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.

• Remember that it’s freelance, but you are still on a team. Stay near at least one of them and try to team-shoot. This can also surprise the other team… if you are close to a teammate, it’s hard for them to distinguish between one and two people by looking at the radar.
• Give your sniper(s) safe angles. If your team has a sniper, try to scout a little ahead of them to give them room and range to work.
• Suros Regime is no joke. Learn to spin up (even pre-firing into a wall) for the higher-damage bottom half of the mag. I’ll often pre-fire into a room near a corner where I see red ahead of me and the guy will just walk right into the spray.
• Always have an exit route ready, and take it if you feel your life is at risk. If you’ve done some damage, that’s good enough; maybe your teammate will finish the kill, but at least you saved your own life.
• Stick to one class/sub-class that’s working for you to gain depth of experience. You can focus on a different class/sub-class next season or non-competitive play.
• Don’t vary weapons too much. I mostly stuck to Suros/Mindbenders (talking about season 10 here, where auto-rifles are strong). Every now and then, I’d try something else if a match wasn’t working well, but always went back to the default loadout for a new match.
• Know who the team leader is. The first round of a match is always interesting, and you can usually tell if your team has a leader or not. Sometimes it’s you! If it isn’t, and your third is struggling, maybe shadow them to safeguard them while the leader player takes care of themselves. If you are at the bottom of roster on kills, play for your life first, and team-shoot with the guy at the top of the roster.
• Try to keep the surprise element at all times. If your opponent doesn’t know where you are, then you are at an advantage. But, once you shoot your weapon or throw a grenade, you’re sure to be on their radar, so unless you’re about to get a pick or in a situation where you are three fighting one or two, retreat and approach from a different place. I find a lot of success from getting one kill, then immediately retreating and getting cover to angle for the next attack. It’s rare to get 2-3 kills all from one spot, unless you’re using a super or a power weapon, so don’t outstay your welcome.
• Be mindful of lives remaining. For Survival, this is key for both your team and the opposing team. If the round timer runs out and the lives counter isn’t equal for both sides, the round is given to the side with the most remaining lives (“Life Advantage” rule). A team can be taken off guard by this; I see it happen often in 2v3 games. If your team is up by 2+ lives and there’s only a minute remaining, you’re better off playing passively for that last minute since the pressure is on the opposing team to bridge the gap. But if the other team has a life advantage, press for eliminating it before the timer gets you.
• Don’t get outnumbered. If you’re flanking and on your own, wait for an opportunity to get a pick, and ideally only engage with a single player. Team shots can take you out quickly.
• Keep mental notes on player positions. This is difficult, but important. Use your radar to help if you don’t have visuals on the enemy (and your team is clearly indicated on the radar, or the HUD). You’re tracking where 2+ players are and where the single player is. If you can position yourself to take out the single player (ideally with a team mate), your odds are better than taking on two players by yourself. Whenever you find yourself outnumbered, retreat to safety and engage from another position.
• Listen for kill audio cues. Enemy kills are crucial to Survival progress. Taking out a player makes it easier to push forward and clean up. One kill can become two or three very quickly. But this goes both ways. If a team mate falls, and you were their backup, better to retreat and seek another team mate than to engage further.
• Don’t play too passively. If your team mates are being aggressive, you probably should too. They are putting themselves at risk, and moreso if you aren’t there to help decrease that risk. Don’t spend half the round crouch-walking to position yourself if your team’s life counter is draining.
• Wait for team mates. If you are killed and respawn, don’t rush back into another fight until you have company. So many times I play with blueberries that do this: they die and respawn, then I die and respawn shortly after. Instead of them waiting for me, they rush off to die again. If two or more on your team die, just take a breath and regroup before rushing back into battle.
• Keep a log of your progress. I kept weekly and daily progress notes. For a given day of play, I’d track each match result in terms of win/loss and points gained/lost. At the end of the day, I’d summarize those in terms of total games played, total games won, total games lost, and number of Glory points gained or lost. It was helpful to review and see my progress. You can also use this log to monitor how many points you can “gamble” by playing another match. If you’ve had good progress and met a goal you have for that day (also a good practice), then maybe it’d be better to stop and not risk losing points. If you haven’t met your goal, then you can keep going unless you’re feeling burnt out. Your progress log can help you make those decisions.
• Review your mistakes. If you lose a game, take some time to think about how you could have played better. What did the other team do that made them more effective? Try to focus on how you could have turned it in to a win versus blaming the other players you were matched with. You can also save the video and review it. At the very least, this bit of reflection gives you time to cool before you try another match.
• Review your best moments. Some games will be amazing– you’ll make all the right moves. Save those videos and post them to YouTube or Twitch. Share them with your clan. It’s encouraging to re-watch those shining moments, especially after a losing streak.
• Keep your momentum going. If you’ve been working on rank score, be sure to play the minimum 3 games per week to not decline in score (at least, once you reach Mythic, rank can decay). And you’ll get a bit of extra Glory rank (until you hit Mythic) at reset for your trouble.

