Armor Charge can be a confusing thing to newer players who weren’t around when they were added to the game.
Today, we will go over how Armor Charges work, along with the many ways you can use them in your day-to-day gaming sessions.
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Armor Charges are used by Armor Mods in Destiny 2 to grant you a variety of gameplay enhancements, including increased stats, ability regeneration, and weapon damage.
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What is Armor Charge Used For in Destiny 2?
In an attempt to make build crafting more unique and engaging in Destiny 2, Bungie replaced Charged with Light with Armor Charges.
Armor Charges take advantage of Armor Mods to enhance your overall gameplay while you have Armor Charges active.
Before we go over exactly how to use Armor Charges, you should know how to get Armor Charges. The simplest way to gain an Armor Charge is to pick up an Orb of Power.
There are quite a few different Mods that generate Orbs of Power.
- Siphon Mods: These Mods create Orbs of Power after getting multiple kills with a weapon that matches the Mods chosen damage type, Solar, Arc, Void, Stasis, Strand, and Kinetic.
- Heavy Handed: Generates an Orb of Power after a powered melee final blows.
- Firepower: Generates an Orb of Power after a grenade final blow.
- Reaper: Getting a final blow shortly after using your Class Ability will generate an Orb of Power.
- Seasonal Mods: Every Season will usually bring with it a new way to generate Orbs of Power with a new Artifact Mod.
You can also create Orbs of Power when casting your Super ability. After creating an Orb of Power and picking it up, you will gain an Armor Charge.
Normally, you can hold up to a maximum of three Armor Charges.
Armor charges are used by a variety of different Armor Mods to grant you enhanced stats, increased damage, resistances, and overall gameplay enhancements.
There are three types of Mods that play into Armor Charges.
Yellow Armor Mods
Yellow Armor Mods consume Armor Charges in order to activate a special effect.
Some Yellow Armor Mods will consume a set amount of Armor Charges upon activation, while others will consume every Armor Charge you have to give you an enhanced effect for every Armor Charge consumed.
Many of these Mods can be stacked, granting increased potency with diminishing returns.
Here is a list of Yellow Armor Mods:
- Grenade Kickstart: Grants Grenade Ability energy after using your grenade ability. Increased energy gains for every Armor Charge consumed.
- Melee Kickstart: Grants Melee Ability energy after using your powered melee ability. Increased energy gains for every Armor Charge consumed.
- Utility Kickstart: Grants Class Ability energy after using your powered melee ability. Increased energy gains for every Armor Charge consumed.
- Emergency Reinforcement: After your shield breaks, you will consume all Armor Charges to gain temporary damage reduction based on the amount of Armor Charges consumed.
- Finisher Mods: Activates upon using your finisher move. These mods require a minimum of three Armor Charges to activate. Their effects range from health regeneration and Ability regeneration to ammo generation. Benevolent Finisher will spawn Orbs of Power for your allies.
Blue Armor Mods
Blue Armor Mods provide you with passive bonuses so long as you have at least one Armor Charge.
Having a Blue Armor Mod equipped will cause your Amor Charges to decay over 10 seconds per Charge.
This means at three Armor Charges. You will maintain at least one Armor Charge for 30 seconds if you do not replenish any.
You will gain the benefits of every Blue Armor Mod you have equipped so long as you have an Armor Charge. These Blue Armor Mods include:
- Weapon Surges: These Armor Mods grant you increased damage to any weapon that shares a damage type with your chosen Mod, Solar, Arc, Void, Stasis, Strand, and Kinetic. This damage increase is enhanced for every Weapon Surge you have equipped with diminishing returns of 10% for one Mod, 17% for two, and 22% for three Mods.
- Fonts: These Mods grant you an additional 30 points in the chosen Stat of Mobility, Resilience, Recovery, Strength, Discipline, Intellect, or Strength.
Green Armor Mods
Green Armor Mods give you additional ways to gain Armor Charges while providing passive benefits for Yellow and Blue Armor Mods.
These Mods include:
- Time Dilation: Extends the duration of decaying Armor Charges to 15 seconds instead of 10 seconds.
- Charged Up: Increased the maximum amount of Armor Charges you can carry by one. These Mods stack, meaning you can increase your maximum Armor Charge to six Charges.
- Stacks on Stacks: Picking up an Orb of Power grants you an additional Armor Charge.
- Shield Break Charge: Breaking an enemy’s shield with a weapon that matches the shield’s elemental damage type will grant you an Armor Charge.
- Elemental Charge: Picking up an Elemental Pickup has a chance to grant you an Armor Charge.
- Empowered Finish: Grants an Armor Charge on finisher final blows if you have no Armor Charges.
- Radiant Light: Casting your Super Ability grants nearby allies an Armor Charge. Allies with different subclass elements will gain two Armor Charges.
- Powerful Friends: Picking up an Orb of Power will grant nearby allies an Armor Charge as well.
- Powerful Attraction: Automatically picks up nearby Orbs of Power when activating your Class Ability.
Build Crafting Explained
All of these Amor Mods together allow for quite a bit of customization when it comes to build crafting.
Each build will consist of at least one Mod that generates Orbs of Power, most commonly SIphon Mods, along with any number of Mods that take advantage of these Armor Charges to enhance your typical gameplay loop.
There are plenty of chances to personalize your build to fit your playstyle. As each of these Mods will take up Energy Slots on your armor, it is important to try and specialize to make the most of your Energy Slots.
For example, grenade-centric builds will use Grenade Kickstart paired with Font of Focus in order to keep their Grenade Ability fully charged and ready at all times.
Guardians who are low on stats can utilize the many different Font Mods paired with Time Dilation to give them an increase to their stats so long as they maintain an Armor Charge. Pair this with any Siphon Mod to have a near-infinite stat boost.
While Armor Charges are very commonly used in PvE, they aren’t as common in PvP, as you have limited options in terms of Orbs of Power generation.
These Mods can still come into play for certain builds, though they aren’t as reliable in 3v3 game modes.
Outside of specialized builds, many players will default to using Weapon Surge Mods in order to increase their damage for DPS phases during Raids and Dungeons.
If you don’t have a particular build in mind, this is a great route to take.
Now you are ready to take full advantage of Armor Charges using Armor Mods!
Do you still have any questions about Armor Charges or any of the Armor Mods? Feel free to let me know in the comments!
