How to beat the Duality dungeon in Destiny 2

Destiny 2 has a new dungeon, Duality. It takes place inside the Derelict Leviathan from Season of the Haunted and involves Guardians diving into deposed Emperor Calus’ subconscious.

In this guide, we’ll teach you how to navigate the parallel universes inside Duality and fell all the Nightmares within.

On the way to the first encounter

Image: Bungie via Polygon

Duality starts out by dropping you in the old Tribute Hall from Season of Opulence. Make your way forward and chat with Eris, who will send you into Calus’ mind via a connection to one of his statues. Drop down the hole once she’s done talking to start the dungeon.

When you land, head forward and look through the grate. You’ll see a red, glowing bell in the distance. Shoot it until it closes to instantly travel to what we’re going to call the shadow realm. In the shadow realm, you’ll find yourself in a similarly shaped version of the room you were in before. However, the wall and grate will be gone, and you’ll be able to move much more freely. Run with your entire fireteam up to the bell and stand inside the circle around it (you can see the circle outline on the ground). Shoot the bell until it closes again to go back to normal reality.

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This is the first and most important mechanic to learn for this dungeon. You can shoot the bells to travel to the shadow realm from anywhere, and it will teleport you to the equivalent shadow realm location based on where you were already standing in reality. However, you can only travel back to reality by standing next to the bell. If anyone gets teleported back to reality while not standing next to the bell, they’ll die.

Proceed through the next several rooms here, experimenting with the bells and platforming. Climb up and keep your eyes peeled for grates hiding a glowing bell behind them, and be careful to kill enemies as you go so they can’t knock you off into pits.

Follow the path until you reach a large, opulent room with some statues in it. Clear all the enemies here and a door on the floor will open in the middle of the room. Drop down to face the first encounter.

Sorrow Bearer, Gahlran defeated

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The shadow of Gahlran is the first boss you’ll be facing in Duality, and he’ll put your knowledge of the bell system to the test.

This encounter takes place in two versions of the same long room: normal reality and the shadow realm. There’s a bell on either end and four places to place Standards, each bearing one of four symbols from the Leviathan raid: Axe, Chalice, Sun, and War Beast.

First, use the bell to travel to the shadow realm. You and your fireteam are looking for two Standard Bearers, who will be in two of the four rooms attached to the long arena. (If the room has Cabal dogs in it, that’s a dead giveaway that the Standard Bearer is near.) Send two players to each look for a Standard Bearer and send the third player to kill the Bellkeepers, who will be at the other end of the arena from where you teleported in (the bell to return you home will be unusable until both Bellkeepers are dead).

Note that while in the shadow realm during dungeon encounters, you have a time limit. If you do not teleport back to the normal reality within the time limit, you’ll die. (Killing the Standard Bearer in this encounter and future encounters will increase your time limit.) The immune-to-all-damage shadow of Gahlran will also be chasing you while in the shadow realm, so watch out for him as well.

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Once your team has two Standards and all the Bellkeepers are dead, group up around the bell and head back to reality. Once you’re back in reality, kill the enemies and the Bellkeepers that spawn in. Next, have your teammates with Standards plant them in their specific receptacles, opening the doors behind them. Kill all the enemies inside.

With two doors open and the enemies dead, have the two Standard holders walk into the rooms they opened. Leave the third player outside by the bell.

Your team should look like this:

• One player in a room on the left side of the arena
• One player in a room on the right side of the arena
• One player in the arena, next to the bell

When your setup looks like this, teleport to the shadow realm.

The player in the main arena should immediately run to the Bellkeepers and destroy them. Then they should clear the arena of enemies as much as possible and keep an eye on Gahlran.

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The two Standard players will find themselves in two long hallways filled with Gahlran’s shadows. Each player needs to defeat all of the shadows in their hallway, which will open a door at the end, letting them back into the main arena. When all the shadows are destroyed, the main Gahlran boss back in the main arena will become vulnerable.

Now it’s time to damage the boss; just keep in mind that you’re on a timer. Well of Radiance is great for keeping your team alive here, while Thundercrash, Golden Gun, and Tether are great for damage. For weapons, we recommend a sword. Linear fusion rifles are great too, but Gahlran moves around a lot, so it’s better to get up close unless someone wants to run Divinity.

Image: Bungie via Polygon

When there are at least 10 seconds left on the clock, leave the boss and head back to the bell. Teleport back to reality and get ready to repeat this entire process again — since this is a dungeon and not a raid, note that you can repeat this process as many times as you need to kill Gahlran, as he’ll never enrage. The only way to fail the fight entirely is for your entire party to die.

When you finally get the boss down, drop into the hole that opens up in the floor and proceed further into Calus’ nightmare Leviathan.

The crypt and the statue puzzle

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Once you’ve felled Gahlran (for the second time if you’re a Crown of Sorrow raid veteran), it’s time to head into the crypt. Follow the path until you come to a big, open room. Jump along the path to your left and throw the switch on one of the pillars in the middle of the room. This will cause coffins in the wall in front of you to move forward, becoming platforms.

Follow the new path up and then back across the room. Throw another switch here to bring out another set of coffins. Go back to the coffin wall and climb until you reach a new opening. Follow the path down the slide and through the winding corridors until you reach a giant leap of faith. Jump at the very last second and you should be able to reach the platform. If you’re struggling, equip a sword or use a good jumping Exotic for your class.

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Keep following the path until you reach a room with a bell and four gladiator statues. Note how the statues are standing in normal reality. The goal is to get them all to face the bell by rotating them counterclockwise. It seems that there’s usually one statue pointed correctly, two pointed backward, and one pointed to the side.

