We’ve long since maintained that Destiny 2‘s dungeons are some of the game’s finest content on offer, bar none. Tighter, smaller, and more focused than raids, but with many of their complexities and mechanics, dungeons are a must-play in Destiny 2, and Warlord’s Ruin is no exception to this rule.
Broadly speaking, Guardians are in for a treat with Warlord’s Ruin. Featuring a suite of Dark Age, Iron Lord-themed survivalist gear, Warlord’s Ruin has you climbing a literal mountain to pursue the bones of a long-dead Ahamkara wish dragon. Destiny 2 does get a tad weird like that sometimes, yes. The good news is that Warlord’s Ruin is neither long nor difficult, and it does not have a weirdly overpowered final boss.
In other words, it shouldn’t be too hard, even for relatively inexperienced Guardians, to complete Warlord’s Ruin. There are three disparate encounters and a single big puzzle piece, and we’ll explain each of these challenges as we go.
Full Warlord’s Ruin dungeon guide
Being able to KWTD in any piece of Destiny 2 endgame content is crucial for your and your fireteam’s enjoyment of the game. Before getting into the nitty-gritty of Warlord’s Ruin, though, there are some key novelties and features that you ought to be aware of.
Firstly, the whole dungeon is full of mimic chests, which is a first for Destiny 2. This is a huge deal if you’re playing solo or, perhaps, gunning for a flawless dungeon completion. Trying to open a mimic chest thinking it’s a loot drop spawns in a gang of exploding Screebs, so beware.
Secondly, the main mechanic of Warlord’s Ruin is the management of the Imminent Wish status and the Scorn mini-boss’s Ether totems. Basically, whenever you get the Imminent Wish buff popping up in the lower left corner of the screen, you should be capturing Ether totems to move the encounters forward. Keeping this in mind will help make sense of the dungeon’s encounters proper.
The first climbing section
Climbing sections are relatively straightforward in Warlord’s Ruin, provided that you know roughly where you should be going, and if you know what to look for. The simpler of the two sections comes first, of course, and has you climbing the lower mountain and exploring some of the halls of the castle itself. The route twists and turns often, but you should generally be following the orange flags in the outside sections, and carefully navigating the lower dungeons when you get inside.
There aren’t any hugely difficult enemies present here, but it may take you a bit to find your way to the first boss, Rathil. Take in the sights and explore methodically, and – of course – mind your footing. Some of the snowed-in platforms may come crashing down.
Encounter #1: Rathil, First Broken Knight of Fikrul boss fight
The first big fight of Warlord’s Ruin features one of Fikrul’s most powerful Scorn lieutenants, Rathil, and it’s all rather easy if you’ve got a competent fireteam and good loadouts. There are three main “stages” of the Rathil encounter. First, you’ll be taking down generic red and orange-bar Scorn for a little while, which is as good of an introduction to combat as any.
Secondly, after you’ve killed off a bunch of redshirt Scorn, Rathil will teleport you into the ascending cages that are littered around the arena. These are, essentially, the resident wipe mechanic, and you’ll need to quickly destroy all the Taken eyes spawning around your cage to escape. Note that you can destroy other players’ Taken eyes, too, to set them loose. After that’s been dealt with, you’ll begin your DPS setup phase.
The third major aspect of the Rathil boss fight deals with those Ether totems we mentioned before. After you jump out of your cages, mini-boss Scorn will spawn, and you’ll need to kill them, which will trigger several Ether totem spawns. Capturing them disables Rathil’s invincibility shield, but the important bit is that you should try your best to capture at least two totems to keep the DPS phase relatively long. And, really, that’s all there is to Rathil.
Dungeon cell section
The reward for your success against Rathil is that you immediately get teleported into an inescapable dungeon. Neat, right? It may seem impossible to get away at first, but there are several important features present in this dungeon, and players will need to work together to figure it out.
Notably, each player will have two cogwheel thingies in their sight, visible from their locked-down cells, which makes for six of them. Shoot the cogwheel once, and it’ll spin counterclockwise. Shoot it one more time for it to stop, and then another time to spin it up clockwise. Further, one player will also have the special mechanism trigger hinge visible, but you’ll need to figure out what to do with the cogwheels before shooting that.
While all three players will be sharing their cells with some old skeletons, the two that don’t have the mechanism hinge in sight will also spot special glowing symbols next to them. As there’s a grand total of six cogwheels present in the dungeon cells, the glowing symbols tell you what number of them should be spinning clockwise, and what number should be spinning counterclockwise.
Take note of the location of the symbols relative to the skeletons: if there’s a Roman II written next to the skeleton’s left hand, two cogwheels need to spin counterclockwise, for example. Once you’ve got the right number of cogwheels spinning in the right direction, shoot the trigger hinge to be let out!
Encounter #2: The Locus of Wailing Grief boss fight
Fighting the Locus of Wailing Grief is fairly straightforward, once you take into account one added complexity: the magical snowstorms that the boss spawns every so often. You fight the Locus in much the same way as you fought Rathil, except in a different arena. Moreover, the mini-bosses that spawn the Ether totems will create one immediately upon spawning in, and then again after a couple of moments. It’s prudent not to take them down immediately, then, as each captured totem spawns in a Solar orb, and you’ll need to dunk four of those into the braziers around the Locus.
An entire damage phase begins when you destroy all the Taken eyes above the arena. This spawns in the Ether brazier mini-bosses, and killing those triggers the magical snowstorm. While the snowstorm is present, you can rush to the torches at the back of the arena to survive.
After the snowstorm, you’ll get as many Solar orbs as the Ether totems you captured, and dunking four of them at the central braziers triggers the damage phase.
As for the damage phase itself, the Locus will be extinguishing one brazier after another, and you can only damage the boss while standing near the braziers. So, set up a rotation where your entire fire team is only moving away from one brazier once it’s already been extinguished, as that’ll help you maximize the damage you can deal.
The second climbing section
After taking down the Locus, you’ll reach the second major climbing/exploration section of Warlord’s Ruin. This is a tad more complex than the first section, and there are more enemies to contend with. Yet, you should be able to clear this out rather quickly simply by following the obvious cues such as those orange flags from before.
One thing worth highlighting here, though, is that you’ll come across a room filled to the brim with chests. Obviously, all but one of these will be mimic chests, and the only way to figure out which one’s got your loot is to look for the subtle white glow surrounding them. The chest without any glow whatsoever is the one you should open!
Final boss fight: Hefnd’s Vengeance, Blighted Chimera
Finally, taking down the Blighted Chimera is surprisingly straightforward once you’ve figured out all the mechanics present in Warlord’s Ruin. The fight takes place across several different platforms around the immense Ahamkara skeleton floating about, and you’ll just need to leverage the Ether totem over and over again, moving from one level to another as the boss goes.
There aren’t any Solar orbs to keep in mind here, thankfully, but there are way more red and orange-bar Scorn to contend with. Further, the Chimera will spawn in big Taken Blights at a steady pace, so you’ll need to be on your toes for ground area-of-effect damage.
Still, it appears that you can continue the combat loop against the Blighted Chimera for as long as it takes. After you’ve reached the top platform, you’ll simply be teleported down to keep going until the boss is down!
