Creating the perfect Destiny 2 build requires a lot of work and patience. You’ll need the right weapons, Exotics, mods, and armor pieces to create a build that is firing on all cylinders. Besides getting Combat Style mods, obtaining high-stat armor is arguably the hardest and most RNG-heavy aspect of making a build.
Armor with good stats, high stat totals, and the right mods can make a major difference in your build. Those that push the armor system to its limit can mod an armor piece to have a 100 stat total, but you’ll need a good armor piece on its own before you can do that. This guide will go over what high-stat armor is, how to obtain it, and some of the best high-stat armor farms currently available.
Updated July 2, 2023, by Charles Burgar: Season of the Deep’s armor focusing is easily the best source of high-stat armor for more casual players, dropping 60+ stat armor with spikey distributions solely by focusing Deep Engrams. We’ve updated this guide to mention this specific focusing option, and we’ve added a section explaining how Rahool’s Exotic Focusing system works.
What Is High-Stat Armor?
High-stat armor refers to any armor piece that drops with a stat total of 60 or higher. All armor in Destiny 2, excluding class items, drops with randomized stats. There are six stats on an armor piece:
|
Mobility |
Governs strafe speed, initial jump height, and the Hunter’s Dodge cooldown. |
|---|---|
|
Resilience |
Governs PvE damage resistance, total HP, flinch resistance, and the Titan’s Barricade cooldown. |
|
Recovery |
Governs health regeneration delay and the Warlock’s Rift cooldown. |
|
Discipline |
Governs grenade ability cooldown. |
|
Intellect |
Governs Super ability cooldown. |
|
Strength |
Governs melee ability cooldown. |
Each stat will receive a random amount of points, referred to by the community as your armor’s stat distribution. Armor also randomly rolls with a stat total, ranging from 48-68. Exotics also follow this rule, although some Exotics added before the Shadowkeep expansion can achieve a stat total of 70.
Armor Stat Distribution Explained
Your armor’s stat total is divided among six stats. The way your stats are divided isn’t completely random. When a piece of armor drops, the game separates the stats into two different pools:
- Stat Pool One: Mobility, Resilience, Recovery
- Stat Pool Two: Discipline, Intellect, Strength
The game will then cut your stat total roughly in half, distributing those points into each pool. For example, if your armor has a 60 stat total, 30 of those points would go into Mobility, Resilience, and Recovery. The remaining 30 points would then go into Discipline, Intellect, and Strength.
Destiny 2 distributes these stats through stat plugs, a predetermined set of values for each stat pool. As explained in u/Jgugjuhi’s Reddit post, these plugs will distribute a set number of points (11-17) between three stats in a given pool, doing so with either an even spread or spikey distribution. For example, one plug might grant +1 Mobility, +1 Resilience, and +13 Recovery while another plug might grant +5 to each of those stats. All armor pieces (excluding class items) roll with four plugs, two for each pool. Don’t worry if this sounds confusing. The most important point is that armor stat rolls aren’t fully random and can be manipulated by playing certain activities and using certain Ghost Shell mods.
If you’re lucky, you’ll get an armor drop that has a ton of points in a specific stat like Resilience or Strength. This is known as a stat bias. For most builds, it’s more important to have armor drops with good biases than high stat totals, as this makes it easier to hit stat breakpoints your build requires.
For most players, all you need to know is that armor drops follow a strict set of rules:
- Each stat cannot roll lower than 2 or higher than 30.
- Exotics pre-Shadowkeep can achieve stats slightly higher than 30 with a perfect roll.
- Stats are roughly split in half when distributed between stat pools.
- Armor sources that bias stat drops must use more spikey stat plugs.
- Most Exotic armor has intrinsic stat plugs.
Exotic Stat Plugs
Every Source Of High-Star Armor
Every armor piece you obtain has an incredibly small chance of dropping as a high-stat armor piece. Since listing every source of armor in Destiny 2 isn’t very helpful, we’ll be listing sources of high-stat armor instead. Once again, this is armor that drops with 60+ stat totals and tends to have heavy stat biases.
|
Source |
Limit |
Notes |
|---|---|---|
|
Weekly Milestones |
x1 Weekly(Per Milestone) |
|
|
Raids |
x1 Weekly(Per Encounter) |
|
Pit of Heresy(Zulmak) |
x1 Weekly |
|
Dungeons |
None |
|
Seasonal Engrams(H.E.L.M. Armor Focusing) |
None |
|
Dares of Eternity(Legend Difficulty) |
None |
|
Weekly Campaign Mission(Witch Queen) |
None |
|
The Wellspring(Master Difficulty) |
None |
|
|
Empire Hunts |
None |
|
|
Trials of Osiris |
None |
|
|
Master Lost Sectors |
None |
Ghost Armorer Mods
Beyond deterministic farming, there are unique Ghost Shell Armorer mods that force armor to drop with certain stat biases. If you need a certain type of armor distribution for your build, slap on one of these Armorer mods on your Ghost Shell before you play any activity.
