Destiny The Taken King Won’t Abandon Light Levels Completely

A few days, Game Informer dropped a huge cover story for Bungie’s upcoming expansion to Destiny, The Taken King. It was revealed therein that players would no longer use Light levels to hit the maximum level cap of 40. Instead, they would be earning XP points much like the journey from level 1 to 20 in the base game.

This doesn’t mean Light levels are being abandoned completely. According to community manager David “DeeJ” Dague in conversation with IGN, a Guardian’s Light level will now indicate their total attack and defense stats. Missions will have recommended Light levels, which will now depend more on whether you’re properly outfitted rather than hitting the max Light cap.

In a way, it’s a positive change – it allows Veteran players to still have a reason to hang on to their old gear while transitioning to The Taken King and new players will now need to pick up a good array of gear to tackle end-game content rather than buying some armour from the Vanguard and calling it a day.

It also seems that your current level will transition to The Taken King. As DeeJ explained, players at level 34 will “take their first steps” into the expansion with the same levels while level 26 players will still have a fighting chance and level up more quickly in the process. Bungie hasn’t yet decided what the entry level for the new missions will be so don’t expect to just hop into the new expansion at level 12 (yet).

Destiny: The Taken King is out September 15th for Xbox One, PS4, PS3 and Xbox 360.