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Creating the perfect Destiny 2 build requires a lot of work and patience. You'll need the right weapons, Exotics, mods, and armor pieces to create a build that is firing on all cylinders. Besides getting Combat Style mods, obtaining high-stat armor is arguably the hardest and most RNG-heavy aspect of making a build.
Armor with good stats, high stat totals, and the right mods can make a major difference in your build. Those that push the armor system to its limit can mod an armor piece to have a 100 stat total, but you'll need a good armor piece on its own before you can do that. This guide will go over what high-stat armor is, how to obtain it, and some of the best high-stat armor farms currently available.
Updated August 14th, 2022, by Charles Burgar: With Solstice gone, players will now have to farm dungeons or focus Umbral Engrams to get high-stat armor. To help players understand which stats are sought after, we've added a new section to this guide that explains which stats are worth investing in. It also gives a brief explanation of why Intellect and Strength are ignored on most builds.
What Is High-Stat Armor?
High-stat armor refers to any armor piece that drops with a stat total of 60 or higher. All armor in Destiny 2, excluding class items, drops with randomized stats. There are six stats on an armor piece:
| Stat | Effect |
|---|---|
| Mobility | Determines strafe speed and initial jump height |
| Hunters: Determines Dodge cooldown | |
| Resilience | Determines shield HP and resistance to Stasis |
| Titans: Determines Barricade cooldown | |
| Recovery | Determines health recharge delay and recovery speed. |
| Warlocks: Determines Rift cooldown | |
| Discipline | Determines grenade cooldowns. |
| Intellect | Determines Super cooldowns. |
| Strength | Determines melee ability cooldowns. |
Each stat will receive a random amount of points, referred to by the community as your armor's stat distribution. Armor also randomly rolls with a stat total, ranging from 48-68. Exotic armor seems to be able to reach up to 70, but the odds of this happening are extremely slim.
Armor Stat Distribution
Your armor's stat total is divided among six stats. The way your stats are divided isn't completely random. When a piece of armor drops, the game separates the stats into two different pools:
- Stat Pool One: Mobility, Resilience, Recovery
- Stat Pool Two: Discipline, Intellect, Strength
The game will then cut your stat total in half, distributing those points into each pool. For example, if your armor has a 60 stat total, 30 of those points would go into Mobility, Resilience, and Recovery. The remaining 30 points would then go into Discipline, Intellect, and Strength.
Every stat on a Legendary armor piece gets at least two points. For whatever reason, Rare items don't follow this rule, resulting in some Rare items rolling with no Discipline, Intellect, or Strength. Once every stat has two points, the game will do one of two things:
- Evenly distribute your stat total across all six stats.
- The distribution can slightly bias a few stats, but the stat spike is fairly minor.
- Bias two stats, one from each pool.
The latter is what's known as an armor's stat bias. Excellent Destiny 2 armor will have most of its points focused on two stats instead of all six. Since the game has to abide by the pool system we discussed earlier, armor with spikey distributions will invest in two stats instead of just one. This is why you can't naturally obtain an armor piece with 55 Discipline or 40 Recovery. The stats in each pool that become biased are random, but there are ways you can force it to bias certain stats (explained later).
Every Source Of High-Star Armor
Every armor piece you obtain has an incredibly small chance of dropping as a high-stat armor piece. Since listing every source of armor in Destiny 2 isn't very helpful, we'll be listing sources of high-stat armor instead. Once again, this is armor that drops with 60+ stat totals and tends to have heavy stat biases.
| Source | Limit | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Weekly Milestones | x1 Weekly(Per Milestone) |
|
| Raids | x1 Weekly(Per Encounter) |
|
Pit of Heresy(Zulmak) | x1 Weekly |
|
Prophecy Dungeon(Kell Echo) | None |
|
Grasp of Avarice Dungeon(Captain Avarokk) | None |
|
| Duality Dungeon | None |
|
Umbral Engrams(Risen & Haunted Armor Focusing) | None |
|
| Prime Engrams | None |
|
Dares of Eternity(Legend Difficulty) | None |
|
Weekly Campaign Mission(Witch Queen) | None |
|
The Wellspring(Master Difficulty) | None |
|
| Empire Hunts | None |
|
| Trials of Osiris | None |
|
| Master Lost Sectors | None |
|
Ghost Armorer Mods
Beyond deterministic farming, there are unique Ghost Shell Armorer mods that force armor to drop with certain stat biases. If you need a certain type of armor distribution for your build, slap on one of these Armorer mods on your Ghost Shell before you play any activity.
If you're farming an activity that drops armor with a stat bias that is in the same pool as your Armorer mod (such as Resilience with a Recovery mod), your Armorer mod will be ignored.
