Itemization in Destiny 2 is undergoing a massive overhaul in The Edge of Fate. Weapons and armor will now utilize a new rarity system called gear tiers, which will influence an item's stats and overall effectiveness. Guardians will need to complete difficult endgame content to get their hands on the absolute best items.

Armor and weapons are both impacted by this rework, so it's important to understand how gear tiers work before you start farming for new gear. In this guide, we cover how gear tiers work, how to get higher-rarity items, and answer some common questions surrounding the new system.

What Are Gear Tiers?

Gear tiers are effectively a rarity system that denotes an item's power. Every item you receive in The Edge of Fate and onward will drop with a gear tier rating, indicated by teal pips on the item's inventory icon. The highest item tier is Tier 5, which is awarded from the game's hardest content.

Higher gear tiers influence items in different ways:

• Weapons receive enhanced perks, barrels, magazines, and even origin traits.
• Armor drops with higher stat totals and additional mod capacity.

You'll acquire better-quality gear as you complete more challenging activities. Any gear you've obtained before Edge of Fate will not be tiered under this new system. Rite of the Nine's adept weapons are roughly on par with T3 weapons under this new system, and top-tier armor rolls are comparable to T3 armor.

How Gear Tiers Work

Every non-Exotic weapon and armor piece you receive will come with a gear tier listed on the item card, denoted by teal pips on the item's icon. The item's gear tier is influenced by the content you're playing, with harder activities offering higher-tier items. Weapons and armor scale differently with tiers, as shown below.

	Weapons	Armor
Tier 1	Standard weapon; no enhanced traits or perks	52-57 stat total
Tier 2	Drops with enhanced traits.	58-63 stat total
Tier 3	Drops with two enhanced traits per column.	64-69 stat total
Tier 4	Enhanced barrel, magazine, and mod options.	70-75 stat total; 11 mod energy
Tier 5	Enhanced origin traits; three enhanced traits per column; unique holofoil design.	75 stat total; stat tuning

Weapons gain additional perk options and enhanced features with higher tiers. T3 grants two perks per column; T5 grants three perks. This makes chasing a specific perk combination significantly easier. Higher tiers also grant enhanced properties to your weapon, including enhanced perks, barrels, magazine options, mods, and even the origin trait at T5 quality. Enhanced perks usually last an additional second or are easier to trigger, while enhanced stat modifiers are about 10-15 percent better.

Exotic class items are the exception to this rule—they're treated as T5 armor drops under this new system.

Acquiring Higher-Tier Items

Content difficulty is your main lever for adjusting gear tiers. Activities tuned to a harder difficulty will drop higher-quality items. Before you start an activity, you may use the difficulty card to add modifiers to your character. These range from positive boons that make the run easier to crippling penalties that demand perfection.

Enabling modifiers that make the activity harder will increase the maximum score you can achieve on that activity, rated from C- to A . Your base difficulty and final score influence an item's gear tier. The best items drop from Grandmaster difficulty or harder with an A score.

Gear Tier Thresholds

	Base Difficulty	Required Score
Tier 1	Normal	C or higher
Tier 2	Adept	C or higher
Tier 3	Legend	B or higher
Tier 4	Master	B or higher
Tier 5	Grandmaster or Ultimate	A

Gear Tier FAQ

Gear tiers are a major change to the way itemization works in Destiny 2. As such, it's natural to have a few questions about a systemic change as significant as this. We've answered a few questions below to help clarity how this gear tier systems works for Exotics, PvP, and more.

Are Low-Tier Items Worth Using?

Weapons absolutely are, but armor generally isn't. Gear tiers don't affect weapon DPS or greatly affect perk efficacy, so a T1 weapon with a good perk combination is going to outperform a T5 weapon with bad perk options. This also means any strong weapons you currently own will still have a place. Just because a rocket launcher can get enhanced barrels and mods doesn't make Hezen Vengeance irrelevant, for example; it's just a minor stat difference.

Armor is heavily affected by this system, however. T5 armor has the highest stat totals possible, more mod points to work with, and a tuning socket to adjust stats. And when you consider Armor 3.0's new set bonus system, it becomes abundantly clear that these new armor drops are going to supplant everything in your Vault.

Are Older Items Receiving Gear Tiers?

No, items are not retroactively receiving gear tiers. Items earned before The Edge of Fate will function the same as they did before, although armor pieces will have their stats converted to the new Armor 3.0 stats. Weapons behave the same as before.

Exotic class items are a pseudo-exception here. All Exotic class items will drop with stat archetypes and receive T5 armor functionality, although they won't be tiered like Legendary armor. No other items are grandfathered into the system this way.

How Are Exotics Treated Under This Gear Tier System?

Exotic armor is being treated as T2 armor with Armor 3.0 functionality. All Exotic armor you receive will drop with 11 mod energy, roll with 58-63 stat totals, and gain 15 points when fully masterworked. Exotic class items are the only exception—they're being treated as T5 armor drops with pre-determined stat archetypes that are based on the perks present on your roll.

Exotic weapons are not being added to the gear tier system. They'll continue to function exactly as they have in the past.

Are Crafted Weapons Tiered?

No, crafted weapons are not part of the gear tier system. Crafted weapons will retain their functionality and crafting options in The Edge of Fate, but they will not be counted as tiered gear. They're functionally identical to T2 weapons in the new system.

What's Happening To Adept Weapons?

The concept of adept weapons is being abandoned. All adept weapons you own will remain usable and have adept mods, but there will no longer be adept weapons going forward; T5 weapons have taken their place.

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