in case anyone is thinking about levelling another character (great way to max on ascendent materials and weapons), Crushin8or and I managed to go from 1-20 in around 12 hours of straight playing. We took breaks, started at 8am and finished at 1am in the morning. The route i'd advise for the most XP per minute is: - story mode - drop by the tower every couple of missions to pick up the custom story bounties. do the regular daily bounties as well if you can, as they become available (lvl 4) - dont run story content if you're 2 levels or more below the recommended level. Its just a slow hard grind. instead go do the easiest strike you've not done already. After a couple of missions in venus we hit this problem, ran the earth and moon strikes, and then went back to story until mars, then did the venus strikes, then completed the story. Don't run them more than once as you only get the XP one time. - dont skip any groups of mobs on your way. each kill is XP. - post-story, you'll be around 17-18. run the easiest strikes on the playlist you can (lvl 18 ones) until you're 19, then run the lvl 20 strikes. Again, don't be two levels down or more. Pvp (with bounties) becomes a feasible alternative here. Strikes get you about 1/3 level each run, which takes about 20 mins. I had a nice set of blues/legendaries waiting for me at 20, which meant i went from 19 to 24 in a moment during a lvl 20 strike :)