Destiny The Taken King - Where to Get Legendary Marks
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destiny
Now that Bungie have done away with Vanguard Marks you're going to need legendary Marks in The Taken King to purchase new Legendary armour and weapons.
These new marks are also used for a variety of other features like Infusing weapons to build stronger forms and buying Legendary engrams from the Cryptarch. There's no avoiding the need for Legendary Marks in The Taken King - they play an integrated role in Light progression.
Important: One of the significant changes in this expansion is that marks are now shared account wide; no more 3 character tricks to increase your weekly marks.
Exchanging your Vanguard Marks
Bungie clearly learnt from the previous expansions. Players used to horde a tonne of Daily Reward Packages and Commendations just before the next DlC was released and then cash them in on release day. This time around players receive nothing in return for their stashed packages besides materials, motes and if you're lucky some coins.
You can exchange your old Vanguard Marks in return for materials from the class vendors but there is NO direct conversion to Legendary Marks. This leaves nothing but hard work to attain them.
Crucible
Upon starting The Taken King you'll have a grand total of zero Legendary Marks and the game doesn't give these away willy-nilly. Strike playlists are locked behind a high Light Score of at least 260 and although you can play a little earlier than this these activities won't be available until later on.
The best chance you've got for earning Legendary Marks early is to play the "Daily" Crucible type. What I mean by this is the Crucible mode shown on the orbital map screen, bottom left.
The Daily mode will reward up to 15 marks per day and for the first week the chosen mode is Rift. Complete 5-6 of these daily matches and you'll have enough marks for a legendary armour piece from your Vanguard mentor in the Tower.
Unlike Vanguard activities you won't be judged on your level or light stats before entering the Crucible. Even if you don't like the Crucible there's a lot of value in playing now that Crucible marks have been combined into Legendary Marks - guess this was Bungie's way to tempt us all in.
Quests
Some of the Quest steps in The Taken King offer rewards in the form of Legendary Marks. The following table shows which Quests (and steps) will reward you with guaranteed Legendary Marks - these are a one off reward so stake your claim early before moving on to other activities.
| Quest Name | Step # | Legendary Marks |
|---|
| The Vanguard's Hand | 1 | 25 |
| Neverending Battle | 3 | 25 |
| The Taken War - Venus | 1 | 20 |
| The Taken War - Earth | 1 | 20 |
| The Taken War - Mars | 1 | 20 |
Daily Mission
![Taken King - Daily Mission]()
Next up is the Daily Mission which also rewards Legendary Marks in return for successful completion. The recommended Light Score is 240 and it's completely unplayable before you reach at least 200 Light .
Don't be fooled into thinking this mission is easy though, it's still the high level Heroic version of a random story mission. You can only complete the mission once per day for the rewards so we need something more substantial for more marks - thus onto the next choice.
Heroic Strikes
![The Taken King - Heroic Strike Playlist]()
Next up we have the strike playlist. Not including the two legacy playlists, players can earn 10 Legendary Marks for every strike completed, with the added bonus of a guaranteed Legendary engram (up to three times a week).
The requirements for the Heroic Strike are 260 Light but you can safely unlock the playlist with around 230 Light. Just bare in mind that it will be insanely difficult without the right weapons and armour.
Bungie have also improved the boss fights in The Taken King with guaranteed BOSS loot which can include anything from Blue to Exotic engrams.
As you can probably guess, the strike playlist is the reliable PvE choice for gaining Legendary Marks on a regular basis.
Dismantling Legendary Weapons
There's one final way to earn guaranteed Legendary Marks but before you start dismantling all your Year 1 Legendary gear, hold up! This option only works for Year 2 Legendary's and thus is only really a choice later in the game. The last thing you'll want to do is start dismantling gear that's safely increasing your Light Score.
Every unlevelled Legendary piece will convert to 3 Marks, whilst a fully upgraded piece of gear yields 4-5 marks.