And here’s a few “don'ts”:

• Don’t leave a match. Even if you are losing 0-3, don’t ever leave a match. Even if someone else has left your team, don’t leave. (I have actually won a match or two where it became a 2v3 game, and the other player and I were at an avantage because the player that left was draining our life pool so quickly and so we had more lives to spare after they left.)
• Don’t ever suicide intentionally. I’ve been in a couple of games where the skill gap between teams was enough that it caused someone on the losing side to think: “well, we aren’t going to win, so I might as well make this loss go faster” and they started jumping off the map as much as they could. That is horrible, and there should be temporary ban penalties applied to players who throw a match like that.
• Don’t die with your super. Do your best to use your super before you can’t at all. Personally, I let this happen too often since I run bubble Titan and tend to save the bubble for a capture flag situation, but when you’re at round 3 and the enemy has no lives left, it’s time to go on offense.

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!

Fireteam Makeup

Classes

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.

Subclasses

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.)

Opening the Wall

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.

Vosik

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.

Heroic Differences

The main differences between normal and heroic difficulty:

1. Vosik has a stronger shield, roughly double what it is on normal.
2. Because of this, spinners drop 2 charges per lane. For the left and right lanes, one charge is typically close to the end where the team is fighting from (near) and one that is typically further into the enemy spawn area (far).
3. The clean room doors are 2/3 blocked. You have to either slide under these doors, or crouch and walk under them.
4. The monitors are harder to break. After throwing charges at Vosik, you’ll still have to disable/break a monitor, and the entire fireteam should stop and shoot it until it breaks. Don’t assume someone else will do this for you. I personally prefer using a fusion rifle to shoot these monitors, one that doesn’t spread it’s bolts too much over distances — The Vacancy is my preferred weapon for that. Those bolts are very effective against the monitors.

Vosik Has Challenged You

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!

Throwing Charges

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.”

Monitors

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.

Captains

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.

“Safe” Safe Room Selection

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.

Shanks

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.

Stay Alive

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:

• Nightstalker: use Sealed Grasps of Ahamkara gauntlets (and boost your strength to tier 5) to employ smoke grenades to make yourself (or the person grabbing the front charge) invisible to pick up the front charge.
• Defender / Sunsigner: Use a melee kill on an enemy to get an overshield. Alternatively, get a blessing bubble shield.
• Use a sword for an offensive run to the charge, then retreat with it quickly.
• Use the raid chest piece, which gives you added armor when carrying a SIVA charge.
• Use the raid helm piece, which gives you temporary immunity from Fallen when you pick up an orb of light.

Following the Vosik fight, be sure to pick up the two chests along the way to the Siege Engine.

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.

Heroic Differences

The main change for heroic difficulty here is the spliced spider tank you have to destroy. Fortunately, more time is given to do this.

Skiffs

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.

Meksis

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.

The Spider Tank

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.

Carry Parts Carefully

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.

Exotic Sword Pushing

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.

Aksis, Phase 1

Heroic Differences

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.

Pick a Side, Pick a Role

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.

More Captains

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.

Servitors and Charges

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:

• Left and right charge throwers should work inward. The left side charge thrower should take out the left-most target , then the one closer to the center, then the left-most target on the center area itself. Same for the right side charge thrower: take out the right-most target, then the one closer to the center, then the right-most target on the center area itself.
• The center charge thrower should work outward. Take out the target dead center, then the target to the left of center, then the one right of center.

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.

Aksis Phase 2

Heroic Differences

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.

Aksis Has Challenged You

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.

