Destiny 2: The 12 BEST Methods To Farm XP [2023]

New players in 2023 often go diving headfirst into the game and wondering about the best Destiny 2 XP farm, as there are quite a varied amount of ways to farm it efficiently with the latest expansion, Lightfall. While the state of progression might change in the future with more activities to gain XP for your Guardian, even right now, you need XP in high abundance to level up your season pass and, most importantly, your artifact power level.

1. Equip Ghost Shell XP Mods

This may seem the most obvious one, but for most new players or anyone returning to Destiny 2 after a long absence, the XP mods that are available on your Ghost shells are highly beneficial to gain efficient XP.

You simply need to level up your Ghost shell if you haven’t already and then (preferably) select the highest tier mod available here, which is called the following:

• Blinding Light, which provides a 12% boost to XP gains and requires 6 Ghost energy to equip.

Upgrading your ghost shell to 6 or more energy slots is easy enough and will only require a few basic resources, such as Glimmer and Legendary Shards, which are not too hard to come by, even for a relatively new player. These XP mods are available for any rarity of Ghost shells, Legendary or exotic.

2. Complete Daily Bounties

• Bounties, in general, are one of the main gameplay elements that players use to obtain a hefty chunk of XP for their Guardian in Destiny 2.
• These are available across multiple vendors in Tower, such as Vanguard bounties from Commander Zavala, Crucible bounties from Lord Shaxx, Gambit from the Drifter, and even destination-exclusive ones such as Neomuna bounties from Nimbus, as shown in the image above.
• These bounties refresh on a daily basis, so before you attempt any activity, whether it’s Strikes or playing PVP in The Crucible, make sure to always grab the daily ones from each vendor by heading to the Tower.
• After which, turning them in every other day or so will be your main source of gaining experience and progressing the seasonal pass.

Furthermore, in my personal experience, I end up focusing on bounties mainly from the Gunsmith and Vanguard, as they get quickly completed when given the proper focus and attention.

3. Endgame Activities

• The endgame activities in Destiny 2 end up rewarding a lot more XP than players would initially believe, and these mainly comprise dungeons and raids.
• Both of these activities feature multiple encounters and tough enemies, which, when defeated, can offer a large sum of experience for your character.
• New players obviously won’t be able to tackle them immediately, but for everyone else, they are another good source of XP.

In my personal opinion, as a current and veteran player caught with all the recent seasons in Lightfall, I’d strongly suggest running the Root of Nightmares raid as well as the Spire of Watcher dungeon, as they are endgame activities that are quick to finish as long as you have a coordinated and experienced fireteam.

4. Seasonal Pass XP Bonuses

• One of the more important factors for the best Destiny 2 XP farm that players need to keep in mind is the passive experience bonuses that the seasonal pass provides during a certain threshold.
• Such as, at Levels 5, 7, and 16, you will gain a retroactive XP bonus for you and your fireteam, as shown in the image above.

Don’t worry about acquiring these immediately, as you will be rewarded these bonuses with the passage of time as you progress the seasonal pass, whether it’s purchased or not. The best part of this is the fact that the bonus is also applied to your fireteam members, so they can also take advantage of doing activities with you or even collectively claiming bounties on their end.

5. Well-Rested Buff

• The Well-Rested buff is similar to the Seasonal pass XP bonus, but the only difference is that it will only be presented to you once a weekly reset occurs in Destiny 2.
• Upon that reset, you will gain the Well-Rested buff, which will boost your XP gains by 100% for the first five character levels of the week.
• So even if you’re not someone who plays Destiny 2 on a daily basis, it is worth it to take advantage of the Well-Rested buff so you can freely gain five quick levels in roughly under an hour using the best sources.

6. Cosmodrome Bounties

• If you’re looking for one of the best bounties to farm XP in Destiny 2 in 2023, then the Cosmodrome bounties are definitely worth pointing out separately here.
• The Cosmodrome is a location from Destiny 1, which was brought back again with the Beyond Light expansion.
• Here, new players are introduced to Destiny 2’s gameplay mechanics as they kickstart their new light journey.
• As shown in the image above, you can claim a couple of weekly bounties from Shaw Han, the planetary vendor, and the highlight is that these bounties are incredibly easy to complete.
• They can range from tackling a few public to killing enemies using different elemental sources.

Furthermore, these bounties reward double ‘+’ marked XP, so whenever I’m trying to grind levels quickly, they are something that my friends and I always pick up to complete in the downtime from other activities.

