The Vault of Glass, the first raid in the Destiny franchise, has made its way to Destiny 2 in Season of the Splicer. Released on May 22, Guardians can battle Atheon once again to obtain some incredible loot.
As with most raids, there are a few things you'll want to have or understand before you delve into the raid itself. Certain weapons, items, and general strategies can make your first raid clear a much more painless experience. Today, we'll be giving ten tips on how you can prepare to delve into the depths of Venus to obtain some sweet loot.
Note: The final tip on this list does slightly spoil two of the raid's encounters. If you want to go in spoiler-free, ignore the final tip. They'll be a second spoiler warning when you reach the end of the article.
Updated June 18th, 2021 by Charles Burgar: Now that the Vault of Glass raid has been out for a few weeks, Guardians have become acclimated with how this raid differs from its Destiny 1 counterpart. To help newer players prepare for this raid, we've updated this list to include more relevant tips that don't revolve around speculation or Contest Mode.
10 Reach 1,300 Power
The Vault of Glass raid has a recommended Power level of 1,300. You can enter the raid under that level, but you'll be significantly under-leveled if you choose to do so. Try to level your Guardian to 1,300 or higher before setting foot on Venus.
Fortunately, Season of the Splicer's soft cap is 1,300. As long as you complete all of your weekly Powerful Gear sources, you'll be able to reach this cap relatively quickly. If you're extremely far behind on the Power level grind, you can complete a Pinnacle Gear source before completing your Powerful Gear weeklies. We cover this strategy in more detail in our Power leveling guide.
9 Use Combat Style Mods
Combat Style mods refer to the fourth mod column on your armor. These mods revolve around one of three mechanics: Charged with Light, Warmind Cells, or Elemental Wells. All three of these mechanics are absurdly strong and were a large contributor to the number of teams that beat the Deep Stone Crypt and Vault of Glass raids on day one.
Here are a few mods we recommend:
Charged With Light
- Protective Light (Void, 2 Energy): Grants 50% damage resistance for a moderate duration when your shields break, consuming all stacks of Charged with Light. The more stacks consumed, the longer the duration.
- Taking Charge (Universal, 3 Energy): Orbs of Power grant x1 Charged with Light.
Warmind Cells
- Global Reach (Universal, 1 Energy): Warmind Cells you create affect and damage targets at a greater distance.
- Wrath of Rasputin (Solar, 1 Energy): Solar splash damage kills can spawn Warmind Cells. This includes Xenophage and every weapon that deals Solar AoE damage.
- Rage of the Warmind (Solar, 5 Energy): Warmind Cells deal Solar damage. When paired with Wrath of Rasputin, your Warmind Cells can spawn Warmind Cells.
Elemental Wells
- Elemental Ordnance (Universal, 2 Energy): Grenade kills spawn an elemental well of your subclass element.
- Well of Life (Solar, 2 Energy): Grabbing a Solar elemental well grants passive health regeneration for 10 seconds.
If you don't have access to Charged with Light or Warmind Cell mods, we highly recommend you use elemental well mods. They can be obtained from the H.E.L.M.'s War Table and Servitor.
For a more in-depth look at these mods, check out our guides below:
- A Complete Guide To Combat Style Mods
- Charged With Light Explained
- Warmind Cells Explained
- Elemental Wells Explained
8 Purchase Raid Banners
This is a rather small tip, but make sure you have Raid Banners before you plunge into the Vault of Glass for the first time. You're going to have a hard time with certain encounters if you don't have ammo or your Super charged. If no one else purchases Raid Banners, be sure you have some in your inventory. For teams going in completely blind, you'll want around 50-100 banners just to be safe.
7 Unlock Artifact Mods
This season's Paradome Cube Artifact contains some of the most powerful mods in Destiny's history. The final column is what you should focus on unlocking, as virtually every mod from this column is comparable with an Exotic in terms of strength.
