Destiny Skolas Rounds 1 to 5 Solo Guide

Destiny Skolas Rounds 1 to 5 Solo Guide by Classic_Griswald

The following is a guide for the rounds leading up to Skolas, rounds 1-5. Ive done each round Solo, and have highlighted most of the strategy used in the videos, while cutting away some of the more boring moments. As well there is a text write up for each section. [Note1]

If you are only interested in seeing video without guide, its directly below, or scroll to each section for a write up, as well as link.

Round 1

Round 2

Round 3

Round 4

Round 5

This may be useful anyone looking to solo the first 5 rounds.

It can also be helpful for teams of 2/3

With only a few days before TTK comes out, when Skolas will become just another easy end game affair, here is a fairly complete guide on the rounds leading up to Skolas. For anyone that has difficulty on any of these rounds, or if you haven’t attempted yet, there might be a couple things in here, which could be useful. Besides that, I had been meaning to document a solo run of the 1-5 rounds, simply for something challenging to do in PvE.

Round 1 – Hive – No Objective

Round 1

Optimal load out – Fatebringer / VoC – Black hammer / HI Sniper / Gjallarhorn

This round is really easy. If you are having trouble on this round, it might be worth doing a equipment check and make sure you equipped the right gear. Ive been known to accidentally run lvl 33 or 32. Any lower and you get a convenient “Immune” signal when you shoot enemies.

The safe spot is on the left from when you walk in, a spot almost everyone knows running POE hive rounds. There are two spots which give you cover from ogres, clear out the trall first, then acolytes which aggro up close, and then kill the orges / wizard / boomers.

If you are a party of three it makes sense to designate 1 or 2 to ogre / wizard / boomer duty, the third can just kill the thrall and acolytes. Although its just as easy each person maintains a “kill everything” attitude.

Round 2 – Vex – Destroy Mines – Grounded – Airborne

Round 2

Optimal Loadout – VoC – High Impact Void Sniper | Found Verdict / Gjallarhorn

The biggest threats in this round are the red bar minotaurs & yellow bar hobgoblins. The hobs can be a huge pain to kill, either a good shotgun [Found Verdit] or a high impact sniper will deal with them nicely. Both will aggro up close and personal, making it much easier if you kill as many as possible early in the round.

A trick Ive learned is to fire rockets as the minotaurs spawn and come down towards you, the yellow bars should be jumping down around this time too, and if you peak around the wall to shoot, you can jump up as your rockets hit, taking advantage of the ‘airborne’ modifier.

You should be able to reach most of the ‘destroy mine’ spawns from your position. IF one spawns across the map, a invisible hunter works best here, as he can cross safely, destroy the mine and super/invis to return. A titan can also do it, popping bubble when he takes fire. Warlocks, well you just die, then revive. [then die again?oops]

Solo strat – Same as if you have a team, but taking out the minotaurs and a couple of the yellow hobs in the first moments of each round is of paramount importance. IF they are wandering around while you deal with mines, chances are it wont end well. Kill them first, then deal with mines.

Round 3 – Cabal – Disable Mines – Arc Burn

Round 3

Optimal Loadout – Fatebringer / Found Verdict | High Impact Arc Sniper / Gjallarhorn | Arc Launcher Prox/Cluster

Arc burn Cabal is the bane of many, because = Psions. The enemy most people ignore in all of PvE are the biggest threat. Psions have an Arc wave attack, which is a deadly OHK.

‘Yeah yeah, Psions bad, Arc burn bad, we know’

Psions spawn from two points on the map. If you head to the very back from the entrance [safe zone] they will spawn on the right and at the far end left of the entrance.

Ad control. Like most of end game content, and especially POE, ad control is important here. Priority targets.

Always kills Psions first. Then yellow bar centurions. Red bar centurions. Finally phalanx, and regular red bar legionnaire.

Solo strat – I wouldn’t attempt this solo on anything but a Hunter. When you run a party, the hunter should still solo the mines, its easier. I like to crouch on the first mine, re-evaluate from the sidelines and usually super-invis to the 2nd and 3rd mine, but a crouch-invis to the mine, and then a blink strike against the mine also works.

