In-depth look at - Objective: Defeat Oryx, The Taken King

Welcome to part 3 of my look into the King’s Fall Raid - normal. This is the final part in my 3-part series. Again, I have broken up this post into two parts. The first part will discuss the process of players figuring this fight out. The second part will see how all these pieces fit together and I’ll briefly explain how to defeat the boss.

If you haven't read parts one (Power the Glyph) and two (Daughters of Oryx) then I recommend you do so. They can be found at HERE for Part 1 and HERE for Part 2.

**If you have yet to finish the raid and wish to go in blind, I recommend you stop reading now. Otherwise, please enjoy. **

Oryx is one of the most difficult and rewarding fights of the game. This difficulty comes mostly from the players being able to deal enough damage, and how fast they can complete each part of this encounter. Luckily, half of this fight is very similar to the daughters’ fight. If you haven’t read my analysis of that fight I recommend you check out my previous post as we will be building upon the mechanics from that fight.

Process of players figuring out each of the pieces:

Upon defeating the Daughters of Oryx the players will see a glowing orb at the edge of the map, much like the ones on the “Torn Between Dimensions” platforms. Upon approaching it, it will fly down off the cliff.

A second later, a giant version of Oryx slides up to tower over the player. This intimidating sight will cause all the players to back away from him.

He will proceed then to spawn two groups of Taken Thralls, one between him and platform three, the other between him and platform two. Immediately after he spawns these enemies, he will additionally spawn a Taken Knight on switches two and three. Players at this point are going to open fire on everything.

Upon killing both Knights, Oryx will either slide to switch two or three. For the first time he moves, it will be randomly chosen which of the two switches he will move to.

At this point players might not know what to do, but all eyes will be on Oryx.

Oryx will then slam the switch he is closest to. Upon raising his hand again players will see he has left an orb behind. They will also notice that the icon for the relic is on their HUD again. If they follow that icon they will notice the relic has spawned. The relic always appears above the platform clockwise from Oryx’s location. When a player touches the ball on the switch they will be “Torn Between Dimensions”. Because of the Daughters of Oryx fight, this next part is fairly easy for them to figure out. They need to jump on the plates to get the “Torn Between Dimensions” player to the relic. The order is exactly the same as in the daughters encounter. At this point, the players will jump on their platforms in order and the player who is “Torn Between Dimensions” (We are going to call this player the “Runner” from now on for simplicity) will start their platforming. But something different happens this time.

A “Light Eater Ogre” spawns in the corner next to each switch. While it may seem like it, the ogres spawning isn’t actually attached to when the players activate the switches. Instead, they activate on a timer after Oryx slams the first platform. Their order of spawning additionally helps the players; it is the correct order the players need to activate the switches in.

Side note: Ogres are amongst some of the most feared enemies in Destiny. When one appears, all players have the gut reaction to kill it as fast as possible. This is largely due to the laser blast they produce will make short work of players.

Upon killing these Ogres, they seem to leave a mini blight ball behind.

Side note: This will become sort of a problem later. In the campaign players encounter larger versions of these blight balls. But the larger versions spawn enemies every so often and slow the player when they get near. They can be destroyed if players do enough damage to them. So it isn’t far fetched for players to expect these blight balls to spawn enemies as well.

Like the image above, When the relic is above switch 1, Oryx will be at switch 2. The players must activate switches in the order 2, 3, 4, 1. The Ogres will spawn in the correct switch activation order as well.

When the relic is above switch 2, Oryx will be at switch 3. The players must activate the switches in the order 3, 4, 1, 2. The Ogres will spawn in the correct switch activation order as well.

When the relic is above switch 3, Oryx will be at switch 4. The players must activate switches in the order 4, 1, 2, 3. The Ogres will spawn in the correct switch activation order as well.

When the relic is above switch 4, Oryx will be at switch 1. The players must activate switches in the order 1, 2, 3, 4. The Ogres will spawn in the correct switch activation order as well.

If you still have questions on the switch activation addtional maps can be found HERE.

