Forum:Takedown the Headless Lord

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Takedown the Headless Lord
Game:	Destiny 2
Player(s):	1-6
Recommended Power Level:	1980
Location:	Transylvanian Wildlands, Earth
Objective(s):	Pursue the Headless Ones and put an end to their Dark Ritual
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“

Follow the source of profane magic to the heart of the Transylvanian Wildlands and eliminate the Headless One threat

”

Takedown the Headless Lord is a Scorn/Hive Takedown released with Episode: Revenant's Festival of the Lost. Following a Fallen distress call and dark magics around the area at the behest of Glint, the team soon discovers a dark ploy in effect as both Scorn and Headless one forces attempt to bring forth Ozymandias, former Warlord and dark practitioner of Hive magics. Players must push through the tainted wildlands and brave the Warlords' decrepit manse, bypassing hexes and his new Scorn army, earning dark-fantasy themed weapons and armor and, through persevering through some more grim resistance, can earn the Exotic Glaive, Grim Inheritance.

Overview

Meeting dead end after dead end on the origins of the Headless Ones, Glint would soon end his pursuit of learning the truth and origins of the mysterious assailants that have shown up time after time throughout the Festival of the Lost until Eido would come to him with a strange call for help from a Fallen caravan within the Transylvanian Wildlands. Following it, however, they soon discover that the former repentant House of Dusk pilgrims were turned into Scorn, and are now under the command of a reorganized and far more powerful Headless One threat. Following the source of their sorcery, they uncover a dark ploy by the Headless Ones' creator and must eliminate him before he can create an army that can consume the entirety of Earth.

Unlike Raids and Dungeons, the Takedown lacks heavily mechanic-based encounters, instead, relying on numerous enemies and the progression through them, save for the boss encounters, in a similar fashion to that of Strikes. For balancing, the difficulty of the Takedown will scale to the number of present players and the Fireteam Leader's power level and choice of modifiers. Most prominent of these features is the unforgiving checkpoint system, only offering three save spots: the beginning, after defeating Renfil and after defeating Cadavru for those who seek to collect the Grim Inheritance Exotic Glaive.

Gameplay

The Encampment

Unlike most other Takedowns, these earlier encounters are more of a way to grant players a general idea as to the current events of the Festival of the Lost and get them familiar with the general mechanics of the activity. Upon beginning the Takedown, the Fireteam will be seen landing in a sky bathed in the esoteric waves emitted from the Traveler following the Witness' destruction, as well as a view of an old, destroyed village strewn with rubble, seemingly empty and barren before the team lands at the town's outskirts. It is here where the team is free to investigate the abandoned vista, accompanied by banter from Glint and Eido, both commenting on the strange activity of the area, as well as the disappearance of a Fallen convoy responsible for the distress call. At first, the team must navigate through the old village, all the while disabling a couple of Fallen defense systems such as barriers and Security Turrets. But as the team draws closer to the center of town, they'll start noticing movement in the distance as strange beings stalk them through the town. Finally, the team will discover the remnants of a Fallen encampment, with bodies and debris scattered about, as well as Scorn equipment among the dead. Upon interacting with a totem buried into a pile of dead Eliksni, the team will be beset on all sides by an onslaught of Scorn. Dealing with wave after wave of increasingly formidable forces, the team will finally also be confronted by Headless Ones, fighting alongside their Scorn allies and even, noticeably, giving them direction and slight empowerment. Once the onslaught ends, the team is free to move, now told by their handler duo to move forward and track where they came from.

Following the Hexes

As the team passes through an old town hall and enter back into the light, they will notice the skies have noticeably darkened with clouds, as well as a couple of Ether trails leading out of the town. The team must carefully follow it through sniper-watched streets, boobytrapped alleys and opened ravines filled with a couple squads of Scorn and even Headless Ones. The fireteam will eventually find themselves in a church's vast graveyard and will encounter their first unique enemy, Deathless Berserkers. These special, headless Scorn units are decked in full, tarnished armor, engulfed by a strange, purple aura and wield twin cleavers. These towering elites will pursue their enemies nonstop in an effort to dash them into pieces, if not project waves of energy from their blades to assail distant targets. Similar to that of Revenant Barons, these special Scorn units can only be killed through a specific process of unraveling hexes or destroying specialized totems. In this instance, this purple aura covered Berserker can only be killed by unraveling it's assigned hexes, which require a player standing in the hex itself, damaging the Berserker, temporarily stunning it. Once stunned, the Berserker will release a trio of Dark Ether orbs into the air, each color coded, and the Hex will be surrounded by six similar orbs circling around; a player can try to leave the hex but should be aware that the dark ether orbs can significantly damage the player if they come into contact with them. The Guardian should note the orbs released by the Berserker, and then shoot the orbs that weren't shown, thus dispelling the hex and disintegrating the Deathless Berserker and thus are allowed progression further into the church itself, where the team is now confronted with the new variant of Deathless Berserkers, now armed with a Magma Flayer, a Trace Rifle like weapon that the Deathless Berserker will fire in controlled and long bursts. These indigo-aura covered Berserkers can only be killed by destroying their totems that are often nearby the Berserker themselves. In order to properly destroy it, the Fireteam must pick up a buff from a mini-Screeb that the Deathless Berserker spawns, applying the Hexcursed buff for 45 seconds, in which the player must carefully look at the symbol above the totem and look around for symbols scattered across the arena. Shooting each Dark Ether symbol will slowly start to create a symbol just above the Hex itself. That player must make a shape out of three of the six symbols without using one that the Totem uses for its own glyph. While the buff may expire without consequence after those 45 seconds elapses, any wrong inputs will gravely wound the player and slow them to a crawl for approximately 5 seconds. Once the Totem is dispersed, however, the Deathless Berserker will perish, and the way forward will open.

