Destiny 2 Root of Nightmares raid guide: How to beat every encounter
Looking to conquer Destiny 2: Lightfall’s new raid experience? Here’s everything you need to know.
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The new premier six-man endgame experience in Destiny 2’s latest expansion, Lightfall, is the Root of Nightmares raid. In it, players are tasked with making their way through the Darkness Pyramid ship that the Traveler beamed with Light during the Witness' attack on Earth. To emerge victorious and walk away with a pile of that sweet, sweet raid loot, you must face the various challenges that await within.
While it’s notasdifficult as some of Destiny’s previous raids, completing the Root of Nightmare will nevertheless be a formidable challenge for any Guardian fireteam. If you’re looking for help to get you through it, we’ve got you covered with a complete and in-depth guide to all four of its encounters, along with loadout recommendations for gear, subclasses, and builds.
Root of Nightmares: Loadout recommendations
Before going into the Root of Nightmares, you’ll want to make sure that you’ve got some top-tier gear at the ready, including many of thebest Destiny 2 Exotics. Additionally, you’ll also want to make sure you’re using optimal subclasses for each encounter, as Arc, Solar, Void, Stasis, and Strand all have different strengths and weaknesses.
Below, we’ve created a list of the best weapons and subclasses to use in each encounter, along with a variety of alternative suggestions that work well too.
Best weapons for Root of Nightmares
Best subclasses for Root of Nightmares
While the new Strand subclasses aren’t very valuable in the final two encounters, using one ofDestiny 2’s best Strand buildsfor the first two is an excellent idea since Strand effects like suspend and unravel are extremely useful when clearing out crowds of enemies.
Destiny 2 Root of Nightmares first encounter: Cataclysm
After a short introduction with some light platforming and combat, you’ll come across the beginning of the Root of Nightmare raid’s first encounter: Cataclysm. In this encounter, your goal is to repeatedly use a buff called Field of Light to activate a chain of plates in the arena ahead of you, while simultaneously killing shielded Psions and Tormentors to prevent your team from dying to the encounter’s wipe mechanic, Sweeping Terror.
First, let’s go over how your team can obtain and use the Field of Light buff to make progress:
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Notably, this rolecanbe done by two players if you want to go as fast as possible, though you have to be careful about when each player acquires the Field of Light buff. This is becausetrying to take the buff while someone else already has it will “disrupt” all orbs, temporarily halting your progress. If this happens, you’ll have to wait until the orbs rebuild themselves before you can use them again.
Also, even though anyone standing on a glowing plate will get the buff when someone shoots its orb,specificField of Light buffs can only be used to activate the next plate in the sequence and won’t work for plates after that. Therefore, there’s no benefit to giving multiple players the buff at once.
While one or two players are taking care of the Field of Light mechanic, everyone else on the team should be protecting them by killing enemies, while also eliminating Psions and Tormentors to delay the Sweeping Terror wipe. Here’s a full breakdown of what you need to do:
If it helps, you can have a player or two dedicate their full attention towards punching the shielded Psions so that Tormentors are spawned (and killed) as quickly as possible. However, this isn’t necessary, as anyone can kill the Psions.
Once your team has successfully completed all four plate sequences, the encounter will end and you’ll get a loot drop. After you collect your piece of gear, it’s time to move on to the second encounter.
Destiny 2 Root of Nightmares second encounter: Scission
The second encounter, Scission, uses the same Field of Light buff from the first, while also introducing a new (but essentially identical) dark orange one called Flux of Darkness. In this encounter, your team’s goal is to use both buffs to complete two plate sequences simultaneously while also using them to kill specific enemies that halt your progress. This needs to happen before the Imminent Expulsion wipe timer runs down and your team is killed.
Here’s how running the buffs and completing the plate sequences works:
While the runners are completing their plate sequences, the two-man ad clear teams on each side need to kill as many enemies as possible while also using the Field of Light and Flux of Darkness buffs to eliminate special shielded foes. Here’s how doing their job works:
After your team completes three full floors of plate sequences, the encounter will end. The encounter’s loot chest spawns at the end of the third floor on the left side, so make sure you grab your hard-earned gear before moving on.
