Editing Root of Nightmares

In the aftermath of [[The Traveler|the Traveler]]'s attack on [[The Witness|the Witness]], a sinister threat haunts the citizens of [[Neomuna]] in their dreams. [[Guardian]]s must board the Witness's terraformed [[Essence|Pyramid]] ship and confront the [[Nezarec, Final God of Pain|ancient enemy]] growing within; reviving his form with the powers of both [[Light]] and [[Darkness]] and putting his nightmares at an end.

 

*'''Survive the Onslaught'''

:''Reach the entrance of the root.''

:''Lay Nezarec to his final rest.''

The raid begins with introducing a mechanic that will appear repeatedly throughout the raid. In front of the rally flag exists a small floating seed with an aura surrounding it, and a ripple-like white flooring beneath it. Standing within the aura and firing upon the seed will grant Guardians within the '''Field of Light''' buff that lasts for 20 seconds, and begin the encounter.

Once shot, the seed will display a thin white trail in the direction of another similar ripple-like white floor, with another smaller seed floating above it. A designated runner should go towards this, stand next to it and fire at it while holding the '''Field of Light''' buff to link this seed with the previous one. This will wipe the '''Field of Light''' buff from that runner. They should then return to the initial active seed to re-obtain the buff in the same way, then follow the trail of white lines to discover the location of the next seed, repeating this until all seeds have been linked. The location where '''Field of Light''' is obtainable will change, so the Guardian taking this job needs to be aware of the positions of these areas to keep refreshing their buff.

While the runner is performing their duties, the rest of the fireteam will have to deal with almost endless waves of Cabal units. As well as the regular mix of Legionaries, Phalanxes, War Beasts, and more, a pair of special bubble-enclosed Psions will spawn in various locations around the arena, which must be killed. Once killed, a [[Cavum of Nezarec]] [[Tormentor]] and a [[Barrier Colossus]] will spawn on opposite sides of the arena. Dealing with the Tormentor is top priority, as defeating this will extend the timer on the debuff called '''Sweeping Terror''' via a message stating "His hatred is momentarily delayed…". If the debuff is allowed to expire, then the team will be wiped by a burst of energy from the sarcophagus in the midfield of the arena.

Four separate '''Field of Light''' chains must be made to complete the encounter.

Next up for the second encounter is a repeat of the first, this time with a new element thrown into the mix. As before, '''Field of Light''' is obtainable from shooting a floating seed above a white ripple-like flooring. To contrast this, a '''Flux of Darkness''' buff is obtainable from a dark seed floating above a yellow/orange ripple-like flooring that also lasts for 20 seconds. The arena is split into two sections made up of three separate floors, divided by a huge chasm, with the fireteam starting on the bottom floor. Split your fireteam up evenly on the left and right, nominate a runner for each side, and prepare to create chains between the Dark and Light seeds, as per their specific alignment. Your fireteam will have a time limit to complete the Dark and Light chains on each floor, indicated by the '''Imminent Expulsion''' timer on your HUD. Failure to complete them within the time limit will cause the walls to push everyone off the floors, into the chasm.

 

As these chains will require crossing the impossible-to-jump chasm, Guardians will need to utilize launchers located along the edges. In front of each launcher, there exists a small Pyramid switch. Upon being shot, the launcher will strike the Guardian and send them rocketing across the gap. Due to the nature of physics in the game, Guardians will need to make sure they are touching the launcher itself before shooting the switch. Without doing this, the launcher can fall short of providing the impetus needed to help cross the gap.

As runners perform their task of chaining the Light and Dark seeds to each other respectively, the other Guardians will need to deal with waves of Cabal. Occasionally, special Cabal units will spawn that are surrounded by a Light ([[Redolence of Splendor]]) or Dark ([[Redolence of Decay]]) aura. These units can only be damaged while under the influence of a '''Field of Light''' or '''Flux of Darkness''' buff respectively. When a runner refreshes their buff at a seed, Guardians not partaking in running should stand within the aura to obtain their sides' respective buff, so they can deal with these special units. Towards the end of the chain, a Barrier Colossus will spawn, so Guardians should prepare to deal with this using Anti-Barrier abilities or weaponry.

Once the two chains are complete for the floor currently being worked upon, the '''Imminent Expulsion''' timer will disappear temporarily, and a wave of aura-holding enemies will spawn. Defeating all of these enemies will require the corresponding buff. Once defeated, a switch will spawn for the launcher at the end of the floor, allowing the usage of the launcher to ascend to the next level of the arena, where the previous steps must be repeated to spawn another switch for another launcher, to reach the third level, wherein the final set of chains must be made to complete the encounter.

