Crota's End

Changes

Bridge Encounter - After all players cross the bridge, instead of spawning 2 Ogre's, an awful lot of Knights start showing up. They need to be quickly dispatched for about 10-15 seconds before 6 Swords spawn at the front of the Bridge on the edge of the Seal (since I've had 4 runs through it, I noticed also 2 Sword spawns on the opposite side of the bridge once the 5th person crosses, allowing the 6th player to just grab a sword and run across). After another 20 seconds several Unkillable Knights (only killable by the spawned Swords) will show up as well. Wipe all of the ads to proceed. A new Curse spawns on a player when they are left solo on the far side of the bridge that instakills the player. This may make it impossible to solo (*It isn't impossible, you can do it with a Sunsinger, player has to damage 1st Knight, die/self-res, then go across again, kill damaged Knight, damage 2nd Knight, die/self res, and keep this up for 6 rotations until all 6 Knights have been killed: Yes it is kind of insane but a few players have done it already).

Thrallway - The room at the top of the Thrallway now contains Heavy Ammo (*after several runs it appears to include several different materials or consumables) instead of Raid materials. It is also now an Exotic Chest.

Ir Yut - Similar to before ads will spawn outside, once wiped a Witch spawns, and after killed there is a Shrieker that must be killed (this is mirror'd for each side). Now, 2 Knights will spawn next to Ir Yut, and once killed Ir Yut will Shriek in Fear. During this phase she can be killed to end the phase... or see Ir Yut Challenge Mode. You have 139 seconds, or 2:19 to kill her before the team is wiped due to the 30 second Lithargy mechanic.

Crota - Chalice of Light has returned from Normal Mode. Oversoul now does not proc on player death, but rather every single time Crota kneels as long as it isn't still up while he is re-kneeled (very much recommended you re-kneel him before destroying the Oversoul, so that you do not have to destroy 2 Oversouls per rotation). *Of note, 1 Nighhawk GG shot destroys Oversoul entirely, so it may be wise to have 1 Hunter dedicated to this. *Also important to note, Crota's health in relevance to Guardians has changed from 18 to 16 R2 swings, with a Super counting as 2 R2 swings, so keep track of damage not to over or under damage him due to his enrage mechanic at his final 10% of health. He still stands up immune and another sword rotation is required for the kill after enrage.

Ir Yut Challenge Mode

After killing the two Knights surrounding Ir Yut, she will Cower in Fear. Run back out to the center of the arena where 3 Knights spawn in each tower, 4 Ogre's spawn in the middle of the arena, and several Acolytes spawn as well. The team needs to wipe all of the ads here until only Ir Yut remains. Upon accomplishing this a Swordbearer will spawn from the same doorway under Crota that he does in that encounter. Kill him and take his sword. Have 1 player use said sword to run back and kill Ir Yut, it should only take 1 swing. If she dies from the sword before Lithargy completes, you complete Challenge Mode. Note: There is a record book node for completing this in under 2 minutes, or 19 seconds faster than required. Keep in mind that if Lithargy has started before the Swordbearer is spawned, you likely do NOT have enough time to run to Ir Yut for the kill to complete in under 2 minutes because it take at least 8 seconds to run to Ir Yut from that door on either a Titan Skating or a Hunter Bones Control. DO NOT run the sword with a Warlock or Hunter without Bones Control, you are giving away valuable time if attempting this, even on the fastest Warlock/Hunter. A good Titan at Skating is the preferred killer of Ir Yut to save time.

Crota Challenge Mode

The explanation of the Crota Challenge mode is rather simple. No player can pick up the sword more than once. Which means you can only use it on one full rotation, and you cannot for any reason drop said sword and then pick it back up again, even in your rotation. This completely removed the most common strategy of a Bladedancer using Invisible Blink Strike and just standing behind Crota during Sword phase. It also means any single character can now perform sword duties just as well, which is nice since most groups will need several separate Sword Bearers (I recommend using 3) per Crota kill since most teams do not have an absolute monster Sword Bearer like this guy...