Root of Nightmares ‘Cross the Chasm’ puzzle
Between the second and third encounter of the Root of Nightmares raid, there’s a bit of a tricky platforming section in which you have to make your way forward using boopers from the Scission encounter. However, there’s a catch: every thirty seconds or so, a pulse of Darkness energy from a large structure in the distance will ripple throughout the entire area, killing everyone regardless of whether they’re sheltered in cover or not. Since this area isn’t technically a Darkness Zone, youcanfreely respawn, but lots of deaths will slow your team down and waste a lot of time.
The only way to get to the next encounter without dying is toshoot a Light orb on nearby glowing plates to get the Field of Light buff, then take that buff to a plate with a Darkness orb on it and shoot it. This will createa new buff on the plate called Darkness’s Refuge that protects players from the energy ripples. Note that Darkness’s Refuge only lasts for 14 seconds, thoughyou can stand on the plate you got it from to constantly refresh the buff timer. You do eventually have to move forward, though, asplates will only provide Darkness’s Refuge for about 15 seconds before they needs to be reactivated with Field of Light.
If your team is having a hard time making progress, try and time things so that there’s a fresh Darkness’s Refuge buff available whenever there’s an energy ripple incoming. Then, as soon as the attack ends, move forward and make the next safe zone before another ripple is launched.The sound of a heartbeat signals that another ripple is coming soon, so listen for it.
Destiny 2 Root of Nightmares Macrocosm boss: Zo’Aurc, Explicator of Planets
The third encounter, the boss fight against Zo’Aurc, Explicator of Planets, has unique mechanics that aren’t seen in any other part of the raid. When the fight starts, he’ll be invincible, and the only way to get to a damage phase is to move the planets floating above the arena to specific locations.
Now that all of the Light and Darkness planets are together on the left and right, it’s time to begin a damage phase. Here’s how to do that, as well as how the damage phase works:
As long as your team has strong damage loadouts, you should be able to kill Zo’Aurc in just one or two damage phases. Note that once you reach his final stand phase (the last chunk of his health), all of the plates in the room will glow and provide you with a constant Flux of Darkness buff you can use to finish him off.
Destiny 2 Root of Nightmares final boss guide: Nezarec, Final God of Pain
It’s time for the final boss of the Root of Nightmares raid: Nezarec, the Final God of Pain. In this bout, the plate sequence mechanic from the first and second encounter returns, as does the ability to create refuges by carrying a Light or Darkness buff to a plate with the opposite energy that you used in the raid’s jumping puzzle. Here’s a complete overview of the fight:
Like the boss in the Macrocosm encounter, Nezarec also has a final chunk of health that represents his final stand. Once you reduce his HP bar to that point, wait for him to become vulnerable again and then finish him off with everything your team has left. Congratulations, you’ve completed Destiny 2’s Root of Nightmares raid!
Destiny 2: Lightfallis available now on Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One consoles, Windows PCs, and PlayStation systems. In it, you’ll take the fight to Emperor Calus, get access to Strand subclasses and their unique abilities, and more. It also unlocks the Root of Nightmares raid, allowing you to challenge the deadly forces within.
Destiny 2: Lightfall
The Lightfall expansion takes players to the neon-soaked city of Neomuna on Neptune and pits them against the fearsome Shadow Legion. The DLC also gives you access to the Root of Nightmares raid and all of its sweet, sweet loot.
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Brendan Lowry is a Windows Central writer and Oakland University graduate with a burning passion for video games, of which he’s been an avid fan since childhood. He’s been writing for Team WC since the summer of 2017, and you’ll find him doing news, editorials, reviews, and general coverage on everything gaming, Xbox, and Windows PC. His favorite game of all time is probably NieR: Automata, though Elden Ring, Fallout: New Vegas, and Team Fortress 2 are in the running, too. When he’s not writing or gaming, there’s a good chance he’s either watching an interesting new movie or TV show or actually going outside for once.Follow him on X(Twitter).
