Destiny 2: All Currency and Materials Ranked (2024)

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Destiny 2 has a lot of different currencies and crafting materials. Some are insanely valuable, while others will gradually collect dust in your inventory. If you’re confused, then worry not, we here at High Ground Gaming have put together a guide for all the notable currencies and crafting materials in the game. This guide will help you spend those currencies wisely while also informing you on when, where, and how each currency and crafting material in Destiny 2 can be obtained.

Let’s get started!

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Currencies, Ranked Least to Most Useful

Destiny 2’s currencies come in multiple different forms. Most of these currencies can be used at vendors to purchase weapons and armor. In most cases, you’ll need multiple different currencies in order to complete a single transaction. We’ve ordered these currencies based on the items you can purchase with them and how difficult they are to obtain.

6/6

Bright Dust

Bright Dust is the only currency in the game that is purely cosmetic. You can only purchase a select few items from the Eververse Store using Bright Dust. Things like shaders, emotes, vehicles, some consumables, and weapon ornaments. Of course, you won’t be able to purchase any of the crazy cool skins with Bright Dust — you’ll need Silver for those. Unlike Silver, Bright Dust can be obtained for free through the Seasonal Battle Pass.

5/6

Seasonal Currency

Seasonal Currencies vary in usefulness. Each Seasonal currency will oftentimes be tied to that season, the season activity, and the location added by said season. These currencies become less useful after their respective season is over. The mileage you get out of the seasonal currency is also dependent on whether or not you have purchased that Season’s battle pass or the current expansion. Basically, if you’re free-to play-player, you might not get that much out of these currencies.

4/6

Spoils of Conquest

This currency definitely won’t be useful to every Destiny 2 player, as it requires the completion of a Raid in order to make use of it. If you’re in that large group of players that have not and don’t plan on tackling any raid content, then feel free to ignore this one. However, if you are someone who revels in the insane difficulty of end-game content, or you’re just a lover of good loot, you’ll definitely be wanting some Spoils of War.

Spoils of War can be obtained by clearing Raid encounters. They are used at the end of most Raids to purchase extra raid loot from Loot Caches. You can hold a total of 240 Spoils of War and you can purchase weapons and armor from a Raid Loot Cache for 20–25 Spoils of War. A lot of the endgame grind in Destiny 2 is centered around getting the perfect God roll on powerful weapons and armor. Spoils of War speed up that process dramatically.

3/6

Exotic Ciphers

Exotic Ciphers are obtained primarily from the weekend version of the vendor Xur. You can obtain a quest that will reward you with an Exotic Cipher from Xur, who only shows up in a few select locations each weekend. These Ciphers can be used alongside other currencies to purchase Exotic weapons and armor from certain vendors like Xur or The Monument to Lost Lights at the Tower.

While these Ciphers are relatively easy to obtain, since the missions that reward them aren’t too challenging, you can only get one per week from Xur, which can be pretty annoying if you need to purchase multiple weapons at one time. Most of the items that can be acquired with this currency are pretty strong, so you’ll definitely want to go out of your way to get your hands on some Exotic Ciphers at some point in your Destiny 2 career.

2/6

Glimmer

Glimmer is Destiny 2’s universal currency — pretty much every interaction you do will require some amount of Glimmer. Whether you crafting weapons, upgrading armor, or purchasing bounties, you’ll need Glimmer. In most cases, you won’t need too much Glimmer, but for rare items like subclass abilities, you’ll need a rather large chunk of Glimmer. 

Glimmer can be obtained from pretty much every interaction you do in the Destiny 2 sandbox. Killing enemies, completing activities, looting chests, and even dismantling weapons and armor will reward some glimmer. While Glimmer isn’t hard to come by, you’ll need an awfully large amount of it sometimes, so running out of it can be a pretty big setback.

1/6

Silver

Silver is one of Destiny 2’s premium currencies. It can only be obtained by purchasing it with real-world money. Silver’s primary use is buying cosmetic items from the Eververse Store. However, Silver is also required in order to purchase Dungeon Keys. Considering the amount of fantastic loot that can be acquired by clearing Dungeons, Dungeon Keys are very important for endgame Destiny 2 players.

Crafting Materials, Ranked Least to Most Rare

The materials in this section are used for crafting and upgrading gear. More often than not, you’ll need to use multiple crafting materials to craft and upgrade your equipment. The rarer the materials, the fewer of them you’ll need. We’ve ordered this section much like the first — items used for crafting high-level gear, as well as rarer materials will be placed higher on our list.

8/8

Planetary Materials

These materials are the lowest rank because they just aren’t needed for many of the game’s more engaging systems. Players can and often do ignore them entirely and get through the game’s content just fine. Some planets have planetary materials that are used for items related to specific expansions, but once again, they aren’t as game-changing as weapon crafting or Masterworking your weapons and armor. Feel free to engage with planetary materials if your board, but they aren’t required like many of the other materials on this list.

