Modifiers in Destiny are similar to skulls in Halo, they can drastically alter how the game plays. Here is a comprehensive list of all the modifiers that exists in Destiny so far. All the mods are represented by a skull each with their own unique symbol in the skull. [b]Burn Modifiers[/b]: Burn modifiers greatly increase the damage dealt by a particular element. This includes [i]every[/i] source of damage, player weapons, enemy weapons, player abilities, enemy abilities, random explosions, dropship turrets, mines, you name it, if it deals the same element of damage as the mod it is increased. Naturally there is a mod for each element, Solar, Arc, and Void. Example: Let's say Arc Burn is active. All weapons, player and enemy, that deal arc damage would be affected. Non-gun based attacks from enemies, like Fallen swords and daggers, Thrall claws, or Wizard energy blasts, would be affected. If the player is playing as an Arc based sub-class (Striker, Bladedancer, or Stormcaller) all of their abilities, grenade, melee, super, would be affected. You can usually tell what element of damage an enemy uses based on the color of the projectile (orange = solar, blue = arc, purple = void ) but if you're not sure let that attack kill you. During the death screen look in the top right hand corner of the screen, you'll find a spot where it shows the name of the weapon and/or attack that killed you with the element type next to it. [b]Challenge Modifiers[/b]: These mods are used to beef up the general level of difficulty without drastically changing base game mechanics. You'll usually find them paired with other mods but not normally by themselves unless you're doing story missions. What I mean is, you'll never play a round of Prison of Elders with any of these mods active. - Heroic: "Enemies appear in greater numbers and are more aggressive." This mod is always active for Daily Heroic Story missions and Weekly Heroic Strikes. Some daily bounties may ask you to kill a specific named enemy in a specific story mission with the Heroic mod on. To access the Heroic version of a story mission simply navigate to the story mission you need, select it, and change the difficulty to a higher level. You should see a little skull with a crown symbol on it, that's the Heroic mod symbol. - Epic: "Heavily shielded and highly aggressive enemies appear in great numbers." This is basically just the Heroic mod on steroids. Be prepared for a tough fight. Also, when Epic is active, some enemies that do not normally have shields get shields. Shanks get Solar shields, Knights and Harpies get Arc shields, and Psions get Void shields. - Nightfall: "If all players die, the fireteam will be returned to orbit." Exactly as it says, if all players are dead and the countdown timer hits 0 the team will have to start over. However, if a Sunsinger Warlock with Fireborn self-revives before the timer hits 0 they can attempt to salvage the mission and continue, assuming they don't die again. [i]Note: this mod may have to be removed later, it is my understanding that Nightfall strikes will no longer use this mechanic.[/i] [b]Standard Modifiers[/b]: You'll see these in a lot of different activities, these are the mods that really change things up. Make sure you plan ahead to compensate for any potential difficulties when entering a game that includes these mods. - Lightswitch: "Minions of the Darkness deal much more melee damage." MUCH more. Do not take this lightly, even the smallest of enemies will have a seriously deadly melee when this is on, Thrall and Stealth Vandals with swords will be the bane of your existence. - Brawler: "Guardian melee damage is greatly increased." Your turn, have fun. - Angry: "Minions of the Darkness won't flinch, even after massive damage." Have you ever shot an enemy and watched them stagger, bend back, or kneel over? That's what they mean by flinch, enemies will [i]never[/i] react to being damaged. This is especially troublesome with Cabal Phalanx Troopers as they will never move their "impenetrable" shields. Truth be told, there are some sneaky ways to force damage through their shields, but I'll let you experiment to figure it out on your own. - Juggler: "No ammo drops for your equipped weapon." Example: If you're holding your Primary weapon, no primary ammo will drop, same for special and heavy. This mod isn't too bad since you can switch weapons to force the ammo drops you need, but don't go in expecting to be able to do that easily. It's best to try and switch weapons regularly rather then waiting till one is out of ammo, just to be safe. - Grounded: "Players take more damage while airborne." Be very careful, even the slightest hop counts as airborne. This is un-confirmed, just based on my own experience, but I have a theory that when you are hit by an explosive attack that moves your character the physics is just enough to lift you off the ground, which intensifies the damage you receive when this mod is on. With this in mind be very careful around enemies with explosive attacks. - Airborne; "Players deal more damage while in the air." Fly my pretties, fly! - Catapult: "Grenade recharge rate is greatly increased." Catch! - Trickle: "Recharge of abilities is significantly reduced." Unlike Catapult this effects all of your abilities, not just grenades. Use them only when you really need them as you won't get very many chances with this mod active. - Small Arms: "Primary Weapon damage is favored." This is unconfirmed but much of the community has theorized that when they say favored they mean that primary weapons deal more damage but special and heavy weapons do less. True or not you're definitely going to want to focus on using your primary more. - Specialist: "Secondary Weapon damage is favored." Same as Small Arms but with special weapons. - Exposure: "Guardian shields are increased but do not replenish." This is probably the most complex mod so far, it's typically only used in the Prison of Elders. Players have both health and shields which are represented on 1 bar. The left-most segment represent the player's health, which can always recharge. The center and right-most segments represent the player's shields, which are affected by this mod. In truth, there are ways to recharge your shields while Exposure is on, all this means is that your shields will not recharge on their own like they usually do. Let me put it this way: imagine a variable, lets call it R. R represents the speed at which your shield recharges, 10 being full blast and 0 being not at all. Exposure sets R to 0, but other things in Destiny, like special armors or exotic weapons, might be able to increase R. Catch my drift? No more clues, experiment and see if you can figure out what I'm hinting at. Last note, make sure you spec your sub-class to be maxed out for Armor and Agility as Recharge won't do you any good when Exposure is on. Destiny 101 Full List https://www.bungie.net/en/Forum/Post/139731825