Another stunning achievement has been attained by a dedicated member of the Destiny 2 community. Player Tazus just attained the world first kill on Destiny 2's raid boss Riven. That is, he's the first to kill Riven by himself, without a raid group at all. Several hardcore players were competing to complete the achievement, due to the convenient combination of as a bug tied to Arcstrider and a limited-time Tonic available during the Revelry event. So far, Tazus has been the only one the succeed.
One big problem with the Riven boss fight is that during certain phases, the player is required to shoot specific eyes of the Ahamkara (dragon of sorts), of which they have many. Failing to shoot the correct eyes results in a wipe, and the fight has to be reset. Knowing which eyes to shoot requires raid partners split between different areas. Doing it solo is simpler since one just shoots eyes at random, but results in failures more often than not. The odds are one in forty-five.
The next issue is doing enough damage to Riven so as to only have one round of eye RNG and to avoid other parts of the fight that would be too RNG heavy or otherwise impossible solo. Luckily, there's currently a bug related to the Arcstrider ability Combination Blow in Destiny 2, which triggers health regeneration and increased damage after a melee kill. The bug transfers this stacking damage to the Arcstrider's Staff Super ability, allowing them to do ridiculous amounts of damage to Riven quickly.
The final trick is capitalizing on the Arcstrider's healing and damage buff, as well as recuperating the Super ability to trigger it into for the Riven's second damage phase. This requires a selection of very specific armor: boots with the Dynamo perk that lower Super cooldown with each class ability used, a helmet with the Hands-On Perk for Super energy on melee kills, and Raiden Flux chest piece for more Super damage and a longer duration. And finally, special Reveler's Tonic that boosts class ability recharge rate. It's the perfect combination to chain dodges into melees, proccing the Combination Blows ability while also ensuring the Super is charged when necessary.
And that's not even getting into the details regarding the Ascendant Realm phase of Riven. Tazus also has to survive a perilous jumping puzzle in Destiny 2, find heavy ammo, proc a Flawless Execution while leaving so as to proc Shattering Strike on a low-health Riven, swap to the Foetracer helmet, expend all rockets and then hope Riven dies with a final grenade and shotgun shots.
To summarize, not only did Tazus have to find a run with a 1/45 success rate to get a chance at success, but also he had to perform the rest of the run flawlessly. Tazus is the first to admit that his success stems from the efforts of the Destiny 2 community. Twitch streamer Gladd and his Twitch teammates on Redeem specifically provided public strategies for the Riven fight that led to Tazus' success.
What's especially exciting about Tazus' Riven victory is that it may never be accomplished again. Bungie is fixing the Arcstrider Combination Blows bug, meaning players will have to find a different way to do that much damage to Riven. It's possible another way will be discovered, but the only player to succeed this way will forever be Tazus.
Destiny 2 is available now on PC, PS4, and Xbox One.
Source: Tazus - YouTube