Forum:The Iron Catacombs

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The Iron Catacombs
Game:	Destiny
Campaign:	War of Attrition
Player(s):	1-6
Recommended Power Level:	200+
Location:	Meridian Bay, Mars
Objective(s):	Delve deep into Mars' surface and cripple the Bone Crushers once and for all.
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“

War foments in the heart of Mars.

”

The Iron Catacombs is the flagship Raid of the War of Attrition expansion. It opened to all expansion owners three days following the release of the DLC itself. It becomes available to any player who has completed the entirety of the story campaign of the expansion; other quests such as the Warzone and Buring Skies quest lines do not need to be completed to gain access to the Raid.

After crippling the Bone Crushers, the Vanguard would finally begin operations on exterminating the last remaining leadership of the Legion once and for all. With the help of a Fireteam of Guardians, they would breach the Vex-enhanced and Psionically-empowered defenses of their last stronghold, The Iron Catacombs, and face off against their vicious and powerful leadership.

Unique Enemies

• Harvester Psion
• Hijacked Minotaur
• Temporal Colossus

Bosses

• Qophet, Flayer Aspirant
• Amrotc, the Freeborn
• Valus Krae'elth
• Primus Vol'rahk

Walkthrough

Underground Transit

Players will first start in the Rubicon Wastes just by the Firebase, and are then lead to the door by the tower. As they approach it, a Cabal alarm sounds, a squad of both Dust Giants and Bone Crusher Legionnaires will land outside of it and the door will open, revealing a Goliath Tank, a smaller squad of Legionaries and a Centurion all within what appears to be a massive repair bay. The Goliath has a copious amount of health and Cabal foot soldiers will continue to spawn as long as it is still alive. After the tank is destroyed however, the Cabal will retreat, the alarms will cease and the furthest right door in the bay will open, allowing players access into The Barrows.

Upon entering, players will discover a rather active and bustling "railway" with multiple platforms and carts suspended on rails. Players here must successfully navigate the Barrows and reach the retrieval dock leading to the Occupied Terminus. While the platforms provide little for cover, they can carry more players, while carts provide great protection from Slug Carbine-armed Legionaries, can only support one. In this encounter, players will also note scattered placements of dormant Cabal Auto turrets. While initially dormant, if a cart-bound player gets detected by scattered lasers that scan the platforms, a lockdown will be put into effect and every cart will be stopped, all passage-way doors will slam shut and the turrets will activate and unleash a hail of slugs on the detected Guardian until they are eliminated. To avoid the detection lasers, players should immediately seek passage-ways and checkpoints either just above, below or beside the railway. Inside players may encounter a squad of Cabal, but usually nothing too difficult to face down. Nearing the end of the transit, laser grids will be replaced by individual or multiple moving lasers and safe rooms will become less and less common. As soon as the players reach the end and swiftly disembark their carts (as there is a final laser grid where the carts will continue into) and face off against a small squad of Cabal soldiers, among them, a few tough Ironclad Centurions.

This encounter lacks a darkness zone, so players can progress at their own pace. In the many scattered safe rooms, however, players can find a Cabal terminal they can interact with. Activating all three of the nine scattered terminals in the transit area unlocks a door at the receiving dock at the end, opening up to the secret chest. However, the terminals that open the door are randomly placed across the terminus, so players should seldom expect to find the same combination to open the door in the end. As soon as all players reach the end, the massive Cabal door at the end should open and the team should finally arrive in the Invaded Cistern and arrive to a platform overlooking a blue-shaded Vex chamber filled with Cabal technology and stacked crates.

Occupied Tunnels

This encounter is a labyrinthine gauntlet encounter where Guardians must continue deep into the heart of the Cabal-occupied Vex tunnels while also preventing an overload of Psionic energy from empowered Psion Operants. In the first room, one can see there are three different shield gates with the central one more obviously barring access to a large room containing two additional shield gates inside, with a few blocking access deeper inside, as well as a Vex receptacle nearby, as well as a lipped Vex receptacle covered in Cabal tech and tubing. To access the rooms, one player should kill the Psion Markbearer in the first room among the squad of Bone Crusher Cabal and hijacked Vex, collect the essence it drops and dunk it into the central receptacle. The first barriers barring access to the rooms should fall and allow players entry into them. Once the first dunk happens, however, a debuff called Psionic Corruption will slowly begin to grow as a collection of Psion Operants begin building up power for a Psionic Discharge that will wipe the team once the number reaches 100 (once so, a pop-up text should indicate the wipe is soon to happen, stating that The Cistern floods with Psionic Energy, however, the wipe doesn't happen until after 5 seconds have elapsed, so Players have the potentiality to clutch the wipe by killing the Operant at the last second). When all players enter a specific room, however, the barriers behind them will seal them in, and an onslaught of incoming Vex and Cabal will enter the field. It is highly recommended that the team divides into three teams of two for each room.

Here, players should attempt to cull down the number of combatants to give themselves some breathing room. Each room will get a chance to leap-frog off each other as they continue to advance deeper and deeper into the tunnels. One side should notice that their barrier's receptacle is glowing either red, blue or purple instead of a neutral white. Another side should notice that there resides a Psion Markbearer among the onslaught of Cabal warriors and the other should notice that smaller shield gates barring access to smaller alcoves are lifted and within resides a Gatherer Psion either glowing Red, Blue or Green. It is recommended that one player deals with the adds while the other, while still contributing to clearing the horde of oncoming enemies, mainly focuses on assisting with transferring the buff. First, the player sharing the room with the Psion Markbearer should single out the empowered Bone Crusher grunt and take them out, picking up their essence and transferring it to the side with the Gatherer Psions via the lipped receptacle(s) (as there can be more that one receptacle on each side). The Essence carrier on that side should then gather the correct essence from the identically glowing Psion and pick up the empowerment by simply standing nearby. Finally, the player should then deliver the essence to the side with the glowing receptacle (if it requires two transfers, than the middle corridor essence carrier should help to transfer it to the other side) and the player on that side should then dunk the essence into the barrier, which should then falter and allow access deeper into their side. Once down, the players should then go out and destroy the Psion Operant (which after doing so, should set the debuff back by 15) and Markbearer there to both set back the Psionic Corruption and recycle the buff to their other allies, who should notice that one of their gates are now glowing.