A titan bubble on the mid mine area works well, especially on the 3rd round if heavy pops, but a Titan can kind of bounce back and forth to both other mines from mid, and disable mid from the bubble.

Round 4 – Fallen – VIP Target – Specialist – Juggler

Round 4

Optimal Loadout Vex | Universal Remote / Found Verdict / Gjallarhorn | ARC-Anything

Specialist is on, so Found Verdict is your lord and savior. Luckily Vex & Universal Remote also get a buff here, but primary and heavy damage is nerfed, so everything else is fairly useless. A testament to how OP gally is, it still isn’t half bad. I usually wait until synths are up, pop a heavy, fire off a full stack of gally rockets and switch back to Vex or Universal remote.

The strat here changes with the classes you are running. With Hunters, the trick is to go invisible, creep up on the spongey enemies, shotgun them in the back, run! With a Titan, you want S-14, and it makes this one of the easiest rounds period.

In between round 2 & 3 the Titan will put a blinding bubble on the door VIP target enters from. On 2nd round it’s the first captain out the door. Shotgun him and run to a safer area. On round 3, he may not come out right away, shotty all the rest, and clear a path for when he comes, Universal Remote is a big help here because Found Verdict only has so many rounds.

With a hunter, you will go invisible in between the rounds, and follow VIP target out the foor, shotgun him in the back where applicable.

Solo strat – The hardest part here is clearing stuff afterwards. Its much easier with a team of 3 where you can utilize the left or right side safe areas, and do call outs on the deadly captains. For a solo run, you want to use the very far end of the map to clear out some ads, while then utilizing map rotation and movement to sneak up and take out the harder to kill ads one at a time.

Round 5 – Fallen – BOSS Pilot Servitor – Smallarms

Round 5

Optimal Loadout – Fang of Ir Yut | Atheons Epilogue / Black Hammer / Gjallarhorn | ARC-Launcher-MG

Small arms is nice for primary damage, but your special and heavy damage are nerfed. Once again I hardly ever focus on heavy here, I use it when ads spawn and fire gally into the crowd until they’re gone, it is way more effective than it should be, but still not enough to burn the bullet sponge boss down as easily as rounds without the modifier.

The best 3 man strat here is one designated sniper [who only shoots the boss] and a two-man cover-fire team, who’s primary target are dregs, as dregs are the only thing that can kill your sniper [he’s using the sniper spot at the back of the map] This encounter takes 7-12 minutes [or less] with a 2 or 3 man team.

You will find pretty much any primary works here, although I personally don’t like handcanons since the reload and RoF is not as fast as the alternatives. Suprisingly, Atheons Epilogue is beyond decent if you are only DPSing the boss.

As a sniper, you are on the very edge of a cliff, where a minor misstep backwards = death. Dregs tossing grenades at you = death. And when captains rush you occasionally, you need to crouch into the corner, where they get stuck and shoot them in the back, because if you don’t = death.

Solo strat – exact same as with a 2 or 3 man team, but you don’t have cover fire. Once dregs start tossing grenades, its time to move. Circle the perimeter of the map, and kill ads. Focus mainly on dregs, once they are gone, get back to sniping position. Continue to DPS the boss, until more dregs spawn, and as soon as you start taking damage, leave, kite the outside of the map, clear ads, go back to sniping.

Note1: Working on XB1, I gave my Kinect to a Reddit member who was in need of a Kinect [since I never saw a need], not knowing I couldn’t “Xbox record that” without it. Long story short, Ive never been able to DVR properly on XB, with only 5 mins, some footage might be missing, also, partly because Im an idiot who cant snap things properly, I caused half a dozen wipes while trying to unsnap or just get the grey circle to stop spinning on the DVR app. So, while I did successfully run each round solo, some footage may be from separate attempts.

TL:DR Seriously? Its a guide, there is no TD:LR, but, if you are interested in watching just the video, they are together at the top :) Thanks for stopping by.

I really find Skolas to be a decent challenge, whereas soloing Crota or something is challenge at first, there is by far more random elements here that can make you miserable in each round, making it more difficult I think.

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