Crota’s End Raid in Destiny 2: How It Went From the Joke to Terrific Raid Design

For a long time, the Crota’s End from the original Destiny game was nothing short of a meme, with players calling it a Strike instead of a Raid. It was so easy to complete that players could constantly speedrun it with a fireteam of only 3 Guardians – underwhelming mechanics pale compared to the masterpiece of the Vault of Glass, which worsened the case. While Crota, Son of Oryx, is one of the iconic enemies of the Destiny universe lore-wise, the gameplay aspect left such an imprint on the Destiny community that news of the raid’s return to Destiny 2 was met with a wave of skepticism, if not slight pessimism, as many rooted for the return of the Wrath of the Machine. Luckily, Destiny players were in for a welcome surprise.

Crota’s End Return

D2 Version of the Crota’s End launched on September 1, 2023, and Guardians ventured into the depths of the Moon to participate in Contest Mode. Pretty soon, all the players attempting to clear the raid understood one thing: this one will not be an easy walk. Bungie managed to make an impressive revamp with new mechanics or extend the old ones, such as the Chalice of Light, throughout the entirety of the raid.

Encounter Changes from D1

Here’s a quick look at what’s changed based on players’ experience who completed the classic Crota’s End back in the day. The Chalice of Light, originally used only in the fight against Crota, the final boss of the raid, now has a presence in each encounter and introduces the Enlightenment mechanic, encouraging the teamplay and involvement of the fireteam members in each fight.

• The Abyss encounter was easily one of the most cheesed parts of the raid, completed fast and without a lot of thought process behind. D2 reinvented this into a more action-packed encounter with many enemies, Chalice management through the entire fireteam, and specific timers of doom that add to the adrenaline rush.
• The Bridge traversing also feels much better action-packed in D2, with a well-implemented Chalice requirement to get the Enlightened buff and pick up the Swords.
• Ir Yût, The Deathsinger, first real boss encounter, back in D1, was much more mechanically similar to a strike fight with the simplicity of tactic requiring you to kill wizards and minions. Now, the adds make much of a bigger deal and can give you a hard time dealing with them, while the fireteam has to coordinate the Enlightenment, locate and call out the wizards’ location to deal with them, and activate the damage phase, which is also quite intense.
• Crota, Son of Oryx. While mostly similar to its previous incarnation, the raid’s final boss has some changes. The Presence of Crota debuff no longer prevents Guardians from regenerating their health as it did in the original raid but instead prevents trading the Chalice of Light. This time, the fireteam has many challenging minions to deal with throughout the encounter and potent DPS for the boss damage phase.

Return of the Necrochasm and the Guaranteed Raid Exotics for Contest

One of the fan-favorite weapons from the days of D1 has returned – the Necrochasm Auto Rifle, the final Weapon of Sorrow, is now available for D2 players. Another great thing that encouraged many players to try out and participate in the contest mode – during the first 48 hours, you could get the raid exotic guaranteed for completing the raid. This new practice is a welcome addition – while obtaining the Exotics on Contest Mode is no mere task, it is something to look forward to and push your limits instead of relying on the long farm with RNG elements afterward. Now that the Contest mode is in the past, players can acquire the Necrochasm Exotic by completing the Bottomless Pit quest and farming the Oversoul Essence from the raid encounters, similar to how it was back in Destiny 1.

Looking into the future, if developers keep this practice of guaranteed raid exotic for the contest mode of future raids, it comes down to players’ commitment. Do you want to push yourself to complete the most difficult version of the raid and get a 100% exotic drop, or spend a lot of time and farm the raid on a rather easy difficulty with a low drop rate? That’s the question many Guardians will ponder over in the future. Others will find their solution in Destiny 2 Boost services as the demand for such grows exponentially, especially with the raid exotics involved. Once the information about the Necrochasm went live, the number of boost requests around the forums and discord channels went through the roof, with the players wanting to get their hands on the guaranteed exotic.

Final Thoughts

The returning Crota’s End raid successfully focused on the team-play direction and refreshing the experience to the modern standard while staying true to the original content. While the changes to the raid are rather simple, they’ve transformed the player’s expectations and raid experience into a great, action-packed, and engaging one. Let us hope that the formula will be applied to all the future raids yet to come, including the return of the Wrath of the Machine. Stay vigilant, Guardian, and see you on the next one.