u/Captain_Freud

I'm level 50, the point at which this game tends to dumps you into the Sweat section of matchmaking. I've completed enough of the primary contracts to unlock the purchasable Blue Sponsored Kit for three separate factions, but still haven't unlocked the upgrade to purchase a Green Sponsored Kit for any faction.

Meanwhile, if I want the basic privilege of purchasing a blue shield, the bare minimum shield to use in my matchmaking pool, I need to tough it out and find 10 pieces of purple salvage first, but not before grinding out NuCaloric faction XP for the privilege.

In other words: the gear I need to tackle the higher difficulty content is consistently gated by repeatedly beating that content, at which point that gear is now useless.