Destiny 2: Vault of Glass — How to instantly kill Atheon with a cheese

Atheon is the final boss in the Vault of Glass raid, and this Vex gate lord will probably give newcomers a few headaches. Still, there’s a way to avoid all of the mechanics since you can instantly kill this boss to get your loot. Here’s our guide to help you cheese and instantly kill Atheon 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 – Instantly killing Atheon with a cheese/exploit

As far as I know, the Atheon cheese/exploit in the Vault of Glass raid was first posted by Reddit user Tafelfisch. I decided to replicate the process with an LFG team. To be clear, you’ll only be able to do the Atheon cheese/exploit if you complete the Gatekeeper encounter normally. Here are the steps:

• During the Gatekeeper fight just before everyone heads to the center to battle the Vex waves, take note of whoever was the last player inside Venus.
• After picking up the loot from the Gatekeeper’s chest, this player has to jump off a cliff and die. Do not ress them.
• Once this player respawns, they’ll be inside Venus once more.
• The Venus respawn only works for the last player to leave that area as long as they don’t die while taking out the Vex waves at the end of the Gatekeeper encounter. It seems the game counts Venus as their last checkpoint.

Note: As for the rest of the fireteam, people should just chill. Do not shoot the box to start the Atheon fight or you’d have to battle Atheon normally.

Anyway, the inactive Atheon won’t fire or move, and the player in the Venus zone can freely shoot it. Try to use Witherhoard to help with the damage, and switch to DARCI when you need to check the boss’ health.

The moment you kill Atheon, the rest of the fireteam has to shoot the box in the main area. This will, technically, begin the encounter. But, because Atheon is already dead in Venus, the boss will also be dead once it tries to spawn in the main area.

You should get some nifty rewards, including:

• “Eyes on Atheon” triumph – Defeat Atheon without destroying any supplicants.
• The Vex Mythoclast exotic (random drop) – One of my teammates ended up with it.

Note: You’ll get the loot and you can even exchange Spoils of Conquest for gear. However, you won’t get the clear recorded on the Raid Report website.

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.