King's Fall

King's Fall is a raid in the Destiny expansion The Taken King. The raid takes place in the Dreadnaught and the final boss is Oryx, the Taken King. It became available at 10am PDT on September 18, 2015.

Hall of Souls
The raid begins in the Hall of Souls, where the fireteam is required to open the portal in the Court of Oryx by activating the six statues in sequence. Two relics will appear in the area, on columns immediately outside the court. When two Guardians take these relics, the area containing the statues will be blocked off by a force field and Taken will spawn within it. The remaining four players must shoot the field until it falls, then kill the enemies, allowing the relic holders to deposit both relics in quick succession into the marked statue. Once this has been done, two more relics will spawn elsewhere in the level, one to the right of the pre-Court room and one to the left, and must be retrieved and deposited in the same order. This process must be repeated six times, each time with the relics appearing further and further away and with more enemies and force fields between them and the statues. If the relics are not retrieved and deposited fast enough, the statue will depower and the sequence will regress by one stage.

Once all six statues have been powered up, the Court's portal will activate and a number of enemies will emerge. The fireteam must enter the portal to proceed. A loot chest is found immediately after traversing the portal.

Heroic Changes

The time after which a statue will depower is decreased, and the maximum time permitted between deposits of matching relics is shortened as well.

Possible rewards:


 * 1 Moldering Shard
 * 3-7 Wormspore
 * 1 Antiquated Rune

Tombships
The fireteam must jump across a set of swaying platforms. Each player must make the journey individually, timing and aiming their jumps carefully to land on each platform in succession.

The next area is an enormous room in which many Tombships fly pre-set paths through the air, appearing and disappearing periodically. The Guardians must jump onto the docked tombship to begin the sequence, then wait until it draws close to another and jump across before the first one vanishes. Continue to jump from ship to ship until reaching the opposite side of the room, where the final tombship allows a jump to solid ground. Once again, every player makes their journey individually and cannot affect each other's progress.

On the far side of the final landing platform, there is another docked tombship. If the fireteam boards it, it will fly out through a gateway protected by an impassible force field. There are two pads, one to the left and one to the right of the dock, upon which Guardians must stand simultaneously in order to let the riders pass through the field. The pads will only lower the field for a short time, so it is recommended that the two activators wait until the tombship is near the field before lowering it. Upon passing through the field, the riders will find two more panels which may be used in the same manner to bring the first two activators through the forcefield on a second tombship.

Heroic Changes

The small platform on the left midway through the jumping sequence is removed, and no checkpoint will be given there. All falls will return the player to the starting platform.

The Warpriest's Trial
In the center of the area is a large floor platform which is linked to a sealed gateway. On each side of the glyph are two rooms, one red and one blue, which are filled with an energy field that will damage unprotected players, and two totems that players must stand under at all times.

At the entrance to each side room is a ball of energy, which will grant an aura to a Guardian who picks it up by stepping up to it. This aura will protect that player, and any other players inside it, from the damage in the red or blue rooms for 30 seconds, during which they must stand under the totem. After those 30 seconds, the aura will transfer to another player standing inside it, and the original player will receive a buff called Deathsinger's Power. The player who has received this buff must now go to the central glyph and stand on it until the power discharges, as a third player arrives at the totem to relieve the second player and receive the aura from them just as the second received it from the first. The discharge at the glyph will partially unlock the gateway and leave the discharging player ready to receive the aura again and continue the cycle. This process must be done in both rooms simultaneously to maintain the flow of players handing off both auras at once.

The players must continually cycle between receiving the aura, holding it on the totem, allowing it to be taken from them, and discharging the Deathsinger's Power into the glyph until the runes lining the sides of the gateway are fully activated, about ten cycles. At this point, the message "The Warpriest deems you worthy" will be displayed, the gateway will open, the aura and totem mechanics will deactivate, and a loot chest will appear.

Heroic Changes

The mechanics of the encounter are unchanged. Major Knights will appear during later cycles.

Possible rewards:


 * 2 Moldering Shards
 * Antiquated Rune
 * Kingslayer Shell
 * Midha's Reckoning

The Warpriest
The Warpriest's chamber contains three pads upon which players can stand, and three large monuments bearing Hive runes on the near side and carved images on the far side. Standing on all three pads simultaneously will summon the Warpriest, who is initially immune to all damage. A large number of Hive will also spawn in the area. After most of them are killed, three Major Knights will appear, one in the area of each pad. Killing them will begin the glyph sequence that is used to make the Warpriest vulnerable.

