Destiny 2 The Witch Queen guide: Vow of the Disciple raid walkthrough (2024)

Vow of the Disciple is the new raid in Destiny 2, added in The Witch Queen expansion. It sees players venture inside a Pyramid Ship and take on Rhulk, a disciple of The Witness.

In this Destiny 2: The Witch Queen Vow of the Disciple raid guide, we’ll break down each encounter and show you and your squad how to take on the new raid with screenshots, diagrams, and examples. We’ve also linked some helpful video guides below, which we think are great.

Table of contents

The boat
Learning the symbols
Acquisition
  • The setup
  • The fight
The Caretaker boss fight
  • Runners
  • Add clear
  • Damage phase
Exhibition or the Upended Summit
Rhulk boss fight
  • Symbols phase
  • Emanating Force and the pillars
  • Damage phase
  • Complete Rhulk step-by-step example

The boat

The first encounter of the Vow of the Disciple raid is quite simple and should actually be familiar if you’ve already done the Preservation mission in Savathun’s Throne World.

Destiny 2 The Witch Queen guide: Vow of the Disciple raid walkthrough (1) Image: Bungie via Polygon

When you and your team land, kill the reflection of Savathun and go through the big door and into the Disciple’s Bog. Hop on your Sparrow, and roll up to the big, black barge. This Darkness Surfboard is your new best friend, so stick close to it.

Nine little collectibles will pop up in the world, as will Scorn enemies. Venture away from the surfboard, and grab the collectibles to gain knowledge. Once you have three collectibles, return to the surfboard. Collect them all to get the surfboard moving.

While away from the surfboard’s orange aura, you’ll slowly gain stacks of Pervading Darkness, a debuff you’ll be dealing with for the entirety of Vow of the Disciple. Every stack makes your screen darker and harder to see. At 10 stacks, you’ll be completely blind and also dead. To stop the buff from stacking in this encounter, kill the big Scorn Abominations that spawn.

When you finish the first area, the surfboard will move to another area. Ride or follow behind it, but know that unlike the public event escorts, this thing really boogies. Repeat the process above in six areas, and the surfboard will park itself inside the Pyramid’s garage, letting you inside.

Learning the symbols

Before we get to the fun part of the raid, it’s time for some quick homework.

Vow of the Disciple is all about symbols, and there are a lot of them. You and your team will need to agree on callouts for 27 — yes, 27 — symbols, and you’ll use them in every encounter. You cannot complete the raid unless everyone is on the same page here, so take a second to get everyone up to speed.

Destiny 2 The Witch Queen guide: Vow of the Disciple raid walkthrough (2) Image: Bungie via Reddit users nerdorado and itsnon

Before the raid’s first real encounter, you’ll find a room filled with these symbols, and you can zoom in on them to learn what Bungie calls them. Those are all catalogued above in an excellent chart from Reddit users nerdorado and itsnon.

Of course, there’s nothing wrong with using your own callouts entirely, or using a mix. (For example, our team calls Worship “Football Jesus,” and we won’t be changing that anytime soon.) Just make sure that if you come up with a silly nickname, everyone knows what symbol you mean. If you’ve been calling Knowledge “Brain” for hours and someone suddenly calls it “Head,” it could create just enough confusion to cause a wipe.

Once everyone is ready to go (or has this cheat sheet up on an easily accessible second screen), it’s time to move onto the real raid.

Acquisition

Almost 600 words into this Destiny 2: The Witch Queen Vow of the Disciple raid guide, and it’s time to get to its first encounter: Acquisition.

Destiny 2 The Witch Queen guide: Vow of the Disciple raid walkthrough (3) Image: Reddit user DependentLocation136

The setup

This fight takes place in a giant museum room inside the Pyramid. There are three Obelisks in this room: south (by the stairs where you spawn), east, and west. Each Obelisk has its own Pillar as well, which will display key symbols.

Scattered around the room you’ll also find nine temples: Worship (south), Drink (north), Stop (west), Commune (east), Grieve (west), Knowledge (north), Kill (east), Give (south), Enter (south). Walk around with your crew before you start, and make sure each teammate knows where these temples are.

Break up into three groups of two, and have each group take an Obelisk and Pillar.

Finally, if you look at the center of the room, just under the massive bone, you’ll see that the east side is labeled with the Traveler symbol, and the west list labeled with the Pyramid symbol. Remember that going forward, as it’ll be important.

