Heres something that helped me through the 300-400. (For solo runs) Dont adjust any negative modifiers, and only use the player stakes. These will increase your point value more without increasing enemy difficulty. Takes a bit to get used to no hud, but its essentially like old halo, just shoot it until it dies! After you adjust the player stakes, see how close you are to an A ranking. If you are showing B+ and its close to an A, theres a couple ways ingame that can bump you up to the next letter. (Not neccessary to do all, just one can bump you up if your score is closer to the next letter grade) 1. Finish the encounter with 2 minutes remaining. (I tested this and everytime I did, it would bump me to the next grade) 2. Kill the secret boss, theres a wanted boss that sometimes spawns. He will eventually despawn, so time and damage will help. Of course if the boss isnt dieing efficiently, then skip until you can kill him quick. 3. There is sometimes small floating drones that you can shoot. Shooting all of them (usually 5 total) will prompt a "all drones destroyed" message in your feed. This will also give you an extra bump for your final score. The last thing that I want to comment on is your power level per piece. I found that running a lower grade to "catch up" your lower power level armor/weapons will bump your total power level up a couple, which will change the difficulty of the runs. After all of that, the LAST thing I adjust is the difficulty mods. I always opt for ones that really wont effect me, like enemies dropping fire or traps, or a certain subclass takes more damage(and Im not running said subclass). If anyone else has other tips to add on, feel free. I used this "method" from 200-410 and it still seems to work. I havent had to do a -40 at all. My GM solo runs typically have 2-3 min left. Remember solo clear only needs the challenge done (one on the screen, ie kills via abilities or weapons etc), and the boss killed. Champions dont matter, and extra kills dont matter. (In GM you might need to kill stuff to survive, but the extra kills do not add to score). Hope this helps!