Destiny 2: Season of Opulence leveling guide – Getting to 750 power level

More and more Guardians are pushing ever onwards in their Destiny 2 adventure during the Season of Opulence. Naturally, you might also be wondering what would be the fastest and most efficient ways to level up. Well, say no more because we’ve got you covered in this leveling guide. We’ll help you reach the max power level for this Destiny 2 expansion — 750 PL — in no time. Well, maybe two to three weeks, tops.

Note 1: The Invitation quest line will unlock The Menagerie activity and Crown of Sorrow raid. Likewise, it also functions much like a catch-up mechanic for Destiny 2 newcomers. Completing it will provide you with 690 PL gear for your Destiny 2 main character and alts.

Note 2: As usual, pray that you end up getting high-level weapons as well so you can pass these around to your alts. You can boost their power level early on.

The High-Level Drops

The highest power level drops you can obtain during Destiny 2’s Season of Opulence will be from the Crown of Sorrow raid. The drops can range from +8 to +12 (good heavens!) of your power level.

We’ve got a full Crown of Sorrow raid guide just for you right over here. Check it out if you need help defeating Gahlran and the other encounters.

The other means of attaining higher PL drops during Destiny 2’s Season of Opulence would be from:

• The Menagerie activity – Unlocking the Chalice of Opulence’s “Power and Efficiency” level 1 and level 2 perks will add two extra powerful drops. These can be +5 to +7. Each weekly reset, you get three powerful drops per character as well.
• Prime Engrams, as usual, offer quite a boost — they’re at +5 to +7 of your max power level on that character.
• Werner 99-40’s weekly bounties – Werner’s chilling inside the Nessus barge, but he’s got some weekly bounties that can provide major boosts. Completing these bounties net you drops at +4 to +6 of your max PL on that character. Don’t forget that some of Werner’s bounties might require completing bounties from other factions (ie. Vanguard). Be sure to stock up on completed bounties before the weekly reset just to be ready.
• Completing all four of Werner’s weekly bounties will also net you an extra powerful drop from Banshee (it drops automatically). It will be +4 to +6 of your max PL.

Don’t forget, you can fine-tune your Chalice of Opulence runes so that you can get the items that you need (for particular slots) when you complete your Menagerie runs.

Check out our Menagerie guide here to find out how to complete this activity. We’ll also give you some tips on what to do with your Chalice of Opulence runes as well as Werner 99-40’s bounties.

The Mid-Level Drops

Almost every Destiny 2 playlist activity that drops powerful rewards will count as mid-level drops. These can be from your one vanguard strike completion and all three of them, or your one crucible match completion as well as all five of them.

These will drop gear at +2 to +5 of your max power level on that character. Again, the rewards will be lowered once you hit 740 or so. It’s the game’s way of slowing you down during your uphill climb to 750 PL.

Here’s the full list:

• Vanguard strikes – x1 completion (biweekly), x3 completions (weekly); you only need to match the burn/singe for that week with your subclass and you can ignore the subclasses of other teammates
• Nightfall – x1 completion and 100,000 score completion (weekly)
• Story missions – x3 completions (weekly)
• Daily heroic adventure – 1x completion (biweekly)
• Planet/zone Flashpoint (weekly)
• Crucible – x1 completion (biweekly), x5 completions (weekly)
• Gambit – x1 completion (biweekly), x3 completions (weekly)
• Gambit Prime – x4 completions (weekly)
• Gambit and Gambit Prime weekly quests (ie. “Do It” and “Yes Sir, I’m a Closer”)
• Crucible and Gambit rank-ups
• Reckoning – attain 100% completion through multiple runs/wagers (weekly)
• Ikora – 20 bounties turned in (weekly)
• Hawthorne – clan exp (weekly)
• Ada – 2x Black Armory weapon frames completed (both frames count as mid-level or mid-tier rewards); check out our forge guides here
• Black Armory special/rare bounty
• Scourge of the Past Black Armory raid (weekly)
• Petra – 2x Dreaming City weekly bounties; the weekly quest and War for the Dreaming City are both low-level type drops, explained below
• Exotic quests and pinnacle weapons – every exotic quest and pinnacle weapon from previous Destiny 2 seasons (ie. Outbreak Perfected, Thorn, The Last Word) that you complete this time around will be at +3 power level.

The Low-Level Drops

All the other powerful drops in Destiny 2 can be considered low-level rewards. This is because they’ll only provide +2 to +3 boosts compared to your max PL on that character. Once you do hit 740+ power level, you might only get +1 incremental increases.

Examples include:

• Dreaming City – weekly quest (ie. “Dark Monastery”), War for the Dreaming City (bounties), and Ascendant Challenge
• Dreaming City – Shattered Throne
• Last Wish Forsaken raid (includes Heart run chests)
• Spider’s main wanted bounty
• Xur/Invitation of the Nine weekly bounty
• Hawthorne – Clan activity/completion rewards

Leveling Up Efficiently

Given that most drops will tend to be lowered once you hit 740+ PL, you’ll want to focus on the high-level and mid-level rewards first. These can boost you greatly when you’re just starting out in your Destiny 2 Season of Opulence journey.

Around 720+ PL, you can also tackle Destiny 2’s Crown of Sorrow raid. You’ll want to be around 730+ PL for the final two encounters though. You don’t want to be at a very low level since you’ll just find yourself dead if an enemy so much as whispers in your ear.

With enough time to grind, you should be able to hit 720 to 730 PL on your first character, thereby getting more weapons to pass onto an alt. Your alt would then be able to hit 740+ PL with some luck. My Warlock is the second character I leveled up. As you can see above, it’s already at 746 power level within the first week thanks to Crown of Sorrow raid weapons and armor. I’ll definitely hit 750 PL by next week.

Assuming that your characters are at a decent power level within the first week, then here’s what you can do from the second week onwards:

• clear Destiny 2’s Crown of Sorrow raid on your highest level character
• do all the bounties from Werner 99-40 as well as the Menagerie
• get all the mid-level rewards (+2-3 at 740 PL)
• get all the low-level rewards (+1 at 740 PL)
• transfer your weapons to your second highest-level character/alt

One last thing: Most blues and regular legendaries will be 15-20 power levels below where your character’s at. If you’re around 725 PL on your alt solely from swapping weapons, you’re bound to get blues/regular legendary drops higher than your 700 PL gear from the previous season.

As you can see above, my Titan is already at 726 PL from swapped weapons and blues/regular legendaries. I got these while doing Dreaming City bounties and lost sectors. I haven’t even done a single milestone (powerful drop) on my Titan yet. It definitely gives you a leg up rather than “wasting” some of your milestones on incremental boosts.

Do a few Forsaken lost sectors and public events if you want. Alternatively, if you’ve got lots of tokens, just exchange them for gear via NPCs until you get the armor piece for that particular slot upgrade.

Update: Season Of Opulence – Week 1 Progress

My Warlock is still at 746 PL. However, as you can see below, both my Hunter and Titan are already at higher levels. In fact, my Titan (the third class I logged this week) is already at 750 power level, the max for this season. That also means I’ve been getting 750 PL drops often, and I’m using them as infusion fodder.

We hope this leveling guide helps you on your way to hitting 750 PL during Destiny 2’s Season of Opulence. For more tips, check out our guides and features hub.