Destiny 2 Fireteam Power Explained: How Shared Power Works

TL;DR

• Fireteam Power lets every player in your group participate at five Power below the highest-Power member.
• The highest-Power player becomes the Power Leader. Everyone else is boosted up to their Power minus five.
• Fireteam Power only affects difficulty — your actual Power still determines the level of gear rewards you receive.
• It applies to Vanguard playlists, Nightfalls, Raids, Dungeons, Exotic Missions, and Fireteam Ops.
• It does not apply in Contest Mode during the first 48 hours of a new raid.
• Power Disabled activities like Crucible, Campaigns, and patrol destinations are unaffected.
• Adjusted Power is shown next to the Activity Power Cap on the launch screen before you load in.

Destiny 2 Fireteam Power is one of the most player-friendly systems Bungie has ever added to the game. Before it existed, a low-Power Guardian joining a raid with high-Power friends would drag the whole group’s experience down by being significantly underleveled against enemies. Since its introduction in The Final Shape and its continuation through Monument of Triumph (Update 9.7.0, June 9, 2026), Fireteam Power eliminates that problem entirely. If you have a friend who has reached a high Power Level, you can play alongside them in almost any endgame activity without grinding Power first — and both of you benefit from the system. Get Destiny 2 free on Steam, PlayStation, Xbox, or the Bungie website.

What Is Fireteam Power in Destiny 2?

Fireteam Power is a system that temporarily raises the effective Power Level of every player in a fireteam to within five Power of the group’s highest-Power member. The Guardian with the highest Power Level automatically becomes the Power Leader. Every other player in the fireteam has their Power adjusted upward to match the Power Leader’s level minus five — unless they are already at or above that number, in which case they remain at their own Power.

Here is a simple example. If you are at 350 Power and your friend is at 520 Power, your adjusted Power for that activity becomes 515 — five below the Power Leader. You fight enemies and receive difficulty scaling as though you are at 515 Power, even though your actual gear is at 350. The activity feels manageable instead of nearly impossible.

It is important to understand what Fireteam Power does and does not change:

• It changes: How tough enemies feel, how much damage you deal, and how much damage you take — all based on the adjusted Power.
• It does not change: The Power Level of the gear rewards you earn. Your drops are always based on your actual Power, not your adjusted Fireteam Power. If you are at 350 Power and the activity normally drops 360 gear, that is what you receive — not gear scaled to 515.

How Do You See Your Fireteam Power?

Fireteam Power is displayed automatically before you launch any activity that supports it. On the launch screen, look at the bottom-right corner. You will see your Adjusted Power listed next to the Activity Power Cap. If your Power is being boosted by the Power Leader, the adjusted number replaces your base Power in that display. This makes it easy to confirm whether Fireteam Power is active and how much of a boost you are receiving before loading in.

You do not need to do anything to enable or configure Fireteam Power. It activates automatically the moment you are in a fireteam with another player who has a higher Power Level than you, in an activity where the system applies.

What Activities Does Fireteam Power Apply To?

Fireteam Power works in all Power Enabled activities. These are activities where your Power Level directly affects how much damage you deal and take. Every Power Enabled activity has an Activity Power Cap — the level at which you reach maximum effectiveness — and Fireteam Power can help you hit that cap even without the corresponding gear.

Power Enabled activities where Fireteam Power applies include:

• Raids (all difficulties on Standard — see Contest Mode exception below)
• Dungeons (Standard difficulty)
• Nightfalls (all tiers: Standard, Advanced, Expert, Master, Grandmaster)
• Fireteam Ops (Strikes, Battlegrounds, and replayable missions)
• Exotic Missions (Pinnacle Ops)
• Seasonal Activities

This means a Guardian at 300 Power can enter King’s Fall, run a Grandmaster Nightfall, or tackle a featured dungeon alongside a 550 Power friend and contribute meaningfully to the fireteam rather than being a liability. For the full list of featured raids each week where Fireteam Power is especially useful for catching up, see Destiny 2 raids in order.

What Activities Does Fireteam Power NOT Apply To?

