This guide covers the fastest ways to get Tier 5 gear in Destiny 2's Renegades expansion. You'll find everything from solo Pinnacle Ops farming to maxing out your Lawless Frontier loot drops. Grind Galhran for pinnacle rewards, fill out your gear collection, or just farm efficiently with the strategies below.
Understanding the Tier 5 Upgrade System
The Spider's Offering
After finishing the Renegades campaign, you'll notice something frustrating: everything drops as Tier 4 loot. Even with A+ ratings and 550+ power level, your preview rewards still show only Tier 4 gear. This system mirrors Edge of Fate, but thankfully, Renegades makes the upgrade much easier to get.
Spider at the Outpost sells an upgrade that boosts all your loot tier drops by one level. Once you buy it, those Tier 4 drops become Tier 5 drops across every activity.
Fast Syndicate Leveling Strategy
Choosing Your Syndicate
Pick whichever syndicate you like. The specific faction doesn't matter for the unlock. Just commit to one and dump all your rep into it until you hit Rank 5, then spread progress across the others if you want.
Optimal Reputation Farming Method
Jobs in the Lawless Frontier give the best rep gains, specifically the repeatable contracts. You'll see three repeatable contracts available at once (one per faction). Only do contracts for your chosen syndicate since each completion awards 160 rep. After you finish one, a new contract spawns, so always pick jobs that match your active contract.
Beyond the base contract rep, you'll pull in significant bonus reputation from Dark Matter. Every 10 Dark Matter converts to 100 rep, and side events during jobs drop 30-40 Dark Matter per run. In contested lands, kill invaders and grab their loot boxes for Dark Matter, scrap, and other materials. When you turn in materials after job completion, expect big Dark Matter payouts.
| Syndicate | Faction Type | Best For |
|---|---|---|
| Totality Division | Cabal | Best overall abilities, fastest progression |
| Tharsis Reformation | Vex | Melee-heavy builds, sword play |
| Pikers | Eliksni | Ranged players, defensive builds |
Time Investment
With focused farming, you can hit Rank 5 in about 10-15 hours spread across 1-2 days. That's way better than Edge of Fate's grind.
Tier 5 Loot Sources After Upgrade
Lawless Frontier Activities
Once you buy Spider's upgrade, Tier 5 loot becomes standard across multiple activities. Every job drops Tier 5 gear, with event packages giving you 5-6 Tier 5 items per run. More side objectives means more total loot.
Invasions deserve special attention here. All invasion rewards are Tier 5, and Death Marks control how much you get. Pop in with one Death Mark and you'll walk out with one Tier 5 item. Bring three Death Marks and you'll grab three Tier 5 items. Invasions finish in 1-2 minutes, making them the fastest Tier 5 farm when you have Death Marks stockpiled. Run them back-to-back until your marks run out.
Outpost Vendors (Lower Efficiency)
Weapons and armor from Outpost vendors can roll as Tier 5, but it's not guaranteed. The drop rate looks like 10-20%, making vendor purchases way less efficient than just running activities. Skip the vendors unless you're swimming in scrap.
Solo Pinnacle Ops Farming: Six-Minute Galhran Farm
Why This Farm Works
The Nightmare Galhran Pinnacle Op is the most efficient solo pinnacle farm in Renegades right now. Despite recent buffs to enemy health and AI, the right boon combinations and strategy let you clear it consistently in six minutes.
The encounter works great solo with an average clear time of six minutes. You'll get Tier 5 gear drops and it's good for farming multiple weapons and armor pieces. All three classes can run it with the right builds. Galhran got buffed recently, with higher enemy health and better AI, but the strategy here accounts for these changes.
Activity Modifiers and Scoring
Turn off Equipment Locked for faster clears. This cuts completion time significantly and you can still hit score requirements without it. Run Pressure Cooker with all equipment unrestricted and No Radar active. Keep Normal stat and Normal ammo needs on since they're required. Brawn is recommended for all classes along with Extinction for revives. Add Beans Hot Step and Cabal Scorch to round out your modifiers.
Warlock Build: Song of Flame Solar Setup
This build lets you clear in six minutes consistently while keeping you alive through devour chains and healing. Run Song of Flame as your super with Phoenix Dive for your class ability. Arcane Needle handles melee while Cold Snap and Lightning Surge cover your grenades. Devour is your aspect.
Exotic Armor
Felwinter's Helm gives a 30% weakening debuff, nearly matching Mobius Quiver's power. This exotic brings more to the table than just the debuff, making it valuable even when you don't strictly need the weakening effect.
Weapons
Wolfsbane is your main boss DPS tool. This solar sword melts Galhran in 10-15 seconds with proper buffs. You need Attrition Orbs mod equipped since it lets you stack triple Solar weapon surge by diving. Mint Retrograde fills your energy slot for the main combat phase.
Damage Stacking Explanation
The build hits ridiculous damage numbers by stacking multiple buffs that multiply together. Radiant comes from melee or Solar sources. Triple Solar weapon surge comes from Attrition Orbs. Facet of Dawn provides your Solar ability buff. Felwinter's Helm adds the 30% weakening debuff. Full Throttle gives that 100% buff at max stacks. Heavyweight boosts heavy weapon damage. Devour triggers void artifact debuff on enemies through Wolfsbane hits.
