Summary
- The non-boss raid encounters in Destiny 2 can make or break a raid, adding fun and vital mechanics for progression.
- Encounters like The Gatekeepers and The Vault introduce important raid mechanics with urgency and complexity.
- Queenswalk in Last Wish offers an intense, teamwork-driven finale, requiring communication and teamwork for success.
Destiny 2 has seen a number of raids throughout its history, some reprised from Destiny and others no longer accessible. Each of these raids has brought countless unforgettable memories for those who have played them, with gamers felling gods, destroying space stations, and obtaining copious amounts of loot.
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While the boss fights tend to stick out as specifically memorable moments, thanks to their bombastic energy and electric atmosphere, the moments in between these huge confrontations can easily make or break a raid. This list looks at six of the best non-boss raid encounters within Destiny 2 and ranks them based on how fun they are and how well they fit into their respective raid.
6 The Gatekeepers - Vault Of Glass
Travel Back And Forth Through Time To Summon The Final Boss
Vault of Glass was the first raid to ever grace the Destiny franchise, and was brought back to Destiny 2 with several changes. Since its first release, it has become a fan favorite, with memorable encounters and fantastic loot to farm for. One major downside to Vault of Glass, however, is that most of its non-boss encounters feel too long, dragging on repetitively. One that sets itself apart from this trend, however, is The Gatekeepers.
In this encounter, the players must carry a shield relic back and forth between two portals to protect a conflux and destroy shielded enemies. Every player on the team has to get involved as players get a lock-out debuff once they carry the shield through the portal, making the turnaround time for swaps quite tight and adding an air of urgency to every moment. While not the most exciting encounter on this list, The Gatekeepers is an entertaining time, which introduces the final boss mechanics well.
5 Forming The Bridge - Crota's End
Bounce Buffs Around The Fireteam To Construct The Way Forward
Similarly to The Gatekeepers in Vault of Glass, the Bridge encounter in Crota's End is a tool for introducing mechanics in a raid reprised from the original Destiny. Players must bounce a buff around the team while keeping two totems active to build a bridge across a huge chasm. A player with this buff must then kill a Swordbearer, take its sword, and cross the bridge, using the sword to kill an invulnerable enemy on the other side.
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This is then repeated until enough players are on the opposite side of the map for them to maintain two new totems to allow those on the original side to step off without deforming the bridge. This encounter is not the most complex; However, it can be incredibly fun and super quick with a coordinated team. The sword mechanic is then used throughout the remaining encounters in the raid, making this encounter vital for the team's inevitable progression.
4 The Vault - Last Wish
Unlock The Path To Seek The Final Boss
The Vault is slightly different from the previously mentioned encounter, taking place just before the final boss encounter. The players must use their knowledge of the symbols introduced earlier in the raid to successfully read a sequence on the vault mechanism in the center of the room, before sending a single player into an adjacent room to kill an enemy, pick up the energy it drops and bring it to a specific place in the main room.
This encounter can be incredibly confusing for newer players. However, those who are less familiar with the symbols and their meanings can take on the job of protecting the plates dotted around the vault, as huge knights will charge in to try and destroy them, causing a wipe. This encounter is a complex puzzle with a strict time limit, limited retries, and a requirement for communication, making it the perfect way to lead up to Riven of a Thousand Voices, the final boss of Last Wish and one of the hardest boss encounters in the game.
3 Exhibition/ Navigate The Acquisition - Vow Of The Disciple
Learn Mechanics That Will Last The Whole Raid
Exhibition is the first real encounter of Vow of the Disciple, taking place once the team has made their way into Rhulk's pyramid. The players find themselves in a huge room with six pillars, three of which have nine symbols on them and three of which have three empty symbol spots. Several rooms split off from the main area with symbols above the doors, and a tank knight hides somewhere on the battlefield. The players must then find and kill the knight, which will light up a symbol on one of the empty pillars, indicating which room they need to enter. When a player does, another symbol will light up, telling them which side of the room they need to kill an enemy on.
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If the correct enemy is killed, they drop a final symbol, which is one of three that need to be shot to activate a code. This process has to be repeated three times for a single pillar to be deactivated. The encounter ends when all three have been deactivated correctly. Seems like a lot to process. However, once a player gets to grips with the symbol callouts and the layout of the room, this encounter can go incredibly fast. These mechanics are consistently used throughout the rest of the raid, making mastering this encounter vital to eventual completion.
2 The Descent - Deep Stone Crypt
Crash A Space Station Into Europa
Once again, The Descent takes place just before the final boss of Deep Stone Crypt, with the players having to defuse several nuclear charges that the boss spawns throughout the arena, utilizing the three augments from the previous encounters to find the correct containers to put them into while stunning the boss. Compared to other encounters on this list, The Descent is relatively tame, requiring everyone to get involved yet not being overly reliant on communication.
A genuinely successful method for completing this encounter is aptly named the "chaos strat," which involves players doing whatever job they happen to see needs doing. This encounter finds itself ranked so high simply thanks to it being incredibly fun, and there is nothing quite like crashing a highly advanced space station into the surface of a planet in an attempt to kill a boss that has been brought back from the dead several times in the past.
1 Queenswalk - Last Wish
Take The Boss' Heart To Be Cleansed
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The final and most memorable encounter is Queenswalk from the Last Wish, which takes place after the final boss of the raid. The team is tasked with entering the body of the boss they just conquered to rip out her heart and take it to the Awoken Techeuns to have it contained, thanks to the taken corruption that set into motion the events leading up to the raid. A pretty intense premise, made only more so by the actual encounter mechanics. Riven's Heart will randomly choose a member of the fireteam to carry it, giving the team a timer before any players close to it are sucked into a pocket dimension.
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Everyone is forced to remain close thanks to the entire arena being shrouded in darkness, which slowly overtakes and kills anyone not cleansed by the heart's aura. The timer can briefly be extended by those in the pocket dimension collecting taken orbs, which is necessary to give the outside players enough time to reach the end of the map and dunk the heart in its container. Queenswalk is an intense, time-sensitive encounter that requires teamwork and communication, and is the perfect end to one of the most difficult raids in Destiny 2.
Destiny 2
- Released
- August 28, 2017
WHERE TO PLAY
- ESRB
- T For TEEN for Blood, Language, and Violence
- Developer(s)
- Bungie
- Genre(s)
- FPS
- Platform(s)
- PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, Xbox One, PC, Stadia