The fight

This encounter is actually pretty simple once you know what you’re doing, but learning it can be a little complex.

Destiny 2 The Witch Queen guide: Vow of the Disciple raid walkthrough (4) Image: Bungie via Polygon

Each team will have a defender and a runner. The defender will read the pillar and communicate with their runner, while the runner will go into temples and defeat Scorn bosses. Runners should have a power weapon like Gjallarhorn, while defenders need something with Unstoppable on it.

To start the encounter, shoot the crux to the north of the room (under the bone). This object is a toggle that opens some temple doors while shutting others. Runners may need to call for teammates to shoot the crux during the encounter to either let them out of a temple or let them in.

When enemies start to spawn, one of the pillars around the room will get a Traveler or Pyramid symbol at its top. (You can only read a Pillar if you’re close to it. Otherwise, it appears blank, so no cheating from across the room.) This denotes where the first Compass Knight has spawned. If it’s a Traveler, the Knight is hiding on the east side of the room, whereas a Pyramid symbol denotes the west side. Send one player from the east, west, or south team to hunt down and kill the Knight.

Destiny 2 The Witch Queen guide: Vow of the Disciple raid walkthrough (5) Image: Bungie via Polygon

When the Compass Knight dies, a second icon will appear on the first Pillar, and a new Knight will spawn somewhere else (lighting up the first symbol on a second Pillar). This second symbol will match a temple around the room. The runner assigned to that pillar will need to venture into the matching temple while their defender stays behind, defending the Obelisk and hunting Knights.

While in the temple, runners will find two giant Scorn Glyphkeepers, one on the Light side of the room and one on the Darkness side (denoted by symbols on the wall). Kill them both to be safe, and watch for the Screeb that spawns as well. When the Glyphkeepers are dead, one of the 27 symbols will appear above their head. The runner’s matching defender will also see a third symbol on their pillar: Light or Darkness. The defender needs to relay Light or Dark to their runner, who will then memorize or write down the symbol that the corresponding Glyphkeeper dropped in their temple before returning to their Obelisk.

Destiny 2 The Witch Queen guide: Vow of the Disciple raid walkthrough (6) Image: Bungie via Polygon

All three Obelisk runners will get a symbol through that process, which will open up the Obelisks to accept an offering. Once players have all three symbols (for example: Love, Worm, and Earth), they’ll need to search each Obelisk to see which one has all three symbols written on its outside (each Obelisk has nine buttons that can contain symbols — three on each side). Only one of the three Obelisks will have all three of the called symbols. After finding the right Obelisk, players will quickly need to shoot the three symbols. If done correctly, the Obelisk will accept the offering.

Shooting the symbols in this and future encounters can be extremely finnicky. For the best results, make sure your teammates are all shooting the symbols constantly so they don’t deactivate. Because of this, our team ran all six players over to the Obelisk in question to make sure each of the three symbols had at least one Guardian shooting it.

Here’s an example for one duo of players:

  1. When the fight starts, Traveler shows up on the east Pillar.
  2. The east runner goes off on their side to find the Compass Knight and kills it.
  3. Drink appears as the middle symbol on the Pillar.
  4. The runner goes to the Drink temple door and shoots the crux since the door was shut.
  5. The runner kills the Glyphkeepers in the Drink temple.
  6. The Glyphkeeper on the Darkness side drops the Love symbol and the Glyphkeeper on the Light side drops the Black Heart symbol.
  7. The defender tells the runner they are looking for the Darkness symbol.
  8. The runner memorizes (or writes in chat if playing on PC) that their symbol is Love.
  9. The runner leaves the temple and returns to their Obelisk to help their defender protect the Obelisk.
  10. Because they were the first group to go, the east runner and defender keep their area clear of Scorn and aid their other teammates by killing Knights.
  11. The other two runners discover their symbols are Worm and Earth.
  12. The east Obelisk team checks their Obelisk and discover that while it does have Worm and Love, there is no Earth symbol.
  13. The south team says their Obelisk has Earth, Worm, and Love on it.
  14. The east runner and defender head south and shoot Love on the south Obelisk while the south and north players shoot their respective symbol. (While this can be done with three or even one player, this raid group is being cautious.)
  15. When the Obelisk says it accepts the ritual, the east team returns to their own Obelisk and starts over.