All these buffs multiply together for massive damage output and quick boss kills. This is why Wolfsbane has climbed in the current sword meta despite competition from other options.
Alternative Class Builds
Mobius Quiver super with the same boon requirements and weapon recommendations (Wolfsbane for DPS) will melt Galhran extremely fast. With the 100% damage buff from Full Throttle, the damage potential is extremely strong with this setup.
Run Banner of War aspect with Wolfsbane and the same boon requirements (Heavyweight, Full Throttle, Live Wire). Use the same modifier recommendations from the Warlock build. Titans will destroy Galhran with this setup, potentially even faster than Warlock depending on execution.
Encounter Strategy: Step-by-Step
Preparation Phase
- Complete optional rocket jump tech or take standard entry path
- Swap to combat loadout after initial movement sequence
- Start building nanite progress on Wolfsbane during prep
- Shoot bell behind you to advance and begin add clearing
Add Clear and Symbol Management
Use Wolfsbane's axe form to clear the initial add waves. The axe heals you, making up for times when Devour isn't active. Brawn is highly recommended for Warlock play, especially with Devour. The axe counters Brawn's downside by giving health back and generating Attrition Orbs.
Kill initial add waves and target Scions to get symbols (Cup or other types). Pick up your first symbol and keep clearing adds while watching your Full Throttle stacks. Your goal is hitting about 80 stacks before boss DPS. Less skilled players should aim for 70-80 stacks minimum. Higher skilled players can work with 50-70 stacks, but damage falloff is harsh without good timing, so even veterans should aim for 70+ stacks.
Boss Damage Phase (10-15 Second Kill)
The damage sequence is time-sensitive, so execute it quickly. Pick up Nightmare Collapse (or similar nightmare enemy drop) to get your Unstable Essence buff against the boss. This buff lasts 10 seconds. Debuff Galhran with Arcane Needle melee, pop Song of Flame super, then use nanite assault with Wolfsbane. Execute your sword combo as Light, Light, Heavy (NOT Heavy, Light, Light).
With proper execution, Galhran dies in about 10-15 seconds despite his recent health buff. All three classes can hit similar kill times by keeping Heavyweight boon active, stacking Full Throttle to 70-80, using debuffs (Felwinter's Helm, Banner of War, Mobius Quiver), and timing your Unstable Essence buff correctly.
Loot Acquisition Rates
Expected Gear Volume
After unlocking Spider's upgrade, Tier 5 loot drops constantly. Per Lawless Frontier job, you'll get 5-6 Tier 5 items from event completions plus more items from optional objectives. Loot drops nonstop.
Getting the weapon rolls you want happens very fast. Within just a few hours of focused farming, you can grab practically every weapon roll you want from the Lawless Frontier loot pool. Armor takes longer to farm than weapons, but still moves at a good pace with the Tier 5 upgrade active.
- Fast unlock compared to Edge of Fate
- Consistent Tier 5 drops across all activities
- Death Mark invasions offer 1-2 minute farm runs
- Weapon collection completes in hours not weeks
- Requires 10-15 hours of syndicate grinding first
- Vendor purchases remain inefficient (10-20% Tier 5 rate)
- Pinnacle Ops require specific weekly boons
- Acquisition may be too fast for long-term retention
Farming Efficiency Concerns
There's a potential long-term pacing issue with how fast gear acquisition happens. The system was originally built around power level resets, where most of the grind came from reaching the Tier 5 threshold. Once you hit that threshold, gear drops like crazy.
Edge of Fate took way too long to reach Tier 5, while Renegades gives you a very quick unlock that might be too fast. The sweet spot probably falls somewhere between these two extremes. Without the buildup period to Tier 5 status, player retention might suffer because people complete their gearing goals so quickly.
Summary and Recommendations
Fastest Path to Tier 5 Gear
Finish the Renegades campaign, then pick one syndicate for focused rep gains. Farm Lawless Frontier repeatable contracts while sticking to your chosen syndicate. Complete all optional side objectives for max Dark Matter. Hit Rank 5 (about 10-15 hours of focused play), buy Spider's upgrade from the Outpost, then farm Lawless Frontier jobs or invasions (if you have Death Marks) for fast Tier 5 drops.
Pinnacle Ops Farming
When boon stacking is available (Heavyweight, Full Throttle, Live Wire), farm Nightmare Galhran for six-minute solo pinnacle completions. Use the recommended class builds with Warlock Song of Flame, Titan Banner of War, or Hunter Mobius Quiver. Wolfsbane gives amazing boss DPS with proper buff stacking. Get 70-80 Full Throttle stacks before boss engagement and execute 10-15 second boss kills with good Unstable Essence buff timing.
When boons aren't available, try other pinnacle sources since you can't solo one-cycle Galhran without proper boons.
Long-Term Efficiency
Focus on Lawless Frontier activities instead of vendor purchases for consistent Tier 5 drops. Death Mark invasions give the fastest Tier 5 farming when you have marks available. Expect to finish your weapon collection within a few hours of focused farming once the Tier 5 upgrade is active.