There is a lot of confusion surrounding different factions in Destiny. While a couple of players are left clueless as to what to do after level 20, there are some who cannot seem to decide which faction is more suitable for them.
In this guide, I’ll discuss about different factions and why one should opt for them. For more help on Destiny, read our How to Earn Strange Coins, Engram Farming and Level Up Fast Guide.
How to Earn Faction Reputation and Unlock Faction Gear
Factions in Destiny
There are two primary factions in Destiny: vanguard and crucible. In addition to these two, there are three optional factions: dead orbit, future war cult, and new monarchy.
I’ve also heard about two factions named osiris and seven seraphs, but I don’t have much information to share on these two.
Benefits of Joining a Faction
Every player is automatically a part of both vanguard and crucible factions and earns reputation for each one, depending upon the activities. PVP provides reputation for crucible and PVE provides reputation for PVE.
As for joining the three optional factions, here’s why you need to join them:
Different vendors in the Tower have affiliations with different factions.
Post-level 20; in order to buy legendary gear from these vendors, a player is required to have a certain reputation level with these factions. It’s not hard to increase reputation with these factions, provided that one puts a little effort into it.
Another reason why you may want to go for the optional factions is stat bonus on purchasable gear. Aside from stat bonuses, gear from vanguard/crucible and optional factions are more or less the same.
The Right Faction for You!
First off, each faction in the game has its own history and I would recommend getting through all of those stories to get a broader perspective of things.
Aside from this, the stat bonuses that come with these factions are: intellect, discipline, and strength. Each of the optional faction has two of these stats.
These stats only come as armour bonuses. Weapons have nothing to do with them.
Intellect decreases the cooldown time of the super ability, discipline decreases the cooldown time of the grenades, and strength decreases the cooldown time of the melee modifier.
Dead orbit provides discipline and strength, future war cult provides intellect and discipline, and new monarchy provides intellect and strength.
Earning Faction Reputation, Unlocking Faction Gear
In addition to having required reputation level, a player also needs marks to buy gear from the optional factions.
Earning vanguard and crucible reputation is quite straightforward: complete strike missions, vanguard bounties, patrol mission in PVE for vanguard reputation and play PVP and crucible bounties for crucible reputation.
Coming to the optional factions, to earn their reputation, you need to visit a vendor and buy a class-restricted item. After that, equip that item and start completing any activity whether PVE or PVP.
With that item equipped, you’ll not earn crucible or vanguard reputation, but reputation for that optional faction whose item you’re equipped with.
Aside from reputation, marks are also required to make purchases. In order to earn marks, you need to complete relevant activities which will also net you marks along with reputation. Vanguard activities will net you vanguard marks and crucible activities will net you crucible marks.
There are no separate marks for optional faction and the purchases are made using crucible marks. A player cannot earn more than 100 marks per week for any particular faction whether vanguard or crucible.
We have another guide on how to earn vanguard and crucible marks with detailed information on some of the activities. Do make sure to check it out!