Shanks

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:

• 3 random Guardians become empowered— they should report their empowerment and which side they’re at (a simple “empowered left”, for instance is enough). If two are empowered at a given spot, the cannon holder should be the one to reposition after killing 2 or 3 servitors (the 3rd only being required when it is the center servitor).
• The person with the cannon holder role should advance on the Fallen captain that holds the cannon.
• The person who will be throwing charges should continue to kill any remaining shanks and give aid to the cannon holder who will be tackling the captain.
• Once the captains and shanks are down, the dance of destroying the servitors and throwing charges starts.

Captain Strategies

Some notes on dealing with these shielded, cannon-holding captains:

• A Nightstalker can tether a spot near where the captain comes out. This can fail if the tether misses it’s mark. For left/right sides, I recommend hitting the top of the door where the captain emerges. The Black Hole perk is important to keep the captain tethered longer. Another option is to use a smoke grenade to sneak up to the captain and use Dark Drinker to kill him quickly.
• A Defender should try and get a Force Barrier from a melee on a shank prior to approaching the captain. If they can get a Nightstalker hit them with a smoke grenade, that can give them a safer approach. Again, use Dark Drinker to kill the captain.
• A Sunsinger can just take the captain head-on… maybe hit it with a solar grenade first to weaken him. If the Sunsinger dies to the captain, self-res and finish him off. They can also get a Nightstalker to apply a smoke grenade for a safer approach.
• The center captain can be particularly hard to kill, because it is a little more hesitant to leave the door it comes from. Aksis also seems to shoot more at the center players trying to kill that captain. If you find it challenging to handle this one, just let the left or right cannon holders use one of their cannon charges to kill the center captain.

Empowerment

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:

• Whoever is empowered on the left and right side need only worry about covering the side they are on. If these players are less experienced, this will be helpful, since it keeps their job simple and they don’t have to move much. As empowerment shifts, they still remain to their sides, until the third teleport/stun and then they move in for the attack.
• The two people in the middle spot should be more experienced, and they will need to cover both middle teleport positions as they would for an Aksis challenge mode (ideally 4 in the fireteam should be comfortable with this, since the cannon-holder on left/right may be called on to handle the middle position).

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.

Throwing Charges

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.

Stun

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.

Damage

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.

Pillars

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.

Final Stand

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.

Victory!

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:

Vault of Glass — 28 minutes, 16 seconds
Crota’s End — 11 minutes, 57 seconds
King’s Fall — 42 minutes, 14 seconds

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.

Video

TL;DR? If you’re a visual learner, here’s a video tutorial for this guide.

Team Build

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:

• Touch of Malice
• Red Death
• 1000 Yard Stare/Eirene/Stillpiercer
• Raid Heavy Machine Gun/Raid Rocket Launcher

The Challenge

Usually, Oryx is killed by a set of four 4-bomb detonations. The challenge is to detonate all 16 bombs at once.

Positions

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).

Platforms, Ogres and Oryx

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:

