Destiny 2: Vault of Glass — Atheon boss fight guide

You’ve defeated the Templar and cleared the Gatekeeper encounter. Now, it’s time to face off against the “big bad” of the Vault of Glass raid. It’s none other than Atheon, Time’s Conflux, a gigantic Vex gate lord that’s set to annihilate your team. Here’s our guide to help you with the Atheon boss fight in Destiny 2‘s Vault of Glass raid.

Note: For more information about Destiny 2: Season of the Splicer, check out our guides and features hub. You can also read our main guide for the Vault of Glass raid.

Destiny 2 Vault of Glass – Atheon boss fight guide

The Atheon boss fight in Destiny 2‘s Vault of Glass raid takes place in the same area where you finished the Gatekeeper encounter. As such, you should be slightly familiar with the layout of the normal area, as well as the teleport locations (Mars/left and Venus/right).

At the start, try to avoid Atheon’s torch hammer blasts since the weapon can two-shot you easily if you’re out in the open. Just stay at the sides, clearing out the harpies that appear.

Note: Kill the harpies that are close to the ground. As for those that are floating higher in the air, you can leave one alive so Atheon doesn’t spawn additional sets.

If you’re left outside: Watching out for supplicants and doing callouts for the Oracles

Eventually, Atheon will send three players to a random location (either Mars or Venus). The three other players will be left outside.

Here’s what needs to happen. First, the teleported players will call out their new location. One player from the outside team will stand on the pillar that’s on the plate to activate the teleporter for that location. The outside players should also clear more harpy mobs, including supplicants (exploding harpies) which can instantly kill you.

However, the most important factor to remember would be the red Oracles that spawn in mid-air. Similar to previous encounters, a set of three Oracles will spawn at intervals. There are six spots that they can appear at. Ideally, you’ll want the entire fireteam to be on the same page as to how they’re called out/numbered. In our case, we decided to start from the front left (closer to the Mars teleporter) going counter-clockwise to the back left (closer to Atheon). You can refer to the image below.

Note: At least one outside player needs to do callouts for the Oracles that appear, and most will be visible when you’re on one of the ledges at the back (close to your spawn point). Atheon won’t shoot at you while the Oracle phase is happening, but some harpies might still damage you.

If you got teleported: Taking the relic, killing the Oracles, and cleansing the blindness

The three players who got teleported will notice a relic once they spawn in. Have one player pick this up and use it to beat down the mobs. Additional enemies will also spawn from the portals, but there’s a way to ignore them (which I’ll explain in a while).

Likewise, the relic holder has an additional task, and that’s periodically cleansing allies by holding down the melee button. You’ll need to be quick or your friends could go blind.

Note: If you’re not carrying the relic, try to be close to the other player so the cleanse’s area-of-effect applies to both of you.

What about the players who don’t have the relic? Well, their job is to listen to the Oracle callouts from the outside team. It’s imperative that you destroy the Oracles in the correct order since a single mistake will cause a wipe.

The Mars/Venus locations actually mirror Atheon’s arena (only the color schemes and foliage are different). As such, you can follow the numbering in the map shown earlier.

• Some teams like to shoot the Oracles from the center (where the Hydra dies). Just remember to spin around a bit in case you need to shoot the Oracles that are behind you (i.e., those at the long stairs/large gateway).
• Other teams, meanwhile, like to rush to the back of the map past the middle platform (essentially your “spawn point” in the main area). This will mean that all Oracles are in front of you (as you face the long stairs/large gateway). You can see this example in the image below.

Note 1: The Xenophage can one-shot Oracles easily, even those that are further away. If you wish to keep your exotic slot free for the Anarchy, you can use sniper rifles to take them out. The relic holder can even drop the relic to help shoot them, or get the relic’s super charged to blast one target.

Note 2: The reason why moving to the edge of the map/mirror spawn point is to avoid confusion and deaths. Players can see all the oracles in front of them. Likewise, you’re too far away from mobs that they would hardly be able to shoot you. The relic holder doesn’t even need to kill them and they’ll simply stand near you to cleanse when needed.

Note 3: There are three sets with three Oracles each that you need to handle. Once all nine Oracles have been destroyed, cleanse the players close to the teleporter, run outside, and start the DPS phase. You might need to cleanse your teammates again once you’re at the designated DPS spot.

The DPS phase: Time’s Vengeance buff, detainment, and suggested loadouts

With all nine Oracles dead, the team will receive the Time’s Vengeance buff. This signals the start of the DPS phase for the Atheon boss fight. Still, this phase is fairly short and hectic, and you really need to burst the boss down. Here are some suggestions:

• Titans – Thundercrash with Cuirass of the Fallen Star.
• Warlocks – At least one Well of Radiance. If you have multiple Warlocks, they should use Chaos Reach with Geomag Stabilizers or Nova Bomb with Nezarec’s Sin.
• Hunters – Golden Gun with Celestial Nighthawk or Blade Barrage with Shards of Galanor.
• Anarchy tends to deal a lot of consistent damage if you hit the boss or the ground near it. The Salvager’s Salvo might also help if need be. You can also use the Xenophage. Just try to conserve some ammo for the Oracles of you get teleported.

The Time’s Vengeance buff speeds up the recharge rate of all your abilities, including grenades and supers. Likewise, you’ll want Paradrome Cube artifact mods like Blast Radius (everyone) and Breach & Clear (at least two to three fireteam members who use grenade launchers). There are also other mods such as Taking Charge and Energy Converter. A combination of Nova Bomb (with Nezarec’s Sin) or Blade Barrage (with Shards of Galanor), plus Blast Radius, Taking Charge, and Energy Converter can help you regenerate your super back, especially if Anarchy shots/supers also end up killing the harpy mobs.

Note 1: Since Titans will need to Thundercrash immediately so they have enough time to get their super back, they should never carry the relic as it wastes precious seconds. Ideally, whoever’s carrying the relic should drop it near everyone so it can be picked up by a Warlock using Well of Radiance (the only one who isn’t spamming damage-dealing supers). Also, as far as I can tell, regular supers deal more damage than the relic’s own super.

Note 2: Oh, and don’t forget, you need to watch out for detainment (which targets one player). After a few seconds, the detainment will trap the player and all other allies near them. You have to check the bottom-left corner of your HUD to see if you’re the one that’s being targeted so you can jump away from your allies (seen in the next image). Your teammates will just shoot you out of your own detainment bubble when they can.

Lastly, let’s talk about the DPS spots and transitioning back to the regular phase. Some groups do like to use the middle platform, while others like to be spread out. There are also cases wherein groups might wish to DPS in front of a portal (the one that the teleported team exits from). This is a viable strategy since it slightly speeds up the DPS and your Anarchy, grenades, and supers hit more mobs (to help recharge your super again). The only threats here are the supplicants that can swerve towards you, but they can be dealt with as they’re moving closer.

Anyway, after one DPS phase, you should’ve taken out a chunk of Atheon’s health. Repeat the same process with the teleports, Oracle callouts, and relic cleansing a couple more times until Atheon’s dead. Congratulations on clearing the normal mode of Destiny 2‘s Vault of Glass raid, and good luck on getting the Vex Mythoclast while you’re at it.

Update: Assuming that Bungie doesn’t fix it soon, you can also cheese and instantly kill the boss.

Destiny 2: Season of the Splicer is available via Steam. For more information, check out our guides and features hub. Likewise, you can read our main guide for the Vault of Glass raid.