I thought I’d share some tips on playing the Survival: Freelance playlist. I (braddadocio/PSN) am not that great at PvP, but I was able to reach Legend rank this week and have learned some lessons in the process.
And here’s a few “don'ts”:
I don’t consider myself better than average for PvP… my survival K/D is 0.95 or something, which is decent but not amazing. But with some smarts, you can still play well and get your match win rate high enough to keep your progress going. You can find some of my survival videos on my Crucible playlist on YouTube. It’s been a fun season and I’m looking forward to doing it again in season 11!
Good luck!
As with most of Destiny’s raids, they are best run with 2 of each class. This will give you flexibility for any situation. Once you’ve mastered the raid with 2 of each class, you can mix it up and experiment to see how well you do with a “Hunters-only” run, for instance.
For the Vosik and Aksis fights, you’ll probably want to run Sunsinger, Defender, Nightstalker. That combination gives you a lot of added damage when you get to damage rounds. Alternative subclasses are viable, but are less ideal in my experience. (Note that for Defenders, you should probably be using a Blessing bubble for every part of the raid prior to Aksis phase 2.)
The process to open the wall is the same for normal and heroic modes. One player on the left side of the field and one from the right should handle running around gathering charges to deposit in the spinner for their side. A runner from the middle isn’t necessary— if there are three doing this, it winds up causing deaths from the third person taking charges needed by one side or the other. Instead, the one player from the middle can provide added defense to the left and right sides by wandering the field and help kill the voltage eater shanks wherever they are spawning (left / right can call out for help when one shows up).
Once charges start dropping from the spinners, focus on taking Vosik’s shield off. Sustaining damage will keep him vulnerable longer, but at most, you’ll probably get about half his health off from one round and will need an additional round to make him leave.
Be sure to grab the chest before you enter the wall, and the additional chest en-route to the real Vosik fight.
This fight is probably the most intense part of the raid. You’ll face swarms of adds here and controlling them is critical to success. Note that the right side of this room seems to be more difficult than the left side, so place your experienced players on the right, and less-experienced on the left. The middle position should have a Sunsigner (ideally with Sunbreakers and solar flare grenades to keep the middle spawn platform lit regularly). A Nightstalker also works well in the middle, and they can tether the middle spawn (along with the Light of the Pack perk) to churn out orbs of light for everyone. Titans on the team should probably be running Blessing of Light bubbles, set behind the left and right side pillars. It’s pretty helpful when these are set prior to when the spliced captains appear.
The main differences between normal and heroic difficulty:
For the Vosik challenge weeks, the challenge is summarized as: clean room doors must all be closed with a SIVA grenade charge. These are obtained at the end of the Vosik damage rounds… instead of throwing those charges, two people should be designated to pick up those charges as soon as they drop. One person should go left, the other person— and the rest of the fireteam— should go right. If both rooms are on the same side, the person who would be going left should plan to take the back (the end where the fireteam fights from) right room, and the rest of the fireteam should go to the front right room. When closing the door, throw your charge standing very close to the “button” target to make sure you hit it and hit it hard. Make sure you don’t kill Vosik before the 2nd pair of clean rooms are used!
One person in your fireteam should handle a countdown to throw charges. Something like: “Okay, pickup your charge. (pause as you pick up your charge.) Okay, three, two, one, throw.”
After throwing charges, there will be a brief intermission— kill as many of the adds as you can, then identify which monitor needs to be disabled and hit it with fusion or sniper rounds. The whole team needs to help with this. I put at least two fusion rounds into it each time. Reload your special weapon after the monitor breaks— regularly pick up special ammo packs from the field to keep your ammo reserve full.
Following the 2nd SIVA charge volley, a void-shielded spliced captain will appear before the 3rd SIVA charge drops (and another will appear following 4th SIVA charge volley, before the 5th SIVA charge drops). This captain is hard to kill, but a damage-over-time grenade helps soften him a bit, and Dark Drinker works really well to take his shield and finish him. Note that the use of Outbreak Prime on this captain can cause him to teleport and in some cases fall off the platform. If that happens, he will reappear, and when you least expect it.
For a non-challenge run, here’s the playbook I use for deciding which safe room to go to when the whole fireteam is using a single room. As the charges drop during a damage phase, one person in the group should stop and start monitoring the back right doorway. If it lights up, everyone should use that room. If it doesn’t light up, then call to run left and once you see the left side, you’ll know if you’re using the back or front left safe room (there’s a chance of course, that the front-right safe room is lit, but if it is, there will also be 1 safe room on the left, guaranteed… so instead of wasting time seeing if the front-right room is available, run toward the guaranteed room). After that first room is used, plan to run to the opposite side for the next round, and continue alternating from there.
Once shanks show up, just focus on killing the exploding shanks to take out other repeater shanks near them. Use the Titan bubbles and shields from them whenever you can.
The most important part of this fight is staying alive. If your health is low or there are too many adds to safely pick up the “far” SIVA charge, then don’t risk your life to get it that round. There are some good methods for grabbing that charge more safely:
Following the Vosik fight, be sure to pick up the two chests along the way to the Siege Engine.
This fight is broken into two parts. Disabling the siege engine, and repairing it. I recommend at least one Sunsigner switch here to a Stormcaller subclass to help manage the dregs and vandals. As the encounter starts, a Nightstalker tether should be fired to trap as many adds as possible, then the Stormcaller should use their super to keep the adds dead/occupied as the rest of the team is shooting the siege engine. A Defender should drop a blessing bubble near the crate by the special ammo box. The fireteam can stand on that crate, and should be able to shoot over the top of the blessing bubble (shielding them from adds on the ground). Once the siege engine is damaged, board it (picking up orbs to replenish health), and ride it to the next half of the fight.
The main change for heroic difficulty here is the spliced spider tank you have to destroy. Fortunately, more time is given to do this.
