Destiny 2: Shadowkeep Power Level Soft Cap and Hard Cap Revealed
For the release of Destiny 2: Shadowkeep, developer Bungie is making some changes to how players attain power and increase their power level. The goal is to give players more ways to raise their power level, while also making it clear which sources are capped.
In today’s Weekly Update, Bungie clearly laid out the Destiny 2: Shadowkeep power level caps, but there are some new thresholds to consider. Not counting the power associated with the new Artifact, there are three power level caps in Destiny 2: Shadowkeep.
No matter where players start, the power level floor for Destiny 2 will be 750. The developer plans to raise all gear to 750 regardless of infusion and give all Shadowkeep players the same starting line. Those that jump into Destiny 2 with the free-to-play version called New Light will still start at 0, but those who enter Season 8 will be at 750 no matter what.
From there, the soft cap for drops in Destiny 2: Shadowkeep is 900 power. Every item that drops should be higher than the player’s base power level and will likely be an upgrade (assuming it’s not a duplicate).
This means that any drop will help players on the way to 900 and they don’t need to worry about focusing on any specific activity. Public events, Year 2 activities, and even open world drops will all upgrade a player’s power level. In other words, this should be relatively easy to attain with minimal effort.
To increase one’s power level above 900, Destiny 2 players will then need to focus on the powerful reward sources. These sources carry a hard cap of 950.
According to Bungie, these drops will be equivalent to a player’s highest equippable power, which suggests that the big power boosts will be harder to come by. Destiny 2 players won’t be able to influence their drops by under-leveling or over-leveling the content either.
Nightfall Strikes, daily story missions, and daily activities will still be part of the usual rotation, and they should all be key to hitting 950. As of right now it’s unclear what new sources will be available in Shadowkeep, but there should be some tied to the new Vex Offensive activity.
The new cap for Destiny 2 in Season 8 is the pinnacle cap, which is 960. The only way to get items in that threshold between 950 and 960 will be through pinnacle rewards. Again, Bungie has not revealed what pinnacle rewards entail but it sounds like they are tied to the most difficult content in Destiny 2 like the Garden of Salvation raid and competitive Crucible.
While there is a hard cap of 960 in Destiny 2: Shadowkeep, players can increase their power above that mark. By leveling up their Artifact, players can add 1 power level to their overall power. However, the additional power level from the Artifact does not influence the power level of drops. So, a player that is power level 920 but has +5 power on their Artifact is only really 915 and will only get drops at that level.
It may be confusing to grasp at first, but things should make sense once players can look at the new Destiny 2 director. But for those that are focused on racing to the cap, the most important details are:
- Hit Level 900 Through Any Drop
- Hit Level 950 By Powerful Rewards
- Hit Level 960 With Pinnacle Rewards
After that, the focus is on getting to the cap and then surpassing it using the Artifact. And while players are doing that they will also unlock new items via the new Destiny 2 Season Pass for Season 8.
Destiny 2: Shadowkeep releases October 1, 2019 for PC, PS4, and Xbox One.
Post a Comment