Follow this helpful guide to learn all of the new ways players can earn better gear to max out their light level while playing through the new April update in Destiny: The Taken King.

It has been a big week for fans of Bungie's sci-fi shooter, Destiny, as content-starved fans finally got the long awaited April update. The highly anticipated content drop changed a great many things about the experience, but, most importantly, it has breathed new life into the title. It has affectively added more things to do like quests, more things to earn such as weapons and gear, and it has raised the previously light level cap to 335.

The great thing about this update is that increasing the light level no longer requires players to participate in end-game content such as the King's Fall raid, where the best gear was typically found. Players are now able to play Destiny however they wish and still see results – whether through the PvP modes of the Crucible, being a lone wolf in PvE areas, or the traditional end-game content. Regardless of preference, the end result sees players rewarded with better gear and weapons.

With so many different avenues that can be taken now to achieve a light level of 335, we’ve put together some tips on how players can quickly earn better loot and gain more power in Destiny: The Taken King.

General Tips

With the April update, Bungie has tweaked engram rewards to better favor the player, which is sure to make the Cryptarch grumpy. Exotic engrams can now grant items up to 335 Light and guarantee the item will decrypt with a higher light value than the player's current total light. Finally, all other engrams are capable of dropping an item up to 310 light and faction packages now come with specific Chroma-enabled gear up to 330 Light.

It's also worth mentioning that the process of infusion now grants 100% of the light taken from the dismantled item, ensuring that the item being infused will be at the target light level players expected in the first place.

PvE Content

To better align with the new light level cap of 335, Bungie has made sure to update every area of Destiny, letting players pick and choose where to start their grind. Fans of the Court of Oryx should be happy to note that the Tier 3 version is capable of dropping gear up to 335 Light. Not only that, the hard mode for King's Fall raid has been updated as well and may now drop gear at 335 Light.

Strikes also got a boost in this update as gear from the Vanguard Heroic Stirke Playlist may now drop loot up to 335. The Winter's Run strike on Venus also received a tweak as a Taken variant has been added to the Normal and Heroic playlists along with the new Blighted Chalice strike. Finally, the weekly Nightfall mission has jumped in difficulty from 280 to 320 with updated rewards as well.

Blighted Chalice Strike

For fans of solo content, the April update continues where the story left off after the release of The Taken King and King's Fall raid. A new taken threat known as Malok is looking to take over for the defeated Oryx and through a handful of story missions, the player will go up against this new threat. The conclusion of this storyline is a brand new strike mission called the Blighted Chalice.

For finishing the main storyline, players will earn the Taken inspired sword, Dreadfang, which drops at 310 Light. The reward for taking down Malok in the Blighted Chalice strike however is a 335 Light Legendary Taken shotgun. While many people may skip over this in favor of some of the other new additions or updates to the game, the rewards for finishing these quests are a strong incentive not to.

Prison of Elders

One of the bigger pieces to this update is the revamped Prison of Elders area, introduced in the House of Wolves expansion package. In this update, the new level 41 Prison of Elders mode wil ensure players walk away with gear that's up to 320 Light after besting four Taken bosses. The level 42 Challenge of the Elders mode on the other hand tasks players with defeating three consecutive boss waves with greater rewards. Before jumping in however, players will want to speak to the vendor Variks at The Reef as the character will offer a weekly bounty called the Elders' Sigil which tracks players scores as they play. The bosses and gameplay modifiers change on a weekly basis, offering incentives to return and try again.

Completing challenge tickets will reward players with gear up to 335 Light. Better yet, Bungie has reprised a number of Prison of Elders Legendary and Exotic gear like the Queenbreaker's Bow which now has a chance to drop at the max level light.

Crucible Tips

The Crucible is one of the most popular aspects of Destiny and thankfully, Bungie has made sure to make sure not to forget about these players and the rewards they're getting as well. Even though the player rewards are still completely random, Crucible drops are now capable of dropping gear up to 310 Light with an increased chance that the item will be Legendary.

Trials of Osiris and Iron Banner have also been enhanced as gear drops may reward players with items at 335 Light. For Iron Banner, rank 3 packages will contain a 320 Light artifact while the rank 5 package will have a 320 Ghost shell. Finally, armor pieces will be available for purchase at rank 3, a weapon at rank 4, and another weapon at rank 5.

Have any other tips that you've found to be useful for increasing your light level? Let us know in the comments below.

Destiny: The Taken King is available now on Xbox One and PlayStation 4.