The next thing you’ll see after disembarking the siege engine is a Fallen skiff fly in and drop off more adds. Everyone should shoot at the guns of this skiff— they’re quite deadly to the team if left alone. After taking out the skiff guns, advance on the Fallen crew it dropped… tether them and clear them with swords or rockets. Replacement parts will immediately drop from the skiff as it leaves. DO NOT PICK THEM UP YET. The next skiff flys in— immediately start sidestepping to avoid fire from the skiff guns, and shoot at them to disable them. More adds are left from it, and they should be cleared. Then, another skiff flys in. Disable those guns as well. After that third skiff’s guns are disabled, now it is time for three to pick up the parts that were dropped (Warlocks and Hunters should be carrying the parts. Warlocks with Transversive Steps can move faster with a part while crouched. A Nighstalker with the “Keen Scout” perk can do the same). One additional fireteam member should be ahead of the part-carriers and should trigger and shoot the spider mines that are set along the left-hand path. Advance the parts down the left alley, then rightward, then forward along the right side until the skiff with the spider tank warps in.
At the same time the third skiff is handled, one brave member of the fireteam should break off and intercept Meksis— a Fallen captain that is attempting to take control of the siege engine. They should be able to kill him and the other adds on the siege engine by sword. After Meksis is dead, the ramp will extend from the siege engine, making it possible for the fireteam to carry their parts to their destination.
When the tank appears, get out of the line of fire from it and start sniping its front-left leg as safely as you can (front-right leg from your vantage point). Disabling this leg first causes the spider tank to be vulnerable longer. Once it is damaged with its core exposed, start hitting it as hard as you can— tether if possible, then snipe or better yet— use the raid machine gun (“IF MATERIA”) to fire on it until it is dead. Be sure your heavy weapon is reloaded prior to the spider tank attack, or you’ll have to wait through a reload animation at the wrong time.
Resume moving the parts, but be mindful of when you will become exhausted and have to drop a part. If a part is dropped while on the ramp to the siege engine, it can fall through the ramp and under the ship. If this happens, it can’t be retrieved, since the engine has an electrical field surrounding it that will kill on contact. Better to drop a part before the ramp, and have someone else carry it forward than to lose it like that.
If you’re running out of time carrying parts, have those not carrying a part swing an exotic sword behind you to “push” you forward faster. Yep, that works.
If all goes well, you will repair the siege engine and ride it to the next part of the raid: Aksis. (Warlocks: don’t forget to switch back to your Sunsinger class.)
Be sure to grab the chest in the pipe high above the entrance to the Server Farm.
For Heroic difficulty, the new wrinkle here are SIVA turret guns. There is one of these at each of the three areas of the arena, and they must be dealt with. SIVA turret guns can be disabled with a sniper round or two. Doing so will buy you 20 seconds of turret-free life. After which time, they spin up again and must be disabled again. Charge throwers: be sure you have a good 10+ seconds left to throw your charge before the turret on your side spins up again. If not, wait and disable the turret before picking up a charge to throw.
The fireteam breaks into three groups of two to cover left/right/middle areas of the arena. For those groups, one person should be responsible for using a cannon, and the other should be responsible for throwing SIVA charges; those roles will not change for the rest of the Aksis fight.
After the major vandal is killed for your side, it’s time to advance and take out a Fallen captain that will emerge, carrying a cannon. He’s really good with this cannon— don’t underestimate him. You have to take him out quickly. A Nightstalker tether fired near him is super helpful, whether it is you or your teammate that is actually clearing the captain. I recommend using Dark Drinker for that.
The first two rounds of servitors are simple: three servitors each round. The third round will have nine servitors. Note that cannon holders will never have a servitor at their side matching their cannon’s element. That means you have only two possible places for the first servitor to kill. If you’re at left/right, it’s easy to spot both locations— you don’t have to wait for a spotter to call out servitor locations for you. If you’re working center, just immediately jump up to the left and see if your first servitor is there. If not, it’ll be on the right. Subsequent servitors are also easy to spot and clear without people telling you where they are. Also note that when a servitor comes out of the left/right door, they pause for a couple of seconds at a spot. It’s this time you can use to target, fire, and kill a servitor from the opposite side of the arena. This is a huge time-saver for the nine servitor rounds in Aksis phases 1 and 2.
For the first two rounds, just throw charges at the center targets. For the third round, charge throwers should do this:
Not everyone will hit 3 targets— there are only 7 in total. So if the left/right side take out two targets each, that leaves 3 for the center charge thrower. But if left/right get a third charge to throw, feel free to hit one of the center targets.
And cannon holders— please help with disabling turrets whenever you see one starting to spin up again.
After hitting all your targets after rounds 1 and 2, group up in the center to take out the shanks that are dropping above Aksis. This is a great opportunity to tether with 1-2 tethers (ideally at the same time, to get orbs to recharge both Hunters’ super), and shoot at the tethered adds. Everyone will be able to charge their super again before the next round begins.
The main difference between normal and heroic here is that you will continue to get 9 servitors each round. You’ll need 7 charges to throw at Aksis to make him teleport.
For the Aksis challenge, the requirement is that you stun Aksis without fail for every teleport, and you also use the “supercharge” plates with each teleport. Positioning and calling out teleport location is key for doing this right. Speed is also important. I recommend using Jolder’s artifact to eliminate sprint cooldown. Other than that, practice and patience should eventually teach you this method.
As this phase begins, a bunch of shanks will start trickling out. It really helps you in this raid if you can find a good weapon to handle these shanks more easily. I tend to use a high-impact hand cannon (and gauntlets with a hand cannon loader perk) with explosive rounds (many of these exist: Palindrome, Imago Loop, The Wail, etc.). Other options are a high-impact scout rifle with explosive rounds or crowd control. Between rounds of damage on Aksis, the shanks are a good way to recharge a depleted super. If one of the pair of Guardians at a given side lacks their super, they should be shooting all the adds here to recharge again, while the other Guardian just holds off and helps only if too many are grouping up.
