One of the most mysterious locations in the Destiny franchise, the Deep Stone Crypt has finally become a playable raid space in Destiny 2: Beyond Light. Filled with a plethora of interesting lore and intense encounters, the Deep Stone Crypt raid is easily one of the memorable raids introduced in Destiny 2 in recent memory.
Part of what makes the Deep Stone Crypt raid so memorable is its difficulty. Even without contest modifier active, this raid is filled with so many mechanics and new systems that many players struggle to beat it. Like most raids in Destiny, half the challenge comes from understanding the mechanics of each encounter. For those that want to brave this pinnacle activity, here is a complete guide to Destiny 2's Deep Stone Crypt raid.
Augment Roles
Every encounter in the Deep Stone Crypt will require teammates to obtain augments, a new buff type that will grant players a certain passive effect. There are three augments that Guardians will stumble across throughout the raid:
- Scanner: This yellow, oval-shaped buff will denote critical raid objectives with a bright yellow outline.
- Operator: Denoted by a red human holding a diamond, Operators can interact with certain objects that are considered immune to others.
- Suppressor: A blue buff that looks similar to the raid logo. Introduced in the third encounter, Suppressors are capable of stunning the raid boss while standing under certain drones. The boss must be damaged while under three different drones for the stun to occur. Drones always appear in sets of three.
Traverse The Storm
Guardians will need to make their way to the Deep Stone Crypt by traversing a deadly blizzard. Every second you are out in the blizzard, you will obtain a stack of the Frostbite debuff. If your Frostbite stacks reach ten, you die. To purge Frostbite stacks, you must stand in heat bubbles found throughout the path that grant the Shelter from the Storm buff.
Lamp posts that dot the area denote the correct direction to travel to. Every fireteam member must reach the airlock at the end of the path to start the first encounter. There is also a hidden chest that can be found off from the main path. YouTuber Esoterickk has a video on where to find it that you can watch here.
Disable Crypt Security
The first encounter of the raid requires a fireteam to destroy six fuses at the center of the room. Scanners will tell the Operator which panels to shoot underground, lowering the fuse shields and allowing the DPS phase to start. Two Guardians will be designated to either the left or right side of the arena. One player from each side will take up the Scanner role. The fifth player will be a dedicated Operator that will stay underground, and the sixth player will help kill enemies and disrupt Champions located topside.
Roles:
- Scanner: Look for panels under the main floor that have a yellow outline. Call these out to the Operator. There will be two glowing panels per side.
- Operator: Shoot any panels in the underground section that the Scanner players call out. Operators will also call out which fuse is vulnerable during the DPS phase.
- No Augment: Kill enemies, disrupt Overload Champions, and destroy Sentinel Servitors that disrupt the augment terminal.
Start the encounter by having your Operator player grab the Operator buff from an augment terminal on the main floor. As they descend to the underground, have the topside Guardians kill enemies until the Scanner buff drops. That side will then grab the Scanner buff, call out which two panels are glowing on their side, then pass the buff to the opposite side via the augment terminal. The opposite side will then grab the buff and call out their two glowing panels. The Operator should be firing at the panels during this.
When all four panels have been shot, the DPS phase begins. Immediately have the Operator deposit their buff into the augment terminal underground for someone else to take. Have a Scanner player deposit their Scanner buff for the underground player to take. The underground player will then need to look at the fuses above them and call out which one is glowing, denoting the side and position the fuse is on. Topside Guardians will then damage the fuse. Players have one minute to destroy as many fuses as possible. When the damage phase ends, rotate buffs to how they were pre-DPS phase, then simply repeat this process until all six fuses are destroyed.
Note that losing a buff in this encounter will cause a Scanner or Operative Vandal to spawn after a few seconds. These enemies drop the Scanner and Operator buffs on death, respectively. Sentinel Servitors will also spawn during the encounter, preventing the augment terminal from working. Players without any designated augment roles should kill these Servitors as soon as possible.
For information regarding Crypt Security challenges and more in-depth strategies, consult this article.