Repeat this entire process three times to complete the ritual and the fight.

Destiny 2 The Witch Queen guide: Vow of the Disciple raid walkthrough (7) Image: Bungie via Polygon

Before we move on, you might be wondering, “What are defenders doing this entire time?” Well, they’re defending the Obelisk and helping to kill Knights, which are two very important jobs that are both pretty obvious. The Obelisks are constantly filling with energy in this encounter, and when they fill completely, it wipes the entire raid. And when the Obelisks take damage from the constantly spawning Scorn, they charge energy even faster.

Successfully completing an offering drains the Obelisks, but so does killing Glyphkeepers. As long as you move fast, protect the Obelisks from the Scorn, kill Glyphkeepers at a regular pace, and don’t input the wrong symbols into the Obelisks, you shouldn’t ever have a problem with this mechanic.

The Caretaker boss fight

The Caretaker is a far easier fight to explain than Acquisition. Basically there are four floors in this giant room, and a really big Scorn that doesn’t want you poking around in his museum. On each floor is a dark room, an Obelisk, and three plates. If the Caretaker reaches the Obelisk, or you take too much time, it’ll explode and everyone will die. But you and your raid team can prevent that and get some sweet loot.

You’ll be breaking up into three teams of two again, but this time each group will have a very different job, so we’re going to break things up a bit here.

Runners

Destiny 2 The Witch Queen guide: Vow of the Disciple raid walkthrough (8) Image: Bungie via Polygon

Runners have the most important job in this fight. You’ll be shooting a crux to open the door at the back of the room (and start the fight) and adventuring into the dark room to collecting symbol buffs scattered around inside. You’ll need to remember your symbols, and you can collect up to three at a time. Once you have all three, have an ally open the door for you and return to the Obelisk. When the Obelisk asks for your offering by name, shoot the three symbols you picked up.

Once the Obelisk accepts your symbols, take a breather and help kill enemies while the other runner goes inside. (Make sure to open the door for them.)

What makes this tricky also explains why you should swap runners: You’ll gain Pervading Darkness while in the room, so you have to move quickly. There are also pitfalls in the room and Wizards with tons of health, who will absolutely mess you up if you get too close. You can actually pick up only one or two symbols instead of just three, which can be useful if you think you might die.

Once you’ve deposited nine symbols and cleared the Obelisk, the damage phase will begin. Scroll down a bit and we’ll explain that.

Caretaker babysitters

Destiny 2 The Witch Queen guide: Vow of the Disciple raid walkthrough (9) Image: Bungie via Polygon

Caretaker babysitters have the most enjoyable and dangerous job in this encounter. As soon as runners go in their door, the Caretaker will book it to the Obelisk. To stop him, you’ll need to stun him.

Position one babysitter in front of the Caretaker and another behind him. Have the player in front run up to the Caretaker’s legs, which will make him mad. When he’s mad, he’ll stomp the ground, hurting anyone too close.

When he gets mad, his face will glow. Shooting it (ideally with a Heavy machine gun) will stagger him for a second, opening his back. The player behind them can then shoot his back, which causes the Caretaker to tumble over for a few seconds and stop moving.

Making the Caretaker mad gives you a debuff, and the Caretaker will ignore you until the debuff goes away. If you mess up a stun, have the other player make him mad instead. If you or your allies are fast enough, you can actually stagger the Caretaker by shooting his face before he even stomps, letting you just stay under him the entire fight.

Repeat this process until your runners deposit all nine symbols, keeping the Caretaker as far away from the Obelisk as possible.

Add clear

This job is simple, but extremely important. Enemies will spawn in the room as the other teams are doing their job. The add clear squad just needs to kill those enemies so their allies can focus. Great Destiny 2: The Witch Queen add clear players will also help stun the Caretaker if they see it glowing or help input codes with runners. If you’re an add clear player, you should read what both other teams do.

Damage phase

Destiny 2 The Witch Queen guide: Vow of the Disciple raid walkthrough (10) Image: Bungie via Polygon

Once the nine symbols are in, the Caretaker will ignore his babysitters and barrel toward the top platform. Go to whatever side he’s coming up, and stand on the big silver plate. It’ll eventually start to glow, and you’ll be able to damage him for a short time. When the plate begins to fade (the activity feed will let you know), move to the middle plate. When that one fades, move to the third plate on that floor.

