Welcome back to the Leviathan, Guardians.
Welcome back to the Leviathan, Guardians.
Emperor Calus once again has use of your Light in Destiny 2, as he has an unwanted guest being unruly inside of his flagship, and it’s up to you to help remove them. This is the Spire of Stars Raid Lair.
Statue Garden
The first encounter of Spire of Stars is essentially one big game of hot potato. An orb will spawn at the front of the room, and that is the key to gaining access to the rest of the Raid Lair.
There are four platforms around the area with a giant brazier in the middle. You must use the orb and the platforms to light the brazier four times to complete the encounter.
Assign four members of your team to the platforms, and one each in the front and back to be roamers to focus on add control. The entire time you are trying to play your hot potato game, progressively more difficult waves of adds will be spawning.
On each platform is a white smoke that will give you a debuff called Engulfed that will kill you when the counter ends. Each platform player must wait for the ball to be thrown to them in order to stand on the platform to raise it up. Raising up all four platforms will open the brazier in the center and allow you to throw the orb into it and light it.
Basically, you need to have each platform player stand on their platforms with the orb. Holding the orb while Engulfed will give you another debuff called Greed, which will also kill you when it reaches x10. So you need to grab the orb, raise your platform, and toss it to another platform member before Greed kills you.
Rinse and repeat the process of raising platforms and passing the orb to your teammates while dealing with adds and you will eventually open up the way to the next area. Grab your loot from the chest and drop down the hole in the front of the room to make your way into the underbelly of the ship for a good old fashioned jumping puzzle.
This jumping puzzle is relatively straightforward, as you need to navigate across the spinning fans to make your way into the Celestial Observatory, where all hell is about to break loose. You will need to operate a switch to create bridges to allow you to proceed, but it’s honestly a process of moving from point A to point B.
Celestial Observatory
Calus’s ship is under attack from the remnants of the Red Legion, led by a massive beast named Val Ca’uor. As you enter the arena, you can see Ca’uor beat down a Calus robot before launching into space, where his fleet awaits, ready to blast you.
It’s time to arm the Leviathan’s weapons and take out the ships as they approach. But it’s not as simple as aiming and shooting, because this is Destiny and this is a Raid.
There are a lot of platforms in this room, and standing on them accomplishes different things. There are four platforms in the back that, when all of them are stood on, create a tractor beam that allows you to travel into space. Then there are three in the front, on the floor, which open doors in the center console…on top of which are three more platforms which hold the Engulfed debuff. Got it?
The first thing you will need to do is clear all the adds that spawn. Once that is done, you’ll be able to stand on the four platforms in the back to open up the massive orange tractor beam. At this point, half of your team, at random, will receive a buff called Superior Retainer. One of those members must travel up the beam and into space.
The team member in space will see three ships, and one of the ships will have a symbol surrounding it. That symbol corresponds to one of the three platforms on the floor in the front of the room.
Come up with whatever callouts you like for the symbols on the platforms, and make sure to remember which symbol was seen. At this point, another orb will spawn. Have your team open the door with the corresponding platform next to it, have someone with Superior Retainer grab the orb, grab the Engulfed debuff from one of the top platforms in the front of the room, and throw the orb into the door. Doing so will arm the ship’s weapons
Now that the weapons are armed, you must have someone with Superior Retainer grab the orb and the Engulfed debuff again, and go into space. Throw the orb at the ship with the symbol and it will be destroyed. Voila.
Repeat this process three times until all of the ships are destroyed. Make sure to move quickly, however, as slowing down too much will trigger the ships to fire missiles and murder your whole fireteam.
The real challenge here is, once again, dealing with adds that spawn at a nearly constant rate. Make sure to take cover and hide when you can. When the orb-holder disappears from view and into space, it is safe to get off of the back platforms and fight from a distance. The same is true for whenever the bottom left of the screen says weapons are armed and you can leave the front platforms.
Once all the ships are destroyed, Val Ca’uor will return, and it’s time for the toughest encounter yet.
Final boss: Val Ca’uor
This fight is mechanically difficult—on top of being 380 recommended Power, which means all of the adds are going to hurt a lot more and withstand a lot more damage.
Like most Destiny Raids, the final encounter combines a number of mechanics you learned throughout the rest of the Raid. So, you will be playing hot potato and standing on platforms a lot.
Kill adds when the encounter begins. After a while, Ca’uor’s corruption will consume him and Engulf everyone in the room. At this point, it’s hot potato time, as you will need to pass around the orb to clear everyone’s debuff to keep them alive. Once everyone’s debuff is cleared, the final person must throw the ball at Val Ca’uor.
Once the ball hits him, three random members will gain Superior Retainer once again. Stand on the back four platforms and send one of them into space to look at the ships. This time, two of the ships will have symbols corresponding with the front floor plates.
Two orbs will spawn, and those two orbs must be armed with the Engulfed buffs that will spawn on top in front, and then the orbs must be thrown into the corresponding doors. Once that is done, two weapons will be armed, and two more orbs will spawn.
Two more Superior Retainer Guardians must grab the orbs, grab the debuff, and head into space to throw the orbs at the two ships that must be destroyed. Once the ships are blown up, three more orbs will spawn. Have three Guardians, doesn’t matter who, grab the orbs and debuff them.
Once all three orbs are debuffed, the Calus robot will float above Ca’uor. All three orbs must be thrown into Calus’s hand at the same time, and it will shatter Ca’uor’s shield, allowing you to finally deal damage to the boss.
At this point, it’s about maximizing DPS. Titans should run Sunbreaker with the Melting Point melee, Warlocks can throw Nova Bombs with Vortex, Hunters can run Celestial Nighthawk for maximum damage, and so on. Deal as much damage as you can while shooting the jetpack on his back for maximum damage. Eventually, he will become immune again as his shield regenerates, and you must repeat all of the above steps to damage him again.
Once his health bar is depleted, Ca’uor will enter a final stand. Six orbs will spawn, and all six orbs must be thrown at the boss. Whatever shield is left after the orbs are thrown can be taken down by firing weapons at him. Once his final stand shield is gone, the fight is over and you have won.
This fight is a massive gear check. If you are not at least 365 Power, it will be very difficult to stay alive from the constant pressure of adds spawning throughout the fight, let alone staying coordinated enough to deal with the fight’s mechanics. You might have to back out and try it again in a week once you’ve upped your Power level.
