Destiny 2 | Best Enhancement Core Farm (2023)

There are a lot of resources in Destiny 2 and none so are more prized than Enhancement Cores. Despite being quite low down on the rarity hierarchy, Enhancement Cores have become increasingly sparse with each new season as features like crafting and infusion demand a large number of Cores to function effectively. This has left even veteran players poor in terms of Enhancement Cores which can limit Guardians when it comes to various pieces of the endgame: if you don’t have enough Cores, you may not be able to infuse the weapon you need for a Raid or get those Enhanced Perks you want.

The methods to gaining Enhancement Cores ordinarily are fine and offer many other benefits in return. However, if you’re looking to stack up on just Cores alone, there are a few options which may help you replenish your stocks easily.

Here are the best Enhancement Core farming methods in Destiny 2. 

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Ordinary Ways to Get Enhancement Cores

There are a few ordinary ways to obtain Enhancement Cores if you want to do some other tasks while grinding them out. 

The first of these involves running low-tier Nightfalls. Specifically, you’ll want to run Hero difficulty Nightfalls as these will almost always guarantee 2 Enhancement Cores upon activity completion. Going for Legend or Master Nightfalls may seem like a no-brainer, but the chances to get a Core actually decreases at these high difficulties: you’re far more likely to get Prisms or Ascendant Shards which, while very useful, isn’t what we’re looking for. While a bit dull, running these Nightfalls will earn you reputation towards the Vanguard so consider running them if you need a bit of a boost. 

Similarly, Legend and Master Lost Sectors will also award Enhancement Cores to any who manage to beat them. Legend difficulty will award up to 3 Enhancement Cores if you’re able to loot the chest at the end. If you’re confident in your skill and can quickly zoom through each Lost Sector, the gain isn’t terrible compared to the time invested. This is especially true if you’re looking to farm some Exotic armour, allowing you to kill two birds with one stone. 

Lastly, several vendor reward tracks will include Enhancement Cores in their line-up. Some of these vendors will offer Cores straight away, but most will ask you to have already reset their reputation once already. If you plan on running a lot of a lot of Strikes, Crucible or Gambit, getting some additional Cores is a nice bonus so be sure to stop into the Tower every once in a while to claim them. 

While all of these methods are good, they’re also slow. Enhancement Cores are needed in great numbers for things like weapon crafting (which needs upwards of 16 Cores to slot 2 Enhanced Perks on a weapon) and these methods simply don’t cut in terms of quick Cores. Fortunately, though, there are at least two quick farms for Enhancement Cores in Destiny 2. 

Vendor Cores

Finest Matterweave Farm

The first farming method you’ll want to try involves the Moon. Before heading there, carve out some time and make sure you have a good stack of Finest Matterweave. This material can be randomly by dismantling Legendary gear and you should be drowning in the stuff if you’ve been playing for any extended length of time.

Usually, consuming Finest Matterweave will make one of your next boss’s kills drop an Enhancement Core. The effect remains until you get a Core, so consuming one Matterweave essentially equates to a guaranteed Core, but there’s so much busy work involved that most people ignore them. Finding readily available bosses to farm over and over is a rarity, and the need to constantly go back and forth in your inventory makes this a hassle. 

While this farm won’t sort out that problem, it does give you an easy way to chew through your Matterweave and get hundreds of Cores for your troubles.

First, head to the Moon and land in Sanctuary. From here, take a left and make your way up to Archer’s Line. There’s a specific cave that you need to visit, one usually guarded by a group of roaming Vex, which should house one of the Moon’s special Rune Chests: these chests can only be opened by shooting a series of runes in the correct order. If the chest isn’t here when you get here, reload the area and keep trying until the chest appears.

Once the chest shows up, the real grind begins.

1. Pop the Finest Matterweave and get comfy in the cave.
2. Purposely shoot the incorrect symbol to spawn an orange bar Knight.
3. Kill that knight which should have a chance to drop a Core. If it doesn’t keep shooting the symbol until the Core appears (it will drop as a Legendary Engram).
4. Once you’ve got the Core, simply use another Matterweave and continue as normal.

We recommend using a Shotgun or some other short-range weapon to quickly rinse the Knight as you’ll be able to get through more Matterweave if you aren’t fumbling around trying to kill it. This method, while effective, will obviously take a good deal of time, a lot of which will be spent going back into your inventory to reactive the Finest Matterweave. If you have the patience, though, this farm can easily net you upwards of 100 Cores an hour if you’re lucky with drops. You’ll also get through your seemingly infinite stack of Matterweave as a nice bonus. 

Rare Armour Upgrading

The next method of getting easy Enhancement Cores is a bit tricksy. When you dismantle an Armour Piece that was previously upgraded, you’ll be given some of the resources used to upgrade it back. The higher the upgrade level of the item, the more materials will be returned to you: for example, a fully Masterworked piece of Exotic Armour will give you an Ascendant Shard. This is important as it is the backbone of our Enhancement Core farm. 

Rare Armour (distinguished by its blue backdrop) is distinct from Legendary thanks to its ability to be reacquired from collections. You can acquire one piece of Rare Armour for 777 Glimmer, in any slot you choose. This is, usually, quite useless and serves no real purpose, but we can use it to our advantage to gain plenty of free Enhancement Cores.

Upgraded Rare Gear

1. First, begin by pulling a Rare Armour piece from the Leveling section in Collections. 
2. Then upgrade that piece until it reaches level 8. This will cost you 3 Enhancement Cores and 1 Enhancement Prism to do.
3. Now, you can simply dismantle the item. When you do, you will gain 6 Enhancement Cores back.

Compared to the Moon chest farm, this method is even duller as it just involves navigating through your menu. You’ll also need at least 3 Cores and a good stack of Prisms to make this effective farm. If you happen to be hoarding large stacks of Prisms, though, this is a great way to trade them in for more useful material. Prisms are also, quite paradoxically, easier to obtain than Cores and you’ll be swimming in them once again after a few high-level Nightfalls. For every 777 Glimmer and 1 Enhancement Prism, you’re making a profit of 3 Enhancement Cores, meaning that for a stack of 50 Prisms, you’ll make a killing of 150 Enhancement Cores. 

Sweet Profit

Those were all the ways to easily farm Enhancement Cores in Destiny 2.