One of the recent additions to Destiny that arrived with House of Wolves is a new exotic material called Etheric Light. It can be used to upgrade any weapon — even old ones from the vanilla game — to the new cap. The idea is that it will allow you to use your favorite weapons and armor in the new expansions without sacrificing valuable stats.
When you upgrade weapons and armor to the next tier, it’s called “ascending” the gear. Ascended weapons have a new damage cap of 365 — as opposed to 331 — and ascended armor has a new light level cap of 42.
The problem is, there are only certain ways to earn Etheric Light. You won’t pick it up from chests or random drops.
How Do You Get Etheric Light?
Etheric Light can be obtained several ways. You can earn it by completing the Weekly Nightfall Strike, from the chests at the end of Prison of Elders (level 34 and 35), and from Trials of Osiris rewards. That’s it.
There is another way to earn the material, and that’s by reaching Rank 3 and later Rank 5 with the Iron Banner — so, that’s two more opportunities to earn Etheric Light. Since the Iron Banner is a limited time Crucible event, you’ll need to wait until it’s available to reach the proper rank. In addition, once the event is over, your reputation is washed so you’ll need to start anew every time.
I’ve been playing with the expansion active since release and I have yet to come across a single Etheric Light drop. Of course, drops are decided by chance so there’s no guarantee you’ll have the same results — you could experience better or worse. It’s also worth mentioning that I’m only level 31, so I cannot participate in the higher PoE levels yet.
If you’re looking for the material like I am, good luck!
