Destine Oryx Challenge Mode Guide

Destiny Oryx Challenge Mode Guide by el2mador

Please note that this guide is primarily for Challenge Mode. It assumes you’re familiar with the regular strategy/mechanics for beating Oryx. If you need help with the basics for regular/non-challenge mode mechanics, feel free to check out this guide.

Now, on with the show.

ORYX CHALLENGE MODE

• the challenge mode requirement is simply DETONATING A MINIMUM OF 16 BOMBS at once
• this means Oryx has to go from 100% to 1% health in ONE go
• it has nothing to do with which people killed ogres or switching runners; you can have the same runner throughout the fight, it’s fine
• again, do not detonate bombs until you have at least 16 (if all goes well, this will be on the fourth cycle)
• you will also have to fight the Shade of Oryx at least three times throughout the fight, once per transition phase
• IT MAY NOT be possible to do this via No Knight method because you have to kill the Knights to prevent them from eating the bombs.
• Feel free to look for workarounds but this is simply what we did.

EXECUTION

• Assign your permanent runner, your two permanent floaters, and your platform-jumpers numbered 1, 2 and 3.
• Do the fight normally as you would – kill Ogres, kill Knights.
• Shoot Oryx to stagger. Kill mobs.
• DO NOT detonate bombs.
• IF YOU DO NOT DETONATE BOMBS Oryx will summon the Shade Dimension for the transition, NOT the artillery barrage. This is what we want.
• Thralls will continue to spawn so just kill them. No need to shoot Oryx’s chest after the stagger.
• Oryx will go to the front, he will summon the “Dimension Portal”. So, kill the knights, thralls and, of course, the Shade.
• After that, re-do the whole jumping/ogre/knight/relic routine.
• Repeat this until the FOURTH CYCLE.
• At the end of that cycle, stagger Oryx, kill mobs.
• Have four people run to each cluster of bombs. Detonate all 16 bombs at the same time. Have people shooting at his chest to keep it open.
• NOTE: To avoid confusion, my suggestion is to have your platformers 1/2/3 detonate the bombs at the platform they were on for that last cycle (so they will remember it); and have one of your floaters detonate the bombs where the relic/last ogre had been. OR, you can give them permanently assigned spots, that’s up to you.
• Oryx’s health should be at 1% now. He flies to the front as usual – go kill him and enjoy your rewards.
• Challenge Mode Completed!

REWARDS

• a second chest will appear
• Normal Mode = calcified fragment, 310 weapon or helmet, and 310 artifact; and random/RNG-based loot
• Hard Mode = normal mode rewards, plus emblem, plus 320 weapon or helmet, 320 artifact, a ship; and random/RNG-based loot
• Eris also gives you the Beltane shader, other goodies like runes and hadium flakes, plus 500 Crota’s Bane rep. This is the reward for getting all 50 fragments per character. There may be more like a time-gated exotic quest, we don’t know for now.

VIDEO:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=TS758Bp5Yvg – teammate’s perspective/Titan floater

TEAM CREDITS

Teammates = AmiMaeveLafferty, GBKH, Hujykham, Goldhawk777, Lull9 and EL2mador

NOW FOR THE FREQUENTLY-ASKED-QUESTIONS

What if a Knight eats a bomb?

The above guide is simply for the cleanest possible clear for the challenge. However, if in case you lose some bombs, you’ll have to do an extra cycle.

The important thing is you need Oryx to go from 100% to 1% in ONE go, and that means having at least 16 bombs available to detonate.

Remember, 4 cycles is the optimum, 6 is the maximum. After 6 cycles, Oryx enrages.

We’re having trouble with the Knights. How do we kill them efficiently?

Assign a Hunter as the #3 platform jumper. If the runner calls out that his has the relic, even if #3’s knight is alive, he can tether the lane that the Knight passes through.

This usually tethers the fourth knight, the vessel, or acolytes/centurions, preventing any unlucky deaths.

Tethers provide amazing add-control and will help a lot each cycle.

We’re having trouble with the Thrall after staggering Oryx/before the Shade. There’s too many of them. Any help?

Divide your group into two. I assume you’re also using Touch of Malice. The relic holder and three people run to the front to shoot Thralls there. Two other teammates go to the back.

Those in front still have the Aura so they don’t lose health anyway, no need to reload.

Those at the back pick a side to defend. Three thralls spawn each side anyway, so killing three quickly regens player health; also no need to reload.

If you’re in front, once you see “Oryx regains the favor of the Darkness”, this means he’s moving to the front to cast the “Dimension Portal”. Move away from there or you’ll die.

Oh no! An Ogre kept running around and now its bomb is further away from the rest. What now?

Pay close attention if this happens so you don’t detonate prematurely/cause a wipe.

You can do either:

• (a) assign your four players to detonate those clustered bombs, and have a fifth player detonate the bomb that’s further away
• (b) assign your four players to detonate those clustered bombs; and whichever player’s side has the faraway bomb, have him run into it after blowing up his cluster; he can sacrifice himself and die; Warlocks can self-ress if they’re assigned to do this

We already did the detonations and missed some bombs (ie. 15 out of 16), what now?

This means you’ll have to re-do the fight. You can only complete the challenge by detonating all bombs/damaging Oryx in one go.

We did an extra cycle so we ended up with more than 16 bombs. Is this okay?

That’s fine. 16 bombs is the minimum to “one-shot” Oryx. Just remember that he enrages after 6 cycles.

Important Note: Months ago, there was a bug reported wherein 20 bombs detonated at the same time can crash the game.

We still DO NOT have any confirmation of this at the present, but beware nonetheless. If people would like to check just to confirm, feel free to do so.

Can we have deaths or wipes?

Yes you can have deaths, but I would advise against that (unless you can self-ress). Remember that you may lack some damage later on in the fight, which can cause a lot of problems such as rampaging Ogres/knights not being killed.

You can have wipes of course.

We did everything right, but when we detonated, nothing happened / Oryx’s health was not at 1% still. Huh?

You need to have at least one person (preferably the relic holder) shooting his chest so it remains open while others are detonating.

There are three explanations why your group had a problem:

• whoever was supposed to be shooting his chest was not
• lag
• if you did see Oryx get damaged, but not enough to go to 1%, that means you missed a bomb or two. It was eaten by a Knight and no one noticed it; or whoever was assigned to it was not able to detonate it (ie.the bomb was slightly further away and the player was not inside its activation radius).

You can go to Orbit and press the touchpad to see how many bombs were detonated to be certain of what happened.

Bungie’s tweet told us “Four Oryx. Fouryx. Slams for days” – what did that have to do with this challenge?

Well, guardian, assuming it only took you the optimal 4 cycles to gather 16 bombs (ie. you did not lose one to a single knight), that means…

You fought and killed the Shade of Oryx three times – once per transition phase.

You detonated and damaged Oryx once – 4 bombs x 4 players at the same time.

Three Shades of Oryx dead + one real Oryx dead = ‘Fouryx’ (that can be a decent interpretation).

I apologize earlier for not being able to answer some questions/clarifications. Our group was among the first to complete this Challenge Mode and I immediately started writing this guide. Since we were also doing more runs, I had little time to check some comments/questions, though I tried to answer and make edits as frequently as I could.

Feel free to ask/clarify a few things and I, or other players, can answer.

Goodluck as always, Guardian.