EtaPhiPike42

Probably close to 3 weeks minimum to reliably get to 31 without RNGesus blessing you. Boots 75, Gauntlets 75, Chest piece 75 + Commendation, Exotic Helm (13 Strange coins) or Legendary Helm(120 marks + Commendation). 225 - 345 marks + 1 - 2 Commendations. 100 mark per week limit. 13 Strange Coins (2 -3 Weekly Strikes @ lvl 28 with possible rng help) For levelling up quick: 1. Complete Vanguard bounties to level up your Vanguard rank(3 and each level after gives you one Commendation and a chance at some free legendary gear). I put a link in that has some advice for completing bounties as well... - Some "hitman" bounties are an easy run...always take Frigoris and Banuk as they can be executed quickly. Take the mission at the lowest "heroic" level version and just run past everyone and take them out. These are worth 100 reputation each and can be done in less than 5 minutes each. For Telthor, Sardok, and Merok you might want to have some other bounties loaded as they take a bit of time getting to the boss you need to take out. Prohibitive Mind is relatively quick. - For strike based bounties just have them loaded while doing the strike playlist(to build your supply of Vanguard marks at the same time and building extra rep). - As already said in some other replies, combine bounties that can be done at the same time. For example, I like to combine the 3 public event bounty with the 9000 experience without dying, headshot/precision shot, overcharge, 30 melee kills, 100 kills without dying, Fallen Leaders, Exalted Hive, and /or Patrol Cosmodrome then go on Patrol on Earth in The Divide and the Steppes. The Swords of Crota count as Exalted Hive(in the Steppes there is an underground area with a bunch of them Yellow Bar Hive along with the Sword to take out. Gooh place to take your bounty of Exalted Hive). In The Divide there is a pretty predictable Public Event that spawns, a Yellow Bar Fallen arrives about every 5 minutes via drop ship, and a Sword of Crota spawns about every 15-20 minutes as well. Meanwhile, you have low level enemies to collect glimmer from as well as act as targets for completing other bounties. Learn good spots for reliably farming Majors/Ultras. For Vex, Patrol Venus and go to the Citadel. For Cabal, run the Exclusion Zone on Heroic(twice should do it). I found some of these from experience and some from others experience(aka via Google search). 2. Hit public events (use destinypublicevents or the like). Earth has a lot of reliable public events so you can bounce between them as you pull down other bounties. The first public event is work 6 total marks and subsequent ones are 4. You will also normally receive some ascendant materials in the process. 3. Run the Strike playlist, weeklies, and dailies for more marks. Dailies are also good for the ascendant materials you will need. 4. Do the Weekly Strike for Strange Coins. When you get 13 or more, visit Xur and see if he has any interesting exotic armor. You can also buy an exotic helm engram for 23 Motes of Light which might yield a good helm.(I was able to get two warlock helms including Obsidian Mind, one Titan helm, and one hunter helm doing this). Ideally you would obtain the exotic armor first so you know what other slots to fill with Vanguard legendaries. Helms and chest pieces are good exotics as they are the more expensive legendaries(Commendation + marks vs just marks) to obtain. 5. Eris Bounties for Dark Below are also good to run for levelling gear. As you gear up with legendaries, the same process can be applied to level your gear as the bounty experience will be applied to whatever you have equipped when you turn them in. Feel free to send me an invite(I'm on PS4 on Pacific Time with psn: kaosc4405) and if I'm on when we can run some strikes or I can show you some farming spots for the bounties of the day. I'm also up for the Weekly Strike or Nightfall with other DoDs. Lately I've been playing more Lego Marvel Super Heroes(play with son) than Destiny, but still manage an hour or so a day.

I've been stuck at the same place for about the same amount of time man.

For me, lvl 27 was the big "I'm stuck" point. Everyone is giving good advice. Once you break through the Vanguard lvl required to purchase armor, via completing bounties, it will get easier. When choosing bounties, try to collect similar bounties that you can knock out during the daily story mission, or whatever story mission you may be on within the game. After you complete Eris's quest, some of the missions that unlock provide good opportunities to knock out multiple bounties.

Definitely rank up vanguard. If you have the dark below then you can run roc strikes. You're slightly under leveled but you'll be ok, especially if you pick up a couple of DoDs to run with. You'll get drops at a higher rate and you'll get vanguard marks to buy light level 31 gear.

I hear ya. I've been stuck at level 24. I have all my armor maxed. I've been doing the ROC strikes and bounties to try and get my rank up. Hopefully can do it this weekend.

You should rank up vanguard to at least level 2 in order to buy some legendary armor and then upgrade them to max out the light. If u do that you should be able to get to level 30. That's how I did it.