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Destiny: The Taken King Beginner Tips and Tricks

Check this guide out for everything you need to know to get started in Destiny: The Taken King!
This article is over 9 years old and may contain outdated information

Destiny‘s latest expansion, The Taken King, has launched and there is a lot to do. It feels like a brand new game and it is full of new items to get and areas to explore. Hopefully, you already read by guide on How to get ready for The Taken King. If not, check it out for the big changes added in the 2.0 update. I won’t go over those changes in this guide.

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This guide will help you start The Taken King and get you on your way to being ahead of the curve for all the new content. There will be slight spoilers, but nothing major.

This guide will give the basics of the The Taken King including:

  • Starting The Taken King – What to do when you load up the game for the first time.
  • Tips – Various things to help you get used to the new expansion.

Starting The Taken King

Many people completed a full set of bounties, but waited to turn them in when The Taken King came out. Before turning anything in, I suggest doing the first mission, The Coming War.

  • This unlocks your new subclass quest.
    • If you want to use the new subclasses, complete this before turning in bounties and other things.

If you have the focused light consumable from the Red Bull exclusive can and/or the exotic class item from the collector’s edition, turning in the bounties will get you to level 40. If you have none of them, you’ll get to level 38.

destiny the taken king focused light

There is also a quest in the tower for people who have played the previous expansions that gives a shader, sparrow, emblem, and exotic item.

The best advice I can give is to do the quest line labeled Taken King before anything else. This unlocks all the other missions, strikes, and patrol for the Dreadnaught.

Tips

  • Be sure to complete the test weapons.
    • Wednesdays are Armsdays and you can order weapons as long as your rank with the gunsmith is 1 or higher.
    • Higher ranks lets you order more and your rep is separate for each character, so you should be able to order up to 3 if you have 3 characters.
  • Once you complete the initial quest line, you unlock multiple quests.
    • One of these gives you 20 legendary marks, one unlocks patrol for the Dreadnaught, and one is a strike.
  • You need to be within 40 light of the recommended light level to start a mission.
  • Vendor packages do not stack.
    • You must accept your package before ranking up for a new one, or you’ll miss out.
  •  Do the quests.
    • This is the best thing you can do, it gives marks, unlocks gear, lets you do patrol, gives you strikes, and more.
    • The most important is Taken War from the vanguard. This leads to a quest called Road to King’s Fall.
      • It involves doing a level 41 mission that requires 270 light to complete.
      • It ends with a quest to kill bosses in the raid. It may be required for the raid, but we won’t know until it releases on the 18th.
  • Do Dreadnaught patrol.
    • Once you unlock this, you can collect wormspore, do the Court of Oryx, and other helpful things.

destiny the taken king dreadnaught

  • Do the Daily Story and and Daily Crucible.
    • These gives legendary marks and now there aren’t many ways to get them.
  • Legendary Marks are account-wide.
    • This means if you have 3 characters, you can get several marks early on just by doing the quests.
    • There is no weekly cap for legendary marks. You can only hold 200, but after you spend them, you can get more.
    • You can also dismantle year 2 legendary gear to get legendary marks.
  • Save your legendary marks.
    • You will get several drops and quests that give gear. Wait until you’ve completed everything to spend marks in case you replace the gear.
    • If you are trying to raid as soon as it releases Friday, wait until friday to see what Xur sells, then spend your marks.

That’s it for the beginner tips. There will be several guides over the coming days and weeks for everything you need to know in Destiny: The Taken King.


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Synzer
After gaming for 25 years, Synzer leveraged his vast knowledge of RPGs and MMOs into a job as a games journalist, covering the games he loves. Five years later, he's still writing about Kingdom Hearts, Pokemon, and Knights of the Old Republic. Synzer has a bachelor's degree in English and creative writing. You can see him in action on his YouTube channel (https://bit.ly/2F97BrR) and Twitch (https://www.twitch.tv/synzergaming).