The fifth Vault of Glass Raid challenge has arrived in Destiny 2 for the final boss fight against Atheon, Time’s Conflux. The “Ensemble’s Refrain” challenge requires the three teleported players to destroy one Oracle each in the three waves.

Destiny 2 players looking for an even greater challenge can try the new Master difficulty mode. This version of the Vault of Glass allows players to get Timelost weapon variants and awards players with certain Triumphs for the Fatebreaker Seal and title.

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Atheon Boss Fight Encounter In Brief:

 

guardian getting cleansed with venus oracles

When the boss fight begins, Atheon will appear in the central area of the throne room, along with groups of Vex Harpies. Eventually, it will teleport three random Destiny 2 players to either Venus or Mars, leaving the remaining three players in the Vault of Glass throne room.

The Teleported players then need to call out which location they are in, and one of these players must also grab the Relic shield to occasionally cleanse all teleported players to clear their vision from the “Marked by the Void” debuff. These players must head to the platform on the far edge of whichever location they are in and wait for the non-teleported players to call out the Oracle locations.

Two of the non-teleported players must listen for the location callout and then begin to open the correct portal – right for Venus, left for Mars. The other player still in the throne room must call out the order and location of three waves of three Oracles for the teleported players. These players then need to shoot the Oracles in the correct order.

Once the three waves of Oracles have been destroyed, all players will get the Time’s Vengeance buff and can start damaging Atheon. The teleported players must go through the portal to get back to the throne room and need to be cleansed with the Relic as soon as they emerge. Once Time’s Vengeance is over, the cycle will repeat, and three more random players will be teleported away. During damage phases, Destiny 2 players need to be aware of Imminent Detain debuff and should destroy any detain bubbles to free trapped teammates.

How To Complete the “Ensemble’s Refrain” Challenge:

atheon boss fight damage phase vault of glass

This Raid challenge is definitely one of the easier ones for the Vault of Glass as it only adds a slight complication to the pre-damage phase mechanic. Destiny 2 players can tackle this encounter normally, but just need to be more aware when they are destroying Oracles to make sure they are only destroying the ones they are supposed to.

For the Ensemble’s Refrain challenge, the three teleported players can only destroy one Oracle each for every Oracle wave while they are away in Venus or Mars. The best way to do this is to agree that one player will shoot the first Oracle in each wave, the next player will destroy every second Oracle, and the final player will destroy the final Oracle. If a player does destroy more than one Oracle in a wave, the challenge failure message will appear, and the team will need to wipe and start over.

Loadouts:

Destiny 2 players should just use what they normally would against Atheon but need to bear in mind that more damage phases to defeat Atheon, means more Oracle phases to fail the challenge on.

Damage Supers such as Thundercrash, Chaos Reach, and Golden Gun with appropriate Exotic Armor will be very useful for taking chunks out of Atheon’s health bar. One or two support Supers, such as one or two Wells of Radiance and a Ward of Dawn, will also be helpful for buffing weapon damage.

In terms of weapons, all Destiny 2 players need to make sure they have Oracle-destroying weapon. Players could use appropriate Vault of Glass Armor Mods which increase damage to Oracles for certain weapon types or could use hard-hitting special and heavy weapons. A couple of Sniper Rifle shots will do fine, but Xenophage is great for boss damage to Atheon and can destroy Oracles in one shot.

Strategy:

Because the three teleported players can only destroy one Oracle per wave, they will need to quickly decide which Oracle sequence position they will take while they are moving into the right spot in Venus or Mars. To make this easier, players should agree that whoever picks up the Relic will always get the last Oracle in each wave. This Relic holder will need to drop the Relic, quickly destroy their Oracle, and then immediately pick the Relic back up so that they can cleanse their teammates. One of the other players should call out that they will always get the first Oracles, leaving the other player to get the second Oracles.

Once all three waves have been cleared, it goes to a normal damage phase against Atheon. Then the whole thing starts over and keeps going until Atheon dies or wipes the team from being Enraged.

An example of a challenge run might go like this: Players 1, 2, and 3 all get teleported. Player 4 will be calling out the Oracle sequence, and Players 5 and 6 will open the portal. Player 1 calls out that they are on Venus, so Players 5 and 6 open the portal on the right. Player 1 also says that they will be getting the first Oracles as Player 3 grabs the Relic, leaving Player 2 on the second Oracles.

Players 1, 2, and 3 all run to the far ledge on Venus to get into position, while Players 1 and 2 ready their Oracle-destroying weapons, and Player 3 keeps cleansing them with the Relic. Player 4 then calls out the Oracle sequence: “Far-left, middle, close-left.”

atheon boss arena red vex oracles

When the Oracles appear in Venus, Player 1 immediately destroys the far-left Oracle. Then Player 2 quickly destroys the middle Oracle, leaving Player 3 to drop the Relic and shoot the remaining Oracle. Player 3 then picks the Relic back up, and the players prepare for the next Oracle wave. After the final wave, Players 1, 2, and 3 all run through the exit portal, get cleansed with the Relic, and join the rest of the team in the damage phase.

This challenge is barely more complicated than the normal version of this boss fight, but it might take a few tries for players to get the communication aspects right. Destiny 2 players also have a chance of getting the Vex Mythoclast Exotic Fusion Rifle for defeating Atheon, although it does not seem like the extra loot chest improves a player’s chances of getting the weapon to drop.

Destiny 2: Beyond Light and Season of the Splicer are available now for PC, PS4, PS5, Stadia, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.

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