History of Armor 3.0

Overview

Armor 3.0 is the rework of Armor stats and drops that arrived with Destiny 2: The Edge of Fate (July 15, 2025). It replaced the old tier system with per-point scaling, added archetypes, gear tiers and set bonuses. Armor sets are covered in Armor sets.

Stats

Six stats now exist: Weapons (was Mobility), Health (was Resilience), Class (was Recovery), Grenade (was Discipline), Melee (was Strength) and Super (was Intellect). Points from 0 to 100 scale the base effect (usually cooldowns); points from 101 to 200 unlock a secondary bonus. Stats cannot exceed 200.

Archetypes

New armor rolls points in three stats, set by its archetype. Primary stats roll up to +30, secondary up to +25 and tertiary up to +20. The third stat is random and cannot repeat the first two.

• At launch, TheGamer's guide listed six archetypes: Gunner (Weapons/Grenade), Paragon (Super/Melee), Bulwark (Health/Class), Specialist (Class/Weapons), Brawler (Melee/Health) and Grenadier (Grenade/Super). Some combinations, such as Weapons + Super, were not obtainable at launch.
• Shattered Vault's armor page (updated July 10, 2026) lists twelve archetypes, defined by an armor piece's two highest stats. The six-archetype list was the launch state; the count has probably grown since. Check the archetype finder in game.

Gear tiers and tuning

Legendary Edge of Fate armor is rated Tier 1 to Tier 5, and higher tiers come from harder content.

| Tier | Base stat total | Masterworked | Notes |

|---|---|---|---|

| 1 | 52 to 57 | 67 to 72 | |

| 2 | 58 to 63 | 73 to 78 | |

| 3 | 64 to 69 | 79 to 84 | |

| 4 | 70 to 75 | 85 to 90 | Extra mod energy |

| 5 | 75 | 90 | Extra mod energy, a randomly tuned stat, and a tuning socket |

Tiers 1 to 4 have no tuning slot. Tier 5 pieces can use tuning mods: +5/-5 swap mods move five points from one stat to another at a small cost, and the Balanced Tuning Mod adds +1 to each of your three lowest stats (Shattered Vault).

Tiers cannot be upgraded, and older armor is not retroactively tiered.

Exotics

Sources disagree and the rules changed over time. At launch, Exotic armor was not tiered and was described as functionally equal to Tier 2. Shattered Vault says that as of Monument of Triumph (2026), Exotic armor has Tier 5 stat behaviour and access to all tuning mods, applied retroactively to Armor 3.0 Exotics except Collections rolls.

Set bonuses

Wearing two pieces of one set activates a first bonus, and four or more pieces activate a second. You can commit to one set or mix two sets, each giving its 2-piece bonus (Shattered Vault). Set-by-set bonuses are on Armor sets and the individual set pages, for example AION Adapter and Thunderhead.

Legacy armor

Existing armor kept its values under the converted stat names, with Mobility, Resilience and Recovery fixed at set values for all players (Shattered Vault). It gets no archetype, set bonus or tier, and legacy armor cannot be upgraded.

Notes and disagreements

• Guides disagree on the number of archetypes (six at launch, twelve on Shattered Vault's 2026 page). The count above is dated.
• Shattered Vault calls Health the weakest stat for PvE. Commenters disagree, and most agree it matters more in PvP.
• Tier ranges come from guides, not Bungie; re-check in game after balance patches.