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The introduction of Gear Tiers in Destiny 2 with The Edge of Fate is one of the most unexpected features, significantly altering the gear grind experience. This innovation aims to bring back the thrill of earning new gear, as Bungie puts it, rekindling some of the “chase and excitement.” Gone are the days of collecting a pile of Legendary items in a single mission, many of which felt disposable.
Players can now earn gear across five different tiers, each providing added benefits. Along with Armor 3.0, Gear Tiers represent a major shift in Destiny 2. Let’s break down what we know so far.
Understanding Destiny 2 Gear Tiers
As mentioned earlier, Gear Tiers are designed to enhance the excitement of looting for players while ensuring gear matches the level at which they enjoy playing.
New Legendary weapons and armor will have a “Tier” rating from 1 to 5 that indicates their overall quality and strength. This affects their stats, perks, and offers various enhancements—specific upgrades for each Gear Tier will be detailed below.
Importantly, this system is closely tied to activity difficulty, with no apparent way to upgrade a weapon or armor’s tier using materials (though gear can still be masterworked). In essence, the harder the activity, the better the rewards. Higher-tier gear (4 and 5) will be available primarily to skilled and dedicated players.
On Kepler, the new area introduced in The Edge of Fate, players will initially earn Tier 1 gear, with occasional Tier 2 drops. Bungie states, “By achieving significant milestones or increasing your Seasonal Power, you’ll unlock permanent upgrades to Kepler’s reward tiers,” linked to campaign completion and post-game activities. Specific achievements required have yet to be disclosed, but we’ll update this once The Edge of Fate launches.
To access Tier 3 gear and above, players can replay the campaign and participate in post-game content, using new Portal activity modifiers to boost their chances of receiving top-tier loot.
Bungie has also hinted that once the raid becomes available, players will face new challenges for earning pinnacle tier rewards. They remain tight-lipped about the specifics, but it’s clear that completing the raid will offer better rewards. Keep in mind that these Gear Tiers apply solely to Legendary gear, so Exotics from Destiny 2 Edge of Fate won’t feature Gear Tiers!
Destiny 2 Gear Tier Benefits
Overall, Gear Tiers in Destiny 2 modify the perks available on Legendary weapons while also enhancing the stats of Legendary armor. Higher tiers provide additional benefits like improved perks and exclusive visual styles for weapons, reflecting the recent addition of ‘holofoil’ weapons, along with extra mod energy for armor pieces.
Here’s a summary of the benefits across the five Gear Tiers:
- Tier 1:
- Base weapons and new seasonal mods.
- Armor stat range: 52-57.
- Tier 2:
- Weapons can have enhanced traits.
- Armor stat range: 58-63.
- Tier 3:
- Weapons can feature two traits per column, enhancing versatility.
- Armor stat range: 64-69.
- Tier 4:
- Access to enhanced mods and weapon parts.
- Armor stat range: 70-75; one extra mod energy for a total of 11.
- Tier 5:
- Unlocks unique ornaments and shaders, exclusive combat flair, enhanced Origin traits, and three traits per column for weapons.
- Armor with a total of 75 stats (30 primary, 25 secondary, 20 tertiary), extra mod energy, and a tuned stat for mod customization.
While higher-tier weapons might not be numerically more powerful since all tiers can be masterworked to enhance stats, their extra perks offer greater flexibility, crucial for challenging content. Similarly, obtaining the highest tier armor is necessary for optimizing stats and builds, making the additional mod energy at Tier 4 especially beneficial.
Understanding Seasonal Mods
If you missed Destiny 2’s Episode III Heresy content, Seasonal Weapon Mods provide a way to customize your build each season, operating independently from the Seasonal Artifact.
Instead of focusing on Unstoppable, Overload, and Anti-Barrier rounds, these mods align with specific themes; for Edge of Fate, they revolve around a ‘Temporal’ concept.
Here are five known mods, with descriptions sourced from Bungie’s blog:
- Temporal Loader: Loads ammo from reserves when dealing damage to slowed, frozen, or suspended targets.
- Temporal Tracker: Grants bonus aim assistance or projectile tracking for a short duration after picking up an Orb of Power.
- Temporal Adapter: Provides bonus stability, handling, and reload speed for a moderate time when readying the weapon; Swords also gain a bonus charge rate and guard resistance.
- Temporal Armaments: Increases damage against Cabal and Vex targets.
- Temporal Blast: Stores a portion of damage dealt into Charges, creating an explosive blast upon reaching five Charges.
Players can acquire these mods by exploring Kepler and completing Portal activities, as they’re not tied to XP like Artifact mods.
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