Nightfall Guide: Winter’s RunIn Destiny, every Tuesday is the start of a new week. Each week there’s a new ‘Weekly’ Heroic and Nightfall Strike available – this week it’s Winter’s Run.

During a Nightfall mission, if your entire Fireteam wipes, you are returned to orbit instantly. You only get one shot at these missions, so play smart!

By completing the Weekly Nightfall Strike, you’ll receive an XP and Rep bonus until the weekly reset and blue flames for the duration of the bonus!

Video Guide

Speed Run

Speed Run v.2

Winter’s Run

We suggest you tackle the Weekly Nightfall Strike first so you can get the bonus XP/rep in the Heroic.

In the Heroic, enemies will appear in greater numbers and are more aggressive, but the Nightfall requires extreme caution and awareness.

The Nightfall is especially dangerous when doing it solo, but this guide will give you tips and strategies to help you accomplish it successfully in one attempt!

Solo Guide

Guide courtesy of Reddit user mykkenny

Arc Burn this week, so break out your favorite Arc weapon. Fatebringer, Praedyth’s Timepiece, Patience and Time, Plan C and Thunderlord are all good choices! If you don’t have an Arc primary, you should take Vision of Confluence & Ice Breaker if you’ve got it.

Dregs will be dealing over 5x their usual melee damage, so you need to ensure you keep your distance. Snipe as much as possible and always have an escape route if enemies rush you.

Winter’s Lair

Skip the enemies in the non-Darkness zone. After you’re in Winter’s Lair, try to eliminate the Fallen first as they do Arc damage. After that, take out the Vex snipers in the back. This area of the Strike is very simple and easy since Vex/Fallen fight each other, but as with all Nightfall’s, take your time!

Moving up to the top of the cave and outside, you can again allow enemies to weaken each other, or if you’re packing good weapons and want to get on with it, snipe off the Fallen and Minotaurs, mop the rest up with primary.

The Cinders

Activate the door and immediately retreat the way you entered the room, across the bridge and use the crates as cover. You’re fairly safe here, just watch for snipers across the bridge in the first wave, and down below in the first and second waves. From up here snipe off all Praetorians, Hobgoblins and Hydra’s.

 

You’ll likely need special ammo synthesis, or a little time with Ice Breaker equipped to regenerate some sniper ammo for your Arc Sniper. As you clear up the second wave you can keep one Goblin alive and drop down for ammo if you wish, then retreat up top and kill the last Goblin to spark the next wave.

Ash Coves

With the hatch finally open, follow the path until you reach four Pikes. Hop on and continue through Ash Coves. Use the (Arc) cannons to mow down the Vex. Protect your Pike as well as you can by dodging behind rock cover to avoid incoming fire. A few bolts from the Hydra’s and Minotaur’s will kill you, so either use your Arc Sniper or strafe left and right a lot.

Winter’s Run

Here’s where things get more tricky. Allow the Vex and Fallen to weaken each other before moving in. Beware that once you drop down you don’t have much retreat space and there are a few snipers, so be ready to take them out.

Also watch out for the large amount of melee Dregs that spawn, and take them down ASAP! Use the corner as cover to take out Vandal snipers, Shanks, Captains, etc. You’ll obviously want to keep your range and use your Sniper here, just keep in mind that Juggler is active and will force you to use ammo synth’s and/or Ice Breaker to refuel.

Activate the Archon Priest when you’re ready, and then hide under the platform to the right of the bosses pod as you face it (see the video at the top of this article).

Once under the platforms edge, you can unload everything you’ve got into the boss, then quickly move to the back left of the platform where the ground slopes down.

Stealth & Sniper Vandals will be your biggest worry. The Shanks and Vandals deal Arc damage and use accurate single shot attacks! There is a larger girder supporting the platform above you, you can hide behind this for cover while sniping or heavy machine gunning the Shanks and Vandals.

Once you’re able to stick your head up, break out a sniper or heavy and target Aksor’s head to use your ammo efficiently. As you can see in the video guide, shooting him in the head with a special/heavy weapon will stagger him.

Don’t focus too much on the adds unless they become overwhelming, take it slow, use your Arc weapons and hurrah – you did it!