During the traversal to the third encounter, after completing a '''Field of Light''' and a '''Flux of Darkness''' chain to open the root of a [[Tree of Silver Wings]], players will be introduced to a new mechanic: shelter zones. Nezarec will begin to wipe players that do not have the buff called '''Darkness's Refuge''', which can be obtained by first shooting an active Light seed within its aura to acquire the '''Field of Light''' buff, then shooting an inactive Darkness seed while the buff is active. The wipe mechanic will stop when all 6 players reach the door which will then lead them to the third encounter, where the Witness was first introduced in the final cutscene of the Witch Queen campaign.

To finish the Macrocosm encounter, Guardians must successfully defeat Zo'aurc, the Explicator of Planets.  In order to do so, the team must work together to align planets correctly and break Zo'aurc's shield

The first phase of the encounter starts off with two Solar-shielded Centurions spawning in the area Zo'aurc occupies to begin with.  Once defeated, four [[Terrestrial Lieutenant]] Colossi will spawn on the four large triangular platforms on the sides of the arena. Guardians who defeat a Terrestrial Lieutenant will acquire the '''Planetary Insight''' buff, which gives them the ability to see the indexed planets (glowing light or dark), and must communicate which planets are mismatched, and must be switched. Dedicating one Guardian on each triangular platform, these Guardians should call out which planet is mismatched on their side, interact with the small orb beneath that planet, and then interact with the mismatched planet on the other side of the room, called out by their compatriot. The two lower triangular platforms should coordinate with each other, with the two higher platforms doing the same with each other. They will also have the '''Planetary Affinity''' buff, which allows them to interact with the planets that must be moved.

Once an orb has been interacted with, Guardians have a '''Planetary Shift''' buff on their screen that causes the selected planets to move across the room when it expires.

Once the planets and destinations have been selected, the '''Planetary Shift''' buff will end, and the planets will move over the three plates.  If the indexed paracausal forces match (light or dark) the damage phase will begin.  If the indexed paracausal forces do not match, it will trigger a planetary collision and wipe the fireteam.

If Guardians take too long on either phase, Zo'aurc will attempt to align the planets incorrectly, causing three separate planetary collisions which emit a lethal wave of energy that destroys everything inside the arena.

With an alignment performed, Zo'aurc will return to their initial position, and hop down to the lower level of the arena to begin the damage phase. Depending upon the aura emitted by Zo'aurc, Guardians must touch a plate matching the aura to be able to damage Zo'aurc. The plate glowing light gives them '''Field of Light''' while the plate glowing dark gives them '''Flux of Darkness'''. There is no necessity to stand on the plate to deal damage, just to have touched it, so Guardians can move around and damage at will from any position. Once a short time has passed, Zo`aurc will power up a twister of flame and send it towards the fireteam, changing their shield alignment, meaning Guardians must go to a plate with the opposite one they have started DPS with, and begin damaging him again. Once all three plates have been exhausted, Zo'aurc will become immune to damage and the fight repeats.

Once Zo’aurc reaches final stand, or if Zo'aurc becomes enraged, he will initiate a nonstop damage phase, Guardians will have to match shield alignment in the same way using the central three plates and will have a certain amount of time to defeat the boss before the planets collide and kill the entire team. After completing this encounter, players must complete a '''Field of Light''' and a '''Flux of Darkness''' chain to open another root to allow them to traverse to the final encounter, but where the seeds end at is inverted from where they ended during the traversal to the third encounter.

While this is being performed, many enemies will spawn in the arena. Colossi, War Beasts, and Legionaries will appear in waves to tarry the team. Also, Nezarec himself will not sit idle, performing attacks similar to Tormentors. He will periodically throw Abyssal Cleaves at targets close to them, or spawn a floating pool of Void energy that will cast many of the same Abyssal Cleaves as it travels around the arena. Once enough time has passed, Nezarec will inflict one random player a debuff called '''Nezarec's Hatred''', which spawns a Psionic Blast beneath Guardians, which will blast them upwards after a set period of time, dealing damage. This will continue until Nezarec's chest weak point is broken. Once broken, Nezarec will jump down from his perch and begin chasing the Guardian who broke his chest, performing further Tormentor-like attacks, such as the Void suppression dive kick they are known for. The hunted Guardian will eventually lose the attention of Nezarec, then pick a new target and start to chase them, but it can be regained by once more breaking his chest.

