Spire of Stars

This is a spoiler free guide! So, if you plan on doing a blind run of the new raid lair you don't have to worry about anything being ruined for you in this article, rather I want to teach you some tricks and tips so your blind run doesn't turn into a rage quit.

Destiny has a certain way of working due to its engine and back end processes, of which you can use to your advantage in figuring out what needs to be done to move on to the next stage. It won't always be obvious what needs to be done so it is imperative that everyone works as a team with a set leader making strategy decisions.

What we will go over is teamwork, leadership, game mechanics, physics cues, and environmental observation. It seems like a lot but most of this you already know, you just haven't realized it yet.

The Team

It is of absolute importance to go into a blind run with people who have the same mindset as you, people who haven't looked up spoilers or strats on Reddit, Bnet, ect. to simply make themselves look smart or get it done faster. Blind runs will take time, make sure to grab a drink, a few snacks, and remember to stretch here and there to keep the blood flowing.

• The Leader: There is a difference between being the Leader and being a Boss, leaders lead from the front, bosses sit in the back and tell everyone else what to do without contributing much. If you are the leader it is your responsibility to decide which strategy to try, who does what during it, and when to call for breaks or to wrap it up entirely. You must keep a level head, keep frustration between teammates low to nonexistent, and help the other supporting roles do their job.

• The Solver(s): This is the person that takes all of the information, internalizes it, and thinks of possible solutions. Every stage and area they take in the environment, the prompts, the layout, and other cues to be discussed later in this article. It is imperative that the solver gets the information that the support and leader, i.e. talking over each other helps no one!

• The Support: You're there to get the blind run done, but puzzles and leadership isn't your thing. Still, you're an integral part of the team and being support is not a lesser status at all. Its your job to search the area, find all the cues, context, and prompts you can to feed back to the leader and the solver. Keep in mind, just because you're support doesn't mean you don't have a say. If you think another strat might work speak up!

The Game

A virtual environment may seem like it can do the impossible at all times but this isn't always the case, there is limitation due to the character movement and allowable interactions. Bungie has always stuck to three basic formulas with very little variance which are not hard to memorize and recognize immediately.

• The Jumping: The abyss in Vault of Glass, the ships and phallus palace on King's Fall, the inner wall structure of Wrath of the Machine, and the reactor platforms of Eater of Worlds are all prime examples of jumping puzzles which are nothing more than journeys. EoW is the odd one out due to how specific the jumping is, any other puzzle can be done by either the fastest route or the safest, depending on the skills of the player. This one is more trial and error than anything else, be sure to explore every nook and cranny because you can never know where a hidden chest is. My team and I discovered Golgoroth's hidden chest by accident on drop day, using the audio queues and hand drawing a map to deduce which plates to step on first. I say "accident" because I was sure that's how the door had to be opened, I didn't wait for the sixth guy to get to the door.

• The Ritual: The confluxes in VoG, the Totems in KF, and any of the stages before Calus on Leviathan are what's called Ritual stages. There will always be multiples of the same thing in a spread out area and usually have a set number of rounds or have a damage round like for the Garden dogs or Baths lanterns. How do you know what to shoot? Until the ritual before the damage round anything you have to shoot will appear as "Immune" since the ritual hasn't gone through a round. The Baths lanterns and Gauntlet arrows are perfect examples, even if you shoot them before starting the encounter the text will appear as "Immune". The ritual ends when the Respawn Restriction is lifted.

• The Boss: Any raid boss we have faced so far has a set up that must be completed before the damage phase, keep in mind only Oryx had a set number of rounds since it took bombs to kill him not our weapons. The set up has become more complicated in D2 than it ever was in D1, Calus having an omission process and Argos requiring synchronization, of which have a steep learning curve. Both require a split of the team with different duties but communicating to each other as situations and prompts chance. It is important that everyone knows what is going on during the setup in case someone dies and has to be covered. It's never a waste to keep going through the set up even if it's going to result in a wipe, it just means more practice and those that died can observe to get a better understanding. The only issue you will run into is if your Light Level, or Power Level for all you Kinderguardians, is high enough. If not, don't panic! Unless you're going for World's First there is absolutely no reason to continually bash your head against the proverbial wall, it will only make you come to hate the raid and frustrate your team.

The Little Things

Here's a few things to keep in mind when you're exploring a new environment.

• Everything has purpose: Nothing in a raid, raid lair, or encounter is pointless! While 90% of what you see is aesthetics to immerse your character into the situation and show off the world around you there is absolutely nothing that is made without purpose. If something moves, rezzes, glows, turns a different color, changes texture, changes shape, can be picked up, can be thrown, can be slammed into something, or has any action there is a mechanic tied to it. The challenge is linking the different parts together to figure out the entire mechanic. If there is change it is important!

• Color Coding: So far we have only ran into color coding on Argos phase 1 and 2, of which have flavor texts for Void, Solar, and Arc. Is it something to worry about with Spire of Stars? Maybe, maybe not, but it's definitely something to keep an eye on when going in to any new raid encounter. Other instances of color coding would be the tic-tac-toe walls the runners go through on Gauntlet and the Arrows on the outside. If it glows and is a color that stands out from the rest of the environment it has a purpose!

• Fabric & Gravity: Whether it's a Hunter's cloak, a Titan's mark, or a Warlock's robes you can use the fabric that hangs to test the environment for moveable parts of the environment that are not enabled yet. One prime example is the center golden plate at Calus. Before you kill him the fabric hangs through, pulled by the engine's gravity. Anywhere else in the room the fabric would pile up. The same thing happens in the runner's ring on Gauntlet since that environment shifts as well. It's not a common mechanic but it's one of the easiest to find.

This has been your spoiler free guide for Spire of Stars and nearly any raid encounter in the future. Remember, have fun when you're going in, it's not life or death to get a clear on the first day or even within the first week. Take your time, get your team together, and go in with the mindset of becoming masters of mechanics.