When Destiny was first announced, no one really had any idea what Bungie was trying to make. A shared-world shooter? Is that just an MMOFPS? As the world would soon discover, Bungie was creating one of the first live-service video games.

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And it was a mess. A beautiful, charming mess. Its story was convoluted, PvP was unbalanced, and many failed to understand the point of playing. That is until the first raid, Vault of Glass, was released. Their first raid was a masterstroke in design, bringing forward the mechanical depth of raids from World of Warcraft with the accessibility of Halo. Ever since then, Bungie has had to up the ante to create more magical experiences for players to experience. Here's every raid in the Destiny franchise ranked from worst to best.

Updated December 24th, 2020 by Charles Burgar: Raids are a quintessential part of the Destiny experience. These tough activities offer some of the most unique and gratifying PvE content that the looter shooter genre has seen. Now that many of Destiny 2's raids are gone due to the Destiny Content Vault (DCV for short), many players are delving into older raids and experiencing them for the first time. For those reminiscing about raiding or have never set foot in one, we have added every raid to this list to give an idea of which ones are worth experiencing.

12 Spire Of Stars

Destiny 2 Val Ca'uor

Note that this raid is currently in the Destiny Content Vault.

If there is one raid in Destiny 2 that could be labeled as divisive, it belongs to Spire of Stars. Released in the Warmind DLC, Spire of Stars takes Guardians to the Leviathan once more to take down Val Ca'uor—the leader of the Red Legion after Ghaul's death.

Most of this raid revolves around managing the Greed debuff while juggling orbs between your team. Despite the cool spectacle of seeing Cabal ships blowing up during the third encounter, this raid has so many mechanics to manage that one mistake can cause a wipe. LFG teams had a hell of a time beating this raid because of this while coordinated teams had to complete mechanics with absolute precision to beat it.

Spire of Stars also suffers from a plethora of bugs such as Val Ca'uor never dropping his shield or having the orb not destroy ships during the third encounter. Besides farming for an Exotic emote or the Sleeper Simulant Catalyst, there was hardly any loot to chase in this raid. Part of the community adores this raid for its unique mechanics and setting, but the lack of loot incentives and Spire of Stars' bugs have certainly hurt its reputation. Due to all of its issues, Spire of Stars is arguably one of the worst raids in the Destiny franchise.

11 Eater Of Worlds

Destiny 2 Argos

Note that this raid is currently in the Destiny Content Vault.

Destiny 2's first foray into making miniature raids, otherwise known as raid lairs, went about how you'd expect. Eater of Worlds is an action-packed raid lair that focuses on taking down a Vex Hydra in the deepest parts of the Leviathan.

Before you reach the action-packed section of the raid, you must first go through the worst encounter Bungie has ever developed. The introduction to this raid is slow, has nothing to do with future encounters, and presents no challenge whatsoever. Past that is a much more engaging raid that has one of the most stunning environments Bungie has made. The boss fight against Argos is satisfying but rather simple when compared to previous raids.

That accessibility would have been Eater's strong suit if not for its horrendous loot; the Telesto Catalyst, a Grenade Launcher, Shotgun, and armor set were the only items on offer here. Eater of Worlds is by no means a bad raid on its own, but when compared to its competition, it's hard to argue that Eater of Worlds is anything more than a six-man strike.

10 Crown Of Sorrow

Destiny 2 Crown of Sorrow

Note that this raid is currently in the Destiny Content Vault.

Crown of Sorrow is a raid lair aboard the Leviathan that tasks your team with defeating a boss named Gahlran. This raid focuses on rotating a buff between you and a partner.

Encounters for this raid range from awful to great. The introduction to this raid is way longer than it needs to be, taking most teams around six minutes to complete with little mechanics to manage or enemies to shoot. Later mechanics fair much better and culminate into a rather intense boss fight. Sadly, the loot tied to Crown of Sorrow is mediocre at best. Its raid Exotic, Tarrabah, is easily the worst raid Exotic in the game while its Legendary weapons lack unique perks. For a Destiny raid, Crown of Sorrow is simply mediocre.