Though it is very doable in two rotations as I can often knock off around 60% of Crota's health, only being a pretty decent Sword Bearer. Note: Weapons of Light/Tether may now increase Sword damage output on Crota, though I have no definitive confirmation of this. Just player speculation of it seemed to work better. I'll search real sources later though. *Datto confirmed Weapons of Light buff works, while Debuffs do not. So there you have it, with that information, I highly recommend a Double Bubble of Weapons/Blessings and a Nighthawk Gunslinger for each Crota Challenge Mode. Put the Bubble's barely on the stage, just in the corner and then retreat to left bridge at the start of every Sword rotation, then use the Golden Gun shot to 1 hit the Oversoul. Makes Crota a much easier to deal with encounter. This should reduce the hits to kill from 16 R2's to 13 ideally due to Weapons of Light. For a two rotation kill that's 2.25 hits per kneel plus a Super on every 2nd kneel, which is very doable.

Abridged Guide

Here is Datto's Abridged Guide explaining the changes. Check out his guide on the Challenge Modes linked at the end of this video if do not understand my explanations of it or need video reference.

As far as Weapons/Class recommendations throughout the Raid, stick with Zhalo, Firefly perk'd Primaries (Scouts preferable like the Taken King DO Hung Jury), Necrocasm, and Icebreaker for all of the thralls. Exotic Sword are useful for the Bridge and Ir Yut encounters. Shotguns are useful during the Ir Yut fight specifically for all of the Knights and to conserve Sword Ammo. A High Impact Sniper is great for the Tower Knights against Crota. Gjallarhorn and Machine Guns can always be used. Titans can be useful as any class up until Crota, though having 1 Blessing Bubble during the Abyss is very useful. I recommend 2 Defenders at Crota as mentioned above running Weapons/Blessing to put Bubbles on the corner of the Crota stage. For Hunters, I highly recommend Nightstalker up until Crota running Light of the Pack, Predator, and Vanish Smokes. Then if you own a Nighthawk helmet switch to that with Deadeye/Over the Horizon for the Oversoul. Warlocks are, like as often is right now, best served up with hot Nova Bombs on Voidwalker in an Embrace the Void vampire build (Annihilate and Lifesteal) using Axions or Nothing Manacle Scatters throughout the Raid.

Challenge Mode Rewards

Exotic Adept Fang of Ir Yut (Arc)

Exotic Adept Oversoul Edict (Arc)

Exotic Adept Word of Crota (Void)

Exotic Adept Abyss Defiant (Solar)

Vault of Glass

Changes

Templar Well - Added a new Chest to the back way to the Templar Well, which is also an Exotic Chest. The first chest above it appears to be an Exotic Chest now too. Added a turn back zone to the ledge on the far right side ledge at the back of the Templar Well. Drastically increased the height of the giant left pillar so that you cannot reach the top of it. You also now get a turn back killzone if you even attempt to climb up it. Closed a small hidey hole above the Spirit Bloom Room on the left side of the Templar Well. Spirit Bloom Room is also now locked off during fights in the Templar Well. All fights in the Templar Well now have a Joining Allies prompt when an activity in the Templar Well starts.

Confluxes - Remains the same in layout, but the length has been reduced. Harpies and Supplicants come out during the Fanatics phases.

Oracles - Oracles spawn rate significantly increased. There are now only 4 waves total but wave one includes 9 Oracle spawns., followed by 7, 7, and then 9 Oracles again (didn't realize this was a mechanic, but if you fail to kill an Oracle and need to cleanse, you have to repeat that Oracle phase). This speeds up one of the longest encounters in any Raid which is a very good change, but at the same time, makes it much more challenging to complete. Due to the changing number of Oracles, these Oracles have different spawn sequences than they did originally.

Templar - Harpies Disciples are now in effect Supplicants as well. What this means is that if they close in on you, they explode rather than just shoot at you similar to how they work in the Atheon fight and now the Confluxes Fanatics phase. Oracles have also changed color to Red, and must be killed because the Aegis Shield can no longer Cleanse. If any one Oracle is missed, the entire encounter is a wipe as it will proc Prophecy of Doom and then immediately a Ritual of Negation from the Templar that wipes the entire team.

