The Vow of the Disciple is a new raid given to us by the Witch Queen’s expansion and launched on March 5, 2022. Perhaps the most difficult raid even on normal difficulty level.
The thing is that all the teammates are required to be well-coordinated and show high communicative skills in a way that no raid has ever done before. However, with proper preparation and team synergy, the raid will not be as difficult as, for example, the Last Wish.
In this article we’ll describe how to prepare for the raid, tell you about the requirements, give recommendations on the loadouts and suitable subclasses, tell you where to find the secret chests and cover all the stages of the raid as well as other useful tips.
The Vow of the Disciple Raid on Master Difficulty, which started April 19, 2022, will be partially covered in our next article, so stay tuned for updates to the site.
Preparing for the Raid
So, before starting a raid, players should make sure that, firstly, all team members have reached 1530 light level, and secondly, have prepared separate loadouts for clearing locations and for dealing damage to bosses.
Guardians with insufficient light level can pass the raid if they have a lot of experience in completing raids, but it will be extremely difficult, and for inexperienced players – almost impossible. So make sure to level up your Seasonal Artifact to a good enough level. Use Artifact mods for the weapons and armor you are going to use that will help you against Champions.
As for weapon and armor loading, players who have Artifice Armor from Grasp of Avarice raid should use it because of the ability to use two Artifact mods at once, increasing damage and defense.
The Vow of the Disciple Raid consists of 5 encounters and the basis of all these trials are 27 symbols presented in the form of different icons. Therefore, it makes sense to take the time before starting the raid to learn these symbols and agree with your teammates on what you will call them, so as not to waste time during the encounter and eliminate miscommunication. There are a lot of options for interpreting the symbols online, some of which are absolutely hilarious, but we offer you a picture with the “official” name of the symbols, you can use them or come up with your own.
After that, the preparation for the raid can be considered complete and proceed directly to the raid itself.
Vow of the Disciple – Disciple’s Bog
The first encounter is to escort the ferry from Disciple’s Bog to the entrance to the Pyramid. A projection of Savathûn and several Hive enemies await you at the first entrance. After defeating the enemies, climb the stairs and move up the path on your sparrow to the ferry.
On the way to the ferry you will be attacked by Scorn enemies, as well as two Knowledge Bearer Ogre enemies to be defeated.
Here you’ll also be subjected to a stack of the Pervading Darkness debuff, which will increase in effect as you move away from the ferry until it kills you. Your screen will fill with darkness, you will not be able to see anything around you, and when you reach 10 stacks the end will come. To avoid an ignominious death at the beginning of the encounter, return to the ferry and stay in the circle of orange light around it to lower the stacks of the debuff and remove it completely.
When both Knowledge Bearers are defeated there will be many orange-colored shards of knowledge around, emitting pillars of this light, by which they can easily be found. You can collect three shards at a time, after which you must take them to the ferry and deposit them. Collect all the shards in the arena.
Once all the shards are collected, the ferry will move, jump on it and go to the next area. The ferry will stop and new enemies will appear.
Thus the collection of shards of knowledge will be repeated several times until the ferry arrives at its final destination – the Pyramid entrances.
Inside the Pyramid you need to go to the end of the room and go through the doorway. After walking down the corridor inside the Pyramid, you will find yourself in a room with colored symbols, after which you need to find a hole on the right side of the room leading down. The fall should be interrupted by a jump, cause the hole is very deep.
Move along the corridor until you reach the room with the raid symbols. Here you should take your time and learn the symbols, which will now become the basis for every encounter.
Go to the doorway at the end of the room and start the first main encounter.
First Secret Chest
To find the secret chest at the first ferry stop head to the left and find the marked Crux on the left near the rock wall.
You will find the second crux at the stop with two rows of large pillars at the end of their row on the left behind one of the pillars.
The third Darkness crux can be found as you approach the end of the encounter. It is under the bridge with gated windows between two buildings.
Vow of the Disciple – Acquisition Encounter
Already here you will need to demonstrate all the teamwork skills of which you are capable.
You will have an unlimited amount of time to explore the arena, all the obelisks, and the side rooms before the encounter begins. This is a good time to remember the 27 raid symbols. The key symbols will be the Pyramid and the Traveler, these two symbols will divide your team into Dark (“Pyramid”) and Light (“Traveler”). Each of the 9 side rooms is also marked with its own symbol. The Enter room is in the spawn area, the Dark side has rooms with Gift, Grief, Stop, and Knowledge, and the Light side includes Worship, Kill, Commune, and Drink. Inside each room there is both a Dark and a Light side – Dark is always on the right, Light is always on the left. If you already think this is too much, wait, it gets even more interesting.
There are three obelisks in the arena – one by the respawn, one on the left, and one on the right. In front of each of them there is an empty totem for three glyphs.
Obviously, the team must be divided into three pairs – a pair for each obelisk. One Guardian of the pair will defend the obelisk from the onslaught of enemies. The second Guardian, on the other hand, will have to move around the arena, killing Taken enemies called the Disciple’s Compass. He will also need to move around the side rooms in search of the Glyphkeeper to reveal the glyphs.
The encounter will begin after you shoot the crux in the center of the arena.
After that obelisks will start to fill up with light, this process will speed up any gunfire at you or your enemies, and when the obelisk is completely filled up with light the whole team will wipe. So the job of the obelisk defenders is to keep the area as clear as possible.
When the encounter starts, enemies will randomly appear in the arena and attack the three obelisks. After a while the top of one of the totems will reveal a glyph that indicates on which side of the arena the Taken enemy will appear. For the first glyph, it is always the Traveler or Pyramid symbol, which will allow you to determine the side.
After one of the Guardians finds the Disciple’s Compass and defeats it, an Unstoppable Ogre will appear in the arena, so watch out.
After defeating the Taken Enemy, a second glyph appears on the totem with the first glyph below it. It points to a room in which one of the guardians not defending the obelisk must enter. To open the locked door, shoot the crux in the center of the arena.
When the guardian is in the room, the totem will show the third glyph icon. The Dark or Light icon will indicate which Glyphkeeper to kill in the room. The Screebs in the room attacking you may interfere.
After defeating the correct Glyphkeeper, a glyph will light up somewhere on the wall, which should be memorized, there will be three of them, so it makes sense to write down the symbol, for example in the group chat.
The second totem with the glyph will light up after defeating the first Taken enemy – the Disciple’s Compass. Thus, guided by the clues of the glyphs, find two more rooms , defeat the correct Glyphkeepers and remember the glyphs that appeared.
When your team collects three glyphs, combinations of three random glyphs will appear on the obelisks in the arena. You want the one that repeats the sequence you collected. The glyphs are located on three sides of the obelisk and the pair of guardians defending that obelisk need to quickly shoot all three icons in any sequence. The obelisk will rotate and move the glyphs, not an easy task, you’ll only have 30 seconds. The only relief is that if you don’t make it in time, you won’t have to find the right obelisk all over again.
If all the glyphs are defined correctly and shot in time, the obelisk will accept your offering. You have a few tries to do this, after which the entire team will wipe and the encounter will have to start over again.
In the second round there will be only two obelisks left in the arena, in the third round – one, which makes the task a little easier.
After completing the above steps three times, you will finish the encounter and can go to the next one by going through the pyramid.
By the way, did you notice that there is no boss in this encounter?
Vow of the Disciple – Caretaker Encounter
Well, there is one in this encounter – the first raid boss – Caretaker. This encounter consists of several levels, the boss is under the first floor, and your team will start on the floor above.
The encounter will start after you shoot one of the two cruxes located by the closed door near the obelisk.
The point of this encounter is to correctly identify the 9 glyphs on the obelisk before the boss gets to the obelisk and destroys it. So two Guardians will search and shoot the glyphs, and the four remaining Guardians will defend the obelisk from Caretaker and other enemies.
The Guardians in charge of collecting the glyphs will have to work together. Inside the dark room, the Wizards and other enemies will be waiting for them, but they will have to go in one at a time. Inside the room they will be subject to the same stacks of Pervading Darkness as at the start of the raid, so you should try to stay in the room as little time as possible. Once in the room, the Guardian must find and memorize three glyphs, and then the teammate waiting outside must shoot a crux to open the door.
After that, teammates can switch places and the one who left the room must shoot the three memorized glyphs on the obelisk after their name is displayed on the left side of the screen. The icons should be shot quickly as in the previous encounter[, but don’t rush back into the room until the stacks of Pervading Darkness have reduced a little. Changing in this way offer the obelisk all 9 glyphs.
In the meantime, four Guardians will be eliminating enemies and restraining the Caretaker in the arena. The boss will unleash orange homing projectiles from his back, which can do huge damage if your team doesn’t shoot them off.
To stun the Caretaker and slow his progress toward the obelisk, one of your teammates must get as close to him as possible, after which the Caretaker will focus on that player, and fall to the ground in a ditch. His head and back will begin to glow yellow, at which time the other two Guardians must simultaneously shoot him in the head and the back.
Remember to take cover when provoking the boss by getting too close to him. This way, sending the Caretaker into the stan, you will give more time for your teammates to collect and shoot glyphs.
When all the glyphs are collected, the first damage phase will begin. A plate will light up on the floor, which your teammates must stand in to begin dealing damage to the boss. After a while the Caretaker will move, and your team will need to move to another plate to continue dealing damage. The amount of total damage is limited (you can tell by the light marker on the boss’ health bar), so don’t waste Super and Heavy ammo at the end.
When the damage phase is over, climb the stairs to the next level. The mechanics are the same here, although the layout is slightly different. For example, there are pits in the dark room, so be careful not to fall into them. The good news is that you don’t have to take out three glyphs at once (although it is desirable), you’ll just have to make an extra run. The goal is essentially the same: identify and shoot the nine glyphs before the Caretaker reaches the obelisk.
Once the nine glyphs have been collected, the second damage phase will begin, at the end of which the team must go to the third and final floor. Here everything will repeat the same as in the previous two, only the dark room will be much larger and the Guardians will have to jump with all their skill.
When the third damage phase is over you need to go up to the last level, where you will have only one chance to defeat the Caretaker, otherwise you will have to start the whole encounter from the beginning. This stage is an elongated room with a number of plates that will be illuminated as you approach the boss. You have to do everything quickly and clearly, and don’t forget about the Caretaker’s homing projectiles.
Once you’ve defeated the Caretaker, pick up your reward and head to the next encounter, which is a challenging jump puzzle. For many players, this is the challenge that causes the most problems.
Moving across the platforms you will find yourself in a room with several enemies and Darkness Crux on the right.
To ascend the Pyramid, you must shoot the crux, which causes platforms to extend from the edge of the Pyramid, leading your team to a new room. To help the crux shooting Guardian, you must shoot the crux in this room. Here, on a similar principle, someone must stay and shoot the crux to allow the rest of the team to climb further up the Pyramid. When the team reaches a ledge with several closed windows on the left, they need to find and climb into the open window at the far end of the ledge. Once through the window, the team will be able to get down to the room with the enemies.
Second Secret Chest
If you want to get the second secret chest, do not go down into the room. You need to go back to the platform, go around the Pyramid to the right, you will see a platform above, on which you can jump. There are four narrow ledges across which you should jump, on the left at the end you will see a small hole, jumping through which you will find yourself in the room with the chest.
Falling through the hole on the right side of the room, you will find yourself in the room you need to be in to begin this encounter.
Vow of the Disciple – The Upended (Exhibition Encounter)
At first glance this encounter may seem the most confusing and incomprehensible, but once your team figures out what’s going on here, it’s easy enough because it’s pretty short.
When your team reaches the circle of the Raiding Banner you will find yourself in the encounter starting room. Directly in front of the Banner is the Darkness relic.
The difficulty of this encounter, among other things, is the limited time – when the Terminal Resonance countdown timer comes to an end, the whole team will wipe.
Any Guardian can pick up the Darkness relic, which allows him to kill shielded Taken Knights – Disciple’s Hourglass. Killing Knights will give your team +40 seconds to the countdown timer to get to the next room.
The encounter will start after someone has taken a Relic of Darkness. At this point two Glyphkeepers will spawn and three glyphs will appear where they were killed. Only those with a relic can see the glyphs from a Resonant Glyphkeeper (a Taken Phalanx enemy), everyone else can see the glyphs from normal Scorn Glyphkeeper enemies.
Of the six dropped glyphs, two will match, you must name them and shoot their image over the door to open the next room and pass into it.
There will be no enemies in the next room, so you can take a little break. The relic keeper can put it on one of the altars to reset the Terminal Resonance timer. Here you can also pick up the Aegis relic you know from the Vault of Glass raid. It will allow you to remove the Pervading Darkness debuff from your team in the following rooms. Choose relic keeper carefully – if a Guardian drops a relic, he can pick up the next one after 30 seconds because of Curbed Resonance debuff. You can pick up dropped relics in the previous rest room without enemies.
Your fireteam now has two relic keepers – a Darkness relic and an Aegis relic.
This room is divided into two parts and now you need to find two glyphs falling out of four Glyphkeepers, just like in the previous stage. Kill Ravenous Taken Hobgoblins to make Glyphkeepers spawn.
To extend your team’s timer, the keeper of the Darkness relic needs to kill the Disciple’s Hourglass Taken Knight, which will spawn after killing a couple of Glyphkeepers in the back of the room near the door.
Both relic holders can see the glyphs left by the Resonant Glyphkeeper and must report them to the rest of the team.
Once you have found both relics, shoot the symbols at the door and make your way to the next rest room. Here both relic holders must leave relics on the altars, and here the third and final relic, the Eye of Riven or Taken relic, will appear. This black orb will become a priority in the following rooms, as it will allow you to remove the Taken relics blights, preventing you from shooting at enemies. To use it, the relic keeper should use the grenade button.
The third room is also divided into two halves with platforms in the middle and first, you need to get rid of the Taken and their blights. The relic holders must be mobile and constantly move around to help their team and voice the appearing glyphs.
Once you have identified the two glyphs you need, swap relics with other teammates before opening the door to the last rest room. Watch out for the Screebs that will spawn after opening the door.
The last room is a multitude of platforms. The logic for passing this stage is, oddly enough, the same: eliminate the blights, kill the hobgoblins, kill the Glyphkeepers, determine the common symbol and repeat. The Disciple’s Hourglass also appears in the middle of this room on the platform at the back right, so be sure to defeat it before you go through the last door if you need the extra time.
Drop all three relics into the vessels inside the room to stop time and complete this encounter. Then take the loot and make your way through the Pyramid to the final encounter. Walk across the platform to the door on the right and all together open the door to the boss arena.
Vow of the Disciple – Final Encounter
The final boss of this raid is Rhulk, Disciple of the Witness. In the arena he will appear floating in the center of a large glowing orange circle.
To begin the encounter, you approach the orange barrier, you are thrown back and a Darkness crystal appears over Rhulk, causing rapidly increasing stacks of Pervading Darkness debuffs on the team.
What makes this encounter unique is the mechanics of the encounter – you have to constantly juggle Leeching Force and Emanating Force buffs and keep voicing the appearing glyphs as you do throughout the raid.
Whoever shoots the crystal will stop the spread of Pervading Darkness and gain Leeching Force status for 45 seconds. This status will allow you to survive Rhulk’s laser attack, after which your Leeching Force buff will turn into Emanating Force. However, it’s not that easy. The only way to get Leeching Force is to shoot a crystal above Rhulk, and the number of these shots is limited, once the shot limit is over the whole team will wipe. There is a way out – the one who shot the crystal first must stand on the large platform at the front of the arena, then two more Darkness crystals will spawn above Rhulk. These two crystals must be shot by two of your teammates, while the first one shot will lose the Leeching Force. Now you have two buff carriers, one of which can safely get in the way of the laser and turn his buff into Emanating Force. The remaining Leeching Force bearer stands up on a large platform and again splits it between the other two teammates.
