If there’s one thing we can all agree on about Destiny 2, it’s that it has a lot of menus, where you probably spend lots of time managing all sorts of little things, from bounties to excess inventory, quest tracking, and more. Honestly, I think I spend a quarter of my time with Destiny not shooting aliens or exploring the surface of Europa or Nessus but just trudging through unintuitive menus laden with tabs and subpages.
But there’s a better way to play Destiny! All you need is an iOS or Android device. If you’re already a regular user of the Destiny companion app, then I don’t need to sing its praises to you, though it’s worth noting that with the Prismatic class introduced in Destiny 2’s latest expansion, The Final Shape, the app is arguably more useful than ever. For those who aren’t acquainted with how it dramatically improves and streamlines the experience of playing Bungie’s sci-fi shooter (especially on PlayStation and Xbox), let me outline a few excellent use cases for this more-than-handy tool.
This guide will only cover app functions that let you manage bounties and inventory. Clan and fireteam management, as well as other social features, are outside the scope of this piece.
Easily manage your Prismatic build in-app
Destiny 2’s The Final Shape introduced a new subclass: Prismatic. It arguably has way more options for builds than any subclass before, letting you mix and match different powers from the original solar, arc, void, stasis, and strand subclasses.
But Destiny’s menu structure, with its sluggish cursor and pop-up cards, can be an assault on the senses at times. Enter the companion app, which makes sorting all the different abilities, aspects, and fragments far more manageable.
Select the Guardian tab on the bottom row of icons on the Destiny companion app and choose which of your guardians (if you have more than one) you want to manage. You’ll be brought to a new page where you can change up your inventory (more on that in a bit) and your subclass. Tap on Prismatic and you’ll see a scrollable list of every element of the Prismatic class divided across Abilities, Super, Transcendence, Aspects, and Fragments. There’s even a bit of lore tucked in at the bottom of this page that’s way easier to read on your phone than on your TV screen.
Tapping on each part of the class will take you to another screen that lets you swap out various parts of your Prismatic builds in real time, without needing to ever open up the screen in the game itself.
Manage your loadouts and inventory without going to the vault or the postmaster
Destiny sure loves throwing tons of loot at you. It’s kinda the point of the game. Managing all of it from the game alone is (and this is a technical term) really fucking tedious. So let’s take a look at a few use cases when it comes to sorting through your junk.
Note that while you can sort and spec out your inventory in the companion app, you cannot dismantle weapons and armor from it. You’ll still need to do that in the game.
Edit weapon mods easily
Just like with speccing out your subclass, you can also use the Destiny app to swap up your perks, weapon mods, armor mods, and cosmetic shaders.
Under the Guardian tab, select the guardian you wish to edit and you’ll see a list of everything you have equipped or in your inventory. Tap on a given gun or piece of armor and you’ll see options to alter its various mods and perks.
Again, this not only saves you a tremendous amount of time and needless menu-diving in the actual game itself, but it can also help you sort your items as well.
Send and retrieve things to/from your inventory (or to other Guardians of yours) from/to your vault in a flash
On the same screen that shows you your subclasses and inventory, you’ll see a full list of all kinetic, energy, and power weapons equipped and in your current inventory. Tap on any given one and you’ll see the ability to lock a weapon, as well as transfer it either to your vault or to another Guardian of yours.
You can also check out what the postmaster has waiting for you on this screen by scrolling horizontally along the top bar to “postmaster.” Note that some items will still require you to actually go to a social hub to retrieve them, but most guns and armor do not.
If you want to pull items from your vault, navigate back to the “Guardian” section of the app that lets you choose one of your Guardians and tap “Vault.” It will display all items in your vault, letting you easily grab something and send it to your inventory.
Pick up new bounties and view what active quests and challenges you have
Under “Director” you’ll find a selection of very handy utilities and bits of information which, like a lot of other things on this app, are easier to read and make sense of on your phone than by navigating Destiny’s in-game menus.
Grab new bounties
Under “Vendors,” you’ll get a list of all vendors in the game. Selecting any of them will show you their current shop inventory (though sadly you’ll need to visit them in person to actually buy anything) and any available bounties. Fortunately, you can grab bounties right in the app either from a vendor or under the “Bounties” menu available under the “Director Page.” These will be assigned to you in real time so long as you’re in orbit (but not while on a planet or in a social hub). So if you clear a bunch while playing and want to snag some new ones, you won’t need to visit these vendors in person.
Note that completing and “claiming” a bounty still requires you to do so via Destiny’s in-game menus. So while you can snag a bounty that asks you to destroy 15 Vex Harpies on Nessus, after doing so you’ll still need to “claim” that bounty in the game, not the app.
More easily see what quests and activities are available to you
Have you tried navigating Destiny’s in-game quests menu? It’s a nightmare. Fortunately, choosing “Pursuits” under the “Director” page in the app will show you a more compact, easily navigated list of every bounty, quest, and challenge you have available. Tapping on any given quest will give you a more detailed breakdown of your current progress and objectives.
Like with bounties, however, you will still need to “claim” completed seasonal challenges in Destiny’s in-game menus. You also can’t track a quest from the app. So while you can’t avoid Destiny’s quest menus in-game completely, you’ll at least have an easier time knowing what to look for and only need to go into them when you want to track a specific quest or claim a challenge.
Destiny 2 has only gotten more complex over the years. Fortunately, the companion app is more than just a tool for managing the game’s social features and checking on Bungie’s blog updates.
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