Destiny 2: 9 Tips To Prepare For The Vault Of Glass Raid

The Vault of Glass, the first raid in the Destiny franchise, is making its way to Destiny 2 in Season of the Splicer. Set to release on May 22, Guardians will be able to battle Atheon once again to obtain some incredible loot.

As with most raids, the first day of Vault of Glass will have Contest Mode active, making the raid significantly harder. Should you clear Vault of Glass, you’ll be tasked with completing a unique set of Triumphs named “Tempo’s Edge” to obtain the day one emblem. Whether you’re chasing for worlds first or have never played a raid before, we’ll be giving nine tips on how you can prepare for the return of this nostalgic raid.

9 Reach 1,300 Power

The Vault of Glass raid will enact Contest Mode for 24 hours after it launches, reducing the Power level of all Guardians to a certain level. For Vault of Glass, every Guardian will have their Power level clamped to 1,300. After the day one race is over, Guardians can be overleveled for each encounter like normal.

Fortunately, Season of the Splicer’s soft cap is 1,300. As long as you complete all of your weekly Powerful Gear sources, you’ll be able to reach this cap relatively quickly. If you’re extremely far behind on the Power level grind, you can complete a Pinnacle Gear source before completing your Powerful Gear weeklies. We cover this strategy in more detail in our Power leveling guide.

8 Use Combat Style Mods

Combat Style mods refer to the fourth mod column on your armor. These mods revolve around one of three mechanics: Charged with Light, Warmind Cells, or Elemental Wells. All three of these mechanics are absurdly strong and were a large contributor to the number of teams that beat the Deep Stone Crypt raid during the first day.

Here are a few mods we recommend:

Charged With Light

Protective Light (Void, 2 Energy): Grants 50% damage resistance for a moderate duration when your shields break, consuming all stacks of Charged with Light. The more stacks consumed, the longer the duration.
Taking Charge (Universal, 3 Energy): Orbs of Power grant x1 Charged with Light.

Warmind Cells

Global Reach (Universal, 1 Energy): Warmind Cells you create affect and damage targets at a greater distance.
Wrath of Rasputin (Solar, 1 Energy): Solar splash damage kills can spawn Warmind Cells. This includes Xenophage and every weapon that deals Solar AoE damage.
Rage of the Warmind (Solar, 5 Energy): Warmind Cells deal Solar damage. When paired with Wrath of Rasputin, your Warmind Cells can spawn Warmind Cells.

Elemental Wells

Elemental Ordnance (Universal, 2 Energy): Grenade kills spawn an elemental well of your subclass element.
Well of Life (Solar, 2 Energy): Grabbing a Solar elemental well grants passive health regeneration for 10 seconds.

If you don’t have access to Charged with Light or Warmind Cell mods, we highly recommend you use elemental well mods. They can be obtained from the H.E.L.M.’s War Table and Servitor.

For a more in-depth look at these mods, check out our guides below:

A Complete Guide To Combat Style Mods
Charged With Light Explained
Warmind Cells Explained
Elemental Wells Explained

7 Unlock Artifact Mods

This season’s Paradome Cube Artifact contains some of the most powerful mods in Destiny’s history. The final column is what you should focus on unlocking, as virtually every mod from this column is comparable with an Exotic in terms of strength.

There are two mods from this column that we highly recommend:

Breach and Clear (Class Item, 9 Energy): Damaging a Champion, boss, or breaking a shield will make that target take 30% increased damage for 10 seconds. All of your stowed weapons are also reloaded. Does not stack with other debuffs.
Warmind’s Decree (Class Item, 3 Energy): Void splash damage kills can spawn Warmind Cells. Works exactly the same as Wrath of Rasputin.

Breach and Clear is a powerful debuff that matches the likes of Nightstalker’s Shadowshot or Divinity. Anarchy and Witherhoard are especially powerful with this mod, dealing large amounts of passive damage while debuffing targets. Since the Aegis relic in Vault of Glass leaves you down a person during DPS phases, having a second person use Divinity isn’t a good idea. Breach and Clear lets Grenade Launcher users fill the same role that Divinity would.

