Flawless Raider Guide: The Taken King Edition
So you want a "Flawless Raider" trophy for Destiny? Here's how to do it.
Crota's End, Flawless
Ironically, Oryx's arrival makes killing his son super easy. No real jumping puzzles where you can fall to your death (save the drop into the abyss, which we can control a bit). Most encounters are easy at level 40. You should be able to run the entire raid in a half hour and change.
Team Build
Having a Bladedancer Hunter with invisibility perks, including Don't Touch Me gauntlets is essential to getting through the abyss easily. Warlocks and Titans can solo the abyss as well if they know how to jump from the rock at the second lamp to skip past a good portion of the Abyss. Personally, I find that jump to be tricky, so I prefer the Hunter's slow-but-sure solo.
The other members of the fireteam can use whichever class they'd like. A Defender Titan is useful for a couple of places, which I'll cover in a minute. Just remember that the Warlock Sunsinger class can't use self-res for a Flawless run, since dying disqualifies for a flawless run.
Step One: The Abyss
I find soloing the Abyss is best, and using the Bladedancer Hunter with "Escape Artist", "Shadowjack", and "Stalker" along with "Don't Touch Me" exotic gauntlets and a weapon with Lightweight for added agility. If you use other classes, you're on your own; I haven't developed an Abyss solo strategy for Titans/Warlocks, but I know they can, I just don't prefer it.
Most importantly, the person soloing the Abyss can enter it alone. The other 5 fireteam members can wait on the surface. Once the guardian going through cross the bridge, the other guardians will be pulled to him (one of Toland's old tricks?). Running it with a Hunter and hitting all lamps will take approximately 7-8 minutes.
Equip the lightweight weapon, get your weight of darkness off, then set out. Pause at each lamp to lower your weight. Don't Touch Me gauntlets will apply invisibility when thrall are nearby. Save the Blink Strike attack for an emergency. Crouch to go invisible when possible as you pause at a lamp (not recommended though for the first one or two since they have more thrall initially).
After going up the final hill and reaching the lamp there, get your weight down and head directly to the plate by the bridge. Don't activate the final lamp until after you step on the plate to begin the bridge building sequence.
Activate that plate, then immediately move towards the lamp nearest it. There is a rock to the left of the lamp. Get your weight down enough so you can jump onto it. You'll want to face toward the abyss here, looking beyond the last lamp, toward an area opposite the bridge. Crouch and slowly position yourself as far left on that rock as you can-- the lamp will explode and you could go with it if you're too close. Once the lamp blows, a single Ogre should spawn in the distance. Use your best sniper rifle to kill it. After that, remain on crouched on the rock until the bridge is built. Once your path is clear, run across. Jump over any thrall that are on the bridge. Attempting to run to their left or right is risky since they can cause you to fall from the bridge.
Upon entering the next area-- the Bridge Encounter-- you may hear your ghost say "Guardian down!". That's OK— it says that sometimes, but does not mean your team has experienced a death.
For your solo Hunter, I recommend having them practice this run a few times alone before attempting to do it with a group.
Step Two: The Bridge Encounter
The Bridge fight must be done using the normal process, which isn't bad at all. I recommend identifying two teams of 3. The first team will cross one by one and should include 1 Defender Titan (enable "Blessing of Light" and "Bastion" for a longer-lasting, safety bubble). Organize at the starting side so there are two guardians at the middle and each of the totems. Your first team should have 1 person at each position, so when they leave, a member of the second team are left to handle the plate/totems.
Wait to take down the sword knight until the bridge is built. Take him down and pick up the sword soon after (it can despawn if you hesitate too much). Cross and kill the Gatekeeper on the far side. Then move into a hiding position at one of the lamps to the left or right of the bridge (just don't stand or wait on the plate itself since it can cause the annihilator totems to activate and wipe the team). While guardian 1 from team 1 is hiding, take down the next sword knight and have the second guardian cross. And they can kill the Gatekeeper and hide on the other lamp by the bridge to wait for the third guardian to cross.
After all three from team 1 are across, position the Defender Titan at the center plate (they should wait to stand on that plate until the other guardians reach their totems). At the same time, the starting side team can leave their positions (totem holders should only leave after the center plate holder does) and take position on the stairs, near the spawn point to keep safe while the far side team rebuilds the bridge.
After building the bridge again, continue the cycle of taking the sword from the sword knight and crossing one-by-one. The fourth to cross should join the left-side totem holder since more adds are present on that side. The fifth to cross should join the right-side totem holder. The far side center-plate holder (ideally that Defender Titan) will have to deal with a Gatekeeper coming up to attack; I recommend using the "Higher Jump" configuration so you can just jump out of his reach. They can also use a blessing bubble to protect and hold the position while team 2 crosses. Once the sixth guardian crosses, the guardians at the center plate should leave and go to the right-hand side of the field. The left totem holders should also proceed to the right-hand side, grouping up together to kill adds and wait for the ogres to appear.
One ogre will come out at the back door on the right side. You can use sniper fire, machine guns, and Sleeper Simulant to attack it. I recommend against using rockets for most of the Flawless raid run since it can lead to suicide so easily. The second ogre will be coming from the far left side of the field. Once the second ogre is down, all adds will despawn and the door to the castle will open.
