The Chalice
The chalice is the key mechanic for the whole raid. Once picked up you see a blue progress bar as it charges. Once fully charged the player will get a de-buff called Engulfed in Light, and if the Chalice is not claimed by another guardian within 9 seconds the player will die. If the Chalice is claimed once Engulfed in Light, that player will become Enlightened. This buff has no timer and any player who is enlightened cannot claim the chalice. The only way to remove it is to use it.
Once Enlightened the player can do a task such as lighting an Abyssal Lamp, once this is done the player will have a de-buff called Drained of Light that lasts 45 seconds. Guardians that are Drained of Light cannot Claim the Chalice.
Should the Chalice be claimed before it is charged, the player that had the chalice will not be Enlightened and will not get the Drained with Light de-buff. This is usually a mistake.
The charge time is reduced by causing damage to ads.
The Mouth
This is the entrance to the first encounter, and just lets you practice the chalice mechanic. A player will pick up the Chalice, and say "Claim it" when it is charged. Once charged, they will tell someone to take it, leaving them Enlightened. At this point they can use the buff on the plate to accelerate the bridge. This is repeated until the bridge is formed, and the Chalice will disappear.
Red border chest
There are statues, that when activated correctly, will grant a deep-sight weapon at the end of the raid. This can be claimed once per week per account (not character).
From the image above note down if the left or right statue is lit with a green flame, such as Left Left Right. When activating the statue the orientation is towards the over soul.
First statue set: located in the bridge encounter. Before you start the encounter the statues are in the rooms to the left and right of the rally flag orientated as you are looking across the bridge from the rally flag point.
Second statue set: located in the bridge encounter. After the encounter is complete, the statues are on the far left and right of the area where the ogres spawn. Orientated as you face the exit to Ir Yut after crossing the bridge.
Third statue set: located in the final area on the top balcony, and must be completed before Crota is dealt with. The orientation is facing the over soul.
The Stills
This starts when a player leaves the start plate or picks up the Chalice. This starts a 1 minute wipe timer called Engulfed in Darkness. In order to reset this timer, an Abyssal Lamp has to be Enlightened or the Chalice preserved.
The encounter is running a sequence of Abyssal Lamps, whilst avoiding being hit by swinging Lanterns or falling into holes. Each Lamp must be Enlightened (by a player that has the Enlightened buff) and if there is a preservation pedestal, the Chalice must be preserved and reclaimed. You can only preserve the Chalice if you are not fully charged.
The other de-buff is Weight of Darkness that slows the player, limiting mobility such as jumping. This is removed by being near a Lamp that has been Enlightened.
A Lamp that has been Enlightened will explode after 15 seconds, so the team will need move on before this happens. A good plan is to move on when the Weight of Darkness reaches 2 for the player that enlightened it. It is a good idea to stay together, and the person next in line to be near the current preservation pedestal. Should a player be left behind or need a res, delay the enlightening of the Lamp as much as possible, but before the Engulfed in Darkness timer expires.
The places were the chalice can be preserved is random, but they are in sets. Look at the image below and the grey icons show how they are grouped together. If there is no preservation pedestal at the first lamp by II, it will be on one of the others in that set. There is only one preservation pedestal per set, so once a Lamp in the set has been preserved, there won't be another preservation pedestal until the next set.
One easy method to know if you have to preserve is by looking at the next lamp. If it is black you need to preserve the chalice. If the chalice is not preserved, you cannot enlighten the next lamp risking a wipe should your team run out of time.
Strategy
The team should be organised into an order to make this easier for the first few runs, such as the order they on the the fireteam roster.
Player 1 picks up the Chalice and runs to the first Lamp and immediately preserves in the preservation pedestal(Lamp 1 always has a preservation pedestal).
Player 2 will immediately take the chalice from the preservation pedestal and the team will run to Lamp 2.
When Player 2 is Engulfed in Light (the blue bar is full), they will tell Player 3 to claim it.
Player 2 will then enlighten Lamp 2, and when the Weight of Darkness reaches 2, the team moves on to Lamp 3.
Once Player 3 is Engulfed in Light (charged) they will tell Player 4 to claim it.
Player 3 is now enlightened so they will enlighten the Lamp. There could be a preservation pedestal on this Lamp, if so the Player 4 will preserve the chalice and Player 5 will claim it.
When there is a preservation pedestal, it is usually good practice to deal with the preservation before you enlighten the lamp, as this starts the 15 second hidden timer that will cause the the lamp to explode.