Make sure to adjust your position as Aksis teleports to the left/right side. Remember: if you can see Aksis, he can see you and will shoot SIVA swarms at you.
After Aksis teleports the 3rd time, things will move quickly:
Some notes on dealing with these shielded, cannon-holding captains:
The strategy I like to use for non-challenge mode runs tries to minimize player movements, particularly for the left/right sides. I also assign any less-experienced players the left/right charge-thrower role. Here’s how it works:
Of course, after the initial teleport, empowerment shifts. Each time, all empowered players should call out the position they intend to cover (closest first). If the last person to call a location finds they have to cross the entire map, they need to call middle and the middle person will know they have to relocate to the unclaimed side.
Again, the left/right charge throwers should automatically just handle their position if empowerment shifts and they become empowered— they are not to move from their side.
Left and right charge-throwers should only being throwing two charges each. The middle charge thrower will be responsible for throwing three charges. This will make a total of 7, which is the magic number to cause him to teleport (for Heroic, on Normal mode, you only throw three charges). The last charge thrown in the middle should be thrown after announcing it with enough time to allow empowered people to get into position (this is the point where any side changes happen, if two were empowered at one spot, and a cannon-holder needs to take a new side to stun). Left/right charge throwers should still pick up any additional SIVA charge they can but hold it to throw along with the 7th charge. It does damage Aksis some, so it’s “free” damage, and sometimes if a charge throw misses, you may need two thrown at the last second to get him to teleport.
The left/right stun should be easy, since those empowered players will only be looking at that location and should reach it with plenty of time. Middle stun positions will be riskier and all non-empowered players should help call out the teleport location as soon as they observe it.
Note that the button to use to stun is used for many other things in Destiny. One of them being reloading your weapon. If your active weapon is not reloaded when you move to stun, there’s a chance you will trigger a reload animation and miss the stun. This is one reason why I always switch to my sword when getting ready to stun— no risk of a reload, and it is useful for swinging to get away quickly and avoid his recoil which can sometimes throw you and kill you.
As Aksis teleports around, empowered players should not be doing any damage— they need to focus on getting into position and being ready to stun him, and not getting headshots. Non-empowered players should be doing damage as he takes damage all through these teleports. I recommend hitting him with cannon charges, and then switching to sniper fire if you have no more cannon shots.
After the third teleport, it’s time to attack. Sunsingers should be using Viking Funeral and grenades. Nightstalkers should tether (again, with Black Hole turned on). Ideally, if there are two Nightstalkers, they should stagger their tethers to improve all-around damage on Aksis. Defenders should be using a weapons of light bubble, and if the team is using Dark Drinker to attack, setting that bubble right at the feet of Aksis will be most effective. The team should also prioritize the use of any remaining cannon rounds ahead of their own weapons.
The team should agree on which pillar to use beforehand. Either a consistent order, or a policy. One I use is to go to the pillar closest to the side Aksis last teleported to. But if he was at a center position, just go to the right-most pillar still available.
If all goes well, one of the damage rounds will push Aksis to move back to his stage for a final stand. Anticipate this, and intentionally save a cannon or two for this final attack. Throw everything you still have into this— it’s always feels like a close call. If you run out of sniper rounds, switch to primary and keep shooting since you may not have enough time for a reload.
If you did all that right, you should have your raid completion!
(One final tip: if you’re needing to make a SIVA cache key from SIVA key fragments, be sure to have an open spot in the “Consumables” side of your inventory to receive the new key. Otherwise, it goes to your Postmaster and for some reason, you can’t get new ones from that point without leaving the raid. Consider just making keys before the raid starts to avoid that kind of problem altogether.)
The following is a post from one of our clan moderators: huevos74.
Sitting at the terminal waiting for my flight to go home I am trying to collect my thoughts on this weekend’s activities. I spent the last 3 days in Tampa Florida for Destiny Community Convention 2016. I traveled 1,585.7 miles to hang out with 3,500 guardians to share our love, frustrations and excitement about our game, DESTINY. We shared admirations and accolades for streamers that entertain us, and appreciation for developers that make our lives in the tower easier. We celebrated a community that proved it is bigger than just a video game. The lead up charity stream raised over 540K dollars for St. Jude’s Hospital.
There was over 3,500 attendees, and over 1,000 more showed up to only be turned away. The sweltering Florida heat wasn’t enough to discourage a few Cosplay attendees. Warlocks and Titans and Hunters, Oh My! I counted at least 2 Warlocks, 3 Titans, and 2 Hunters.
Double Exotic Armor, Celestial Nighthawk, Tarantella, plus Thorn
Guardians about to 5 man King’s Fall
Bungie did have a presence at the event, albeit unofficial, there was a @Cozmo23 on site hiding strange coins throughout the event, which our own MindlessChaos was able to locate and win a free Rise of Iron T-shirt. Luke Smith was also spotted lurking around the crowd, shaking hands and pausing to take selfies with those that recognized him.
The panels were interesting; I found the Dev/App panel to be the most interesting. The Con utilized the popular streamer app Discord to have an open conversation with attendees and QA for panels, rather than roaming mics or unheard questions. One area was designated as “The Tower”, a booth from Kontrol Freeks was there, the popular podcast Guardian Radio had a nice little meet-n-greet booth set up. There was also a Destiny Con Merch booth, with t-shirts and posters for sale. And there was a booth from Crossroads App, which I was not familiar with.
MindlessChaos and C-Ryan jumped in a quick game of Crucible Laser Tag, I heard they won their match, GGs. I was overwhelmed and felt like hanging back and just people watching. Large crowds make me kind of anxious, so I just found a spot to take it all in.
I was able to shake hands with C-Ryan, MindlessChaos, ThuggyMcBattle, and Mrinnen. There was a large streamer presence, which to me made the event seem more like a meet-n-greet for popular streamers. I did get a pretty intense sense of community from the overall atmosphere of the Con, having never really attended a Con before this was pretty overwhelming.
