(For those who haven't figured this out, and who have my kind of luck) • Leveling above 20 relies on high level [b]armor.[/b] To increase your level you need armor pieces with [b]Light[/b] • The first pieces with light will be blue tier items. • The blue tier armor pieces will have a base light stat near 15 or lower. • Having 15 light on all pieces will not be enough to level above 24. • Now realize you can only have [u]one[/u] [i]exotic[/i] armor piece equipped. Therefore you are now looking for [i]purple (legendary) tier armor.[/i] • Your final armor [i]will consist mostly of legendary pieces.[/i] • You will [i]buy this armor at your vanguard mentor[/i]. You will need VG marks and level [b]two[/b] vanguard rep. (Doesn't need level three).[i] -One exeption applies. See below.-[/i] • You will [i]buy the exotic armor piece from Xür.[/i] You will need 13 strange coin. • [b]Important:[/b] You will see that the base [b]Light[/b] on the legendary armor piece is 18. This is probably not enough to get you above 25. Does this mean you should get [b]other[/b] legendary pieces with more light? -No, actually, what you have to do is [i]level up your armor through its upgrade tree.[/i] It says "upgrades defense" but really it upgrades [b]Light[/b] as well! • You will need: [i]Glimmer, Spinmetal, Relic iron, Helium filament, Spirit bloom, ascendant shard, ascendant energy.[/i] Most, if not all of these can be attained by running around in Patrol and doing missions while you pick up materials AND complete bounties. If you know the schedules of the public events, you can get the rare stuff too. This is one such schedule: http://www.destinypedia.com/Public_Event Doing this also gets you vanguard rep. (thats where the missions and bounties come in). • Do a bunch of [i]strikes[/i] on as high a level as possible for you. And the weekly, and the daily. This gets you the vanguard marks you need. And some coins. Also It is possible to go from public event to public event now that they buffed the rate. PEs give you VMs. • Enjoy the vault of glass. Edit: [b]Important: [/b]You can also get your legendary armor from [i]Faction Vendors.[/i] The most prominent difference is that the [i]faction armor seems to focus on two stats,[/i] whereas [i]vanguard armor evens it out on three stats[/i]. In this case you wil need [i]Faction rep[/i] and [i]Crucible Marks[/i]. [i]Example:[/i] New Monarchy armor is good for Intellect and Strength. Vanguard armor is good for Intellect, strength and discipline. (but has less). Thus the faction armor from New Monarchy (as an example) may be better for you if you want to focus on super and melee, and not so much on grenades. Edit2: You need raid gear for level 30.