Crota's End

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Crota's End
Game:	Destiny
Player(s):	1-6
Recommended Power Level:	150 (Destiny) 1790 (Destiny 2)
Location:	The Hellmouth, Moon/Oversoul Throne, Ascendant Realm
Enemy faction(s):	Spawn of Crota
Hostile race(s):	Hive
Objective(s):	End Crota, Son of Oryx within his throne world and avenge the losses of the Great Disaster and the First Crota Fireteam.

“

He waits in the dark below.

”

Crota's End is the Raid of The Dark Below expansion, made available to players on December 9th, 2014 and reprised for Destiny 2 on September 1st, 2023.

After having his soul banished and his brood all but devastated, Guardians must exact their vengeance against Crota, Son of Oryx by taking their fight into the depths of the Hellmouth and bear their blades against the God Knight himself; bringing a swift end at his own throne world.

Gameplay

It is available if players are at a high enough level; completing the expansion's story missions is not necessary.

In the reprised version of the Raid in Destiny 2, the raid is accessible to all players, provided they are at the appropriate Light level.

Unique enemies

Destiny

• Swordbearer
• Gatekeeper

Destiny 2

• Blistered Thrall
• Shield Singer of Ir Yût

Bosses

• Ir Yût, the Deathsinger
• Crota, Son of Oryx (Final Boss)

Walkthrough

Enter the Abyss

A map of the Abyss

Players will spawn at the top of the Hellmouth; to enter the raid, the players must step on the sync plate to form the bridge; once the bridge is formed, the players enter a lift at the end of the bridge. The fireteam is then dropped all the way to the pitch-black bottom of the Hellmouth and take some fall damage, as well as acquire the debuff "Weight of Darkness." This debuff builds over time and slows down players. To remove the debuff, players need to stand near one of the abyssal lamps. The lamps also help players see any pitfalls in the dark. The lamp will eventually explode after a few seconds, so players need to stick close together and quickly move from one lamp to the next to avoid being weighed down too much. Along the way, large numbers of Thralls will attack the players, including a few Cursed Thralls, a couple of Knights and a couple of Ogres. It is possible to skip the Ogres if your fireteam is quick enough through the portal into the Ascendant Realm.

The fireteam will eventually reach a dead end and a sync plate; there are no more abyssal lamps at this point, so the players will reacquire the Weight of Darkness debuff. Players need to form the bridge while defending themselves from waves of enemies; once the bridge is formed, players will need to cross it; be warned that a few more Thralls and Cursed Thralls will climb onto the bridge. Wizards will also spawn during this, unless both knights were left alive whilst running through the previous lamps. After crossing the bridge, the debuff is removed. If there are any dead players, it is better to leave them behind once the bridge is complete as they'll respawn in the next section.

The Stills (Destiny 2)

In the Destiny 2 re-release, there are a few big mechanical changes to the raid, most notably a brand new juggling mechanic called the "Chalice of Light", as well as the "Enlightened" buff that appears after passing the Chalice to another player. The Chalice is the overarching mechanic for the raid and appears in every encounter (including the hallway between the Bridge and Ir Yût, the Deathsinger).

Entrance/Maze: At the top of the Hellmouth, the Chalice will be hovering above a mini altar. Once picked up, it will begin to charge, and you will see a meter on the bottom left of your screen while you have it. Once fully charged, have another player take it off you before a 10-second cooldown expires and you die. Once the Chalice is passed to another player, it will grant you the “Enlightened” buff. Use this buff on the sync plate in order to begin building the bridge, and continue to pass the Chalice between players. Eventually, the bridge will finish and the Chalice will vanish for the time being. Once you’ve jumped down into the Hellmouth, the Chalice will appear again, and once picked up, you will gain two debuffs: "Weight of Darkness", and a new one called “Engulfed in Darkness”. This debuff lasts for one minute and will wipe players if not reset by preserving the Chalice. Players will notice that some lamps are lit up, and some are not. Lamps that are lit up will have a place to "preserve" the Chalice of Light, but ALL lamps are able to be Enlightened if any player has that buff. Enlightening a lamp will activate it, and gradually decrease each player's stacks of Darkness. After roughly 30 seconds, the lamp will stop lowering your Darkness stacks, emanate an orange glow, and explode, killing any players standing near it. At the end of the encounter, players must Enlighten the last lamp before the end plate in order to activate it and start building the bridge to end the encounter. If you want, you can choose to either preserve the Chalice or continue to pass it between players in order to build the bridge faster. If no player accelerates the bridge, it will take 90 seconds to fully build and allow players to cross.

Cross the Bridge

Guardians battling a Swordbearer

This next bridge is a bit more difficult to complete; not only are there sync plates, but also "Annihilation Totems" that will wipe the team if someone is standing under the sync plate and not the totems. Make sure to always have a teammate standing underneath both, especially if one is turning orange. Furthermore, there are two specific enemies: the Swordbearer, and the Gatekeeper. The only way to cross the bridge is to kill the Swordbearer and take his sword; without it, players cannot cross alive. Killing the Swordbearer results in the Gatekeeper spawning on the opposite side of the bridge, who can only be killed by the sword. Be warned, the sword will disappear after forty-five seconds, so it's crucial that the bridge is already formed before killing the Swordbearer and taking his sword. It is also crucial that each Gatekeeper is killed before the sword breaks, as each time the Swordbearer is killed, another Gatekeeper appears.