Left to right: MindlessChaos, ThuggyMcBattle, Mrinnen, huevos74, C-Ryan at pre-Con WingHouse
All in all the experience was a lot of fun; I am looking forward to GUARDIAN CON 2017. All signs point to bigger better things for the Destiny Community, both in game and IRL. We did a good thing guardians, we can be proud of that, I am. Oh, and this guy was there too…GG.
Whether you knew it or not, anyone and everyone in BC63 who played Challenge of Elders between May 10th and July 18th competed in our last clan-wide event, the Season of Elders. Participation was automatic, and the highest-scoring fireteams were assigned points every week via Brad Choate’s behind-the-scenes API wizardry. Updates to the leaderboard posted weekly, with points assigned as follows:
– 1st Place: 25 pts
– 2nd Place: 18 pts
– 3rd Place: 15 pts
– 4th Place: 12 pts
– 5th Place: 10 pts
– 6th Place: 8 pts
– 7th Place: 6 pts
– 8th Place: 4 pts
– 9th Place: 2 pts
– 10th Place: 1 pts
The season started with a real shot across the bow by Team BirdBerryRip (emu47, davidbarry_, and riphallow), with a stellar 73K-point run. Yet stamina proved lacking in the week one winners; in subsequent weeks, the juggernaut of the season rose to prominence, as Team Jam and Eggs Truck (jamtam7280, huevos74, and chuckdatruc7) proved they could not only score 60K without batting an eye, but they could do so week after week after week.
Over the course of ten weeks, Team Jam and Eggs Truck only once failed to post a score (Week 8, perhaps due to a focus on Iron Banner – it was also a week when no one else posted a score, as well), and earned the most points all but three times – once as already mentioned in week one, followed by upsets in weeks six and ten.
So who were the other teams that challenged the season’s top dogs? In week six, it was a team composed of chief_mcleod, epignosis21, and superhooahman. A rising star, starting with a fourth-place finish in week four to week six, when they took first in a surprise upset of the Jam and Eggs Truck – it looked like a challenger had been born.
Such was not to be. Soon, superhooahman’s wife threw his PS4 out the window and ran it over with her car, before setting the wrecked PS4 and car and the driveway and the whole neighborhood on fire, then nuking the site from orbit (“It’s the only way to be sure”) to curb his Destiny habit. Alas, the would-be challengers were down a player, and a third would be needed to claim the top prize in the finale at the end of the season. Yet getting one would mean starting a fresh team with zero points.
Enter bxkeleko. A new member of BC63, just recently migrating from playing Destiny mostly solo on PS3 and now finally making the jump to PS4, bxkeleko joined chief_mcleod and epignosis and made a run for the final Showdown of Elders.
The reconfigured team managed to pull off a second upset to the still-going-strong Jam and Eggs Truck in the final week, which earned them just enough points to make the Showdown of Elders final rounds (in fact, in the end chief_mcleod and epignosis were on both the 3rd and 4th-ranked teams).
Also in the showdown: Team BirdBerryRip, whose initial efforts allowed them to rest on their laurels all the way to the finals, and a similarly talented-yet-MIA-after-week-two team consisting of bradchoate, jas-m, and lord_roody_poo. There was little surprise when the first round of the Showdown of Elders ended with twin no-shows, allowing the two dedicated teams to make the final Showdown uncontested.
The stage was set. With a year of PS Plus for every member of the winning fireteam at stake, the two teams met for a live head-to-head in the Reef on Sunday, August 7th. Both teams came well-prepared, having practiced multiple times before the event.
They provided a hell of a show. Emu47 and greyboxer provided commentary as the six guardians did what guardians do best: shoot all the things.
In the end, the challengers made a terrific, 63,740 run … but there was no stopping the Jam and Eggs Truck. Posting a whopper of a score – 76,605 points, enough to outscore any other previous score posted during the entire Season of Elders – the Jam and Eggs Truck plowed through the finish line, triumphant.
Congratulations to all who participated, and congratulations to the season’s victors. GGs, all around!
Stay tuned for our next clan event. With a new raid and private Crucible matches coming in September, you can bet we’ll be cooking up something fun.
Fight hard, and be merry, Guardian!
One of the best things about Bravo Company 63 is that we play really nicely together. We have clan leadership/moderators, but by and large, we have been fortunate to avoid “drama” that can happen with a group of 100+ members.
Having said that, the clan moderators have developed an official code of conduct. This was done as a way to define ourselves and expected behavior. Behaviors that are exhibited– mostly universally– among our members already.
This document was not created because there are problems manifesting that need a rulebook thrown at them. It was created because we love what we have, and want to keep it. This becomes more important if we continue to grow, or as new members replace those that may move on.
Our Code of Conduct is now available. We feel it’s a good set of principles most everyone can agree on. If you’re a member of BC63 and take issue with anything in it, please talk with one of the clan moderators. We’d love to hear your feedback, and are open to adjusting this document as needed.
Sunday, March 20, 2016 marks the close of the first ever BC63 Destiny Raid Triathlon. This 20 day competition was hosted by the moderators of Bravo Company 63, and began at reset on March 1. The goal was simple: Bring down Bungie’s fiercest Loot Pinatas, AKA Raid bosses, as quickly as possible. The winners would be the six person Fireteam with the shortest cumulative time spent in the Vault of Glass, the Hellmouth, and the Dreadnaught taking down Atheon, Crota, and big daddy Oryx. Executing this task, however, proved to be anything but simple. Teams quickly discovered that in order to be the fastest group of Guardians, the established raid mechanics we all came to learn and love, would need to be twisted and reshaped in the name of competition. And, even the normal slice of cheese would no longer be enough to secure victory. For example, in the Hellmouth, sending a Sunsinger Warlock to his doom at The Bridge was just the beginning. Teams must, and did find, new and unique ways of cheesing this obstacle in a way that would get them across quicker than ever. The raids were no longer about surviving the encounter. Loss of teammates became not just acceptable, but, rather strategic.