There are two mods from this column that we highly recommend:
- Breach and Clear (Class Item, 9 Energy): Damaging a Champion, boss, or breaking a shield will make that target take 30% increased damage for 10 seconds. All of your stowed weapons are also reloaded. Does not stack with other debuffs.
- Warmind's Decree (Class Item, 3 Energy): Void splash damage kills can spawn Warmind Cells. Works exactly the same as Wrath of Rasputin.
Breach and Clear is a powerful debuff that matches the likes of Nightstalker's Shadowshot or Divinity. Anarchy and Witherhoard are especially powerful with this mod, dealing large amounts of passive damage while debuffing targets. Since the Aegis relic in Vault of Glass leaves you down a person during DPS phases, you'll want to make sure that your team is damaging an enemy that's debuffed. Breach and Clear lets Grenade Launcher users fill the same role that Divinity would, although we still recommend Divinity for this raid's boss encounters.
Warmind's Decree is incredibly strong when paired with Fighting Lion, Graviton Lance, Telesto, Deathbringer, or any Void weapon that deals AoE damage. Pair this mod with Global Reach for devastating results.
One more thing: bring an Overload weapon. Vault of Glass has Overload Champions, so you'll want to bring a weapon that can use Overload Rounds. Hand Cannons and SMGs have Overload mods you can obtain from the Artifact this season.
6 Get A Group Together
It should go without saying, but make sure that you have a team ready to play Vault of Glass with you when it launches. A team that communicates well is the key to success in any raid, Vault of Glass being no exception. If you need to get a team together, you can visit the Bungie forums, the100.io website, or join the D2 PC LFG Discord server.
5 Have A Good Sniper
A rather specific tip, you'll want to have a good Sniper Rifle for this raid. Oracles and Hobgoblins will be the bane of most beginner raid teams. A good Sniper Rifle can eliminate Hobgoblins with one or two rounds from a safe distance, and they'll be an excellent Special weapon for destroying Oracles—bright lights that'll wipe your fireteam if you don't destroy them quickly enough.
Some good options include:
- Succession (Kinetic): Found in the Deep Stone Crypt raid. Reconstruction with either Vorpal Weapon or Recombination will be incredibly good in Vault of Glass.
- Frozen Orbit (Energy): Found from Crucible games. Vorpal Weapon or Kill Clip are great perks to have on this weapon.
If you're willing to use an Exotic Sniper Rifle:
- Izanagi's Burden (Kinetic): Purchased from the Exotic Kiosk in the Tower. Deals excellent burst damage and can one-shot Oracles with a Honed Edge shot.
- Cloudstrike (Energy): Obtained from Empire Hunts on Europa. This will be amazing for clearing out hordes of Vex enemies.
4 Run The Deep Stone Crypt Raid
There aren't many ways to prepare for a raid's mechanics without either getting spoiled or playing the raid itself. However, there is one raid in Destiny 2 that is fantastic for newcomers and has some excellent loot you can use in the Vault of Glass.
That raid is Beyond Light's Deep Stone Crypt. Mechanically, this is one of the least-intensive raids you'll stumble across. The encounters are fairly easy, the mechanics aren't too complicated, and the loot is phenomenal. Keep an eye out for a good Succession or Heritage, as these weapons are fantastic for the Vault of Glass.
3 Recommended Exotic Weapons
We're going to split these recommendations into one of two categories: "best in slot" and "new player recommendations." Veteran raiders likely know what to use already, but most of Destiny 2's best-in-slot raid weapons require a serious time or resource investment—something newer players can't invest.
Best In Slot
- Anarchy: With a hefty cost of 240 Spoils of Conquest, this weapon deals excellent passive DPS. With Breach and Clear, it also acts as a debuff tool.
- Divinity: While someone will have to use the Aegis during certain boss fights, its precision bubble is too good to pass up, especially for Atheon. One person in your fireteam should have this weapon at the ready.
- Xenophage: Tied to a hidden quest in the Shadowkeep expansion, Xenophage covers virtually every role. It can clear adds when paired with Wrath of Rasputin, allowing it to generate Warmind Cells. Xenophage also deals solid boss DPS.
