However, hitting or passing light level 385 in Destiny is easier said than done. Getting to light level 365 is fairly easy if players simply grind strike bosses, but items that scale up to 385 are a little harder to come by. Luckily Game Rant has you covered with the best ways to reach light level 385 in time for Wrath of the Machine Heroic Mode.
Faction Packages
Any time a player ranks up one of their factions (Future War Cult, New Monarchy, Dead Orbit) they will earn a package. The same is true for Vanguard and Crucible as well.
In Year 3, players can choose if they want armor or a weapon from those packages, and those items will scale past light level 365. Since the player can choose this can be a good method for filling in gaps, but it is very RNG based.
Crucible
Although Crucible can only drop weapons and class items, they will scale past the 365 light level. There are also some solid drops to be had from the Crucible, especially for those players who enjoy PvP events like Iron Banner and Trials of Osiris. Crucible is also great because it doesn’t have any limits. Players can keep getting drops as they play and those will continue to scale.
Skeleton Key Chests
Skeleton key drops may be a problem, but they are only a problem because the loot inside the skeleton key chests can be so valuable. Skeleton Key chests scale with a player’s light and can even go higher than light level 385. More importantly, skeleton key chests have a smaller, fixed loot table, meaning players can focus on specific gaps in their gear. If, for example, they notice their gauntlets are low in terms of light level, then that player can open a strike chest that has a chance to drop gauntlets, like the Echo Chamber strike.
There’s no guarantee that the chest will drop the item you want, but usually the reward is still worth it. Strike chests can also drop artifacts, which makes them even more useful.
Exotic Engrams
Any engram that turns into an exotic (blue, purple, and yellow) will scale past 365. Obviously a player can’t predict when a blue or purple engram will turn into an exotic, but they will all scale.
Like with the skeleton key chests, we’d recommend using the engrams to fill in gaps first, and saving others until you raise your light a bit. If you are at light level 365 and your primary weapon is 370 it’s best to wait until you get your other gear pieces up and closer to 370 before using a primary weapon exotic engram.
Head to Page 2 for More Great Ways to Raise Your Light Level!
Archon’s Forge
Archon’s Forge should be low on players’ priorities when it comes to raising their light level, but the public event can offer class items that scale up to and past 385. The only problem is getting SIVA Offerings and then getting a drop from using that SIVA Offering takes time and patience.
Nightfall Strikes
Nightfall Strikes are the most lucrative when it comes to raising a player’s light level because their drops scale the most dramatically. In most cases, Nightfall drops still abide by the rule of “within 5 light levels of a player’s current level” when it comes to the scaling, but they can sometimes break those rules, so we recommend saving Nightfalls for the last part of every week. That way you can spend the week grinding through other events and then take one last stab at boosting your light before the weekly reset.
Iron Banner
In terms of fast leveling it doesn’t get much better than Iron Banner, but it’s a double-edged sword because the event only runs once per month. But because the Iron Banner event can drop two different weapons and two different pieces of gear without any limit, this is one of the fastest ways to level past the 365 mark. Moreover, every Iron Banner event also includes four weekly bounties and two rank reward packages, and those items will different than the weapons and armor pieces that drop as post-match rewards.
So, if a player wants to grind out Iron Banner it is very feasible to raise your light level up considerably during one week. What we would recommend is grinding out Iron Banner to earn the highest light level for the current post-match drops. Once you seem to be getting drops within the same light level over and over, then we’d recommend using one of the bounties or claiming one of the packages from Efrideet. That way you can maximize the potential light level of each guaranteed reward.
Wrath of the Machine Raid
Like with Iron Banner, the Wrath of the Machine Raid is one of the best ways to raise your light level - maybe even THE best. The only problem is you can only complete it once per week.
Even so, the raid has players covered in every gear slot, offering scalable rewards across the board. Every boss encounter has a chance to drop an item, and each of those items will scale up to 385. However, the raid is one of the few events that has its gear hard capped at 385. The only items that will drop above 385 are exotics.
That being said, If you need to raise your light level, we’d recommend doing the raid as soon as possible and as often as often. But keep in mind that completing the raid does require a solid fireteam, especially for the Aksis boss fight.
How are Players Above the 385 Level Cap?
Although Destiny’s drops are “capped” at light level 385 until the Heroic Mode releases, that cap is a soft cap. Basically that means that gear will still scale using the smart loot system, but only 5 light levels above. Some players may see drops up to 390 if they are lucky, but those are few and far between. The only guaranteed item that drops above 385 is the Outbreak Prime pulse rifle, the exotic weapon from the Wrath of the Machine raid.
Eventually the roof will blow off the 385 cap, but for now the highest we have seen players get is 387 or 388.
It’s important to note that getting up to light level 385 takes time, but if players are smart about choosing when to cash in certain drops they will likely hit the soft cap in no time. And then, when Wrath of the Machine Heroic Mode releases, there will be even more rewards to chase.
Destiny: Rise of Iron is out now for PS4 and Xbox One.
