Crota’s End has returned as a reprised raid for Destiny 2. Bungie has brought the original Destiny raid into Destiny 2, and while it will be familiar to those who played it back in 2014, there are enough differences here that it ought to provide a decent challenge. The following Crota’s End raid guide details each encounter and what weapons to bring.
This guide will be updated throughout the weekend to reflect the changes to Crota’s End.
- Descend into the Hellmouth
- Traverse the Abyss
- The Bridge
- Thrall hallway
- Ir Yut, the Deathsinger
- Crota, Son of Oryx
Shacknews World’s First Crota’s End raid attempt
Check out the following stream of my mates and me attempting to clear Crota’s End on Day One. The livestream went live at 9:00 a.m. PT / 12:00 p.m. ET on September 1, 2023. Crota’s End unlocked at 10:00 a.m. PT. Check out the VOD below of our Day One attempt.
Crota’s End weapon & build recommendations
Crota’s End is an enemy-heavy raid featuring several sections where going toe-to-toe with a tough opponent is unavoidable. As is always the case, any build and playstyle can get the job done, but these will be the tools you should use if you’re aiming for a clear.
You can’t very well go strolling into a raid without Divinity, Gjallarhorn, Tractor Cannon, and even Outbreak Perfected in your back pocket. While you might not use these, they are hands down some of the most useful weapons in Destiny 2.
Source: Bungie
Additionally, because there will be a lot of Hive Knights, bring a Shotgun to knock them down quickly. You want something that dishes out a lot of damage, potentially something with slug rounds (Heritage, Nessa’s Oblation), One-Two Punch (Wastelander M5), or Trench Barrel (Basso Ostinato).
Long-range fights may also occur, specifically when in the bridge section or when attacking Wizards during the Ir Yut fight. Sniper Rifles like The Supremacy or Succession are all the rage right now, and are both easy to get.
Round this all off with whatever major add-clearing weapons you can bring. Forbearance remains one of the best Grenade Launchers in the game, Thunderlord shreds through groups of enemies, and even Tessellation can knock a whole swarm of foes out of the question.
For your team composition, it’s always worth having a Nightstalker Hunter using Shadowshot, a Warlock with Well of Radiance, and Titans with a Ward of Dawn. These will help keep you safe, increase your damage, and hinder your foes. Throw in some add-clearing Supers and one-and-done Supers for damage.
Pick up the Chalice of Light and hold it until the bar fills. Interact with the plate to add the charge. Another player should grab the Chalice and do the same until the bridge builds.
Challenge: Conservation of Energy: You can only Enlighten a lantern if you preserve the Chalice of Light beside it first. This means you can only use roughly seven lanterns throughout The Stills. Lighting a lantern that does not have a preservation node will fail the challenge. Use Grapple Grenades an Eager Edge to speed through the darkness quickly, this helps negate the Weight of Darkness.
The Abyss is the first encounter in Crota’s End that requires players move along pathways into darkness, using Hive lamps to guide their way.
- Chalice of Light: Slowly charges to four bars, at which you become Enlightened
- Enlightened: Allows you to activate a lantern
- Drained of Light: After you Enlighten a lamp you will be drained of Light, unable to take the chalice again.
- Weight of Darkness: Fills to x10, slows your Guardian’s movement
- Engulfed in Darkness: Counts down from 60 seconds, if it hits 0 seconds you die.
- Engulfed with Light: Once the Chalice of Light is full, you will be engulfed and will die after a few seconds unless someone takes the chalice.
- Preserve Chalice of Light: Activates the next set of lamps
Pick up the Chalice of Light and go to the first lantern. Wait for the Chalice it to charge and have someone take it when you’re full. The person who takes it should deposit it in the preservation node beside the lantern. Whoever is Enlightened should activate the lantern to remove the Weight of Darkness and refresh the Engulfed with Darkness counter. A new player must take the Chalice of Light from the preservation node. Continue forward, repeating this pattern. There will be a preservation node beside every 4-5 lanterns.
Challenge: Precarious Balance: The player(s) that crosses the bridge must do so as it is deforming.
- Chalice of Light (same as the first encounter): Charges over time up to four bars, at which point you become Enlightened if someone takes the Chalice from you.
- Enlightened: Can be used to charge the bridge or pick up a sword that a Swordbearer drops
- Annihilator Totems: Activate once the bridge starts forming
The bridge starts forming once one Enlightened buff is deposited when someone is standing on the plate. More Enlightened buffs help speed up construction. However, the bridge will only keep forming if someone is standing on the middle plate.