One by one, in random order, the far sides of the three monuments will light up. A player must be in position to observe this because they will not be visible from the near side. Once a monument has lit, a Guardian must step onto the corresponding pad and remain there until the third pad has been activated.

If done correctly, the Guardian who steps on the third pad will receive an aura called "Brand of the Initiate." Any other Guardians standing near this player will be able to damage the Warpriest. The brand will last for ten seconds, after which the branded Guardian is killed, unless they kill an enemy before then, which will reset the timer to ten seconds. This reset may be performed five times, granting extended time for the rest of the team to damage the Warpriest, so the resetting kill must be made at the last possible moment. After five kills by the brand holder, the Warpriest will use an attack that kills any Guardian not standing in the shadow of a monument. The easiest way to get into the shadow of a monument is to stand on a pad. The monument will save the team from wiping, but will be destroyed in the process.

More enemies spawn, and the cycle repeats four times, destroying one monument each time and with Taken replacing the Hive halfway through. At the end of the fourth cycle, there is no cover remaining, so the Warpriest's final attack will wipe the team if he has not been killed by then.

Heroic Changes

Each time a monument is destroyed by the Oculus, the Warpriest will gain a new type of attack. The left one will grant him tracking orbs identical to those of Taken Centurions. The center one will grant him seeking bolts in response to attacks, identical to those of Taken Hobgoblins. The right one will grant him balls of blinding darkness identical to those of Taken Captains.

Challenge

A different guardian must take the Aura for each damage phase and cannot hold it a second time. The Warpriest has a higher fire rate and spawns stronger enemies throughout the fight.

Possible rewards:


 * 2 Moldering Shards
 * Antiquated Rune
 * Defiance of Yasmin
 * Qullim's Terminus
 * Elulim's Frenzy

Golgoroth's Cellar
The team will make their way to a dark maze. The entire fireteam must navigate it while avoiding bottomless pits to gather at the door at the far side, causing it to open and let them into the next chamber. Flying insects appear over the pits as indicators of their position.

Golgoroth
Hanging from the ceiling is a bubble of darkness. Shooting it will cause it to drip onto the floor and summon Golgoroth and a large number of other enemies.

In the rear of the chamber is a large black column called the Tablet of Ruin. Any player death (even if immediately resurrected) will activate a rune carved into it. If all six runes are activated, the tablet will blind and then kill the entire fireteam.

Golgoroth is a large mutated ogre who fires his beam attack constantly. He possesses two weak spots, one on his chest and one on his back. Above him are six more bubbles of darkness, each of which if shot down will produce a small pool of light on the floor of his arena which greatly increases damage done to him. Golgoroth will kill any Guardian jumping down to take advantage of that unless his Gaze is held by another player. Capturing his gaze is accomplished by shooting him in the back, which will cause him to turn his attention to the shooter and switch from firing his ogre beam to firing seeking projectiles similar to those of a Taken Centurion. The player who has drawn his attention must not seek cover or break Golgoroth's line of sight at this point, but instead stand their ground and shoot down the projectiles, thus holding his gaze. Golgoroth's attention will be focused on that player for a short time, indicated by a timer on the HUD. During that time, the remaining players are free to shoot down a bubble, enter the pit, and shoot Golgoroth's chest without reprisal from him. Once the gaze timer runs down, a second player on the opposite side of the area should capture his gaze, to maintain the safety of the arena attackers; this will cause Golgoroth to turn around so another bubble must be shot down and the attackers relocate to the new pool to continue attacking. This handoff may be done six times, after which there are no more bubbles and the attackers must leave the arena. Cursed thrall will pour into the arena to make damaging Golgoroth during this attack difficult. Alternatively, only one player can be a dedicated gaze holder, with the other five players damaging him in the pit and needing only one bubble per damage cycle, thus avoiding the Cursed Thrall until the Taken phase.

After a short time, the bubbles respawn and the cycle may be performed repeatedly until Golgoroth is dead.