Defeat Atraks-1, Fallen Exo
There are three major mechanics tied to this encounter: Servitors, damaging Atraks-1, and the Replication debuff Atraks drops. Split the raid team into two teams of three. Three players will stay on Europa while the other three go into space. The objective is to destroy six Servitors—three on Europa and three in space—to make a copy of Atraks-1 vulnerable. Once a clone dies, players must coordinate with an Operator to maintain the Replication debuff so it can eventually be purged from an airlock in space.
Roles:
- Scanner: State which copy of Atraks-1 is real for the team to shoot. The real copy will glow yellow.
- Operator: Reset the Replication debuff on other players and purge it via airlocks in space. Operators also manage ground-to-space pods. This role never grabs the Replication debuff.
- No Augment: Grab the Replication debuff and coordinate with Operators to purge it.
Grab the purple orb beside the space pods to start the encounter. Have the non-Operator members of space team enter the space pods. When the first wave of Servitors spawn, Space Team's Operator must defeat the Operative Vandal on Europa, grab the Operator augment, then take a space pod to meet up with their team. Conversely, the Scanner buff will spawn on the space station for space team to take.
When all six Servitors are destroyed, Atraks-1 will initiate Extinction Protocol and begin a wipe mechanic. Space Team must have their Scanner call out which Atraks is glowing yellow, then all three players must damage him and his leftover phantom to lower his collective health bar. Atraks' phantom takes more damage than his physical counterpart does. Killing four of Atraks' clones will spawn a fresh set of Servitors.
Once his phantom vanishes, Atraks will leave behind a glowing orb that grants the Replication debuff. Have a non-Operator player grab the debuff, preferably someone without the Scanner augment. They must coordinate with the Operator when to refresh the debuff's 40-second duration. Operators do so by shooting the glowing orb above a player's head. To get the debuff out of the arena, the Operator must remove the debuff from a player while they are standing in an airlock found in the space station. Airlocks can be opened by firing a side panel, which will give players around 15 seconds to enter the room, have their debuff removed, then run out before they are killed. The same airlock cannot be used twice until three other airlocks have been used.
It is highly recommended to purge three players at once instead of four. If done this way, players on Ground Team that obtain the Replication debuff come straight to space to have their debuff purged, meaning the Operator augment never has to be rotated. The fourth debuffed player from Ground Team would be purged in a separate airlock.
When Atraks reaches the last 20% of his health bar, he will enrage and send all clones of himself into space. Every player must meet inside the space station for this phase. This final part is a condensed version of the encounter without the Replication debuff or Servitors. Scanners will call out which clone is glowing that the team must kill. Kill as many clones as necessary to finish the encounter.
For information regarding Atraks-1, Fallen Exo challenges and more in-depth strategies, consult this article.
Descent
After Atraks-1 has been defeated, players will need to navigate through the Morningstar space station in a linear jumping puzzle. There are no unique mechanics that are present here. Follow the path to reach the third encounter. Keep an eye out for a hidden chest on the main path.
Prevent Europa's Destruction
The third encounter of the Deep Stone Crypt introduces the Suppressor role, Nuclear Cores, the Radiation debuff, and serves as a tutorial for the final encounter's mechanics. Players will be tasked with depositing Nuclear Cores in certain bins while the new Suppressor role must stun Taniks. While he does have a visible health bar, Taniks cannot be damaged. Note that this encounter has Overload Champions.
Roles:
- Scanner: State which bins to deposit Nuclear Cores into. There will always be two glowing bins.
- Operator: Shoot at glowing terminals to spawn two Nuclear Cores instead of three, preventing a forced wipe.
- Suppressor: Stand under floating drones and shoot Taniks. Doing so from all three drone positions will stun him, allowing Nuclear Cores to be deposited at bins.
- No Augment: Kill enemies and deposit Nuclear Cores. Grab any augments that are disabled.
