Destiny 2: Everything You Need To Know About Ghost Shells

Ghost Shells were just one of many things Bungie changed with the release of Destiny 2: Beyond Light. Instead of having fixed rolls set by the developers, Bungie has given Ghost Shells the Armor 2.0 treatment.

Related: Destiny 2: A Complete Guide To Armor 2.0

Instead of waiting for a well-rolled Ghost Shell to go on sale, Guardians can now use whichever shell looks the best and mod it to suit their playstyle. These Ghost Shells can be a massive timesaver for certain players thanks to their quality of life perks. For those looking to improve their Destiny 2 experience, here is a complete guide to getting the most out of your Ghost in Destiny 2: Beyond Light.

Updated August 25th, 2021, by Charles Burgar: Ghost Shells have seen some new additions since Beyond Light was released. By far the most impactful addition has been the release of Armorer mods. These mods allow you to focus all armor drops you receive, forcing them to drop with specific stats like Recovery or Intellect. We've updated this guide to include the various Ghost Mods that have been released in Year 4. We've also made some organizational changes to make the article easier to navigate.

What Are Ghost Shells?

Ghost Shells are unique cosmetic items that change the appearance of your Ghost. As with any other item in Destiny 2, they come in five different rarities: Common, Uncommon, Rare, Legendary, and Exotic. Using an Exotic Ghost Shell does not prevent you from using an Exotic weapon or armor piece.

Most Ghost Shells are acquired from Eververse either from her storefront or through Bright Engrams. However, there are a few Ghost Shells that are earned through events or pinnacle activities. Once you have obtained a certain type of Ghost Shell, you can reobtain it from your Collections menu under the Equipment tab.

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Ghost Shell Mods

Destiny 2: Beyond Light gave Ghost Shells the Armor 2.0 treatment by making them upgradeable items that can equip unique Ghost mods. This change allows any Ghost Shell to grant passive benefits of your choosing. These bonuses are quality of life improvements such as marking nearby treasure chests or granting bonus experience.

There are four types of Ghost Shell mods:

1. Experience mods
2. Tracking mods
3. Economic mods
4. Activity Ghost mods

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How To Obtain Ghost Shell Mods

As with most armor mods, Ghost Shell mods are obtained from virtually every loot source in Destiny 2. Many generic Ghost Shell mods can be earned through world engrams. More specific mods that involve certain activities can be obtained from their respective activity vendor.

Related: Destiny 2: A Complete Guide To Combat Style Mods

For example, those that want to obtain Activity Ghost Shell Mods that focus on the Crucible should see Shaxx in the Tower and redeem their engram rewards. These engrams have a high chance of giving you Crucible-themed Activity mods.

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Masterworking Your Ghost

Upgrading Ghost Shells will offer you a higher mod energy pool to work with, similar to how armor works. Ghost Shells are unique in that every rarity type can be Masterworked, even Commons.

Every upgrade a Ghost Shell receives grants it one extra point to work with. Ghost Shells can be upgraded to a maximum of rank ten, wherein they will be classified as Masterworked. Masterworked Ghost Shells not only have ten energy to allocate, but they also have a fourth Mod slot unlocked named the Activity mod slot.

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Experience Ghost Mods

The first mod slot every Ghost has access to is the Experience Ghost mod slot. As one would expect, these Mods grant a global experience bonus to everything you do. Previous XP Ghost Shell mods such as Guiding Light have migrated to this slot.

These are all of the mods you can use in this slot:

Mod	Cost	Description
Flickering Light	1 Energy	Increase XP gains by 2%.
Little Light	2 Energy	Increase XP gains by 4%.
Hopeful Light	3 Energy	Increase XP gains by 6%.
Burning Light	4 Energy	Increase XP gains by 8%.
Guiding Light	5 Energy	Increase XP gains by 10%.
Blinding Light (Fragile)	6 Energy	Increase XP gains by 12%.

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Tracking Ghost Mods

Tracking mods focus on marking resources and treasure chests on the player's HUD. Tracked items will have a unique icon appear above them when the player gets near them. The resources tracked and the radius before detection are both determined by mod type.

Tracker Ghost Mods

Mod	Cost	Description
Loot Seeker	1 Energy	Detects caches within a 20-meter range.
Prize Pursuant	2 Energy	Detects caches within a 30-meter range.
Cache Finder	3 Energy	Detects caches within a 40-meter range.
Treasure Hunter	4 Energy	Detects caches within a 50-meter range.
Expert Tracker (Fragile)	5 Energy	Detects caches within a 75-meter range.

Resource Detector Ghost Mods

Mod	Cost	Description
Destabilized Resource Detector	1 Energy	Detects resources within a 20-meter range.
Makeshift Resource Detector	2 Energy	Detects resources within a 30-meter range.
Stable Resource Detector	3 Energy	Detects resources within a 40-meter range.
Enhanced Resource Detector	4 Energy	Detects resources within a 50-meter range.
Perfected Resource Detector (Fragile)	5 Energy	Detects resources within a 75-meter range.

