Destiny 2’s Lightfall expansion introduced a variety of big changes to Bungie’s space-fantasy shooter and looter, but none are as impactful as the arrival of Armor Charge mods. These mods have replaced Destiny 2’s traditional Charged With Light, Elemental Well, and Warmind Cell mods, effectively consolidating many of their effects into a single system.
Armor Charge mods are an important part of the building experience in Lightfall, but the game doesn’t exactly do a great job of explaining them. If you’re confused, this guide will go over everything you need to know, including how Armor Charge mods work, a full list of all mods, and how unlocking them works.
What is Armor Charge in Destiny 2?
In short, Armor Charge is a system that allows you to charge up by picking up Orbs of Power (made with Supers or when using Siphon mods on your helmet), then spend that charge for a positive buff. By default, each Power Orb you collect will give you one armor charge, and you can keep up to three of them.
There are three different types of Armor Charge mods in Destiny 2, all of which are indicated by specific colors. Here’s a look at what these mod types do:
- Green modes: These alter how you acquire Armor Charge, keep it, or distribute it to nearby allies.
- Yellow mods: Mods that allow you to consume your Armor Charge upon performing a specific action, giving you a buff.
- Blue modes: These provide a passive boost to one of your stats or a specific weapon damage type while you have Armor Charge, but cause your Armor Charge to decay over time.
In general, you want to make sure you equip at least one green mod that improves your ability to gain and maintain armor charge and one yellow or blue mod that consumes that armor charge to provide a buff.
Note that you can equip these mods in any of your armor’s mod slots other than the General Armor Mod socket, which is reserved for mods that improve your armor’s stats. However, certain types of Armor Charge mods are only available for use with specific types of armor pieces. We have listed what types of armor charge mods you can use with each of your armor pieces below.
- Helmet: Mods that share Armor Charge with allies, Intellect boost
- Arms: Regeneration of melee skills and grenades, strength and discipline boosters
- Chest: Damage Resistance, Armor Charge Up, Resilience Up
- Legs: Extra armor charge from power orbs, weapon damage buffs, increased mobility
- class element: Class ability regeneration, slower armor charge decay (when using a blue mod), finisher specific mods, recovery boost
Destiny 2: All Armor Charge Mods List
For your convenience, we’ve compiled a full list of all the Armor Charge mods currently available in Destiny 2: Lightfall in the table below. This includes the name of the mod and its effects, as well as how much armor energy it costs to equip and what kind of armor pieces you can place it on.
| Modification | energy cost | Effect | piece of armor |
|---|---|---|---|
| Radiant light (green) | 1 | Casting your Super causes nearby allies to also increase their current armor charge by 1. Allies that have a different subclass item than you increase their armor charge by 2. Cannot stack. | Helmet |
| Powerful Friends (Green) | 1 | Picking up an Orb of Power causes nearby allies to shrug their current armor charge by 1. Cannot stack. | Helmet |
| Fountain of Wisdom (Blue) | 3 | You gain an Intellect bonus while you have any Armor Charge. Armor charges decay over time. | Helmet |
| Kickstart Grenade (Yellow) | 3 | When your grenade energy is completely spent, you gain grenade energy. Additionally, your armor charge is consumed and you gain additional grenade energy for each armor charge. It can be stacked with diminishing returns. | Arms |
| Melee Kickstart (Yellow) | 3 | When your melee energy is completely spent, you gain melee energy. Additionally, your armor charge is consumed and you gain additional melee energy for each armor charge. It can be stacked with diminishing returns. | Arms |
| Focus source (blue) | 3 | You have a bonus to Discipline while you have any Armor Charge. Your armor charge now decays over time. It can be stacked with diminishing returns. | Arms |
| Source of Vigor (Strength) | 3 | You have a bonus to Strength while you have any Armor Charge. Your armor charge now decays over time. It can be stacked with diminishing returns. | Arms |
| Charged (Green) | 3 | Increases the maximum amount of armor charge you can carry by 1. stackable. | Chest |
| Emergency Reinforcement (Yellow) | 3 | When your shields are broken, you gain temporary damage reduction. Consumes 3 or more stacks of Armor Charge, granting increased damage reduction duration for each charge consumed. It can be stacked with diminishing returns. | Chest |
| Resistance source (blue) | 3 | You have a bonus to Resilience while you have any Armor Charge. Your armor charge now decays over time. It can be stacked with diminishing returns. | Chest |
| Stacks Upon Stacks (Green) | 4 | Picking up an Orb of Power grants you 1 additional stack of Armor Charge. It cannot be stacked. | Legs |
