Destiny – Strike Missions [Guide]

Designed like mini-raids, Strike Missions in Destiny challenge players to complete dungeons and fight very powerful bosses.

If you are looking for a full Destiny guide, then look no further:

Destiny – Guide

Destiny – Strike Missions [Guide]
Written by Dalton “HorrorSpooky” Cooper and Trade
Copyright 2014

The *ONLY* sites that have permission to use this guide are CheatMasters.com and GameFAQs.com. IF YOU SEE THIS GUIDE ON ANY OTHER SITE, PLEASE INFORM ME, AS IT DOES NOT HAVE PERMISSION TO BE THERE!!!

Contact Information
E-mail: [email protected]

Legal Information
- – – – – – – – -
This may not be reproduced under any circumstances except for personal, private use. It may not be placed on any web site or otherwise distributed publicly without advance written permission. Use of this guide on any other web site or as a part of any public display is strictly prohibited, and a violation of copyright.

All trademarks and copyrights contained in this document are owned by their respective trademark and copyright holders.

===================
=TABLE OF CONTENTS=
===================
1. Strike Missions

The Devils’ Lair
The Summoning Pits
The Nexus
Winter’s Run
Cerberus Vae III

2. The Vanguard

- – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - -
1. Strike Missions
- – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - -
Strike Missions in Destiny are like mini-Raids that can be completed over and over again for continued XP and other rewards as well. The Strikes can also be accessed in a playlist called the Vanguard, but more on that in the second section of this guide.

================
THE DEVILS’ LAIR
================
TYPE: Level 8 Strike
LOCATION: Old Russia, Earth
>>Fireteam: 1-3
>>Cooperative
Rewards: Armor Upgrade, XP Bonus +2000

If you played the beta, then you should be familiar with this particular Strike mission, as it was the only Strike mission available in the beta.

The initial area will have you around other players that are starting the Strike as well, though if they aren’t in your fireteam, they will have blue icons instead of green ones. In any case, they can still help you clear a path through the initial masses of Hive flesh that are everywhere you look.

As you continue, you will reach an object that you have to scan. Start scanning it and then dig in as the place is soon overrun with Fallen. There is a hallway nearby as well that is filled with lasers, so be aware of that to avoid accidentally walking into the lasers and killing yourself. Hold your position and stay alive until the scan is complete.

You don’t have to stick around and keep fighting the enemies here unless you really want to grind. Just head deeper into the compound to see the first of the big bosses in this Strike. Its name is the Devil Walker, and it is a giant scorpion-like tank.

The good thing is that it doesn’t move. The bad thing is that it is a bullet sponge, even if you are a much higher level than it. Another issue is that Fallen will constantly be showing up to make the battle and even more difficult and challenging.

That being said, there are really good places to hide and just take pot shots at the thing. On either side of it are two areas where you can go inside, hide behind walls, and shoot at its legs, which are its weak spots. Don’t have everyone in your fireteam be on the same side though; it’s good to have the boss focused on one of you at a time to allow each other some time to breath.

In this area, by the way, if you are facing the tank from the way you entered and then take a left, you will find some stairs. Go up these stairs to find one of the many dead ghost collectibles sitting on a desk.

At any rate, keep firing at the thing’s legs. Eventually, it will expose its core, which is its even more vulnerable point. Lay into that with whatever you have and eventually it will be dead. Most Strike missions only have one major boss for you to fight, but not this one though, so continue into the next area for ANOTHER boss fight, and this boss is the true boss of this particular Strike mission, though it doesn’t take as long to kill as the Devil Walker.

This boss is named Sepiks Prime, and it is a giant Servitor. It will teleport around the area, fire powerful blasts of energy, and it will also spawn Fallen that worship it like a god. There is plenty of cover here for you to take advantage of, and I recommend that one player be on one side of the area and the other two be spread out so that Sepiks Prime has to keep moving around to focus on you guys.

The weak point of Sepiks Prime is its center “eye”. Heavy weapons into the eye will deal a lot of damage. If you start to run low on ammo, you can kill the Fallen that are around here and they tend to drop ammo.

Once Sepiks is dead, you have a little bit of time to snag the loot that drops. In addition, you should get the GOLD CHEST that is in this area, underneath the platforms that you were standing on during the boss battle.

To Top

==================
THE SUMMONING PITS
==================
TYPE: Level 12 Strike
LOCATION: Ocean of Storms, Moon
>>Fireteam: 1-3
>>Cooperative
Rewards: Armor Upgrade

This Strike Mission takes place on the Moon. The primary enemy that you deal with are the Hive. Fight your way inside of the pits. You will encounter the Ogre enemy type here as well, which is a larger Hive creature that functions similarly to a tank.

