Destiny 2 Charged with Light Guide - Season of Dawn Armor Mods

If you log into Destiny 2 during Season of the Undying, you’ll notice all of your armor pieces have a fourth mod slot. There you’ll be able to equip things like Dreambane mods, Nightmare Banisher, and Garden of Salvation mods. In Season of Dawn there’s yet another seasonal armor slot which gives you the ability to access this new system.

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Charged with Light Mods – Destiny 2

The new Season of Dawn armor will have a new fourth armor slot dedicated to Dawn armor mods. This is where you’ll equip Charged with Light mods. These mods let you build and consume charges of light to activate powerful buffs provided by your armor mods.

Since this replaces the Undying mod slot, many are worried that they’ll need to grind out mods again. It also means older armor sets won’t be able to use this new system.

The thing is, this may already be the case. My Black Armory helmet currently has no armor mods it can equip since it has a Black Armory Arc armor mod slot. Anything in my inventory with a Undying Arc armor slot has three armor mods to equip. With Season of Dawn, you should expect to have to grind out more mods. If that’s not the case, however, we’ll update this post after release.

Here’s how Bungie explained it on its Season of Dawn reveal stream.

Over the course of the season through various activities you’ll be able to acquire new mods that you haven’t seen before. These mods now have a new mechanic that’s called Charged with Light. When you’re charged with light you get benefits. There are certain mods that allow you get charges of light and there are certain mods that allow you to consume charges of light. This becomes a new gameplay engine that works throughout the entirety of Destiny. It’s not just for nightmare hunts or raids.

It’s worth noting that certain mods now have a debuff to your stats. Precisely Charged, for example, removes 10 Discipline from your guardian.

Become Charged with Light Mods

The following mods give you the ability to become Charged with Light, activating the buffs of your While Charged with Light mods. These mods are green in your collection.

  • Shield Break Charge (1) – Become Charged with Light by breaking an enemy shield with the matching energy type.
  • Empowered Finish (1) – Become Charged with Light by finishing a combatant, consuming one-tenth of your Super energy.
  • Precisely Charged (1) – Become Charged with Light by getting multiple rapid precision final blows with Linear Fusion Rifles or Sniper Rifles. -10 Discipline.
  • Taking Charge (3) – Become Charged with Light by picking up Orbs of Light.
  • Quick Charge (5 Arc) – Become Charged with Light by rapidly defeating multiple enemies with Fusion Rifles or Shotguns. Greatly increases the ready speed of Fusion Rifles, Shotguns, Submachine Guns, and Swords.
  • Blast Radius (3 Solar) – Become Charged with Light by rapidly defeating multiple enemies with Grenade Launchers or Rocket Launchers.

While Charged with Light Mods

The following mods provide you with a buff when you are Charged with Light. Activating them either consumes all charges of light instantly, or slowly whittles away at them. These mods are orange in your collection.

Secondary perks are activated when certain conditions are met. In general, this is met when there’s at least one other mod of the same energy type.

  • High-Energy Fire (4) – While Charged with Light, gain a bonus to weapon damage. Each defeated enemy consumes one stack of Charged with Light.
  • Protective Light (2) – While Charged with Light, you gain significant damage resistance against combatants when your shields are destroyed. This effect consumes all stacks of Charged with Light. The more stacks consumed, the longer the damage resistance lasts. -10 Strength.
  • Striking Light (5 Arc) – While Charged with Light, defeating enemies with melee damage and Swords spawns 1 Orb of Light for your allies and consumes one stack of Charged with Light.
    • Secondary Perk: Gain damage resistance against non-Guardian enemies while sprinting.
  • Heavy Handed (7 Arc) – While Charged with Light, regain half of your melee energy when you use a charged melee ability, consuming one stack of Charged with Light.
    • Secondary Perk: While surrounded by multiple enemies, defeating an enemy with a Fusion Rifle, Shotgun, Sidearm, or Submachine Gun adds ammo for that weapon to your reserves.
  • Heal Thyself (4 Solar) – While Charged with Light, grenade final blows heal you and consume one stack of Charged with Light.
  • Firepower (4 Solar) – While Charged with Light, regain a portion of your grenade energy when you use your grenade, consuming one stack of Charged with Light.
  • Extra Reserves (3 Void) – While Charged with Light, defeating combatants with Void damage grants a chance to drop Special ammo. This effect consumes all stacks of Charged with Light. The more stacks you have, the higher your chance of gaining the ammo drop. -10 Intellect.

Neutral Light Mods

Some Season of Dawn Light mods fall into a third category which augment how you get or consume your charges.

  • Powerful Friends (4 Arc) – When you become Charged with Light, nearby allies also become Charged with Light, if they are not already. +20 Mobility.
  • Charged Up (2 Solar) – Allows for 1 additional stack of Charged with Light.
  • Stacks on Stacks (4 Void) – Gain an extra stack of Charged with Light for every stack you gain. -10 Recovery.

Looking for more Destiny 2 information? We have a Season of Dawn season pass guide which runs down all of the rewards. We also have a Season of Dawn calendar guide which is kept up to date with Bungie’s current roadmap. And if you’re looking for information on this season’s Lantern of Osiris artifact or the new Charged with Light mods we also have those!

About the Author

Dillon Skiffington

Dillon is the Senior Game Guides Editor at Fanbyte. He's been writing about video games for 15 years and has thousands of hours logged in FFXIV and hundreds of hours in Destiny 2.