9 Leviathan

Destiny 2 Calus

Note that this raid is currently in the Destiny Content Vault.

Despite some of the bugs present within this raid, the Leviathan raid offered a solid selection of loot and some engaging encounters. It is the definition of a decent raid.

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But an average raid in Destiny would be a fantastic mission in any other video game. Each encounter requires something unique from players, like the Pleasure Garden encounter requiring players to sneak around enemies instead of killing everything. The final fight against Calus is fantastic as well, combining jaw-dropping visuals with some solid mechanics. Some of the loot from this raid such as Midnight Coup and Alone as a God remained in player's inventories for years to come due to their lethality and perks.

8 Garden Of Salvation

Destiny 2 Garden of Salvation

The final boss fight in this raid is frustrating to complete with random players, the tether mechanic is extremely buggy, and this raid is notorious for performance issues on consoles. With all of those issues, Garden of Salvation still manages to impress with its breathtaking environments and engaging encounters.

Players enter the Black Garden to follow a signal left by the beacon they find at the end of the campaign. Tether mechanics can sometimes bug out, preventing players with high latency from tethering onto teammates for puzzles. When this raid is working, though, it's amazing. The first encounter, in particular, is one of the best opening encounters to any raid Bungie has made. If the final boss for this raid was more fun to fight, Garden of Salvation would have been much higher on this list.

7 Scourge Of The Past

Destiny 2 Scourge of the Past Schnell

Note that this raid is currently in the Destiny Content Vault.

Right off of the heels of Last Wish, Bungie has large shoes to fill with their next raid. Releasing a few months after Last Wish, Scourge holds up astonishingly well considering its short development time.

Encounters for this raid include driving around the Last City, driving away from a burning Servitor in a vast tunnel system, using tanks to blow up a mech platform, all before fighting a massive Fallen Brig that rains missiles on your location. This raid was equally engaging and intense. Loot for this raid was somewhat disappointing but the likes of Threat Level and Anarchy more than made up for that. It's a shame that this raid is in the DCV currently.

6 Crota's End

Destiny Crota's End

Besides a story mission in Destiny 1, the only other time you could wield a sword before The Taken King was in Crota's End.

Similar to previous entries, Crota's End makes up for this simplicity with its breathtaking visuals. The bridge encounter, in particular, guiding players towards a blinding light that is sending an unrelenting amount of Hive at you. It also contained some of the strongest weapons the franchise has seen such as Black Hammer, a weapon so powerful that it was nerfed and turned into an Exotic to keep it in check. It's non stop, adrenaline-fueled action from start to finish.

5 Deep Stone Crypt

Destiny 2 Taniks Final Encounter

Visiting the birthplace of the Exos in a raid was a genius decision by Bungie that paid off in spades in the Deep Stone Crypt raid. The setting, music, and overall encounter design offers one of the most immersive raids the Destiny franchise has released.

After navigating through a deadly blizzard, Guardians find themselves in the crypt and must make their way deeper into the facility. Surprisingly, the game takes players to space instead of further in the crypt. After the best intermission jumping section the franchise has seen, Guardians will face off against a familiar foe as they must save Europa from nuclear annihilation.

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As intense as this raid sounds, the difficulty is certainly lacking here. After contest modifier was removed, the likes of Atraks-1 and Taniks became dramatically easier to the point where some encounters feel closer to a Nightfall boss than a proper raid encounter. The raid does make up for this somewhat with its excellent weapons that can be target-farmed thanks to a chest vendor that appears once the raid is finished. If this raid ever gets a prestige version or gets a difficulty tune-up, the Deep Stone Crypt could contest with Last Wish as the best raid in Destiny 2.

4 King's Fall

Destiny Oryx

Destiny has been called plenty of things when it was released, from an MMO-lite to a looter shooter. Those rather shallow MMO elements present at launch were further expanded on with The Taken King.

