In-depth look at - Objective: Defeat the Daughters of Oryx

Welcome to part 2 of my look into the King’s Fall Raid - normal. Again, I have broken up this post into two parts, because it is going to be longer than my normal posts. The first part will discuss the process of players figuring out how to defeat these bosses. The second part will put the pieces together and go over exactly how to defeat them.

If you have yet to read part 1 Objective: Power the Glyph it can be found here!

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

The sisters fight I would argue is tougher and easier than the final Oryx fight. It is tougher because the players cannot choose who gets to be “Torn Between Dimensions”. Resulting in potentially disastrous results if the runner is not fantastic at platforming. It’s easier though because it is less complicated and considerably shorter than the final fight. But I’m getting a little ahead of myself.

Side note: Before we get started I wanted to let you know that you will see some images with yellow numbers on them. I created a map which can be seen towards the end of the post. To better get your bearings around the room I labeled everything in the room as I did in the map. So when you see a number you will know it corresponds to a location on the map.

Process of players figuring out each of the pieces:

When the players enter the room this is what they first see:

Right from the get go they notice the two creatures in the domes. Because these two creatures are the only things moving in the room they draw the player’s attention. Upon close examination the players will notice that these two are enemies. How might they know this? They have health bars. Everything thus far with a health bar has been an enemy. So a player may try to shoot them. They will get the message, “Immune!”.  It is not a far stretch for the players to figure out that these two are shielded. At this point players may try to enter the shield. This kills them instantly and teaches them to stay away from these two. (This will become a problem later) Upon further inspecting the rooms players will notice switches like this one and one of the players will become “Torn Between Dimensions” (At this time the players may not be aware that these are switches):

From the player who is “Torn Between Dimensions’” perspective their vision looks like this:

You will be seeing that circle inside the diamond on most of the screen shots because it is really important.

They will also notice a floating ball in the sky. Now it must be important because regardless of where the player looks there is a marker on their HUD telling them exactly where it is in relation to them. It is fairly safe to say that players will know they need to retrieve this floating ball (more commonly called the relic) because of their HUD constantly reminding them about where it is. The players then will explore and discover a switch. Upon jumping on it, the switch will light up and “Hymn of Weaving” will begin to count down. (More on “Hymn of Weaving” later)

If they stood on the correct first switch, platforms which match the strange transparent look of the player who is “Torn Between Dimensions” appear. They have a little ball similar to the look of the relic on them as well.

If they did not stand on the correct first switch, then upon leaving the switch, it will still say “Platforms fade from existence”. This will make them wonder, “what platforms?”, as no platforms spawn if the players stand on the wrong switch. Thus, they will try different switches  to see if any platforms actually appear.

The platforms look like this:

At this point, players may try to jump off their switch to jump on the platform. If they leave the switch, the platforms disappear and the text “Platforms fade from existence” appears on screen. This teaches the players that they will have to stand on the switches and not leave them if they wish the platforms to stay. So they will go back and stay on the switches.

Through trial and error, different players will try to jump on switches and platforms. Most of the time they will fall through the platforms. This is because only the player who is “Torn Between Dimensions” can travel on these platforms. Unfortunately, the platforms only appear when the switches are activated in the correct order. Eventually, players will realize that when they jump on the switches in the correct order, the “Torn Between Dimensions” platforms will spawn. The ball visual aid on each of the platforms helps players to figure out this puzzle by getting the players’ attention.

Once the players have figured out how to activate the switches in the correct order and retrieve the relic, they will need to figure out what to do with it next.

So here is the tricky part. The player who is holding the relic must take the relic to the daughter who is not burning red and slam it into her, stealing her shield. This will allow all the players to do damage to her. The issue here is if you remember earlier when the players attempted to enter the shield they were instantly killed. So they will not be thinking that they need to take the relic to them. Because they think they will die if they do.

Side note: Perhaps giving the relic holder a slight tint on their character that could match the color of the shield they need to steal might help to message this better. Or having the invisible platforms lead to the daughter they need to steal the shield from. Or better yet the symbol that appears on the HUD to show the players the location of the relic could be moved to appear over the daughter they need to steal the shield from. This would message to the player to do something to that daughter.

Once the shield is stolen, it will follow the relic holder (The player who was “Torn between Dimensions”). While the relic holder is running around, they will be shot at by the daughter who they stole the shield from and other enemies which spawn. They will notice that they are taking no damage. This teaches the player that they are invincible while they are in the shield.

Remember “Hymn of Weaving”? Well, that timer has been counting down this entire time. It is more than likely that by this point players have learned that when the timer runs out they will all be killed. This is because it took them some time to figure out the platforms. When it runs out this time, all the players outside the shield will die. This teaches the players that being in the shield will keep them from being killed by the “Hymn of Weaving”. Because of the players’ previous experience with the shield in the Objective: Power the Glyph section, they will be able to make the connection that more than just the relic holder can make use of the invulnerability perk.

