Don't get Destiny? Here's why someone beating the final Rise of Iron raid boss solo is such a big deal
Two of the best Destiny players in the world proved their skills again this weekend.
Destiny: Rise of Iron has been thoroughly smashed by players. The new raid, Wrath of the Machine, was completed in a few hours, and the same thing happened when the Hard Mode released this past week.
Continually seeking ways to challenge themselves, Destiny players have been diving into the raid in smaller and smaller groups, seeking ways to get around mechanics designed for groups of six. This weekend, two players both managed to defeat Aksis, the final boss of Wrath of the Machine, entirely alone.
ScaRdrow was the first in the world to manage this feat, and you can watch his performance above. He was closely followed by sc_slayerage, whose run is on YouTube if you're interested. Both players described this challenge as the most demanding of anything Destiny has thrown at them.
If you don't play Destiny - or you do, but you don't raid - you might not understand why this is such a big deal; even watching the video doesn't really communicate just how impressive this is.
The thing is, Destiny's raids are deliberately designed for six players working in perfect unison. It's not just a matter of dodging fire and shooting the weak spots; in order to damage bosses players need to complete various challenges or rituals - and survive while doing so.
In this particular encounter, the boss, Aksis, can only be damaged when he is stunned. In order to stun Aksis, one of three randomly chosen players with buff called Empowered needs to reach him bare moments after he teleports to one of four possible locations. In order to get Aksis to teleport, players need to throw three SIVA charges (bombs) at his shield. To generate each of these three SIVA Charges, players need to destroy Servitors (big floating eyeballs) with a matching elemental cannon. To get the cannon, players need to destroy an elite Captain which will unload said cannon at them.
Oh, and did I mention that you only have a few seconds to get to each Servitor, which spawns well away from the matching cannon? And that you can't throw SIVA Charges if you've used a cannon? (That's why you'll see ScaRdrow kill himself and self-resurrect.) And you need to get all three Captains, Servitors and bombs done in a short window of time? And that you need to stun Aksis three times each damage round? And that empowerment shifts between players after each stun, so you have to juggle your team around the arena so someone's close enough to get him? And that during most of this the room is flooded with rapid-firing adds, not to mention Aksis's cannon fire and persistent damage over time traps? And that everyone really needs a very high level of DPS to succeed before the team runs out of safe spaces to run to after each damage round? An about a hundred other considerations?
Daunting, isn't it! For a player to manage it solo is amazing. Taking the empowerment shuffle out of the equation helps, but getting to Aksis in time to stun him more than makes up for whatever difficulty that drains away.
If you've never raided in Destiny, it's really worth having a go; get yourself onto The100 and book in with a Sherpa for next weekend or whatever.
For those who do play Destiny at a raid level and are interested in how the really good players do it, ScaRdrow posted his build and strategy details on Reddit.
Dang. Some Destiny players are really on another level.