Destiny‘s latest expansion, The Dark Below, adds a new raid called Crota’s End. It also raises the light level to 32 and adds plenty of new raid gear. There are plenty of glitches in the raid that basically let you solo most of it and beat the final boss easily.
I’m here to let you know the normal way through all the fights and how to get the 2 chests. Bungie is sure to make plenty of patches that affect the raid so you’ll want to know how to complete each part of the raid without glitches.
This guide will cover everything about the raid Crota’s End including:
- Entering the Hellmouth – Getting the first chest and completing the light maze.
- Gatekeeper Bridge – Beating the Gatekeepers and getting the 2nd chest.
- Silencing the Deathsinger – Getting past the walls and killing the Deathsinger.
- Crota’s End – Finishing Crota once and for all.
Entering the Hellmouth
Once you start the raid, this first thing you must do is easy: Stand in a circle until a light bridge fully forms. You don’t even need a group to do this. Much easier than entering the Vault of Glass.
Once the bridge forms, cross it until you see the drop. Jump into it to enter the Hellmouth. You’ll be falling for a long time.
Everything is dark and you start in a lit area. If you keep turning you’ll notice a white column, this is a lamp.
- Walking in the darkness gives you the Weight of Darkness debuff. This causes you to walk slowly and you can’t double jump.
- You cleanse it by standing near the light until all stacks are gone. The max stack is 10.
First Chest
Getting the first chest is easy and can also be done solo since you don’t need to kill anyone. There are 3 possible spawn locations, but the chest randomly appears at one of them every time you die.
I found it easier to keep checking the first location and dying until it spawns there.
- Look towards the first lamp as you first enter.
- Run diagonally forward left from that location until you reach a door.
- Keep working towards the door and it will open, the chest spawns there.
Light Maze
This part is actually pretty simple and can be done solo if done right. I’ll explain how it works in a group first.
The goal is to follow the light until you reach the end and activate a light bridge, similar to the one at the beginning, and cross it.
- You only need to step in it once to activate.
- Wait in a safe place afterwards.
There will be many Thralls chasing you and they respawn. After standing at a lamp for a while, it will turn orange and explode. Leave before this happens.
- Go to each lamp together, then look for the next lamp.
- Kill enemies while waiting for the light to turn orange, then leave for the next lamp.
- Watch for holes, and call them out if you are in front. You die if you fall in.
The lamp also kill enemies, plus it lowers your weight of darkness so you can move quickly to the next lamp.
At the end, you have to fight the enemies that keep coming and an Ogre while you wait for the bridge.
- There is a rock next to the last lamp that you can sit on. Only the Ogre can hit you here, so have one person sit there.
- After it says the bridge fully formed, run and jump across, avoiding enemies.
- Keep running into the light until it says you got loot and puts you at the next part.
To do it solo, just run through and make a circle around each lamp so you can get your Weight of Darkness off, then move on to the next lamp. The trick is to lure the enemies in one direction.
After getting to the end, activate the bridge then stay on the rock. Have a strong weapon to take out the Ogre quickly. Defender Titans make this easy because you can just bubble when the Ogre comes out.
Gatekeeper Bridge
This raid sure likes using bridges. The goal here is to get all your teammates across the bridge, then kill the Ogres to finish the fight and get loot. There are some important things to note.
- One person must stand in the middle circle to form the bridge, it goes away as soon as you step out.
- When the bridge is up, the totems on the left and right side start turning red.
- One person must stand in each circle around the totem to stop this. If you don’t, it kills everyone.
- You can only cross the bridge while holding the sword. You get this by killing the swordbearer that spawns.
- The person that cross the bridge with the sword, must quickly kill the Gatekeeper. Only the sword does damage to it.
The sword also goes away after a short time, so make sure the bridge is up and the person is ready to take the sword as soon as the swordbearer dies.
- Using the smash attack is the fastest way to kill it. Don’t do it in the air.
There are enemies on the gatekeeper side, so kill them while waiting. When 3 people get across, stop forming the bridge on the Swordbearer side.
Have the people on the Gatekeeper side form the bridge for the rest of the fight, everything works the same on each side of the bridge.
Once the last person crosses, Ogres will spawn eventually. Kill them to complete this part and get loot.