Roughly about the time the runner collects the relic, they will notice a Tombship and a knight, named the “Vessel of Oryx”, with a shield running down the center of the map. This shield looks strikingly similar to the shield players stole from the daughters. In fact, because of the daughters fight the runner will attempt to steal the shield again.

Once the players have the shield, their gut reaction will be to huddle up inside it and shoot Oryx. This is because that’s exactly what the players did to the daughters. The shield grants them immortality just like the daughters’ shield. There is a good chance they will forget about the “Vessel of Oryx” the first time. Upon firing on Oryx though, they will notice he is not taking any damage. This confuses players because they were able to shoot the sisters immediately after they stole their shield. But it isn’t a big deal, because a few seconds later Oryx will slam his fist on the switch he is closest to and his chest will open up and glow.

In video games, there are not many things more obvious than lit up spots on bosses. It usually signifies a weak point. So the players open fire on his chest. The players will be able to stun Oryx by doing enough damage to his chest. If players don’t do enough, he will clap his hands together and kill everyone.

Upon stunning Oryx though, a fairly large problem rears its ugly head. Oryx does his stun animation, and players will think they need to just keep shooting his chest to do damage. Unfortunately, shooting him doesn’t actually do much damage at all. In order to do major damage to Oryx, players will need to run to the blight balls and detonate them.

This is a fairly large issue. Because the entire game players are taught to destroy and avoid these blight balls. So there isn’t anything in place messaging to the player that they need to stand in the blight ball’s aura.

Side note: This is a tough one. Perhaps displaying something along the lines of “Blight Balls are ready” or even “Enter the darkness…” on screen might help to better message to the players that they need to enter the blight balls. I know they are technically called “Corrupted Light” but they look exactly like miniature versions of the previously introduced blight balls.

Luckily, once a player accidentally enters one of these balls for a few seconds, the players will notice a message “[Player Name] has detonated a Corrupted Light”. In addition to the text, the Corrupted Light will turn white and have particles spinning around it. Hopefully, they activated it at the proper time while Oryx was stunned, or else it wont do any damage. If they don’t have the shield when it is activated, it will kill all the players a few seconds after the message is displayed. This creates another issue with the players learning how to use them, as it would reinforce the need to avoid these balls. If they do have the shield though, everyone inside will survive the blast, teaching the players to head back to the shield as soon as the Corrupted Lights are detonated. Through trial and error, they are able to finally figure out when exactly to detonate the Corrupted Light.

Side note: Remember the “Vessel of Oryx”? In normal mode the Vessel’s sole purpose is to transport the shield to the players. Players do not need to defeat it though it is recommended, as he will attack the players when they are detonating their corrupted light.

Now the players have figured out how to finally do some real damage to Oryx. Everyone is cheering, everyone is excited. That is, until Oryx falls away and reappears in the front of the battlefield, the same place he started the encounter at. As he pushes himself away from the battlefield, players will begin to notice green/white circles appearing around them. The first bomb (depending on the player’s light level) might not kill them, though it will come very close. This likely would panic the players, teaching them to run like mad to escape these explosions. Unfortunately, this can result in some of them getting too close to one another, causing multiple deaths. They will learn to run while staying away from one another. The bombing sequence lasts about 20 seconds in total.

Upon completion of the bombing sequence, Oryx will slide his way to another random switch. This time however, switch one and four are fair game for him to slide to as well. This whole process starts again.

New players will get comfortable with this process fairly quickly. The toughest part is killing the Ogres, but once they figure out their preferred method to defeat them, it seems easy. Then Oryx throws a wrench into the mix.

Once he is at about half health, Oryx wont bomb the players anymore. Instead he will start to remove them from the battlefield one by one. He does this by teleporting players to the “Darkness Dimension”.

The first time he does this, players may not be ready for it and may accidentally touch the giant black ball Oryx spawns on the battlefield. This will instantly kill any players who touch it. This teaches them to stay the hell away from it.