And the raid released with that expansion, King's Fall, was no exception. Taking cues from World of Warcraft on some of its encounters, this raid experiments with mechanics like aggro and navigating different dimensions. With those innovations came with some aggravations, however. Many veteran Destiny raiders complained that the loot from King's Fall was sorely lacking. Some players also disliked the set pace that the Oryx encounter had and the lack of "hero" moments—instances where players can take up multiple roles to prevent a wipe.

Those issues are rather large for a raid of this size, yet it doesn't take away from the sheer brilliance of King's Fall's mechanics and scale. Golgoroth is easily one of the best encounters Bungie has designed, finding an engaging way to bring aggro-management into a first-person shooter. The fight against Oryx is nothing short of jaw-dropping, his massive body shadowing over your fireteam during the final fight. If this raid had better loot and more opportunities for Guardians to show their skills, King's Fall would easily be the best raid in the franchise. As it stands, it is a phenomenal piece of content that every Destiny fan should experience at least once.

3 Wrath Of The Machine

Destiny Aksis

The Fallen never got a raid until Wrath of the Machine was released. These weren't any normal Fallen enemies, however. These SIVA-infused enemies made for some incredibly intense encounters.

Starting with throwing charges and ending with juggling buffs and dozens of Fallen to kill, this is the pinnacle raid to show your skills. Encounters were action-packed from start to finish—the final boss being a highlight. While previous raids succeeded in building tension, Wrath of the Machine does so while still allowing Guardians to take up multiple roles. Hero moments would arise because of this in a way that few raids have managed since.

Loot was expertly done in Wrath of the Machine. Unique, SIVA-infused guns came with new perks such as Focused Firefly. Armor could also be rerolled by using a new currency exclusive to this raid. And who could forget Outbreak Prime? This Exotic took the collective effort of the entire community to uncover how to obtain this weapon, leading to one of the most insane quests the franchise has seen. Considering this was the original Destiny's final raid, it went out with a bang.

2 Last Wish

Destiny 2 Riven

Players have heard of the Ahamkara in various Lore entries and dialogue, but what do they look like? What would fighting one be like? Last Wish provides all of that and so much more.

Somewhat of a spiritual successor to King's Fall, Last Wish tasks the raid team to slay the last Ahamkara that exists: Riven of a Thousand Voices. The raid is an epic expedition across the Dreaming City to climb up the Watchtower and slay her. Powerful Mods, great guns, amazing looking gear, and an Exotic that shoots explosive lasers tops this off as the best raid in Destiny 2. You won't get these items easily, however, as this is one of the hardest raids in Destiny's history. It took over 18 hours for the first raid team to beat this raid when most raids take around 8 hours, showing how brutal this raid can be.

1 Vault Of Glass

Destiny Vault of Glass

It couldn't have been anything else. Vault of Glass might be lacking in mechanical complexity by today's standards, but this first impression on Destiny's endgame left one hell of a mark. This raid beautifully blends the mechanics of an MMO with the gameplay systems of an FPS.

There was no build-up to this raid in-game. It was a mysterious door on the side of a hill that anyone could try and open. Players on patrol, not even in the raid team, can join and help with the opening encounter. The mystique of this raid carried through to its environmental design, encounters, and loot. There is no denying that the first few encounters in Vault of Glass are mundane when compared to future raids, yet the Templar and Atheon encounters more than make up for this with their intensity and spectacle.

More than the mechanics and loot, it is impossible to talk about VoG without mentioning its impact on the franchise. This raid single-handedly kept vanilla Destiny alive during its lackluster Year 1 state. The aspirational loot, unique mechanics that are comparable to MMO raids, and the sheer spectacle of this raid kept Guardians coming back week after week to try their hand at getting Fatebringer or Vex Mythoclast. For all of the franchise's faults, Vault of Glass is a shining example of why people love Destiny.

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