The timer for the fight that determines failure or success revolves around a type of Overwhelming Energy Nezarec will begin casting, wherein he begin to exhibit a strong white glow on his back. Once enough time has passed, Nezarec will unleash a pulse of Overwhelming Darkness or Overwhelming Light, wiping the entire team if they are not sufficiently protected with a refuge buff. Similar to the platforming section before Macrocosm, Guardians must create a refuge of Light or Darkness, matching the type of Overwhelming Energy Nezarec will cast. To determine this wipe type, the shoulder weak points of Nezarec must be broken. Once both are broken, Nezarec will display a Light or Darkness colored tattoo across his body for a brief amount of time, matching the type of refuge they will need to create. Shoot an inactive seed while holding the opposite paracausal affinity, similar to the pre-Macrocosm relay platforming, to create a field that will grant a 14-second buff that protects against being killed by Nezarec's wipe mechanic. This can be done by first shooting an active Light seed to obtain the '''Field of Light''', then an inactive Darkness seed to create the '''Darkness's Refuge''' buff; or by first shooting an active Darkness seed to obtain the '''Flux of Darkness''', then an inactive Light seed to create the '''Light's Refuge''' buff. Be careful not to shoot an active seed that currently holds an aura field around it, as doing so will not create a refuge. Instead, it will provide the '''Field of Light''' or '''Flux of Darkness''' buff instead. The refuge buff can be refreshed repeatedly by getting close to the seed once the refuge has been created, and the refuge will stay until Nezarec casts the wipe mechanic.

Once a side has fully linked their seeds, large pulses of energy will go off from them in sequence, indicating success. Once both sides have been completed, Nezarec will shortly become vulnerable, indicated by a blast of light striking him. During this vulnerable phase, Nezarec will display some new attacks, such as the ability to perform a teleport into a slam, a slam that spawns large spinning Void projectiles across the ground, mixed in with his regular Void slashes. As they are not inactive during the damage phase, it is advised to locate the team on the final seed spot on either the Light or Darkness sides, as Nezarec will be unable to teleport behind the group, ensuring that sight won't be lost during the short damage phase.

As Nezarec becomes immune, he will prepare a slam attack which will suppress any Guardian caught in the vicinity. This is the fireteams cue to return to their initial starting positions, from whence the fight repeats itself.

If Nezarec's health is depleted enough to reach Final Stand, Nezarec will roar, displaying more Resonant energy coursing through his body, turning black. Now it remains a race to deplete Nezarec's health before he begins to prepare another Overwhelming Energy blast that will wipe the fireteam.

Upon loading into the raid, traverse through the platforms until you see a patch of roots on the left side. Instead of turning right, turn left and you will see a bundle of flowers with a Light seed or a Dark seed on top of it. 3 seeds will be there; take note of the seeds that appear from left to right, then find the secret rooms containing those seeds that must be connected as shown. The first secret room can be found past the staircase, but instead of entering the rectangular hole leading into the first encounter, head straight and go down the staircase. Players will know they have connected the correct seed when the following text is displayed: "Your actions take root…". Connecting the incorrect seed will display the following text: "Your spoils have suffered irrecoverable damage." After completing the first 2 encounters, the second secret room can found during the traversal section where players must create Darkness shelter zones by shooting an active Light seed to obtain the '''Field of Light''' buff, then shoot an inactive Darkness seed while the buff is active to obtain the '''Darkness's Refuge''' buff, but instead of turning right to enter a temple-like complex, turn left towards a floating platform. The final secret room can be found by following a root below the one leading to the final encounter into a floating Pyramid turbine, then jumping onto the open trapdoor above them. Once players connect the correct seeds on all 3 secret rooms, the following text will be displayed: "A great harvest awaits…", and a reward chest will spawn containing a weapon with guaranteed Deepsight Resonance once the final encounter is completed.

===Miscellaneous Equipment===

**'''[[lightgg:908153540|Terrors Uprooted]]''' - Complete any version of the "Root of Nightmares" raid.

**'''[[lightgg:908153541|A Good Night’s Sleep]]''' - Complete "Root of Nightmares" within the first 48 hours of release.

**'''[[lightgg:56137739|Opaline Shatter]]''' - Complete all encounters in "Root of Nightmares" without any member of your fireteam dying.

**'''[[lightgg:56137738|Oxidized Lead]]''' - Loot all hidden chests in the "Root of Nightmares" raid.

 

===Post-Raid Cinematic===

*'''Osiris''': the infamous "final god of pain" sought to use this paracausal power for his own curiosities.