History of Powerful Gear

Overview

Powerful gear is weapon and armor rewards that raise a character's Power up to the Powerful Cap. Once a character passes the Soft Cap, only Powerful Gear or Pinnacle Gear can raise Power. At the Powerful Cap, Powerful rewards drop at the highest Power the character can equip, so they stop raising it further. Pinnacle rewards are the only way to go past the Powerful Cap.

Sources

• Prime Engrams can drop at any time. Decrypting them at Master Rahool can yield Powerful Gear.
• Weekly challenges award Powerful Gear, noted in the tooltip for the relevant activity or vendor. Some are labeled Tier 1 to Tier 3, and below the Powerful Cap higher tiers drop gear with higher Power.
• Luminous Engrams were an older source.

Cap values change each season, so check the current season.