Destiny 2: Every Possible Way to Farm Bright Dust, ranked slowest to fastest

Human Made

Penned by Kody Wirth

Kody is our expert Destiny 2 and shooter genre writer. He lives in Oregon.

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The Eververse is home to some of the best Cosmetics in Destiny 2. Killer Seasonal Ornaments, unique Ghost Shells, odd and sleek Sparrows, fun Finishers, and weapon skins just scratch the surface of what’s available. While most of these cost real-world money in the form of Silver, some items can be purchased with an unlockable currency known as Destiny 2’s Bright Dust.

So, if you’ve had you’re eye on something in the shop, it may be purchasable if you have enough Bright Dust. Here’s everything you need to know about Destiny 2’s Bright Dust and how you can farm it.

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What is Bright Dust in Destiny 2?

Bright Dust is among the most valuable currencies in Destiny 2, allowing you to purchase specific items from the Eververse. It’s far more difficult to acquire than materials used for upgrades, such as Glimmer or Legendary Shards. 

It’s exclusively used to purchase cosmetic items but does not build up into Silver (Destiny 2’s real-world money equivalent). You cannot purchase Bright Dust, only earn it, and whatever amount you have is bound to your Bungie account. This means that you cannot transfer or gift Bright Dust to other players. However, if you’re running multiple characters on the same account, you can access all of your Bright Dust between them.

What Can You Buy With Bright Dust?

Like most things in the Eververse, the list of available items that can be purchased with Bright Dust switches out on a regular basis. There are a handful of daily and weekly items that cycle in and out of the shop on a predetermined basis. Here are the types of items you can expect to purchase from the Bright Dust section of the Eververse.

Consumable Items

If you’re trying to acquire additional materials, you may want to purchase consumable boost items. These consumable items cost between 200–500 Bright Dust. The shop will have two items from the following list available every week:

• Concentrated Mattergem: A chance to earn Upgrade Modules from defeated bosses.
• Gleaming Boon of the Vanguard: Fireteam receives an Eververse gift after successfully completing a Strike.
• Gleaming Boon of the Crucible: Fireteam receives an Eververse gift after successfully completing a Crucible match.
• Glimmershard: A chance to create a Glimmer shower from defeated bosses.
• Scavenger’s Boon: A chance to earn planetary materials from combatants defeated with precision damage.

Cosmetic Items

The remaining lineup of 10 available items consists of a rotating list of possible options. Generally, you can expect:

• At least 3–4 Shaders
• 1 Transmat Effect
• 1 Ghost Projection
• 1 Legendary or Exotic Armor Ornament
• 1 Exotic Weapon Ornament
• 1 Legendary or Exotic Sparrow
• 1 Legendary or Exotic Ship
• 1 Rare, Legendary, or Exotic Emote
• 1 Legendary or Exotic Ghost Shell

Depending on the rarity and how new a specific piece of gear is, you can expect to pay between 40–3,350 Bright Dust. Most Legendary items fall within the 300–800 price range, while Exotics will often cost a few thousand. Just be sure to check back on the Weekly Item and Bright Dust pages every week to see what’s available.

How to Earn Bright Dust in Destiny 2

As of Season of the Chosen, the ways you can farm Bright Dust have been streamlined. There used to be a larger variety of ways to earn small amounts of Bright Dust, but now you can earn more from a select few activities. This increase was designed to make up for the lack of Weekly Bounties from vendors, which would give out around 150 Bright Dust when completed. 

Here’s every way you can earn Bright Dust in Destiny 2.

5. Turn in Bright Engrams

Bright Engrams are randomized drops that give you access to items from the Eververse that are no longer available. They also have an incredibly small chance of giving you a bundle of Bright Dust ranging from 250–1,000 in total. Now, this is less of a farming method and more just something that you should be aware of when turning in Bright Engrams.

To start, actually earning a Bright Engram is already quite limited. You typically earn them by leveling up your Season Pass to specific tiers or for every five Tiers once you’ve maxed out. Other than that, your chances of landing a Bright Engram in other ways are completely random. Actually rolling some Bright Dust is even rarer, meaning that you’ll likely need to turn in potentially tens of hundreds of Engrams before you see any Bright Dust.

4. Complete Your Season Pass

Your Season Pass is one area that has increased the amount of Bright Dust offered since Season of the Chosen. There are far more opportunities to hit a Rank and earn some Bright Dust, and the bundles in each reward are much more generous. Now, like anything with the Season Pass, you’ll earn more Bright Dust if you own the paid version.

Season Pass owners can net around 10,500 if they hit Rank 100, while free players will earn around 7,500. Here are the Ranks to look out for and how much Bright Dust you’ll earn:

Just be sure that you collect all of the Bright Dust you unlock before the end of each Season. If you happen to miss any, you can claim your rewards from the previous Season through Bungie.net. While a great safety net, we highly recommend just grabbing them as you unlock them to avoid this lengthy process.

3. Take On Repeatable Bounties

Each Playlist Vendor has Daily Bounties that you can attempt to complete within 24 hours of acquiring. While this list of four Bounties will regularly change out upon the daily reset, they also offer what are known as Repeatable Bounties. These are randomized Bounties that cost a bit more to acquire but net you 10 Bright Dust along with CP.

You can only hold five of these from an individual vendor at a time and like the Daily Bounties, they must be completed within 24 hours. If you complete the five you have, you can always go back and grab more, making this a steady way to keep earning small amounts of Bright Dust.

2. Complete Weekly Vendor Challenges

Speaking of Vendors, you also have weekly challenges you can complete for them. For most, this typically involved completing eight Bounties, although there are exceptions like The Stranger. Completing these challenges gives you a piece of Powerful Tier 1 Gear. Zavala, Shaxx, and the Drifter also give you 120 Bright Dust.

If you complete the weekly challenge for all three Vendors, you can expect to earn 360 Bright Dust each week. However, you can actually earn more by doing this with all three characters, since these challenges are character-bound. That means that with a little grinding, you can net 1,080 Bright Dust each week. Oh, and Repeatable Bounties qualify for this, so you might as well get a bit more as you try to knock these challenges out.

1. Complete Seasonal Challenges

While Seasonal Challenges are released on a weekly basis, the amount of Bright Dust you earn is well worth the wait. Similar to the Season Pass, this was the other method that’s been juiced in recent seasons. You can expect to earn between 75–300 from each challenge that offers Bright Dust, depending on the overall difficulty. In total, if you complete all Seasonal Challenges that reward Bright Dust, you can expect to earn around 10,000 in a given Season.

Additionally, there are benefits to finishing more Seasonal Challenges. If you complete a full week, you earn an additional large bundle of Bright Dust. On top of that, there’s also a Large Bright Dust pile you can earn if you complete seventy-five Seasonal Challenges. This will give you another 4,000 Bright Dust on top of everything else you’ve earned. While we don’t know how many Challenges will be available this season, you should expect that you’ll need to complete almost all of them to get his reward.

Lastly, if you don’t finish in time, some Seasonal Challenges stick around. Not all will reward you with Bright Dust, but it’s worth looking at the Past Season Challenges menu just in case.

Become a High Grounder

Bright Dust is a rare but useful currency to keep a steady flow of new cosmetics in your inventory without sending money. Be sure to share this article on your favorite social platforms to help your Fireteam get enough Bright Dust to purchase that item they’ve had their eyes on in the shop. And for the latest on Destiny 2, sign up for our newsletter for regular updates. 

Happy gaming!