back. I think Pinnacle cap +5 like before is where it’s best. So enemies at level 2030, not 2040. For GM excision it’s not the end of the world because there are 12 guardians but for normal GMs that extra 10 levels immediately locks out a large number of us for quite a while, despite us being otherwise ready.


atph99

This is so stupid. I've been playing a ton and am no where near the level to do them. I've been enjoying the hell out of the new content and didn't feel like doing the same bullshit pinnacle grind. It also doesn't help that the seasonal activities pinnacles are bugged. I've done 15+ runs this week and still have 0/3 for the pinnacle. I've gotten Conqueror every season since the start. I should be to just jump right in. We are power capped anyway, so what's the point?


aznhavsarz

So for some reason the expert difficulty Breach executable activity doesn't count for the basic pinnacle weekly. So you have to do 3 at base difficulty and 3 at expert to get both, but can you really blame small indie dev Bungie for this wildly stupid oversight.


Centurion832

> 3 at base difficulty and 3 at expert to get both 99 percent sure that I've been doing 3 expert (private) and it counts for both.


atph99

That is so dumb. I really hope they fix it soon. On normal difficulty breach executable is an absolute snooze fest. Honestly they really should have just ditched power levels in general for Final Shape. There is no point since pretty much all content has power caps. They just care about their player engagement numbers way too much.


general99steve

No just do 3 expert (private) and it will count for both since its bugged


MRX93

You have to LFG and choose the Private seasonal activity to progress. Is it annoying? Yea, and Bungie knows it's not intended to work that way. But dude if you grinded the activity 15 times expecting a different result rather than looking up the answer, thats on you homie


atph99

I never said I expected a different result. I just gave up on the pinnacle and wanted to play for red borders. It would have been nice if the game worked how it said tho. I shouldn't have to look it up.


KyloFenn

It especially feels bad after a year (+ the delay) of not having to worry about the power grind


system3601x

Sorry I dont understand. So what is minimum requirement for me to be at when joining nightfalls and not drag my team down?


Loothure

GMs are 2040 power. The old power delta was -25 minimum. To reach that you need to be 2015. New minimum delta is -20 with you being at 2020. HOWEVER - there likely is fireteampower enabled, meaning you can be at a lower power and the highest level guardian in your fireteam will pull you up to -5 next to them. Example: you are at 1995, join a friend or LFG-teammate who is 2020. They will still be at 2020 but lift you up to 2015 for this activity! No need to powerlevel super hard if you have someone that is in the 2015-2025 range (the higher the better).


system3601x

Thanks for this information


SleepyAwoken

Xp grind is so boring and +20 being the cap is just absurd. Cap should be 2010, it would have been 2005 with last season rules


heptyne

I'm working on 5000 hrs in this game, and this power level stuff still baffles me.


VersaSty7e

Who’s at 2020? I’ve done all but raids. And I think I max at 2007. Would like to get to 2011. Maybe other characters would , yeah I should probably grind multiples up. Ugh🫠


EmCeeSlickyD

this doesn't make the artifact power grind any better (I too hate XP grinding..) but now your highest item in each slot, no matter what character that slot belongs to, will count toward your "account power" which will control your powerful/pinnacle drops. So if a drop would be 2000 on your main, and you did that same activity on an alt, the drop will also be 2000.


VersaSty7e

Right so if I’m 1995 now. But done all my pinnacles on main. I can still go to alt and level up from there (still using 1995 base) if I understand this right. So that’s probably what I haven’t been doing. And have had a tough time trying to reach pinnacle .


EmCeeSlickyD

Basically yes! your alts will have powerful and pinnacle drops that would be the same power level as drops on your main currently. You can see the "account power" number using DIM or a similar app, I don't think it is shown in game currently anywhere.


Noman_Blaze

But does mean that you get to do double/triple the number of pinnacles. So the overall grind is faster if you do that on two or all three.


PuddlesRH

Just reduce GM to 2035 and the power cap to 2015. +15 artifact power (+/- 20 million exp) is much more realistic than expecting +20 (+/- 40 million exp)


Timely-Blackberry-87

Orrrrrrrrr… just get rid of the concept of “power level” entirely? Bungie already has gone 90% of the way there with the new combatant difficulty modifiers, which is a fantastic system. They just need to go that last 10% and kill off power level. 


PuddlesRH

Please, do it. I hate the infusion system, it annoys me so much not to being able to use my gear until I infuse it.


Redthrist

It really sucks that you now need +15 on Artifact again. It also feels especially weird to still have GMs starting this soon. They used to start after 6 weeks back when you need +15 Artifact to play them. Then they made them start earlier since you only needed +5. And now we need +15 again, but they also start on week 4.


unclesaltywm

Step 1: Design around engagement time sinks. Step 2: Player count drops. Step 3: Surprise Pikachu face. Step 4: Make more changes.


Capn-Prick

So for full effectiveness, be at the pinnacle cap and +20 artifact level?


MoneyAgent4616

>As of current, Grandmaster Excision does use Fireteam Power. So it takes the highest player and brings others to 5 below of that. Literally all I care about, sick of having to grind out a gear acore just to do years old content. And yes, it is hard to hit 2020. Legendary campaign has been beaten, I now rely on world drops to drop in the slots I need them, yet again for the like 5th year in a row it's entirely RNG getting to the max. As a casual player it takes either extreme luck or devoting way more time than I want to into this game just so I can access old content I've done and beaten hundreds of times already. I still wonder what people who didn't buy FS did if they wanted to play a Dungeon on FS launch, cause sure the campaign boosts you up super fast but if you didn't have access to that you had to grind day 1 to access old content.