When the third plate fades or you’ve dealt enough damage (the Caretaker has a health gate, so you can only do so much before he just leaves), he’ll ascend.

When the Caretaker moves, stairs will drop down, letting you and your squad move to the next level.

Now you need to repeat the entire thing over again in a new environment. The dark room is a bit trickier here, as is the path the Caretaker will take. More enemies (including snipers that like to shoot your babysitters right before the Caretaker stomps) will also appear on the sides. After damaging the boss a second time, you’ll move to a third floor. Then, after another entire phase, you’ll move to the fourth and final for his last stand.

Destiny 2 The Witch Queen guide: Vow of the Disciple raid walkthrough (11) Image: Bungie via Polygon

The last stand is just a long hallway with three plates in a line. Stand on the first plate, and blast the boss until it fades. Then move to the next and the next. If you kill the boss before the final plate fades, you win. If not, he’ll kill you, and you’ll need to start again.

The final note here is that the boss likes to launch weird spirally footballs while he walks or during the final phase. These will hurt pretty bad if they hit you, but you and your teammates can shoot them out of the air to improve your chances.

Exhibition or the Upended Summit

Exhibition is going to be the easiest to explain fight in this guide, but it’s more about execution than what you know.

The idea here is that you and your team are trying to reach the boss before a debuff called Terminal Resonance expires, killing everyone immediately. To do that, you’ll need the help of some familiar relics from the Pyramid’s collection.

There are three relics in this fight, and you’ll need to use all of them at different points:

  • Darkness Laser — Used for killing Taken Knights
  • Templar Shield — Used for cleansing allies
  • Eye of Riven — Used to destroy Taken orbs

There are four rooms you’ll need to fight through in the Exhibition encounter (that’s the name of the area this encounter takes place in, but it’s actually called the Upended Summit in the Triumph tab). You’ll be doing the same thing in each room, but it’s going to get more complex as you go.

The first room just has the Darkness Laser. Choose one player to pick it up and start the encounter. Once you pick up the relic, the Terminal Resonance debuff will start to countdown from 1 minute and 15 seconds.

Destiny 2 The Witch Queen guide: Vow of the Disciple raid walkthrough (12) Image: Bungie via Polygon

A Taken Knight with a shield on it will spawn in the middle of the room. The relic holder should kill this Knight while their allies kill the Scorn and Taken Glyphkeeper on the right and left side of the room.

Like in previous fights, the Glyphkeepers will drop symbols when they die. However, there’s a new wrinkle here: The relic holder (any relic) will be the only player able to see the Taken Glyphkeepers symbols, and they won’t be able to see the Scorn Glyphkeeper symbols.

Have the relic holder call out the three symbols and then have one non-relic holder call out their three symbols. There will be one symbol among the six that match. Figure out the matching symbol, and then shoot in on the large wall ahead of you. If you pick the right one, the door will open.

This is what you’ll be doing for this entire fight, but there are some things to know:

  • Starting in the second room and going forward, you’ll need two matching symbols to open the end door. That means two pairs of Glyphkeepers for a total of four per room.
  • The Taken Knight (which increases your time) only spawns after a pair of Glyphkeepers die. Two can spawn per room, and killing them should be the Darkness Laser user’s only priority.
  • Relic holders need to swap each room, as you need to deposit relics to open the door, and dropping a relic at any point incurs a debuff that forbids that player from picking another one up for 30 seconds. Assign specific players to one relic per room
  • Starting in the second room, Overload Champions will appear. You don’t need to kill them, but it’s helpful.
  • The second room introduces the Pervading Darkness debuff. Have the Templar Shield player run around and cleanse their allies.
  • The third room adds Taken balls that immune all nearby enemies. Use the Eye of Riven’s grenade button to destroy the Taken Orb.
  • Screeb spawn between rooms, so don’t rush in blindly or you’ll explode.
  • The fourth room is filled with pits, so take your time and jump carefully — most fails here happen because of rushed play rather than the timer.
  • If a relic falls into a pit, it’ll respawn in the previous break room.

You’ll need to play this fight to really get a handle of it and learn where the enemies spawn. After reading this, we suggest giving it a go or two and then giving the guide a quick re-read once you’ve seen it with your own eyes.