If you’re farming an activity that drops armor with a stat bias that is in the same pool as your Armorer mod (such as Resilience with a Recovery mod), your Armorer mod will be ignored.
Mod(Cost) |
Description |
|---|---|
Mobility Armorer(3 Energy) |
Armor pieces with random stats you acquire will have a guaranteed minimum of 10 Mobility, and are more likely to drop with higher Mobility. |
Resilience Armorer(3 Energy) |
Armor pieces with random stats you acquire will have a guaranteed minimum of 10 Resilience, and are more likely to drop with higher Resilience. |
Recovery Armorer(4 Energy) |
Armor pieces with random stats you acquire will have a guaranteed minimum of 10 Recovery, and are more likely to drop with higher Recovery. |
Discipline Armorer(3 Energy) |
Armor pieces with random stats you acquire will have a guaranteed minimum of 10 Discipline, and are more likely to drop with higher Discipline. |
Intellect Armorer(4 Energy) |
Armor pieces with random stats you acquire will have a guaranteed minimum of 10 Intellect, and are more likely to drop with higher Intellect. |
Strength Armorer(3 Energy) |
Armor pieces with random stats you acquire will have a guaranteed minimum of 10 Strength, and are more likely to drop with higher Strength. |
The Best Sources Of High-Stat Armor
Every source we listed above is capable of dropping high-stat armor. But if you’re short on time or patience, there are a few sources we’ll recommend:
- Pit of Heresy Farming (While Pinnacle)
- Focusing Seasonal Engrams
- Master Raids
- Legend/Master Lost Sectors (Exotics Only)
- Rahool Exotic Focusing
Pit of Heresy Farming (Pinnacle Weekly)
This strategy only works while Pit of Heresy is the weekly pinnacle dungeon. If the dungeon isn’t dropping Pinnacle Gear that week, dungeon drops will be limited.
As far as high-stat armor farms go, you can’t beat Pit of Heresy when it’s the active pinnacle dungeon. Each week, one older dungeon will drop Pinnacle Gear if you successfully beat the final encounter. Unlisted in-game, pinnacle dungeons don’t have drop restrictions. This means you can farm the same encounter as much as you’d like and receive rewards from each clear.
Pit of Heresy’s final boss, Zulmak, is guaranteed to drop a piece of high-stat armor when slain. Unlike other high-stat drops, this armor comes pre-focused. Two of the armor’s six stats will have at least 16 points and will account for Ghost Shell mods. For example, if you have a Discipline focus on your Ghost, the armor Zulmak drops will almost always have 16+ points in Discipline. This also means less desirable stat plugs can’t roll on this armor, giving you a much higher chance of getting the exact stat distribution you’re looking for.
If you can’t farm Master raids or focus seasonal Engrams, this is the best armor farm in the game. It yields the same results as Master raid armor focusing, although this grind is only available when Pit of Heresy is the weekly pinnacle dungeon. Zulmak is a fairly easy boss by today’s standards and can be killed in a single DPS phase. Melee builds do wonders here, and Warlocks can easily one-phase Zulmak by using Well of Radiance and a good Heavy weapon. Get a fireteam together to reload the checkpoint after each kill. If done efficiently, you’re looking at a high-stat armor drop every few minutes.
Seasonal Engram Focusing
Every season in Destiny 2 introduces a new vendor at the H.E.L.M. with numerous Umbral focusing options. All H.E.L.M. vendors can focus Seasonal Engrams into seasonal armor with high-stat rolls. These armor pieces tend to drop with 60+ points with a chance of spikey distributions. Armorer mods affect stat biases from vendor focusing.
The best season for high-stat armor is Season of the Deep. Deep Engrams focused into slot-specific armor tends to drop with at least 60+ stats with incredibly spikey distributions, respecting your equipped Armorer mod. This is fantastic for getting your characters some high-stat armor without playing any endgame content. You only need Deep Engrams and Legendary Shards for this strategy, the former dropping from Salvage, Deep Dive, and occasionally from ritual content.
Master Raids
We know this is a rather extreme recommendation given how hard Master raids like VoG can get, but if you want to obtain perfect armor pieces, this is one of the best ways of doing so. Each week, Root of Nightmares and the weekly Pinnacle raid will gain a Master difficulty variant. Each Master raid has a modifier that forces armor to drop with a specific stat bias, rotating weekly. Whenever a piece of armor drops, it’s guaranteed to drop with at least 16 points in the list stat.