Mod(Cost) | Description |
|---|---|
Mobility Armorer(3 Energy) | Armor pieces with random stats you acquire will have a guaranteed minimum of 10 Mobility, and are more likely to drop with higher Mobility. |
Resilience Armorer(3 Energy) | Armor pieces with random stats you acquire will have a guaranteed minimum of 10 Resilience, and are more likely to drop with higher Resilience. |
Recovery Armorer(4 Energy) | Armor pieces with random stats you acquire will have a guaranteed minimum of 10 Recovery, and are more likely to drop with higher Recovery. |
Discipline Armorer(3 Energy) | Armor pieces with random stats you acquire will have a guaranteed minimum of 10 Discipline, and are more likely to drop with higher Discipline. |
Intellect Armorer(4 Energy) | Armor pieces with random stats you acquire will have a guaranteed minimum of 10 Intellect, and are more likely to drop with higher Intellect. |
Strength Armorer(3 Energy) | Armor pieces with random stats you acquire will have a guaranteed minimum of 10 Strength, and are more likely to drop with higher Strength. |
The Best Sources Of High-Stat Armor
Every source we listed above is a fantastic source of high-stat armor. But if you're short on time or patience, there are a few sources we'll recommend:
- Dungeon Farming
- Legend Dares of Eternity
- Focusing Umbral Engrams
- Master Raids
- Master Lost Sectors (Exotic Armor Farm)
Dungeon Farming
This is one of the best high-stat armor farms in Destiny 2. Prophecy, Grasp of Avarice, and Duality can be farmed multiple times per week, dropping items you've already obtained on subsequent clears. Farming the final boss of each dungeon is recommended since they have a high chance of dropping armor. And since you're farming a dungeon, there's a good chance that the armor you'll receive with have 60+ stats with good distributions. Just note that high-stat armor from subsequent dungeon clears isn't guaranteed.
If you're going to farm for armor, you'll want to have at least one other person. Here's how it works:
- Reach the final boss.
- Have a friend join on an alternate character.
- Start the encounter, then wipe.
- The alternate character leaves and rejoins on their main.
- Play the encounter as normal.
- The second player hops on their alt and boots up the dungeon.
- The first player joins.
- The second player swaps characters.
- Beat the encounter.
- Repeat.
You're effectively just booting up the dungeon from an alternate character and switching back to your main. If you're short on time, we find Prophecy's Kell Echo boss to be an easier farm. With a great loadout or multiple players, you can comfortably one-phase this boss. If you can min-max your loadout, Duality's final encounter seems to guarantee 60+ armor drops on Master difficulty. If you're looking for high-stat Artifice armor, Duality is the best dungeon to farm. For an easy farm, go with Prophecy.
Legend Dares Of Eternity
This activity has no matchmaking. We recommend you get at least three other players together before attempting this.
If you can get five like-minded Guardians together, Legend Dares of Eternity is the best armor farm in Destiny 2 right now. Each clear of this mission will drop one piece of armor with two stats at 16 points or higher. If you've ever seen the spikey armor that drops from the Pit of Heresy dungeon, Legend Dares of Eternity seems to use the same system.
And just like Pit of Heresy, you can use Ghost Armorer mods to heavily sway what one of the stat biases will be. For example, let's say you need Recovery gear. You can equip a Recovery Armorer mod on your Ghost, then clear a Legend Dares of Eternity run. The odds of your Recovery stat rolling with 16+ points is extremely high. It doesn't let you target two stat types like T3 Splicer Focusing or Master Vault of Glass, but this is farmable (unlike Umbral Focusing) and isn't nearly as hard as Master VoG.
For those concerned about difficulty, Legend Dares of Eternity has a unique buff called Starhorse's Favor that's quite easy to obtain and effectively gives you infinite Heavy ammo for most of the run. When you finish the first encounter, you'll need to use a gravity lift to take a shortcut. If you wait for the spinning half-circle to line up with the static half-circle facing the rotating platforms, you'll always make the jump. Making this jump and completing the short gauntlet will give you the buff, granting constant Heavy ammo for the rest of your run. Should you fail the jump, you also gain the buff if you correctly guess which enemy faction is in the final encounter. The final boss on Legend is always the same for a given week, so getting this buff should be fairly easy. Bring Gjallarhorn or your favorite Heavy weapon to trivialize this activity.
Forcing Umbral Engrams To Drop High-Stat Armor
If you follow Destiny 2 at all on YouTube or social media, you've probably heard of this farm by now. It's true: focusing Umbral Engrams is a fantastic way of getting some good armor. Focusing your Umbral Engrams into armor from Season of the Risen or Haunted will grant high-stat armor every time.
