So I posted this in response to something on the Xbox forum here for Destiny and figured I could post it here too. Basically it is a written strategy of how to get through the Raid and the little nuances I have found and all of that jazz. Probably nothing here for the Vault veterans but those looking to start Raiding is it definitely something to read up on instead of just simply watching basic videos on it. For vets of the Raid maybe take a look still though and we can discuss if we have different strategies for anything?
I have beaten the Raid countless time now and my team and I easily plow through the Raid in no time and continuously help out low levels to get through! But yeah get ready for walls of text!! : D
Basic strategies are always have a partner. You split into 3 groups of 2 and you are always accountable for your partner directly. Best if there is level imbalance to pair them together. Have the strongest with the weakest and so on. Another important thing to note other than obviously calling out when getting overrun and when you are downed and all of that, is get in the habit of calling out the hobgoblins, or at the very least the Minotaurs. Proterians. Even if you are 110% sure you have it, still call it out just so everyone is aware of the battlefield at all times. Also, whenever a Relic is dropped SOMEONE HAS TO PICK IT UP. If the Relic (at any of the multiple points in the Raid) is dropped and stays on the ground for like 5 seconds, everyone dies. So if the Relic user falls, be sure you know who is going to pick it back up for that period (you can drop it by switching weapons through when you do the cleansing starts charging from scratch so beware of the timing). In using the Relic it is shoot for a Capt America esque shield bash, melee for a swing, jump and shoot for a groundpound, jump and melee for a midair dash, grenade to cleanse and then your super to shoot your... well super! Usually you have designated people for this use but it is good to know in case you need to step up!
The groups split in opening the initial gate fairly obviously since there are three portals to power up. Each group stays at a portal and makes sure no enemies get inside. Once you have one of the portal things up and all white you do not need to stand in it anymore, just be sure nobody else goes in it! This part is pretty simple and it is all just a matter of holding your spots and calling out whenever you need help and stuff. This is usually a good way to start off your partners too in case they haven't played with each other before much this part is fairly easy and you should practice good communication from the get go!
Once it is open good job, you have entered the Vault of Glass! Follow the right side and eventually make your way down to the first chest
Then you split with the conflux defending; one group left, one group mid and one group right. Defend center, then once that is good everyone falls back to mid for the Fanatic wave and get on high ground. Fanatics leave pools of green on the ground that MUST BE AVOIDED. If you step in it you will be marked and when the Templar does the Ritual of Negation you die. You will have to go to the center white light right in front of the Templar to cleanse yourself but be careful because not only are there a ton of enemies there, the center stairs are likely to be filled with the green stuff again! Then once the new towers spawn left and right move up to each tower and then the mid plays center backup. One stays mid left at the top of the main spawning staircase and the other mid right. That way each one can easily peak over and give support to the other side while still focusing mid so that the side teams dont get caught from behind. Then another Fanatic wave where you all fall back to back mid and get higher ground. Then when it is all three confluxes you break into the same spots as before but center obviously focuses a bit more center than the sides. The key to that success is the groups of two. You are always aware of your partner but at the same time calling out each side to make sure you are all good as a team. Knowing who is going to cover who is ideal. You know mid right will help right if need be and mid left helps left if need be and then you establish who from the left and right can come to mid if need be ever. That way there is no hesitation and the coverage is flawless.
Then with the Oracle wave you be sure to split up like you were when there were the side confluxes only. Have a naming system for the Oracle spawn points and you are golden. Back left/right (side or inner), mid left/right, front left/right and then center. With everyone calling it out and holding your spots you should get through that no problem.
