Bungie just reset the power grind in Destiny 2: Edge of Fate. Here’s how to hit 450 Power Level fast with the easiest and most efficient method available.
Destiny 2’s new expansion, Edge of Fate, is finally here. The update brings major changes to how we level up, complete activities, and gear up for high-end content. Along with new missions, loot, and the Portal system, Bungie made one huge change that affects every single player: it has reset everyone’s power level back to 10.
Yup, no matter how long you’ve been playing, your new starting point is Power Level 10. Everyone is on equal footing, which means we all have to work our way up again. In this guide, we’re going to break down exactly how power leveling works now and show you the fastest way to hit Power 450 in Edge of Fate.
Power Leveling in Destiny 2 Edge of Fate: How It Works Now
Power leveling in Edge of Fate feels completely different compared to previous seasons. Before, you had to juggle powerful and pinnacle drops across different playlists. Now, the process is much more player-driven.
You begin at Power Level 10. From there, you work your way up by collecting gear from just about any activity, but the Portal system is the main engine behind it all. It’s where you’ll do most of your leveling, farming, and even selecting which gear pieces to target. The Portal menu lets you run curated activities, and each one can be customized with difficulty options and gameplay modifiers.
The biggest change is freedom. There are no more strict limits on how many rewards you can earn per day or per week. If you’ve got time, you can grind. And if you set the right difficulty and modifiers, the rewards will scale with you. That means you can constantly earn upgrades that help push your power higher, at your own pace.
Another major part of this system is score scaling. Each Portal activity gives you a score based on how tough you make the run and how well you perform. Your reward tier and drop power are directly tied to this score, which adds a bit of strategy to how you set things up. Want faster drops? You can keep the difficulty low. Want higher-level gear? You’ll need to push modifiers and take on more challenging versions.
Destiny 2 Edge of Fate Power Level Caps & What Activities to Run
There are three main caps you’ll work through while leveling in Edge of Fate:
- Soft Cap: 10 to 200
- Seasonal Cap: 200 to 400
- Hard Cap: 400 to 450
In the early stage, from Power 10 to 200, things move quickly. Pretty much everything you pick up will be an upgrade. Running the Edge of Fate campaign is the best place to start, especially if you go for Legendary difficulty. Finishing it on Legendary can bump you close to (or even higher than) Power 100 right away. Once that’s done, Portal activities become your main grind. At this stage, you can just play whatever looks fun, and you’ll naturally climb to 200 without needing to worry too much about min-maxing.
Once you hit 200, regular drops won’t help anymore. To get to the 400 seasonal cap, you’ll need to get Powerful drops from the Portal and the seasonal reward track. This includes featured missions and higher-tier Portal challenges with modifiers.
From Power 400 to 450, things get a bit more technical. You’ll need to start managing your inventory and making use of infusion. Bungie introduced a new item called Unstable Cores. These drop from dismantling gear that’s above Power 200 and are required to push your gear to higher levels. Infusing a piece of armor from 200 to 300 costs way more than going from 200 to 2300, so it’s all about balancing your resources and upgrades wisely.
The Fastest Way to Hit 450 Power in Destiny 2 Edge of Fate
Let’s get to the good stuff. If you want to power up fast, there’s one activity that’s become the go-to for players right now: The Encore Exotic Mission.
You’ll find it inside the Portal menu. Before launching the mission, you’ll have the option to adjust its difficulty using modifiers. These modifiers do two things: they make the mission harder, and they increase the quality of the gear you get when you finish. If you set your challenge level high enough, you can start earning gear that’s well above your current power level.
When setting up the Pinnacle Encore mission, make sure your Challenge Modifiers are adjusted to your preference, just be sure your Reward Rank is showing as “A” before you launch. That’s what determines the quality of the drops you’ll earn.
One helpful tip: equip the “Grappler” Boon Modifier. It swaps out your grenade for the Strand grapple, which is incredibly useful for speeding through the traversal sections in the mission. From our own runs, it took around 10 to 15 minutes to complete each attempt, and we were consistently getting 7 or more gear drops every time.
The cool part is how consistent it is. As long as you have the right modifiers active and your multipliers are tuned properly, you’ll keep getting higher and higher drops. You’re not stuck waiting for RNG to line up. Some players have already reached Power 200 in just a couple of sessions by doing nothing but Encore runs with modifiers cranked up.
Once you hit the 200 range, it’s a good idea to mix in some of the other high-end Portal activities like Master or Grandmaster difficulty versions. These give you access to Powerful Engrams and fill in any slots that might be lagging behind. If a specific armor piece is stuck at a lower power, you can even target that slot using featured drops in the Portal, just look for the activity marked with the matching green icon.
Also, don’t forget about dismantling. Once you’re above 200, make a habit of breaking down extra high-level gear for Unstable Cores. You’ll need a decent stockpile of these to keep your best gear upgraded all the way to 450.
With this method, you can go from Power 10 to 200 pretty quickly. After that, it’s just a matter of pushing into the final tier using your best drops and smart infusions.
Hope this helped clear things up and gave you a solid plan for hitting Power 450 fast. If you’ve tried this route already or found another method that works better, let us know in the comments below!
