The Vault of Glass is a Raid located on Venus. It was made available in Destiny on September 16, 2014, and is the only Raid included with the game.
Gameplay
The Vault is said to be "the most challenging experience that [Bungie] has ever created," and that players who complete it would "earn Destiny's ultimate rewards."[1] It is a raid that will take "hours upon hours to complete."[2]
According to Eric Osborne, the entrance alone is a challenge in itself, taking his team "45 minutes to crack."[3]
The Vault of Glass includes a number of challenging puzzles, unique enemies, and boss fights, as well as various traps to instantly kill the entire party if performed incorrectly. Time travel to the past and future also plays an important part in the Vault.
Unique Enemies
Bosses
- Atheon, Time's Conflux (Final Boss)
- The Templar
- The Gorgons
Guide
The Vault of Glass can be broken up into multiple stages, each with a different puzzle and/or boss encounter. There are no objective markers or instructions on how to complete the Vault within the game. Note that the raid may be entered by as little as one player, but six is recommended if not necessary to complete. The minimum recommended level that players should be is 26 on Normal difficulty, and weapons that do void damage are recommended, as they will come in handy for dropping Minotaur shields.
Stage 1: Waking Ruins
Players spawn in an open area outside the Vault's entrance littered with Vex ruins. The goal is open the gate by assembling a Spire, which acts as a key. The Spire is built by having all three Control Plates in the area continuously active for a period of time. Control Plates are initially activated by clearing them of enemies and standing on them. Once activated, waves of Vex enemies will spawn at points near the Control Plates and attempt to deactivate them. Players must destroy the Vex before they can reach a Control Plate, or the Spire's construction will reverse.
As a puzzle, this stage is fairly simple. The most significant threat to the Control Plates are powerful Minotaur variants called Praetorians. Once a Praetorian spawns, it will rapidly advance toward the nearest Control Plate. Players should focus on destroying Praetorians above all else so that the Spire is not interrupted. When the Spire is complete, it will link with the gate and open it, allowing the party to proceed.
Stage 2: The Trial of Kabr / Templar's Well
Follow the passageway down into the first major room, and jump down. This is the area of the first boss, but the boss will not be open to attack yet. Firstly, the players must eliminate all the lesser enemies. Be warned, there are also a unique vex type called Fanatics in this room. They are headless Goblins that glow green; if the player touches them, or steps into the green pool they leave behind, the player gets the mark of negation, and has a few seconds before they are killed. Players who are debuffed need to enter the pool of light in the middle of the map to cleanse themselves; be warned that this takes a small amount of damage. The pool will sometimes disappear, as well.
After a few waves, the players are prompted to defend the two vex Conflux on the left and right sides of the room from Vex attempting to sacrifice themselves into the conflux. Each conflux will allow three sacrifices before the mission fails. Vex will appear in three places; the middle, and a cave area near the two confluxes.
Once the two confluxes have been successfully defended, players will be prompted to kill a Vex enemy called the Oracle. Oracles will spawn in one of six places, three on each side, and every time an Oracle spawns, it makes a distinct musical sound. Players need to kill all the oracles that spawn as quickly as possible, or else all players will be marked for negation. There will also be Hobgoblins appearing on the edges of the room, so be careful of stray sniper shots.
Stage 3: The Templar
After defeating the Oracles, the players will reach a checkpoint and have a break to reorganize before the boss fight. The pool of light will disappear, and in its place will be a relic called The Aegis, a wieldable shield. Once one of the players picks up the relic, the Templar will appear. The relic has a melee attack, a super (THE SUPER IS THE ONLY WAY TO TAKE DOWN THE TEMPLARS SHIELD) attack, and a cleansing attack bound to the grenade button. If anyone drops the relic, someone else needs to pick it up in a few seconds or else the mission will fail. The Templar has a full shield surrounding it that cannot be damaged with any weapon except for the relic's super, which can be charged fairly quickly by attacking the harpies in the room.
Once the Templar's shield is down, it will summon a red bubble around every player. Players should avoid firing rockets at the bubble, as it will explode inside and kill them. Instead they should attack it with their primary weapons or a solar damage non-explosive weapon. After a few seconds, the Templar will attempt to teleport to another part of the room and get its shield back. To prevent the Templar from teleporting, one player stands in the red circle that appears in the map. Teleporting will also make more oracles appear in the room; if the players do not dispatch the oracles and get the Mark of Negation debuff, the only way to cleanse themselves is with the relic's grenade ability. (Note: The relic's cleanse as a cooldown, so use sparingly and time it right.) Its better to let the other players handle the oracles, as the player with the relic will have a hard time dispatching them. Instead, that person should focus on the weaker enemies to build up their super. However, if the players do succeed in preventing the Templar from teleporting, a group of praetorians will spawn. Fortunately, the relic is fairly effective against them.