Warmind’s Decree is incredibly strong when paired with Fighting Lion, Graviton Lance, Telesto, Deathbringer, or any Void weapon that deals AoE damage. Pair this mod with Global Reach for devastating results.

6 Get A Group Together

It should go without saying, but make sure that you have a team ready to play Vault of Glass with you when it launches. A team that communicates well is the key to success in any raid, Vault of Glass being no exception. If you need to get a team together, considering joining a clan or use the100.io website to schedule or find a raid team. This website also lets you schedule raids ahead of time if you are only available during certain hours of the day.

5 Have A Good Sniper

A rather specific tip, you’ll want to have a good Sniper Rifle for this raid. Oracles and Hobgoblins will be the bane of most raid teams during Contest Mode. A good Sniper Rifle can eliminate Hobgoblins with one or two rounds from a safe distance, and they’ll be an excellent Special weapon for destroying Oracles—yellow lights that’ll wipe your fireteam if you don’t destroy them quickly enough.

Some good options include:

Long Shadow (Kinetic): Obtainable from strikes and Zavala’s Engrams. Look for a roll with Triple Tap and Field Prep.
Succession (Kinetic): Found in the Deep Stone Crypt raid. Reconstruction with either Vorpal Weapon or Recombination will be incredibly good in Vault of Glass.
IKELOS_SR_V1.0.2 (Energy): Found in Legendary Engrams. Look for a roll with Triple Tap/Fourth Time’s the Charm and High-Impact Reserves.

If you’re willing to use an Exotic Sniper Rifle:

Izanagi’s Burden (Kinetic): Purchased from the Exotic Kiosk in the Tower. Deals excellent burst damage and will most likely one-shot Oracles.
Cloudstrike (Energy): Obtained from Empire Hunts on Europa. This will be amazing for clearing out hordes of Vex enemies.

4 Run Vault Of Glass

The Vault of Glass technically isn’t a new raid. This was the first raid that released for the original Destiny. If you own Destiny 1, it might not be a bad idea to run through the raid one more time to get a feel for the raid’s general mechanics.

They’ll no doubt be some changes to this raid in Destiny 2, but Bungie has already confirmed that the raid will be staying mostly the same. Assistant Game Director Joe Blackburn had this to say in his interview with Polygon:

“We definitely are going to make changes to make it feel challenging, like it felt before,” said Blackburn. “But we don’t want to go too far, and make it feel like it’s a different raid.”

Expect increased enemy density, Champions, and maybe a few new mechanics, but the general flow of this raid will remain the same as it was in 2014.

3 Finish Your Exotic Catalysts

Certain Exotic Catalysts are game-changing and can change the viability of certain weapons. There are a few you’ll want to complete before Vault of Glass releases:

Deathbringer: A newly added Catalyst, this halves the time it takes for Dark Descent to reach its damage cap. In other words, Deathbringer can be fired much lower and still deal optimal damage.
Izanagi’s Burden: Honed Edge x4 deals 20% more damage.
Trinity Ghoul: Killing an enemy with Trinity Ghoul will reactivate Lightning Rod, giving this weapon S-tier clearing potential.
Witherhoard: Gives the weapon Auto-Loading Holster.

2 Recommended Exotic Weapons

We’re going to split these recommendations into one of two categories: “best in slot” and “new player recommendations.” Veteran raiders likely know what to use already, but most of Destiny 2’s best-in-slot raid weapons require a serious time or resource investment—something newer players can’t invest.