Four fireteams entered the competition: Fireteam 6, The Bleached Whales, The Super Guardians, and B-Team. Despite only one team emerging triumphant from the depths of the Darkness, all teams posted commendable times. In fact, the winning team was only a mere 5 minutes ahead of the runners up, and less than a minute separated their King’s Fall times. The fastest individual time for Crota’s End, at just over 11 minutes, was actually posted by neither the first or second place team. Competition was fierce, and all teams put in an amazing amount of effort. That said, with a cumulative completion time of 82 minutes 27 seconds, the winners of the first ever BC63 Raid Triathlon are The Super Guardians, a team comprised of (alphabetically) Impulz-LV, JAS-M, Knocktournal, Lord_Roody_Poo, Maverickzx6, and Nedreyerson3.
Official completion times for each raid as performed by The Super Guardians are:
Congratulations to the Super Guardians, and congratulations and thanks to all of the teams which participated! This event would not have been as intense or as enjoyable without your support. Please see our group’s new Leaderboard for the individual raid times and video links of all participating fireteams.
TL;DR? If you’re a visual learner, here’s a video tutorial for this guide.
This strategy guide works best with two Defender Titans and two Nighstalker Hunters. Two guardians that can be any class/subclass, and one of these would be the relic runner (Sunsinger Warlocks are best for these positions since they can strategically die; more on that later). The Defender Titans should configure “Bastion”, “Illuminated” perks, and one should use a “Blessing of Light” with the other using “Weapons of Light”. Hunters should be using the Nighstalker subclass and enable the “Predator” and “Black Hole” perks.
Recommended weapons are:
Usually, Oryx is killed by a set of four 4-bomb detonations. The challenge is to detonate all 16 bombs at once.
For this guide, I will be using numbers to identify each platform: “1” is the door-side left platform. “2” is the door-side right platform. “3” is the Saturn-side right platform. “4” is the Saturn-side left platform (numbered counter-clockwise, starting from the door-side left platform).
To keep things as simple as possible, our group uses a “fixed jump sequence”, where the same people are activating the platforms and jumping in the same order. So jumper “1” will always jump from the platform Oryx slams each round. Jumper “2” will follow, then jumper “3”. The two Hunters in the fireteam are always assigned as jumper “1” and “3”. One of the warlocks (or whichever class player) would be jumper “2”. One of the Titans will be numbered “4” but won’t be jumping on a platform. Instead, they will be working the center position with the other Titan.
These numbered players will be responsible for bomb detonation when the time comes. Once that happens, they will detonate bombs at the same platform as their number. So jumper “1” will detonate at platform “1” (remember, that’s door-side left), and so forth. Before starting the fight, make sure these four are clear as to their assigned platform. You might even have them all go to their platform as a quick test to make sure everyone is on the same page… if two go to the same platform, better to iron that wrinkle out ahead of the bomb phase than during it.
The second Titan can be used to cover for someone if they die right before detonating bombs. However, typically a guardian death means a wipe and restart, so everyone but the relic runner should adjust their class for low-agility, high-armor/recovery and should stay as safe as possible throughout the fight (even on Normal Mode which is more forgiving, but still difficult to recover from if players are dying).
All guardian’s supers should be charged ahead of the actual fight… use a super-building round of killing adds followed with a wipe, or just wait for them to build. Once you start the Oryx fight and kill the initial adds, watch for Oryx to pick a side. He’ll either start at position “4” or “3”. Subsequent rounds will then follow a known pattern. If he starts at position “4”, later rounds will be “1”, “4”, “3”, “2”, “3” (you should only need 4 rounds, ideally). If he slams first at position “3”, later rounds will be “2”, “3”, “4”, “1”, “4”.
For each of these rounds, here’s what has to happen:
Holding the platforms while the runner makes that round can be difficult. Here are some tips on how to survive it:
You will have to fight the Shade of Oryx in the Darkness Dimension after each round of Ogres. The Shade itself is an Ultra enemy, so using 3 of Coin consumable will give you a chance at an Exotic.
As this fight begins, two taken knights will spawn on top of platforms “3” and “4”. Kill these as soon as possible (sniper or heavy weapons fire works best). If you are handling one of these but are teleported before you can kill it, tell the fireteam so they can manage it.
Once you’ve done four rounds of Ogres and three Shade fight rounds, you’re ready to detonate the bombs you’ve collected. Hopefully, they are positioned fairly close together so you don’t have to worry about your position too much. If you do have bombs that are offset a lot, you might have your un-numbered Titan to help detonate that displaced bomb.
After adds are cleared out after the last Ogre round, have your relic holder say “get ready to detonate”… then start counting down from six. Your four bomb detonators should time their arrival so they standing at their bombs at “one”. The relic holder should say “detonate” at which point, everyone should step inside the bomb rings to trigger detonation. The relic holder themselves should concentrate solely on firing a Touch of Malice at Oryx the whole time. This will keep him in a vulnerable state for bomb detonation.
Watch the kill feed area for your name. Once you see your name scroll 4 times, return immediately to the aura and fire on Oryx until they go off.
If all went as it should, Oryx’s health should be down to a sliver. He’ll then move to the end of the arena, where the team should gather and fire at him together to finish him off.
For non-challenge weeks, your fireteam can consider taking a hybrid approach for this fight. Detonate 8 bombs, then another 8. It keeps you fit for the next time challenge mode comes around.
So you want a “Flawless Raider” trophy for Destiny? Here’s how to do it.
Ironically, Oryx’s arrival makes killing his son super easy. No real jumping puzzles where you can fall to your death (save the drop into the abyss, which we can control a bit). Most encounters are easy at level 40. You should be able to run the entire raid in a half hour and change.
