A major part of the grind for players in Destiny 2 is keeping their Power Level up to date to engage with the latest endgame content. This measurement of players' gear comes from the average Power on their armor and weapons, as well as temporary Bonus Power earned by upgrading the seasonal Artifact. The latest of Bungie’s community updates for Destiny 2 hasn’t mentioned any changes to the Power Level grind, although a new capacity for the upcoming expansion may have been revealed.
With a new DLC coming out soon as well as a new Season, players across the board will have to once again partake in the Power Level grind when the Lightfall expansion for Destiny 2 releases. The expansion is set to come out on February 28 of this year, and that means that preparing for it ahead of time can be crucial. At the moment, Bungie has been filling players in on what to expect, such as major changes to gear and inventory systems through community updates like the TWAB posts.
New Potential Power Score Capacity in Destiny 2 Lightfall
Bungie recently released a news post detailing some major changes coming to players' arsenals. The post in mention came before a TWAB post the following day, and both are among the few remaining community updates before the Lightfall expansion soon releases. Until the expansion actually comes out at the end of February, players will have to wait to get their hands on the new mechanics, as well as an anticipated new Power Level cap for Destiny 2. Alongside other major changes, a new maximum Power Level was possibly revealed in the Buildcrafting Evolved post.
The screenshots show the new Power Level cap to be 1800, with the character having an additional level from their seasonal Artifact Bonus Power. Although, it's important to note that this could be a placeholder used to demonstrate the related inventory and gear concepts in focus. It's also possible that this Power Level shown could have a variety of different meanings in the full release of Lightfall and subsequent Seasons, like a new soft cap. However, with the number of reworks and adjustments coming to other components and nothing mentioned concerning changes to the Power score, it's most likely that this number indicates the new maximum. Not to mention, it is much higher than the maximum Power score in the current Season of The Seraph in Destiny 2.
The current Power Level cap on gear is 1590, and Bonus Power from the Seasonal Artifact can bring players beyond that until the Artifacts retire at the end of each relevant Season, so 1800 is a big leap from what is essentially a 1600 cap. Setting the Power Level cap at 1800 would allow for subsequent Seasons to increase the Power Level by the standard increments to a rounded number, 1850. At a rate of increasing by 10 each Season, the 1800 Power Level cap could slowly make its way to 1850 throughout four or five Seasons in the meantime of the next major expansion for Destiny 2 after Lightfall. However, a number like 2000 would seem less arbitrary than 1800 or 1850.
Across a majority of content in Destiny 2, the player's Power Level goes hand-in-hand with having the right gear to keep up with the involved challenges. Although, raising the maximum Power Level wouldn't necessarily correlate to increased difficulty in the new expansion. With all the armor mods in Destiny 2 becoming available directly through the new Guardian Rank levels, the incentive to progress and engage with endgame activities is still going to come from raising Power scores and obtaining loot.
Most activities have a fixed range that players' Power Level should be within, although Season of the Seraph’s Heist Battleground activity came with a unique modifier that placed every enemy a static 5 levels above each player. Therefore, it remains to be seen how the upcoming Lightfall expansion will factor players’ Power Levels into the difficulty of new and old activities.
Destiny 2 is available now for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S. The Lightfall expansion is set to launch on all platforms on February 28.
Source: Bungie