Destiny 2 can be a very overwhelming game. While the “New Light” experience does a solid job of introducing some of the game’s mechanics, it’s still very easy to get lost in all the menus, tabs, and items. Given that you will spend a ton of time in these menus during your journey, it’s critical that you know how to access them and where to find everything. Before we dive into the details, let’s go over the two different types of menus.
The first is the character menu, which is accessed by pressing the Start button on your controller (or F1 on PC). You will know it’s the Character menu because you’ll see your current Guardian, their inventory, and Power. If you hit the Select Button (Xbox), Touchpad (PlayStation), or Tab (PC) you’ll bring up the Main menu. This will show either all the planets in orbit or a map of the area if you aren’t in orbit. Now let’s go over the different tabs in each menu so you know what their purpose is.
Main Menu
Destinations/Map
If you are in orbit, bringing up this tab will show you all of the planets and playlist activities available. Playlist activities will be across the top of the screen followed by the different planets and areas you can explore below them. If you see a gold circle in a box next to a destination that means there is a Pinnacle or Powerful tier reward you can earn there. For example, the gold circle next to Eternity indicates that you can obtain both Pinnacle and Powerful gear in activities found in this location.
Selecting a planet or destination will bring up a map of the area that showcases the planetary vendor location, hidden golden chests, individual Strikes, and areas where you can land. The landing areas are designated by a circle with a white triangle inside. Some destinations have multiple landing points, allowing you to reach wherever you’re going faster. If you are on a planet already, then you can scroll to the Map tab, which unsurprisingly shows a map of the destination you’re on. Additionally, you can see your character’s current location on the map via a thin green arrow.
Quests
A slightly confusing menu, Quests is where you can track both individual quests and bounties you’ve collected. When you just start out there will be a lot of tabs here — especially as you pick up more and more missions to complete. To make things easier, I have broken down the three core sections in the photo above and labeled them A, B, and C. Here’s a rundown of each of these three components and how they work:
- A – Quests: The quest tab tracks all of your current story, side, and exotic missions. These are broken up across multiple tabs along the left side of the screen (Below the red A) allowing you to quickly find the quest you want to complete. If you’re just starting out, you will want to complete all the quests in the “New Light” tab and then any quests found in The Past and Beyond Light tabs. For those who just want to see every quest they have, select the “Quest” tab (crown symbol) to get a full list of all the missions you’ve picked up.
- B- Seasonal Challenges: Changing every season, challenges are slightly more complex bounties that task you with everything from killing enemies with a specific weapon type to completing an activity on the hardest difficulty. Challenges award experience, Bright Dust, and sometimes legendary weapons. New challenges are added every week throughout the first 10 weeks of a new season, and they can be completed at any point before the season ends.
- C – Bounties: This is where you can find any bounties you’ve collected from vendors. Additionally, you’ll need to manually turn in bounties by clicking on them when they’re completed. You can also track any of your bounties while on foot by pulling out your Ghost and pressing down on the D-Pad until you reach the bounty tab.
Store
The store is where you can purchase cosmetic items such as armor ornaments, emotes, shaders, and different Ghost shells. While the majority of these items cost Silver (Destiny 2’s real-money currency), you can spend your hard-earned Bright Dust here as well. New items are added into the store every season and event, with many of them becoming eventually available for Bright Dust. The selection of items available for Bright Dust on the main screen differs from the selection in the Bright Dust tab, and both change every week, so be sure to keep an eye out for anything you might want to nab.
Roster
Here’s where you can find your friends list, clanmates, and any random player in your activity. This is pretty simple, as you’ll use this menu to join or invite others to your fireteam, along with adding them via their Bungie Friend name. If you’re looking to play crossplay with others, we have a more detailed guide on how this works.
Season
The final tab in the Main Menu, this is where you’ll find the season pass, your seasonal rank, and be able to claim any rewards from the season pass. You will reach a new season level every 100,000 experience and can claim any rewards earned by just clicking on them in the season pass trail. There are two paths, a free and a premium, with rewards available on both. If you are serious about playing Destiny 2, I really recommend purchasing the new season since you get a ton of rewards from it.
Character Menu
Character
This is the menu screen you will spend the most time on in Destiny 2. There is a lot to go over, so we will be breaking it down into seven sections and briefly going over each of them. Additionally, pressing down on the D-Pad opens up the cosmetic menu that shows your Sparrow, Ship, Emotes, and transmogrification tab.