The first player who crosses the bridge should avoid standing on the sync plate on the opposite side, as that will activate the Annihilation Totems on their side of the bridge. Once the third player crosses the bridge, the players on the far side can now take over for forming the bridge and keeping the Annihilation Totems stable. The players on the starting side still need to kill the Swordbearer and the Gatekeeper to cross, but otherwise do not use the sync plates or totems. Upon the The fifth gatekeeper's death, the bridge will be permanently built for the sixth person, and six swords will spawn in, one for the sixth person, and five for the people already across. Then, waves of knights will begin to spawn from the left, middle, and right doors. After enough knights have been eliminated, Gatekeepers will start spawning in the middle. Once five more are killed, the doors on the far side will open, unleashing Thralls and Shriekers. Killing the second Shrieker will cause the doorway on the opposite side of the hallway to close, locking out the fireteam. The only thing on the other side is a chest, so it's not necessary, but be aware that it's there. Only one person needs to make it past the doorway, and after a couple of seconds, the door will open for the rest of the team. The hallway eventually leads to the final part of the raid.

Ir Yût, the Deathsinger

Guardians battling a Wizard

The fireteam will need to kill Ir Yût, the Deathsinger before Crota will appear. Once any player fires at any of the enemies in the room, they will have three minutes to kill Ir Yut before she wipes the party. On top of that, she locks herself in a chamber and can only be accessed by killing the Wizards and Shriekers guarding each side of the chamber. First, the acolytes and Major knights must be killed to lure out the Wizard. Once the Wizard is dead, the Shrieker will open up next. Do this for both sides and the chamber will open. Ir Yut must be killed as quickly as possible, so plan ahead what equipment will be needed. Ir Yut will stand in place for the final thirty seconds of the timer, so that may be the easiest time to unload the team's heavy ammo onto her.

Challenge Mode

In Rise of Iron, a challenge called Ir Yut's challenge is added with the addition of a 390 light version of the raid. The Ir Yut challenge is to defeat her with an Ascendant sword. To draw out a Swordbearer, the fireteam must defeat every enemy in the encounter. Teams should split into left and right groups, with one on each side dedicated to handling the Knights in the towers and adds in the middle. The remaining should work their way towards Ir Yût's chamber as normal. They should not forget the Knights that emerge inside once the barrier is broken, while avoiding damage to Ir Yût to prevent accidentally killing her prematurely. Once all of the adds are defeated, the fireteam will receive the message "Ir Yût shrieks in fear" and they should immediately return to the open arena. Three major Knights on top and a Hallowed Ogre on the bottom will spawn at each tower, along with Acolytes in the center. Defeating these enemies will spawn the Swordbearer. Defeat the Swordbearer and have your most agile player take it to Ir Yût's chamber to defeat her. She is taken down by literally any attack with the sword. Completing this in under two minutes unlocks the "Song of Silence" node in the Age of Triumph book.

Crota, Son of Oryx

Crota's Chamber and Oversoul

The entire team needs to enter the chamber to activate the next part. The fireteam will be sealed inside as they are surrounded by enemies. Meanwhile, Crota will be summoned on the far side of the room. His arrival casts a debuff called the "Presence of Crota", which prevents players from healing. Once the chamber opens again, players need to eliminate the enemies and locate two items: the Chalice of Light, which appears in the center and allows players to heal, and another Swordbearer (note: the Chalice does not appear on hard mode. Players will need to find other ways to heal, such as equipping armor that regains health upon picking up Orbs of Light). Only one player at a time can carry the chalice, but other players nearby can swap the Chalice and heal, but keep in mind if you swap around the Chalice too much it will disappear. Once again, killing the swordbearer will drop a sword, which is the only thing that can do damage to Crota, and once again only lasts forty-five seconds. Crota's shields need to be downed before he can be attacked with the sword, so fireteams need to strip Crota's shields quickly to maximize the amount of damage the sword wielder can do. Another mechanic to Crota is his Oversoul, and the specifics of it will change, depending on the difficulty. The Oversoul itself is a large green object in the background that the fireteam needs to damage very quickly before it wipes the party. On Normal mode, his Oversoul will activate if any member of the fireteam dies. However, on either of the Hard modes, his Oversoul activates whenever he gets up from his downed state. Defeating Crota will successfully end the raid.

Furthermore, Ogres will start spawning in the room as well after two damage phases, which prevents a new Swordbearer from appearing. It's best to avoid getting killed altogether, which requires smart use of the Chalice and taking care of the thralls that appear. Also, Crota will enrage after his health is near depletion, automatically activating the Oversoul. At this point, players should attempt to finish Crota off, or at least bring Crota as close to his enrage point as possible before attempting another sword run.