Push your way through the masses of Hive enemies, which include all the usual Hive creatures that you should come to expect by now. You will be moving through areas that should be familiar to you from playing the main story, except eventually you are taken down a different route and will reach a door covered in mysterious relics. The Ghost has to scan these relics to interpret them and then get you access through it.

Deploy the Ghost and get ready. Three separate waves of Hive enemies will rush in on your location. Killing them is not all that difficult as they are mostly just Thrall, but when Wizards and Knights start getting in on the action, you may need to move around a bit to avoid being completely decimated by them.

When this door is open, continue through the dungeon until you reach Phogoth. Phogoth is a giant chained-up beast, with Hive surrounding him on all sides. At the beginning of the fight, Phogoth is chained up and can’t do anything to you, so use this opportunity to blast him as much as possible. Use up your heavy ammo on him here to get his health as low as possible and take aim at his weak point, which is the bulbous mass on his side, near his rib cage…or what constitutes as a “rib cage” for Phogoth, anyway.

When Phogoth is released, the good thing is that there is plenty of room to move around here. The bad thing is that the amount of Hive enemies that spawn is absolutely ridiculous, and they often stick to the high ground, meaning that you really have to constantly be moving or killing them if you want to stand a chance in hell of not dying.

Phogoth will lumber towards you and make the screen shake. If he slams or stomps the ground near you, you will die immediately. Avoid Phogoth at all costs and waste into him with everything that you have. He will fire laser beams from the top of his head that deal an absurd amount of damage, so get ready to dive behind cover if that happens.

If thins get overwhelming, it may be tempting to retreat into the room that you respawn in if you die. Well, don’t do that. The reason why you want to stay out of this room is because Shriekers will constantly spawn there if you try to hole up there to survive. The game is trying to keep you in Phogoth’s chambers.

To Top

=========
THE NEXUS
=========
TYPE: Level 14 Strike
LOCATION: Ishtar Sink, Venus
>>Fireteam: 1-3
>>Cooperative
Rewards: Armor Upgrade, XP Bonus +3600

This Strike mission is short compared to the other ones. In it you fight a combination of Fallen and Vex, but for the most part, all you really fight that much are the Vex.

The first main objective is to destroy three Servitors that are high level. Complete this and continue through the dungeon. It is smooth sailing up until the boss fight, as all you do is fight waves of Vex as you move forward.

The boss here is named Sikrion. He is like a giant version of the Vex Hydra enemies. He has a large shield blocking half of his body at any given time just like the smaller Hydra. His attack patterns are pretty much exactly the same, except super-sized.

Obviously, the boss strategy of forcing him to focus on multiple people at once applies here as well. Have one person firing directly at him, and then he will turn around to confront that person, exposing his non-shielded side to whoever he was just pursuing.

Vex will spawn as well during this fight, but not in a terribly overwhelming amount. Remember for Vex that their weak point is their gut and not their head. Using your super charge against the boss is not advised unless it is a ranged one as he is floating and has a shield that he can easily use to block your attempt to use it, so use the super charges against the Vex to wipe them out in large numbers, giving you plenty more time to worry about attacking the boss.

Grenades work very well against him, I found, assuming your grenade has a good enough blast radius to hit him in the air. Chuck the grenades at an angle so that they go right underneath this shield and blow up underneath his robotic body.

To Top

============
WINTER’S RUN
============
TYPE: Level 14 Strike
LOCATION: Ishtar Sink, Venus
>>Fireteam: 1-3
>>Cooperative
Rewards: Armor Upgrade, XP Bonus +3600

Battle with the typical assortment of Fallen and Vex for the first part of this Strike. You will then move through some cave systems, and again, you will be battling with both Fallen and Vex. You will start battling Vex more than Fallen though, the further along you get in the mission.

Eventually you reach a door to scan. Release the Ghost to scan the door, and then hold the position against invading Vex. When the door is scanned, you can continue into the next area.

This is where this Strike gets a little more interesting. By now, you’re probably used to fighting through mobs of enemies, scanning crap, and then fighting big bosses at the end. However, this Strike throws in a little vehicular segment as well to add some variety to the proceedings.

The vehicles given to you are Pikes, which are similar to Sparrows, except they shoot lasers from cannons attached to the front of them. Ride the pikes to the next location, which is where you will find a large pod that is housing the major boss of this Strike, Aksor.

Before releasing Aksor the priest from his pod and fighting him, you have to deal with numerous Vex enemies, including Axis Hydras, which are the most powerful types of Hydras. When they’re all dead, go to the pod and deploy the Ghost to release Aksor.

