Primer (Destiny)

by Claude Errera , Friday, October 18, 2019, 11:14 (1651 days ago) @ someotherguy

There are so many terms and currencies and proper nouns being thrown around.

Is there a primer or something to tell me how this all works? What's valor? How do I gain reputation? Which items in the Collection can I safely ignore as bullshit microtransactions vs things I can work towards in-game? Do triumphs do anything meaningful? What's a Flashpoint?

Not too long ago, I saw a beginner's guide on Reddit (it included a 100 page Word document as a download). Lemme see if I can find it:

https://www.reddit.com/r/DestinyTheGame/comments/da3crl/desiny_2_the_game_the_complete_guide/

I haven't read through it, so it might be totally shitty... but it's aimed at people like you, so it MIGHT be good. ;)

To answer your questions above:

Valor is earned by playing Crucible games; earning it progresses you through ranks, and gives you drops at each major step. It is separate from Glory, which is earned through specfically competitive games (you also earn valor during comp games). Glory is used as a gate for certain high-level weapons (earnable at specific stops along the progression).

I'm not 100% sure what you mean by reputation.

The Collections tab shows you all of the gear you've earned (well, that has dropped for you) during your playtime. If it has fixed rolls (Exotics, Year 1 gear, specific gear that only comes in one flavor), you can use the Collection to re-acquire an item you've discarded (usually at a relatively nominal price). If the gear did not have a fixed roll, you cannot re-acquire it - but Collections will still show if you EVER had it. (This can be useful to know when working for stuff where you need all of a set of items.)

Triumphs, in general, just let you know that you've done something. There are points (that don't count for anything) that are earned when completing most of them. (Some triumphs are 0 points - ALL they do is tell you that you did something.) A small subset of triumphs have a reward at the end of their completion - an emblem, or in very rare cases, a pinnacle weapon. Mostly, they're a way of keeping track of progress.

A Flashpoint is an event that moves from planet to planet - one planet per week; doing a certain quantity of specific activities (Public Events, Lost Sectors, Heroic Adventures, Killing a High-Value Target) earns you a powerful reward. (You can see your progress towards the completion of the Flashpoint by mousing over - well, controllering over - the vendor on that planet - Devrim, on earth, or Asher Mir, on Io, for example. As long as the Flashpoint hasn't been completed, the vendor icon should be light blue, making it semi-easy to find.)