Destiny 2 The Final Shape campaign difficulty options explained: Which is the right one for you?

The Final Shape difficulty modes
The Final Shape is here, and the two difficulty modes are back (Image via Bungie)

As Destiny 2 The Final Shape goes live, players who want to dive into the campaign right away will be faced with two options to tune the difficulty. Like with all Destiny 2 campaigns, you can opt to either 'Be Brave' or 'Become Legend', which essentially corresponds to the 'classic' and 'legendary' difficulty modes.

If you are wondering which one is more worthwhile for your first playthrough and the kind of firepower you should bring for either difficulty level, you have come to the right place.

In this article, we will go over what the two difficulty levels govern in Destiny 2 The Final Shape campaign, and which one might be more suitable for you.


Destiny 2 The Final Shape difficulty options compared: Classic vs Legendary

The two difficulty modes return for Destiny 2 The Final Shape campaign (Image via Bungie)
The two difficulty modes return for Destiny 2 The Final Shape campaign (Image via Bungie)

Before we move on to discuss the campaign difficulty options, note that the 'Legendary' and 'Legend' difficulty modes are two different things in Destiny 2.

Essentially, 'Legendary' is the term more pertinent to The Final Shape campaign, which is the topic of this article. 'Legend', on the other hand, applies to activities such as Nightfalls and Dares of Eternity, which also have the Master and Grandmaster difficulty levels to supersede it.

At any rate, 'Classic' is the greenhorn difficulty level that will give you a smooth experience throughout the length of the campaign in Destiny 2 The Final Shape. It will still help to have more than the recommended gear power level recommended on the difficulty selection menu.

The 'Legendary' variant will have the same enemy density and encounters, except enemies will have higher durability and firepower for their level. The extra enemy health and damage will scale further - multiplicative - if you are going co-op with a Fire Team. Moreover, your gear score will be adjusted to be 15 less than the recommended.

Generally, if you have a well-built spec for The Final Shape, Legendary is far more rewarding. Not only it does amp up the lethal sense of finality for a saga-ending campaign, but you will also be rewarded with level-appropriate Exotic gear for your efforts. From what we have seen, the campaign does not get particularly unbearable even on Legendary.

Beating The Final Shape campaign fully on Legendary mode gets you 1960-level Blue gear for all slots, which is perfect for catching up to the upgraded power curve. This will also get you a long way to the recommended gear score for the new raid, Salvation's Edge.

Note that you can switch the difficulty in between quests if Legendary is too much for you, allowing you to chew through the more tricky encounters in Classic mode. However, overcoming any stage of the campaign in this manner will bar you from the Legendary-mode rewards.

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