Final Shape is upon us, and Bungie has just announced that the raid will be launched three days after the release. So, what steps should we take to prepare for Final Shape and the upcoming raid? I will outline the strategies that I employ every year and every significant season to stay prepared for new content and maintain an edge. Remember, not everyone needs to prepare, but for those with limited time to grind when there’s not much happening in the game besides grinding Onslaught and Pantheon, it can be beneficial.
Benefits of Preparation
By tackling some bounties and other minor tasks right now, you can be ready for Final Shape. This allows you to concentrate on the new challenges without worrying about grinding for XP or materials.
Raid Date and Clan Updates
Bungie has set the raid date for June 7th and plans to update clan XP bounties. Joining a clan is crucial; I manage approximately 20 community clans. Participating in a clan can significantly reduce the cost of raid banners due to new season discounts. Prioritizing the purchase of raid banners using legendary shards before Final Shape launches is advisable.
Clan Rewards
Completing the first clan bounty each week grants an exotic engram, which is great for those needing to catch up or aiming for a god-roll exotic. Reaching rank four in clan activities provides spoils of conquest, and trials victories offer additional reputation. At rank five, players receive bonus XP for crafted weapons from completing ritual playlists, and rank six rewards players with an ascendant alloy for completing all clan challenges in a week, aiding in crafting.
Bounty Strategy
When selecting bounties, opt for daily bounties over repeatables and try to pick up every weekly bounty available. For instance, on the Moon, you can obtain four weekly bounties from AIS M at the lantern and two at her station. These bounties for Lost sectors and the sorrow provide valuable XP. Similarly, each character can grab a weekly Vex incursion bounty on the Moon.
Europa offers four weeklies, including one for the Lost sector and three for Empire hunts, which are straightforward to complete. The Dreaming City provides weekly bounties for the ascendant challenge and the blind well, totaling seven weeklies. Lastly, in the Cosmodrome, you can receive two weeklies from Shaan, focusing on public events and additional activities.
Maximizing Bounties for New Content
For weapon kills, there’s a Star Horse Bounty available for Dares of Eternity for each class. I want to highlight the milestones: if you hover over the tower, you’ll see that you get a powerful reward for completing eight Gunsmith, Shaxx, Vanguard, and Gambit bounties. Previously, completing these eight was risky as it could lead to losing your powerful reward, but that’s no longer the case. If you’re filling out daily bounties, why not prepare those milestones? When I complete bounties on all three characters, I can go to the Tower and have powerful rewards waiting, which puts me way ahead and allows me to focus on new content without being bogged down by milestones I’ve done for years.
Strategy for Weekly Clan Bounties
Your final eight weekly bounties will be the clan bounties. Personally, I don’t enjoy playing 10 games of Gambit on each character, so I often skip those. Remember, this approach is just to get you ahead, so if you don’t want to fill them, that’s understandable. You might notice I only have bounties in my quest log.
I’ve abandoned all the quests that aren’t crucial in the game. You can clean up your inventory by visiting the Tower or the Helm to access a quest archive, ensuring you don’t lose any progress on quests. This cleanup allows you to hold more bounties, aiming for a total quest and bounty capacity of 62 per character, leaving one spot open in case you need it when starting Final Shape.
Inventory and Vault Management
Next, let’s address vault management. With the upcoming expansion, we’ll receive 100 extra slots in our vaults, but it’s wise to go through your vault now. If you have a surplus of exotic weapons that you don’t use, consider clearing them out to make space. Knowing what’s in your vault and not just hoarding items can make your gaming experience much more manageable. However, I understand that some players may be reluctant to part with certain items, seeing them as trophies.
List of Updated Weapons
Bungie has made changes to several weapons as of March 5th, including Iron Banner weapons, Prophecy weapons, all Onslaught weapons, and more. I’ll provide a list of these weapons on screen. This update might influence your decisions on which items to keep or clear from your inventory, depending on their new utility or effectiveness in gameplay.
Enhancing Weapons in Final Shape
In preparation for Final Shape, it’s crucial to have plenty of ascendant alloys and ascendant shards. Fortunately, there are ways to efficiently gather these materials. For example, during double Nightfall rewards, you can maximize your gains by participating in nightfalls.
While grinding Onslaught, particularly in legend mode, provides some materials, focusing specifically on upgrade materials might lead you to prefer the Coil, which is rich in rewards. Ascendant shards and alloys are vital for enhancing gear, and understanding how to effectively collect them can significantly impact your readiness for new content.