Gorgons Maze - Gorgon's health do not increase with each kill, but seem to have been significantly increased (similar health to about the 4th Gorgon killed previously) per Gorgon to compensate. Keep this in mind due to the Record Book Challenge of killing all Gorgons in the Maze.

Gatekeepers - The first Gatekeeper now starts teleporting upon first damage. Surprisingly, now that first Gatekeeper also drops a 3rd (new) Aegis Shield. More ads have seemingly been added to each Portal World, most of which are Elites, which is likely why the extra Aegis is needed. We found it much harder to kill each Gatekeeper than before. Note: A Bloodbound Tether, then an Aegis slam seemed to put in work on the 2nd Gatekeeper since all the ads were so close (an R2 slam would damage 2 enemies, doubling damage done to the Gatekeeper).

Atheon - During the timestream Oracles spawns have been changed. They now spawn faster, in slightly different locations, and now there are only 6 rather than 7. This is extremely important for Challenge Mode.

Templar Challenge Mode

Much to absolutely nobody's surprise, Challenge Mode for Templar to to prevent the Templar from Teleporting. Not much to explain here since this has always been a Challenge for Templar to spawn the 6th Chest. The only thing of note is that after the first two Oracles are killed, if you are preventing the Templar from teleporting, no more Oracles will spawn. Note: Once the teleport Circle appears, you have exactly 10 seconds to stand on it (it will turn white if you are in it correctly). So you need to be standing on it at exactly 8 seconds to be sure to block said teleport. As an Aegis Shield carrier I wait 6 seconds after seeing it spawn and then head straight there and block with the Grenade button's Shield. That gives you plenty of time to block the teleport and then bug out.

Atheon Challenge Mode

Here is where things get a bit crazy and hectic. The Atheon Challenge Mode is to have each Guardian kill exactly 1 Oracle in every single Timestream phase. The reason this is tricky is that as noted above, the Oracle spawn rates have been increased, while 3 Guardians still spawn outside of the Timestream. To make matter more difficult, at least 1 player must always be outside the Timestream or the team will be wiped. What this means is that while the Aegis Shield player is wiping the Timestream ads, players (lets call all players in number order with Aegis being 3) 1 & 2 inside the Timestream must each kill their own Oracles and then be cleansed by the Aegis before promptly leaving the Timestream. *(Strategy 1) After wiping ads with the Aegis, player 3 must use the Aegis Super to kill Oracle 3 and then cleanse players 1 & 2. On the outside player 6 must open whichever Timegate of the Timestream (lets call them Venus or Mars) the players 1-3 were teleported to. Players 4 & 5 need to proceed to the Timegate for Venus/Mars while wiping Supplicant ads. Once the Timegate opens 4 & 5 will enter the Timestream and start killing their Oracles 4 & 5, while players 1 & 2 are exiting. Once players 1 & 2 exit the Timegate player 6 must enter the Timestream to kill Oracle 6. Keep in mind all players exiting the Timestream must be recleansed or will otherwise go blind so player 3 must exit the Timestream with players 4 & 5 once they kill their Oracles so that players outside the Timestream aren't killed by Supplicants while blind. *(Strategy 2) Player 3 waits to kill Oracle 5, which means players 4 & 5 must enter the Timestream very quickly to kill Oracles 3 & 4. Then everything proceeds normally (the reason for this strategy is because the Super Charge sometimes takes longer than when Oracle 3 spawns, and often player 4 kills Oracle 3 by mistake anyway, causing Player 3 to waste said Super on an Oracle that just was killed). Outside of the Timestream, the Atheon fight presents as usual. Note: I highly suggest placing 3 players on each side of the Atheon room, already standing around the pillar, prior to the Timestream teleport. This will allow at least 1 player to be Player 6 and already be opening the Timegate when players are teleported. I also highly recommend 2 other things: The Aegis Shield user exit immediately after giving one cleanse to players 4 & 5 and then heading straight to the middle platform so everyone can meet there for cleanse and prepare to damage Atheon, and plan for 2 full rotations using the last 10 seconds of Time's Vengence to kill all of the remaining Supplicants in the room before proceeding back to your spots to be teleported. You should easily be able to knock off 55-65% of Atheon's health, kill all Supplicants, and get back into position in a full Time's Vengence window.