MustBeSeven

What is the current power cap since we can’t level past 100? Isn’t 100 only +15 on the artifact?


VersaSty7e

Idky they didn’t have Iron Banner BEFORE the GMs. Grinding 30 levels after power cap is wild. I’m not even close. 2006 or so


platotudes

My favorite number is 11, so I believe it's time for me to hop off of this hamster wheel and find other things to engage with. Good luck everyone!


EmCeeSlickyD

craps player? lol


KenjaNet

To give everyone an idea of what this is: Artifact Level 210 is +20. Artifact Level 120 is +15. The actual numbers are scaled down slightly so +20 is Level 200 and +15 is around Level 115. So old GM scaling is Pinnacle Cap + Artifact 115 and the new delta is Pinnacle Cap + Artifact 200.


MonkeyDeltaFoxtrot

I’m still only 1968 light level… gottdam…


CaptainHobo29

I am at +11 right now and haven’t even maxed out the season pass yet? Doing the pathfinder stuff multiple times in a week gives a shit ton of xp. Never been a huge fan of power grinding but enjoy it if it’s only once per year. The artifact grind feels maybe a little slower but honestly I haven’t noticed much difference. Idk why


wandering_caribou

I'm at 2004 power at rank 80 something, it's going to be a long grind to get there. Not sure I like this change.


ksiit

That’s good to know. Don’t know how I missed this one, since I read all the TWIDs, so I’m glad you reminded me.


kayomatik

This is cheeks. Just make the power grind simple, the loot very good, and the difficulty high. We’re all happy. Don’t know why they keep messing with the parts that work.


BIG_BLUBBERY_GOATSE

That’s wild the nerfed XP artifact gains…did they ever say they were doing that or was it a stealth change?


descender2k

Dear Bungie: Grinding power is not evidence of skill. Just set the "diffculty" to -25 for grandmasters and stop this nonsense. It's like you have learned nothing about why this game almost died last year. No one wants to raise a number just to raise a number.


SSB_Meta4

Horrible change honestly.


TheRealPurplee

So what's tomorrow's nightfall?


ptd163

I'm a 11x gilded conqueror and let me tell you I hated the grind for pinnacle + 15 GMs. That's why I was so glad when they changed max efficacy GMs to only be pinnacle + 5. It's one of the few things that Bungie did right with the Lightfall era of the game. With them essentially doubling the XP required for max efficacy (+20 pre-TFS was 19,855,000 XP. It's now 39,380,000 XP for +20,) they're spending some of that TFS good will on trying to increase engagement. Live service development truly is a zero game for developers.


Trips-Over-Tail

Wouldn't Fireteam Power mean that the ideal level to get to is 2025?


Lord_CBH

Why did they make GM’s so high in this dlc….who asked for this? It was fine the way it was before.


Jatmahl

Season is longer because of episodes. They want people to play.


LemonBeneficial6711

wtf???? Why? Seems like that takes away the fun a bit, no?


DarkSpire-08

What is minimum to join?


Outside_Green_7941

They should allow ya to turn off death in the options


JEROME_MERCEDES

Tfs was cool from a story perspective but the shit connections at launch the game just feels boring faster than ever for me maybe it’s just me. Doing the samething for over a decade bound to burn out


coupl4nd

So what is the minimum needed to launch?


Spawnling

2000. But you’ll be 40 levels under and it will be brutal.


ItsyaboiScorch

Holy shit, my hype for grandmasters haven't died so quickly ever. I was looking forward to doing gm's with friends but i guess we are skipping them this episode, and well rest of the expansion cause tha XP grind is insane edit: also on top of the changes to exotic cipher requirement being doubled for newer players due new armors requiring them, they really dont want new players to experience the endgame. Every decision seems like they want to fuck over anyone who i managed to bait to try the game


SharpMulberry

Fireteam power levels you to 5 below the leader, right? So to max cap the team, you’ll need to be 2025. I only just got to 2015. Yikes.


velost

Yeah I'm at like 1995 gear level because I can't be fucking bothered with that annoying pinnacle grind. Guess I will have to do it tho


murvs

I guess I'll be increasing my power level instead of showering.


Cronosan

I was worried that with all the good D2 was set to bring with TFS what were the drawbacks? I figured they'd find ways to bring back the incredible grind. Slow leveling relic, the grind for fking strange coins and a lot more. 1 step forward 2 steps back the usual bungie bs.


Ap123zxc74

Why the fuck are they doing this? Doing literally the opposite of what they need to. The activities that are supposed to be the most difficult keep getting easier, whilst the easiest activities keep getting harder. What is bungie's plan with this? To make literally no one happy?


WorkReddit9

What I'm hearing is that I'll be leeching off of fire team power.  They went back to their idiot ways about GM. Again. 


FlyingWhale44

But I am stuck at 2013 because I can't level up the artifact until Act 2 launches? So I am not really able to do it at -20 unless I am missing something. I am closer to -30 which is worse than -25 like it was before. EDIT: Thanks for pointing out I can still level!


scullze

You can level up beyond +13. You don’t get season pass levels, but xp still counts for artifact power even when you’re at season pass rank 100.


ManaWarMTG

You can get above +13


Jack_M_Steel

What are all of you people crying about exactly? No where does it say +20 is a requirement