How to defeat Zo’aurc in Destiny 2 Pantheon

The brand-new Pantheon mode in Destiny 2 is all about reliving your greatest raiding triumphs. Over the course of four weeks, Guardians will have the chance to earn previously expansion-locked exotics for free, as well as a bunch of other raid weapons. For the first week of bosses, we’re gonna go back to our nightmares and figure out how to defeat Zo’aurc in Destiny 2 Pantheon.

Destiny 2 — How to defeat Zo’aurc in Pantheon

Zo’aurc is the third encounter boss from the Root of Nightmares raid from the Lightfall expansion. The encounter’s called Macrocosm, and you’ll need to make sure you have your planets memorized in order to clear this boss. This fight is split up into three distinct parts: the outside planets, inside planets, and damage phase.

We’re going to go through all of these phases and give you the best chance at defeating Zo’aurc as quickly as possible. Starting with the very first part of the fight, the outside planets.

Zo’aurc — Outside Planets

When you enter the arena, you’ll see a whole heap of planets floating in the air on the left and right side. The three planets on the inside won’t be needed right now, so what you’ll want to do is number all of the planets on the outside. What makes this version of the encounter a bit different from the normal raid is the fact that the boss with throw fire tornados at you from the beginning of the fight

The first group of planets closest to you when entering the boss arena should be numbered one through three, with planet number three being the furthest planet away from you, we will include an image above to better illustrate how we number them.

Since the closet planets on both sides are, the group of three planets that are closer to the boss should be numbered four through six in the same fashion.

Have one player each assigned to a group of three planets, with the remaining players focusing on add-clear. Start the encounter, and after a minute, a Colossus will spawn on each planet platform. Defeat the Colossus if you’re on one of the platforms, and you’ll receive the Planetary Insight buff.

You’ll need to coordinate with the other players and make sure all Light planets are on the left side, and Dark planets are on the right. With Planetary Insight, walk under the planet that doesn’t belong on your side and press the interact button to grab the planet. You’ll have to tell your teammate across the room what planet number you’re swapping, as they will have to tell you the same.

You’ll have a set amount of time before the planets start to shift, so make sure you move all the correct planets quickly. After all the planets have been changed, focus on clearing enemies while you see the planets start to shift locations. If everything is done correctly, have all the players return to their platforms and get ready for inside planets.

Zo’aurc — Inside Planets

Once you’ve returned to your set position after outside planets, you’ll need to wait until another Clossus spawns on each outside planet platform. Take out the Colossus to get Planetary Insight again, except this time, you’ll want to look at the three planets in the middle of the arena.

These planets will be a combination of Light and Dark planets that change placement every time, but there will always be one Light/Dark, and two of the other respective color. So if you have two Light and one Dark planet, you must place two Light and one Dark planet from the outside platforms onto the inside planets. There are also some Tormentors that spawn during this phase, so be sure to have the add-clear Guardians focus them.

Whichever color only has one planet, talk to the other teammate on your side and decide which one of you will bank the planet in the center. Once you’ve figured it out, grab the planet from the outside like you did in the previous phase of the encounter except, bring it to the middle planets now. Press and hold the interact button under the correct planet and then get ready for the damage phase.

Zo’aurc — Damage Phase

Now that you’ve successfully placed all three planets on the inside platform, you’ll be able to do damage by standing in the pools of Light/Dark under the three planets. When you stand in one of the pools, you’ll be able to do damage to Zo’aurc until he throws a fire tornado at every damage pool, causing you to switch to another pool after the fire tornados go away.

If you have one Light planet on the left and right, and one Dark planet in the middle, I would end up starting at the left Light planet and then once you have to move to another damage pool, go to the Dark pool. You just want to make sure you swap to opposite-colored pools every time the boss forces you to move.

After you deal damage in the last pool, the boss goes back to his original place at the beginning of the encounter, and the entire fight resets starting with Outside Planets.

He has an enrage section of his health, so if you deal enough damage, you’ll have to wait a second before jumping back into the damage pools in the middle and doing damage again until you defeat him, or vice versa. Now that we’ve taken care of this planetary annihilator, we can focus on the other Pantheon bosses.