Destiny 2 The Witch Queen guide: Vow of the Disciple raid walkthrough (13) Image: Bungie via Polygon

But before we move on to the final boss, let’s use an example for the third room into the fourth, as they’re definitely the trickiest:

  1. Player one drops the Templar Shield into the relic depository in the pre-third room breakroom after using it in the second room. Player two drops the Darkness Laser in another relic depository.
  2. Player three picks up the Templar Shield from the relic depository. Player four picks up the Darkness Laser. Player five picks up the new Eye of Riven relic.
  3. The room three door opens.
  4. The non-relic players burst into the room, and focus on enemies. (Relic holders stay back as they don’t do as much damage and need to stay alive.)
  5. The Eye of Riven player runs up and uses the grenade ability next to a Taken orb to remove the enemy immunity.
  6. Non-relic players kill the enemies.
  7. Everyone groups up for a quick cleanse from the Templar Shield.
  8. Players one, three, and four go right. Players two, five, and six go left.
  9. Left group kills their Glyphkeeper. Right group kills their Glyphkeeper.
  10. Left group calls out that the Scorn Glyphkeeper dropped Hive, Love, and Tower symbols.
  11. Right group calls out that the Taken Glyphkeeper dropped Savathun, Traveler, and Hive.
  12. The groups agree that the first symbol they need is Hive.
  13. The Templar Shield player cleanses the right group players, and then moves to the left side (using the middle platforms) to cleanse those players.
  14. The Darkness Laser player kills the Knight that spawns in the middle of the room.
  15. The Eye of Riven player moves between both sides destroying Taken immunity orbs.
  16. Players push further into the room and kill two new Glyphkeepers.
  17. The Darkness Laser player kills another Taken Knight in the middle of the room.
  18. They compare symbols again and determine that their second matching symbol is Kill.
  19. Everyone shoots the Hive and Kill symbols to open the door.
  20. Nobody panics, and everyone shoots the Screeb when the door opens.
  21. Player three places the Templar Shield in the pre-fourth room break room relic depository.
  22. The other relic players follow suit.
  23. Players one, two, and six grab the relics and move into the fourth and final room, where they now do the opposite job as before.

Rhulk boss fight

Welcome to Rhulk the final boss in the Vow of the Disciple raid, and perhaps the coolest final boss Destiny has ever seen.

While mechanically challenging, this boss isn’t too difficult when compared to previous raid bosses. We’ll be referring to the callouts labeled on the map below, which is the real Paint document that our team used to get the clear under the Contest modifier (although we made it a bit prettier for your enjoyment).

Destiny 2 The Witch Queen guide: Vow of the Disciple raid walkthrough (14) Image: Polygon

To spawn the boss, run forward. Rhulk will descend from a Darkness shard and stand in the back of the room. Once he’s spawned in, run forward again to actually start the encounter.

Rhulk will immediately use his two most important moves here.

  1. First, he’ll use his glaive to create a shield on the arena. If you try to run too far forward, you’ll run into his orange barrier and get pushed back. Jump into it too hard or at a weird angle and he’ll send you flying off the map, so be careful.
  2. The second mechanic is that he’ll cast a giant shard above his head.

The goal here is to get a special buff that allows you into his shield and then push back the shield for your allies. Let’s get into how to do that.

Symbols phase

Destiny 2 The Witch Queen guide: Vow of the Disciple raid walkthrough (15) Image: Bungie via Polygon

When Rhulk casts the shard, everyone in the group will start to get Pervading Darkness. Choose one player to destroy the crystal quickly. When the crystal blows up, Pervading Darkness will cease, and the player who destroyed it will get a new buff: Leeching Force.

Leeching Force allows the player to absorb a laser beam attack from the boss, translating it into Emanating Force. However, when nobody has a Leeching Force buff, the boss will cast a new crystal. The third time he creates one of these crystals without him entering a damage phase first, it’ll be immune and wipe all players. Unfortunately, you need six Emanating Force buffs before that happens. So what do you do?

Instead of the first player who gets Leeching Force trying to get Emanating Force, they should stand on the Leeching Base instead, which is the giant Gift symbol at the back of the room. Standing on the symbol with Leeching Force causes two more crystals to spawn to the left and right of Rhulk. If two different players shoot those crystals, the original player will lose Leeching Force and the two crystal destroyers will both get it. Now you’re cooking with gas, with two Leeching Force buffs instead of one.

