How to increase your Guardian Rank in Destiny 2

Guardian Ranks are a new core system that was introduced to Destiny 2 with the Lightfall expansion. Designed to provide a better path of progression for players both new and old, Guardian Ranks offer a variety of challenges that allow Guardians to prove their worth on the battlefield. There are 11 Guardian Ranks in total and many rewards to collect along the way toward reaching your maximum potential.

Whether you’re just starting Destiny 2 for the first time with Lightfall or you’re a veteran already sitting with six Guardian Ranks to your name, it’s important to know what this new leveling system is and how to progress within it. Fortunately, Bungie has made Guardian Ranks an easily accessible element of the game.

Understanding what your next move is to increase your Guardian Rank only takes a few clicks in the right direction, and each challenge you take on will help to hone your Destiny 2 skills for the future.

Increasing your Guardian Rank in Destiny 2, explained

To increase your Guardian Rank, you will need to complete all challenges that are associated with the next Rank available to you. These challenges can be found in the in-game Journey tab, where the Guardian Rank system now resides alongside Triumphs and Titles. Here, you can see what your current Guardian Rank is and click on the Guardian Rank you’re currently working on to see your progress on it.

Once you open a Guardian Rank, you will be able to browse all the challenges tied to it and even track the ones that you decide to work on first at any given time. When you first access the system in Lightfall, an auto-tracking toggle will be turned on by default, but you can turn this off if you would prefer to manually pick what challenges to do.

Early Guardian Ranks focus on simple challenges surrounding the free-to-play experience—things like completing the New Light quest and exploring destinations like the EDZ. As you get deeper into the Guardian Ranks, challenges transition into tasks around buildcrafting and higher-level content. Most Veteran players will have challenges around current seasonal content to tackle if they wish to raise their Guardian Rank above six.

You will only be able to view the challenges for your next Guardian Rank, though, with any Guardian Ranks beyond that having their challenges blocked out until they are available for you to take on.