• As soon as Oryx slams, the two Titans in the middle (between the sister’s platforms) should both activate their bubbles (one blessing of light, one weapons of light). They’ll be using a Touch of Malice, prepped down to the final round for extra damage to start firing on Ogres for precision shot damage. I also recommend the raid helm for this role, as it grants additional damage from the “Take That” perk. As soon as one ogre is down, pass across and through the Titan bubbles to refresh your overshield and work on the next ogre. All four ogres should be downed very close to their spawn position.
• Platform jumpers should simply drop an area-of-effect or damage-over-time type grenade onto their ogre as it is spawning, and then switch to a sniper rifle to target their light-eater knight as soon as it spawns across the map. Let the Titans kill off the ogres (but if they are struggling to keep up and ogres are moving from their spawn points, fire one sniper round and let them do the rest; reload as you reposition and aim for the light eater knight). If you miss your knight, call it out (“platform 2 knight is running!”) and do your best to kill it after reaching the safety of the aura of invicibility.
• As soon as the relic runner announces they have the relic (that is, completing their jumps above everyone, not the aura), all platform holders should immediately leave their platform (especially for platforms “3” and “4”, Saturn-side) and proceed to the Titan bubbles and wait for the aura to arrive.
• Hunters at positions 1 and 3 should fire a tether shot at the pathway in front of their platform right as they’re leaving it (fire it as soon as the runner says they have the relic). This will detain knights and the vessel longer allowing them to be killed more easily. It also keeps the relic runner safer as they advance to steal the aura from the vessel.
• If the relic runner started at position “2” or “3”, then they are coming down on the door-side of the arena. They should pass through the Titan bubble if possible to gain added protection to reach the Vessel.
• Once the relic runner returns to the center with the others, they should be firing at Oryx’s chest until he is staggered. Don’t worry about knights, or adds or anything, other than Oryx.
• If any of the four light-eater knights are still alive, the team should be dispatching them quickly. Hopefully, they will be tethered and will go down with a few Malice rounds. Throw a damage-over-time grenade on the Vessel knight after it loses it’s aura to bring it down quickly. Titans should focus on this cleanup job, allowing the platform jumpers and runner to focus on Oryx.
• Once Oryx slams the platform again, be ready to fire on him with Touch of Malice.
• After staggering Oryx, clear all adds that are left on both sides of the team.
• Have someone check bombs door-side and Saturn-side to make sure they’re all intact each round, so you’ll know whether you need to do an additional fifth round or not.
• After most adds are clear, the aura holder can slowly move (and the fireteam with them) toward Saturn to be in a better position to shoot additional adds spawning toward that end. Keeping these low in number ahead of the shade fight (don’t kill them all, or more will spawn).
• Once Oryx repositions for the next phase, switch your primary weapon from Touch of Malice to Red Death (or another primary weapon with a Life Support perk).

Platform Holding Tips

Holding the platforms while the runner makes that round can be difficult. Here are some tips on how to survive it:

• After you’ve dropped a grenade on your ogre and done any initial DPS on it, reposition quickly for sniping your light eater knight. You should crouch for this, and move to the back edge of the platform, taking care not to fall off of it. This position should conceal you from most adds in the center lane, but not affect your line of sight for your knight.
• If you’re having trouble with that initial head-shot of your knight, reverse your order and fire a body shot first to stop him, then follow-up with a head shot. DON’T PANIC if you miss. If you have to leave your platform without killing him, just let your fireteam know which platform has a knight loose. Get to the center bubbles safely, first and foremost.
• After killing your knight, kill any adds that are trying to reach the center lane. Typically a pair of taken acolytes. These will spawn an acolyte eye if they reach the lane, so kill them before they get there, or snipe the acolyte eye (1 shot with a sniper) to remove this threat to your Titans.
• Taken centurions are harder to kill, and for them and other adds that might be grouping up, use a rocket launcher. The raid rocket launcher with cluster bombs is ideal for this. Just fire a round at the ground near them.
• Hunters: I highly recommend using the Sealed Grasps of Ahamkara for an additional smoke grenade. These will save your life in those moments you need to conceal yourself from add fire while you wait on the runner. Don’t forget to tether the lane as soon as your runner announces they have the relic. For the Hunter at jumper “1” position, make sure you don’t stand too close to your runner since they are the target of Oryx’s Spite attack.
• Warlocks: If your runner hasn’t reached the end and you’re taking too much heat (you shouldn’t be, if you’re near the back of the platform, crouching), use radiance before you are killed instead of after. It will help you regain your footing and you can toss grenades at adds. If you’re killed before your runner has completed their run, the platforms will vanish, so use your super to avoid that.
• Titans: If you’re a third Titan as jumper #2, then you should be using a blessing of light bubble along with Bastion and Illuminated perks. Pop that bubble if things get dicey. Make sure you offset it enough so you can peek out and shoot at things without falling off your platform. The Armamentarium chest will give you an extra grenade to throw at adds that are threatening you.

Shade Fight

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.