Best In Slot

Anarchy: With a hefty cost of 240 Spoils of Conquest, this weapon deals excellent passive DPS. With Breach and Clear, it also acts as a debuff tool.
Izanagi’s Burden: This weapon can one-shot most majors, deal serious damage to bosses, and should be able to one-shot Oracles.
Xenophage: Tied to a hidden quest in the Shadowkeep expansion, Xenophage covers virtually every role. It can clear adds when paired with Wrath of Rasputin, allowing it to generate Warmind Cells. Xenophage also deals solid boss DPS.

New Player Recommendations/Alternatives

Bastion: It staggers Unstoppable Champions, deals excellent damage to majors, and should be a good weapon for breaking Oracles. Use this if you can’t afford Izanagi’s Burden.
The Prospector: You can find this from Exotics found throughout the world or through Xur. Prospector deals excellent DPS against bosses and can debuff targets with Breach and Clear—provided you have a class item that has 9 energy to work with.
Witherhoard: This is a cheaper alternative to Anarchy that doesn’t require a raid currency to purchase. Deals excellent damage to bosses and crowds alike, and it can debuff enemies with the Breach and Clear mod.

We do not recommend you use Divinity for this raid. One of this raid’s mechanics will force a fireteam member to wield the Aegis relic, leaving you one person short during a DPS phase. If you have a second person solely using Divinity, you’re going to struggle with killing Templar and Atheon. Hunter’s Shadowshot Super and the Breach and Clear mod can fulfill the same role.

1 Recommended Exotic Armor

Each class will want to enter this raid with a few Exotic armor pieces at 1,300 Power or higher. All of these armor pieces come from Legendary Lost Sectors, something you can actively farm if you have a high enough Power level. We have guides covering the Master variants of these Lost Sectors that you can find on our Beyond Light hub page.

Hunter

Star-Eater Scales: These are arguably overpowered. They grant a 60% damage boost for 15 seconds after you cast your Super. This applies to your Super, weapons, and stacks with other damage buffs. Assuming these won’t get disabled, there isn’t a single Hunter Exotic that’ll outrank Star-Eater Scales.
Celestial Nighthawk: Makes bottom tree Gunslinger’s Golden Gun Super deal absurd damage. You get one bullet, so don’t miss.
Omnioculus: Pair this with bottom tree Nightstalker for near-infinite Smoke Bombs, granting damage resistance to everyone you make invisible.
The Sixth Coyote: A great replacement if you don’t have Omnioculus. Use this with Gambler’s Dodge and bottom tree Nightstalker to have an on-demand Smoke Bomb.

Warlock

Boots of the Assembler: Your Rifts can heal or buff allies from a distance. The heal is around 75% HP, and the buff is a 35% damage increase for 5 seconds. Pair this with middle tree Dawnblade to proc Benevolent Dawn every time you heal someone.
Phoenix Protocol: As long as your team plays around your Well of Radiance, this Exotic can let you have a Well of Radiance always active. This will be especially useful during the Conflux encounter.
Contraverse Hold: Top tree Voidwalker’s grenades deal absurd damage. With this Exotic, you can throw them out whenever you please. Use these if your team struggles to kill majors or tougher enemies.
Lunafaction Boots: These are really handy if you just want to buff your Rifts. Allies reload faster, and Empowering Rifts grant increased damage falloff.

Titan

Phoenix Cradle: Gives the Sunspot buff to allies. Bottom tree Sunbreaker will be an excellent pick for this raid due to its great add-clear potential. Use Burning Cells with this subclass to spawn Sunspots after detonating a Warmind Cell.
Helm of Saint-14: Helm of Saint-14 gives an overshield to everyone that passes through Ward of Dawn.
Actium War Rig: Use this if you’re running Xenophage. This allows you to fire all of Xenophage’s reserve ammo without ever reloading.
Precious Scars: Swap to Precious Scars when you die to become a mobile Well of Radiance for 10 seconds upon getting revived, providing a 100-point overshield to everyone near you.
Crest of Alpha Lupi: If you have any Star-Eater Scale Hunters on your team, put this on to cap their Feast of Light buff with a single Ward of Dawn cast.

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