Aksor looks like a big Vandal almost. He has hilarious laughing taunts and will lumber around the place, shooting at you from afar. Along with him, a metric crap ton of enemies will also spawn that you have to deal with. This particular area is set up like a lane of sorts, so you can have Aksor move up and down it, which gives you time to catch your breath a bit.

If you have a full fireteam of three people, the best thing to do is have two people focus on leading Aksor up and down the path. Do this by having one person at one end and the second at the opposite end, just blasting away at him. His weak point, by the way, is his head. If you shoot him enough in the head, he will get stunned momentarily, which you can actually utilize to interrupt his attacks.

Have the third person on your team dealing with the tons of enemies that spawn. The amount of enemies that spawn is really ridiculous and they need to be dealt with or else they are likey to cost you the round.

To Top

================
CERBERUS VAE III
================
TYPE: Level 18 Strike
LOCATION: Meridian Bay, Mars
>>Fireteam: 1-3
>>Cooperative
Rewards: Armor Upgrade, XP Bonus +4800

Reach the security network and deploy your Ghost. The next objective is to get “deeper into the base”. What this means is that there is a path for you to get through, though there are a ton of Cabal enemies guarding it. I recommend snagging one of those vehicles with the missiles attached to them and just pushing through this beginning area, as there is just firefight after firefight to deal with here.

You will then have to kill Ta’Aurc’s guard. Ta’Aurc is the end-boss of this Strike. His guard are three Phalanx-type Cabal enemies. You will find the first one at a base out in the Martian desert, and if you look around here, you will see that the base kind of looks like Master Chief’s head from a distance. Hmm…

Anyway, the first guard is surrounded by the usual batch of Cabal enemies. Kill the first Phalanx guard, and then two more will arrive in a dropship that also drops off a ton more Cabal to deal with. This battle will take quite a long time, but just be persistent and you will do fine. They don’t do a lot of damage, but their shields get annoying.

Once all of the guards have been destroyed, it’s time to fight the Goliath tank. The Goliath tank is just down the path from the area where you fought the guards. The Goliath tank is able to kill you with one shot of its blast, so run around it in circles at a wide radius to avoid being hit by it or the splash damage that it produces.

The weak points on the Goliath tank are the boosters that it uses to move around. Focus all of your attention at them to damage them and NEVER STOP MOVING. There are Cabal here as well, but since you have such a wide area to maneuver around, you shouldn’t have to worry too much about them. Your main concern is avoiding fire from the tank and constantly laying into its boosters.

If you are finding it hard to out-run the tanks blasts, there are lots of large rocks dotted around the desert landscape that you can get behind that provide fairly effective cover as well.

With the tank destroyed, it’s time to fight Ta’Aurc himself. Go to the massive “land tank” that he calls home and fight your way into the hangar area, where you will find Ta’Aurc in all his terrifying glory. He is a giant Cabal, equipped with samurai-looking armor and a gatling gun. His weak point is his head, and for the most part, he will just stand in one spot.

He will sometimes lumber around to different areas and try to chase you down, but even then he moves extremely slow. Utilize the crates and walls for cover, and always kill the Cabal that spawn as well. They are way too dangerous not to kill during this fight. This means you’ll have to take your attention off of Ta’Aurc momentarily, but you won’t have to do so for all that long before you can resume laying into him.

To Top

- – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - -
2. The Vanguard
- – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - -
At level 18, you unlock the Strike playlist. The Strike playlist is known as The Vangaurd. You will unlock up to four different possible Vanguard playlists at different levels. The playlists take you through the Strikes that you have already completed, except a higher level version of it.

==============
VANGUARD EAGLE
==============
TYPE: Level 18 Strike
LOCATION: Random
>>Fireteam: 1-3
>>Cooperative
Rewards: Vanguard Gear, Vanguard Reputation +10

==============
VANGUARD VIPER
==============
TYPE: Level 20 Strike
LOCATION: Random
>>Fireteam: 1-3
>>Cooperative
Rewards: Vanguard Gear, Vanguard Marks +2, Vanguard Reputation +12

=============
VANGUARD WOLF
=============
TYPE: Level 22 Strike
LOCATION: Random
>>Fireteam: 1-3
>>Cooperative
Rewards: Vanguard Gear, Vanguard Marks +3, Vanguard Reputation +14

==============
VANGUARD TIGER
==============
TYPE: Level 24 Strike
LOCATION: Random
>>Fireteam: 1-3
>>Cooperative
Rewards: Vanguard Gear, Vanguard Marks +6, Vanguard Reputation +25

To Top