The Templar fight may be patched so this strategy is not possible but everyone piles on the back left platform by jumping from the beginning part. Everyone clusters on the mid ledge or bottom and the Relic user stays bottom. Literally just have the Relic user Super the Templar and then ground pound around the team to help destroy the bubbles created around them. Then everyone focuses on Templar, shields back up and everyone is marked. You all fall back a little, get cleansed and then just repeat until dead. If that doest work anymore then the initial strategy is hold up on the back right in front of the cave. There is a square rock that provides good protection and a solid place to regroup when everyone needs to be cleansed. This is obviously more difficult but everyone needs to stick together on the right and this is where Titans need to swap to the Defender subclass for sure. Basically it is the same strat as the cheesy sniper point one but this time there are enemies everywhere hahah. Try to keep one group of two on the back cave, and then each other group focusing on the other two stairs there. You HAVE TO KEEP MOVING because the hobgoblins are on the outskirts. It is a waste shooting them because they quickly respawn, it is best to just constantly keep moving and utilize the Defender bubbles. As always communication is key here and always be sure you are announcing when the shield is going down as the Relic user so that everyone prepares to destroy their shield. When the shield is down everyone focuses on the Templar and the Relic user has to be one of the top players because at this point they need to literally cover the entire area while everyone shoots. Also it is best that after the Relic user shoots the blast at the Templar, he jumps and floats in the air so that the second the bubbles spawn around everyone he can groundpound and get maximum destruction of everyones shields. The Relic needs to be groundpounding like crazy and keeping the enemies away from the fireteam as they focus on the Templar. In regards to the Oracles it is best to get them down if possible but not go out of your way to kill them. If they spawn on the other side and you dont have a clean shot just leave it and be sure everyone knows to fall back to the rock for full cleansing. After all that when he gets enraged it gets really hectic and you just buckle down. If however it seems you are to get overrun you ALL fallback to your secondary zone which is the left side of the level. You all take the back stairs where the Templar sits during the conflux part and you all relocate there temporarily and focus on all the additional enemies. You can try to hold it out there but I prefer it to be a temp position that you regroup there, clear most of the board then fall back to the right side by the rock to finish him off.
After he is dead there is a hidden pathway on the left. Take it and keep falling and eventually you get to the chest on the left. Then keep going down to the base of the Labyrinth. From here you need to sneak to the right to get the first chest. Everyone get in a single file line and NO SPRINTING OR JUMPING. You have a leader that tells everyone when to move. You go through the right cave, wait for the Gorgon to pass to your left and turn its back and then everyone power walks straight. You keep following that path and eventually on the right there is the last chest (the first is in the beginning after you open the gate) Then make your way back. From the beginning you have to go straight and then tail the gorgon that goes around the center to the left. Keep going straight however and follow the right side of that huge jutting structure. From there hug the right wall as close as possible and follow that until you round the corner. At that point you all can sprint into the cave there and bam! halfway through the Raid haha
The jumping portion next is up to your own preference. I prefer waiting until the 3rd to last platform spawns. Once it does I sprint and jump and land on the one that spawns right after it. From there there is only one more to jump to and then the base. Pretty simple. The big thing is the nick in the ledge you have to be aware of towards the end there. All you do is jump to the left a bit and then either hover or double jump back to the right once it opens up more. Simple!
This description is freaking huge already hahah I didnt expect to type this much!
But okay we are nearing the end!
This last part communication is EVEN more important.
First off, for those that dont know, left side portal is Mars and right side Portal is Venus.
Moving forward this first part is pretty simple. You split into the same groups as before where the mid left guy goes left and mid right goes right and then you just hold up at the portal gates and destroy everything. Once you kill the Gatekeeper (noob tip: his body explodes after he dies and falls to the ground so beware of that) everyone falls back to the left portal. Here you can keep your teams or have separate teams from before but that is up to your dynamic. Here you have three people stay back and open up the gate for the left side: Mars. From here you have open person stand ON the center rock to open it and the others float around mid and the back stairs. Then the teleporting team goes through the gate. These three immediately hug the left platform and here you have two golbins, gatekeeper and two yellow shielded protoreans. Knock the goblins out right away and then focus on the Gatekeeper as quickly as possible. If the teleporting team has their Supers or Heavy ammo handy it is super easy. The very moment the Gatekeeper dies, everyone in the portal gets marked and the Relic appears. The two non Relic people fall back to the portal holding off the newly spawned hobgoblins and goblins and protoreans you initially neglected. The other character runs to the top and grabs the Relic and tries to jump/glide over the fray in the middle and end at the portal. Do a quick cleanse of the teleporting team because by that point you are all likely blind. Because again, the second the Gatekeeper is down, everyone gets marked so it is best that when the Gatekeeper is about to die the Relic person is already jumping over the protoreans to get to the relic as soon as it spawns. You go through the portal and do not move as soon as you step through. You will need to be cleansed again and so if you start moving it is hard for the Relic user to get you. Once you are cleansed back in the normal area the center conflux spawns and steady stream of protoreans spawn in the top stairwell. Two people frmo the team that opened up the gate go to the conflux with one dedicated 100% to the stairs and the other at the base of the conflux. Then the other four go to the right portal and open it up. Here the Relic user and one other person are going through. In the normal area one person stays on the portal circle to make sure it is open for them to return and the other stays around the gate itself to provide cover to the portal opener and then the center conflux team. Once inside the teleporting team destroys the new Gatekeeper as fast as possible. The relic user fires the super at it and then the other uses heavy or a super to finish it off. Again, be aware it explodes! Then the Relic user plays clean up with the goblins and stuff as the other character books it up the stairs, grabs the other relic and then moves back to the portal. Here the first Relic user should cleanse both themselves and the new Relic user as soon as they meet back up because they will likely be near blind. You both jump through the portal and now EVERYONE goes to the center conflux. Here the two portals will open up now facing the conflux. The two that were initially guarding it stay focusing on the main stairs and then each Relic user is designated a portal. They stand right at each one and groundpound the crap out of the protoreans that flow out. The other two players just hover at the base of the conflux giving support to wherever needs it. Once you get through that the gates close, relics disappear and you get ready for the final boss!