Here, its down to rinse and repeat, however, players who have advanced to the next corridor should now notice squads of hijacked Vex are now joining the fray. Despite this new addition, however, players should hardly notice anything different in terms of the mechanics. However, the side who makes it to the joining corridor at the end may have to deal with a lot more adds as now, they have three different potential waves to deal with at once while also supporting their allies. Once all players reach the end (the Psionic Corruption should be sitting at a minimum of 50 at this point), every one should be working together in the final room to kill the massive onslaught of Cabal and Hijacked Vex. Once enough waves have been dispatched at this point, one Psion Operant after another should appear before a larger Psion known as Qophet, Flayer Aspirant finally shows up. After dispatching the rather resilient Psion, the debuff should rapidly decrease, the Darkness Zone should lift and the players should get their rewards for completing the encounter.

On Hard difficulty, players should notice a pair of Vex Sync plates in their room. Here, the transfer receptacles only activate once all plates (the plates furthest into their chambers, that is) are stood on.

Messages

• [Name of Player] has triggered a Lockdown!
• Psionic energy begins to coalesce...
• The Cistern floods with Psionic Energy
• Amrotc marks a target for Retaliation
• The Storeroom seals. Psionic energy is trapped within
• Amrotc is building up a Psionic discharge...
• Amrotc is fully empowered! He prepares to discharge his powers...
• The Remedial Conflux is destroyed! Panicked, Amrotc prepares a discharge!
• Valus Krae'elth has activated her defenses! Find cover!
• The Shield Generators are destroyed
• Valus Krae'elth calls for a bombardment

Rewards

Underground Transit Secret Chest

• Radiant Shards and Radiant Energy
• Exotic Chance
• Knuckles of Eao (390 version)

Occupied Tunnels

• Artifact Chance (Legionnaire's Vow)
• Pyrrhic Assault
• Raid Class Item (Sigil of Krae'elth (Skullbreaker), Aura of Amrotc (Boneslicer), Emblem of Vol'rahk (Marroweater)

Amrotc, the Freeborn

• Chains of Amrotc
• Harvester's Patience
• Raid Arms (Bone Crusher's Vambrace (Skullbeaker), Grasp of the High Flayer (Boneslicer), Primus's Caress (Marroweater)
• Skull Claimer
• Age of Triumph Token (390 Only)
• Chains of Amrotc (Adept) (390 Mode, Challenge only)
• Hammer of Sha'aull (Adept) (390 Mode, Challenge only)
• Sandstorm Advance (Adept) (390 Mode, Challenge only)
• Skull Claimer (Adept) (390 Mode, Challenge only)
• Tragedy of the Freeborn (Emblem) (390 Mode, Challenge only)

Pre-Krae'elth Chest

• Radiant Shards and Radiant Energy
• Exotic Chance

Valus Krae'elth

• Judgement of Krae'elth
• Raid Chest (Bone Crusher's Plate (Skullbreaker), Vest of the High Flayer (Boneslicer), Primus's Resilience (Marroweater)
• Sandstorm Advance
• Valus' Barrage
• Hammer of Sha'aull
• Age of Triumph Token (390 Only)
• Chains of Amrotc (Adept) (390 Mode, Challenge only)
• Hammer of Sha'aull (Adept) (390 Mode, Challenge only)
• Sandstorm Advance (Adept) (390 Mode, Challenge only)
• Skull Claimer (Adept) (390 Mode, Challenge only)
• Champion's Mettle (Emblem) (390 Mode, Challenge only)

Post-Krae'elth Chest

• Radiant Shards and Radiant Energy
• Exotic Chance

Checkpoint Kul'lak

• Artifact Chance (Legionnaire's Vow)
• Pyrrhic Assault
• Raid Boots (Bone Crushers Sabatons (Skullbreaker), Treads of the High Flayer (Boneslicer), Primus's Advance (Marroweater)

Primus Vol'rahk

• Hammer of Sha'aull
• Raid Helmet (Bone Crusher's Crest (Skullbreaker), Helm of the High Flayer (Boneslicer), Primus's Gaze (Marroweater)
• Skull Claimer
• Stormbreaker
• Warrior's Waltz
• Fracturer Shell (Ghost Shell)
• Signifer (Sparrow)
• Siege Breaker or Shatterer of Resolve (Ships)
• Conqueror or Janissary Shaders (Normal and Hard Mode Respectively)
• Bone Crusher and Scourge of Legions Emblems (Normal and Hard Mode respectively)
• Chains of Amrotc (Adept) (390 Mode, Challenge only)
• Hammer of Sha'aull (Adept) (390 Mode, Challenge only)
• Sandstorm Advance (Adept) (390 Mode, Challenge only)
• Skull Claimer (Adept) (390 Mode, Challenge only)
• Bloodpact Shader (390 Only)
• Age of Triumph Token (390 Only)
• To the Last (Emblem) (390 Mode, Challenge Only)

List of appearances

• Destiny: War of Attrition (First appearance)
  • Age of Triumph