- A – Subclass: This is where you can select which of your four subclasses are equipped. These are Arc, Solar, Void, and Stasis. Keep in mind, Stasis isn’t unlocked until you progress through the Beyond Light expansion campaign. Whichever subclass is in the large diamond above your Kinetic weapon slot is the one currently equipped. You can enter the subclass customization menu by pressing Y (Xbox One) / Triangle (PlayStation) / Right Click (PC).
- B – Weapons: Here are your weapon slots, broken across three different archetypes. Kinetic is the top one and possesses no elemental affinity, Energy is elemental weapons, and Power is where you can find Heavy weapons. Not including the firearms equipped, you can have a total of nine additional weapons stored in each slot.
- C- Ghost and Artifact: Right below the Heavy weapon slot you will find your Ghost. This can be equipped with unique mods that can increase how much experience you earn or the ability to detect resource caches in patrol zones. Underneath this is the seasonal artifact, which levels up as you earn experience and gives you access to seasonal mods. These mods change every season and can be equipped to various armor pieces.
- D -Currencies: Across the top right of your screen you will see a list of currencies. From left to right these are Glimmer, Legendary Shards, Silver, and Bright Dust. Glimmer is the main in-game currency and it’s used to purchase everything from bounties to weapons from your collection to armor pieces. Legendary Shards are a slightly rarer currency when you’re just starting out and are acquired by dismantling legendary tier gear. Silver is only used for cosmetics and is obtainable via real money, while Bright Dust usually comes from seasonal challenges or special events.
- E – Power and Stats: The numbers along your armor are your Power level and your Guardian’s various stats. Power or “Light Level” as it’s often called is the overall strength of your Guardian. The higher the Power Level the more damage you can deal and take. Below that are six stats, each of which can increase based on your armor stats, mods, and some Stasis Fragments. They are Mobility, Resilience, Recovery, Discipline, Intellect, and Strength. You can see what each one does by moving your cursor over them. Every stat has 10 tiers which determine everything from cooldown reductions to the size of your shield. The maximum for these stats is 100 (Tier 10).
- F – Armor: Looking at the right column, this is your armor and it’s broken up into five distinct types: Helmet, Gauntlet, Chest, Leg, and a Class Item. You can only equip one of each but can store an additional nine armor pieces in each slot.
- G – Clan Banner: For those that join a clan, the Clan Banner shows the passive rewards and benefits you unlock throughout a season. Everything you do gains experience for your clan, allowing you to obtain all of the Clan Perks.
Inventory
The Inventory tab shows all of your consumables and currencies collected while playing. Additionally, going to the mods tab below will show all of the mods, transmit effects, ornaments, and ghost projections in your inventory. Engrams display the amount of Umbral and Prime Engrams you currently have while Wrapped Items is where you can find anything you recently purchased from the Store with Silver.
Triumphs
On the Triumph page, you can find triumphs. Big surprise, I know. Triumphs are challenges you can complete to increase your triumph score, earn special titles, or even unlock unique items like emotes or shaders. You can view triumphs by selecting any of the large circles and going through the various triumph tabs. Along the bottom are Seals, which are special challenges you need to finish to earn titles under your character’s name. Along the right are the Medals, Exotic Catalysts, Lore, and Stat Trackers tabs.
Collections
In the Collections tab, you can find all of the items you have and haven’t earned. Broken up across six individual sections, this acts as a terrific way to know what you’re missing and the items you’ll want to hunt down. Additionally, you can pull most items from the Collections tab for a small price and put them directly into your inventory. The catch is, items like armor pieces and exotics will have a very low Power Level. You cannot pull any Legendary weapons from your collection unless they have already been vaulted and have static perks.
Clan
The very last tab in the Character menu, the Clan tab shows all the information, members, and your clan’s current seasonal rank. Outside of the roster, this is where you can invite and add clan members to your friend’s list or fireteam. You can also see which Weekly Clan engrams you’ve earned which can be picked from Hawthorne in The Tower.
Congratulations! You made it through the entire guide. Whew, I’m tired. Are you tired? Hopefully, this guide gave you a better understanding of the different menus and tabs you will be frequently scouring through as you push back the forces of Darkness.
