Crota’s End came back from Destiny with the full Destiny 2 treatment, including raid challenges that rotate each week and reincarnated weapons that are at home in the sequel’s sandbox.
In Pinnacle raids, only one challenge will be active each week. They impose conditions on an encounter (for instance, not shooting the same Oracle twice in Vault of Glass), but succeeding on it may just be worth the effort. Finishing a challenge in Crota’s End will give you an extra chest with loot from that encounter, but you’ll also get an Adept weapon if you finish it on Master.
Here are all the raid challenges in Crota’s End in Destiny 2, with a short guide on how to complete each.
Crota’s End challenge list in Destiny 2
- Conservation of Energy (Abyss): You can enlighten one lamp for each time you’ve preserved the Chalice, starting with the first preserve. (The easiest way we’ve found is to only enlighten lamps that have a Podium of Light next to them, and only after the Chalice has been preserved).
- Precarious Balance (Bridge): Guardians can only cross the bridge if it’s not fully built, requiring players to step away from the middle plate before anyone crosses to the other side.
- Equal Vessels (Ir Yût): Guardians can only pick up the Chalice after everyone else in the team has picked it up.
- All For One (Crota): Bust down Crota’s shield at once, preferably with three swords.
Conservation of Energy challenge (Abyss)
This challenge changes the pacing of Abyss a bit, limiting the amount of Enlightens you can have. On one hand, you’ll spend less time lighting up lamps, but on the flip side, you’ll be at 10 stacks of Weight of Darkness more often than you normally would.
Using Eager Edge and Strand Grapple works well here, though avoid having the group too spread out. You don’t need to move like you’re doing a shield formation in that one Diablo 4 cutscene with Reverend Mother Prava (if you know, you know), but make sure you don’t have any stragglers on either side. Your Chalice holder should also be close to someone who isn’t either Enlightened or Drained, since they may need someone to pick it up.
Precarious Balance challenge (Bridge)
Precarious Balance is a clean challenge on normal, but Master mode can make it far trickier. The goal is to stop building the bridge once a guardian needs to cross, then step back on the plate to build it again. If you’re doing this on Normal difficulty, we recommend enlightening everyone and taking the Chalice across the bridge. On Master, though, it’s a bit trickier, because they’ll lose the buff if they die while Enlightened.
Regardless of what route you pick, make sure to have people with anti-Barrier weapons, since Barrier Knights will swarm the plates on both sides. The Master version also has a couple of Unstoppable Champions where the Ogres would normally spawn.
Equal Vessels challenge (Ir Yût)
The Ir Yût challenge is more annoying than outright complicated. For this encounter challenge, you have to pass the Chalice in the same order each time, so each guardian only picks it up after everyone else has gotten their hands on it.
This condition isn’t too terrible in the first rounds. You’ll need three people with the Enlightened buff to get inside the three correct rooms, so they should be at the top of the list. If you don’t one-phase Ir Yût, you’ll have to find four Wizards in the next run, so whoever will kill the fourth wizard in the second damage phase should be next in line. The fifth guardian can pass the buff to the sixth, who will dunk.
The last person on the rotation generally won’t be Enlightened, since they should dunk the Chalice of Light before getting the buff. The cycle will resume after the damage phase, picking back up after whoever dunked it (which should be the same order, barring any unforeseen circumstances).
Make sure any guardians with a spare Enlightened expunge Ir Yût, since they can’t pick up the Chalice if they have the buff. Guardians who aren’t doing mechanics don’t need to get Enlightened for this, but the situation can go awry.
Communication is key here. Keep your eyes peeled for the guardian whose buff you’ll take and for whoever will take the buff from you. Since there’s a death timer after they get Enlightened, speed is of the essence.
All for One challenge (Crota)
Crota’s All for One challenge will be the simplest of the raid, so if you’ve made it this far, odds are you’ll cross this one off your list without a hitch (at least on Normal mode). To finish this challenge, you just need to take down his shield quickly after the first hit. You can’t have someone pick up a sword and chip at his shield, then have another guardian do the same a few minutes later—but that’s hardly prohibitive.
In fact, downing Crota’s shield at once has been the go-to strategy for our teams. Two swords should do the job on Normal mode, but you’ll likely need three on Master. Just because Crota isn’t as challenging as he was in the Crota’s End day one race doesn’t mean he’s a pushover on Master, though, especially when he brings in Unstoppable Ogres. Be cautious, avoid unnecessary deaths, and debuff him before using the Sword Logic on him. And don’t forget to save an Enlightened buff for whoever is on Oversoul duty, or you’ll cause a wipe without even noticing.
