The key takeaway from this is that if you, for example, go into the raid at 290, you're going to eat a 28.5% damage penalty at Oryx (who is 300 recommended light), which is fairly substantial. You can look at this chart for the full curve (notice how it has 4 distinct linear segments), or look at this table for some notable values: Lvl.

This only applies to weapon damage, ability damage IS directly based on your light, but seems to cap out when your light is 80 above the enemy's recommended light. You'll note that this is the exact opposite of the IB scaling, which starts off flat, then gets steeper. The first 10 light has the steepest drop (a whopping ~2.85% penalty per light level!), then it starts flattening off. I tested this by popping into the beginning of the raid (a convenient source of infinite 280 light acolytes), equipping a 300+ attack weapon and shooting them in the head, while methodically lowering my light level from 300 in increments of 10 down to 280, then in increments of 1 down to 240.įrom this I found that you get no penalty when your light is equal to or above the enemy's recommended light, but when your light starts dropping below the enemy's light level, damage start decreasing in 4 distinct phases of 10 light each. This only seems to apply to 40+ content, as before that it seems to be based entirely on weapon level (or attack, it's a bit unclear, I haven't focused a lot on pre-endgame). Light level only acts as a 'gating' mechanism, to penalize you if you try to enter content under-geared. I have seen a lot of people be confused, and think that your damage is determined solely by your light level, but this is wrong.

Destiny2 power level dmg calculator