Shriekers and the 2nd Chest
The next part to get the chest requires speed. There is a hallway with enemies and two walls blocked by shriekers.
- Destroying the first shrieker open the first wall, the second opens the last wall.
- Go past the big hole to the door on the other side, you’ll notice it closing.
- You must get inside that room before the door closes to get the chest.
Only one person needs to make it in because they can open the door from the inside for everyone else.
The key is to have as much speed as you can and just run through while your teammates kill everything. After everyone opens the chest, drop in the hole for the next part of the raid.
Silencing the Deathsinger
The next part you enter is where the fight with Crota takes place, first you have to reach the inside. The goal is to lure out two wizards to kill, take out the Shriekers, and Kill the Deathsinger.
You must do this quickly because she’ll do a 30 second song after around 2 and a half minutes that kills you when it is over.
As you go forward you’ll see 2 knights and a bunch of other enemies. Kill them, then move on. If you look up, you’ll notice two towers, one on left and right.
- Have everyone go up the stairs and have 3 in each tower.
- One person on each side goes inside, towards the Deathsinger, to lure a wizard out.
- Kill the Wizards, then have everyone go inside to kill the Shriekers.
- After the Shriekers are killed, the glass opens and you can kill the Deathsinger.
This is simple in theory, but things get pretty hectic because there are a lot of enemies to kill and they keep coming.
- Some people can kill some of the enemies that gather around the steps so they don’t flood the team when you go inside.
- It’s best to have good sniper rifles for the Wizards and good rocket launchers for the Deathsinger.
- The Deathsinger dies easily, so just rush in once the glass disappears and unload everything on her at once.
Crota’s End
The time has finally come to defeat Crota. You start the fight by standing next to the big crystal in the room where you killed the Deathsinger.
When you start, you’ll see a debuff come up that says, Presence of Crota. This means you cannot regenerate health.
To fix this, there is a Chalice of Light in the center of the room where you fight Crota. Holding this recovers health. You pick it up like any relic, but other people can take it from you. Just pass it around to heal as needed.
Crota spawns in the middle, between the two towers. He rotates to the right and left platforms and back to the middle throughout the fight.
- If anyone dies during the fight, Crota summons an Oversoul.
- The Oversoul has to be killed or everyone dies. It is very hard to kill and gets harder each time it is summoned.
Snipe the Knights
Boomer Knights spawn in those towers throughout the fight, so have someone snipe them when they appear. After two die, a Sword Knight spawns and comes towards the group.
- Crota can only be damaged with the sword and when he is kneeling.
- The team must shoot his shields down to make him kneel.
This is the most important part of the fight. A swordbearer spawns periodically and drops the sword, it only last a short time. Crota also kneels for a short time, so you must have good timing.
You need to communicate with the group member holding the sword when Crota’s shields are almost down, because they need to approach him just as his shields are down.
Smash to Win
- Use the same smash attack you use on the Gatekeepers for Crota. If you time it right, you can get 3 hits in before he gets up.
- Be sure to move away before he gets up or he will kill you.
- After he gets up wait a second and have everyone take his shields down a 2nd time.
- If you do this fast enough, you can get 6 total hits in, 3 each time, before the sword disappears.This is the key to beating the enrage timer.
Beware the Ogres
After the second sword pick up, Ogres will spawn. They have to be killed before another swordbearer can spawn.
- Have everyone run to the middle room at the bottom. Avoid Crota as he should be moving to the left side at this time.
- Hide in the back and wait for the Ogres to come.
- Be careful because they hit hard. Keep moving to the left or right walls to avoid being killed.
After the Ogres leave, kill the swordbearer and go back to the left side like normal. If you are able to take down Crota’s shields twice and hit him with the sword each time, you should kill him in 3-4 times.
One of the rewards for beating Crota
Final Note
Damage of the sword is increased based on your light level. 32 gets you the max amount of damage and we did it with a 31 holding the sword. I haven’t seen a level 30 do it, but you would have to be perfect to even stand a chance.
When Crota enrages, he will summon Oversoul nonstop. As soon as you kill one, he summons another one. He also summons more enemies.
That wraps up my guide to the Crota’s End raid in Destiny. If you have any questions or know of any other tricks in the raid, let me know in the comments.
Published: Dec 19, 2014 05:52 am