Use the bell to travel to the shadow realm. On the back of the statues here, there are switches that turn the statues in normal reality (the shadow realm statues do not move). Hit the switches however many times you need and then use the bell to teleport back. If you’ve done it correctly, the vault door under the bell will open, leading you to the next encounter.

Vault unlocked

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The vault encounter is not a boss in the traditional sense. But like the first boss fight, this encounter takes place in two different versions of the same room. There are two bells on either end of the circular chamber and four rooms at the four corners.

When the encounter starts, an invincible Cabal will hop into the room and two symbols (Chalice, War Beast, Sun, or Axe) will appear on Standard deposit nodes around the room.

These symbols correspond to the four different stairways at the four corners. At the bottom of each set of stairs is a large rectangle with nothing on the front. But if you look at the back of the rectangle, you’ll see one of the four symbols.

Like last time, choose two Standard runners and one Bellkeeper killer. Send the Bellkeeper player into the two pits around the circle (under the bells) to defeat the Bellkeepers and have each of the Standard players pick one of the two glowing symbols in the middle to go after. Once the Bellkeepers are down and each Standard player is standing next to the rectangle with their symbol on it, it’s time to shift to the shadow realm.

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As soon as the world shifts, the Standard players should each have stairs in front of them. Each player will need to go up the stairs and kill all the Cabal present, including the Legionary at the end. When all the Cabal are dead, a Standard Bearer with a Solar shield and a bunch of dogs will spawn. Each player needs to kill a Standard Bearer (adding time to the ever-ticking clock, which is present while in the shadow realm in this encounter) and pick up the Standard. With the Standard in hand, head back to the bell.

While the Standard players are hunting, the Bellkeeper player should be looking for Bellkeepers. After killing the two Bellkeepers in the pit opposite the bell used to teleport into the shadow realm, clear out as many enemies as you can until your allies are ready to go home.

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Once everyone is in position, take the bell back to reality. Both Standard players should then plant their Standards into their respective holsters. This will cause the immune Cabal to become vulnerable and spawn a ton of enemies. Kill all the enemies, including the miniboss Cabal. When the miniboss is dead, a second one will appear, and it will also be invulnerable. Repeat this entire process two more times (three minibosses total) to open the vault door and earn some loot.

The path from the second encounter to the final boss is much shorter than the other two. Simply follow the path deeper into the ship, shooting some bells along the way, and you’ll eventually drop into the final boss arena.

Calus’ greatest shame, Caiatl defeated

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The Caiatl boss fight can be a bit confusing, as the bells take on a slightly different role during the damage phase. But other than that slight surprise, the fight works very similarly to the other two encounters in this dungeon.

Once again you’ll find yourself in a dual arena — one in reality, one in the shadow realm. There are three bells this time: left, right, and middle. There is also a massive bell at the very end of the arena, where Caiatl spawns. This will be important later.

To start the fight, walk down the stairs. Three sets of Bellkeepers will spawn, as well as a boatload of enemies. Two symbols (Axe, War Beast, Chalice, or Sun) will appear on the four pillars closest to the giant bell. You’ll also see four balconies around the room, each corresponding to one of the symbols.

First, kill all six Bellkeepers. Next, choose two Standard players and one Bellkeeper player, as usual. Have the two Standard players pick a symbol from one of the four pillars and then move onto one of their corresponding balconies. Shoot one of the bells and transport to the shadow realm.

Note: Depending on your team coordination, play style, and skill level, it may actually be easier to run a single Standard player (a single Guardian can hold multiple Standards at once) and two Bellkeeper killers in this fight.

Image: Bungie via Polygon

The shadow realm is very similar to the main arena in this fight, outside of the giant pits around the four balconies. Immediately after teleporting to the shadow realm, the Standard players should kill the Standard Keepers on their balconies and pick up the Standard they drop. The Bellkeeper player should work to kill the four Bellkeepers as quickly as possible.

Once both Standards are in players’ hands and the Bellkeepers are dead, head to the bell and teleport back into the real world. Place the two Standards — spawning two more symbols — and then repeat the above process to get the other two.

Note: During this Standard collection process, do not kill any of the Standard Bearers that do not correlate to the symbols in reality. This is very obnoxious, as they’re all snipers and will be trying to kill your teammates while you’re in the shadow realm. However, you still have a timer in the shadow realm, and you’ll lose time if you kill the wrong Standard Bearer.

With all four Standards placed, the chains behind the Standards will light up. Shoot the gem in the chains to ring the big bell at the back of the room. This will start the DPS phase, which is quite hectic.

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With the big bell rung, Caiatl will teleport your team and herself into the shadow realm. Six Bellkeepers will also spawn. Before doing anything, look at Caiatl. She’ll start to move toward one of the three bells. If she reaches it, she’ll escape back to reality. You need to kill the Bellkeepers near the bell she’s running to, stand next to it, and ring it before she reaches it. She moves fast, but you can slow her down by getting close to her, which will cause her to stomp her feet to try and crush you.

By ringing the bell before she reaches it (make sure to wait until she’s close), you’ll stun Caiatl for 10 seconds. Anyone standing in the bell’s radius when it rings will get a damage buff for 10 seconds as well. You can technically kill Caiatl without the buff, but it’s very slow.

Repeat this process with all three bells, ringing them before she’s in position each time. Once all three bells are rung and she’s out of options (and hopefully around half health), she’ll escape through the giant bell and teleport you with her.

Note: Missing a bell or letting Caiatl escape isn’t a wipe. It’s just a lost chance at damage. But like the first fight, you can get to the damage phase an unlimited number of times as long as your team doesn’t wipe.

Once you’re back in the room, start the fight over from the beginning. Repeat this entire process until you’ve dealt enough damage to kill her. With the Nightmare of Caiatl defeated, Eris will pull you back to the Tribute Hall for some loot.