If this sounds complicated its because... well, it is very complicated, and it will require extremely good communication and coordination to accomplish. The fights now confusing roles are confounded by the fact that Atheon still randomly Teleports 3 Guardians into the Timestream each time, so there is no way to designate rolls for each of the 6 players. Good luck!

Abridged Guide

As far as Weapons/Class recommendations throughout the Raid, use any Primary you feel comfortable with, but preference is given to Higher Impact, longer Range Primaries in many engagements or the any of the actual Raid Primaries during any Oracles encounters due to the Oracles disrupter perk. Note: Oracles still have a damage penalty for both Hand Cannons and Scout Rifles of 30% and 20%, so a normal HC is awful for Oracles. Use Low Impact Auto Rifles similar to Doctrine of Passing or Fusion Rifles if those are unavailable if you do not already have an Oracle disrupter weapon. Shotguns are also viable on Oracles Phase in the Templar Well, just not at Atheon. Keep in mind that while Sleeper Similant is an extremely attractive weapon due it's one shot Oracle potential, Ricochet shots are extremely common and will frequently kill the user off of Oracles. I highly recommend against using it. Conversely, Sleeper Simulant does the highest damage per shot of any weapon against Atheon and with Weapons of Light alone can pump out over 2.2 million (all non Crits would still equal 1.76 mil) damage per player in only 9 shots if all are Crits. If all 6 Guardians are using Sleeper Simulant, with 1 Tether and an Illuminated Weapons of Light, a 1 cycle on Atheon is pretty easy. I highly recommend a VoG non-Adept Primary, Highest Impact Sniper, and Sleeper Simulant loadout for both Templar and Atheon, especially with Heavy Ammo armor that gives you 12 Sleeper shots. As far as class loadouts go I recommend Nightstalker for Hunters throughout the Raid with the normal Light of the Pack/Predator/Black Hole build. Except during Gatekeepers phase, a Bloodbound bow can be extremely useful on Portal 2 (Venus) for the person who is going to grab the Aegis Shield from there. Titans can get comfortable as Defenders here with Weapons of Light, you will be popping a lot of those Bubbles. Warlocks can actually make valid use of every Subclass here. Voidwalker to Nova for Orb creation and health regen on a vampire build, Sunsingers to use a Viking Funeral/Ignite & Fusion Grenade build to give the team extra DPS during damage cycles, and Stormcallers (least useful) for similar reason as the Voidwalkers to create orbs during parts like Fanatics on the Confluxes phase.

Challenge Mode Rewards

Exotic Adept Praedyth's Timepiece (Arc)

Exotic Adept Fatebringer (Arc)

Exotic Adept Atheon's Epilogue (Void)

Exotic Adept Vision of Confluence (Solar)

King's Fall

Guide to Normal Totems/Warpriest, Normal Golgoroth, and Normal Daughters/Oryx if you've never done King's Fall before.

Guides to Challenge Modes: Warpriest, Golgoroth, and Oryx.

Weapons guides for Kings Fall have always been pretty universal but a few things have changed since Y2. For Warpriest, a Sleeper Simulant/Ex Machina (Highest Impact Sniper) combo gives you the highest possible DPS. Gjallahorn is a close 2nd. One would think Black Spindle would work great here, but there is just too much time left on the table now that ammo inventories for Sniper Rifles have been diminished so much, which leaves Spindle standing there crying with no ammo and not being able to be the monster it wants to be. Conversely, during Golgoroth, there is no King, but Black Spindle. It can drop upwards of 1,000,000 damage (just over 2.2 million damage) over Sleeper Simulant per Orb drop per player because of the smaller timeframe in question. A Legendary Sniper such as Ex Machina can be used in it's place if you do not have a Black Spindle, but it won't quite hit that kind of DPS. For Daughters, nothing hits quite as hard as Touch of Malice, and it's also extremely easy to use. Use Snipers, Gjally, or Sleeper if you do not have Touch of Malice, but note the shaking is a lot more distracting that it even seemed like it used to be, especially in regards to Snipers due to the increased Flinch they were given, so hitting shots is rather tough. Oryx is rather mechanics driven so I'd only really advise loadouts for the middle Titans and Runner. Runner should use a Razelighter, Dark Drinker, or Touch of Malice to use on the Light Eater Knight that he steals the brand from to quickly dispatch. The middle Titans should run Sleeper Simulants now, as Touch of Malice now destroys Blessings overshields. 2 Sleeper Shots will kill each Ogre. Guardians on Plates should each either use a Highest Impact Sniper such as Ex Machina or something like a Gjallahorn/Truth to 1 hit kill their Light Eater Knights. For Class Recommendations, Titans should be using Defenders, Hunters on Nightstalkers, and Warlocks should mostly be on Sunsingers with the occasional useful Voidwalker.

