how the hell do I get armor and weapons higher than 1771

[serene portal]

I've been doing pinnacles and masters and I always end up getting only 1771 gear. How do I get it higher

[modest holly]

Pinnacle drops are +2 to your average power level. (Strike, Crucible and Gambit are +1). So if you have one or a few pieces holding your average back you wont get higher drops

If you have pieces below your average power level you can do powerful drops to even them out. Powerfuls drop at your average power level after 1570. DIM can be useful to check (hover over power level)

Otherwise just keep doing Pinnacles and eventually you'll get lucky

[lime widget]

So let's say all ur gear is at 1571, but you got 1 gear that is 1573.. is it better to do pinnacle stuff before doing powerful stuff?

Since if you do powerful it'll give you 1571.. but if you get lucky and get different 1572/1573 gear your powerful might get pushed up to 1572 instead of 1571

[modest holly]

If all your pieces are 1571 and one piece is 1573, the average is still 1571. In that situation powerfuls are useless since theyll just drop more 1571 pieces. Only if a piece is below the average a powerful can be useful

I can also recommend this site, it visualizes everything nicely and even tells you what to do if you want to min-max
https://destinyrecipes.com/power