Once you reach 1000, to get any higher, you need to do activities that will give you powerful or pinnacle rewards. When you open your map screen, a planet or playlist with a gold circle icon next to indicates that there is a weekly challenge that will award you with powerful gear, which will be above your average power level. These are things like 3 strikes in the strike playlist while running a subclass that matches the weekly elemental singe, three Gambit matches, four regular crucible matches, and four crucible rotator matches, and the weekly Flashpoint.Also, various tower vendors have weekly challenges for completing eight of their bounties. As your power level increases, the level of the random drops you get will also increase, to match your overall power level.