With Destiny 2’s Witch Queen expansion a little over a month away, players are beginning to prep for this upcoming adventure. This can take many forms, but for the hardcore community, it’s typically to ready themselves for the new raid.
However, it can be overwhelming to try and set yourself up for success since there’s so much to manage. If you’re new to Destiny 2 or just need a reminder of what you should be doing to prep, here are six things you can do now to get ready for Savathun’s arrival.
1. Get All Three Characters to 1330 Power
(Author’s Note: Following a post from Bungie, they have confirmed all gear and items will be raised to 1350 Power regardless of where they are when the Witch Queen launches.)
If you’re serious about wanting to do the day one raid, then you will want to ensure all your characters have a Power of 1330 without the Artifact. This means each of your equipped gear pieces needs to be 1330 Power, as that will give you the best starting point to grind gear when Witch Queen drops. Given the length of this season, there’s a good chance you have already done this. For those who haven’t, you should focus on completing all your Pinnacle and Powerful tier drops so that you can quickly raise your Power.
2. Start Hoarding Materials
We do not know what materials we will need for the new activities, vendors, and weapon crafting in Witch Queen, but there are several you’ll want to start stockpiling.
- Ascendant Shards: The best way to get Ascendant Shards is by completing Grandmaster Nightfalls or Master Vault of Glass raids. Remember: You can only hold 10 at a time plus an additional 10 in the Postmaster. Given these are used to masterwork armor pieces, it’s critical you have some going into Witch Queen since you’ll probably get a bunch of new armor and exotics. Additionally, if you have all the Forsaken exotics, you can go to Monuments of Lost Light to earn 3 free Ascendant Shards.
- Glimmer: When it comes to stockpiling Glimmer, there are two ways to do it. The first is by using the Rainmaker consumable and the Supercharged Glimmer Booster to give you a lot of passive Glimmer as you play. This is terrific for when you are low but don’t need these blue cubes right away. For those who need Glimmer as soon as possible, you’ll want to pull a bunch of Zavala’s Authority ships from your collection and store them in your vault. When you dismantle this ship, you’ll earn 5,000 Glimmer. Just remember it costs 7,500 Glimmer to acquire, so you’ll lose a little money storing it, but this is fine to do a few weeks away from Witch Queen.
- Enhancement Cores: Oh, Enhancement Cores – a material that everyone is always running low on. There are a few different ways to get Enhancement Cores, but the best is by infusing and then dismantling blue armor pieces. Whenever you get a rare piece of armor, infuse it up to energy level 8 and then dismantle it. While you will spend an Enhancement Prism, this will net you 6 Enhancement Cores. So as long as you have a lot of Enhancement Prisms to spare, you can quickly gain a lot of Enhancement Cores. Two other methods are grinding Nightfalls during double rewards and completing all of Banshee-44’s Daily Bounties on each character. Also, don’t forget to use your Finest Matterweave!
- Enhancement Prisms: Nightfalls. As much as I wish there was an easier method, farming Nightfalls is the best method for earning Enhancement Prisms. Just keep an eye out for when there are double Nightfall rewards, as that’s the best time to stock up on Enhancement Prisms!
- Legendary Shards: Okay, so this farm is a bit time-consuming, but worth it if you desperately need Legendary Shards. Go to The Tower and interact with the quest kiosk that’s by the stairs across from the Eververse stand. Pick up the Forsaken campaign and go through the missions until you reach the quest “Nothing Left to Say.” Equip either a Rocket Launcher or One Thousand Voices and kill the Fanatic boss at the end. Right as he dies, kill yourself with your weapon. This will reset the encounter, but the rewards from defeating the Fanatic will still be on the ground. Given this boss drops around 2 Legendary Engrams per death, it’s a great way to amass a ton of Legendary Shards. Just remember: All these items will be vaulted, so this is strictly for materials only.
- Planetary Materials: Assuming you have Legendary Shards to spare, the best method for obtaining Planetary Materials is by visiting Spider and purchasing them for 1 Legendary Shard. Keep in mind the Etheric Spiral will be vaulted when Witch Queen releases, so don’t worry about getting a bunch of these. Focus on the other materials from the destinations sticking around.
3. Sort Your Vault Out
I know we’re all begging Bungie to increase the vault size, but let’s continue under the assumption that we’re stuck with 500 slots. Before Witch Queen drops, I urge everyone to go into their vault and begin cleaning out what weapons, exotics, and armor pieces you don’t need anymore. Obviously, what you want to keep is different for everyone, but here are a few items I suggest hanging onto as we approach February 22:
- One Void, Arc, and Solar variant of every weapon type for Grandmaster activities, mods, and Legendary Lost Sectors.
