The Cryptarch! His knowledge is legendary, but his stinginess with engrams may eclipse that when Guardians reflect years from now, on how their blue treasures were naught but cheap baubles when deciphered.
Loot makes the world go round, and it’s pretty much the economy of Destiny. Whether you’re after some Legendary armour to help raise your light, or an Exotic within which to place an exotic shard, this is what keeps Destiny rolling on.
And getting that gear in Destiny, will always come down to sheer luck. I’d heard multiple stories about the mythic rarity of good gear that the Cryptarch would sometimes bestow on Guardians. So I decided to do some investigating, and see for myself.
Which took me on a journey of engram-collecting, where I gathered 101 pieces for the Tower and Reef cryptarchs to decode. Here are my results:
- Nine torso armour pieces
- Eight leg armour pieces
- Twelve arm armour pieces
- Thirteen helmets
- Seventeen primary weapons
- Nine special weapons
- Ten heavy weapons
- Ten marks
- Four Strange Coins
- Nine Motes of Light
Of all those engrams, only one of them yielded a legendary item into my hands, in the form of some torso armour. Still, I got a good deal of motes of light, and even a handful of Strange Coins along the way.
There is of course, no rhyme or reason to the Cryptarch. Maybe you’re lucky. Maybe you get the gear that you have been searching for, for so many years. And I still had fun. Whether I was watching engrams pop up from a dead Fallen captain in Destiny, looking for a treasure chest after surviving a House of Wolves raiding party or blind luck, it was kinda neat.
Also, that cryptarch really is a bastard.
Last Updated: July 13, 2015
Igor Swann
July 14, 2015 at 06:14
I think I am somewhere between cryptarch level 28 to 30 now, I have never decoded a Legendary except from the legendary engram you get when leveling the cryptarch, I have also only picked up 2 legendary engrams in many hundreds of hours roaming this game, one of these gave strange coins and the other a blue item.
But hey one day I will find my pretty purple unicorn 🙂
Stosta
July 14, 2015 at 06:57
Great soundtrack Darryn!
Warren Leibbrandt
July 14, 2015 at 08:28
Darryn, if you want sweet legendary gear, do the dragon strikes. there is a must have shotgun called Dry Rot. like a mini fourth horseman. also a really cool pulse rifle called hopscotch pilgram. good for PvP. i did about 10 dragon strikes last night and the night before and have gotten, a legendary helmet, legendary sniper rifle, legendary fusion rifle, legendary machine gun. Dragon strikes are where its at.
The D
July 14, 2015 at 10:50
I got Dry Rot! It was a Crucible drop for me. But I’ll try this Dragon Strike out.
Nikola
July 14, 2015 at 08:29
1 legendary whaaat?? You just super unlucky I am sorry hahaha!
Dawid Eduard Roestorf
July 14, 2015 at 09:24
Just before HOW launched, I had a lot of engrams from farming for keys (about 140) all decoded in the first 15 minutes of the HOW launch. From all of that, I did not get a single legendary. So consider yourself lucky.
As for the cryptarch, my main has him at lvl65. I have stopped farming for engrams tbh. Only really decode purple items now.
Francois Knoetze
July 14, 2015 at 09:53
Ok seriously this is just pure oddness. my friend and I have been playing Destiny religiously for the past few weeks. in my first year I rarely got a legendary engram and decoded it to something special. but I got 2 legendary guns out of it. He on the other hand keeps getting purple engrams and decodes them to legendary gear!! 2 in 24 hours and he just got the game. I get hardly any drops in my playthroughs. I swear they dropping more for people that just started than those that haven’t.