The first ever reprised Raid of Destiny 2 landed last week and drew in a crowd of Guardians new and old alike. Vault of Glass is still full of nostalgia and faithful to its original form, but there are a few key, and mostly well received, changes that make the Raid fresh enough for Destiny 2. Here are the main points of interest and changes from Vault of Glass' return.
This Raid is part of Bungie's plan to steadily update old, fan-favorite content and add them into Destiny 2. Since Beyond Light, the studio considers everything that isn't part of the live version of Destiny 2 to be inside the Destiny Content Vault. Any activity or destination from this collection can potentially be refurbished and added to Destiny 2, with Vault of Glass being one of the first of such activities.
Vault of Glass resides in the brand new "Legends" section of the Director and is not accessed from a planet. Players will see a Venus cutscene when launching Vault of Glass, but Venus is not a patrol destination at the moment. What this means gameplay-wise is that raiders cannot explore Venus outside the Vault of Glass entrance, or encounter other players cruising around Ishtar Sink. The Raid is free for all players and has been updated with better textures, lighting, etc. to bring it up to par with other Destiny 2 locations.
The Encounters
Veterans will find the spire encounter at the gates of Vault of Glass to be mostly the same. The major difference is that an Ultra Cyclops will spawn near the plates to pressure the players into taking cover. These don't need to be killed, however, to open the gate. After a bit of parkour is the Conflux encounter, which once again features new enemies to make it a bit more demanding. While defending the Conflux, an Overload Minotaur and an Ultra Wyvern will spawn. If the Wyvern successfully sacrifices itself to the Conflux, the Raid will wipe.
The Oracles make a return with a key mechanical change, and are injected into other encounters as well. Before the Templar, the Oracles will now hum a tune in sequence and need to be destroyed in that order. The same will need to be done during the Templar and Aetheon fights as well. The Relic is heavily featured as expected, but it can no longer cleanse the Mark of Negation debuff. To get rid of this status effect and avoid wiping, players will need to step into the pool of light in the middle of the Templar arena, preferably as a group since the pool needs to recharge after use.
As for the final arena, the Gatekeepers have made traversing between the portal rooms much more demanding on communication. Any player who passes through a portal with the Relic equipped now gets the Teleport Destabilized debuff for 45 seconds. This forbids them from using a portal and requires the Relic to be passed onto an available teammate to progress the encounter.
Finally, Aetheon incorporates the Oracle song into the fight, requiring the players to communicate the order of the Oracles to the team who got teleported into the portal room. The portal team will destroy the Oracles in order three times and after nine Oracles are defeated, the damage phase starts. During this time, one player will get a detainment warning and needs to step away for the rest of the team so that they too don't get trapped.
Triumphs, Modes, Rewards
Vault of Glass also launched with its own slew of Triumphs and Seal. The day-one version of the Raid had Contest Mode and Challenge Mode available, but players wanting to conquer the Challenges now will have to wait until they become available week after week. A Master difficulty variant of Vault of Glass will also release with Timelost weapons, Adept versions of the regular six guns from the loot pool. It goes without saying that Vault of Glass weapons now feature random rolls and have a chance to drop with unique perks like Rewind Rounds.
Spoils of Conquest now drop from chests which have a chance to award Vault of Glass exclusive mods. Deep Stone Crypt players will be pleased to hear that there is also a "vendor chest" at the end of the Raid, giving dedicated raiders a chance to cash in Spoils for specific Raid loot. Completing the Raid on Master difficulty will also award an exotic ship called Vaultstrider. Lastly, even though Chatterwhite doesn't drop from Aetheon anymore, it's spiritual successor, Bitterpearl can be acquired by finding all twelve hidden crystals inside the Raid.
Destiny 2 is available now on PC, PS4, PS5, Stadia, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.