When you account for the Ghost Shell armorer mods, you can effectively force the game to drop perfect armor pieces. Instead of farming Master raids on their own, farm the normal variant for Spoils of Conquest. Once you have 240, do a Master run of that raid. Spend all of your Spoils of Conquest on armor. With 240 Spoils, you’ll have enough to purchase 12 armor pieces with excellent stat rolls. Repeat this process as needed. It’s a lot harder than the other methods we’ve showcased, but the drops you’ll get are going to be much better.
Legend And Master Lost Sectors
This strategy is only for high-stat Exotic armor, not Legendary armor.
What good is a build without an Exotic? Fortunately, there is a way to obtain high-stat Exotic armor: Master Lost Sectors. Nightfalls are an option too, but this method allows you to better target farm the Exotics you need. Simply put, you’ll want to farm whichever Lost Sector currently has difficulty variants. This rotates daily, so check your Director often. Reach the Lost Sector, interact with the map outside the area, then select «Master» as your difficulty. Ensure your loadout can counter the Champions and shields inside. You must clear the Lost Sector solo to get any Exotics.
That’s quite a tall order for some, but it’s more than worth the effort. Most armor that drops from Master Lost Sectors will have 60+ stats, good distributions, and the armor has to drop in a certain slot. For example, if a Lost Sector says it drops leg armor that day, you can only get Exotic leg armor. Whenever you need some high-stat Exotic armor, start farming Master Lost Sectors. You can check out our Destiny 2 hub to find all of our solo Master Lost Sector guides.
Rahool Exotic Focusing
Season of the Deep added Exotic Focusing into Destiny 2. While you have an Exotic Engram in your inventory, speak to Rahool at the Tower and select the «Focused Decoding» option. This will let you focus your Exotics in one of two ways:
- Advanced Decryption: Restricts the Exotic Armor pool into a specific year of Destiny 2.
- Focused Decoding: Focus your Exotic into the exact armor piece you want.
The Focused Decoding option is the best if you’re target-farming a specific Exotic, but this option is incredibly expensive, requiring three Ascendant Shards and an Exotic Cipher to focus a single Engram. Unless you own every Exotic, use the Advanced Decryption option. This will help you target a certain pool of Exotics without draining all of your materials.
It’s also worth noting that Exotic Focusing works with Armorer mods, but Armorer mods cannot override Exotic stat plugs. For example, the Hunter Exotic Star-Eater Scales has an Intellect plug, forcing it to bias Intellect with every roll. If you use any Armorer mod for the second stat bucket (Discipline, Intellect, or Strength), the mod will be ignored. However, if you use the other three Armorer mods, the stat bias will work as expected. You can find these specific stat plugs in the «What Is High-Stat Armor» section.
Which Stats Should I Focus On?
Your most important stats will depend highly on your build and if you’re a PvE or PvP player. Generally, the best stats are Resilience for PvE, Recovery for PvP, and Discipline for all game modes. Resilience grants a massive amount of damage resistance in PvE, allowing you to take far more punishment before you die. Recovery affects your HP and shield regeneration rate, allowing you to re-engage enemies in PvP much more quickly. Discipline affects grenade cooldowns which are important for all activities.
For a more in-depth explanation of stats themselves, check out our Armor 2.0 guide. And for players wanting to know why you’d spec for each stat, here’s a quick explanation:
- Mobility: Used by Hunters to reduce their Dodge cooldown. It also increases strafe speed to help with peak shooting in PvP. Controller users who aim through movement might also want to invest in Mobility.
- Resilience: Used by Titans to reduce their Barricade cooldown. Most PvE builds spec for Resilience since it decreases damage taken up to 30%.
- PvP builds usually spec for T6 Resilience to prevent one-taps from certain weapons with T1 damage buffs.
- Recovery: Used by Warlocks to reduce their Rift cooldown. All builds grab Recovery if they can since it reduces downtime after a gunfight. This stat is universally sought after in PvP for all classes.
- Discipline: Used by everyone to reduce grenade cooldowns. It’s arguably the best stat of the second stat pool since grenades grant damage and/or utility.
- Intellect: Ignored by most players. Damage taken and received is where most of your Super energy comes from, something Intellect has no impact on.
- Strength: Ignored by most builds. Hunters can use Gambler’s Dodge to get their melee back, Titans have plenty of Exotics to help with uptime, and Warlock melees are generally mediocre. PvE builds that focus heavily on melee skills might invest in this stat.