Marvel’s Avengers – How to Get Exotic Gear

Marvel’s Avengers features all sorts of rarities for items and gear, but exotic gear is the best in the game. If you’ve played similar games like Destiny or The Division, then you probably know how rare exotic items can be. You won’t even encounter exotic gear in Avengers until very late in the game, most likely hours after you’ve finished the main campaign. These rare items will be the centerpieces of your builds, but don’t expect them to come easily. These are the best ways to get exotics in Marvel’s Avengers.

How to Get Exotic Gear in Marvel’s Avengers

Exotic gear can be obtained by completing missions, opening chests, and defeating enemies. Exotic gear is red and is much rarer than anything else in the game. It can only be found once your character is at a very high level. Exotics in Avengers aren’t as unique as those found in Destiny or other games, but the buffs and percentage increases they have attached to them are better than anything else you can find. Most of the exotics found by the Avengers community so far have been power level 130 or higher, indicating that these items will not drop until you are almost at the level cap.

You can actually get a few guaranteed exotics from certain missions, but only Major Artifacts. The Sacred Norn Stone of Lethal Will is obtained halfway through the campaign shortly after reaching the Ant Hill, while Tactigon is obtained after finishing the main story. In the Avengers Initiative mode, completing the Reigning Supreme mission chain will reward you with Dark Hold. Each of these is a Major Artifact, meaning they provide a boost to your total power level that caps out at +10. You’ll need one of these to hit the current level cap of 150, as gear alone can only bring you to 140.

Best Exotic Farming Strategies

There are three ways to farm exotics in Marvel’s Avengers. The first is to play War Zone missions and do all of the optional objectives. The Utah Badlands War Zones are the best places to do this as there are several points of interest in that region. Just load into a mission and investigate every question mark you see when you activate Tactical Awareness (up on the d-pad). This way, you’ll find a bunch of chests and high-level enemies to maximize your chances of getting that lucky drop.

The second method is to run Drop Zones as quickly as possible. Drop Zones are the shortest missions in Marvel’s Avengers, and they practically only feature combat from start to finish. This strategy trims all the fat of navigating a War Zone map and just lets you beat up bad guy after bad guy until you knock an exotic out of one of them.

Finally, running Hives is your best bet for getting exotic gear in Marvel’s Avengers. Hives are the most challenging missions in the game. They force you to fight floor after floor of enemies and give great rewards if you do well enough. Mega Hives are coming to the game with a post-launch update, and these will likely offer an even greater challenge and give greater rewards in turn. AIM’s secret lab will also be a great way to farm gear, but that will also be coming to Avengers at a later date. Exotics are incredibly rare, but these activities will maximize your chances of getting that elusive drop.