How To Get Legendary Shards Destiny 2

How to farm Legendary Shards in Destiny 2

Learn how to farm Legendary Shards in Destiny 2, because you never know when Bungie is going to find a reason to make you spend them all.

Legendary Shards are one of the primary currencies players rely on in Destiny 2. With so many mechanics in the game requiring shards (specifically infusing gear), it can be easy to start running low. For this reason, farming up a healthy supply of Legendary Shards is often a top priority for a lot of players. If you don't have a lot of time to play and want to get as many shards as possible, consider using some of the following methods to farm Legendary Shards.

Last updated on January 10, 2020 at 11:00 p.m. PDT.

Purge the Vault

The best place to start hunting for Legendary Shards is somewhere that you probably don't pay a lot of attention to, which is your vault. If you're like my fireteam, you keep loads of junk in there that you'll not need again.

While players may have been reticent to "shard" items in the past out of fear of them potentially becoming must-use items, the sunsetting of weapons from previous Seasons alleviates this stress. Weapons from a few Seasons ago have their max Power capped, meaning they are no longer viable in endgame content. Furthermore, armor you like the look of will be available for transmog in the future.

All this is to say go ahead and delete anything in your Vault you no longer want. Be as ruthless as you can. It's okay. You don't need Midnight Coup anymore.

Gunsmith Materials

If you're like me, and I hope you are, you have several stacks of 999 Gunsmith Materials sitting in your vault. I like to keep about 3,000 or so on hand, but some players have more. If you're desperate for those Legendary Shards, turn them in to Banshee-44. If you have 3,000, that will get you 30 packages from the Gunsmith, which will be 30 weapons minimum, and theoretically that will turn into 90 or more Legendary Shards. Be on the lookout for Truthteller, though, which is possibly replacing Mountaintop when it gets sunset next season.

Dismantle Shaders

Should you have stacks of 40 or 50 Legendary shaders, consider purging them into stacks of 20, as you probably won't need more than that in the short term. Head to Master Rahool in the Tower and start dismantling shaders that will give you Legendary Shards. Thirty shaders from a single unwanted stack will turn into 30 Legendary Shards. I made 185 Legendary Shards in two minutes using this method. Feel free to blow up anything you find ugly and wouldn't be caught dead in.

Planetary tokens

Once again, I like to save resources that I don't need to spend now, so I found myself walking around with tokens for most of the NPC representatives on each planet. In some cases, I had more than 500 tokens. Turning in 500 tokens to Failsafe, for example, would result in 25 packages from her, which would result in a minimum of 75 Legendary Shards if you blew up everything she gave you, and that's not including the shaders you'd also acquire. If you're hoarding tokens but desperately need Legendary Shards, turn them in so you can blow up the gear. This is especially true for any planet that's being removed after Season of Arrivals.

Visit Spider

As someone who always keeps thousands of Legendary Shards on hand, Spider is a daily visit for me. He will often sell planetary materials for Legendary Shards, but he also sells Legendary Shards for Glimmer. If you have 250,000 Glimmer, consider buying a few Legendary Shards from Spider. 100,000 will get you 20 Legendary Shards. Only use Spider for Legendary Shards if you're about to jump into a raid and need to infuse something right now. Spider should not be used on a large scale if you're in need of Legendary Shards.

Legendary Shard Dismantle Bonus

For those that pay for the season pass in Destiny 2, sometimes there is a boon available called Legendary Shard Dismantle Bonus. This means that if you are dismantling Legendary gear, you get four Legendary Shards instead of three. If you are dismantling Exotic gear, you get six Legendary Shards instead of five. I wouldn't buy the seaosn pass for this reason alone, obviously, but it's a cool perk if you're already planning to pick it up. It's also a benefit that will likely prevent you from running out of Legendary Shards in the future, since you'll gain hundreds more than you would have without this benefit.

Play Destiny 2

I really hate this one, but it's true. You can't possibly get thousands of Legendary Shards without playing the game for hundreds of hours and spending your resources wisely. There might be things you can do, but for those to be available (such as turning in 3,000 Gunsmith Materials), you must play the game and earn resources for trade.

Now that you have a decent handle on how to farm Legendary Shards, visit the Destiny 2 strategy guide for more help with everything a Guardian could need.

Bill, who is also known as Rumpo, is a lifelong gamer and Toronto Maple Leafs fan. He is known for his guide writing and, unsettlingly enough, enjoys grinding out in-depth collectible articles. Tweet him @RumpoPlays if you have a question or comment about one of his guides.