At 19:00 CAT on Saturday, the first ever Destiny Raid, the Vault of Glass comes to Destiny 2.
As has become tradition in Destiny Raids, there will be a race for World’s First completion, but as the Vault of Glass was beaten over four years ago by Prime Guard (now Math Class) Bungie has had to do something a bit different for this race.
For one, completing the Raid once won’t be enough. Players will need to complete the Raid once with Contest Mode enabled to access a new Challenge Mode in the Destiny 2 directory.
The Challenge Mode is where things will get interesting though.
Players will need to complete a curated list of Triumphs in each encounter in order to earn Tempo’s Edge Triumph. Should a Fireteam fail the challenge for the triumph during the encounter, the Fireteam will wipe.
Now, Raid races can be long and very testing experiences even for very well coordinated Fireteams. As such it’s not uncommon for teams to switch out member. When doing that on Saturday though take note of the following from Bungie.
“If a Fireteam cycled through different members during their attempt, the final six remaining upon the completion of the final encounter of the Challenge Mode activity where at least one member of the Fireteam claims the Tempo’s Edge Triumph will be declared the winners and be awarded raid World First title belts,” the developer explained.
In order to be declared World’s First players “must loot the final chest before returning to Orbit and claim the Triumph or their finish may not be recorded”. This is important as many Fireteams head to Orbit immediately upon killing the final boss ignoring the final chest. Tensions are high but be sure to get your loot.
For your efforts you will earn yourself the Raid Belt pictured above which includes Prime Guard’s name as well.
For everybody else if you complete Vault of Glass before 25th May you can access the Vault of Glass Raid Ring for purchase through the Bungie Store. The Raid Jacket can be purchased by those who complete the Raid by 1st June.
Prepare for War(mind Cells)
As Contest Mode requires players are at 1300 Power in order to not get smacked down by a particular aggressive Wyvern and the Season of the Splicer’s Pinnacle Cap is at 1320 Power, we suspect a few more folks are going to be trying their hand at this race than say the Deep Stone Crypt.
To prepare for the race we highly recommend checking out the videos below from Ehroar and FalloutPlays who go over loadouts and Mod builds that could fare quite well in the Vault of Glass.
Something you might notice in both videos is the Warmind Cell recommendation. These mods are actually ridiculously over-powered and with the Warmind Cells that drop from enemy kills you can suppress, stun or just wipe out hordes of enemies in one shot.
Something worth mentioning is that the newest Hunter Exotic, Star-Eater Scales, is disabled for this Raid Race.
“The team has discovered an issue where some abilities were being granted a bit more damage than intended. We don’t want Hunters to take this race like they did Guardian Games, so we’ll be putting this exotic on a short time out. Plan ahead, and make sure you have another pair of pants infused to appropriate power levels before heading in to the raid,” wrote Bungie.
Of course, only Bungie knows what’s await in this updated Vault of Glass and it has said there will some surprises. Because of that we highly recommend you make use of a third-party item management app such as Destiny Item Manager to quickly transfer weapons and gear.
Be sure to visit The Spider on the Tangled Shore as well as Ada-1 and Banshee-44 at The Tower to stock up on Upgrade Materials and don’t forget your Raid Banners from Suraya Hawthorne.
One final note on loadouts, Champions are more than likely going to appear in the Vault of Glass. As the Raid is Vex focused we’re only expecting Barrier Hobgoblins and Overload Minotaurs.
That means that you should be taking the following weapons into the Raid:
- Scout Rifle and an Anti-Barrier Scout Rifle mod OR
- Auto Rifle and a Anti-Barrier Auto Rifle mod
- Hand Cannon and an Overload Hand Cannon mod OR
- Submachine Gun and an Overload Submachine Gun mod
The Surge Detonator mod from the Season of the Splicer artifact is also useful against Overload Champions, but does require you’re running an Arc subclass.
Finally, Bungie has said that the Raid isn’t changing all that much from the original version so with that in mind, guides from the old Raid may prove useful if like us, this will be your first time in the Vault of Glass.
To everybody vying for World’s First in this unique race, best of luck and may RNG be in your favour.
