This week’s Nightfall strike in Destiny comes with good news and bad news. The bad news is there are some very angry Wizards that can mess you up in short order. The good news is there are lots of great places to take cover from those foes, as well as the final boss, Phogoth, the Untamed.
Mission Modifiers for January 20 to January 26, 2015
- Epic – Heavily shielded and highly aggressive enemies appear in great numbers.
- Nightfall – If all players die, you will be returned to Orbit.
- Arc Burn – Arc Damage from any source is greatly increased.
- Lightswitch – Minions of the Darkness deal much more melee damage.
- Angry – Minions of the Darkness won’t flinch, even after massive damage.
First Encounter
The first real encounter on The Summoning Pits will involve a Wizard and a Knight or two. We’re not talking about the level 6 Acolytes or Knights at the very beginning, a little further on in. The best bet here is to stay in the doorway before the area that they occupy, then direct fire out the door as best you can. If there are two or three people in your fire team, consider assigning one person to bring down the Wizard’s Solar shield with a heavy weapon, then have the other member (or two) go for the kill.
Three Waves of Hive
It’s important that you actually clear out the area we mentioned above because the next phase is going to give even skilled players some problems. It’s the part where your Ghost has to hack through a door, and you’ll have to fight off three waves of Hive before the job is done. Each wave will come with Knights, Thrall, Cursed Thrall, Acolytes and Wizards, and the difficulty will be ramped up during each stage.
The first two stages are fairly easy, and both can be completed by hanging out in the doorway that leads into the room where all the enemies are. You can even back up all the way to the start of the hallway that led to that area, something which is extremely important for the third wave.
The third phase will feature at least three Wizards, and even fully upgraded Ice Breakers might not be able to take them out fast enough to prevent them from killing you. As we mentioned, stand in the door to cause damage, which will eventually cause the Wizards to chase you. Back all the way out of the room and down the hallway, straight to the area where you took on the first Knight and Wizard of the strike. From here you can take out the three Wizards while remaining relatively safe.
Work on Your Cardio
After your Ghost opens the door you’ll want to make sure that you pick up any ammunition laying on the ground, then start running forward. The beauty here is that you’re going to run into lots of enemies, but besides on Knight and Ogre you don’t have to worry about them. Just run past them, jumping to avoid their melee and ranged attacks. In fact, keep running until you pass by two Knights, all the way to the rooms just before the final battle.
Phogoth, the Untamed
Note: Sit where our Hand Cannon is pointed to take out Phgoth.
Note: This is us in the spot we pointed to above, looking down the scope of our Ice Breaker. You can shoot Phogoth here without worrying about the Shrieker, or taking damage from anything outside the doorway.
You’re never actually going to enter the same wide open area that Phogoth is occupying. Instead you’ll be staying two rooms shy of his (there will be one room between you and Phogoth), crouching in the doorway directly below where the Shrieker spawns. If you do this right, that Shrieker will never show up and you can fire on your foe without ever having to worry about incoming damage.
In terms of what to use to take him down, we started out with our Ice Breaker simply because it will regenerate ammunition, meaning you never have to go get more. About half way through the battle we switched it up to a legendary Sniper Rifle that did Arc damage, taking Phogoth out in less than a minute. Because the Arc Burn modifier is on here, even a legendary Arc Sniper Rifle will do more damage than an exotic Solar weapon. The only catch is that you could easily run out of bullets, but that’s nothing that an Ammo Synthesis won’t be able to resolve.
When Phogoth, the Untamed finally falls, run outside and pick up all the ammunition you can get your hands on, then let us know in the comments what reward you got. Check out ours in the image below.
Note: If you’re wondering why we only had one kill, it’s because we had to leave and come back. A likely excuse, huh?