If the players do not kill the Templar within a certain period of time, it will become enraged, and summon a large number of enemies and oracles. By this point, the encounter will become too difficult as the oracles will keep reappearing and marking everyone for negation. It is best to finish off the Templar before it can become enraged..
For hard mode there is a fifth chest that can only be accessed through this method: after defeating the templar head to the back area to the left of the entrance door. There is a small hold in the wall in the corner that you need to jump into. there is a chest with spiritbloom in that room. SKIP this chest and head to the back of the room. Follow the jumps and downward caves until you reach a deep drop chute and then a second deep shute, at the bottom of the second chute there is a short ceilinged room. tot he left is the exit for the chamber. to the right at the far back opposite of the exit is a small hole that leads to a chamber with the fifth and final chest of the vault of glass (available on any difficulty as long as you kill templar without letting him teleport).
Stage 4: The Gorgons' Labyrinth
The players will enter a room with a very large drop to the bottom. Jump down, then double jump before hitting the bottom to negate fall damage.
This next part will require high coordination and quick reactions. The maze ahead is filled with white harpies called Gorgons. Gorgons will kill the entire party in a matter of seconds if they spot them, so the party needs to exit the labyrinth without being seen. If for whatever reason it's not possible to avoid or hide from a Gorgon, the next best thing is to turn away and avoid its gaze.
To complete this puzzle the party must move left from the large rock near where you fall down the chasm, once you find the large hall to the left enter and climb to the top of the other large rock in the middle of the room and wait until the two gorgons are clear to the right. once they have moved out of range jump down to where they were and keep moving untill you find a small alcove on the right. Once there just hug the right wall untill you find a hole in the wall.
Another point of note is that if you head right from the large rock in the chasm and move through the tunnels without being seen there is a mainly white room that contains a chest with high quality materials.
Also noted that in the beginning of the labyrinth, where the river along the bottom goes back in to the cliff. there is a small cliff hole that you can jump into. Enter this hole and follow the cavern to find another chest.
Stage 5: Jumping Puzzle
After exiting the Gorgons' Labyrinth, the next room is a large, bottomless chamber with a platform nearby. Standing on the platform will summon a new platform, but will also make the current platform disappear in a few seconds. The party needs to jump from platform to platform until they reach the narrow ledge on the other side, then follow it until they reach a doorway to the right.
Stage 6: Awaken the Glass Throne
For this stage you are required to kill the Gatekeeper and open both of the portals within the final room. Once the Gatekeeper is defeated, players must activate one of two (or both) sync plates, which will in turn open the corresponding portals. Once a portal is open players will need to enter the portal, kill the Gatekeeper within and retrieve the relic then return through the portal. This must be done on both portals on either side of the room. While this is happening players outside the portals will need to defend the plate next to the portal to keep it open, and defend the conflux that appears in the center of the room once the relic from the one portal is retrieved. Once both relics are retrieved and the conflux is completely built players will need to defend against Minotaurs from both portals and from the main room, once this is complete this stage is done.
Stage 7: Atheon, Time's Conflux
For this section the final boss will appear: Atheon, Time's Conflux. Periodically he will teleport Guardians to a point in time, either past or future, where they must pick up a relic and destroy seven Oracles. In the meantime the Guardians left behind in the Vault will face Atheon and Supplicants, special Harpies that explode upon death or within close proximity to a player. Once the teleported Guardians destroy every Oracle and exit the portal, Atheon will be extremely vulnerable to damage due to a buff called "Time's Vengeance." Repeat this process until Atheon is defeated. Like the Templar, he will also become enraged if Guardians take too long to defeat him.
Rewards
Chests
- Ascendant Shards
- Ascendant Energy
- Chance for an Exotic Weapon
Boss Fights
- Legendary Weapons with bonuses against Vex targets
- Legendary Armor sets specific to the Vault
Final Boss
- Chatterwhite Shader
- XV0 "Timebreaker"
- Vex Mythoclast (Hard Mode Only)
List of appearances
- Destiny (First appearance)