Destiny 2 is a dense game. With the original entry released over seven years ago, there have been a ton of expansions, weapons, activities, armor pieces, and random consumable items stuffed into this action RPG. This can make for an overwhelming experience — especially since the “New Light” questline for starting players is pretty underwhelming. While this opening quest chain introduces you to the basic mechanics of Destiny 2, it fails to help players understand the community’s lingo for a lot of the commonly used terms you’ll hear while playing. So, whether you’re gearing up for a raid, looking to step into Trials of Osiris, or make the mistake of playing Gambit, here’s an (incomplete) glossary of Destiny 2 terms.
Keep in mind: this won’t include every single term in the history of Destiny 2. I will be omitting terms for specific encounters (with the exception of one) and any content that has been vaulted. Also, I am sure to miss some, so I will be adding more as time goes on. With that being said, below are some of the most common terms or acronyms you’ll come across while playing.
Destiny 2 Glossary
| 1K or 1KV | One Thousand Voices: Shorthand for the exotic fusion rifle One Thousand Voices. |
| Add | Additional enemies, often used to describe weaker or rank-and-file foes you’ll come across. |
| ADS | Aim-Down-Sights: How fast you can look down the scope or iron sights of your weapon. |
| Aggro |
When an enemy is specifically attacking you and only you. Players will often “pull aggro” to draw a foe’s attention elsewhere so the team can either reposition, resurrect a fallen Guardian, or complete a mechanic.
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| AoE | Area-of-Effect: Any weapon, ability, or enemy attack that covers a specific radius around a targeted area, usually hitting multiple targets at once. |
| Ape | A player who is incredibly aggressive and likes to just run at their opponents in hopes of securing the kill. Often, these people carry shotguns or focus on melee damage. |
| Blueberry | A random teammate that’s not in your fireteam. They are called “Blueberries” due to their name appearing in blue. |
| Boop | To be knocked away or sent flying to their death by an enemy or weapon. |
| Bubble | Ward of Dawn: The Titan class’ Super that creates a large void bubble that blocks incoming damage, provides an overshield, and briefly increases weapon damage. |
| Buff |
When Bungie makes a specific armor, ability, or weapon more powerful. Alternatively, whenever something makes your Guardian (or enemy) stronger this is also known as being buffed.
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| Celestial Yeethawk | Cuirass of the Falling Star: A play on words for this Titan exotic chest piece that dramatically boosts their Thundercrash Super’s damage. |
| Champions | Unique enemies that require either Barrier, Unstoppable, or Overload Mods to stun and stop their health regeneration. |
| Debuff | An ability, weapon, or effect that makes an enemy (or player) weaker or able to take more damage from incoming damage sources. |
| DIM |
Destiny Item Manager: A website that allows players to move items from their vault to their Guardians without ever needing to go to The Tower. I recommend bookmarking it.
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| DMT | Dead Man’s Tale: Shorthand for this exotic, kinetic scout rifle. |
| DPS |
Damage Phase: While this can be used to describe the amount of damage-per-second a weapon does, it’s more commonly used as a shorthand for a boss’ damage phase. Some foes, typically in raids and dungeons, can only be hurt during specific moments during the encounter.
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| DOT/Tick Damage | Damage-Over-Time: Any type of attack or weapon that does lingering damage after being initially hit. |
| DSC | Deep Stone Crypt: Shorthand for the Deep Stone Crypt raid. |
| Dunk |
There are multiple portions in activities where players will carry some type of orb that needs to be deposited into a specific receptacle. This action is often referred to as dunking.
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| GL | Grenade launcher: Shorthand for describing a grenade launcher firearm. |
| GM | Grandmaster: Shorthand for a specific difficulty setting that is the toughest available in Destiny 2. |
| Golfball | Ascendant Shards: The rarest crafting material in the game. Ascendant Shards get their moniker due to their visual appearance and are used to masterwork armor. |
| GoS | Garden of Salvation: Shorthand for the Garden of Salvation raid. |
| IB |
Iron Banner: A monthly PVP activity that has players battling it to capture control zones. Unlike most PVP activities, your Power Level will factor into the amount of damage you take and receive.
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| Izzy | Izanagi’s Burden: A nickname for this exotic, kinetic sniper rifle. |
| KinderGuardian | New Destiny 2 players. |
| LFG | Looking For Group: A player who is searching for a team to complete specific content. |
| LW | Last Wish: Shorthand for the Last Wish raid. |
| Main | Which of the three Guardian classes you prefer to play as. This is often referred to as your “Main.” |
| Mods | For either weapon or armor, mods are equipped with gear to either improve their performance or provide unique aspects to that item. |
| Nerf | When Bungie makes a specific armor, ability, or weapon less powerful. |
| NF | Nightfall: Shorthand for the Nightfall activity. |
| NPC | Non-Player Character: Literally any type of character that isn’t directly controlled by another person. |
| OP | Over Powered: When a specific ability, weapon, or item in the game is too strong in PvE or PvP. |
| PvE | Player vs Environment: Any activity that has a player fighting against computer-controlled enemies such as story missions, strikes, raids, or dungeons. |
| PvP | Player vs Player: Any activity where you are battling against other real people like Crucible or Trials of Osiris. |
| PvPvE |
Player vs Player vs Environment: Any activity where you’re fighting both A.I. controlled enemies and player-controlled Guardians. Currently, the only activity like this is Gambit.
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| Rez | Resurrection: The act of reviving a fallen teammate at their Ghost’s location. |
| RNGesus | A combination of Random Number Generator and Jesus, players often call to this when hoping for a good roll on gear or for a specific item they desire to appear. |
| Roaming Super | Any Super that allows you to move and kill enemies without instantly depleting. This typically describes Supers that excel in killing large numbers of normal enemies. |
| “Shard It” | The act of dismantling a piece of gear you don’t want or need for Legendary Shards and other materials. |
| Telesto | A weapon that has caused more bugs in Destiny 2 than literally anything else in the entire game. |
| Tether | Shadowshot: The Hunter class’ Super that fires either a single or multiple arrows that tether opponents around the area of impact. |
| Thrallway | The Shadow Thrall encounter in the Shattered Realms dungeon. This location is often used to farm experience, bounties, or masterwork weapons. |
| ToO | Trials of Osiris: Shorthand for the Trials of Osiris PVP activity. |
| TTK | Time to Kill is how fast a weapon can output enough damage to kill a specific enemy or player. |
| TWAB |
This Week At Bungie: A weekly blog post by developer Bungie about Destiny 2 that launches every Thursday. It often includes updates, sneak peeks, and developer commentary on future content or patches.
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| Well | Well of Radiance: The Warlock class’ Super that forms a massive healing circle around their sword. |
| Wipe | A term often used in raids. Wipe simply means to have your team intentionally kill themselves to restart the encounter or activity. |
| Vendor | Vendors are NPCs found throughout The Tower and other planets that sell goods, quests, bounties, or items. |
| VoG | Vault of Glass: Shorthand for the Vault of Glass raid. |
| Yellow-Bar | Yellow-Bar enemies are typically boss, Champions, or named enemies. |
That’s it! Well, not really. I’m sure there are some terms I’m missing, which you will graciously remind me of in the comment section below.