• Adds will be spawning to both sides of the black orb: spawn positions are: right, left, left, right. Keep these adds in check, or they will enter the darkness dimension and harm the fireteam that are in there (although, if they’re using Red Death, you can allow one or two in periodically to allow the fireteam to heal).
• Fireteam members outside the Darkness Dimension should not get close to the black orb, as it is lethal to touch.
• As the shade moves, observe the direction. It will move 90° or 180°. As soon as you see if it went behind say “behind”. If it went 90° left or right, just call “left” or “right”.
• Sniper fire is best for the Shade if you can get precision shots.
• If adds are coming in too quickly, have one person with a good melee attack (Titans/Warlocks) to keep them off the team.
• The Shade of Oryx comes in to do a sword attack on the fireteam. When this happens, everyone should move to the outer edge of the arena. The Shade will follow and if it slams, shouldn’t hurt anyone spawning in at the same time.
• A Sunsinger Warlock can intercept and jump at the shade to cause it to slam immediately. If they’re killed, revive yourself which will put you outside the shade arena.
• If anyone is low on health, a Titan blessing bubble can help them hold out until the fight is over (it can get in the way of shooting at the shade, though).
• DO NOT TETHER THE SHADE. Doing so can cause it to repeatedly slam his sword.
• Once the Shade is killed, stop moving. Leaving the Darkness Dimension can sometimes place your character next to one of the stones outside. If you move as you’re being teleported, the game might kill you because you’re overlapping one of those stones.
• You should switch back to Touch of Malice after the Shade fight is over.
• If you can remember the platform sequence (described above), jumpers can start heading to their platforms. The relic runner can keep in mind the next slam position and remind other jumpers for each round.

Bombs

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.

Finish Him

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.

Hybrid Mode

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.

Crota’s End, Flawless

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.

Team Build

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.

Step One: The Abyss

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.

Step Two: The Bridge Encounter

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.

Step Three: “Thrallway”

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.

Step Four: Ir Yût

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.

Step Five: Crota

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.

Try, Try Again

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.

General Tips

• Don’t die. :)
• Use your super if you get in trouble.
• Avoid using rockets; save those for Crota.
• Don’t kill yourself with a grenade.
• For each portion of the raid, take your time to review the strategy with your fireteam if you’re doing it for the first time. Make sure everyone knows where to go and what to do before you start that section.
• Make sure you are lowering agility and raising armor/recovery when you don’t need agility.
• Don’t tether Crota. It’s unnecessary and I’m not sure what effect it has, but I wouldn’t just in case it causes unforseen problems.
• Don’t wear “Festival of the Lost” masks or SRL racing gear. :)

Videos

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!

A Small Request

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!

Video

Here’s an excellent video produced by our own knocktournal walking you the details of the strategy documented here:

Team build

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.

Challenge: No-repeat Aura-Holder

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.

Fly/Walk In Together

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.

Before You Start

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.

Right-Side Team

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.

Left-Side Team

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.

Middle Team

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.

Glyph Sequence Starting…

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.

DPS Round Tips

• Be sure to clear the acolytes from the left/right areas of the Warpriest platform before killing the last major knight and starting the glyph sequence. Adds left behind here can wreck the DPS team.
• Aura-holder should NOT use a weapon with firefly or other area-affects; killing more than 1 add per stack and greatly reducing team DPS time.
• Aura-holder should use a heavy machine gun as their weapon for killing adds: quick and easy. Make sure it is reloaded for each time it is needed.
• Aura-holder should avoid using ADS (aim-down-sight) until they are ready to fire on an add. Aiming can cause adds to take cover and evade.
• Aura-holder should remain inside the Titan bubble, only to come out in the last seconds to kill an add.
• Sunsinger Warlocks can use self-res for any time except while holding the aura. They cannot self-res if killed while holding the aura.
• Aura-Holder should avoid death at all costs, particularly for rounds 2 and following. The next aura-holder will be randomly assigned, and it could be the person who held it on a prior round. If that happens, you will have to restart the challenge, since it will prevent you from meeting the challenge requirements. Use the Titan bubble for shielding when you’re not killing an add.
• Nightstalker Hunter(s) should tether at the base of the Warpriest platform for an easier shot that affects him. Steady your aim before you fire: a miss can be drastic– it might tether adds and potentially kill the aura-holder or significantly reduce the DPS time for that round.
• Nightstalker Hunter(s) should only fire their tether from within the aura. Doing so outside is throwing it away, since it won’t be effective for damage.
• If you have multiple Nighstalker Hunters, coordinate on firing tethers and do the 2nd tether after the first one runs out. Don’t double them up– that doesn’t help.
• Defender Titan(s) should set their bubble just to the right of the right plate. This will allow the aura-holder to easily move in and out of it (while crouched, taking cover behind the barrier in front of the plate; right shoulder up against it), and coming out to take out an add.
• Defender Titan(s) should set their bubble just to the back of the center plate. This will keep it clear of the aura-holder so they can have full range for firing on an add. The aura-holder should still use that bubble for safety and the Weapons of Light buff when they aren’t shooting adds.
• DPS team should do their best to keep their sniper ammo up for each round of damage. Try to gather it in advance of the glyph sequence.
• If you don’t have a Black Spindle that is 300 attack or better, use your best sniper (assuming it’s attack is higher). Recommended alternative is a 1,000 Yard Stare with spray-and-play for faster reload after emptying a clip.
• Try to use raid gauntlets that grant increased speed for reloading while in the aura. You should also select other armor that grants additional sniper/special ammo. Every additional bullet in the magazine helps.
• If you run out of sniper rounds, throw your grenade at him, then switch to the heavy machine gun and keep firing until your shots say “Immune”. There’s a good second or two after the aura timer runs out that you can still do damage. Make every one count.