When Golgoroth has 35 ~ 40% health left, Taken will spawn instead of Hive, making Golgoroth harder to kill. Stormcallers are great for this part.

Heroic Changes

While attacking Golgoroth from the pool of light, two random players will receive a debuff called "Unstable Light." These players will explode, damaging or killing other nearby players (but not themselves) when their timers reach zero, and must leave the pool early to separate themselves before this happens.

Challenge

All six players must capture and hold Golgoroth's gaze in each cycle (unless he dies before the cycle is complete).

Possible rewards:


 * 2 Moldering Shards
 * Antiquated Rune
 * King's Fall Gauntlets
 * King's Fall Chest Armor
 * King's Fall Leg Armor

Pistons
The players must traverse a large space between two of the Dreadnaught's hulls. There are platforms extended from the slanted walls which may safely be stood upon, while avoiding the piston-like devices which will knock players to their deaths. At certain points are power plates which must be occupied to cause floating platforms to appear. A Guardian must remain on each plate until all of them have been activated, at which point the floating platforms become permanent and all Guardians may continue. Gathering the fireteam before the final door of the area will unlock it and allow passage to the next encounter.

Daughters of Oryx
This final room contains the two Deathsingers, protected by force fields on elevated platforms. Elsewhere in the room are four power plates on pedestals, which may be activated by players to cause semi-transparent platforms to appear in the air. Hovering high above one of the platforms is a spark of light. Stepping onto any of these platforms will cause enemies to spawn and one of the deathsingers to begin casting a spell, which will wipe the team after one minute.

One player at random will be "torn between dimensions," distorting their vision and making them appear translucent to the other players. This player is the only one who can traverse the floating platforms summoned by the power plates. In order to create a path to the spark, the platforms must be activated in a counter-clockwise sequence, starting from the one immediately after the spark and proceeding around the room to the one immediately preceding it. The torn player must reach the spark, leap onto the platform containing the Deathsinger which is not casting the spell, and use the spark (by holding square or X) to steal the deathsinger's protective aura. This will leave the deathsinger unprotected, allowing the team to damage it, and will protect any Guardians standing near the stealer from the wipe spell. After the wipe spell is cast, the aura will return to its rightful owner. The cycle will then repeat with the other deathsinger casting the spell and the spark in a different location.

The Deathsingers must be killed on consecutive cycles. Once one is killed, its aura will disappear and the players will not be able to protect themselves from the next wipe spell except by killing the remaining one before its timer expires.

After both Deathsingers are dead, a loot chest will appear and a spark will appear at the far end of the room which triggers the final encounter when approached.

Heroic Changes

Subsequent cycles will begin immediately after the wipe spell and aura fade, without the short delay present on normal difficulty.

Possible rewards:


 * 2 Moldering Shards
 * King's Fall Class Item
 * Silence of A'arn

Oryx, the Taken King
Oryx appears when a player approaches the spark. After the players kill the enemies that spawned near the front of the arena, Oryx will move to near one of the platforms and punch it. This will create a mote of light on that platform, and four special enemies called Light-Eater Ogres will emerge from the ground, one near each platform.

One player must claim the spark, becoming torn between dimensions, as in the Deathsingers encounter. Their role is to navigate the summoned platforms and reach the spark hanging overhead.

At the same time, four other players must summon the platforms the torn player needs. Just as before, the platforms must be triggered in a counter-clockwise sequence starting from the platform on which the mote appeared. However, the four activators must also kill the ogre near their platform, and make sure to do so well away from the path that runs down the center of the area. This is because each ogre will drop a sphere of Corrupted Light when killed, and players must avoid going near it until the proper time. The remaining player may "float," killing any remaining enemies and assisting activators with their ogre kills.

When the torn player reaches the overhead spark and claims it, a Tombship will fly through the arena and deliver a special Knight named Vessel of Oryx, which will run up the central path. The torn player must jump down to intercept it, and then hold Square or X, depending on console, to discharge the spark and steal the knight's aura (note that there is no onscreen prompt for this, just do it when close to the knight).

Stealing the Knight's aura makes the knight vulnerable to all players, and also offers protection from damage to all players standing near the player who stole the aura. At this point, every player must converge on the Vessel of Oryx and kill it as quickly as possible. It is recommended that this be done near the center of the arena, to avoid the Corrupted Light spheres.