Fireteam Power does not work in Power Disabled activities. These are activities where Power Level has no effect on damage or difficulty at all — they are balanced independently of your gear level. Power Disabled activities include:

• Crucible — all PvP playlists, including Trials of Osiris and Iron Banner
• Campaign missions — both Normal and Legendary story difficulty
• Seasonal Story Missions
• Destination Patrols — open-world patrol zones
• Some legacy content

In these activities, every player fights at the same effective level regardless of their gear Power. A new Guardian can patrol the EDZ or run a campaign mission on equal footing with a veteran — Fireteam Power is not needed there and does not activate.

The Contest Mode Exception — When Fireteam Power Does Not Apply to Raids

There is one important exception to Fireteam Power in raid content: Contest Mode. During the first 48 hours after a new raid releases, it runs in Contest Mode. In Contest Mode, every Guardian is capped at a set Power Level below the Activity Power Cap regardless of their actual Power or their fireteam’s Power Leader. Fireteam Power does not apply in Contest Mode at all.

This is by design. Contest Mode is the World First race — the challenge of being the first fireteam to clear a new raid. Fireteam Power would remove the skill ceiling from that race if it applied. Once the 48-hour Contest Mode window ends, Fireteam Power resumes functioning normally in that raid alongside every other activity. Since Monument of Triumph is the final content update and no new raids are launching, Contest Mode is no longer a factor for current content — all active raids run with Fireteam Power fully available.

Does Fireteam Power Affect Loot Quality?

No. This is the most important detail to understand about Fireteam Power. Your gear rewards are always based on your actual Power Level, not your adjusted Fireteam Power. The system makes the activity accessible and the difficulty feel appropriate — but it does not give you loot scaled to the Power Leader’s level.

Here is what this means in practice. If your Hunter is at 380 Power and you join a friend at 530 Power to run King’s Fall, Fireteam Power brings your adjusted Power to 525 for difficulty purposes. The enemies feel manageable, you deal reasonable damage, and you can contribute. But when the encounter chest drops at the end, your gear comes out at approximately 390 to 400 Power — what your actual level earns — not at 540. The loot reward follows your real Power, not your temporary adjusted Power.

This is intentional and fair. Fireteam Power removes the barrier to playing with friends but preserves the Power progression system as a meaningful grind. You need to earn your own Power through activity drops and infusion. Being carried through a raid does not shortcut that progression. For the full breakdown of how to push your actual Power from 300 to the 550 pinnacle cap efficiently, the Destiny 2 Power Level guide covers every bracket.

What Is the Power Leader Bonus?

The Guardian who becomes Power Leader by having the highest Power in the fireteam receives a small bonus to commendations earned at the end of the activity. Commendations are the post-activity social recognition system — you can award them to teammates for Sportsmanship, Collaboration, Luminous, or Kindness after a session. The Power Leader’s commendation bonus rewards the player who enabled everyone else to participate. It is a small acknowledgment rather than a major reward, but it does mean that being the high-Power player who brings lower-Power friends into raids is recognised by the game.

Does Fireteam Power Work for Master Difficulty?

Yes, but with an important caveat. Master difficulty has a Power requirement — generally around 400 Power. Fireteam Power can lift lower-level players to within five Power of the Master cap, making the activity feel appropriately challenging rather than punishing. However, Master difficulty is specifically tuned to be brutal for most players regardless of Power — Champion density, enemy aggression, and modifier stacks are all significantly higher than Standard. Bringing a 300 Power Guardian into a Master raid through Fireteam Power will make the activity technically playable for them, but they will still feel significantly less effective than a 500+ Power player who has endgame builds dialled in.

Fireteam Power removes the Power barrier. It does not remove the skill and build barrier. Master raids and Grandmaster Nightfalls still require strong builds, good coordination, and knowledge of mechanics. For high-end content, the Destiny 2 best armor mods for every slot guide and the Phantom Surge Hunter build are good places to start for build optimisation before jumping into Master content.

Can Fireteam Power Help Alternate Characters Level Faster?

Yes — but indirectly. Fireteam Power makes harder activities accessible to lower-level alternate characters, which means those characters can participate in higher-tier content earlier. Since higher-grade Portal activities drop better gear, an alt character at 320 Power can join a friend at 500 Power in a Grade A Fireteam Ops run and receive drops significantly above what they could earn solo. The drops are still based on the alt’s actual Power — so they might get 330 or 340 Power gear — but that is still faster progression than running Normal difficulty solo.

