I was playing last night and learned for the first time that my armor has elemental attributes, and that I can change said elements.

What is the purpose of the elemental armor? What's the benefits? Do they all need to match?

I change my subclass often, but I probably use stasis the most.

What do I need to know here!!?

Each armor element has (usually) exclusive perks that can be added onto said armor piece. There's basic universal perks you can add on like, increased intellect, increased class ability, stuff like that—but there are others that are more specific(I'd tell you but I haven't played the game in half a year, lol). Each perk requires a certain amount of energy. Next to the power level your armor(and weapons, too) have an energy number. The higher your number is, the more or better perks you can add onto said armor. The maximum is 10, called a Masterwork. Long story short, it'll take quite a bit of work!

But to answer your question, the element of the armor only affects the types of perks you can use.

These are all the armor mods currently available in Destiny 2 (minus the ones on the Seasonal Artifact):

(Thanks, DIM)

If the top left corner of the box is blank, these mods can be used on any appropriate armor (that is, a leg mod can be used on any piece of leg armor).

If, however, there's an elemental icon in the corner (arc, solar, void, stasis)... that mod can only be used on armor that matches the elemental type.

As you can see above, the majority of mods are NOT elementally-typed. (Class item mods and raid mods are an exception... as, I guess are the combat mods. Hmm. Maybe non-elementally typed mods are the minority.)

You can CHANGE the elemental type of the armor with some glimmer and a few shards... so if you're setting up a build that requires an elemental mod, you can, for a fee, make your armor match. (I'd recommend not worrying about that at your stage. ;) )

Banshee and Ada sell mods every day, so if you're missing stuff, you can keep checking back with those two to see what they've got.

If you're looking for a SPECIFIC mod you don't have, there are even websites that will send you an email (or notify you on Discord) when that mod is being sold.

It's a deep, deep rabbit hole, as Morpheus suggested... but at the surface level, it's still worth knowing how the system works, so that if you DO decide to take advantage of it, you have an idea about where to go.

Sheesh. I just plug mods in if they match my play style. I never know what's going on in this game :P

Sheesh. I just plug mods in if they match my play style. I never know what's going on in this game :P

As long as you're having fun! ;)

How did you get to that view in DIM? Is there a similar view that also shows descriptions?

Sheesh. I just plug mods in if they match my play style. I never know what's going on in this game :P

The TL;DR is that all this stuff, elements and what not, are just for making builds that work in line with your subclass and (often) matching weapon element.

If that's too much, but you still want to give the system a go, there's always sites like https://guardianforge.net/ if you'd like to click around, or D.I.M (which is how I make most of my builds) if you'd like to risk digging in and see what you can pull off.

As D.I.M is what I use, I can present...

...

For example: https://dim.gg/kegfzpq/A-Very-Very-Basic-Starter-Point-for-ManKitten

As far as I am aware, this link is temporary, as I'm hosting it on my account. Can't guarantee how long I'll be keeping it there. For the link to work, you'll need to be signed in to D.I.M .

When you click the link, you'll see... (click the image to "embiggen")

A Very Very Basic Starter Point for ManKitten
Some Starter "Bones" of a Build for a Hunter. Currently Requires one armor piece with a "Stasis" Energy (I recommend a cape). With this bare bones load out (which can have more added), every stasis shard will also give you a boost in your super recharge rate, will boost the damage of every stasis weapon by 10 seconds (or so), and will give you a "light" stack. Said light stack will also boost your weapon damage, costing 1 stack "of light" per kill.

Click the button. I expect you'll be fine either way, so I'm not going to stress over it.

Provided you're logged in to D.I.M, it should open up and show you...

The difference being that the Mask of Bakris will be grayed out, as you do not have MY Mask of Bakris. Click it so that you can swap to the one you have.

Once you save the load out, you can select it whenever you want in your D.I.M menu.

Click the Mod to see what it does. Provides same description as in game. Also provides where to get the Mod.

I've never used D.I.M. I had the destiny app on my phone for a while but it kept erasing my Bungie login (which is different than my xbox sign in) and I could never remember by Bungie login so I just deleted the app.

Is D.I.M. better than that?

I've never used D.I.M. I had the destiny app on my phone for a while but it kept erasing my Bungie login (which is different than my xbox sign in) and I could never remember by Bungie login so I just deleted the app.

Is D.I.M. better than that?

OH. O_O

yes. YES!

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It's an extension of the game's UI at this point.

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Well I've downloaded it, just need to find my Bungie login. (will have to wait until "later"). (Also, I anticipate having to go through 3-4 levels of authentication/verification to prove it's me....hence I just deleted the previous app.)

I always had Destiny 2 Companion open while I played...so if DIM is head and shoulders, then, whooboy....lookout! Eh?

Except for that, DIM is better in every single way

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Except for that, DIM is better in every single way

I've piddled around in DIM a bit and yes, it's deep. It might be deeper than I need honestly. All I ever used D2C for was swapping out gear between my player and vault. I didn't know you could pull bounties from there though, that's way more handy for me.

My son has been getting into the game and wanting to learn all the stuff. He watches all the youtubes and learns the stuffs. Looking forward to him teaching me how to play :P

• Saved loadouts
  
• Search box (spend a little time looking at query possibilities--you can find dupes, find items with a certain element--there are innumerable uses. And then you can move your search results to a character through the character drop-down menu.)
  
• Comparisons--you can compare dupes or any other items that fill a slot.
  
• Tagging items, locking items. You can do this for multiple items at once, e.g., results from a search. Good for gear management and organization.
  
• On the progress page you can pick weapons and move weapons based on the bounties you're working on.

Those are the common things I use it for and I'm sure I'm strictly an amateur.

Switching from support Tether build to absolute big d**k Solar damage build is very clutch in raid runs. Swapping out that many mods by hand is not only insanity, but very hard to actually memorize.