The third week of Destiny 2‘s The Pantheon has kicked off, with Rhulk taking the reins as head honcho. Naturally, players will still have to prove themselves worthy enough to face the Disciple by carving a path through the foes already faced in The Pantheon: Atraks Sovereign and The Pantheon: Oryx Exalted.
The Pantheon is a four-week event centered around a Raid boss rush that increases in difficulty as each week passes. The first week pit players against four bosses led by Atraks at a -5 Power disadvantage, and week two presented five bosses led by Oryx at a -10 Power disadvantage. For The Pantheon: Rhulk Indomitable, players face a -15 Power disadvantage and six bosses, with Rhulk as the finale.
Modifiers matter
As with previous iterations of The Pantheon, there are some modifiers to consider before rushing in to take on Rhulk Indomitable. For one, Class Warfare returns from the first week of The Pantheon. This buff is ultra important, especially with the -15 Power, as it provides a 10% damage buff and damage resistance after using a Class ability. Class Warfare can stack up to three times and applies to all Guardians near the player that used their Class ability.
In addition to Class Warfare, The Pantheon: Rhulk Indomitable features an Arc and Stasis Surge, empowering weapons of either elemental affinity. This will undoubtedly mean players will have to change their loadouts and alter damage strategies to incorporate either Arc or Stasis weapons, ensuring the Fireteam makes use of the damage buff. Guardians will need it with the -15 Power disadvantage.
The first five bosses
Like The Pantheon: Oryx Exalted, the lead-up to Rhulk is paved with the challenges from previous weeks of The Pantheon. Players will face the four bosses from Atraks Sovereign first, followed by the Oryx Exalted encounter before they can take on Rhulk.
While there are no new surprises for the first five bosses, players will feel the difference of the -15 Power disadvantage. Damage must be coordinated and tight, especially if players aim for the par time on each encounter to unlock the Godslayer Title.
Rhulk
Rhulk mechanics
Rhulk is the final boss in the Vow of the Disciple and the last obstacle in The Pantheon: Rhulk Indomitable. The arena is separated into two parts, with the first phase occurring downstairs, where the Rally flag and plate are, and the second phase up some stairs further ahead. For the regular version of the fight, the group will want to separate into three teams of two. One team will handle coordination and ad clear while the other two teams pass buffs around and dunk on the alters in the arena. Each buff team should have one runner and one player on plate duty. For ease of explanation, let’s call one plate and runner group Team 1, the other Team 2, and the ad clear/coordinators Team 3.
Once the encounter starts, Rhulk will cast an orange bubble barrier over a large part of the arena. Rhulk will also summon a large Darkness Crux above him, and the Team 2 plate player should destroy this, providing the Leeching Force buff. If they stand on the plate with Leeching Force, two more Crux will appear — one on the left and one on the right. Now, each of the two Team 1 players can shoot a Crux to receive Leeching Force. Finally, the plate player on Team 1 should get back on the plate to create two more Crux for Team 2. After those are destroyed, Team 1 should have one player with Leeching Force, and Team 2 will have both players with the buff.
While this is happening, players not actively involved in splitting Leeching Force should work on the ads appearing around the six Obelisks in the arena. A yellow-barred Glyphkeeper will appear at the closest Obelisks on the left and right side, and those are a priority so Team 3 can begin reading and coordinating the other teams. Once both Glyphkeepers are down, players with Leeching Force can read the left side, and players without can read the right. Team 3 wants to identify the common symbol between the two reads, which will determine which Obelisks Teams 1 and 2 can dunk at.
With the read ready and three players with Leeching Force, the next step is to dunk the buff six times. However, players can’t dunk Leeching Force as is. After the first split, Rhulk will begin moving to the arena’s left, right, or center rear to perform a giant laser beam attack. If runners with Leeching Force allow themselves to get hit by the laser, Leeching Force will turn into Emanating Force, and this buff can be dunked.
Runners can start getting Emanating Force as soon as they have Leeching Force. Just remember to always ensure one plate player remains with Leeching Force, as Emanating Force cannot be split on the plate. If players accidentally end up without any player with Leeching Force, Rhulk will offer his large Crux one more time before wiping the Fireteam if the buff is lost a second time.
It’s recommended that both runners with Leeching Force get Emanating Force together to double-dunk, speeding up the whole process. After the dunk, the lone plate player (Team 2) should get back on the plate with Leeching Force to start the buff juggling all over again. The Fireteam won’t need to worry about another set of Glyphkeepers, but the dunk positions will change to different Obelisks after each set.
Once six Emanating Force buffs are dunked, players can stop splitting their buffs and start to tread toward the stairs at the back of the room. Following one more push of adds, Rhulk’s barrier will disappear, and players can head up to the second floor. In this smaller chamber, Rhulk will be attacking players head-on. He has a charge attack, powerful kicks, and a multi-directional laser beam.
Upstairs, players will want two runners and everyone else reading. Each time Rhulk charges, he’ll drop his glaive nearby. When one of the runners destroys it, they’ll get the Leeching Force buff, which can become Emanating Force by intercepting one of his lasers. Immediately after the glaive is destroyed, Guardians without Leeching Force will be able to see a symbol where the glaive was. This symbol corresponds to one of the four Obelisks in the corners of the square arena, where the runner must dunk their Emanating Force. I’d recommend assigning the L1 and L2 on the left side, with R1 and R2 on the right for ease of callouts.
After each Emanating Force dunk, a piece of Rhulk’s armor will glow on either his arms or legs. This is the key to triggering the damage phase, which only occurs after four pieces of his armor are destroyed. Once that happens, Rhulk will change color, grow spikes out of his body, and begin attacking more aggressively, signaling that damage has started. When the damage phase ends, Rhulk will crouch down and begin casting his bubble barrier again. Players must retreat to where the plate is downstairs or risk getting tossed off the map.
When players manage to push Rhulk far enough, he’ll go into a final stand. This is functionally no different from his damage phase, but players will accrue Emanating Darkness, which starts to make things harder to see and kill players at ten stacks.
Rhulk changes
The most significant change for the Rhulk Indomitable fight is the presence of a Rhulk clone when players head up to the second floor. This clone appears shortly after Rhulk starts attacking players, spawning from a miniature pyramid. The Rhulk clone cannot be damaged and does not drop a glaive or shoot lasers to provide players with Leeching or Emanating Force. He does, however, follow Guardians around and try to kick them to death. And with the -15 Power disadvantage, those kicks really hurt. If players need a little extra help surviving those legs, try equipping a Melee Damage Resistance mod.
Other than the Rhulk clone, Tormentors spawn on the first and third dunks downstairs. While Tormentors sound scary going in, Divinity and some concentrated fire make short work of the foes. Otherwise, it is just a battle to survive Rhulk’s dual assault and put out enough damage to bring him to a swift defeat.
