Video from ChrisFrancisK To start, the different rarities in order from most common to rarest are as follows: common (white), uncommon (green), rare (blue), legendary (purple), and exotic (gold). As all of you know, I put a lot of time into the Destiny beta. In that time I played through every story mission, the strike mission, and every mission in free roam, many times over. To give you an idea of exactly how much I played, I ended up with 695 Grimoire cards (Grimoire cards are pretty much the achievements in Destiny). Never once did I receive any gear beyond common (white) and uncommon (green). I was thinking that Bungie had just limited the drops in the Beta to these rarities; but after doing some research online I learned that some lucky players had already received some of the rarest exotic (gold) gear in the game. Hearing this raised some very important questions. How had I put in so much time and never had even seen an item better than uncommon? What was I missing? Where had these players found their gold items? [b]Disclaimer: [/b] In the following discussion I dive fairly deep into loot drops in general. The information is need to know but if you already consider yourself well versed in everything that is Destiny, please feel free to skip down to the bolded section, "What was I was missing?" In destiny there are several different ways that players can gain loot. The first way most players encounter (at the start of the tutorial mission) is the treasure chest. Chests have a chance to drop both items and glimmer (the in game currency). The second way players can gain loot is through drops from killing enemies in PvE. Enemies also have a chance to drop both items and glimmer; although the chance that enemies drop glimmer is very low (this can be boosted by using in game consumables which can be accessed in your inventory). The third way that players can gain loot is as a reward by completing missions and events. This includes story missions, strike missions, and world events. The reward items are typically the same level as the difficulty of the mission/event. Rewards are strictly items (such as weapons and armor). Note that there are a few other ways to gain reward items that I will discuss next. The fourth way that players can gain loot it through reward items for competing in PvP. There are several stats that determine if you receive a reward item that Bungie has not yet gone into. All we know so far is that players compete and the ones that do well in certain areas (stats) get a reward item at the end of the match. The fifth way that players can gain loot is through completing raids. Raids are one of the activities that Bungie coins as aspirational (meaning end game content). The raids are the most difficult, highest level content in Destiny; and as such, they provide the most consistent rare (and possibly above) loot drops from the enemies and chests contained inside. The Vault of Glass is the raid that we know will be available at the launch of Destiny; it boasts are starting difficult of level 25 that progressively increases in difficulty throughout the raid (I assume it ends somewhere close to level 30). For completing a raid you are rewarded with Legendary and Exotic reward items. Potentially taking above 6 hours to complete, raids may be the most sure fire way to get Legs (Legendaries) and Exotics, but may not be the fastest. The sixth way that players can gain loot is as rewards for completing Nightfall missions. Nightfall missions are another one of the activities that Bungie considers an aspirational activity. There are two types of Nightfall missions, daily and weekly. So far when being asked about the difficulty of the Nightfall missions Bungie has responded with an example of a level 22 difficulty daily. I think it is safe to assume that Nightfall missions will typically have a difficulty of above level 20. The seventh way that players can gain loot is by purchasing items from the tower vendors using glimmer. The general concept with the vendors (excluding the gunsmith as there are no reputation restrictions for his goods) is that each of your characters has a certain reputation with each type of vendor (Vanguard, Faction, Crucible, Cryptarch). The items the vendors provide are restricted based on your character's reputation with them. The higher the reputation, the better (rarer/higher level) items your character will have access to. Your reputation with a vendor is rated using a leveling system similarly to the way character level and experience works. By doing certain activities you gain reputation and once you have gained enough reputation, your reputation level increases. By completing free roam missions and PvE bounties your characters gain higher reputation with the Vanguard (Bungies name for PvE). Each of the different Faction vendors (Future War Cult, New Monarchy, Dead Orbit, Seven Seraphs, and Osiris) has a guardian mark (bond for Warlocks, cloaks for Hunters, and mark for Titans) that players can buy and wear to represent that corresponding faction. While representing a faction, any free roam missions that you complete will earn that character higher reputations with that faction. By completing PvP matches and PvP bounties you will earn higher reputation with the PvP vendors. There are also special vendors that appear during special PvP events (for example the Iron Banner Tournament). During special PvP events players will be able to obtain special bounties that can be completed in that special event to earn higher reputation with that special vendor. You may now be asking, "what about the Cryptarch?" [b]What was I missing?[/b] During the Destiny Beta I had participated in all of the above activities that were available (we did not have access to raids during the Beta). The answer to my question above is the Cryptarch. All of the Legendary and Exotic drops that we know of in the Xbox One Destiny Beta were given by the Cryptarch. During my time in the Beta I used the Cryptarch to decode my Engrams but rarely did I buy Engrams from him. I did not at the time understand the importance of purchasing Engrams. So, lets discuss the Cryptarch. [b]The Cryptarch[/b] Similarly to the other vendors the items the Cryptarch provides are restricted by your reputation with him. The difference between the Cryptarch and any other vendor in the game is that as your reputation level with him increases, the chance of receiving Rare, Legendary, and Exotic items from him increases. This is because your reputation level not only represents your standing with the vendor, it is also a representation of his skill at decoding Engrams. This not only includes the items he sells, but the items characters receive from the Engrams they bring to him. Other than aspirational content, the Cryptarch is the only known way for players to get Rare, Legendary, and Exotic items. You may be asking, what are Engrams? Engrams are crystal storage devices that are coded with the patterns of items. Players can gain Engrams as loot (from both killing enemies and from chests), as a reward item (PvE only), and purchased from the Cryptarch himself. There are two ways to increase your reputation level with the Cryptarch. One way is by bringing him coded Engrams to decode. The other is by buying Engrams from the Cryptarch himself. This is the main way that players found rare, legendary, and exotic items during the beta. They farmed glimmer and then used all of that glimmer to buy Engrams, increasing their reputation with the Crytarch. The benefit from levelling the Cryptarch is two-fold. The Cryptarch sells higher rarity Engrams and also increases the rarity of the items received when decoding Engrams gained as loot. Since your Cryptarch level impacts the rarity of loot drops, in my opinion, he is the single most important vendor to level (in the game). Another couple of things to take note of. Engrams that drop as loot are colored. The color of the Engram does not always correspond to the rarity of the item that will be received. Green Engrams have a higher chance of giving a higher rarity item while white Engrams can only give common items. In the Destiny Beta green Engrams gave common, uncommon, and rare items. Even though a player will not be able to use the legendary and exotic items until level 20, there is a chance of receiving these items at any level. This means that it is always worth spending glimmer on Engrams. Note that every few hours, the Cryptarch's inventory refreshes. So if you don't see the item type you are looking for don't fret. Be patient and he will eventually have it in his inventory. [b]If you enjoyed this post you may be interested in some of my other posts:[/b] http://www.bungie.net/en/Clan/Forum/164490/0/6/0 [b]Also, there has been a lot of confusion related to locking in subclasses. I'm trying to inform the community to help clear up some of the misinformation. [/b]http://www.bungie.net/en/Clan/Post/164490/67443976/0/0