The Pantheon is an all new raid boss-rush mode added to Destiny 2. It’s a limited time activity, with the potential to reward some of the best gear in the game.
This end-game difficulty activity is geared towards fireteams of 6. In it, you and your squad will face off against a remixed lineup of bosses from the various Destiny 2 raids, with some unique twists along the way.
This guide will explain how Pantheon works, what are the Pantheon rewards, and what you can expect to deal with each week.
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Destiny 2 Pantheon Explained
Pantheon is a limited time event running from April 30th until the weekly reset on June 3rd. Each week will debut a new series of bosses to face, each taken from previous Destiny 2 raids. The fights themselves will feature unique twists, like new enemies that weren’t present before, or modifications to the encounter mechanics.
Each week also represents a change in difficulty. For week 1, everyone in the fireteam will play with a -5 level disadvantage versus the enemies. For week 2, that increases to minus 10, then 15, and finally a full minus 20 levels for the final week.
That might sound daunting, but you have an ace up your sleeve in a special buff called Class Warfare. This applies stacking increases to your outgoing damage, and reduction to incoming damage when someone in your fireteam uses their class ability. You will need to be within range, but if you perform a hunter dodge, for example, and a Titan nearby puts up a rally barricade, everyone on your team in range will get 2 stacks of this buff. The best part is this is inclusive of other active perks, enabling huge boosts to damage and damage resistance.
Destiny 2 Pantheon Rewards
There wouldn’t be much point in taking on the gauntlet that is Pantheon without rewards that make it worth your time, and oh boy is it worth it. Clearing each encounter brings with it a veritable bounty of raid weapons, frequently including some with Deepsite Resonance. That means you can extract the patterns, and eventually craft your own god rolls.
In addition, Shaxx has a special quest called Divine Weaponry. Once you pick this up all you will need to do is complete all of the Pantheon Encounters, and Shaxx will give you your choice from a selection of Raid Exotic Weapons. These have historically always relied on pure luck with drop rates, being able to just select one is unprecedented.
Each week Shaxx will update his quest, and add to his assortment of expotic weapons. Currently your choices are:
- Eyes of Tomorrow – Rocket Launcher from the Deep Stone Crypt
- Touch of Malice – Scout Rifle from King’s Fall
Pantheon Week 1 bosses
The first week of the Pantheon pulls from King’s Fall, Vow of the Disciple, Root of Nightmares, and the Deep Stone Crypt. Your level disadvantage is set to -5.
The first encounter is Golgoroth from King’s Fall. We have a full walkthrough to this fight in our King’s Fall Raid guide. To summarize, everyone will clear adds until you eliminate a pair of yellow health bar wizards. Then, four members of the team shoot orb on the ceiling one at a time to form pools of goo. They have to stand in the good to damage the boss. The other two members take turns shooting Golgoroth in the weak spot on his back to attract his gaze (trading before the timer runs out each time), which prevents him from killing the DPS team. Occasionally someone on the DPS team will get a debuff called unstable light, they will need to release an explosive shockwave when their timer runs out, damaging any team member nearby.
There are three key changes for this version of the fight. First, the add clear phase now features Ogres, and yellow-bar Knights called Witness’s Conscript. Make sure you clear those quickly. Second, during the boss damage phase Two Guardians will now be cursed with Unstable Light. They will both need to run away from the squad before they detonate, lest they kill other fireteam members. Finally, the Gaze Holders will have to deal with Invisible Minotaurs while they are holding Golgoroth’s attention.
Next up is The Caretaker from Vow of the Disciple. He is slowly walking towards an obelisk, and will wipe the party if he reaches it. He can be temporarily stunned if he is shot in the face when it light ups, then his back when it opens up. While that is happening a pair of runners will take turns shooting a darkness seed to open a vault room, and collect up to three glowing symbols by running through them. They will then need to shoot the symbols they have gathered on the obelisk to clear them. Once all nine symbols have been shot, the damage phase will start. You will need to be standing on the glowing circle on the floor to do damage, it will rotate through three different spots. After a damage phase the entire battle moves up another floor. After the third floor the boss will go into a last stand, everyone will need to do enough damage to finish the boss before he wipes the party.
This one is more or less the same as before. There are some extra enemies, but the main thing to watch out for is the homing projectiles fired by The Caretaker will also seek out the runners who are searching for the Darkness fragments. Anytime he hits them, it decreases the amount of time you have to find the fragments.
The third encounter for week 1 is Macrocosm from the Root of Nightmares. You can check out our guide for full details. The idea here is to get each trio of planets above each of the four floating islands to be a complete set of Darkness, or Light. One person will be assigned to each Island, and after killing a colossus, they will be able to see which planets are Light and Dark. Once they do, they will see which is the outlier, collect it, and swap places with the outlier on the opposite side of the map. Once all of the correct changes are made, more Colossi will appear. Kill them to reveal the color of the planets above the middle of the arena, and a Guardian will need to bring the matching energy to each.
Damage phase will begin after this. The boss will have either a Dark or Light Shield. You will only be able to damage the boss while standing under a planet that matches his shield. After several rounds of this he will go into a last stand phase of his own. Finish him quickly to advance.
There are two things you will need to watch out for. First, a fire tornado will spawn on one of the floating Islands when someone takes the Light or Dark energy from a planet. This does a lot of damage, and will rotate from Island to Island. Also, a Tormentor will spawn once all of the planets are aligned. Make sure you deal with him quickly before he becomes a problem during the damage phase.
The last encounter is a fight with Atraks-1 from the Deep Stone Crypt. Split into two teams of three. Three stay in the beginning area, the other three use the elevators in the back of the room to reach an upper area. Clear adds until a number of Servitors appear, then find and identify a Vandal with a yellow symbol (upper area) or red symbol (upper area) above their heads. Someone from each team will need to pick up those symbols. Red is the Operator buff, this person can activate switches, which open airlocks at the end of the space, or send elevators back down. Yellow is the Scanner buff. When all of the Servitors die, the damage phase begins. During the damage phase there will be copies of the boss, and only the scanner can see which copy is glowing. That’s the one that needs to be destroyed.
There is a terminal in both the upper and lower areas. If one of the augments is docked in it, it can be retrieved by someone in either the upper or lower area. The Operator Augment should be sent up as soon as possible. When a copy dies, it leaves behind a ball of energy. Someone needs to pick this up, or it explodes and wipes the team. The person who picks it up has 40 seconds to get rid of it, or it kills them alone. The Operator can shoot the energy off of them, which resets its timer. The goal is to get the person with the energy to an airlock, for the Operator to shoot the switch to open the airlock, and for them to shoot the energy off of them in the airlock so that it is sucked into space.
After two copies in the upper area die, they will appear in the lower area. The Scanner augment will need to be sent down. This time the players who retrieve the energy should take the lifts back to the upper area, allowing them to vent the energy out of an airlock. After two copies die in the lower area, two more appear in the upper. After a few back and forth cycles you will either reach the last stand, or the damage phase ends. If the damage phase ends then everyone should return to their side and start the process again. If the last stand begins, then everyone should gather at the top. A larger number of copies will appear. Everyone should rush the one identified by the Scanner. After it dies another copy will become the target, then one more after. Collect all of the energy as they fall, and defeat the third copy before time runs out to avoid the wipe and clear the encounter.
This is identical to the normal raid version, with one key exception: Tormentors will spawn after you’ve killed the groups of Servitors. Make sure to take them out quickly, otherwise complete this as normal.
