Destiny 2 Guide: How Currency Works

If you’re new to Destiny, here’s some bad news: There are a lot of redeemable currencies in Destiny 2, and even worse, they aren’t named anything that’s immediately comprehensible like “Dollars”, “Gold” or even “Zenny”.

But here’s the good news: Spending these currencies is relatively straightforward, and it’s hard to waste a lot of it. If you’re a returning Destiny 1 player, you might be a little anxious as you hoard your Vanguard tokens, but take solace in the fact that there’s seemingly only one outlet to spend a lot of these currencies. But as always, you will want to be careful with a couple of the rarer things, so if you don’t have your head around everything 100%, read on!

The Valuable Stuff

Glimmer

Glimmer is the most common of Destiny’s currencies, which you will earn from doing basically anything–killing enemies, opening chests, completing public events, etc. Because it’s the most common, it has the least value. Here are the things you can spend glimmer on:

• Uncommon-grade weapons and armor (But you can find better stuff as you play)
• Random Gear Mods from Banshee-44
• Basic Vehicles from Amanda Holliday
• Treasure Maps and Scout Report Consumables (highlights loot caches) from Cayde-6
• Most purchases with other currencies will carry a small Glimmer fee

Legendary Shards

These are undoubtedly the most valuable currency you’ll get in Destiny. You earn them from dismantling Legendary and Exotic quality items, meaning you’ll likely be sacrificing unique gear to obtain them. On the flipside, you’ll hopefully be spending them to get even better Legendary and Exotic items. Think about each purchase carefully:

• Spend them with Xur – Destiny’s elusive Exotic gear merchant shows up once a week at a random planetary location to offer limited-time goods. If you’ve been playing enough Destiny to have a small stockpile of Legendary Shards, this is where you’ll want to spend them.

• Infuse Legendary and Exotic Weapons – No doubt you’ll have collected a few Legendary and Exotic items on your way to the level cap, and these weapons will now be obsolete thanks to their lower power numbers. Good news! You can spend Legendary Shards, along with a more powerful version of the same kind of gear, to infuse the one with a higher power level into the one with a lower level. This transfers those big numbers into the weaker gear. So if you have a favourite piece of equipment, keep it for an upgrade later!

Bright Dust

About as rare as Legendary Shards, but spent on more stylish things. Bright Dust is obtained from Bright Engrams or dismantling the items you get from Bright Engrams–that means cosmetics like shaders, emotes, legendary vehicles, weapon ornaments, and Ghosts.

• Spend Them With Tess Everis – You dismantle rare goods to buy different rare goods. You can purchase items from a rotating selection of emotes, legendary vehicles, shaders, ghosts, weapon ornaments. These are the same items available randomly in Bright Engrams.

Silver

This is Destiny’s real-world money micro-transaction currency. Purchasing Silver from your respective platform’s store with your actual, hard-earned non-fictional money, allows you to purchase Bright Engrams from Tess Everis, which will give you a random assortment of cosmetic items: emotes, legendary vehicles, shaders, ghosts and weapon ornaments. Nothing you can obtain with Silver will give you an advantage in battle.

Tokens

Vanguard Tokens

You’ll earn these by completing Strikes and Nightfalls. Completing additional challenges while doing so will earn you more. You can redeem them with Commander Zavala to rank up your Vanguard reputation and earn a Legendary Engram when you do. They have no other purpose.

Vanguard Research Tokens

You’ll earn these by completing Meditations with Ikora Ray. Completing additional challenges while doing so will earn you more. You can redeem them with Ms. Ray to rank up your Vanguard Research reputation and earn a Legendary Engram when you do. They have no other purpose.

Crucible Tokens

You’ll earn these by playing PVP against other cool Guardians in the Crucible. Completing additional challenges while doing so will earn you more. You can redeem these with Lord Shaxx to rank up your Crucible reputation and earn a Legendary Engram when you do. They have no other purpose.

EDZ Tokens

You’ll earn these by participating in events as you explore the EDZ–Public events, Patrols, Adventures, High-Value Targets etc–as well as finding them in loot caches. Much like Crucible Tokens, you can redeem these with Devrim Kay to rank up your reputation with him, and earn a Legendary Engram when you do. They have no other purpose.

Titan Tokens

You’ll earn these by participating in events as you explore Titan–Public events, Patrols, Adventures, High-Value Targets etc–as well as finding them in loot caches. Much like EDZ Tokens, you can redeem these with Field Commander Sloane to rank up your reputation with her and earn a Legendary Engram when you do. They have no other purpose.

Nessus Tokens

You’ll earn these by participating in events as you explore Titan–Public events, Patrols, Adventures, High-Value Targets etc–as well as finding them in loot caches. Much like Titan Tokens, you can redeem these with Failsafe to rank up your reputation with it and earn a Legendary Engram when you do. Are you seeing a trend here? They have no other purpose.

Io Tokens

You’ll earn these by participating in events as you explore Io events, Patrols, Adventures, High-Value Targets etc–as well as finding them in loot caches. Much like Nessus Tokens, you can redeem these with Asher Mir to rank up your reputation with him and earn a Legendary Engram when you do. They have no other purpose.

Materials

Dusklight Shards

These are the natural materials find growing in the EDZ, and you’ll hear a faint glimmer when you’re near one. Collecting these and giving them to Devrim Kay will help boost your reputation with him, although at a slower rate. They have no other purpose.

Alkane Dust

These are the natural materials find growing on Titan, and you’ll hear a faint glimmer when you’re near one. Collecting these and giving them to Field Commander Sloane will help boost your reputation with her, although at a slower rate. They have no other purpose.

Microphasic Datalattice

Wow, what a name. These are the natural materials find growing on Nessus, and you’ll hear a faint glimmer when you’re near one. Collecting these and giving them to Failsafe will help boost your reputation with it, although at a slower rate. You think it would’ve been easier to have just one of these? They have no other purpose.

Phaseglass Needle

These are the natural materials find growing on Io, and you’ll hear a faint glimmer when you’re near one. Collecting these and giving them to Failsafe will help boost your reputation with him, although at a slower rate. They have no other purpose.

Mod Parts

Ordnance Mods

While not strictly a currency, you’ll find these items from Engrams and Loot chests. You can equip them onto your gear as they are, but you can also trade multiple mods in with Banshee-44 to obtain Legendary Mods which have greater effects.

Mod Components

Having these Legendary items, found from loot chests, let you create Legendary Gear mods at Banshee-44’s store.

And that’s it! For even more Destiny content, check out our full roundup of all our guide content here.

[“Source-gamespot”]