After repeating this process, they will be able to kill the first daughter. Upon doing so though makes the second daughter more powerful and harder to kill. The issue here is that there is little messaging telling the players this. Players learn this by the lesser amount of damage they are able to inflict on the second sister compared to the first. Perhaps if the second daughter changed color, had a different animation, or even the text “Daughter B has absorbed daughter A’s power” on screen would help the players to know better. Because if the players only weaken daughter A and not kill her, then daughter B will be just as easy to kill.

Side note: I wonder if the hint Bungie tried to use to show that a certain daughter is more powerful is the one where they are burning red. If so, this could be better. Because the burning red combined with the casting spell animation simply says to me, “I am casting the spell,” or maybe “I do additional damage,” or something like that. Something like an additional shield might message it better. Or maybe a sheen that covers the daughter.

Putting the pieces together and how to beat it:

Like in the Objective: Power the Glyph, once the players figure out how to beat them, they are fairly easy. At least, if no one makes any mistakes. Upon entering the room, a player will be “Torn Between Dimensions” and a relic will spawn.

Four players who are not “Torn Between Dimensions” but have switches:

Four players who are not “Torn Between Dimensions” will be assigned to a switch. Each player will need to jump on their switch in a counterclockwise order, starting with the switch counterclockwise to the relic. This will begin the countdown. During this time, they will need to kill enemies which spawn across the room while they remain on their switches. At “Hymn of Weaving 0:40”, an enemy sniper will spawn in the black area (reference the map in the next section) immediately next to each switch. The players on the platforms will need to kill these snipers immediately or they will kill the players. When the runner has collected the relic, the players can leave their switches and run together to a location where they can easily shoot at daughter A whose shield was stolen.

For anyone who is still having trouble understanding what the players need to do, I have created these maps to help you out:

Here we see a map of the room before any switches are activated.

Like the image above, When the relic is above switch 4 the players must activate switches in the order 1, 2, 3, 4.

When the relic is above switch 1 the players must activate the switches in the order 2, 3, 4, 1.

When the relic is above switch 2 the players must activate switches in the order 3, 4, 1, 2.

When the relic is above switch 3 the players must activate switches in the order 4, 1, 2, 3.

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

To further assist with your bearings, here is an image of the room from the entrance with everything labeled:

Player who is not “Torn Between Dimensions” and does not have a switch assigned to them a.k.a. “The Floater”

There are four players for the four switches and another player who is “Torn Between Dimensions”. This leaves one more player in the raid fireteam. This sixth player will have the most straightforward job: Kill everything. This player will run up and down the center of the map killing every enemy who gets in their way. This is so the enemies who are spawning don’t overwhelm the players on the switches. When the player who is “Torn Between Dimensions” retrieves the relic, this player will join the others in the group shooting the chosen sister.

Player who is “Torn Between Dimensions” a.k.a “The Runner”:

This player must jump on the platforms, starting from the switch which was first activated to retrieve the relic. It is important that they collect all of the balls from the “Torn Between Dimensions” platforms, or they will not be able to collect the relic upon reaching it. Once the relic is collected, they will need to travel into the shield of the daughter who is not casting the spell and steal it from her. They will then need to travel to the other players who are grouped tightly together and make sure all the players are in the shield. They can help to shoot the daughter or they can kill enemies in the area.

Upon the “Hymn of Weaving” timer running out, the shield will be returned to the sister it was stolen from. A new player will be “Torn Between Dimensions” and the relic will spawn high above a random platform. The player who previously was the runner will need to switch jobs with the player who is now torn. If the player now “Torn Between Dimensions” had a switch, then the player who was previously torn will take over for that switch. If they were the floater, then they will do the floater’s job. The whole process will need to be repeated again, except this time they will steal the shield from and kill daughter B. Doing so will reset the relic and a new player will be “Torn Between Dimensions”. The players must repeat this process one more time and finish off the weakened daughter A.

While I enjoy this section of the raid, it can be particularly frustrating when one of the players cannot platform for the life of them. From a design perspective though, I really like how the player who is “Torn Between Dimensions” is random every time. This gives most players a chance to try the platforming sections out. Everyone getting a chance to try it out is very important for the final fight against Oryx.

Honestly, I feel like some messaging in this encounter could be better. After the player collects the relic, there isn’t anything to suggest they should try to steal the daughter’s shield. And even then, which one?

Next week I will continue my look into the King’s Fall Raid, when we look at the final encounter. Finally, we get to see Oryx, and analyze the design of the final encounter. I would like to thank Spo0ox for his high definition videos. The screen shots are all from his videos. I would not have been able to put this together without his videos. (More of his work can be seen here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIu1Gjh28GRmQz1DY10eZ3g ) And I would like to thank you, the reader, as well. I hope you are as fascinated as I am by this excellent raid.

I’ll see you guys next week,

Scott

Enjoyed this post? Part 3 is finally up! It can be found HERE!

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