There's no limit on the number of times you can do this each week. You'll need to farm for that season's Umbral Energy type in order to use this system, but it's more than worth the effort. Every decoded Engram will grant a 60+ armor piece with spikey distributions. If you have an Armorer mod equipped, you can force the game to drop an armor piece with a bias towards a stat you want. If you need good Resilience or Discipline gear, this is a great way to do so.
As for earning Umbral Energy:
- Risen Umbral Energy: Boot up the PsiOps Battleground: Cosmodrome activity. At the very end of the activity, open both chests and run back to The Divide. When you reach The Divide, quickly backtrack to the chests. You'll be able to open them again. Reboot the Battleground and repeat as needed. Use an Eager Edge Sword to speed this up.
- Opulent Umbral Energy: Complete Nightmare Containment until you get a Bound Essence, then run Sever - Grief. Nightmare Containment can also give Opulent Umbral Energy with certain upgrades. Sever - Grief is one of the shorter Sever missions out currently.
Master Raids
We know this is a rather extreme recommendation given how hard Master raids are, but if you want to obtain 10/10 armor pieces, this is one of the best ways of doing so. Each week, Vow of the Disciple and Vault of Glass' Master variants will choose an armor stat as that raid's stat bias. Whenever a piece of armor drops, it's guaranteed to have a stat bias in the given stat. These items usually have 16+ stats in the biased category, effectively giving you a focused Umbral Engram for every encounter. The chest at the end of either raid also has to abide by these rules.
When you account for the Ghost Shell Armorer mods, you can effectively force the game to drop perfect armor pieces. Instead of farming the Master raid itself, farm the normal variant for Spoils of Conquest. Once you have 240, do a Master VoG run. Spend all of your Spoils of Conquest on armor. With 240 Spoils, you'll have enough to purchase 12 armor pieces with excellent stat rolls. Repeat this process as needed. It's a lot harder than Prophecy, but the drops you'll get are going to be much better.
Master Lost Sectors
This strategy is only for high-stat Exotic armor, not Legendary armor.
What good is a build without an Exotic? Fortunately, there is a way to obtain high-stat Exotic armor: Master Lost Sectors. Nightfalls are an option too, but this method allows you to better target farm the Exotics you need. Simply put, you'll want to farm whichever Lost Sector currently has difficulty variants. This rotates daily, so check your Director often. Reach the Lost Sector, interact with the map outside the area, then select "Master" as your difficulty. Ensure your loadout can counter the Champions and shields inside. You must clear the Lost Sector solo to get any Exotics.
That's quite a tall order for some, but it's more than worth the effort. Most armor that drops from Master Lost Sectors will have 60+ stats, good distributions, and the armor has to drop in a certain slot. For example, if a Lost Sector says it drops leg armor that day, you can only get Exotic leg armor. Whenever you need some high-stat Exotic armor, start farming Master Lost Sectors. You can check out our Witch Queen hub to find all of our solo Master Lost Sector guides.
Which Stats Should I Focus On?
Your most important stats will depend highly on your build and if you're a PvE or PvP player. Generally, the best stats are Resilience for PvE, Recovery for PvP, and Discipline for all game modes. Resilience grants a massive amount of damage resistance in PvE, allowing you to take far more punishment before you die. Recovery affects your HP and shield regeneration rate, allowing you to re-engage enemies in PvP much more quickly. Discipline affects grenade cooldowns which are important for all activities.
For a more in-depth explanation of stats themselves, check out our Armor 2.0 guide. And for players wanting to know why you'd spec for each stat, here's a quick explanation:
- Mobility: Used by Hunters to reduce their Dodge cooldown. It also increases strafe speed to help with peak shooting in PvP. Controller users who aim with their movement might also want to invest in Mobility.
- Resilience: Used by Titans to reduce their Barricade cooldown. Most PvE builds spec for Resilience since it decreases damage taken up to 40%. PvP builds usually spec for T6 Resilience to prevent one-taps from certain weapons with T1 damage buffs.
- Recovery: Used by Warlocks to reduce their Rift cooldown. All builds grab Recovery if they can since it reduces downtime after a gunfight. This stat is universally sought after in PvP for all classes.
- Discipline: Used by everyone to reduce grenade cooldowns. It's arguably the best stat of the second stat pool since grenades grant damage and/or utility.
- Intellect: Ignored by most players. Damage taken and received is where most of your Super energy comes from, something Intellect has no impact on.
- We cover Super cooldowns and Intellect in more detail in our Destiny 2 ability cooldowns guide.
- Strength: Ignored by most builds. Hunters can use Gambler's Dodge to get their melee back, and Titans have plenty of Exotics to help with uptime. PvE builds that focus heavily on melee skills might invest in this stat.