Players can only cross the bridge if they are holding a sword or are holding the Chalice of Light. A sword can only be picked up if you have the Enlightened buff. Once you have the sword, cross the bridge and use the sword to defeat the Gatekeeper. When the Gatekeeper is defeated, deposit the sword in a preservation node. The Engulfed with Light debuff prevents you from picking up the Chalice of Light.
Once you are on the other side, your job is to clear enemies and assist the starting area via long-range weapons. When three players have crossed to the far side, they can then form the bridge via the far side plate and Annihilator Totems.
When only two players remain on the starting side, have one player pick up a sword while the other holds the Chalice of Light and both should cross at the same time. Continue to pass the Chalice of Light between each player.
After all players have made it across, defeat enemies until Wizards and Ogres spawn. With those enemies dead, Gatekeepers will spawn. Hold the Chalice until you are Enlightened, have someone take it, and then remove the sword you preserved. Continue this until all swords are collected. Now use the swords to defeat the group of Gatekeepers.
After the bridge section is complete, there is a mini section where you must fight up a literal hill while defeating Thrall and destroying Shriekers. Holding the Chalice of Light gives you the Enlightened buff which lets you pass through a barrier. Defeat the Shrieker to remove the barrier. Continue up the hill, moving through the barriers and defeating shriekers until you reach the end. Deposit the Chalice of Light to unlock the hole in the ground.
Challenge: Equal Vessels: The Chalice of Light must be continually cycled between players in the same order, even during damage phase.
The fight against Ir Yut, the Deathsinger, is all about speed and lethality. The goal is to defeat Ir Yut before she finishes singing her Liturgy.
- Chalice of Light: Exact same mechanics as the previous encounters. Hold onto it to become Enlightened, you must have another player take it from you before you get ungulfed in Light.
- Enlightened: This buff allows you to pass through the green barriers around the room. You cannot pick the Chalice up if you are Enlightened. Once you lose Enlightened, you will have a 45 second debuff that prevents you from picking up the Chalice.
The goal here is to locate three Wizards that are behind the green barriers and then have three Enlightened players defeat the Wizards. Once the three Wizards are dead, Ir Yut can be damaged.
Begin by splitting the team into two groups of three. Send one group left and the other right. Clear out enemies as quickly as possible, the sooner all the Blistered Knights are down, the sooner the Shriekers open up. Defeating the Shriekers opens the center crystal room where you can pick up the Chalice of Light.
Charge the Chalice of Light so that three players have the Enlightened buff. While this is happening, have one player scout the arena and call out the rooms where the Wizards are located. There will be one Wizard per room. The possible spawns are in the top and bottom floor of the towers in the corners and in the three rooms above the center crystal.
Try and defeat the Wizards at the same time, this may or may not help with the damage duration. When the three Wizards are defeated, all players should group up and deal damage to Ir Yut. You can extend the damage phase by having an Enlightened player approach her and interact, which is an Expunge. This removes the shield for another brief window and prevents the team wipe from the Liturgy.
In terms of DPS for Ir Yut, the strategy my team used for Day One is Divinity and five Thunderlords. This allowed us to two-phase Ir Yut, we also Expunged her once per damage phase.
Challenge: All For One: Three swords must be used at the same time to take down Crota’s shield.
- Chalice of Light: Exact same mechanics as the previous encounters, except this time you can only swap the Chalice when standing in a beam of Light.
- Enlightened: Acquiring by holding the Chalice of Light until the bar fills and then someone taking the Chalice from you. Allows you to pick up a sword, destroy the Oversoul, or Expunge on Crota. Once you do one, you lose Enlightened.
- Presence of Crota: This debuff prevents you from swaping the Chalice of Light except in a beam of Light.
- Swordbearer: Spawns in the middle door once the Hive Knights in the towers are defeated. Drops a sword on death. The sword will disappear after a few seconds.
- Expunge: Someone who is Enlightened can Expund on Crota, dealing a chunk of damage.
- Oversoul: Wipes the team after 30 seconds unless it is destroyed by someone who is Enlightened. Destroying it ends a damage phase.
The goal is to defeat the Hive Knight Boombers in the Towers to summon Ogres and a Swordbearer. Defeating the Swordbearer drops a sword which you must use to remove Crota’s shield. You can only pick up the sword if you are Enlightened, which is acquired by holding the Chalice of Light until the bar is charged. It will take two to three swords to remove it.