Having a Bladedancer Hunter with invisibility perks, including Don’t Touch Me gauntlets is essential to getting through the abyss easily. Warlocks and Titans can solo the abyss as well if they know how to jump from the rock at the second lamp to skip past a good portion of the Abyss. Personally, I find that jump to be tricky, so I prefer the Hunter’s slow-but-sure solo.
The other members of the fireteam can use whichever class they’d like. A Defender Titan is useful for a couple of places, which I’ll cover in a minute. Just remember that the Warlock Sunsinger class can’t use self-res for a Flawless run, since dying disqualifies for a flawless run.
I find soloing the Abyss is best, and using the Bladedancer Hunter with “Escape Artist”, “Shadowjack”, and “Stalker” along with “Don’t Touch Me” exotic gauntlets and a weapon with Lightweight for added agility. If you use other classes, you’re on your own; I haven’t developed an Abyss solo strategy for Titans/Warlocks, but I know they can, I just don’t prefer it.
Most importantly, the person soloing the Abyss can enter it alone. The other 5 fireteam members can wait on the surface. Once the guardian going through cross the bridge, the other guardians will be pulled to him (one of Toland’s old tricks?). Running it with a Hunter and hitting all lamps will take approximately 7-8 minutes.
Equip the lightweight weapon, get your weight of darkness off, then set out. Pause at each lamp to lower your weight. Don’t Touch Me gauntlets will apply invisibility when thrall are nearby. Save the Blink Strike attack for an emergency. Crouch to go invisible when possible as you pause at a lamp (not recommended though for the first one or two since they have more thrall initially).
After going up the final hill and reaching the lamp there, get your weight down and head directly to the plate by the bridge. Don’t activate the final lamp until after you step on the plate to begin the bridge building sequence.
Activate that plate, then immediately move towards the lamp nearest it. There is a rock to the left of the lamp. Get your weight down enough so you can jump onto it. You’ll want to face toward the abyss here, looking beyond the last lamp, toward an area opposite the bridge. Crouch and slowly position yourself as far left on that rock as you can– the lamp will explode and you could go with it if you’re too close. Once the lamp blows, a single Ogre should spawn in the distance. Use your best sniper rifle to kill it. After that, remain on crouched on the rock until the bridge is built. Once your path is clear, run across. Jump over any thrall that are on the bridge. Attempting to run to their left or right is risky since they can cause you to fall from the bridge.
Upon entering the next area– the Bridge Encounter– you may hear your ghost say “Guardian down!”. That’s OK— it says that sometimes, but does not mean your team has experienced a death.
For your solo Hunter, I recommend having them practice this run a few times alone before attempting to do it with a group.
The Bridge fight must be done using the normal process, which isn’t bad at all. I recommend identifying two teams of 3. The first team will cross one by one and should include 1 Defender Titan (enable “Blessing of Light” and “Bastion” for a longer-lasting, safety bubble). Organize at the starting side so there are two guardians at the middle and each of the totems. Your first team should have 1 person at each position, so when they leave, a member of the second team are left to handle the plate/totems.
Wait to take down the sword knight until the bridge is built. Take him down and pick up the sword soon after (it can despawn if you hesitate too much). Cross and kill the Gatekeeper on the far side. Then move into a hiding position at one of the lamps to the left or right of the bridge (just don’t stand or wait on the plate itself since it can cause the annihilator totems to activate and wipe the team). While guardian 1 from team 1 is hiding, take down the next sword knight and have the second guardian cross. And they can kill the Gatekeeper and hide on the other lamp by the bridge to wait for the third guardian to cross.
After all three from team 1 are across, position the Defender Titan at the center plate (they should wait to stand on that plate until the other guardians reach their totems). At the same time, the starting side team can leave their positions (totem holders should only leave after the center plate holder does) and take position on the stairs, near the spawn point to keep safe while the far side team rebuilds the bridge.
After building the bridge again, continue the cycle of taking the sword from the sword knight and crossing one-by-one. The fourth to cross should join the left-side totem holder since more adds are present on that side. The fifth to cross should join the right-side totem holder. The far side center-plate holder (ideally that Defender Titan) will have to deal with a Gatekeeper coming up to attack; I recommend using the “Higher Jump” configuration so you can just jump out of his reach. They can also use a blessing bubble to protect and hold the position while team 2 crosses. Once the sixth guardian crosses, the guardians at the center plate should leave and go to the right-hand side of the field. The left totem holders should also proceed to the right-hand side, grouping up together to kill adds and wait for the ogres to appear.
One ogre will come out at the back door on the right side. You can use sniper fire, machine guns, and Sleeper Simulant to attack it. I recommend against using rockets for most of the Flawless raid run since it can lead to suicide so easily. The second ogre will be coming from the far left side of the field. Once the second ogre is down, all adds will despawn and the door to the castle will open.
The next area is easier than it appears. There are two shriekers that need to be destroyed to cross this hallway safely. I recommend the fireteam fire on the thrall while one person equips a Sleeper Simulant to single-shot the first shrieker. After doing that, everyone should retreat back out the door and wait for the shrieker death blasts to clear. The second shrieker can be more risky, but I recommend having a Defender Titan (ideally, with a blessing bubble and a Helm of Saint 14 for a blinding effect) to go just far enough to activate the second shrieker. Put the bubble up and use Sleeper Simulant by another to down the second shrieker. The death blasts will seek to the Titan in the bubble (who is busy punching thrall). Once clear, the Titan can Titan-skate along the left side of the hallway to reach the end. Once you clear the doorway, all adds will despawn and the rest of the fireteam can cross safely.
The fireteam drops down the hole to reach the next area. Soften your fall here, since landing on the water here can kill you.
Split into two teams of three. One person on each side will be responsible for drawing out the wizard from the Crystal Hall chamber. The other two on each side should head directly to the tower on their respective side (the towers where boomer knights appear at the end of the Crota fight).
