You want to get to level 20. Make that your goal if your not there yet. If you played thru the whole story you should be pretty close. Once you hit level 20 it's all about playing and playing until you can either afford to buy better gear or you can earn it on rare drops during play. It can be a grind. I recommend doing the daily stories and strikes for both XP and the possibility of gear drops. Hope this puts a little traction in your wheels.