Ideally, you can use one sword at a time to safely get in and out. This maximises the number of people that are on add-clear. Alternatively, keep holding onto swords until three players have a sword and then everyone dogpiles Crota at once. If you opt for the one sword at a time method, I’d recommend having someone with Healing Grenades throw in a ‘nade once the player with the sword gets hit by Crota, this ensures they heal up enough to tank another hit.
Source: Shacknews
The main challenge here will be dealing enough damage during each damage phase. One strategy that has worked is to use Lament and several Well of Radiances. If you’re using the one sword at a time method, when the third sword user has their sword, a Well of Radiance Warlock should rush in, cast their Super, and have everyone collapse in. The sword user will bust down the last bit of shield and then everyone uses The Lament. On Contest Mode, this can remove roughly a quarter of Crota’s health bar.
The trouble on Contest Mode is that Crota will destroy a Well of Radiance extremely easily. You either need multiple Wells or to use a Ward of Dawn to protect the Well. Alternatively, you can use a Burning Maul Titan Super to effectively stunlock Crota. At least one Hunter should use Gathering Storm for the massive damage. If you’re not going to use The Lament, consider other sword options like Falling Guillotine or even a shotgun like Legend of Acrius, as it’s damage is quite surprising. Other clears have succeeded when using any Controlled Burst Fusion Rifles as a backup. It is also absolutely critical to use the best buffs and debuffs. You need three Surge Mods in your boosts, Monochromatic Maestro, Lumina, Star-Eater Scales, Well of Radiance, Tractor Cannon, as well as Synthoceps.
After the damage phase, reset and run it all again. You’ll need to do this at least three times to hit his final stand. Once you hit the last chunk of health, Crota will summon an Oversoul and you have roughly 30 seconds to remove the last chunk of health.
In addition to dealing damage to Crota, you must also mange the Oversoul. During each damage phase, Crota will summon an Oversoul that will wipe you after 30 seconds. Someone with the Enlightened buff must shoot and destroy the Oversoul to prevent this wipe. However, destroying the Oversoul ends the damage phase. Try to wait until the last possible second before destroying it. For this reason you should try to have at least four players become Enlightened throughout the encounter: three to pick up and use swords and one to handle the Oversoul. You can give additional players Enlightened so they can Expunge Crota, which is just a free burst of damage.
As for team composition, during Contest Mode my team had specific players dedicated to each role. A Titan with Burning Maul was responsible for clearing enemies around the door where the Swordbearer spawned and using Tractor Cannon on Crota. A player was responsible for always finishing the Swordbearer while using Aeons for guaranteed Heavy ammo. To help this player get Heavy ammo, another Warlock used Cenotaph to mark the Swordbearer before it was killed. One player was dedicated to each tower to take down the Knights. The remaining players were cycling the Chalice of Light buff to get Enlightened and picking up the sword. On top of this, one player can help each sword user by throwing a Healing Grenade at them as they’re taking down Crota’s shield to help them heal through the damage.
The first player to use the sword can go back into the Chalice of Light rotation to get another Enlightened buff. This should be used for the Expunge mechanic, that way you’ve hopefully got two players Expunging. Alternatively, it acts as a backup in case someone dies with Enlightened and there’s not enough time to charge it again.
Source: Shacknews
As for handling Crota’s final stand, you should finish your second damage phase with Crota’s health bar almost at final stand. When you go for the third damage phase, conserve Heavy ammo and Supers (except for one Well of Radiance), and instead rely on Special weapons to push Crota into final stand – this ensures you save ammo. When Crota enters final stand, time your Well of Radiance, being sure to put one down before one disappears. You should also place a Well of Radiance if Crota shuffles out of one Well. There is no Oversoul between third phase and final stand, but you will need one Enlightened player to take down the final stand’s Oversoul, so don’t use it for Expunging. When you do hit Crota’s last chunk of health, run away from him as he is immune for several seconds; take this opportunity to collect Heavy ammo. This will also ensure you don’t get hit by his slam.
Crota’s End might be one of the smaller raids but it’s certainly one of the more challenging additions. This raid guide will be updated over the course of the Day One raid as my team and I work out the best strategies and completes it. Check back regularly for updates as I add new information after each encounter is cleared. There’s also our Destiny 2 strategy guide for more raid walkthroughs and raid challenge explanations.