Once the wizard is out, take them down quickly with sniper rounds or machine guns. Your runners can go back in on each side to take down the shrieker. The best weapon to use here is a Sleeper Simulant (a rocket is an acceptable, but riskier substitute). Make certain the shrieker has been destroyed before regrouping everyone on the “right” side of the arena (“left” and “right” here are based on the starting position for this map, when the fireteam falls into it).
All that is left now is Ir Yût and her group of adds. Clear those adds on the right side really well before advancing on here; you should have plenty of time left. I recommend using a blessing bubble by the Titan again if it is charged (you might consider waiting for it to charge before starting this particular encounter if you only have one Defender Titan). The fireteam can dip into the bubble for an added overshield. Again, Sleeper Simulant is a great weapon to use on Ir Yût… two or three shots should take her down. Machine guns are also very effective. You can wait for her to start signing her song if you want a fixed target.
After killing Ir Yût, clear the rest of the adds carefully.
And now we come to Crota. The fireteam can now adjust their perks to reduce “Recovery” as much as they’d like, since the “Presence of Crota” debuff prevents health regeneration. The sword runner should Your sword bearer guardian can obtain the Chalice to help heal anyone that needs it, if you wind up needing a second sword to finish Crota himself. The sword bearer should dial up their agility and equip for the highest jump (I prefer to use Bones of Eao on my Hunter here; the extra jump can be helpful), and I recommend equipping a lightweight weapon for added agility (MIDA Multi Tool is my personal favorite); the added agility makes for a stronger sword attack. Once all the adds are clear of the Crystal Hall, group up on the left side of the hallway and wait for the sword bearer to give the call to exit. Use a middle-strategy attack. The five guardians that aren’t sword bearing should be on the center ledge facing Crota and should be downing the sword knight for the bearer. They also need to kill the boomer knights (sniper fire is great for that) for the side the sword bearer wants to use for approaching Crota.
Once the sword is picked up, the sword bearer has 30 seconds to attack Crota. The DPS team should use rockets to bring Crota to his knee. Sleeper Simulant can be used, but only in addition to rockets– it should be timed and fired so it impacts at the same time as the rockets do, otherwise it downs him too quickly. The sword bearer should not risk death trying for 4 swings. I tend to do 3 swings, retreat, then 3 more swings. Landing six swings should finish him, but if you get to him late, limit yourself to two strikes and just plan for using a second sword. If you do, everyone should return to the Crystal Hall and heal up with the Chalice if needed while you wait for Crota to rotate back to the center position.
A full Flawless Crota’s End run should take around 30-40 minutes. If you experience a death, you’ll have to go to orbit and retry (see info below on how to reset the raid). If you are learning these methods, don’t feel bad if you have a death along the way. Just chalk it up to practice and keep going. After getting through the full raid with as few deaths as possible, start it up again do another attempt. You’ll get it.
If you do experience a death during your attempt, you’ll have to return to orbit and start over. But you obtain a checkpoint along the way, which must be cleared to do a fresh start. Here’s how you clear it. When you use the Destiny navigator to select the raid, hit the square button (on a Playstation controller, “X” on an Xbox controller) instead of the cross button (or “A” on an Xbox controller). Upon launching the raid, you’ll get a confirmation screen which means you reset it properly.
I have a number of sessions recorded for this encounter. Some have my talking through the above strategy during the run, since it was a first attempt for the group that went perfectly. Good luck with yours!
If you are reading this and have helped you and a fireteam through this strategy to obtain a Flawless Raider trophy, please send me a screenshot of your trophy drop (Playstation 4 attaches a screenshot to each trophy awarded). You can send it via PSN messaging to “bradchoate”, or if you’re on Xbox, you can send it to “syonyx” (or just email to brad@bradchoate.com if all else fails). Thank you!
Here’s an excellent video produced by our own knocktournal walking you the details of the strategy documented here:
Ideally, your fireteam should have one or two Nighstalker Hunters and one or two Defender Titans for this. Your Hunters should have “Black Hole” turned on for longer-lasting tethers. One Defender Titan should use Weapons of Light/Illuminated/Bastion perks for longer-lasting bubbles that increase DPS for the whole team. If you have a second Defender Titan, they can use a Blessing of Light bubble and overlay it with the Weapons of Light bubble. Fireteam members should have a Black Spindle sniper rifle and secondarily a high-impact machine gun if they run out of sniper ammo. This team build provides the highest DPS, which helps limit the number of rounds.
The challenge for Warpriest is to have a different aura-holder for each DPS round. Typical pattern for the rounds is to use the right-most side for the first round, then the middle area, then again at the middle for the last round, if needed.
Whether you are starting this challenge following the Basillica Totems encounter, or coming into it through a held checkpoint, it is important to load the mission as a single fireteam. Don’t have someone load the checkpoint, then the rest of the team joins on them. This leads ti disqualification, as Bungie has restricted challenge rewards so they will not be given to a team that brings someone in after it begins. This is to discourage certain fireteams from booting someone near the end of the fight, and having another person come in to take their place. Such a practice can be positive (helping a lower-light player who can’t do the challenge) or negative (a person fills a fireteam with LFG members, then boots everyone at the end only to bring in 5 of their friends for the rewards). Bungie expects the challenge to be earned.
Pick three aura-holders that will cover rounds 1-3. The first round aura-holder should be in the middle or right position since the first round is never on the left side (in my experience, at least). The other two should be at the other two positions for equal coverage.
Use a 3 of Coin consumable, since Warpriest counts as an Ultra.
Use Black Wax Idols for earning glimmer, since there are a lot of Hive adds here, including Majors. Refresh it after it expires.
Put two guardians on the right side, and use the stairs on the right side to maintain additional cover from the Warpriest and other adds.
Use the barriers in front of the left side as cover while you clear adds on the Warpriest platform. Watch for knights rushing the walkway at the left. Tag them with a fusion grenade or something as effective as they cross.