(If it helps, think back to science class and the mitosis of cells. You’re dividing one buff into two buffs.)

Choose one of the two Leeching Force players to get the Emanating Force. When the boss teleports to one side of the arena (or the middle) have everyone else move away from that area, but have the chosen player stand in front of Rhulk. The boss will shoot a giant laser beam. This will deal major damage to any players caught inside, unless they have Leeching Force. If the beam hits Leeching Force, it’ll turn it into Emanating Force.

Emanating Force and the pillars

Emanating Force allows players to do some pretty useful things. First, it allows them to move freely inside the barrier. Second, players can deposit Emanating Force in one of the three pillars in the boss arena (similar to Gambit). Depositing into the correct pillar will push Rhulk’s shield back. However, it’s worth noting that both Leeching and Emanating Force have timers on them. If you don’t move fast enough and either buff times out while you have it, you’ll die.

So how do you know which pillar is the correct one to dunk Emanating Force in? Glyphkeepers. While the Force buff players are dealing with that, a bunch of adds and two Glyphkeepers will spawn in the arena. Kill both of them and two sets of three symbols will appear on each side of the arena.

Destiny 2 The Witch Queen guide: Vow of the Disciple raid walkthrough (16) Image: Bungie via Polygon

Like the last fight, only some players will be able to see some symbols. Players with either Force buff will be able to see the left symbols and non-buff players can see both the right symbol and the symbols on the six pillars. Also like last fight, players need to determine the matching symbol among the two sides. Once players determine the matching symbol, a non-buff player needs to call out which of the six pillars (there should be two at once) has the matching symbol. The Emanating Force player then needs to dunk their buff in one of the correct pillars. If done correctly, Rhulk will pull his shield back. If not, the dunking player will die.

While the dunking player is inputting the pillar, the second player with Leeching Force (who should be avoiding Rhulk’s laser like everyone else), will head to the Leeching Base and split again, giving Leeching Force to two new players. Now, both players can turn their Leeching Force into Emanating Force and dunk their buff. The symbols will stay the same here (although they’ll move on the pillar) and won’t reset until Rhulk creates another crystal.

With three dunks, Rhulk will have pulled his shield back halfway. Reset like it’s the beginning of the fight, and do the entire thing over again. Just know that enemies will start spawning a bit further back now.

Once you’ve deposited six times, Rhulk will move to the upper platform and invite you up for damage.

Damage phase

The first part of this fight isn’t very dangerous, but Rhulk can and will kill you in the damage phase.

Destiny 2 The Witch Queen guide: Vow of the Disciple raid walkthrough (17) Image: Bungie via Polygon

Once you get up to his platform, choose a player to run around and keep his attention by shooting him. Rhulk will usually choose to follow this player around and attack them.

Rhulk has a few moves during this section.

  • He’ll slide forward with his glaive and delete anything in his path. This has a pretty clear tell, but it is quick, so make sure to watch out.
  • He’ll shoot out laser beams in four direction.
  • If you get to close to him, he’ll just kick you to death (which looks funny as long as it’s not happening to you).

While we’re calling this section “damage phase,” Rhulk is actually still immune here. To lower his shield, you’ll need to do a form of what you did before. Whenever Rhulk dashes, he’ll leave his glaive behind. Choose a player to shoot and destroy it. That player will gain Leeching Force and the glaive will leave behind a symbol that only non-buffed players can see. Have someone call out the symbol to the Leeching Force player.

Destiny 2 The Witch Queen guide: Vow of the Disciple raid walkthrough (18) Image: Bungie via Polygon

There are only four symbols in this section: Darkness, Pyramid, Light, and Traveler. These correspond to the four pillars in the corner of this small arena (noted above). The Leeching Force player will need to tank a laser from Rhulk like before and then dunk their Emanating Force buff in their called symbol’s corner.

If done correctly, this will spawn a weakpoint on Rhulk, which everyone will need to shoot and break. Repeat this process four times (either with four different players or the same one) to create and destroy four weakpoints. If you take too long, Rhulk will bend down and start generating a shield. If you don’t move all the way back to where you started the fight by the leeching base, he’ll launch you into outer space.

Once you destroy four weakpoints, Rhulk will go from toying with you to actually getting pissed. He’ll stop for a second, and then the frills on his neck will flare up. He’ll start aggressively walking toward players and using his moves very quickly. But he’ll also be damageable.