Repeat as Needed

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!

Video

Here’s a video that demonstrates the strategy described in this guide:

Challenge

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.

Team Build

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.

Team Organization

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.

Single-Orb Strategy

Most have found that Golgoroth can be killed easily enough by using a single orb method.

Each round of damage will work like this:

1. Add-phase. Eliminate all the adds that come streaming toward you from the far end of the left and right halls. This is a super-and-ammo building step. If you have a Titan or Hunter that need to build their super, let them shoot more of the adds, particularly the majors to build their super faster. If you are a Warlock on Sunbreaker, this is a good opportunity for you to use your super to create orbs for others. After they’re gone, go grab ammo if you need it. Reload your sniper rifle on your run back.
2. Pit Check. Make sure the pit is clear of any thrall (it will always be clear for the first round; critical it be cleared for subsequent rounds).
3. Orb Prep. Have 1 person “prep” the near-left corner orb and have it ready to break as soon as player 1 captures gaze. If multiple people are moving around and firing at it, it could break early and disrupt the damage round.
4. Weapons Bubble. Place a weapons bubble in the middle of the front of the room, at the edge of the pit. All 5 players hopping into the pit should pass through this bubble.
5. Distraction. Have 1 person distract Golgoroth by shooting his feet (don’t overexpose yourself and risk death). Position yourself opposite player 1 so they can easily snipe the back of Golgoroth’s head to capture gaze.
6. Capture Gaze. Wait for the team to be in position: orb is prepped; bubble is up; snipers are loaded and ready; Golgoroth’s back is facing the first gaze holder. Then snipe the back of his head to take gaze. If you’re not in position behind the front-left orb, move there immediately so the team have a clear shot at him.
7. Drop and Shoot. All 5 players should immediately hop into the pit upon gaze capture. If there is a Sunbreaker, they should immediately advance on Golgoroth and punch him to apply melting point, then go to the pool of light to start firing. If you have no Sunbreaker (or if melting point wears off), then keep Golgorth tethered as much as you can (just don’t overlap tethers). Everyone must watch for the “corrupted light” effect (hard mode only) and put distance from the reset of the team if you’re affected (if it happens early, you may be able to return and shoot another round or two; if not just stay out of the pit).
8. Hold Gaze. Player 1 should use a fast-loading pulse rifle to spray at incoming orbs from Golgoroth. Red Death works really well, since shooting an orb can restore health. Watch your timer and reload in the gaps left between the venom orbs. Once your timer gets to 10 seconds, call it out so player 2 can leave the light pool and get into position to capture gaze. As your timer reaches 5 seconds, start audibly counting it down.
9. Transfer Gaze. Player 2 should be in position to take Golgoroth’s gaze from player 1 once the 5 second countdown begins. Wait for that countdown to reach the last second and shoot with a sniper to shift his gaze. Be sure your sniper is already reloaded to do this. Switch to a pulse rifle to shoot incoming orbs. Call out your number to signal to the next person in line to take gaze from you. Once player 2 takes gaze, player 3 can immediately follow, and so forth through to player 6. Player 6 has the gaze for the full 15 seconds. They can either fire at the orbs, or start circling the room, outrunning them.
10. Reset. After player 6 has finished his gaze-holding, get back to positions and be ready for more Hive adds or Taken.

Two-Orb Strategy

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.