Atheon is not difficult, you just need everyone to be spot on! Haha
So we are back to two teams of three, one teleporting and another staying in. Important things to note are that the furthest three back characters (technically at the beginning gate) are the ones that get teleported back when Atheon does his thing. You will be randomly teleported to either Mars or Venus. As soon as you are you call out to your team to open up that specific gate (again mars left, venus right). In the teleported group, one person grabs the relic and the other two are designated on Oracle duty. On Mars it is fairly easy for the Relic user to take out the three Hobgoblins in the middle with a a few wuick groundpounds/ dash hits. While the Relic does that the other two STICK NEXT TO EACH OTHER and keep moving down so that they are right by the next Oracle. You need to keep moving down and sticking together so that the Relic user can cleanse you both at the same time so that you can see! The two Oracle people focus on the same Oracle as they spawn and dont stop shooting one until it is dead. If a single Oracle is alive for more than like 10 seconds, everyone dies... so it is important! Once you clean out the one area you go through the portal your team opened up and the three of you SPRINT to the back again. There the Relic user will cleanse you and then EVERYONE has unlimited supers for that brief time so you unload on Atheon. After that the Relic goes away and you get teleported again to either Mars or Venus. and you just go through it all again. It is worth noting that Venus has goblins and a yellow health protorean. It is helpful that one of the Orcacle people lob a grenade at the Protorean right away to start its health down a bit because the Relic user can easily get overrun at that point. Otherwise the method is the same in Venus as it is Mars. That is the teleporting team. The team that stays and opens the portal has two options depending on your team's strengths. We normally have two people stay at Mars and then one at Venus. Mars side actually has a little ledge you can hop to above and to the left of the gate itself that is good for your weakest player. There is little tactics here other than keep your distance because all the harpies here EXPLODE and will instantly kill you if they get close. Like I said you can split up like that if the Venus player is strong enough. Otherwise the three of you stick together and all migrate to whichever portal needs to be opened and then hold up there. The person opening the portal again needs to stand on the center rock because that way they are less likely to get blown up by the harpies. That is the main thing, keep your distance from the harpies and keep higher ground. Just keep that up and be sure to get those gates open for the teleporting team and you are golden. Also note too that when you open up the gate and the other team says they are almost going through, make sure the portal is clear of harpies otherwise the team will come through and instantly die.. which is no good. Another thing to note is if you are on the team not teleporting, be sure that you are far away from those that are so that it doesnt take you instead! But yeah this part like I said just needs everyone to be spot on and doing their jobs and you should be fine!
(there is a way to cheese him and just push him off the left side ledge but that is really boring hahah but you can easily just watch a quick video of that because there is no real group strategy needed other than the teleporting team still has to do there thing and the other team instead eggs on Atheon into the side to push him off with their grenades and supers!)
And there you have it, an extremely long winded explanation of how my team runs the Raid and the general mechanics behind it all!
This is huge and I know it is not formatted well but I just started ranting and apparently wanted avoid work hahah. There are videos explaining various methods and stuff but I figured this way I can spell out everything and how my team plows through. If you need clarification just ask or if you have strategies that work better for you lets discuss!!
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