Legendary Shards

7/8

One of the easiest to obtain materials in the game, Legendary Shards are an item you may find yourself having an abundance of quite often. These shards can be obtained by completing activities, the Season pass, or dismantling weapons and armor. These shards are probably the most common drop next to Glimmer in the Destiny 2 world space. 

You’ll need legendary shards for a variety of things, including Masterworking weapons and armor, purchasing materials, and purchasing Exotic weapons from Xur’s appearances on the weekend or the Monument to Lost Lights at The Tower. 

6/8

Enhancement Cores

Enhancement Cores are used in the process of Masterworking your gear and used in the weapon crafting process. Enhancement Cores can be obtained by dismantling weapons and armor, completing activities, or purchasing them from vendors. They are also used to craft Enhancement Prisms, which are a bit harder to obtain, you should definitely stockpile these whenever you can.

5/8

Upgrade Modules

Another one of our gear upgrade materials is the Upgrade Module. While it can’t increase a weapon or armor’s Masterwork Level, it can increase a piece of gear’s power level at the cost of another piece of gear that matches its gear type. You can use an Upgrade Module on two helmets to increase one’s power level, but you cannot use an Upgrade Module on a helmet and a chest piece, since they aren’t the same gear type. These Modules aren’t very hard to find/purchase, but they are essential for keeping your favorite gear at a competent power level.

4/8

Ascendant, Harmonic, Resonant Alloys

Each one of these three alloys are required to unlock certain traits on your craftable weapons. You’ll need to level your weapon up by defeating enemies with it if you want to gain access to the full selection of customizable traits. 

• Resonant Alloy: Obtained by dismantling weapons or completing certain activities. This alloy is se mostly for adding Masterwork-like bonuses to your weapon’s frame. Unfortunately, you can’t use this alloy to change the weapon’s frame altogether. Still, this is a great compromise.
• Ascendant Alloy: This alloy can be obtained from a few sources, the easiest and least expensive being rewards for completing the weekly Witch Queen campaign mission or the Throne Wrod Offensive mission. These Alloys can also be purchased from Banshee and the Cryptarch at The Tower. Once obtained, you can use this alloy to add enhanced traits to your weapons.
• Harmonic Alloys: This alloy can be obtained by dismantling Vow of the Discipline raid weapons. It is used to add raid-exclusive traits to weapons.

3/8

Deepsight Harmonizer

Deepsight Harmonizers were added to Destiny 2 in Season 21. These little devices grant Deepsight Activation to a shapable weapon. You’ll need 15 Spoils of Conquest to use alongside this item in order to gain Deepsight on Raid weapons. Craftable weapons are some of the strongest in the game. Specifically, because they can have their perk traits chosen rather than rolled for. This item can only be used on weapons that don’t have red borders but can still be crafted.

Deepsight Harmonizers can only be obtained from the Season 21 Season Pass. You can only acquire six Deepsight Harmonizers from the season pass. There will likely be an alternate method for obtaining Deepsight Harmonizers introduced in the future. It’s recommended that you use your Deepsight Harmonizers on weapons that cannot be obtained from activities or World loot, outside of Xur and Banshee. Since you won’t have a reliable way of farming these weapons, Deepsight Harmonizers are your best bet for unlocking weapon crafting for these weapons.

2/8

Enhancement Prisms

Enhancement Prisms are much like Enhancement Cores. Their primary use is upgrading your equipment, but they can also be used to craft Ascendant Shards. While they are not as rare as Ascendant Shards, they can still be rather difficult to come by. This material can be acquired by combining Enhancement Cores and Legendary Shards.

1/8

Ascendant Shards

These are probably the most important crafting material in the game. Upgrading your equipment will grant you access to more mod slots on your armor. When you fully upgrade a weapon or piece of armor, you’ll Masterwork it, increasing its stats. High-level weapon and armor stats are essential for clearing end-game content. 

You’ll need Ascendant Shards to Master Work your equipment. Getting Ascendant Shards will require you to either reach max rank with the many vendors around the Destiny 2 sandbox. They can also be acquired by reaching certain levels in the battle pass. Another you can acquire Ascendant Shards is by crafting them. It will require multiple Enhancement Prisms on top of other crafting materials. The last way you can acquire Ascendant Shards is by completing end-game content like high-difficulty Nightfalls, Dungeons, and Raids.

Join the High Ground

That’s all the relevant currencies and crafting materials currently in Destiny 2. Much like how Season 21 added Deepsight Harmonisors to the game, we here at High Ground Gaming wouldn’t be surprised if more new materials/currencies are added to the game in the near future. But don’t worry, we will keep you posted. If you don’t ever want to miss a single update to the Destiny 2 sandbox, feel free to sign up for the High Ground Gaming newsletter.

Happy gaming!