A new Destiny expansion means there’s plenty of gear to chase and activities to do—and you’ll need to get on them, too, since expansions bring players’ Power Level back to the floor. Expansions and seasonal releases usually raise the goalposts for Power Level changes, with expansions bringing the most drastic tweaks.
The release of The Final Shape made some huge changes to leveling. For starters, the power bands shifted to 1900 (floor) and 2000 (pinnacle cap). Players can also level all characters on their account at once, and the addition of Fireteam-based levels means there’s less need to stress about it. If you kept your old weapons, the removal of sunsetting lets you use them without any penalties, so dust off that gear you’ve been keeping in your vault for years.
Here’s what you need to know about leveling in Destiny 2’s The Final Shape, including the soft cap, Powerful cap, hard cap, and how to get drops that raise your Power Level.
What is the max Power Level in Destiny 2: The Final Shape?
As of The Final Shape, the max Power Level available in Destiny 2 is 2000. This means you can’t level your gear above 2000, though you can move past that cap with bonuses from the seasonal artifact.
If you’re looking to get to the maximum possible level (the hard cap), you’ll need to be aware of Powerful and Pinnacle caps, which dictate what activities you can do to raise your Power Level. Here are the levels for each Power milestone after the release of The Final Shape and what each of them means. These limits aren’t affected by the Power boost from the seasonal artifact.
All Power Level caps in Destiny 2’s The Final Shape
- Minimum cap (floor): 1900
- Soft cap: 1940
- Powerful cap: 1990
- Pinnacle cap/hard cap: 2000
Floor to soft cap (1900 to 1940)
The first part of the Power Level grind is the easiest. Any drops will boost your level here, so you don’t need to worry much about doing specific activities. The Final Shape trimmed this band down by quite a bit: down to 40 from the usual 150 levels.
Powerful cap (1940 to 1990)
After reaching 1940, players will have a narrower pool of options to choose from if they want to level. The most notable change is that blues and regular world drops won’t boost their Light level past 1940 (or whatever their maximum potential level is). From here on, the only way to boost your drops will be through Powerful and Pinnacle sources. Treat Pinnacle drops as extra Powerful drops until you reach the Pinnacle cap since they’ll give you a bigger boost.
Completing The Final Shape‘s campaign on Legend difficulty will get you a set of 1960-level gear, which puts you 20 points into the Powerful band. This helps you skip some of the grind.
Pinnacle cap/hard cap (1990 to 2000)
This is the last level restriction in Destiny 2, and players can only advance their Power Level through Pinnacle drops until reaching the hard cap. This means players can’t improve their level beyond 2000, but they can artificially boost their Power with the seasonal artifact. Pinnacles will drop two Power Levels above your maximum level. You can also use Powerful drops to obtain at-level gear and potentially even out a character before chasing Pinnacles.