I tend to prefer fighting the middle from the area just below the Warpriest. There’s ample room for running back and forth, and you’ll be out of range of the Warpriest’s cannon. You have to be aware of adds coming down from the Warpriest platform… just put some distance between you and them if any come down and interfere.
One of the middle team should handle reading the glyph sequence. It can be observed from the floor, if your back is to the Warpriest platform wall. This person can do aura-holding as well; they just need to run to the middle or right plate if they intend to hold the aura.
Once the glyph sequence begins, STOP KILLING ADDS. More will come out from the Warpriest platform, but those should be left alive for the aura-holder’s life.
Ideally, the more exposed plates should have a Nightstalker Hunter at each plate so that they can apply a smoke grenade to the plate holder so they aren’t exposed to fire from Warpriest/adds.
The right plate has excellent cover for the first round while the monolith is still there. The plate holder should crouch there to activate it.
A guardian on the upper-left can fire periodically at the Warpriest to draw attention away from the middle/right plates so the plate holders aren’t at risk.
Don’t waste any time once a plate position is called for the sequence: wasting time here can cause a wipe. Know before the Warpriest fight begins who will be handling plates and the aura so there’s no confusion or debate when the sequence begins.
When the sequence starts, the additional guardian who won’t be standing on a plate can immediately make their way toward the side that will be used for the DPS round (if this is the afore-mentioned Nighstalker, drop your smoke grenade on your teammate before leaving). This saves precious time. Be sure to reload your sniper rifle on the way. Defender Titan(s) should set their bubbles as soon as they can get there.
And please note that the aura-holder can’t just hop or run over the plate to take the aura. They have to wait until they receive it. Once that happens, clearly call it out so the other plate holders can leave and join the DPS team.
If there is a chance you may not finish before the end of the 3rd round, stop a little early and position your team in the shadow of the left monolith. Everyone must be in the shadow it casts or they will be killed. It’s a tight fit on the floor. Give preferential placement to those that can’t self-res.
That’s it! Good luck!
Here’s a video that demonstrates the strategy described in this guide:
The challenge for Golgoroth is to cycle gaze-holding across the entire fireteam for each time you focus his rage.
Please remember that this encounter should be loaded up by the entire fireteam being assembled and in orbit (or coming from the Warpriest fight), or you risk completing it without the challenge reward. If someone joins you while you’re in the raid, just go back to orbit and reload it to make sure you don’t disqualify yourself due to that technicality.
Golgoroth is a raid “DPS-check” that will prevent a fireteam from progressing if they aren’t doing enough damage. That means even if you have the mechanics of the fight down to a science, it won’t do you any good because your bullets aren’t doing enough damage before he enrages. Player and weapon light level is an important factor for success, particularly for the 5 people that are doing the damage each round.
I recommend having at least two Titans (a Defender and a Sunbreaker) and two Nighstalker Hunters.
For the Normal Mode challenge, player light level should be 290 or better. 286 is probably a minimum, but only if overall group average is 290 or higher.
For the Hard Mode challenge, player light level should be 310 or better. 306 is probably a minimum, but only if overall group average is 310 or higher.
If your light level is under 310: I strongly recommend volunteering for being the first gaze holder, or doing the Normal Mode challenge to secure a 310 armor piece which will possibly raise your light for a subsequent Hard Mode challenge fight (doing it on Normal Mode does not exclude you from the Hard Mode challenge).
Nightstalkers should use the “Black Hole” perk to extend the length of their tether as much as possible.
Sunbreakers should make sure the “Melting Point” perk is enabled.
Defenders should use a weapons of light bubble and configure with the “Bastion” and “Illuminated” perks to extend it and increase effect of the weapons buff.
Use your best sniper rifles for this fight. High-impact, high rate of fire. Preference should be to Black Spindles, since they were designed for this fight. Only use heavy weapons (machine guns) as a backup to running out of special ammo. Use a special ammo synth if necessary to avoid that. Sniper rifles work best.
For this fight, split into two groups of 3. You’ll want to number yourselves: 1 is your first gaze holder. Identify the lowest level player in your group (or someone without a decent sniper). This will be gaze-holder 1. Players 3 and 5 will be on the left side, players 2, 4, 6 will be on the right side.
Most have found that Golgoroth can be killed easily enough by using a single orb method.
Each round of damage will work like this:
If you find your team is risking enrage with a single-orb strategy, you may want to consider doing a 2nd round of damage per gaze-holding cycle.
The two-orb strategy is similar to the single orb, with the exception that your 5th gaze holder needs to hold gaze a little longer. During that time, everyone works to clear the pit of any remaining adds. The orb to prep ahead of transfer to the 6th gaze holder should be the right-middle orb. I’d recommend a 2nd Titan bubble be used here, and a blessing bubble at that, so the DPS team can keep an overshield refreshed to protect against adds that are in the pit. Keeping these adds at bay is troublesome and risky. So, you should counter that with a tether shot that is fired at Golgoroth’s feet so it will trap them. The pit crew should also be tossing grenades towards any adds in the pit (area of effect/damage over time type grenades). One of your team (I’d recommend the 1st gaze holder) should hop in the pit as well to kill any adds they can– particularly cursed thrall– before they kill team members (machine gun for cursed thrall; a sword is great for handling Taken adds). The 6th gaze holder should be counting down their timer. Leave the pit earlier than you normally would– a good 5 seconds should give enough time to reach safety.
Again, the 2nd orb strategy is a risky one, but can be useful to get that extra bit of DPS. If you find adds are still overwhelming your team, have two on add duty instead of one.
You can also mix these strategies… use single-orb for the pre-Taken rounds and two-orb once Taken spawn.
We value our members enough to help them develop. We encourage people who don't know how to do something to learn how to do it. We have patience with each other. We have time for each other. If you haven't tried to be the relic holder yet, then you're the relic holder a couple times this run. Because the best team is the team of players who know how to do every job. —@emu47
Fight hard and be merry Guardians! — @RIPHallow