New Player Recommendations/Alternatives
- Bastion: It staggers Unstoppable Champions, deals excellent damage to majors, and should be a good weapon for breaking Oracles. Use this if you can't afford Izanagi's Burden.
- Deathbringer: If you own Shadowkeep, get this Rocket Launcher and its Catalyst ASAP. It deals excellent damage to every tough enemy in this raid.
- Witherhoard: This is a cheaper alternative to Anarchy that doesn't require a raid currency to purchase. Deals excellent damage to bosses and crowds alike, and it can debuff enemies with the Breach and Clear mod.
2 Recommended Exotic Armor
Each class will want to enter this raid with a few Exotic armor pieces at 1,300 Power or higher. All of these armor pieces come from Legendary Lost Sectors, something you can actively farm if you have a high enough Power level. We have guides covering the Master variants of these Lost Sectors that you can find on our Beyond Light hub page.
Hunter
- Celestial Nighthawk: Makes bottom tree Gunslinger's Golden Gun Super deal absurd damage. You get one bullet, so don't miss.
- Omnioculus: Pair this with bottom tree Nightstalker for near-infinite Smoke Bombs, granting damage resistance to everyone you make invisible.
- Star-Eater Scales: The damage bonus these boots grant is immense, and the bonus Super energy from Orbs of Power allow you to spam your Super. These boots are S-tier for this raid.
Warlock
- Boots of the Assembler: Your Rifts can heal or buff allies from a distance. The heal is around 75% HP, and the buff is a 35% damage increase for 5 seconds. Pair this with middle tree Dawnblade to proc Benevolent Dawn every time you heal or empower someone.
- Phoenix Protocol: As long as your team plays around your Well of Radiance, this Exotic can let you have a Well of Radiance always active. This will be especially useful during the Conflux encounter.
- Contraverse Hold: Top tree Voidwalker's grenades deal absurd damage. With this Exotic, you can throw them out whenever you please. Use these if your team struggles to kill majors or tougher enemies.
- Lunafaction Boots: These are really handy if you just want to buff your Rifts. Allies reload faster, and Empowering Rifts grant increased damage falloff.
Titan
- Phoenix Cradle: Gives the Sunspot buff to allies. Bottom tree Sunbreaker will be an excellent pick for this raid due to its great add-clear potential. Use Burning Cells with this subclass to spawn Sunspots after detonating a Warmind Cell.
- Actium War Rig: Use this if you're running Xenophage. This allows you to fire all of Xenophage's reserve ammo without ever reloading.
- Precious Scars: Swap to Precious Scars when you die to become a mobile Well of Radiance for 10 seconds upon getting revived, providing a 100-point overshield to everyone near you. This strategy should mainly be used on Master difficulty.
- Crest of Alpha Lupi: If you have any Star-Eater Scale Hunters on your team, put this on to give the Star-Eater Hunters a x4 Feast of Light buff with a single Ward of Dawn cast.
1 Learn Callouts
Slight spoilers for Vault of Glass encounters ahead
We'll try our best not to explain the raid outright in this entry, but there are three moments in the raid where you'll want to have consistent callouts with your team. If you're joining an LFG team or playing with Guardians you're not familiar with, be sure all of your callouts are consistent.
There are two encounters that are heavily reliant on callouts:
- Oracles
- The Final Boss
For the sake of brevity, we'll link images below that should help you learn the callouts for these encounters. We won't explain how the encounters themselves work, but have these callouts handy when you start the raid. If your team wants to use different callouts, go for it! Just be sure everyone is on the same page.
Oracle Callouts
Note: Some players also label these Oracles with a number, ranging from 1-7. If you use these callouts, be sure the Oracles are labeled in a consistent direction (clockwise or counterclockwise).
Final Encounter Callouts
Note: The numbers listed in this diagram can be changed to suit your fireteam. Try to label the Oracles with respect to a certain direction (clockwise or counterclockwise).