Destiny: The Taken King Blessing Of Light Strategy Guide for Hard Mode Oryx

This is a fool-proof, in-depth defender titan strategy guide for Oryx in the Hard More variation of the King’s Fall raid.

As a quick disclaimer – This strategy requires that a majority of your team uses Touch of Malice. Also, you should highly consider being over 310 light for this encounter as being severely under leveled renders you nearly useless and you’re going to have a bad time. If you have three characters, it is recommended running it on each of them up to the oryx checkpoint, consolidating raid drops onto one character, and retrying once you hit a higher light level.

Important Notes: It is very important to have at least 1 defender titan for this strategy. Also, Warlocks are usually the best for the platforms as self-res is a nice crutch if you have trouble surviving. Typically, hunters are a nice choice for relic-runner as they are agile, they can create loads of orbs and can throw ‘vanish in smoke’ bombs at the feet of the people in charge of detonating the corrupted light orbs.

Another thing to know: If your platform is directly below the relic you DO NOT need to be on your platform at all whatsoever during this phase. Go up top and float on top of the daughter platforms to down ogres.

Before starting the encounter, make sure your titan has his super up and is ready to go. What they will be doing is utilizing the blessing of light overshield to abuse that final bullet in their touch of malice. The titan will want to pop their bubble up on either one of the daughter platforms. The person who’s platform is underneath the relic is required to join the titan up top and down the ogres as quickly as possible. Quick note, floater, be sure to remember to kill your knight from up top. If done correctly, the ogres should be dying within seconds.

The people on the platforms are in charge of aiding in the death of their ogres and killing their knight. Remember, the knights spawn opposite the side of your ogre. So, if your ogre is on front left, then as soon as you kill it, the knight will spawn on front right. To quickly kill these knights use a high impact sniper as it will only take you two headshots to take them down.

Remember, as soon as the first ogre spawns on your side, so do the acolytes – these can spawn acolyte eyes which tend to be quite problematic. Be sure to kill the acolytes shortly after they spawn.

As soon as the runner grabs the relic, you can step off the platform and hop up to where the defender bubble is – this will keep you safe and allow you to dish out extra damage toward the vessel or any remaining ads.

If executed properly, your relic runner should have the brand of immortality and be in the middle of the map. After oryx slams his fist, be ready to DPS Oryx’s chest. Once he staggers DO NOT immediately go to your corrupted light bombs. You have around 30 seconds or so to detonate, so use the time after you stagger him to team-shoot any remaining ads that might kill you while running out to detonate your bomb. In the off-chance that any ads are remaining, nightstalkers can throw ‘vanish in smoke’ bombs at the feet of your fireteam to protect them as they detonate.

All four bombs should be detonated, now all you need to do is run during mortars as per usual.

Once done, repeat the process until you get teleported for the ‘shade of oryx’ phase.

Be sure to kill the knights as soon as they spawn and call out the spawns of the thrall to your team.

People who get teleported inside, use high impact sniper rifles to get maximum DPS on the shade. Be sure to call the shade’s position as it teleports – ex. Shade teleported 90 degrees right.

Defender titan, you can pop a blessing of light bubble to allow you and your team to use touch of malice. However, this is not required because you may need your super for the next platform phase.

Once repeating this step another time, all you need to do is face Oryx one last time as he comes to the middle – be sure to dish out AS MUCH damage as possible. Touch of Malice works very well for this as he should be dead before you reach critical health.

Below is an in-depth guides depending on your role:

Defender Titan:Your job is very important– it is also necessary that you have Touch of Malice. You should be prioritizing armor and recovery as your job is most important and your death will be detrimental to the team.

First things first– make sure you have your super up before each cycle. If you do not have your super, ask your team to generate orbs for you.

Once Oryx slams his fist to drop the blight, pop your bubble on one of the daughters’ platforms with blessing of light. You will be using the final bullet in your Touch of Malice to eat away at your overshield as you focus fire the ogres. This allows for an insane amount of damage output by the people floating up top. You should be joined by a platformer for each cycle so they can assist you in killing ogres/knights. Be sure to prioritize the last ogre and knight that spawn because that platform’s guardian is up top.

Once all of the ogres and knights are dead, drop down to the center and prepare to DPS oryx. Once he staggers, it is YOUR job to continue damaging oryx with your Touch of Malice to keep his chest open while the rest of your team kills ads.

Keep repeating this process during the platform phases.

For the shade of oryx phase, you can pop a bubble IF you have enough orbs waiting for you outside of the blight. This allows you and your team to use touch of malice on the shade. If not, use a high impact sniper rifle to hit those headshots.

For the final damage phase (when oryx comes to the middle with a sliver of health), you can quickly switch to weapons of light if you find that your team might not have enough DPS.

Runner: In your build, prioritize speed and armor. Recovery is not as important in this encounter as there is no health regeneration during the shade phase. The single most important thing for runners is consistency. Make sure that you are comfortable with making your jumps. Also, it is crucial that you call out when you have relic so that your team can take cover if necessary. Once you hop down and grab the immortality buff, rush to the center of the map – it is much easier to down the vessel as a team than it is for one person to solo it. This allows for the runner to use a Touch of Malice instead of an exotic sword, ie. Raze-lighter.

Once the vessel of oryx is down, prepare to DPS Oryx. Once he staggers, aid your teammates in killing ads before they go to their corrupted light bombs. If you are a hunter, throw a ‘vanish in smoke’ bomb at their feet before sending them off.

Your job is fairly simple, just remember to make those callouts and remember to be consistent.

Platformers: In your build, prioritize armor and recovery. Even though you have no health regeneration during the shade phase, it is crucial that you stay alive while you are on those platforms. It helps to be a warlock with self-res for this position, but it isn’t necessary.

Your job is to correctly step on your platforms in the proper order – If you’ve run normal mode, then you know how this works. As you step on the platform, ogres spawn in counter clockwise order. Kill BOTH ogres that spawn on your side. Never leave someone to solo their ogre alone. As soon as your ogre is dead, snipe the knight as it spawns.

REMEMBER, the person who’s platform is below the relic floats up top and helps kill ogres. If you are floating for this cycle, DO NOT forget to kill your respective knight.

Once the runner grabs the relic, don’t forget that you can step off of the plate and take cover in the defender bubble and help clear remaining ads.

Once all of the ogres and knights are dead, head back to the center and get ready to damage oryx. Once he staggers, kill remaining ads as you have plenty of time to detonate your corrupted light bombs.

Remember to countdown for your team to step in the bomb so that you set them off in sync. As soon as you see your name pop up in the killfeed, run back to the aura of immortality and continue shooting oryx.

Simply repeat this process, and keep in mind the tips mentioned earlier about the shade phase and you should be golden.

Credits: Special thanks to refinition for the guide.