| Kinetic Weapons Augment (Blue) | 3 | Your kinetic weapons get a small damage bonus while you have any armor charges. Your armor charge now decays over time. It can be stacked with diminishing returns. | Legs |
| Bow Weapon Wave (Blue) | 3 | Your bow weapons get a small damage bonus while you have any armor charges. Your armor charge now decays over time. It can be stacked with diminishing returns. | Legs |
| Solar Weapon Surge (Blue) | 3 | Your solar weapons get a small damage bonus while you have any armor charges. Your armor charge now decays over time. It can be stacked with diminishing returns. | Legs |
| Void Weapons Wave (Blue) | 3 | Your Void weapons get a small bonus to damage while you have any Armor Charge. Your armor charge now decays over time. It can be stacked with diminishing returns. | Legs |
| Stasis Weapon Surge (Blue) | 3 | Your Stasis weapons gain a small bonus to damage while you have any Armor Charge. Your armor charge now decays over time. It can be stacked with diminishing returns. | Legs |
| Strand Weapon Surge (Blue) | 3 | Your Strand weapons gain a small damage bonus while you have any Armor Charge. Your armor charge now decays over time. It can be stacked with diminishing returns. | Legs |
| Agility Fountain (Blue) | 3 | You have a bonus to Mobility while you have any Armor Charge. Your armor charge now decays over time. It can be stacked with diminishing returns. | Legs |
| Time dilation (green) | 3 | Your decaying armor charge has a longer duration. It can be stacked with diminishing returns. | class element |
| Enhanced Finish (Green) | 3 | Final blows from the finisher grant you 1 temporary armor charge when you don’t have any. It can be stacked. | class element |
| Kickstart Utility (Yellow) | 3 | When your class ability energy is fully spent, you gain class ability energy. Additionally, our armor charge is consumed and you gain an additional class ability for each stack of energy. It can be stacked with diminishing returns. | class element |
| Restoration source (blue) | 3 | You have a bonus to Recovery while you have any Armor Charge. Your armor charge now decays over time. It can be stacked with diminishing returns. | class element |
| Restorative Finisher (Yellow) | 1 | When you use a finisher, you gain a portion of energy for your least recharged ability. Consumes 2 stacks of Armor Charge. It cannot be stacked. | class element |
| Special finisher (yellow) | 1 | Finishers spawn special ammo for the entire team. Consumes 3 stacks of Armor Charge. It cannot be stacked. | class element |
| One-Two Finisher (Yellow) | 1 | Finishers restore melee abilities. Consumes 3 or more stacks of Armor Charge, granting additional energy for each charge consumed. | class element |
| Bulwark Finisher (Yellow) | 1 | Final hits from the finisher spawn an Overshield. Consumes 3 or more stacks of Armor Charge, granting additional energy for each charge consumed. | class element |
| Healthy Finisher (Yellow) | 1 | Finishers heal you. Consumes 1 stack of Armor Charge. | class element |
| Snapload Finisher (Yellow) | 1 | Finishers reload all your weapons. Consumes 1 stack of Armor Charge. | class element |
| Explosive Finisher (Yellow) | 1 | Finishers restore grenades. Consumes 3 or more stacks of Armor Charge, granting additional energy for each charge consumed. | class element |
| Utility finish (yellow) | 1 | Finishers restore class abilities. Consumes 3 or more stacks of Armor Charge, granting additional energy for each charge consumed. | class element |
| Benevolent Finisher (Yellow) | 1 | Using a finisher on a combatant generates orbs of power for your allies. Consumes 3 stacks of Armor Charge. | class element |
Something to note is that depending on the perks available on the current Seasonal Artifact, the cost of these mods may change. For example, with the Season 20 “Authorized Mods: Grenades” perk active, the cost of Grenade Kickstart and other grenade mods will be reduced from 3 to 1 Armor Energy. This makes it possible to create more powerful versions of builds that use stacked mods, although you will only be able to take advantage of them until the end of the current season.
Are all Armor Charge mods unlocked in Destiny 2?
If you played Destiny 2 prior to the release of the Lightfall expansion, you’ll have full access to all currently available Armor Charge mods, as the game automatically grants you Guardian Rank 6. This means you won’t have to do anything to get them. , and you can start building right away. However, if you are a new player, you will need to advance to Guardian Rank 5 before you can start using the Armor Charge mods. This process involves learning the basics of Destiny 2 by following the Guardian Rank objectives.
If additional Armor Charge mods are added in the future, they will likely be unlocked automatically by players who have already reached Guardian Rank 5. However, if this is not the case, we will update this guide with more information.
Destiny 2: Lightfall is available now on Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One consoles, Windows PC, and PlayStation systems. In it, you will take the fight to Emperor Calus, unlock Strand subclasses and abilitiesand more.