Players still stuck in the main battlefield will be confronted by a Taken Knight on switch two and three. In addition to the two Taken Knights, Thralls will begin to spawn next to switch two and three as well. Except, these Thralls wont focus on killing the players on the battlefield, instead intent upon traveling into the black ball. Players who are communicating will quickly realize that the Taken Thralls who enter the black ball appear in the “Darkness Dimension”. Players on the outside can easily figure out that they need to help their allies by killing as many Thralls as possible.

One by one, players will be teleported from the main battlefield into the “Darkness Dimension”. Once inside, they will see a “Shade of Oryx” warping around the outskirts of the “Darkness Dimension”. This is a very familiar fight to players who have played the campaign. One of the final missions of the campaign, “Regicide”, involves the players fighting Oryx (at his normal size) in the “Darkness Dimension”. Players inside the “Darkness Dimension” will have no trouble figuring out that they need to kill the shade as quickly as possible. Initially there is nothing else to shoot at or draw the player’s attention, a good thing as the shade is a little difficult to see.

Side note: This fight can be a little confusing though. Because in “Regicide” we are taught that while Oryx is on the Outskirts of the “Darkness Dimension” we cannot do damage to him. But here in the raid players can, and should, damage the shade while he is on the outskirts of the level.

Every so often the Shade will travel towards the players with it’s sword raised, ready to attack.

Because of the “Regicide” mission, players know to avoid this attack as it can be devastating. Players will continue to damage to the shade until it is dead or the final player is teleported into the “Darkness Dimension”. Upon the final player being teleported in, the players will have only a few more seconds to kill the Shade before they themselves are all killed. Upon killing the shade, the “Darkness Dimension” will dissolve, and the players who were inside it will find themselves where the black ball in front of Oryx used to be.

Upon completing the “Darkness Dimension” section of the raid, the players have experienced and figured out every different challenge Oryx has to offer. Oryx will shift to stand in front of a switch again, and the players will know what to do from there.

Once the final Corrupted Light detonates and Oryx’s health seems to be empty, players will celebrate. They will soon find out that celebration was in vain when he reappears in the front section where he initially spawned.

Hopefully at this point the players will not run away and have their special and heavy weapons reloaded. Because Oryx will rise up and attempt to do his clap attack one more time which will result in killing all the players. Thankfully, by this point all the players should be familiar with this animation and see it coming from a mile away. His chest will open up as he prepares to kill the players. If they can deal enough damage to him, they will win. If not, he will kill them all and they will have to start the encounter over again.

The final section of this post, “How to put the pieces together”, I am going to do in a brief step-by-step format. I feel as if this would be easiest for me to explain without having this post drag on for 50 pages.

How to put the pieces together:

Steps:

1.     Approach the floating orb near the edge of the level. Oryx will spawn at the edge.

2.     Kill Taken Thralls which Oryx spawns, followed by killing two knights on platforms two and three.

3.     Oryx moves to a switch.

4.     Oryx slams the switch in front of him with his fist. This spawns an orb which will turn the player who touches it to “Torn Between Dimensions”

5.     Player who is the chosen runner will collect the orb and begin making their way around the “Torn Between Dimensions” platforms.

6.     The players who have switches assigned to them will have to jump on their switches in counterclockwise order to spawn the “Torn Between Dimensions” platforms.

7.     Upon activating a switch, a “Light Eater Ogre” will spawn next to each switch in the order they were activated.

8.     The players, while remaining on their switches, must kill all the Ogres as quickly as possible. The sixth player can move around the center and shoot Ogres to help kill them.

9.     Where the Ogres die, a Corrupted Light will spawn. All players must avoid the Corrupted Light at this time.

10.  Once the runner has collected the relic, they must travel to the edge of the map where Oryx initially spawned. Here they will see a knight named “Vessel of Oryx”. They will need to slam the relic into the knight to steal his shield. The runner will then need to kill the “Vessel of Oryx” and make their way to the center of the map between the two giant pillars which the sisters were on.