Strategy for Material Exchange
A useful strategy involves material exchange at Master Rul’s service. Here, you can exchange enhancement prisms, obtained from nightfalls, for ascendant shards or alloys. Remember to utilize the Prism Harvest ghost mod, which grants bonus prisms during ritual activities, enhancing your nightfall farming efficiency. Although purchasing these materials can be costly, the ability to buy as many as needed, up to a weekly cap, is an invaluable asset when preparing for Final Shape.
Unlimited Enhancement Cores
Now, let’s discuss acquiring unlimited enhancement cores, particularly using the old blue helmet trick. The process involves purchasing a blue helmet, upgrading it to level eight, and then dismantling it. Initially, it costs three enhancement cores and one prism to upgrade, but upon dismantling, you receive six cores back. This technique can be repeated indefinitely, providing a continuous supply of cores. Additionally, consider utilizing Parable Hul boxes from Dares, which have proven useful in past leveling processes, although they are not essential for everyone.
Strategic Use of Engrams for Optimizing Gear
It is important to consider seasonal vendor armor; you can check how many engrams you have per vendor in your inventory. If you are interested in acquiring old armor or weapons, simply pick up a quest item from that vendor, and you’ll start accumulating those engrams. Final Shape will introduce a class item capable of holding two exotic perks, so having four pieces of high-quality legendary gear could significantly enhance your builds. I focus on discipline with my ghost, then spam engrams to get optimal stats in discipline, recovery, and resilience for my Warlock and Titan, and mobility, resilience, and discipline for my Hunter.
Collecting Red Frame Weapons and Exotic Gear
Don’t forget to visit Marov and perform the Riven wishes. Acquiring red frame weapons from the Last Wish raid and Exotics like Xot and Pyro Gill for the Titan is crucial. If you haven’t completed these Riven wishes, it’s highly beneficial to do so to take advantage of the free red frames and exotic items available.
Preparation for New Exotics in Final Shape
As we anticipate new Exotics with the launch of Final Shape, there’s an effective strategy to secure them without the grind for exotic engrams. I keep two exotic engrams in my postmaster, with my inventory engrams maxed out. Running a lost sector ensures that any additional engrams, including those encoding new exotics, go directly to my postmaster.
If a new exotic Gauntlet is introduced and it’s featured in the lost sector that day, simply claiming these saved engrams could immediately grant the new item. Ensure you have unlocked all previous exotics to minimize the chance of receiving an older item. Alternatively, participating in the Vex Strike Force or related campaign activities might also yield new Exotics, but having engrams ready is a proactive way to access new gear as soon as it’s available.
Utilizing Season Pass Resources Efficiently
I have saved all my Deepside Harmonizers, armor, gear, and engrams because that’s my approach to preparing for major game updates. However, some players might not be aware of a helpful tool available as a Firefox plugin called “Season Pass Pass.” This plugin allows you to download and easily check past season rewards that you may have missed. It can be a great way to grab an item from a previous season to help level up or retrieve an old exotic you might have overlooked.
Optimizing Loadouts with DIM
Using DIM (Destiny Item Manager) for building loadouts simplifies the process of organizing your gear. There’s a feature called D2 Armor Picker, but the Loadout Optimizer within DIM is particularly straightforward. You can select an exotic, customize the sub-class options, and even assume masterwork to focus on optimizing stats. Once you find the ideal build, saving or equipping it is just a click away. Familiarizing yourself with these tools can significantly enhance your gameplay by allowing you to efficiently manage and switch loadouts.
Maximizing Spoils and Weapon Acquisitions in Pantheon
Completing the four normal challenge triumphs in Pantheon will yield 30 spoils per triumph, which is substantial given how challenging spoils are to farm, especially when trying to find a group. Achieving the triumphs with the highest scores and point requirements will grant Adept weapons such as Smam Marine, Kum’s Terminus, Insidious, Acacia’s Dejection, Zow Bane, and Rof His Fury. Additionally, deep sight raid weapons and exotic raid weapons can be obtained, enhancing the overall loot experience.
Unlocking and Preparing Subclasses for Final Shape
Now is the crucial time to unlock all your Strand and Stasis subclasses to ensure you are fully prepared for Final Shape. Being proactive in this preparation is essential, and with Onslaught, don’t forget to equip the super black Shader, as it will be popular among players. This preparation phase should include a thorough review of your materials and vault to ensure you are ready for the new content.
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