Rarity

All collectible items have a certain rarity associated with them. The rarer an item is, the better, but also the more difficult to acquire. There are five levels of rarity in the game.

Common
All low-level items are Common-level. These items are white in color and have no upgrades available. Disassembling them yields some Glimmer but no materials. All Common weapons do kinetic damage, except for Fusion Rifles. Common Engrams will stop appearing at higher levels.


 * Acquired by: Purchasing from vendors, or picking up Encoded Engrams.

Uncommon
The next level is Uncommon, which is green in color. Uncommon items have a few upgrades available, which cost some Glimmer. Disassembling an item will yield a single upgrade material. Some Special and Heavy weapons will have an Elemental damage modifier. Uncommon items cap off at level 18.


 * Acquired by: Purchasing from vendors, or picking up Encrypted Engrams.
 * Upgrade with: Glimmer

Rare
Rare start appearing at a higher level, and are blue in color. Rare items have many upgrades available, though some will require upgrade materials as well as glimmer. Disassembling an item will yield two or three upgrade materials. All special and heavy weapons will have an Elemental damage modifier (as do all Special and Heavy weapons in the above tiers). Rare items are still usable to a degree at higher levels, and Rare armor offers small boosts to light levels, but are typically outperformed by Legendary items.


 * Acquired by: Purchasing from certain vendors, picking up decoherent engrams, reward for Strikes.
 * Upgrade with: Glimmer, Weapon Parts, Hadronic Essence, Sapphire Wire, Plasteel Plating, Armor Materials

Legendary
Legendary items are more difficult to acquire. All Legendary items can be used at Level 20, but their maximum level will typically be close to the current Level cap. Legendary gear is more difficult to acquire because they almost always require Reputation to purchase first, and with the exception of gear from the Iron Banner and Trials of Osiris, they must be purchased with Legendary Marks. They have the most upgrades but also require Ascendant materials to fully upgrade, making them quite expensive. Disassembling an item will yield upgrade materials as well as Ascendant materials. In addition, Legendary items acquired in Raids tend to perform better than ordinary Legendary items, whether it is extra upgrades for weapons or higher Light levels for Armor. A few Primary weapons will also have Elemental modifiers.

Legendary weapons can be increased in attack value through Infusion: disassembling a more powerful weapon will increase the attack value of the currently equipped weapon.


 * Acquired by: Purchasing from Faction vendors (requires Reputation and special currency), Faction reward packages, picking up Legendary Engrams (very rarely drop), reward for Nightfall Strikes and Raids.
 * Upgrade with: Glimmer, Weapon Parts, Hadronic Essence, Sapphire Wire, Plasteel Plating, Armor Materials, Spinmetal, Helium Filaments, Spirit Bloom, Relic Iron

Exotic
Exotics are the highest tier of items available. They are a special tier of equipment that refers to powerful and unique weapons, armor, and items. They are distinguished by their distinct appearances and abilities that set them apart from Legendary gear. Only one Exotic weapon and one Exotic armor can ever be equipped at any time. In Destiny, Exotics can be upgraded with an Exotic Shard and other materials, while in Destiny 2 they can be augmented with Exotic Catalysts.

Exotics can be obtained by completing quests and participating in various activities, like Raids, Nightfall strikes, as well as the Exotic Archive. For more information on the numerous exotics in the Destiny series see its own page.

Masterwork
Masterworks is a special tier of items available. This tier of an item is almost functionally identical to Legendary gear but allows the Player to equip a single random stat increase to any of the gears attributes, with the exception of adept weapons which give a bonus stat to all categories. With the introduction of Warmind, Masterworks are also available for Exotic weapons. In order to apply the Masterwork, the player first needs to find the responding Catalyst. The description will give a hint against where to find it. After the Catalyst has been found, a certain amount of enemies has to be killed with the weapon to be able to apply the Masterwork.


 * Acquired by: A rare drop from high level activities and Heroic Missions/Strikes in Destiny 2
 * Upgrade with: Masterwork Cores, Legendary Shards

List of appearances

 * Destiny
 * Destiny 2