Destiny 2 - I don't have time to explain Bungie's MMO shooter 2.0

This math checks out for my character right now (BPL is 289, drops are 284), but something still doesn’t jibe for that 265 plateau. At this point I’ll concede this is probably right, or at least more right than my version, but it still feels like there’s at least more going on in the calculations, even going with the BPL model as the foundation.

Anyway, upgrade me to “more or less convinced, but would jump on an alternate theory if one presented itself”.

I just noticed last night that all my legendary drops were maxed at 265, so it seemed I had hit a plateau. I did not though run any milestones with “powerful gear” rewards, nor did I get an exotic drop, so I’m sure there are ways out of this particular doldrums.

If you want to test it, take the highest level item that you have in your inventory that is modded, and replace it with an unmodified item that has the same base power.

Your drops will be of the same power level.

Yeah, you’ll periodically hit such plateus. What will change it is finding exotics, or using powerful engrams, to get items which are of higher unmodified light level than your existing items in that category.

Most of that is gonna be time-gated, limited your progress to a weekly basis… but doing things like public events where you can find an exotic upon completion, can speed it up slightly.

Yeah, jsnell has corrected my explanation of how it happens, but there’s definitely a plateau there regardless of what’s going on behind the scenes.

To the larger argument, jsnell more or less brought me around, but to this specific post, that wouldn’t change anything unless you literally want me to dismantle an object I’ve modded. Not gonna do that :)

Well, you can just put it into your vault, then it won’t affect your light level calculations at all.

No. All the items in your vault and across all your characters count.

Eh, that’s obviously not true, because if it were, all of your characters would be getting drops of the same light level, and they do not.

It only counts items in your inventory, which you can use, I believe.

Or maybe item drops are also gated by the character’s level. Like, if you can’t equip it you don’t get credit for it in your drops.

oh my god, I’m thinking too much about this.

They are different because your characters of different classes can’t share armor. (Or if you have some characters that are too low a level).

I am 100% sure of this. But it’s very simple to test :) You can just use a vendor for this, no need to wait for actual drops. Buy an engram, check the level. Put your best guns in the vault. Buy another engram.

Correct. Your maximum and base power level are calculated based on the best gear you could legally equip, across all characters and the vault.

So your maximum power will only include one exotic weapon and one exotic armor piece, since you can only equip one of each at a time, even if you had very powerful exotics available at kinetic, energy, and power weapon slots.

It won’t include gear that has a level cap—my level 11 Titan can’t use all the level 20 weapons my Warlock has.

And it won’t include armor across classes—my Titan can never equip Warlock armor, and vice versa.

But everything else counts no matter where it is, even if another character currently has it equipped.

If this were true, then if I take the highest level item from one character, and put it onto another character who doesn’t have an equally high level weapon in that slot, the light level of his drops wouldn’t change.

So, for instance… I haven’t leveled my Titan yet. If what you are saying is true, then as soon as he’s level 20, I should be able to take my 290+ multitool, put it into his inventory, and the level of his drops will stay the same.

I’m skeptical about that, but I suppose it’s possible.

Right. The moment he hits level 20, that 290 weapon will start to count for that character’s loot drops. Doesn’t matter which inventory / vault the weapon is in.

(Again, this is super easy to test. But I’ve leveled 3 characters to ~300 in the last two weeks, so I’m confident about how these systems can be manipulated. There’s nothing to be gained by shuffling items around. Nothing to lose either, except having to do the work for no gain.)

Ok, well that’s definitely cool then.
It also does mesh with my experience with my warlock, although I had not really considered it at the time.

Once my warlock hit 20, their drops got WAY high, much faster than my hunter did… they basically went from like, 190 to 270 all of a sudden.

Like I said, I hadn’t really thought about it, but I guess it’s because of what you’re saying. Because all of a sudden, all the stuff my hunter was carrying, as well as all the stuff in the vault, could suddenly be used, so I started finding gear that matched that level.

That does bode well for easily raising any alts. I brought over my titan and warlock and I fully intend to get them loaded up, eventually.

A trick in Destiny 1 was to save some garbage blues from your main then infuse your alt as soon as it hits 20. Instant level up! I don’t know if it will work in D2, my hunter is only level 11.

Can’t infuse armor across classes. But it’s also pointless: it will literally take a few hours after the campaign for the alt to catch up as long as you do things in right order.

I’ve shoved so many excess legendary weapons into the vault my alts are going to be all “Merry Christmas!” when they ding 20.

Titan at 19: Max power 211

Seconds later at 20: Max power 253

Thanks Warlock!

Hecks yes