Destiny’s very first Raid activity, Vault of Glass, returns in Destiny 2 with the same encounters but with a fresh take on the mechanics for each one. Once players have opened the vault, they will arrive in the Templar’s Well to overcome the first major encounter, the confluxes.
The Vault of Glass is a fan-favorite Raid because of its inscrutable nature, and many players have spent years trying to find any secrets. In its Destiny 2 version, players still have a chance of getting the coveted Vex Mythoclast Exotic Fusion Rifle, but only if they can defeat Atheon and complete the Raid.
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Once Destiny 2 players have opened the vault in the Waking Ruins, they will eventually find themselves in the Templar’s Well area which is where the first, second, and third major encounters of the Raid take place. The confluxes encounter is the first one and has multiple phases, features a lot of different Vex enemies, and introduces the Templar’s Ritual of Negation.
Here is a basic rundown of all the steps to complete the confluxes encounter in the Vault of Glass:
- For the first wave with only the middle conflux, all six players will stay near the conflux to defend it from the Vex that are attempting to sacrifice themselves.
- On wave two, the fireteam needs to split into two groups of three and must defend the left and right confluxes from the Vex.
- For wave three, the fireteam needs to split into three pairs and must defend all three confluxes at the same time from the Vex.
- All players must avoid stepping in the fluid pools left by defeated Vex Fanatics. Marked players need to cleanse themselves before the Templar conducts its ritual, otherwise, they will die and must be revived.
- If a single Vex enemy sacrifices itself at a conflux, all players will die.
- All enemies will despawn and a loot chest will appear at the end of the third wave.
This encounter focuses on clearing a mix of weak and strong Vex enemies quickly, so it is important that a fireteam has a mix of support and add-clearing abilities and weapons. Well of Radiance Warlocks and very useful here as Wyverns will easily kill Guardians that are out in the open. For Hunters, Shadowshot or Silence and Squall are great Supers for crowd control that will slow the Vex down as they approach the confluxes.
As for damage Supers, Chaos Reach, Nova Bomb, Thundercrash, Hammer of Sol, Golden Gun, and Blade Barrage are good to have in a fireteam. A lot of these supers are good at clearing out the small hordes of weaker Vex if necessary, but they should be saved almost exclusively for the Wyverns.
In terms of weapons, Destiny 2 players will need a good general-purpose primary weapon. The IKELOS SMG works very well, especially with a good Warmind Cell build as the cells can be detonated to clear out the weaker enemies. High-damage, special weapons, such as Grenade Launchers and Fusion Rifles, will be useful for add-clearing and burst damage on the Wyverns if heavy ammo and Supers are not quite ready. Rocket Launchers like Deathbringer can easily take down the Wyverns or laying traps with Anarchy can clear the Vex as they spawn in.
For Armor Mods, Breach and Clear paired with a good special ammo Grenade Launcher is especially useful for weakening the Wyverns. Overload Minotaur Champions do also appear in this encounter so having an Overload Mod to disrupt and stun will be helpful.
The confluxes encounter is mechanically very simple. All players simply need to kill lots of Vex as quickly as possible to keep them from sacrificing themselves at the confluxes across three waves. Each wave increases in duration and therefore difficulty. For the first wave, only the middle conflux requires defending, and players will face a relatively small amount of Vex Goblins and Fanatics, and usually one Wyvern.
In the second wave, the team needs to split up across the arena and this wave is long enough that two Wyverns can spawn per side, meaning players will have to deal with four in total. For the third and final wave, all three confluxes are active at once, and this wave is so long that three sets of Wyverns will spawn, leaving players with nine Wyverns to deal with. Overload Minotaurs generally appear towards the end of each wave too.
The Vex have several possible points to approach each conflux from. For the middle conflux, most of them will walk up the stairs from the pit right in front of the Templar. For the left conflux, they will come from down the steps from a black fog door in the wall and from other doors in a small area behind the Templar. Finally, for the right conflux, the Vex will walk out of a small cave near the conflux and from the same area behind the Templar.
All the Vex will be trying to march towards one of the confluxes to sacrifice themselves. Destiny 2 players can clearly tell when this is happening as the Vex will kneel in front of the conflux, start glowing, and will disintegrate after a short period of time. If a single Vex enemy sacrifices itself at any point in this encounter, it will cause a team wipe, and the encounter will reset.
Fanatics make up a large portion of the rank-and-file Vex enemies that appear in this encounter. When Fanatics die, they leave a lingering pool that players need to avoid. If a player touches this pool, they will be Marked for Negation and are susceptible to the Templar’s Ritual of Negation. This ritual is a pulse that goes of every so often that kills any marked players.
Marked players can cleanse themselves of the mark by touching the pool of light in the pit just in front of the Templar. The mark debuff is visible on the left of a player’s screen but will disappear if a player cleanses themselves. The cleansing pool deactivates for a while once it has been used, so marked players need to go through the pool at the same time to all get cleansed.
The same strategy for defending the confluxes applies to every wave. The only difference is that waves are longer, and players are spread thinner with each one. Throughout this encounter, all players need to be aware of where the Vex will be coming from so that they can keep a good distance away and focus on spawn-killing the Vex. This ensures all the Fanatics are killed far away from any players and minimizes the risk of someone getting Marked for Negation.
For the first wave, all six Destiny 2 players should stay near the central area to defend the middle conflux but need to keep out of range of the Templar’s weapons. Players should also call out whenever they see a Vex spawning a cloud as this means a Wyvern will be appearing in a few seconds. Players can blast the Wyvern with heavy weapons, or Supers, or both, but coordinating each one to make sure none are wasted is crucial.
On the second wave, players need to split into two teams of three and defend the left and right confluxes. Players need to use support Supers when possible and heavy weapons and other Supers for Wyverns. One player on each team can hang around near the middle area to keep the pit area clear too. For the final wave, players need to split into three pairs to defend all three confluxes at once using the previous tips.
Once all the Vex have respawned, and the third wave is over, a loot chest will spawn in, rewarding players with Vault of Glass weapons and armor. Players can immediately move onto the Oracles encounter from here. Destiny 2 players can also try the confluxes Raid challenge when it is available to get an extra loot chest and more rewards.
For a greater challenge, Bungie will soon be adding a Master difficulty mode for the Vault of Glass which will offer Timelost variants of the Raid’s iconic weapons.
Destiny 2: Beyond Light and Season of the Splicer are available now for PC, PS4, PS5, Stadia, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S.