- Any high stat distribution armor for potential future builds.
- One of every Exotic, with possible duplicates of armor if they have solid base stats.
- Any additional materials or items that are clogging up your Consumables inventory.
Additionally, I like to have PVP and PVE god rolls of my favorite weapons so that I might have duplicates of a few different guns. This is because Bungie is always changing Destiny 2’s sandbox, which means the meta constantly shifts.
Again: What you decide to keep really will be different from person to person as we all have our own favorites. For example, I like to have a collection of god roll hand cannons. Despite rarely using a lot of them, I enjoy obtaining the best versions of each. So long as you have the items listed above, then the rest of your vault is entirely up to you and what you think will be needed.
4. Get The Right Exotics and Catalysts
Going into the Witch Queen, there are some exotics you will definitely want to earn before the expansion drops. This is not only because they will most likely be meta weapons, but also because they could be extremely useful in the new raid.
Again, you don’t need everything on this list, but it’s highly advised you acquire as many as possible before the expansion arrives. Since many of these are multi-step quests that require guides themselves, I will provide links for any that cannot be explained in a sentence or so.
- Arbalest + Catalyst: Originally only available during The Revelry event, you can now obtain the Arbalest from any exotic engram that drops on the ground or is rewarded by a vendor. As for the catalyst, this has a very low drop rate but is a possible reward at the end of Strikes, Crucible, or Gambit matches.
- Divinity
- Gjallarhorn + Catalyst
- Sleeper Simulant + Catalyst: To get the Sleeper Simulant, you will need to go to The Tower and approach the Monument to Lost Lights kiosk by the vaults. Select Red War and then purchase the Sleeper Simulant for 1 Exotic Cypher, 125,000 Glimmer, 200 Baryon Bough, and a single Ascendant Shard. You can get the catalyst as a random drop from Nightfall: The Ordeal’s final chest.
- Izanagi’s Burden + Catalyst: Just like the Sleeper Simulant, you can purchase the Izanagi’s Burden from the Monument to Lost Lights in The Tower. This will cost you 1 Exotic Cypher, 150,000 Glimmer, 200 Spinmental Leaves, and 1 Ascendant Shard. The catalyst is a random drop from playlist activities like Strikes, Nightfalls, Gambit, or the Crucible.
- Witherhoard: Unsurprisingly, this is another exotic you can buy at the Monument to Lost Lights. This costs 1 Exotic Cypher, 100,000 Glimmer, 150 Glacial Starwort, and 1 Ascendant Shard.
5. Get 60+ Stat Armor
Finally, I seriously suggest you start hunting for good 60+ base stat armor that you can masterwork. This is because it will raise the tier level of your various abilities and traits, allowing you to ultimately perform better in activities. I always recommend focusing on trying to hit 100 Intellect because being able to cast your Super can often make or break an entire endgame encounter.
Some other stats to attempt to get 100 are Recovery, Discipline, and Mobility if you are a PVE player. Of course, this comes down to personal preference and what class you are playing. For example, I always ensure my Warlock has 100 Intellect and Recovery, which gives it a lot of survivability in Master/Grandmaster tier content.
Some good places to farm high-stat armor are Legend difficulty Dares of Eternity, Master difficulty Grasps of Avarice, and the Vault of Glass. Additionally, using the Prismatic Recaster to focus your Embral Engrams into high-stat armor is another terrific method. You should also make sure to visit Xur every weekend, as this merchant can sometimes sell some solid armor with great stat spreads.
6. Stack Bounties
My last tip is a very well-known prepping tip, but it’s still important. Before Witch Queen launches, I recommend completing bounties (but not turning them in). This is commonly referred to as bounty stacking or bounty hoarding. What it means is completing Vanguard, Crucible, Gambit, and planetary bounties, but keeping them in your inventory instead of turning them in. You do this to give yourself a big experience boost to level up whatever the new seasonal artifact is.
However, there are a few things to keep in mind if you do decide to hoard bounties. The first thing is to make sure you only ever have seven of the Vanguard, Gambit, and Crucible bounties. This is because if you turn in eight when Witch Queen launches, you will be rewarded with a Powerful Engram drop from the bounty’s respective vendor. Since you want to save these drops until you hit the soft cap, make sure to have just under the Powerful Engram bounty requirement. Also, only turn in your bounties when you are in a fireteam with someone and have the experience mod equipped to your Ghost. This will give you the most bang for your buck and allow you to squeak in some extra experience!
Destiny 2: The Witch Queen will be released on February 22.