Eventually you reach a plate near the bridge, and you can place the Chalice which stops the wipe timer. At this point you will reclaim the Chalice, and rotate the chalice to get players enlightened. Enlightened players will then interact with the plate in order to accelerate the bridge. Unstoppable Ogres will spawn, and eventually the bridge will form.
The Bridge
Again we are opening a bridge. There is no wipe timer in this encounter. The following image shows the layout of this area:
To build the bridge you need to stand on the centre plate, but once this is started players need to be stood on both of the Annihilator Totems that are on the left and right side. As the bridge is formed, barrier knights will spawn repeatedly targeting the players on the left and right totems.
To cross the bridge you need the sword that drops from a Swordbearer or be carrying the Chalice. Once a player crosses the bridge with a sword a Gatekeeper will spawn that only the player with the sword can kill. Once the gatekeeper is killed the sword must be preserved in a holder that will be highlighted.
Should the player lose the sword (by changing weapons, for example) or die whilst trying to kill the gatekeeper, the next player that comes across will need to kill that gatekeeper. When all players are across, and there are not 5 swords preserved a sword bearer will spawn followed by a gatekeeper for each missing sword.
Strategy
A good strategy for this encounter is to get everyone enlightened first, as the bridge is being built. The first to get enlightened will interact with the central plate to accelerate the bridge, and the second player (the first to be actually enlightened) will be the one to find the first Sword Bearer and get the sword.
If you have the sword, you cannot use any abilities as you will drop the sword and you can't pick it up as you are no longer enlightened.
Eventually a Sword bearer will appear. When spotted call out to Player 2 where it is and kill the sword bearer. The sword will de-spawn after a short time, so player 2 must get there quickly to pick it up. They can then cross the bridge or wait until Player One has the chalice back, so they can cross together. This is preferable as Player One can help with ads after they preserve the chalice.
Once Player One has the Chalice again, they will both cross the bridge. Time is limited here so both must cross the bridge as soon as the Chalice is picked up, and preserved on the other side of the bridge before it becomes fully charged. The preservation point is at the back of the room at the bottom of the stairs.
Next a 3rd player will find a sword bearer and get the sword. Run across the bridge, kill the gatekeeper and preserve the sword. The 3 players that are across will now stand on the three plates, and the remaining players on the original side can get off of their plates (it is important that the player on the central plate gets off first). Players 4-6 will now get swords and run across the bridge to kill the gatekeeper.
Once all players are across, all players jump off the plates and focus on ads and getting enlightened again. Ogres will spawn as will the swords that were preserved. When the swords are available 3 players will pick up the swords and kill the many gatekeepers that will run in. Once all are dead, the encounter is over.
The secret chest run
This is not an encounter, just a transit, but if done right you get a secret chest.
Two players with rockets are needed.
Player 1 gets enlightened quickly, runs through the green wall and shoots the Shrieker with a rocket. This opens the green wall.
Player 2 gets enlightened, goes through the next green wall and shoots the Shrieker with a rocket.
Player 3 dunks the chalice in the preservation pedestal.
If done quickly, a door will open and you can claim the chest. Getting through the door does not guarantee the chest, you have to dunk the chalice.
Ir Yút - The Deathsinger
In this encounter we need to kill witches that are keeping Ir Yut shielded. On the first damage phase there are 3 witches, then 4 and finally 5 witches. In order to get into the rooms where these witches are you need to be enlightened. These witches hide behind posts, and it is often hard to know if there is a witch or Shrieker. Wish Ender can be useful in this case.
There are two wipe timers. One is not visible, but unless the witches are not killed in this time the 45 second wipe timer will start. The 45 second timer also starts when the first witch is killed.
The above image displays the arena as two levels and shows where the witches spawn. The naming might vary from the above example, for example L1-3, mid and R1-3 starting from the lower tower up and back towards the top balcony. For example, the bottom left tower would be L1 and close left is L3.
First, organise the players that will get enlightened for each phase. There is usually more time on the first damage phase, so four should get enlightened so that one is already enlightened ready for the second damage phase. This way you only need to get three enlightened on the second damage phase - assuming that this will be a 2 phase.
If you find that this goes to three damage phases, you can use the time in damage phase to get folks enlightened ready for killing the five witches on the last damage phase. There is a maximum of three damage phases.
Based on that, Players 1 to 4 will get enlightened on the first damage leaving Player 5 to preserve the chalice in the preservation pedestal underneath the crystal room.
Player 6 will be a spotter. Once the chalice is claimed, they will run to the towers looking to see which have witches inside. The witches do not spawn until the barrier around the crystal room is removed.
One key element here is to get as much time as possible on damage, which is a maximum 45 seconds. It is a good policy to get the witches to be finish-able or one-shot. All rooms, except the middle balcony room, have a column to hide behind.
Strategy
Split players into 2 teams of three, run out kill the Blister Knights and the teams split left and right then move up the stairs into the corridors where the Shriekers are located. The blister knights must be killed in order for the Shrieker in each corridor to open up. Once both shriekers are dead the crystal room opens up and P1 claims the chalice as quickly as possible.
P1 will look for witches in the rooms on the balcony whilst player 6 looks for witches in the towers.
Once Players 1 to 3 are enlightened they will run into their respective rooms and get their witches to be a finish-able state. Player 4 will get enlightened handing over to Player 5 who will preserve the chalice. At this time Players 1 to 3 will kill their witches.
If the 45 second timer starts, players 1 to 3 should immediately kill their witches.
Once the witches are dead, damage starts, and we have 45 seconds to do enough damage to avoid a wipe. Aim for more than 50% damage. Killing any witch starts the timer.
Damage phase 2 is similar, but there are 4 witches this time. Player 4 is already enlightened, so Player 1 will get the chalice from underneath the crystal room so that they and Players 2 and 3 can get enlightened. Other than that, it is the same process.
Crota, Son of Oryx
The wipe timer (which is not visible) is generous, so unless we badly mess up it is not a factor.
There is now a debuff called Presence of Crota. This prevents the chalice from being transferred except in specific places. The exact place where this is done looks like a warlock's rift. Potential places are two on the first floor on the plates and 3 in the lower area. The place to preserve the chalice is in the same place as Ir Yut, which is the room exit below the crystal room.
The room layout, along with the locations for where the chalice can be claimed is shown in the following image:
Strategy
Players 1-3 will get enlightened, and P4 will preserve the Chalice.
When P1 is enlightened, P6 will kill the boomer knights in both towers. This spawns Ogres, Witches and a Sword Bearer. P1 will kill the Sword Bearer and pick up the Sword that it drops. P6 will kill another set of boomer knights causing a new set of Ogres, Witches and a Sword Bearer to appear. This time P2 will kill the bearer and pick up the sword.
Now all players should gather together in the area just to the left of the Crystal room.
When ready, a player will use a Tractor Cannon to debuff Crota and Players 1 and 2 will use the swords on Crota. Super followed by heavy attacks should be sufficient.
Then the whole team does damage. There is an oversoul timer, so P3 (who is enlightened) will shoot the oversoul at around 5 seconds to go. Only players that are enlightened can reset the over soul.
Then repeat this process again, however this time four players should get enlightened. This is because on reaching Final Stand you can give the team more time by resetting the over soul twice.
Final stand: the health bar for final stand is large, so make sure you have heavy, wells, and damage supers ready. During final stand you should have two players enlightened so that you can reset the timer again in order to avoid a wipe in case damage is not enough. With good damage, you should be able to push Crota to final stand without needing the over soul to be reset, as final stand resets the timer.
Weapons and Team composition
Personal preference plays a part here, and these can be changed up. But for those new to the raid, the following is a reasonable plan.
As a team, you should have at least 2 warlocks with Well of Radiance, and the remaining players with good burst damage supers (Blade barrage, Nova bomb, Thundercrash, etc.). One member should have the ability to debuff, such as Tractor Cannon for Crota and Divinity for Ir Yut.
The Stills
This encounter is 90% low level ads, so just basic ad control weapons. There are unstoppable ogres towards the end:
Weapon with Unstoppable
Ad control - such as SMGs etc, just as in most end game content you should have at least one special weapon and a kinetic.
Machine gun
The Bridge
This encounter has some strong enemies, specifically a lot of barrier nights that will harass those defending annihilator totem plates.
Weapon with Anti barrier
Ad control
Weapon that can handle stronger enemies, such as shot gun / fusion.
Machine Gun
Ir Yut
This encounter has elite knights that need to be handled, and general ads. Those who will go after witches need a weapon that can deal with these quickly, such as a fusion or shotgun.
Heavy hitting special (shot gun, fusion)
Ad control
Boss damage weapon: Leviathan's Breath, linear fusion rifles, rockets, etc. If precision weapons are used, divinity is useful in order to guarantee reasonable damage.
Burst damage super, at least 2 wells of radiance.
Crota
This encounter has ogres, elite boomer knights, witches and an assortment of ads. So a similar load out to Ir Yut.
Heavy hitting special for elites
Ad control
Sword (Lament is currently giving the best results), with one member with Tractor Cannon for debuff. The same player will be the one to take out the over soul.
Burst damage super, at least 2 wells of radiance.
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