The second week of Destiny 2‘s The Pantheon is now underway. In addition to everything players toppled in Atraks Sovereign, the Oryx Exalted variant adds another boss on top of a harsher power penalty. Thankfully, the activity’s modifiers offer a little extra help.
The Pantheon is a Raid boss rush mode introduced for Destiny 2‘s Into the Light update. There will be four variants of The Pantheon, each adding more bosses and progressively notching up power disadvantages. The first week of The Pantheon saw Guardians take down four bosses led by Atraks along with a -5 power disadvantage. For the second week, Oryx takes up the focus as the final boss and pits players against the four bosses from Atraks Sovereign at a -10 power disadvantage.
Modifiers matter
For The Pantheon: Atraks Sovereign, activity modifiers included a Void and Strand Surge on top of Class Warfare. The Class Warfare modifier decreased incoming damage and provided a damage boost when Guardians used their Class abilities. The Pantheon: Oryx Exalted doesn’t have Class Warfare as a modifier but offers an equally spicy alternative.
For The Pantheon: Oryx Exalted, a modifier called Shot Caller is highlighted. Shot Caller improves the damage of Special and Heavy weapons and reduces incoming damage after players land multiple precision hits with a Primary weapon. Working to a similar end as Class Warfare, players will want to ensure they’re triggering Shot Caller as often as possible.
Alongside Shot Caller, The Pantheon: Oryx Exalted has modifiers for a Solar and Stasis Surge, meaning players will want to bring their best Solar or Stasis builds and weapons to bear. Considering that Shot Caller will require frequent use of a Primary weapon, it might be worth considering a Solar or Stasis weapon that can work with some synergy. A Solar rocket launcher like Apex Predator or a linear fusion rifle like Cataclysmic comes to mind, as both can roll with the Bait and Switch Perk, which offers a damage bonus after hitting a foe with all three weapons.
The first four bosses
Thankfully, if players participated in The Pantheon: Atraks Sovereign, the first four bosses in The Pantheon: Oryx Exalted are identical. This includes the changes from the first week of The Pantheon, such as Tormentors appearing during certain fights.
While the lead-up to Oryx is essentially the same as last week’s The Pantheon, remember that the power disadvantage has increased from -5 to -10, and new modifiers are now active. As such, some encounters may take a bit longer and damage strategies will almost certainly need to adapt to the different Surges and Shot Caller.
Oryx
Oryx mechanics
Oryx, the Taken King, is the final boss in the King’s Fall Raid and the last hurdle in The Pantheon: Oryx Exalted. The first order of business in understanding the Oryx encounter is understanding the arena. It’s easiest to imagine the chamber as a 2×2 grid: front and back, left and right. This way, pedestals can easily be assigned the callouts L1, L2, R1, and R2. There is a pedestal in each of the four corners, and each has a plate atop that players must be assigned to activate as needed. As for the remaining two players, they’ll act as floaters. One person to float between L1 and R1, and another for L2 and R2.
Shortly after the battle starts, Oryx will appear and move to punch a pedestal. Once Oryx removes his fist, the plate will emit a green glow, and the player assigned to that pedestal can jump up and activate the plate by standing on it. While this happens, another random player will get a debuff called Torn Between Dimensions that sets the camera to third-person and makes the screen black and white. If one of the players assigned to a pedestal becomes Torn, a floater will take over pedestal duty. The Torn player’s first duty is to make it to the same starter plate Oryx punched alongside the Guardian stationed there.
When on the plate, the Torn player or the Guardian assigned to the pedestal can see a Taken orb (or Toland) floating far above another plate. This callout must be communicated so the relevant pedestal player can hop up and activate the marked plate. When both plates are active, a path of rubble will appear that only the Torn player can see. Following this path will eventually lead to the Taken orb, and the Torn player must run through it to complete the cycle. If this isn’t done fast enough, Oryx wipes the Fireteam.
An Ogre will spawn close to each pedestal during the first cycle, just after the first plate is activated. The first one will spawn adjacent to the first pedestal, and then, one by one, others will spawn following a counter-clockwise rotation. When each Ogre goes down, it leaves behind a big Blight with a ring around it. These are bombs and the key to reaching the damage phase. Players should ensure they don’t enter the ring around the Blight, or it will start an irreversible detonation countdown. Shortly after the Blights are in place, Hive Knights will spawn on the opposite side of the Ogre and beeline it to the Blight on the opposite side. These Knights must be eliminated before they consume the Blight.
Assuming the first cycle was successful, meaning Guardians managed to spawn all Blights and defend them from Knights, players must complete two more cycles of activating pedestals and having the Torn player collect the floating Taken orb. However, Oryx only punches the first plate to note the start of the first cycle, so Guardians will have to keep their eyes peeled for the tell-tale glowing green starter plate. Thankfully, no more Ogres or Knights spawn during the latter two cycles, so players just have to focus on nailing the mechanics.
As the Torn player retrieves the third floating Taken Blight, they’ll notice that they must interact with it instead of just running through it. This provides the Brand Claimer buff, which allows that player to steal the shield of a Knight called the Vessel of Oryx. Once the shield is stolen, the Torn player and the other floater can eliminate the Vessel of Oryx. With the coast clear, the shielded player should try to position themselves in the middle of the arena. This allows easy access for the rest of the Fireteam.
While this happens, players assigned to a pedestal will want to position themselves close to their Ogre’s Blight. When text appears that says, “Oryx calls upon the Darkness,” the four players by their bombs should run in and watch for another piece of text that says, “(Player) has detonated a Corrupted Light.” Hopefully, each player detonates close together, allowing the group enough time to run to the Torn player with their stolen shield.
If players survive the Blight detonation, it’s time for damage. From the middle, where everyone ran to the shielded player for protection, Guardians can easily target Oryx at any pedestal location. The length of the damage phase depends on how many Blights were detonated, so the Fireteam will feel any that were missed. Once the damage phase ends, Oryx will retaliate with one of two attacks. Either he’ll summon a barrage of bombs that can be ended early by killing the Knights atop pedestals, or he’ll create a massive Blight at one end of the arena and slowly pull players in to fight a smaller doppelganger.
If players haven’t done enough damage to push Oryx into a final stand, the process above will be repeated until that happens. Once in the final stand, Oryx spawns two more Blight bombs at the pedestals closest to where he first appeared. The Fireteam can assign Guardians to detonate these bombs before returning to the shielded player for the last stretch of damage.
Oryx changes
There are a few changes to the Oryx encounter for The Pantheon: Oryx Exalted. The most notable difference is that the Knights that target the Blight bombs spawn continuously through the three cycles. In addition, a Tormentor spawns during the damage phase, but that’s best avoided until after damage is complete. The only other change to the fight is that players must contend with two Shades of Oryx if they get the giant Blight after the damage phase.
