The Moon’s haunted. Additionally, the Hive is trying to enhance that haunted-ness by performing a strange new ritual in Sorrow’s Harbor. It’s up to you to stop them in their tracks, but doing so isn’t going to be a walk in the park. If you’ve ever done Escalation Protocols on Mars, then the Altars of Sorrows is likely to seem very familiar. You’ll have to go through a tiered progression of increasingly more difficult enemies with a timer counting down. If the timer counts to zero, you fail and have to start the previous tier over again. Continue to Tier VI and defeat a final boss and you’ll get a sweet reward.
The biggest difference between Escalation Protocol and Altars of Sorrows is the timer. In Escalation Protocol, the counter starts from a few minutes and then goes to zero for each stage. In Altars of Sorrows, the timer starts at one minute and increases by one second for every enemy you kill, and another 10 seconds for each Nightmare you kill. However, it can also go down faster if you let a Nightmare reach its objective. Let’s go over how this whole thing works.
Updated September 14, 2021, by Sean Murray: Altars of Sorrow haven't changed that much since Shadowkeep, but there are still a few things to recount. The weekly cycle of bosses remains unchanged, but the weapons themselves have new perks courtesy of the Moon weapon revamp. Read on to see how you can grab 'em.
Stop The Nightmares
After reaching Sorrow’s Harbor, head to one of those glowing green rifts. This will start the Altars of Sorrows event. You’ll then notice that another nearby rift has started spewing out Hive along with a larger Nightmare enemy. That Nightmare will try to make it from their rift to the one you’re defending. If the Nightmare reaches your rift, then it will take 30 seconds off your timer. If the timer runs out, you lose and have to start over from the most recently accomplished tier.
Tier I starts with just four Nightmares that you have to defeat. Tier II has five Nightmares, Tier III has six Nightmares, all the way to Tier V which has eight Nightmares. Starting at Tier III you’ll have to take a brief break from Nightmare stomping to go kill a bunch of Wizards that fly out of the rift. The trick here is that the Wizards are all invincible until you hit them with Relic Swords, which are obtainable from Relic Knights that also wander out of the rift.
These Wizards appear in the middle of the wave of Nightmares and must be defeated before the Nightmares resume their march. The Wizards will try to evade you, making it essential that you track them down and eliminate them quickly. Tier III has two Wizards that must be eliminated, Tier IV has four Wizards, and Tier V has six Wizards.
Phogoth Is Back, And This Time, He’s Mad
After Tier V comes the sixth and final tier, which is a big boss fight against one of three bosses: Nightmare of Phogoth, the Untamed; Nightmare of Taniks, the Scarred; or Nightmare of Zydron, Gate Lord. Just like before, a timer counts down from one minute. Killing regular mobs will increase that timer by one second and killing Nightmares increases that timer by 10 seconds.
The bosses themselves aren't too hard — the problem is the Nightmares that come out during the breaks in damage phases. After you get Phogoth, Taniks, or Zydron down to one-third health, it’ll become invincible and then a bunch of Nightmares will appear and start heading towards the rifts. Just as with previous tiers, if the Nightmares reach the rifts it will take a HUGE chunk out of your time and will often cause you to fail the event.
Quickly eliminate those Nightmares, then go back to killing the boss. This cycle will repeat when the boss reaches two-thirds damage, but the final third is a race to the finish line.
Tools Of The Trade
Altars of Sorrows can become a lot easier with the right arsenal. A good option for killing mobs en masse is Riskrunner. Since Hive often dole out arc damage, Riskrunner's perk will almost always be charged and killing Acolytes left and right. Another great option is Trinity Ghoul, especially if you have its Catalyst. There's nothing that tears through mobs like Trinity Ghoul.
For cracking Nightmares and boss damage, Rocket Launchers like Deaethbringer or Code Duello, Swords like Falling Guillotine or The Lament, or for Season of the Lost, Fusion and Linear Fusion Rifles with the Particle Deconstruction mod can make quick work of tough enemies.
Completing the Altars of Sorrows to the end will provide you with one of the Hive-themed Moon weapons, including the Blasphemer Shotgun, the Apostate Sniper Rifle, or the Heretic Rocket Launcher. Phogoth drops the Blasphemer, Taniks drops the Apostate, and Zydron drops the Heretic. Each week has a new boss on rotation, so keep that in mind if you don't get the weapon you want. There’s also the Bane of Crota Ghost Shell as a possible drop.
But should you grind out these weapons? Absolutely, especially if you like the Hive weapon aesthetic. Blasphemer gets both Rampage and Swashbuckler for increased damage as well as Quickdraw and Opening Shot for Crucible players. Apostate can no longer roll with Triple Tap, but No Distractions, Opening Shot, and a 40 zoom make it a menace in the hands of a Guardian with good aim. Heretic can roll with Impulse Amplifier and Lasting Impression just like Code Duello, the two best perks for Rocket Launchers by far and making it one of Destiny's top-tier damage dealers.