With Destiny 2 Season of the Witch comes a new activity rich in loot, which takes the form of Altars of Summoning. This three-player activity has players imbue and offer power to Eris Morn, who has become a Hive god of vengeance, to weaken Xivu Arath and build up strength to face her head-on.
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How to start Altars of Summoning
To enter the Altars of Summoning, you must complete the introductory seasonal quest and reach a power level of 1760. Check the weekly modifiers from the launch screen, as these will warn you of additional obstacles. When you enter the Altars of Summoning activity, you must first initiate the ritual from the large platform in the center of the room. If you want to make things a little easier, you can get all players to activate the Lucent Blessing buff.
From here, a waypoint will direct you to one of the three encounter locations: The Altar of Flesh, The Altar of Feracity, and The Altar of Devotion. To begin an encounter, a fireteam member must present an offering. You can choose from three types: Feeble offerings, Robust offerings, and Powerful offerings, with each increasing the difficulty of the activity.
Players can acquire these offerings by completing either of the seasonal activities, Savathun’s Spire and Altars of Summoning, and even playlist activities.
Altars of Summoning Encounters
At the start of each encounter, players with a Deck of Whispers containing five cards can draw one and receive the associated benefits. You can change the cards in your Deck of Whispers by visiting the Athenaeum. You can find a list of all available buffs here.
There are eight encounters you can face in the Altars of Summoning, six available right now, with more unlocking as the season progresses.
Vex: Prevailing Minds boss
Ternary Minds encounter will have you face against the Vex. There are three giant Minotaurs called Prevailing Minds that you must defeat; however, they can become immune during the fight. During the encounter, your objective will update to say “Prevent Vex Sacrifices”. A Vex conflux will spawn somewhere in the arena, where Hobgoblins will attempt to sacrifice themselves. If you can prevent them from succeeding, you can continue to do uninterrupted damage; however, if you fail, a new objective will appear: “Destroy the Lenses”. This objective requires you to shoot glowing cube-shaped Vex nodes that provide immunity shields to the minotaurs. Be aware, these bosses have large health pools, and sometimes multiple can be active at once, so do your best to save power ammo to burn them down quickly as soon as they are vulnerable.
Lucent Hive: Arc Crystals and El Haaruz, Retainer of Savathun boss
The Singers encounter will have you fight the Hive, and the main mechanic of this encounter involves Arc crystals. You must use your melee attack to hit the charged crystal, giving you the Crystalline Charge buff. While this buff is active, you can punch any of the uncharged crystals and power them up. Each crystal you hit will remove the immunity shield from a nearby Wizard, allowing you to kill them. Once you have defeated all the Wizards, the main Hive Wizard in the center of the arena will become vulnerable, and you are free to take them down. Be warned that several Hive Lightbearers can spawn as another obstacle.
Lucent Hive: Alak’nar, Knight boss
The third possible encounter will ask players to kill Wizards from around the arena and gather tributes. Once you have killed a Wizard, they’ll drop a tribute that looks like a mote you’d find in Gambit, which you must collect and take to the currently active Totem of Annihilation. The Totem should be evident as it is a large object glowing red with angry energy. To make things easier, you can carry multiple tributes at a time and deposit them all at once by reaching the altar. Repeat this process until the boss is vulnerable, and deal as much damage as possible. Be aware that the shield may return, and you must repeat the tribute-collecting process.
Scorn: Void Crystals and Dkurzii, Plague Spreader Abomination boss
Another possible encounter is Void Keepers. Players must find and destroy Void crystals, which is protected by a barrier bubble. You must stand inside the bubble to damage the Void crystal. Eliminating all of the crystals will remove the shields from the Abominations around the arena. Defeating these will spawn a more powerful Abomination you need to burn down quickly.
Taken: Axsaeniia, Tormentor boss
This encounter features a Tormentor with an immune shield that must be disabled before damage can be dealt. To do this, you must kill the Taken Anomalies around the map; they’re the glowing Taken Cabal with a marker on them. Each of these will drop a Taken Essence, which can be picked up and fired at the Tormentor to remove its shield.
Scorn: Solar Crystals
The Solar crystals encounter does not feature a large enemy to burn down, as most encounters do. Instead, you will need to collect and deposit Solar crystals. At the beginning of the encounter, a Crystal Hoarder will spawn at the edge of the map. Hunting them down and killing them will drop a Solar crystal. This must be ferried to a plate in the center of the arena. However, the crystal will gradually damage whoever is carrying it. Once deposited, a new Crystal Hoarder will spawn. Repeat until all the crystals have been deposited to complete the encounter.
Wrathborn: Talons of Xivu Arath boss
This encounter features two bosses, Ir Kaza, Talon of Xivu Arath, and Ir Dollox, Talon of Xivu Arath. Both must be defeated to complete the encounter. When you begin, one of the two will be vulnerable. Deal damage to them until the health gate, at which point they will also become immune. To continue doing damage, you must find a glowing green spot on the ground, and interact with it to Invoke Hive Magic. This will remove the immune shield from the undamaged talon. Be aware that the bosses will use two powerful attacks: a Solar blast that can knock you off the arena, and the other is Void spikes that appear on the ground. Both attacks have a short window in which you can evade them. Continue dealing damage and invoking Hive Magic until both Talons are dead.
Wrathborn: Xivu’s Brood
(We will update this accordingly.)
Altars of Summoning Secrets
Once you have progressed through The Bladed Path seasonal quest, you can attune to a Light element. This will let you collect additional Opaque Cards within the Altars of Summoning.
Some additional bosses can spawn between encounters during the Altars of Summoning. The white text signals that “Something strains the boundaries of the ritual.” When this happens, a boss will spawn, and you will be given a brief window of roughly one minute to defeat it.
Completing encounters in Altars of Summoning will also progress the Tithebringer Triumph, which is required to unlock this season’s Haruspex Title.
Altars of Summoning Loot
Each activity completed in the Altars of Summoning will increase the progress bar, and successfully completing higher Tiers gives extra progress. After the final encounter, players will unlock a chest near where Eris appears. Once you have collected the loot, you can return to orbit or hang around to start another round.
You can acquire the following loot from the final chest:
Season of the Witch ArmorSeason of the Witch WeaponsWitch’s EngramFeeble Offering, Robust Offering, Powerful OfferingOpaque CardRitual Table Reputation