11.  Upon the runner collecting the relic all players need to get off their switches, finish off any remaining ogres, make their way to the center to help kill the “Vessel of Oryx”, and enter the shield.

12.  If the players did steps 2-11 fast enough, they will have time to see Oryx slam the platform he initially slammed during this cycle, and then “Call upon the darkness”. While he is calling upon the darkness, his chest will open and light up. All players will need to shoot him in the chest. If they do enough damage to him they will stun him. If not, he will kill them all when he claps.

13.  Once he is stunned, the players will need to run to the blight balls closest to their switch (Where the ogre which spawned next to their platform died). They must sit in the ball until the screen says “[Player Name] has detonated corrupted light”. Once that text appears on screen they must run back into the shield held by the runner.

14.  This will cause massive damage to Oryx. The more balls detonated the more damage will be done to Oryx.

15.  If Oryx still has any health left, go to #16. If his health seems to be empty go to #20

16.  Players need to pay attention to Oryx when he comes back up in the spot he initially spawned. If he summons a black ball in front of him skip to #18. If he pushes away from the battlefield, then he is going to bomb the players. The four players who had switches need to run in circles around their switch. The other two players need to run in circles at either side of the battlefield (One near where Oryx initially spawned, the other near the entrance)

17.  Once Oryx is done bombing the battlefield, go back to step 2.

18.  The black ball is summoned. Oryx is going to teleport players one by one to another dimension. Players who have yet to be teleported will need to kill the two Taken Knights which spawn on switches two and three. They will then need to kill Taken Thralls which spawn nearby switches two and three. If the thralls are not killed, they will enter the black ball and attack the players who have been teleported.

19.  Once a player is teleported they must kill the “Shade of Oryx” inside the “Darkness Dimension” as quickly as possible. The Shade will warp around the outside of the “Darkness Dimension”. Every once in a while he will light up and raise his sword, slowly moving towards a player. He will then slam his sword down and attempt to kill the player. Once the last living player has been teleported to the “Darkness Dimension”, they will only have a few more seconds to finish off the “Shade of Oryx” or all players will be killed. Upon killing the Shade of Oryx, the players will be brought back to the battlefield. Go to step 2.

20.  RELOAD ALL YOUR GUNS! Oryx is going to spawn in the front of the battlefield where he first spawned at the beginning of the encounter. His chest is going to open up again, so all players must unload all their best weapons on him here. If the players do not do enough damage, he will clap and kill everyone. If the players do enough damage, he will die and the players will have won.

21.  Dance!

With the right team, this is easily the most rewarding section of the raid. It forces every player to be at the top of their game, works as an excellent team building exercise, and also builds on previous encounters. While it is not perfect (The corrupted light issue being the biggest problem I see with it), I still find it to be the most rewarding experience in Destiny.

This concludes my three-part look into the King’s Fall Raid in Destiny. If you enjoyed this series, please let me know. If you didn’t, please let me know what I could do to improve. I enjoyed doing the research and analyzing this raid, and would be more than happy to go into detail about the other parts if there is a demand for it. I could probably talk about it all day and not get tired of it. I would like to thank KaliksHD for his high definition videos. I would not have been able to create this post without them. (More of his work can be seen here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLM1eE8w_DZ89n4yIxVbffA ) The images I used from his videos are the ones which have no watermark. I would also like to thank Briar Rabbit for his videos from a different angle. (More of his work can be seen here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC02QCCz8STKVGEDS4VCsL4g ) The images I used from his videos have his watermark in the bottom right corner. And finally, last but not least, I would like to thank you, the reader. I hope you enjoyed reading this post as much as I did writing it. If you have stuck with me through this entire series, I would like to give a huge thank you for giving me your time. I really hope we can all create better games by looking at some excellent ones.

Next week I will be taking it easy and I'll spend some time catching up on my writng and a personal project. But I'll be back soon after!

I’ll see you guys later

Scott

More posts like this one can be found on Scott's Blog/Portfolio www.ScottFineGameDesign.com