Watch 'Destiny' Players Solo the Highest-Level Raid Boss Ever

Players beat the updated version of Destiny’s Crota’s End raid rather quickly after Age of Triumph was released this week, but more surprising is how quickly players developed strategies for “soloing,” or doing something by yourself that is designed to be done by a group of people, the raid.

The raid — which offers great new versions of some classic weapons by the way — is like a lot of raids in Destiny, in that it typically requires a full Fireteam of six players to complete puzzles, platform above and around obstacles, and, of course, kill monstrous bosses with coordinated attacks.

And while finding the most efficient shortcuts to winning is always a huge part of the community’s efforts, the few brave souls who somehow develop strategies to do it all solo go above and beyond. For some, the lone wolf never dies.

Most successful attempts involve the use of a Warlock Sunsinger for the self-revive, but still, other players prove that it’s not a necessity. Every class has a way to game things to their advantage. Here’s a look at a few of the brave souls who went through the time and effort to try and take on Oryx’s son, Crota, without any backup whatsoever.

Gladd

A redditor going by “Gladd” posted the above video on March 28 to the Destiny subreddit, which was the day the raid went live at 1 p.m. Eastern, with the promise that “Hunter and Titan are next.” He might just be the world’s first to solo it. The video is of the final confrontation with Crota, during which Gladd seems to be using the Imago Loop hand cannon, some kind of Hakke shotgun, a Sleeper Simulant, and running a Warlock Sunsinger. This gives him a self-revive in the event that he does get killed, but more importantly, with Gift of the Sun, he gets an extra grenade charge and therefore can pretty much just pump out grenade after grenade whenever he uses his Super. After clearing out all the adds, he takes out the Swordbearer and preps his approach from the rocks to the side of Crota’s platform. From there, he uses his super to spam Fusion Grenades on Crota, using the sword to take down the last of Crota’s shields before getting a few hits of the sword in. He repeats this process for a second round, and then switches out the shotgun for an Ex Machina~ sniper, mainly to take out the ogres. Later on, he switches back to the shotgun and swaps in an Iron Gjallarhorn, but largely, the process remains the same.

esoterickk

Another redditor on the Destiny subreddit, going by esoterickk, posted a video the day after, detailing a similar strategy. The above video shows the full run in 38 minutes flat. They’re also running a Warlock Sunsinger, and they said in the post that “self-res came to the rescue.” Esoterickk also said, “Overall really loving the new update though, has been a great challenge and refreshing with how they changed it all.” In the beginning of the raid, they opt for Solar Grenades instead of Fusion, the Zhalo Supercell Exotic Auto Rifle, another Ex Machina~, and the Bonekruscher machine gun. Eventually, they switch things up to a rapid fire scout rifle with explosive rounds (which looks like it might be the Cryptic Dragon), a shotgun, and also the Sleeper Simulant. All in all, the tactic seems similar.

Gladd on Hunter and Titan, too

Gladd was able to devise tactics for soloing the raid on Hunter and Titan as well. Titan requires the spamming of hammers as a Sunbreaker to wear down Crota’s shields, whereas Hunter needs Celestial Nighthawk on Gunslinger — apparently, Solar-based subclasses are the only options here, mainly because of the persistent burn damage that helps eek Crota over the edge, so he loses his shield and bends the knee.

tehkhop

A redditor going by tehkhop offered up a shoutout to Gladd, using a similar method to tackle the feat as well, and that it took him roughly 12 hours. Yikes. As tehkhop points out, the biggest difficulty is figuring out how to precisely destroy the Oversoul with the Sleeper Simulant before it kills you.

Destiny: Age of Triumph will be bringing updates to each of the game’s three remaining raids every Tuesday at 1 p.m. Eastern over the next three weeks. So here’s to more epic solo kills like this one: