Destiny 2’sEpisode 2 has released a new Braytech-themed dungeon, Vesper’s Host. Filled with new puzzles and lore-related mysteries, this dungeon takes Deep Stone Crypt’s preexisting mechanics and revamps them to give both new and veteran players a fresh experience.
Vesper’s Host has three loot encounters, including two bosses. However, there are also a couple of shorter sections between encounters, like platforming and resource management puzzles, that show you what’s to come in the next encounter.
Quick Links
How To Access Vesper’s Host
To first access the dungeon, you’ll need to first own thedungeon passforThe Final Shapebefore you can visit Spider at The Last City. He’ll give you a quest, alerting you to a strange phenomenon on a derelict space station near Europa.
This dungeon is worth your while, as beating it rewards yousome pretty sweet loot. Not only that, you have a chance of earningthe reprisedDestiny 1exotic, Icebreaker.
Preparation - Suggested Loadouts
You should go with whatever build suits your playstyle best, but you could make your run much easier if you have any of the following in your loadout:
Each item on this list is followed by which encounter they are best used for (in parentheses).Highly Recommendeditems arebolded.
Recommended Gear and Abilities
Supers and Abilities
Exotic Armor
Core Mechanics
Much like theDeep Stone Crypt, Vesper’s Host revolves around three buffs:Operator(Red),Scanner(Yellow), andSuppressor(Blue). If you’ve played Deep Stone Crypt, then you should already be familiar with what their purposes are. However, in Vesper’s Host, they act a little differently:
The only important difference between Vesper’s Host and Deep Stone Crypt is that the buffs have a 1-minute timer. If the timer runs out, you die, so it’s important to keep an eye out for it and dunk it into the receptacles in each room to refresh it. My team and I have taken to call these receptacles “showers.”
Opening Encounter - Scanner and Operator
When you first load in the dungeon, you’re introduced to theOperatorandScannermechanics. This introductory section is simple: kill adds, grab the buffs from enemies, and find panels to shoot.
If you’re in a full fireteam, one of you should be holding theScannerbuff while another holds theOperatorbuff.
With theScannerbuff, your job is to go around the room and findfour panels.The first image in the above gallery shows what any target looks like on your radar; the second image is what it looks like when you’ve found the right one.Keep in mind that the number four will be important for the rest of this dungeon; most encounters will require you to shoot four panels to trigger anything.
First Encounter - Dunking Nukes
Once you finish the opening section and navigate through the dungeon, you’ll end up in a pristine, spacious room.To beat this encounter, you have to find nuclear cores and dunk them into the three boxes at the end of the room.
Your top priorities are staying alive and add clearing. The only boss-type enemies you need to worry about are the invisible mini-bosses and the Fallen Brigs, which you could just pop your Super on.
Trigger the encounter, and a Fallen Brig will touch down in the middle of the room. Kill it, and enemies carrying the Operator and Scanner buffs will spawn.
Next, there will be flashing red lights above the doorways to three rooms, indicated by the Brain, Lungs, and Heart symbols.Flashing red lights indicate where you need to go.
You may choose to enter any of these rooms while carrying theOperatorandScannerbuffs. Beware of invisible mini-bosses that spawn in those rooms, as they can overwhelm you if you’re not careful.
Once you’re at the end of these sections, you’ll be fighting off adds that spawn infinitely while using theScannerto find the panels and theOperatorto activate them.
After shooting four panels, you’ll hear an alarm blare and a nuclear core will spawn in a box near you. Grab it and return to the main room to deposit the core. Do this three times, and you’ll complete the encounter.
Note: At the time of this writing, there is a duplication glitch that could help you cheese this encounter. I’m only going to go over the legit method. You’ll have to find out the cheese on your own.
Holding a nuclear core gives you the “Radiation” debuff, which slowly builds up over time. If it stacks up to x10, you instantly die. You can drop the nuclear core for a moment by “switching weapons” to let the debuff decrease or ask a teammate to take it from you.
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Navigating The Maze And Dunking More Nukes
After the first encounter, you’ll arrive in a maze while being stalked by the first boss - Raneiks Unified.you may’t fight it yet, so you’ll need to navigate the maze to escape it.
The boss will have three attacks:
You’ll notice a “buff” above your Super bar in your HUD, titled “Power Reserves.” This is a currency you’ll need to manage to escape this maze. Turn off any Fallen terminal (shown in Image 1) to gain one charge of power.
Opening doors will cost a single charge, but closing them refunds it.Make sure to close any doors to maintain your Power Reserves.
Look for Fallen Captains, as killing them drops a nuclear core for you to pick up. Keep in mind that you’re able to’t just deposit them in any box. You might notice that these boxes are labeled “1” all the way to “5”, so you’ll need to deposit them in that order.
After dunking the fifth nuclear core, you’ll be able to escape the maze and the boss, leading to the second encounter.
Second Encounter - Raneiks Unified
In this encounter, you’ll be able to fight the boss that has dogged you in the previous maze.Your goal is to disassemble the boss into smaller components to deal any meaningful damage to it.
Before starting the encounter, you’ll noticenumbered panels scattered throughout the room, ranging from “0” to “9”. Refer to the gallery above to find those panels. These will be important to trigger the damage phase. I suggest looking around and making a mental note of where they are, as some are well hidden.
For this encounter,prioritize burst damage and large AOE damage.I found that a full team of Titans using the Glacial Quake Super can easily one-phase this boss.
Once you start the encounter, adds will spawn. Slay out until a large “Machine Priest” miniboss spawns.
After you kill him, you (and your team) will be teleported to outside the room where you’ll be swarmed by dozens of shanks.Watch out for explosive shanks, as they can one-shot you, even in non-contest mode.
Killing all Shanks spawns another that carries theSuppressorbuff. Be careful where you deploy the suppressing decoy, as Raneiks Unified can still spew out explosive Servitors and melt you.
Once you suppress the boss, it’ll slowly crumble into 10 smaller pieces of itself.Keep an eye out for two of them that are glowing a little brighter and have red dots on their “faces,“as the number right next to their name will indicate which numbered panels you need to shoot. Do this twice for each damage cycle.
DPS Phase Set Up Example (Step By Step)
Inputting the correct code will despawn all adds and another suppressor shank will appear. Raneiks Unified will also be in the middle of the room attacking you, so be careful while you kill the shank and use the buff to suppress the boss once more, starting the real damage phase.
Shooting the wrong panel with theOperatorbuff will instantly kill you and reset the code. I’ve noticed that weapons with ricochet or explosive bullets can set off nearby panels, so I recommend being very careful when doing this.
Maximizing DPS
Raneiks Unified will then be unified no more and split into 10 pieces for you to damage. DPS phase doesn’t last very long, so be sure to use weapons and supers that have a lot of burst damage and AOE damage.
At the time of this writing, Void Tether seems to be causing some issues due to the sheer number of enemies tethered, which may boot players from the game with the “Guitar” error code. Until this issue is addressed, I don’t recommend using this Super.
After the damage phase, rinse and repeat until the boss is dead. Don’t let up just because Raneiks Unified’s health bar is almost depleted. Each smaller Raneiks has its own health bar, so you’ll need to verify all 10 are destroyed to end the boss fight.
Jumping Puzzle
With Raneiks Unified dismantled, you’ll go through the hole in the ceiling and navigate a jumping puzzle.
Be careful–lightning strikes periodically zap the platforms and can instantly kill you in the initial impact.These lightning strikes also leave behind a lingering field that shocks you and chips away at your health.
An easy way to tell when you’re in the blast zone is when your screen glows with a slight orangeish-yellow hue.
After navigating the jumping puzzle, you’ll arrive at the rooftop of the facility, and see the corrupted body of Atraks-1, who has been transformed into The Corrupted Puppeteer. Once she notices you, she’ll commune with the anomaly and initiate a wipe mechanic. Jump down an airlock chute to rally and begin the encounter.
Third Encounter - The Corrupted Puppeteer
This is the penultimate challenge. It’s a rewarding and challenging fight, but with everything you’ve learned throughout the dungeon, you’ll be sure to overcome it. Your goal is to defeat the Corrupted Puppeteer, but to get to the damage phase,you must first bring her immunity shield down.
The Corrupted Puppeteer’s damage phases are more about dishing sustainedrangeddamage (unless you’re a crazy risktaker who loves melee).Grand OvertureandMicrocosmare amazing for this encounter. But if you don’t have either of these, then I would defer to rocket launchers, snipers, or linear fusion rifles.
Grand Overture’s shots treat the panels as targets, allowing you to load your rockets to the maximum 20 before you need to rally. Try not to die, though, as that would reset your missiles.
First Section - Radioactive Clones And Shooting Panels
Simple, right?
The boss will then retreat.Deposit your buffs into the showers for later use.Follow the flashing red lights, drop into the shafts to the floor below, and keep following the lights until you reach one of two rooms, commonly called the “Orange” and “Blue” rooms.
Second Section - Depleting Boss’s Immunity Shield
The boss will be inside the room. Note a bunker-like structure in the middle of the room. That’s important for later. The boss will be repeatedly spawning radioactive clones. Using the Suppressor to kill them is a viable strategy, but it’s not really needed. Follow these steps:
Killing the wrong clone will trigger a wipe mechanic. Big AOE attacks like a Super or a Consecration could kill the wrong clone, so be precise with your attacks.
A door will open after the boss retreats, which will lead you through a dark corridor filled with trip mines and web mines. Not only that, clones will chase you through these sections. My best recommendation is to parkour over and under the traps.Don’t waste your time trying to kill the clones or destroy the traps.You’ll end up in another hallway that’ll lead you to the next room.
Repeat the same process: shoot the panels, kill the correct clone, and deposit the nuclear core. At this point, the boss’s shields will be completely depleted.
Leave the room and return to the main room via teleporter. Once everybody’s at the airlock, it’ll fling you back to the ceiling for the damage phase.
Damage Phase
When you’re damaging the boss, she’ll summon clones to attack you and teleport around the three floating platforms. You’ll also be in danger of those lightning strikes that hit anywhere in the arena, sokeep moving around.
WhileWell of Radiancemay seem useful, it doesn’t make you invincible from lightning strikes. I wouldn’t recommend using it during damage phase. If you are really keen on survivability, thenSong of Flamemight be a better choice.
Halfway through DPS, two additional clones spawn on your platform. The Corrupted Puppeteer will then “commune with the anomaly” and begin a wipe mechanic. Kill the correct clone, and it will drop a nuclear core, which you’ll need to deposit into the bunker on the left side of the arena, canceling the wipe.
Deal as much damage as you can before she attempts the wipe mechanic again. This time, the airlock will open, and you’ll need to escape, ending the damage phase. Rinse and repeat until the boss is dead.
Congratulations–you’ve beaten the Vesper’s Host dungeon! May the RNG gods bless you with the sweet, sweet loot, and most importantly: the Icebreaker!
