There seems to be this refrain. The GRIND is INSANE! 🤪 You HAVE to grind Caldera or Encore over and over in order to make any meaningful progress. Once I hit 300... I'll know (per the forums); you stop gaining any real progress. You're grinding wrong! That last one is me 😜. I can't tell you yet what the optimal path is, because I don't know. I do know that what's being presented as "optimal" isn't. All 3 of my characters are above 300. I have some Tier 4 armor already. Had Tier 4 weapons but the rolls were bad. I'm knocking on the door of 320. I haven't even played Caldera ONCE! I've played Encore like 3 times. I don't have the Fable capstone done. I don't have the Mythic capstone done. I haven't done any side missions except getting the most basic version of Graviton Spike. I only have 3 conquests done. I'm only rank 7. Still 320 by tonight... Still easy. Still not playing the same instance over and over... How did I do it? Playing casually... I did the training missions, I "blue out" and target slots. I play for greens... if it has greens, I do it. I get max grade or did. Credit Eso and Aegis... you only need B+ for max rewards... I've only been doing A+ unless a host in LFG scales it lower. So, I was making things harder on myself than it needed to be. 2 nights ago, I put together my first kit for the new era. Bakris... and it's as good or better than most of my kits previously... It has 1 Tier 4 piece. Casual AF... for science. I don't mind grinding the same thing over and over. And though I couldn't play Encore because Bungie wouldn't let me (my game kept crashing)... I knew about Caldera and K1 Logistics. My favorite Solo Ops is probably Eternity because it's been the hardest... you can't rush the plates, Lazers...Lazer Walls... teleporting enemies... Hob Barrier snipers... It's the only one were getting the time bonus isn't a guarantee because of everything I mentioned and more. The grind isn't insane. And unless you scale the options to make it hard, it's easy. Even Eternity... I add all that stuff, invisible enemies... counterfeit, every hazard... AND it's spicy but I'm still getting max grade. At most averaging 2-3hrs per night since launch. Some nights I haven't played at all, and maybe my longest session was 6 hrs on my second Legendary campaign completion. Leveling is easier and more accessible than ever before. It just is. If you're listening to idiot tubers telling you to clout chase 'bigger number' without exploring all avenues and opportunities for advancement....? That's on you. How am I this far... without doing it? How am I 315... with Tier 4 gear equipped? Playing 'sub-optimally'... not because I'm NOT spamming the same instance, that's BS... if you don't blue... if you're not going for bonuses and targeting slots... it doesn't matter that you can do Caldera or Logistics in under 4 mins. Because I was going for A+... because I didn't understand that wearing Tiered gear meant better loot. I waited too long transitioning from my starter sets. So, how?!?! I do blue and target slots... but at most I'm 20% done with the content. I've no where near the time invested as the beginning of the last 2 expansions. More powerful than I've ever been at this point. 😇👍💠 Play how you want. The Tubers don't know ****. Nor do I honestly, I'm learning... and I do know that they're doing it wrong. That the math shows spamming the same activity without properly managing your progression defeats those gains. That playing the same thing over and over if you're miserable is not the way. And, lol... I have NO PROBLEM playing the same thing... I have thousands of LSs under my belt. But for science... and because of bugs (my campaign was bugged, stalled me out for 3-4 days)... and life (my pops had a week off, close to retirement, we did some things). Casual AF... especially for me. Happy at 315. Feel more powerful than ever... having great fun. Nothing's been frustrating. Things have only been spicy when I make it that way. These are my impressions and experiences so far in EoF.