The best way I can explain getting purple or epic gear is through the vanguard. You need to be rank 2 to start buying gear and rank 3 for buying guns. The best way to get both rep and gear is to at least 5+ bounties a day. Make sure you do the 2-3 bounties that are 100+ rep. One bountie a day is for patrols. What ever planet you are doing that on you should collect 50 of the collectable martial on that planet and turn it in. That gives you 250 rep 5 vanguard marks and 5 op glimer. Continue on doing the rest of the bounties. Once you have those done do the daily heroic. You will need a team of 3 for it. Also try and do the weekly heroic mission and you will need a 3 man to for that as well. After that do the level 22 strike missions. Even if your level 24 keep doing the 22 level one until you reach level 26. Then start doing the level 26 one. The reason for this is there isn't much you are gaining going from the level 22 to the 24 accept 4 rep and 1 mark. The difficulty of going to 22 to 24 is about 30% harder and takes 15-20 min longer on 24. You could almost do 2 of the 22 strikes in the time is takes to do a 24. The 26 is worth doing but be level 26 when you do in there. That about raps it up for me. Collect as much strange coins as you can as they are used for a rep that appears on the weekend. You need 6 coins only to buy a legendary armor but only one a week is available for each class. I believe it's 18 strange coins for a weapon. I would advise saving up to buy a weapon as it's easy to get gear from level 2 vanguard but requires level 3 for weapons. Thanks if you have any questions comment below of message me.