Meanwhile, the rest of the team shoots off the constantly appearing enemies until two Glyphkeepers spawn to the left and right near the large pillars. After killing them three glyphs will appear on the pillars, on one pillar they can be seen by teammates with Leeching Force or Emanating Force, on the other – by everyone else.
As in the previous stages, you need to find the symbol that matches. After that, the Guardian without buffs has to find its image on the small totems at the back of the arena, three on the right and three on the left sides. The symbol appears randomly on two of the totems. To one of them you must direct the player with the Emanating Force, to dunk the Emanating Force into. This will allow you to push back the Rhulk barrier. To move the barrier completely, this process must be repeated a total of six times. Rhulk will then offer to follow him up the stairs to another arena.
The four pillars in the arena are marked with symbols to remember: the lower left icon is Traveler, the upper left is Pyramid, the lower right is Light, and the upper right is Darkness.
This is the first part of the encounter, in which Rhulk attacks your team directly. You can tell the direction of the attack by the orange line on the floor. You can just walk aside from this attack. The second type of attack is the laser plus signs. They can be avoided by standing between them, otherwise you get a Pervading Darkness debuff. The third type of attack is a kick when you get too close.
After a swift attack, Rhulk will put his glaive on the ground and start walking around. Whoever shoots and breaks his glaive will gain Leeching Force status.
A symbol will appear in place of the glaive that everyone can see except the person with Leeching Force: either Traveler, Pyramid, Light or Dark. Let him know the symbol so he knows which corner of the arena he should head to. The Leeching Force player should get hit by the next Rhulk’s laser, and then drop the Emanating Force Buff into the appropriate terminal in the corner.
Once you put the Emanating Force buff into the correct terminal, a glowing yellow critical spot will appear on Rhulk’s shoulder or leg. Shoot it to deal damage, but don’t accidentally shoot its glaive if you don’t want to get the Leeching Force buff.
All your team will have to do this a total of four times. After that the time-limited damage phase will begin. The Divinity trace rifle is good enough for this.
After the damage phase, you’ll have to quickly run down the stairs, otherwise Rhulk will have time to charge up and the barrier he caused will wipe you.
Repeat your actions in the lower arena to trigger a new damage phase. When Rhulk’s health mark reaches the tick mark, the Final Stand phase begins. If your team fails in three attempts, the entire team will wipe and have to start the encounter all over again.
During the Final Stand all team members will receive a Pervading Darkness debuff. Kill Rhulk before the debuff reaches 10 stacks.
After defeating the boss, in addition to the usual reward, you can also interact with the big glaive in the center to buy additional raid items that you unlocked using raid rewards.
That’s it, the raid is over!
The Vow of the Disciple Raid Rewards
Once you have completed the raid you can get exclusive rewards which we will tell you more about in our article Destiny2: The Vow of the Disciple Raid Weapons.
Here we’ll give you just a table of the loot dropped in each encounter.
And don’t forget that Overgear is always ready to help you in any activity in Destiny 2 and other games.
| Acquisition (1st Encounter) | Caretaker (2nd Encounter) | Exhibition (3rd Encounter) | Rhulk (Final Encounter) |
| Cataclysmic (Solar Linear Fusion Rifle) | Cataclysmic (Solar Linear Fusion Rifle) | Deliverance (Stasis Fusion Rifle) | Collective Obligation (Void Pulse Rifle) |
| Deliverance (Stasis Fusion Rifle) | Forbearance (Arc Grenade Launcher) | Submission (Kinetic SMG) | Forbearance (Arc Grenade Launcher) |
| Submission (Kinetic SMG) | Insidious (Arc Pulse Rifle) | Chest | Insidious (Arc Pulse Rifle) |
| Helmet | Submission (Kinetic SMG) | Legs | Lubrae’s Ruin (Solar Glaive) |
| Chest | Helmet | – | Helmet |
| Legs | Arms | – | Arms |
| – | Class Item | – | Class Item |
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