Waves of Fallen will flood the arena and bring one of each augment type. Have Guardians pick up these buffs and fulfill the designated roles listed above. Operators should wait to spawn nukes until Suppressors have shot at Taniks from one or two drone positions. Failing to do so will cause three Nuclear Cores to spawn instead of two, causing a wipe after ten seconds as there are only two bins to deposit cores into. When the nukes spawn, the Scanner should call out which two bins need Nuclear Cores. Note that all Nuclear Core carriers will gain a stack of Radiation every few seconds. Obtaining ten stacks of Radiation will kill you.
Upon depositing a core successfully, a random player will have their augment disabled. When this happens, have that player call out that their buff is disabled and have them deposit their augment at an augment terminal. A non-augmented player will then grab the buff, effectively swapping roles.
After completing this cycle six times, a hatch near the front of the room will open up. Every player must jump down the hatch and sprint as fast as they can to the end of the corridor as Taniks will be chasing you. Stopping at all will cause Taniks to kill you. One Guardian must reach the end of the corridor to beat the encounter.
For information regarding this encounter's challenges and more in-depth strategies, consult this article.
Defeat Taniks, the Abomination
What seems like a running gag at this point, Guardians are tasked with taking down Taniks once again, only this time he has become half-Shank. Mechanically, this final encounter is a more intense iteration of the previous encounter. Guardians must spawn Nuclear Cores by damaging Taniks' Shank thrusters, deposit Nuclear Cores into bins, then commence the DPS phase after four cores have been deposited.
Roles:
- Scanner: Looks for which bins require Nuclear Cores. There will always be two glowing bins.
- Operator: Shoots slow orbs that periodically spawn on Nuclear Core carriers. Operators should never carry Nuclear Cores.
- Suppressor: Stand under floating drones and shoot Taniks. Doing so from all three drone positions will stun him, allowing Nuclear Cores to be deposited at bins. Note that the drones must be near Taniks.
- No Augment: Deposit Nuclear Cores, trading them with other players as necessary. Grab any augments that are disabled.
Three quadrants make up Taniks' arena: spawn/white, left/blue, and right/orange. Every section of the map has two Nuclear Core bins that Scanners must keep track of. Augments will spawn in a certain section of the map. Spawn/white always gets Operator, left/blue gets Scanner, and right/orange gets Suppressor. When deciding which Guardians covers each side, keep these buffs in mind.
After a few minutes pass, Taniks will move towards a certain section of the map. When he reaches his destination, Taniks will begin to fire orbital barrages from his location while exposing his thrusters. A minimum of two thrusters must be destroyed to prevent this attack from causing a wipe.
Every thruster destroyed will spawn a Nuclear Core which, similar to the previous encounter, must be taken to one of two bins the Scanner identifies. It is highly encouraged to have every Nuclear Core runner have a partner that runs parallel to them due to the size of the arena. When the runner reaches five or six stacks of Radiation, have their partner grab the Nuclear Core by walking up and holding the interact input.
During this escort, Suppressors should be standing under drones near Taniks and firing at him. Doing so at all three nearby drones will stun Taniks and allow Nuclear Core runners to deposit their cores. Operators should find a vantage point and keep track of both core runners to break them out of detainment bubbles that randomly spawn.
Similar to the last encounter, depositing these Nuclear Cores will disable a random augment. As before, have the Guardian with a disabled augment deposit it at an augment terminal for someone else to grab, effectively swapping both of their roles.
Repeat this process once more to start the DPS phase. Taniks will deploy two bubbles that have debris orbiting the outside of them. Fireteams will want to stand in between both bubbles to damage Taniks. Halfway through the DPS phase, Taniks will slam himself on the ground and throw everyone in the air. Regroup and damage him once more until he becomes immune. Your team has three tries to get Taniks to 20% of his total health pool before the enraged mechanic kills everyone.
Once Taniks reaches 20% HP, he will enter a final stand mode and prepare a wipe mechanic. Players will need to take down the last 20% of his health in a short timespan to finish the encounter.
As of writing this, the best DPS strategies involve one player using Divinity while everyone else uses Precision Frame Shotguns like First In, Last Out. Anarchy, Izanagi's Burden, and Triple Tap Sniper Rifles are also fantastic choices for this encounter.
For information regarding Taniks, the Abomination challenges and more in-depth strategies, consult this article.