Challenge Mode Rewards

Exotic Adept Anguish of Drystan (Arc)

Exotic Adept Zaouli's Bane (Void)

Exotic Adept Doom of Chelchis (Void)

Exotic Adept Smite of Merain (Solar)

Wrath of the Machine

Link to post with full Raid guide including Challenge Modes. Will update if there are any changes, though it is unlikely.

Challenge Mode Rewards

Exotic Adept Chaos Dogma (Arc)

Exotic Adept Steel Medulla (Void)

Exotic Adept Genesis Chain (Solar)

Exotic Adept Fever and Remedy (Solar)

Hmm interesting. I've fallen off Destiny since moving and getting a computer but this would definitely get me to spend another 5-10 hours just once, trying all the new stuff as a final hurrah.

Ehhh, pass. I hope they don't lean on the design choices for this challenge mode in Destiny 2. Raids are way more interesting when you have a class that can do something unique and cool that benefit the group and can be used for a specific role. The approach of ''everyone does everything and classes don't matter outside of defender bubbles'' also known as the King's Fall design is the worst part of Destiny Raids.

Hopefully they find ways to design around the specifics of classes and sub classes for all types of content in the next one.

@pyrodactyl: I actually disagree. I think if it's near impossible to do a Raid without a very specific Subclass makeup then the Raid is doing something terribly wrong. At the same time, when those Subclasses are able to be utilized in very specific ways to drastically improve the effectiveness of the Raid, I also think it's great. Crota right now is actually a great example of that when performed optimally. You need 2 Defenders running Blessings/Weapons, 1 Golden Gun Nighthawk, and 2 Voidwalkers (your 6th could be anything, another GG Nighthawk would be Super useful). Like shown in the video above you use the Defenders to pop Blessings/Weapons on the Rock or just barely on the Crota stage so that Sword Bearer is both defended from Crota and grabs Blessings/Weapons as he approaches. The GG Nighthawk is then used to 1 shot the Oversoul whenever it is up after the 2nd down per rotation. Voidwalkers are your Sword Bearers since they can Nova the Swordbearer and ads around it plus get back any lost health. The orbs created from the Titan Bubble then also create enough orbs to ensure a Super Slam in each rotation, thus giving you the opportunity to 3 R2, 2 R2 Super R2 per rotation (which counts as 8 hits, or exactly half of Crota's health). If your Sword Bearers are not as on point to pulling off this combo you can easily do 2 R2, then R2 Super R2 over 3 rotations which will actually overkill Crota by 2 theoretical hits on the 3rd Sword rotation (thus killing him with the last Super before the final R2). Bladedancer with Invisibility is still useful (Super and Crouch) if not running Bubble strategy. Honestly, Subclass diversity is the last thing I would be upset about within this new Crota's End. It's very similar to Wrath of the Machine in that regard which I think did the best job. Where you could be anything and complete it, but there are very optimal strategies that utilize Subclasses to make runs much smoother. By extension, the King's Fall Raid probably did the poorest job of showcasing Subclass abilities, which is why I would easily consider it the 3rd or worst Raid in the bunch behind Crota's End. Though these changes do, at least in my opinion, increase the quality of Crota's End significantly. Specifically Ir Yut and the Bridge Encounter, they are both much more fun now.

Is there anything in this update for solo players? Has the strike level been upped or anything?

@splodge: I don't think there's much. They didn't increase light level cap, so I'm sure strike levels are the same.

