[*]Once you are level 28 you can probably solo the Nightfall each week. Just look up strategies for soloing it each week (there are plenty of videos) and be as cautious as you can. It's brutal, but the promise of a guaranteed valuable reward is worth it.
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I got only the dead orbit assault rifle for soloing last week's nightfall, so no, it is NOT a guaranteed valuable reward :-p

This all took place over less than an hour - so in an hour, I earned 4 ascendant shards and 3 ascendant energy. Totally new experience for me. ;)

Woah, I might have to change up my strategy then. I assumed you could only get Motes and Coins from additional gold tiers because that's all I have gotten. I got a craving for more Ascendants!

Though I definitely know that you get jack when you try to take on a Kill Target event solo and the damn guy's shield is never down for more than a second...

Legendary engrams aren't supposed to be common-- they're supposed to be less common than "rare". I don't think it is supposed to be the primary channel for the acquisition of legendary or better weapons. I've bought most of mine.

Yeah, just realized all four Titan builds I use are armor bought from Zavala and Xur. All the weapons are from leveling up factions or the VoG, save The Comedian.

Haven't found it that bad to acquire my little armory of doom.

[*]Play ONE Public Event for gold tier each day. Again, Ascendant Material.

A couple of nights ago, I was just hanging out on patrol - stumbled into 4 public events.

The first one was a take down the target - we did, gold tier, there were two ascendant shards waiting for me at the Postmaster.

The second was a Devil Walker, we golded it, I got two ascendant energy (on-site).

The third was another target - gold again, I was awarded two ascendant shards (on-site).

The fourth was a warsat - again, gold, and this one gave me one ascendant energy.

This all took place over less than an hour - so in an hour, I earned 4 ascendant shards and 3 ascendant energy. Totally new experience for me. ;)

destinypublicevents.com

Also, bounties. Do lots of bounties; not only do they level up your rep and provide bonus XP, but if you turn in enough completed bounties you'll trigger an Exotic weapon bounty; that's how I got Super Good Advice, Pocket Infinity, and the option to chase after Thorn and Bad Juju though I gave up on those due to their Crucible requirements.

Good advice. Super good, even.

I can't speak to Thorn, but the bounties for Invective and Bad Juju both have Crucible requirements, but they are not nearly as difficult to attain as you'd think looking at them.

The one for Invective requires a cumulative k/d ratio of 25 across any number of games, but the calculation process is so weird that I accumulated points even in games where my ratio was negative, and I accumulated a lot in games where I was positive. I think it may be counting the maximum ratio attained at any point during a game.

The bounty for Bad Juju just requires kills; deaths don't detract. Play a few dozen games and you'll get them even if you're losing.

It helps to have a Suros Regime without the Focus Fire "upgrade".

Yes, that’s right a gambling problem. Instead of losing money, I’m losing time. I stayed up until 4am on both Friday and Saturday night playing Destiny. What did I get for it? Nothing.

This is a very enticing game Bungie, kudos. The promise that the next engram dropped could be a Legendary. The lure that the blue engram I’m carrying around could contain a legendary item. Complete this strike and you could get something great.

The sad part is that not one of those things ever happen. No, what happens is I grind away saving Vanguard marks and buying armor to increase my level. In the hopes that maybe by increasing my level the drops and rewards will get better. Do they? I have no idea, from my stand point they never do.

You'd have been better of just spending the marks on vanguard weapons, or collecting strange coins to buy exotic weapons and motes to get exotic armor from Xur. I've had two blue engrams turn into legendary weapons, but I realize that doesn't happen to everyone. Remember to pick up bounties and turn in engrams and you should end up getting some purple engrams either as part of vanguard or cryptarch upgrade packages-- as well as getting a chance for an exotic weapon bounty (I've done three so far and have one more in progress across two characters).

Sorry to hear you're not having fun.

Legendary engrams aren't supposed to be common-- they're supposed to be less common than "rare". I don't think it is supposed to be the primary channel for the acquisition of legendary or better weapons. I've bought most of mine.

[*]Play ONE Public Event for gold tier each day. Again, Ascendant Material.

A couple of nights ago, I was just hanging out on patrol - stumbled into 4 public events.

The first one was a take down the target - we did, gold tier, there were two ascendant shards waiting for me at the Postmaster.

The second was a Devil Walker, we golded it, I got two ascendant energy (on-site).

The third was another target - gold again, I was awarded two ascendant shards (on-site).

The fourth was a warsat - again, gold, and this one gave me one ascendant energy.

This all took place over less than an hour - so in an hour, I earned 4 ascendant shards and 3 ascendant energy. Totally new experience for me. ;)

So far, only got Asc. Energy out of them... Now I'm set on leveling up a Vanguard helmet/boot/chest armor to shard it. Can anyone confirm if they all give out the same amount or if helmets give more?

Yeah, sometimes you'll get streaks of the same type. But two everyday and you will eventually get tons of both, it's just and RNG thing. The real worth is in the weekly strike and Nightfall. I used the daileys to build up a high enough level and weapon damage to pull of the weeklies with ease and the Nightfalls with . . . well, not ease.

Basically, in order to keep leveling up once you are around level 27, it is best to stick to the same couple activities to gain levels.

• Level 28 version of the Daily Heroic mission. Upping the difficulty to 28 guarantees you 2 ascendant materials. As those are your life blood for leveling up Legendaries, you have to get every one you can.
  
• Play ONE Public Event for gold tier each day. Again, Ascendant Material.
  
• Level 28 version of the Weekly Strike. 9(!) Strange Coins!!! per week guaranteed. Be ready for Xur :)

So far, only got Asc. Energy out of them... Now I'm set on leveling up a Vanguard helmet/boot/chest armor to shard it. Can anyone confirm if they all give out the same amount or if helmets give more?

All from PvE bounties though. Are they separated out depending on the Bounty type that triggered it?

No, I've been able to get all but one of the exotic weapon bounties now and I think they have ll come when I have turned in four or more vanguard bounties at the same time..

and that they refresh every 24hrs if you don't like the options available.

Woah, I did not know that. Darn, I probably wouldn't have gone with Super Good Advice had I known that :/

Ooh, sorry, miscommunication on my part; I know the *regular* bounties refresh every 24hrs, but not if the Exotics do.

-- Steve suspects they don't, but doesn't know that for certain either.