Challenge mode

Crota's challenge requires that no member of the fireteam can hold the sword more than once during the entire encounter. If a player accidentally picks up the sword, they must either use it or hand it off to another player, but they may not pick up another sword for the remainder of the fight. Likewise, if a player accidentally drops the sword, they cannot pick it back up or the challenge will fail. Teams should employ a double-down plan for Crota, so that each player with the sword has two chances to damage him.

Secret Deepsight Puzzle (Destiny 2)

After forming the bridge, but before jumping down the grav lift into the first encounter, zoom in with your weapon and take note of which statue in each pair of them is emitting soulfire from left to right. This will indicate which statue in each pair needs to be activated throughout the raid. After completing first encounter, but before starting the second encounter, face yourself toward the area where you would normally cross the bridge and then enter a room containing the statue that corresponds to the one emitting soulfire in the initial area of the raid on the left pair. Players will know they activated the correct statue among the pair when the following text is displayed: "A choice echoes into the future…". Activating the incorrect statue will display the following text: "An irredeemable mistake…". After completing the second encounter, do not enter through the doorway yet; instead, another pair of statues can be found at the end of a corridor where adds would spawn during the second encounter, then activate the statue corresponding to the one emitting soulfire in the middle pair of statues in the initial area of the raid. After completing the third encounter, the final pair of statues can be found adjacent to the top doorway in the middle where a Wizard or a Shrieker would spawn during the third encounter; activate the statue corresponding to the right pair of statues within the initial area of the raid. Once all 3 correct statues in each pair have been activated, the following will be displayed: "A balance is reached. To the victor go the final spoils," and a reward chest will spawn containing a weapon with guaranteed Deepsight Resonance once the final encounter is completed.

Messages

• A podium of Light has been activated (D2)
• Somewhere, a plate hums with the power of the Podiums of Light (D2)
• The bridge is fully formed
• The bridge is deconstructing
• PlayerNameHere has picked up the Sword
• The path is whole
• The Deathsinger prepares her song
• Ir Yût Prepares her Dark Precession
• Ir Yût shrieks in fear (D1)
• The Deathsinger begins the liturgy
• Crota's presence stops health recovery (D1)
• Crota summons his Oversoul
• Crota beckons

Rewards

• Radiant Shards and Radiant Energy
• DLC Exotic weapons (No Land Beyond, The 4th Horseman, Dragon's Breath)
• Crux of Crota
• Essence of the Oversoul

Armor

• Hunter - God-Knight Armor

• Titan - Willbreaker armor

• Warlock - Deathsinger armor

Weapons

• Necrochasm - Exotic ( Destiny 2) Auto Rifle - Obtained from completion of the Bottomless Pit quest
• Oversoul Edict (Adept) - Exotic Pulse Rifle - Obtained by completing a weekly Challenge Mode
• Abyss Defiant (Adept) - Exotic Auto Rifle - Obtained by completing a weekly Challenge Mode
• Word of Crota (Adept) - Exotic Hand Cannon - Obtained by completing a weekly Challenge Mode
• Fang of Ir Yût (Adept) - Exotic Scout Rifle - Obtained by completing a weekly Challenge Mode
• Oversoul Edict - Legendary ( Destiny 2) Pulse Rifle - Obtained by completing the Deathsinger or Crota encounters
• Abyss Defiant - Legendary ( Destiny 2) Auto Rifle - Obtained by completing the Deathsinger or Crota encounters
• Word of Crota - Legendary Hand Cannon - Obtained by completing the Deathsinger or Crota encounters
• Fang of Ir Yût - Legendary ( Destiny 2) Scout Rifle - Obtained by completing the Deathsinger or Crota encounters
• Swordbreaker - Legendary ( Destiny 2) Shotgun - Obtained by completing the Bridge
• Black Hammer - Legendary Sniper Rifle - Replaced with Black Spindle in Age of Triumph
• Light of the Abyss - Legendary Fusion Rifle - Obtained by completing the Bridge or the Deathsinger encounter
• Song of Ir Yût - Legendary Machine Gun - Obtained by completing the Crota encounter
• Hunger of Crota - Legendary Rocket Launcher - Obtained by completing the Crota encounter
• Husk of the Pit - Common Auto Rifle, obtained from your first completion of the Crota encounter and claiming the Bottomless Pit quest
• Eidolon Ally - Legendary Auto Rifle, obtained from killing 100 Hive with Husk of the Pit for the Bottomless Pit quest

Trivia

• Crota's End is the first Raid to feature the Ascendant Realm, and the realm's overall debut in Destiny
• Crota's End is the shortest raid in the original Destiny, only having four encounters, while both Leviathan, Eater of Worlds, and Leviathan, Spire of Stars have three.
• Crota's End is well renowned by players as a "Strike" due to the shortness and overall easiness of the raid, with many players managing to solo its entirety very early on. This resulted in Destiny 2's Contest Mode being MUCH harder than players thought it would be.
• Crota's End and Vault of Glass are so far, the only two raids in all of Destiny's franchise to have another fireteam attempt them before our guardians did.

List of appearances

• Destiny
  • The Dark Below (First appearance)
• Destiny 2
  • Season of the Witch (Non-canon appearance)