Crota’s End: Tunnels
The very first section of Crota’s End immediately sets the tone for the rest of the raid. If you’ve played the Vault of Glass raid on Venus, then you were probably expecting manageable combat with lots of puzzles. Unfortunately you will be doing yourself a disservice by continuing that train of thought. Crota’s End will throw never-ending waves of enemies at you in the hopes of breaking up the ranks.
The tunnels are the very first attempt by the raid to separate you from the rest of the team. There are four major threats that you need to be aware of before tackling this challenge: Weight of darkness, pits, lamps, and hoards of thrall. This first section of Crota’s End does an excellent job of making you feel rushed by pouring on layers of circumstances to get you moving but don’t let it fool you. What you will want to do is pace your entire team.
Your goal in the tunnels is to navigate the darkness as you follow a trail of glowing white lamps. The major issue is that as soon as you set foot into the darkness you will be hit with weight of darkness, a status effect that gradually removes your ability to run and jump. Normally moving slow wouldn’t be too much of an issue, unfortunately there is a never ending onslaught of hive thrall as you make your way through the tunnels. Being slowed to a crawl directly translates to death.
Your only course of action is to continually make your way to each lamp which bathes you in a cleansing light. You need to be careful how long you stand under their radiance because if you linger around for too long then you’ll have to deal with the explosion which instantly kills anyone standing in the immediate area. In order to stay cleansed and avoid explosions you will want to move with your team in a steady pace. Rushing ahead does nothing but jeopardize the safety of your fireteam and needs to be avoided at all costs.
Once you’ve followed all of the lamps you will come across a bridge that needs to be formed. Have someone stand on the activation plate as the rest of the team takes out the waves of enemies. Make sure to preserve some ammo for the ogres that show up just before the bridge has completely formed. Take them out quickly and you should be fine. Once the bridge is formed run across and you’re ready for the next section.
Pro Tip: One of the easiest things to do during this segment is panic and that is the last thing you want to do. As you get swarmed by enemies you will be tempted to make a break for it and you will probably make it to the end of the darkness this way. Unfortunately, there is pretty much no way to survive the waves of enemies at the end all alone. Move as a unit and provide cover fire for your less agile allies.