Step Three: "Thrallway"
The next area is easier than it appears. There are two shriekers that need to be destroyed to cross this hallway safely. I recommend the fireteam fire on the thrall while one person equips a Sleeper Simulant to single-shot the first shrieker. After doing that, everyone should retreat back out the door and wait for the shrieker death blasts to clear. The second shrieker can be more risky, but I recommend having a Defender Titan (ideally, with a blessing bubble and a Helm of Saint 14 for a blinding effect) to go just far enough to activate the second shrieker. Put the bubble up and use Sleeper Simulant by another to down the second shrieker. The death blasts will seek to the Titan in the bubble (who is busy punching thrall). Once clear, the Titan can Titan-skate along the left side of the hallway to reach the end. Once you clear the doorway, all adds will despawn and the rest of the fireteam can cross safely.
The fireteam drops down the hole to reach the next area. Soften your fall here, since landing on the water here can kill you.
Step Four: Ir Yût
Split into two teams of three. One person on each side will be responsible for drawing out the wizard from the Crystal Hall chamber. The other two on each side should head directly to the tower on their respective side (the towers where boomer knights appear at the end of the Crota fight).
Once the wizard is out, take them down quickly with sniper rounds or machine guns. Your runners can go back in on each side to take down the shrieker. The best weapon to use here is a Sleeper Simulant (a rocket is an acceptable, but riskier substitute). Make certain the shrieker has been destroyed before regrouping everyone on the "right" side of the arena ("left" and "right" here are based on the starting position for this map, when the fireteam falls into it).
All that is left now is Ir Yût and her group of adds. Clear those adds on the right side really well before advancing on here; you should have plenty of time left. I recommend using a blessing bubble by the Titan again if it is charged (you might consider waiting for it to charge before starting this particular encounter if you only have one Defender Titan). The fireteam can dip into the bubble for an added overshield. Again, Sleeper Simulant is a great weapon to use on Ir Yût... two or three shots should take her down. Machine guns are also very effective. You can wait for her to start signing her song if you want a fixed target.
After killing Ir Yût, clear the rest of the adds carefully.
Step Five: Crota
And now we come to Crota. The fireteam can now adjust their perks to reduce "Recovery" as much as they'd like, since the "Presence of Crota" debuff prevents health regeneration. The sword runner should Your sword bearer guardian can obtain the Chalice to help heal anyone that needs it, if you wind up needing a second sword to finish Crota himself. The sword bearer should dial up their agility and equip for the highest jump (I prefer to use Bones of Eao on my Hunter here; the extra jump can be helpful), and I recommend equipping a lightweight weapon for added agility (MIDA Multi Tool is my personal favorite); the added agility makes for a stronger sword attack. Once all the adds are clear of the Crystal Hall, group up on the left side of the hallway and wait for the sword bearer to give the call to exit. Use a middle-strategy attack. The five guardians that aren't sword bearing should be on the center ledge facing Crota and should be downing the sword knight for the bearer. They also need to kill the boomer knights (sniper fire is great for that) for the side the sword bearer wants to use for approaching Crota.
Once the sword is picked up, the sword bearer has 30 seconds to attack Crota. The DPS team should use rockets to bring Crota to his knee. Sleeper Simulant can be used, but only in addition to rockets-- it should be timed and fired so it impacts at the same time as the rockets do, otherwise it downs him too quickly. The sword bearer should not risk death trying for 4 swings. I tend to do 3 swings, retreat, then 3 more swings. Landing six swings should finish him, but if you get to him late, limit yourself to two strikes and just plan for using a second sword. If you do, everyone should return to the Crystal Hall and heal up with the Chalice if needed while you wait for Crota to rotate back to the center position.
A full Flawless Crota's End run should take around 30-40 minutes. If you experience a death, you'll have to go to orbit and retry (see info below on how to reset the raid). If you are learning these methods, don't feel bad if you have a death along the way. Just chalk it up to practice and keep going. After getting through the full raid with as few deaths as possible, start it up again do another attempt. You'll get it.
Try, Try Again
If you do experience a death during your attempt, you'll have to return to orbit and start over. But you obtain a checkpoint along the way, which must be cleared to do a fresh start. Here's how you clear it. When you use the Destiny navigator to select the raid, hit the square button (on a Playstation controller, "X" on an Xbox controller) instead of the cross button (or "A" on an Xbox controller). Upon launching the raid, you'll get a confirmation screen which means you reset it properly.
General Tips
Don't die. :)
Use your super if you get in trouble.
Avoid using rockets; save those for Crota.
Don't kill yourself with a grenade.
For each portion of the raid, take your time to review the strategy with your fireteam if you're doing it for the first time. Make sure everyone knows where to go and what to do before you start that section.
Make sure you are lowering agility and raising armor/recovery when you don't need agility.
Don't tether Crota. It's unnecessary and I'm not sure what effect it has, but I wouldn't just in case it causes unforseen problems.
Don't wear "Festival of the Lost" masks or SRL racing gear. :)
Videos
I have a number of sessions recorded for this encounter. Some have my talking through the above strategy during the run, since it was a first attempt for the group that went perfectly. Good luck with yours!
A Small Request
If you are reading this and have helped you and a fireteam through this strategy to obtain a Flawless Raider trophy, please send me a screenshot of your trophy drop (Playstation 4 attaches a screenshot to each trophy awarded). You can send it via PSN messaging to "bradchoate", or if you're on Xbox, you can send it to "syonyx" (or just email to [email protected] if all else fails). Thank you!