Destiny easily has one of the most unorthodox forms of leveling, as a character's level is determined by the gear they are wearing rather than traditional experience gathered by questing.
Well, that's changing with The Taken King expansion. This month's issue of GameInformer is chock full of new details regarding Destiny's upcoming expansion, which is releasing this September, and one of the most noteworthy features is a major overhaul to Destiny's leveling system.
Currently, Destiny relies on a complicated system in which players level to the basic cap of level 20 by traditional RPG means — killing enemies, completing quests, etc. Beyond level 20, Destiny switches to a Light System in which your character's level is determined by the gear they are wearing. At level 20, each piece of gear you find has a Light Level associated with it. As it is now, you currently level up each individual item you have equipped which adds to your character's total Light Level.
The problem with this current system is that if you unequip a piece of gear that you've already leveled and is adding to your Light Level, your character's level would drop. Or, if you're like me and have horrible luck with drops, you can easily get stuck at a certain level for extended periods of time as you wait for the needed item to drop.
“The conflation of gear and character level led to this place where your identity was determined by things outside of your control,” explained creative director Luke Smith. “We don’t want to do that.”
So with The Taken King, Destiny will switch to a more traditional form of leveling. "Players earn XP by killing monsters, completing missions, and turning in bounties, as has always been the case, but that experience now feeds directly into your level progression all the way from 1 to the new level cap of 40," GameInformer explains. Weapons and armor will still provide a boost to your character's overall power, but will now require your Guardian be a certain level before unlocking the ability to use it.
Additionally, Bungie will be overhauling Destiny's drop system, making it so that the game will drop more appropriate loot. As it is now, meaningless gear that has no impact is quite common. With this new system, Destiny "will play closer attention to the loot you've already received when determining an appropriate drop." The idea is the items you receive will provide meaningful power growth on a more frequent basis.
Thanks to GI, we also learned today that Nolan North will be replacing Peter Dinklage as the voice of Ghost, and that you will not be able to upgrade Destiny's Year One Legendaries in The Taken King.
