The Crota’s End raid from the original Destiny has made a glorious comeback in Season of the Witch. In its new and improved form, the raid sports revamped mechanics and a host of fresh, top-tier rewards, giving Guardians a truly epic experience that is totally worth the dive. To tackle this formidable challenge, players must gear up to a Power Level of at least 1790 for the Normal difficulty or 1820+ to conquer Crota’s End on Master.
In this guide, we’ll go over all the raid’s mechanics to prepare your squad for the ultimate showdown. And if you want to take your raid experience to an entirely new level, consider getting a Crotas End carry from WowVendor. Play alongside true pros who’ll help you glide through the raid seamlessly, ensuring you snag all the coolest rewards in record time.
And now, let’s explore the mechanical intricacies that await you in the revamped Crota’s End.
Core Mechanics
Chalice of Light
The Chalice of Light is the pivotal element in all the raid encounters.
Picking up the Chalice will initiate a charging meter, trackable on your screen’s side. Once it’s maxed out, you’ll have a brief 10-second window to ditch the Chalice and get rid of the lethal Engulfed in Light debuff.
Successfully disposing of the charged Chalice makes you Enlightened. This buff opens the door to crucial raid actions, such as building bridges, picking up swords, or doing extra damage to bosses. Once your Enlightenment is exhausted, you’ll be hit with the temporary Drained of Light debuff, preventing you from picking up the Chalice again. Keep this in mind when coordinating rotations with your team.
You can also deposit the Chalice in the Preservation Node to stave off Drained of Light, but it will work only if done before the meter is filled up.
Lanterns
In the Abyss Enсounter, there are a couple of Darkness debuffs at play. Stacking Weight of Darkness hinders your speed, disrupting your sprint and high jumps if the stacks get high. Engulfed in Darkness is the ticking time bomb that wipes you if it hits zero.
Lighting up lanterns is your key move here, as it trims your Darkness debuffs by extending the timer and dropping the Weight stacks. However, there are two important things to remember. First, only Enlightened players can fire up lanterns. Second, once lit, a lantern only lasts 12–15 seconds before detonating, posing a lethal risk to anyone standing nearby. So, pass the buff around and light the lanterns wisely.
Some lanterns will also have Preservation Nodes nearby — here’s where you stash the Chalice to power up the next set of lanterns.
Building Bridges
To get the bridges built, you need to stand on the plate while having the Chalice of Light on you. Being Enlightened speeds up the process, which may help a ton, especially if your team is facing a swarm of enemies or there are timed debuffs to deal with.
Bridge-building begins right at the start of the raid. The Bridge Encounter, as the name implies, also centers around constructing a bridge to the other side of the arena, where additional mechanics come into play.
Sword Bearers
When Enlightened, you can wield the swords dropped by downed Sword Bearer enemies. These blades serve a crucial role in different stages of the raid. In the Bridge Encounter, they’re a must for crossing the bridge (Chalice works too) and dealing damage to Gatekeepers. In the ultimate face-off, the swords are used to drop Crota’s shields and start doing damage.
Barriers
Green force fields are pretty common throughout your journey. They are used to block off key areas and, as much as with everything else in the raid, you’ll need the Enlightened buff to break through.
Gaining access to these locked zones is vital, especially on the way to Ir Yut and during the Deathsinger encounter itself. In the Passage, you should get into the barred area to deal with the Shrieker and make the force field drop. During the Ir Yut encounter, Enlightened players need to pass through the green barriers to take out the Wizards and lower Ir Yut’s shield.
Expunge
”Expunge” means dealing extra damage while Enlightened. This tactic shines in the Ir Yut encounter — expunging her once per damage phase can secure a smooth two-phase defeat, provided you’ve got a solid loadout.
Applying the Expunge strategy on Crota is also effective, delivering an additional chunk of damage to tip the scales in your favor.
Oversoul
In the Crota Encounter’s DPS phase, keep an eye on The Oversoul countdown timer on your screen. If the timer hits zero, your team will be wiped. Only those with the Enlightened buff can damage the Oversoul, and it’s crucial to time your hit right as destroying the Oversoul will end the damage phase. The Oversoul has low health, so be extra careful when aiming your weapons: you don’t want to accidentally take it down with a missed shot.
During the Last Stand, the Oversoul returns with a 20-second timer, but now destroying it extends the DPS phase instead of ending it. Once again, your team will die if the timer hits zero, but this time, you get a brief window for additional damage before the wipe. Even if you defeat Crota in this extended time, the kill counts, and you still get your precious loot upon respawning.