Combo Detector Ghost Mods

Mod	Cost	Description
Combo Detector	5 Energy	Detects caches or resources within a 40-meter range.
Wombo Detector	6 Energy	Detects caches or resources within a 50-meter range.

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Economic Ghost Mods

Economic Ghost mods focus on granting you increased Glimmer gains, providing you with gunsmith telemetry on final blows, forcing armor to drop with certain stats, and granting you increased loot from public events and planetary resources.

Related: Destiny 2: How To Reach 1330 Power Level Quickly

Glimmer Ghost Mods

Mod	Cost	Description
Meager Glimmer Booster	1 Energy	Increases Glimmer gains by 5%.
Standard Glimmer Booster	2 Energy	Increases Glimmer gains by 10%.
Considerable Glimmer Booster	3 Energy	Increases Glimmer gains by 20%.
Prodigious Glimmer Booster	4 Energy	Increases Glimmer gains by 35%.
Supercharged Glimmer Booster	5 Energy	Increases Glimmer gains by 50%.
Ultimate Glimmer Booster (Fragile)	6 Energy	Increases Glimmer gains by 65%.

Gunsmith Telemetry Ghost Mods

Despite what the description implies, all of these mods have a chance to generate telemetry on kills; it is not guaranteed.

Mod	Cost	Description
Arc Analyzer	1 Energy	Generate gunsmith telemetry data on Arc weapon final blows.
Solar Analyzer	1 Energy	Generate gunsmith telemetry data on Solar weapon final blows.
Void Analyzer	1 Energy	Generate gunsmith telemetry data on Void weapon final blows.
Omni-Telemetry	3 Energy	Generate gunsmith telemetry data on any elemental weapon final blow.
Banshee Special	5 Energy	Generate gunsmith telemetry data on any elemental weapon final blow at an increased rate.

Armorer/Stat-Focusing Ghost Mods

While an Armorer mod is equipped, all armor you grab will roll with at least ten in a given stat, usually much higher.

Mod	Cost	Description
Mobility Armorer	3 Energy	Armor pieces with random stats you acquire will have a guaranteed minimum of 10 Mobility, and are more likely to drop with higher Mobility.
Resilience Armorer	2 Energy	Armor pieces with random stats you acquire will have a guaranteed minimum of 10 Resilience, and are more likely to drop with higher Resilience.
Recovery Armorer	4 Energy	Armor pieces with random stats you acquire will have a guaranteed minimum of 10 Recovery, and are more likely to drop with higher Recovery.
Discipline Armorer	3 Energy	Armor pieces with random stats you acquire will have a guaranteed minimum of 10 Discipline, and are more likely to drop with higher Discipline.
Intellect Armorer	4 Energy	Armor pieces with random stats you acquire will have a guaranteed minimum of 10 Intellect, and are more likely to drop with higher Intellect.
Strength Armorer	3 Energy	Armor pieces with random stats you acquire will have a guaranteed minimum of 10 Strength, and are more likely to drop with higher Strength.

Bonus Loot Ghost Mods

Two mods also grant bonus loot on certain conditions:

Mod	Cost	Description
Bountiful Harvest	3 Energy	Chance to obtain additional resources when harvesting.
Public Defender	5 Energy	Increased loot from public events on all destinations.

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Activity Ghost Mods

Activity Ghost mods modify a core activity's loot pool to increase the chance of additional loot dropping. This mod slot is only unlocked when you Masterwork your currently-equipped Ghost Shell.

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These mods have a separate version for three core activities: strikes, Crucible, and Gambit. For mods with different conditions to activate, wins always refer to Crucible and Gambit, while completions refer to Vanguard strikes and Nightfalls.

Activity Completion Loot Ghost Mods

Mod	Cost	Description
Materialism (Fragile)	2 Energy	[Activity type wins/completions] have a chance to award destination materials.
Prosperity	3 Energy	[Activity type wins/completions] have a chance to drop an additional piece of Legendary gear.
Modularity (Fragile)	4 Energy	[Activity type] has a chance to award an Upgrade Module.

Core Harvest Ghost Mods

Strikes, Crucible, and Gambit have unique Core Harvest mods you can earn. They are listed below.

Mod	Cost	Description
Lesser Core Harvest (Crucible) (Fragile)	4 Energy	Precision final blows in Crucible have a chance to award an Enhancement Core.
Greater Core Harvest (Crucible) (Fragile)	6 Energy	Precision final blows in Crucible have a chance to award an Enhancement Prism.
Lesser Core Harvest (Gambit) (Fragile)	4 Energy	Defeating invaders in Gambit has a chance to award an Enhancement Core.
Greater Core Harvest (Gambit) (Fragile)	6 Energy	Defeating invaders in Gambit has a chance to award an Enhancement Prism.
Lesser Core Harvest (Vanguard) (Fragile)	4 Energy	Defeating bosses in Vanguard playlist strikes or Nightfalls has a chance to award an Enhancement Core.
Greater Core Harvest (Vanguard) (Fragile)	6 Energy	Defeating bosses in Vanguard playlist strikes or Nightfalls has a chance to award an Enhancement Prism.

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Next: Destiny 2: Beyond Light Complete Guide And Walkthrough