Now progressing further into the town, players will start to notice something new as they carve through Scorn forces, as something bearing the silhouette of a Hive warrior will begin to stalk them. Finally reaching the walled outskirts of the town, bedecked with impaled skeletons from a bygone age, the team will now be confronted by another new unique enemy, a Wereknight. A former Guardian, these Light-charged warriors will attack the Fireteam with profound aggression and maneuverability, employing abilities signature of their former selves, with Wereknight Titans utilizing based attacks such as Acolytes Grenades and even slinging a miniature Hive Axe at them, Wereknight Hunters swiftly teleporting across the arena with crackling and impaling an area with a charged spear of lightning and Wereknight Warlocks throwing gravity wells around the arena in an effort to weaken and trap their enemies and spawning souls around them so as to punish their attackers. Regardless of the Wereknight the Guardians face, the team must skillfully dispose of the twisted warrior and approach their Ghost. Direction from Glint, however, will tell the team to dispel of the Hive corruption seeped into the former Guardian's Ghost with their light, forcing the team to hold and interact with the infected Ghost in order to break their colleague's curse; if not addressed, the Wereknight will return to threaten the team. Once finally dealt with the team can then progress forward. Temporarily entering the town's walls, the team will now encounter three new variants of Headless Ones: an unchanged one, save for their new use of a Hive Axe, a smaller one bearing the silhouette of a Thrall and another one, bearing the silhouette of Swordbearers and bearing a green pumpkin head instead. The latter two variants can apply stacks of Hivecanthropy to Guardians through mauling and newly specialized Grenades and Stasis Boomer-like Boomers which create infectious clouds of Hive energy respectively. While all attacks deal standard damage, of course, if a total of 100 is reached, the player's Guardian will keel over, start sprouting Hive growths and become a Wereknight, the variant fitting their former form. The player will be forced to watch as their possessed body attacks their former allies until they are slain and their Ghosts are purified, in which the player's Guardian will be returned to their original form. The team continues through the wall, disposing of the Headless One and Scorn infestation within and finally reach the stormswept outside.

Optional Encounters

This takedown now introduces optional boss encounters where a team can go off the beaten path and face new opponents to either freshen up their run with new adversaries and/or try for more loot. Usually, these bosses are hinted at through special requests from Eido and can be picked up from the hologram next to Eva Levante.

The main bosses have their own unique paths with unique ways of reaching them, as well as the end of the Takedown itself, and are able to be followed after the Labyrinth of Brambles. These are the following encounters:

Bosses

• Ozymandias, the Headless Necromancer
• Renfil, Vassal of the Headless Lord
• Strykhoii, Witch of the Canal (Optional Path)
• Balaurks, Shield of Ozymandias (Optional Path)
• Bodaark, Warped Beasthunter (Optional Path)
• Salkhaa, Sorrowful Chieftain (Mini-Boss)
• Marhoii, Gatekeeper (Mini-Boss)
• Spiridys, Gatekeeper (Mini-Boss)
• Headless Gatekeeper (Mini-Boss)
• Vantoasii, Keeper of Gargoyles (Mini-Boss)
• Uriesk, Tower Sentinel (Mini-Boss)
• Varcoloth, Fount of Corruption (Optional Boss)
• Capkhûn, Blade of Cadavru (Optional Boss)
• Zmeuaika, Grasp of Cadavru (Optional Boss)
• Cadavru, Daughter of Nokris (Grim Inheritance Side-Quest)

Unique Enemies

• Deathless Berserker -
• Gargoyle -
• Wereknight Hunter -
• Wereknight Titan -
• Wereknight Warlock -

Returning Enemies

• Barrier Knight
• Overload Chieftain
• Unstoppable Abomination
• Unstoppable Ogre

Appearance

• Destiny 2: The Final Shape (First appearance)