How to AFK farm forges - Destiny 2

Published , by Sam Chandler

Farming and Destiny 2 go hand in hand. For those that want to speed through the Power grind, AFK farming forges in Destiny 2 is going to be a top priority. By throwing on some low-Power gear, and leaving your PC or console on, players can rocket through the Power levels with ease. Here’s the breakdown of every step you need to do and how to do it without negatively impacting other players.

Last updated on June 15, 2020 at 7:30 p.m. EST. UPDATE: Bungie has implented a fix that sends players to orbit upon forge completion or failure. This essentially makes AFK forge farming no longer possible.

Forge AFK farming

AFK farming a forge in Destiny 2 is a method that hurts no other players, provided you do it right. Do not try to AFK in a forge where there are players actively playing. Not only does this hurt them, it will take far longer to get what you need.

With low Power level comes great farming methods in Destiny 2.

First thing’s first, here are the basic steps you must do in order to AFK farm forges in order to reach the Destiny 2 Power level cap. There will be a bigger explanation below for each step:

  1. Swap your gear to low Power level (750 or below is ideal)
  2. Launch the forge activity through the EDZ
  3. AFK for hours and let the forge activity start, fail, and search again for another match.
  4. Go to the Tower and use Prismatic Recaster to make an Armor-Focused Umbral Engram
  5. Use Umbral Decoder to decrypt the Armor-Focused Umbral Engram
  6. Use the high-Power engram vendor to fill out weapon slots
    1. Repeat steps 4, 5, and 6, ensuring to balance out the Power gains
  7. Return to AFK farming in forges
Those that have played since Destiny 2 launched may still have their "damaged" armor. For newer players, use vendors to get 750 gear and your Collections for a white Class Item.

Before you actually launch into the forge activity, make sure you have enough low-Power gear. The idea is to make your Power low so you don’t match in with people that are actually trying to complete forges for gear or shaders. This can be done by purchasing gear from vendors or Legendary engrams from Master Rahool, the Cryptarch. You want your Power level to be at 750 or lower. Those with old armor (like the armor from the Red Legion campaign), can drop it down to 200, with some getting even lower. Equip all of this gear.

The activity is always found on the EDZ, but the forge used rotates every so often.

For this next step, you can either be in a fireteam or do it solo. Launch the forge activity from the EDZ map and then just walk away. The matchmaking will plonk you into a forge, and once the timer runs out, you’ll be kicked back to matchmaking to search for another forge. This will keep on going.

While AFK forge farming for planetary materials was fixed, the Season of Arrivals introduced Umbral Engrams, which can be earned via forges. It would appear that either the enemies are dropping them or the event failing is considered a “completion” which rewards an Umbral Engram. Either way, leave your PC or console running overnight and you’ll awake to an inventory and postmaster completely full. Keep in mind, your game may crash overnight.

Use the Armor-Focused Umbral Engram ability once, decrypt the engram, then do it again.

With your Umbral Engrams in your hands, go to the Annex in the Tower. Use the Prismatic Recaster to turn an Umbral Engram into an Armor-Focused Umbral Engram. For some reason, these seem to make the engrams drop gear a few points higher than the max. Decrypt the Umbral Engram then make another focused one. Doing this one at a time will ensure your Power slowly rises.

This next step is important, as the Umbral Engram farm will only be boosting your armor stats. You will need to intermittently visit vendors that are dropping high level engrams. Basically, every day a set of vendors will drop engrams at your max Power minus the artifact boost. Use VendorEngrams.xyz to see which vendor this is. Hopefully it’s Banshee. Rank the vendor up to get packages which will hopefully contain weapons. Continue this until your Power plateaus.

Remember to check the Postmaster for any Umbral Engrams that can't fit in your inventory.

When your weapon and armor Power are around the same level, either continue making Armor-Focused Umbral Engrams or get back to AFK forge farming.

This method also nets you a steady supply of Altered Element, which is needed to focus the engrams. Consider unlocking Umbral Mastery 1 to earn more Twisted Energy. If you can get into the second and third rows, get Umbral Enhancement II for the Exotic chance and Umbral Enhancement III for more high-Power gear.

AFK farming the forges in Destiny 2 is going to get patched sooner rather than later. This method is merely a means to shortcut the seasonal 50-point grind in order to reach the content we all want to play (harder Nightfalls, dungeons, and raids). For now though, exploit this method so you can jump into the Prophecy dungeon as soon as possible. Swing by the Shacknews Destiny 2 guide for even more in-depth looks at farming methods.