9 Destiny: The Taken King Secrets You May Have Overlooked

The Taken King has vastly changed Destiny for the better. We and many others reviewed it quite highly and it has drawn in a ton of players, leading to the most day-one downloads for a game in PlayStation history. Tyler Treese even pointed out why The Taken King is the best time to jump into Destiny, whether you’re a returning player or just getting started in Bungie’s shared universe.

With so many people playing Destiny: The Taken King, there are many aspects of the game that can easily be overlooked. Whether you’re a casual player playing a couple times a week, or a hardcore player putting in hours each day, we’ve gathered together nine aspects that may help you get the most out of your game.

Check out the gallery below to see what you might be missing while playing through Destiny: The Taken King.

Which of these things are new for you? Do you have any other tips or hints that can help Destiny players to get the most out of their time with The Taken King? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments below and we’ll see you on the Dreadnaught, Guardian!

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9 Things You May Have Overlooked in Destiny The Taken KIng

9 Things You May Have Overlooked in Destiny: The Taken King

You may not play Destiny a lot. You also may not follow everything online about the game. Fortunately, we're showing you some fundamental things about the game's latest expansion that you may have overlooked to help you get the most out of it.
1) Court of Oryx

In the middle of the Dreadnaught there's a massive platform with a portal on it which can be accessed through patrols. This is the Court of Oryx. Spending time here will drop a ton of engrams and allow you to level up quite rapidly.

Players will use runes to spawn enemies and gain rewards for killing them. Even if you don't have runes of your own, you'll get periodic rewards as others use theirs. A couple of hours here can easily upgrade your light significantly, and it's a lot of fun to grab some friends run the Court.
2) Motes of Light

If you played a lot of Year One Destiny, and had a ton of old materials sitting around (yup, those ascendant and radiant materials), you'll have access to a ton of Motes of Light.

The materials can be turned in to The Speaker in exchange for Motes of Light, and leveling up beyond 40 will get you Motes as well.

What are they good for? Hold square in your menu while over them and you will gain experience for any weapons and armor that need experience. Got a sweet new sniper that you want to max out quickly before you run the raid? Use Motes. It's a little trick that can really save time. You can also use Motes of Light to quickly level up your chosen faction reputation.
3) Three of Coins

When Xur makes his appearance for the weekend, you can check here at PlayStation LifeStyle for his location and inventory. Even if there's nothing for you, it's worth it to pick up a few Three of Coins. He sells five for seven Strange Coins.

Using the Three of Coins increases the drop rate of exotics from Ultras (boss enemies). The buff goes away after each boss, whether an exotic drops or not, but there's good news! It stacks if you don't get an exotic, so chances are increased each time.

If you make sure that you use a Three of Coins anytime you don't have the buff active, regular play will see a number of exotics dropping for you.
4) Class Specific Strike Armor

The Taken King has some unique new strike bosses, and your Guardians can wear armor modeled after each of them. By playing the heroic strike playlist, there's a higher chance that you can get legendary armor pieces for each class that match some of the bosses.

These armor pieces will drop according to your light level though, so if you want them in the endgame, you'll want to run this with a high light level.
5) Regular Bounties

Bounties have gotten much easier to accomplish, both in requirements and with being able to turn them in directly from your menu. Turning in bounties will often get you Motes of Light, Strange Coins, and engrams, so it's well worth picking up each days bounties before you head out to fight the darkness for the day. It's a simple one, but something many Guardians overlook.
6a) Crucible Questline/Weekly Shaxx Bounties

There's a very long and arduous questline that requires a lot of playing in the Crucible. If you're up for it, completing the full line of quests once (which again, can be frustrating and time consuming) will unlock Shaxx's weekly Crucible bounties. These bounties are far easier to complete than some of the requirements for the questline to unlock these. Go through each of these five bounties...
6b) Weekly Shaxx Bounties

...to complete the final Shaxx bounty for the week. Turning this in from your menu will reward you with endgame gear, such as...
6c) Endgame Gear

...this exotic sniper rifle that dropped for me on my first completion of Shaxx's weekly bounties. While this one gun wasn't worth the pain of the entire questline, having these bounties unlocked for endgame rewards each week going forward will definitely be worth the controller crushing madness I endured.
7a) Gunsmith Rank/Test Weapons

If you head over to Banshee-44, the gunsmith, you can pick up some test weapons every week. These weapons will have specific requirements like using it to kill Hive, or getting kills in the Crucible with it. Once you complete the "research," you can dismantle the weapon as the reputation has already been sent to your gunsmith rank. There's a very good reason for ranking him up...
7b) Gunsmith Rank/Class Specific Weapons

As you level up the gunsmith rank, you will unlock small questlines to get class specific legendary and exotic weapons.

You read me right. An auto rifle and shotgun specifically for a Titan. A sniper rifle just for Hunters. These are great weapons with some special perks that make them work great with each class, so they are well worth getting your rank up for.
8) Exotic Gear Questlines

If you see a questline with a yellow background and a sword in the middle, these are the quests you'll need to complete for specific exotics. Rather than having exotics be random drops, Bungie has created an environment where we can work specifically towards certain exotic items.

Keep in mind that these quests aren't the easiest to do (they are exotics after all), and you may want to have some friends willing to help with some of the missions.
9) Infusion

Want to increase your light level, but your highest level weapon is the hand cannon with a massive reload time? Are your exotic items lower than some of your other unused gear? Infusion is the answer!

Any piece of gear with an attack/defense value can be infused. Hit triangle on any item you want to level up and go to where my cursor is in the image. You can then use any higher level gear from that same slot to infuse into the lower level gear, which will raise it's attack/defense value. You no longer need to leave your favorite legendaries and exotics behind when new, more powerful gear comes up. Now you can specifically increase the level of the gear you want to use.