7. Weekly Bounties

While they can take an extended amount of time to complete depending on the objectives, weekly bounties are a good source of XP, as you can grab them whenever you feel like you’re about to play a ritual or seasonal activity for quite a few runs.

• You can also complete other notoriously easy weekly bounties, such as the Starhorse in Eternity in Xur’s Treasure Hoard as well as the Cosmodrome ones from Shaw Han.

The best weekly bounties that I’ve found to grind are Petra Venj’s Ascendant Realm challenge bounties which don’t require any grind at all and instead make use of completing the weekly featured Ascendant Challenge in the Dreaming City.

8. Farming Ritual Activities

• You will naturally earn XP in Destiny 2 while completing your Ritual activities such as Strikes, Gambit, and The Crucible.
• Furthermore, in case you don’t know, these activities may also feature double reputation weeks, so you may be more inclined to grind them out and, in turn, also earn extra character level XP.
• If you’re a PVP-based player, then grinding the competitive mode is a great option to earn both Crucible’s reputation and XP.

You will most likely end up farming Grandmaster Nightfalls too, which can also reward a large amount of XP along with its bountiful rewards, such as the chance to obtain exclusive weapons and special crafting materials.

9. Seasonal Activities

The Seasonal activities are something you will definitely spend a lot of time grinding each new season to complete the various challenges associated with it as well as earn exclusive rewards that may possibly never return again for the unforeseeable future.

• These Seasonal activities include the likes of Ketchcrash from Season 18, Defiant Battlegrounds from Season 20, and of course, Season 21’s Deep Dives.
• Seasonal activities also feature their own bounty pool, which is available from the H.E.L.M.
• So whenever you’re out and about grinding them, it is worth grabbing the bounties in order to farm XP from this whole process efficiently.
• In the current Season of the Witch, you can also dive into the Altars of Summoning to see what it offers and earn XP by farming it.

10. Complete Seasonal Challenges

• While previously on the matter of Seasonal Activities, I would strongly urge you to complete your seasonal challenges, which tend to refresh every new season in Destiny 2.
• These are tied to your account, so you can feel free to complete them via any of your three characters.
• You can always find them under your Seasonal Pass tab from the directory, and not only do they reward the seasonal artifact upgrades but a great amount of XP in the form of ‘Challenger XP,’ as shown in my gameplay image above.

In the grand scheme of things, they require you to grind specific objectives across numerous activities or modes but do not worry about completing them right away as more weekly seasonal challenges are added in the coming weeks of the Season until four to five weeks have passed.

11. Master/Legend Lost Sectors

• The Lost Sectors in Destiny 2 are another great way to earn or farm XP as you will be grinding the Master or Legend difficulty versions of these mini-dungeons for the featured exotic armor of each class.
• Every day, these unique Lost Sectors will rotate with the exotic armor piece changing for every body part, and every time you complete them, you are rewarded with a decent amount of XP too.
• Farming these Master Lost Sectors solo isn’t too hard, as with the best builds for each class, you can get most of them done in less than a few minutes on each run.

12. Clan Bounties

Lastly, it brings me to the last best XP farms, and while they’re certainly not the most viable ones on my list, they can certainly reward extra XP if you manage to give them attention.

• Destiny 2’s Clan Bounties are overlooked most of the time by players who don’t engage in activities with their clan so much, but that might be an understatement in my book, personally, as someone who’s played quite a lot with clan members/friends.
• These Clan Bounties are available from Hawthorne in the Tower Bazaar, and most of their objectives only require you to complete objectives such as PVP matches or dungeons together with fellow Clanmates.

I would strongly suggest looking up Clan recruitment across Discord LFG groups and joining them in-game via Bungie’s dedicated Clan search site if you’re interested in doing different kinds of activities and completing these bounties for XP.

Best XP Farm Methods Criteria

This brings me to the end of my guide. TL;DR, as someone who’s been playing since launch and is up-to-date with all the current ongoings of Destiny 2 with the Lightfall DLC, bounties, and seasonal challenges, would be the ideal options to level up and gain XP quickly.

Aside from that, just playing normally every day will easily get your character and seasonal pass leveled up, so you shouldn’t worry about XP unless you don’t happen to invest too much time too often. Be sure to check out guides on how to Fish in Destiny 2 and the best Osteo Striga Rolls, as they can indefinitely help any new player jumping in to play Destiny 2 after a long break or even as a newcomer.

Up Next:

• Destiny 2: PVE Weapons Tier List
• Destiny 2: All Apogee Repeaters Locations
• Destiny 2: Is Nathan Fillion Returning As Cayde-6
• Destiny 2: Nimbus Voice Actor