This stacks with account-wide Power tracking. Your highest Power item per slot across all characters and your vault is tracked account-wide. If your main Hunter is at 500 Power and you create a Titan, your Titan’s early drops are already boosted to reflect the account’s highest Power. Add Fireteam Power on top of that and alternate character levelling is considerably faster than starting fresh without any support. The New Light Kit guide covers how to get all alternate characters to 300 Power instantly before using Fireteam Power to access higher content.

How Does Fireteam Power Interact With Weapon and Armor Power Limits?

When Fireteam Power was introduced, Bungie also permanently removed Power limits from all weapons and armor in Destiny 2. This was a direct consequence of the system. Previously, some older weapons had a maximum Power cap — they could not be infused above a certain level and became obsolete over time in a practice players called “sunsetting.” Fireteam Power would have allowed players to use these capped weapons in endgame content by bypassing their Power limit, which Bungie recognised was creating an inconsistent situation.

The solution was to remove Power limits entirely. As of The Final Shape, every weapon and piece of armor in the game — including items from before the Beyond Light expansion — can be used in endgame content without any Power ceiling restriction. You can equip a favourite weapon from years ago, have the Power Leader boost your Adjusted Power, and use that weapon in a Grandmaster Nightfall without penalty. This applies to everything in your vault from any era of the game. Monument of Triumph carries this forward permanently as the final state of Destiny 2’s sandbox.

Fireteam Power Tips for New and Returning Players

• Find a high-Power friend before your first raid. You do not need to grind to the recommended Power to enter Standard raids. A friend at or near 550 Power brings you to 545 Adjusted Power — fully above the Standard raid cap for every raid currently in rotation.
• Check your Adjusted Power before launching. The launch screen always shows your Adjusted Power next to the Activity Power Cap. Confirm you are at or above the Activity Power Cap before starting for the best difficulty experience.
• Use Fireteam Finder to find Power Leaders. Fireteam Finder is accessible from the roster screen in-game. Search for activities flagged as “teaching” or “new players welcome” to find groups comfortable with lower-Power participants.
• Bring your best build even at low Power. Fireteam Power makes you survivable. Your build quality — subclass choices, Exotic armor, and weapon perks — still determines how much you contribute. A well-built 350 Power Guardian with good mechanics knowledge contributes more than a poorly built 500 Power Guardian in most raid scenarios.
• Collect loot even when carried. Even if a high-Power friend is carrying you, the encounter chests still drop gear based on your actual Power. Every raid run still progresses your Power through loot — so runs where Fireteam Power is doing most of the heavy lifting are still productive farming sessions for your progression.
• Dungeons are the best entry point. If you are hesitant to enter a full six-player raid with Fireteam Power active, two-player dungeons are an excellent alternative. A single high-Power friend can carry you through all three dungeon encounters with Fireteam Power active. Check Destiny 2 dungeons in order for which dungeons to run first.

Is Fireteam Power Available in Pantheon?

Yes. Pantheon 2.0, which returned as a permanent activity in Monument of Triumph, supports Fireteam Power in the same way as raids and dungeons. The standard Pantheon encounters apply Fireteam Power normally. Pantheon does have its own power handicap system that increases as you progress through boss encounters — the effective Power deficit against enemies grows from +5 at the first boss to +20 by the final boss. Fireteam Power helps the lowest-level player in the group participate at all, but the escalating handicap still makes later Pantheon bosses very demanding even for max-Power Guardians. See the Pantheon all bosses and loot table guide for full boss details.

Fireteam Power and the Monument of Triumph Era

With Monument of Triumph as Destiny 2’s final content update, Fireteam Power is now a permanent feature of the game in its complete form. There will be no future adjustments or expansions to the system — what exists now is the final implementation. That means the current rules will never change: five Power below the Power Leader, applies in all Power Enabled activities except Contest Mode, rewards based on actual Power only.

For returning players especially, Fireteam Power is the single biggest quality-of-life feature for rejoining the game in 2026. You do not need to grind Power for weeks before playing with veteran friends. You do not need to wait until you have reached a specific Power threshold to enter featured raids and collect loot. Log in, claim your New Light Kit for instant 300 Power, find a friend or use Fireteam Finder, and you can be running King’s Fall or a featured dungeon within your first session. For everything else Monument of Triumph offers in this same era, the Destiny 2 Monument of Triumph complete guide covers the full update system by system.