Well, it took me about four months to ever actually run Shattered Throne after it was released. But Pit of Heresy? I’m proud that it only took me a few days to run Destiny 2’s second “true” dungeon (if we’re not counting the secret Whisper/Outbreak style missions).
Yesterday, I ran Pit of Heresy with fellow journalist Collin MacGregor and reader Outrider with Collin telling us what to do the whole time because he’d already run it once. We did everything, including the Xenophage quest, and I’m glad we did considering that was actually the most fun part of the run.
This isn’t going to be an exact walkthrough of the entire thing, but it is a “review” of sorts.
It’s very good. It’s a very good dungeon. I am not convinced I like it more than Shattered Throne, as I think that dungeon had an edge both in terms of visuals, lore and content. And yet Pit of Heresy is still a must-play for any Destiny fan.
Dungeons are good content because they bridge the gap between really easy strikes and really long and complicated raids. They’re not matchmade, but you only need three people instead of six. They have encounters, but they’re not totally labyrinthine and complicated, and even doing the extra Xenophage stuff, we finished this run in about 1:20, far shorter than any raid would take most players its first time.
Encounters
I dug the first encounter which plays with verticality in a fun way, and trains you for what would turn out to be the final boss fight, where you have to face down Wizards, Knights and Shriekers in different ways with a special relic sword. I ran the sword most of the time and I think this was the only encounter we actually wiped on. But only once.
Perhaps the most memorable encounter is the Ogre maze, which has you stalked by three immortal Ogres as you try to find orbs and dunk them at doors. I know some people like this encounter a lot, but I really didn’t. Yes, I got the feeling of tension, but more often than not I just felt confused and lost and the Ogre patrol patterns were really random, as was drawing their attention when you needed to. And at one point we simply couldn’t find an orb for like 15 minutes, which felt a bit buggy. It was fine, but probably my least favorite encounter.
There’s a chaotic room after this where you have to kill knights and dunk orbs while a third team member holds down the fort in the middle. This was fun and frenetic and not that hard in the end, though we did come close to wiping at least once.
After this, there’s a “trap maze” where you have to stalk wizards through a bunch of spike traps and unfriendly lanterns barring your way, and I found this more engaging than the Ogre maze, and it’s probably one of my favorite parts of the dungeon, even if it wasn’t terribly difficult.
Bosses
There are only two boss fights in the entire dungeon, and one of them you will only be doing once because it’s the special Xenophage boss.
In fact, the Xenophage boss is both harder and more fun than the actual final boss of the dungeon. It’s a 980, hard-hitting Wizard where you have to dunk orbs and then do damage with only X type of element for a short window. It’s a good fight because there’s no wipe mechanic and you can just take your time. In theory, you can just leave a single person in the safe room so you really can never lose, as the other two dunk and do damage. I got lucky and got void energy twice, so my oppressive darkness grenades and void bombs chunked the Wizard for about 70% health. Collin finished it off with Izanagi’s.
The final boss is much, much easier. It’s a very cool looking flaming knight, but one that is very easy to kill. You echo the first encounter by killing a Knight, Wizard and Shrieker with a relic sword, then you have a decently long damage phase in the middle where we almost one-phased him our first try. I only died when I was occasionally booped off the edge.
Rewards
My rewards in the end were Xenophage (which is unfortunately as terrible a weapon as everyone said), the exclusive dungeon ship and a fully masterworked Dreambane bond, which is essentially like getting an Ascendant Shard. Not bad. I didn’t get the pulse rifle, but oh well.
Lore
A lot of the dungeon lore is actually available before the actual dungeon, as you learn about the rise of the fiery knight to power as they try to make him a new Hive champion. I don’t think I unlocked any new lore during the dungeon, and there’s no narration during it, so it seems a bit sparse. All I got in the end was that it was some sort of ritual that has something to do with the pyramid but it was typically vague and frustrating as most of Destiny’s storytelling is. Even loremaster Byf said that he wished there was a bit more to it from a story perspective.
In the end, it’s fun, you should run it. Bungie is really, really good at building this kind of content, and this dungeon is everything that Shadowkeep’s Nightmare Hunts are not, creative, epic, engaging and rewarding. Another home run from Bungie here.
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