Besides the new record book, they added a weekly story playlist which might be a good source for legendary marks. Helpful because now all the vendor weapons and armor will refresh stat/perk rolls every week (if you enjoy chasing that perfectly rolled piece)

They also did introduce a Daybreak modifier (think Mayhem in PvP; super and abilities charge *much* faster) to Nightfalls, but that will only happen every four weeks. And if Bungie.net is to be believed, Nightfalls have matchmaking now(?), that's kind of surprising if true.

You also might want to check out the other forum topic that lists all the changes in this update:

https://www.giantbomb.com/destiny/3030-36067/forums/age-of-triumph-final-update-after-stream-3-323-1807873/#41

@splodge:To touch on a couple things @liquidsaiyan3 said, definitely go check out my post about the changes that came with Age of Triumph. The actual Heroic Strike stayed at 350 but the rewards went up again (see the next paragraph). Nightfalls DO NOT have Matchmaking, I promise, I loaded in one solo today to finish a bounty (there was also never any indication that it would be matchmade). The Story Playlist is worth 20x5 (100 total) Marks per week if you complete all 5 Story Missions. The new Weekly Reset of Vendor gear is also amazing. You may want to check out a Reddit overview of what is on offer each week in case there is anything that you might like (this weeks gem is the Dead Orbit's Keystone 01 with Firefly, Triple Tap, and Extended Mag, best perk for a High Impact PvE Scout in Destiny).

It wasn't listed on the other post about Age of Triumph because it wasn't know yet, but they did significantly boost the rewards from several activities. Off the top of my head Rare Decrypts now go up to 385, Strike Rewards up to 390, all Faction/Vendor drops are now up to 400, Challenge of Elders and Archon's Forge are now 400 for Legendary drops, and all Vendor purchases are now 380. You can also easily obtain 400-500 Marks per week, so hitting 380 just from buying Vendor Armor should be extremely easy now. As soon as the Weekly Heroic is the Daybreak modifier it should be extremely fun to play, especially with the vast improvements made to Heroic Strikes during The Dawning event over Christmas this year. In my honest opinion right now is the single best time to get into Destiny 1 PvE, as the activities are the most rewarding and the most straight forward and easy to understand that they have ever been. Age of Triumph, at least as far as my friends list and activity over a DTG (Reddit/Destiny) is concerned, is the most active Destiny has been since the week Rise of Iron launched. And since every single piece of content ever released (besides Skolas in PoE since they redid PoE) is now End Game, everything is relevant for the rest of Destiny 1's life. There is an awful lot for a Solo player to do right now, but as always, there is an awful lot more for those with a Fireteam. I hope this clears up a few things and answers some of your questions.

After updating the Vault of Glass section today, I consider this pretty complete. It has all of the Raids, Challenges, and Rewards listed, and even a few tips and links to strategy guides for beginners. Hope this helps you guys, from Vault experts to beginners.

New information has come to light about how Cluster Bombs work on Aksis in Phase 2 of Wrath of the Machine yesterday. A perfectly rolled Legendary Rocket Launcher, Unto Dust, is available for 150 Legendary Marks from Dead Orbit. These Rocket Launchers with similar rolls, Cluster Bombs, Tripod, and Field Scout, are the ultimate damage dealers for Aksis due to the fact that the Cluster Bombs actually hit every single leg of Aksis. It actually far outperforms the well known strategy of "Spin to Win" with Dark Drinker. Check out the insane damage dealt in this video. The best part of this strategy is that unleashing an Unto Dust takes just about 2/3s the time using a full capacity of Dark Drinker ammo does, and free's you to use a Sniper, such as Black Spindle to get up to 6 extra Crit shots per damage phase, which also helps to boost DPS quite a bit. The biggest thing to note about this strategy is that Supers like Nova Bomb, Fist of Havok, or Golden Gun must then be used to kill the Scorch Captains, otherwise without Dark Drinkers they are extremely hard to deal with. Luckily you should always have those Supers in Challenge Mode, since every Aksis Teleport will Charge your Super or you failed anyways. I just thought this was pertinent information for anyone attempting to do Aksis Challenge this week on Wrath of the Machine.