For damage here, we recommend having a player on Divinity, as it’ll make damaging him much easier. Use linear fusion rifles or sniper rifles to aim for his head (or the Divinity bubble, if you have one), and use high damage supers like Tether or Thundercrash while he’s stationary. Rockets also work, but they have far less ammo and are hard to hit, so it’s risky.

After chasing you around a bit, Rhulk will calm down, go immune, and start to build his shield. Run back to the start of the encounter and start over again. You can do all of this three times to get Rhulk’s health down to that little pip near the tail end. If you don’t get to the pip by the end of the third damage phase, he’ll create a shield so big you can’t escape it.

Destiny 2 The Witch Queen guide: Vow of the Disciple raid walkthrough (19) Image: Bungie via Polygon

When you do reach the pip, he’ll go into his final stand. All that really happens here is that he’ll continue to chase you around for a while. However, he’ll also start affecting player with Pervading Darkness. You need to kill him before you reach 10 stacks or you’ll all die and need to start over from the beginning. If you’ve gotten any armor in the raid yet, this is a great time to take advantage of the Umbral Sharpening mod, which increases your damage while under the affects of Pervading Darkness.

If you manage to kill him before he kills you, you’ll complete the raid and be able to buy any items you’ve already earned from the raid by using his glaive. Congratulations on taking down just one of The Witness’ many disciples!

Complete Rhulk step-by-step example

If you need a more detailed breakdown we’ll give you an example.

  1. Player two walks into Rhulk’s shield to start the fight.
  2. Player one stands on the Leeching Base and shoots the crystal, picking up Leeching Force.
  3. Players three and four shoot the left and right crystals, taking Leeching Force from player one and giving it to themselves.
  4. Player three runs for Rhulk’s beam attack and stands in it while everyone else kills enemies and dodges Rhulk.
  5. Players work together to kill the Glyphkeepers on both sides.
  6. Players three and four read the three left symbols: Love, Witness, Guardian.
  7. Players one, two, five, and six read the three right symbols: Scorn, Hive, Witness.
  8. The players agree that Witness is the matching symbol.
  9. Player one notices that Witness appears on the middle right and back left pillars and relays both of those locations to player three, who has Emanating Force.
  10. Player three chooses one of the two called pillars to dunk their Emanating Force buff.
  11. Player four stands on the Leeching Base.
  12. Players one and two shoot the left and right crystal, taking Leeching Force from player four and giving it to themselves.
  13. Both players one and two stand in Rhulk’s next beam attack.
  14. Player four notices that Witness appears on the front left and middle right pillars, and calls out both locations.
  15. Players one and two communicate who is taking which Pillar, and both dunk their Emanating Force buffs.
  16. With six deposits, the team resets back to step two and dunks three more times.
  17. With Rhulk’s shield fully dispelled, all six players reload their weapons and walk up the steps to the damage arena.
  18. Player six walks in first and shoots the boss in the face to get his attention, keeping the other players safe.
  19. When Rhulk attacks, he leaves behind his glaive, and player one breaks it, earning a Leeching Force buff.
  20. Player five notices that the broken glaive leaves behind the Traveler symbol and calls it out to player one.
  21. Player one stands in Rhulk’s beam attack to turn Leeching Force into Emanating Force.
  22. Player one dunks their Emanating Force buff in the Traveler Pillar in the back left of the arena, exposing Rhulk’s weakpoint.
  23. All players shoot at Rhulk’s weakpoint while repeating steps 19-23 with the same or different players.
  24. Players spawn and break all four of Rhulk’s weakpoints, starting the damage phase.
  25. All players damage Rhulk with their preferred loadouts and cast damaging Supers as often as possible, avoiding his fast-moving attacks.
  26. When Rhulk kneels down and becomes immune, the entire team runs down the stairs and back to the Leeching Base.
  27. The team repeats steps 2-25.
  28. The team hits Rhulk’s little black bar, 80% into his health, sending him into his final stand.
  29. The team keeps damaging Rhulk and kills him before Pervading Darkness covers their screens and kills them.
  30. All six players collect some groovy new loot and take silly pictures with Rhulk’s corpse to post on Twitter and send to their friends on Discord.
Destiny 2 The Witch Queen guide: Vow of the Disciple raid walkthrough (2024)
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