Once the Vessel of Oryx is killed, Oryx prepares to use his ultimate attack by opening his chest, emitting a shining white light. Every player must unload as much firepower as possible into Oryx's chest, aiming for the dead center of the glowing area to be sure to hit the vulnerable spot. With sufficient damage, Oryx will stagger. (With insufficient damage, the fireteam will wipe.)

Now, the Corrupted Light spheres dropped by the Ogres may be used. Four players must each run to one sphere and stand near it for about five seconds, until a message acknowledging this appears, and then run back into the aura carried by the torn player to be protected from the Corrupted Light detonation. During this time, at least one other player needs to continue to damage Oryx. As long as Oryx is taking sustained damage while the Corrupted Lights are detonated, the detonation will do a significant amount of damage to Oryx. Any remaining normal enemies will be killed and Oryx will shudder and fall off the side of the area.

Oryx will rise at the end of the arena and begin firing on every player at once, as indicated by white circles that appear at their positions and then explode. This may be countered by sprinting around the arena. After a short time, the barrage will cease.

When Oryx is below 50% health, he will no longer do the barrage attack after the Corrupted Lights are detonated and will instead create a bubble of darkness at one end of the arena, and one by one every member of the fireteam will be teleported into it. Within the bubble is a small arena with a foggy perimeter and a Shade of Oryx. Guardian health does not recharge while inside the bubble. Guardians not yet teleported into the bubble may assist those that are by killing the other enemies in the arena, who will try to enter the bubble and interfere with the fight. If the echo is defeated within one minute, the arena will dissolve and return the players to the main encounter.

When Oryx reaches less than 1% health, he will appear at the far end of the arena and open his chest. The fireteam must deal a small amount of damage to his chest in order to kill him and complete the encounter.

Heroic Changes

Every time a Light-Eater Ogre is killed, a Light-Eater Knight will spawn by the opposing platform and try to prematurely detonate the corrupted light orb.

Challenge

Oryx must be fully damaged (from 100% health to 0%) in a single run; this can be done by detonating 16 Corrupted Light spheres at once. After Oryx has been staggered, the orbs should not be detonated but instead must be allowed to remain until enough ogres have been killed to produce 16 orbs.

Possible rewards:


 * 2 Moldering Shards
 * King's Fall Helmet
 * King's Fall Class Item
 * Kingsbane emblem
 * King's Fall Primary Weapon

Heroic Difficulty
The Heroic difficulty setting was made available at 10am PDT on October 23. Enemies now have a recommended light level of 300, rising to 320 for the final encounter with Oryx. As in the other raids, fireteam members may not revive each other and can only be brought back via victory, wiping, or the Warlock's Fireborn skill.

Chest 1
The first chest is located at the end of the Tombship jumping area, next to the forcefield that must be lowered to pass. To the left of this forcefield is a long spar running up the wall that is reachable from the passing tombship with a carefully timed jump. Walking up the spar will lead Guardians to a small door which is only open while the forcefield is being held down by the plates. Through the door is a chest and an opportunity to jump to the landing platform on the opposite side.

Possible rewards:


 * 2 Moldering Shards
 * 3-7 Wormspore
 * 1 Antiquated Rune
 * 1 Mote of Light
 * 2 Special Ammo Synthesis
 * 2 Heavy Ammo Synthesis

Chest 2
The second chest is found in the dark maze before the fight with Golgoroth. Hidden in the maze are four large circular floor plates, which must be stepped on in the proper sequence. If the direction from the entrance to the exit is taken to be north, the plates must be stepped on in this order: west, southeast, southwest, northeast. This will open a door (found by traveling to the exit and heading south) revealing the chest.

Possible rewards:


 * 2 Moldering Shards
 * 3-7 Wormspore
 * 1 Antiquated Rune
 * 1 Mote of Light
 * 2 Special Ammo Synthesis
 * 2 Heavy Ammo Synthesis

Chest 3
The third chest is found in the platforming section immediately following Golgoroth. When reaching the first activation plate, a small ledge can be seen on a nearby freestanding column. If Guardians jump to this ledge, they may use their Ghost to reveal a set of nearby invisible platforms. This will lead to a new jumping path, across several sets of platforms and revisiting the freestanding column, that eventually leads to a door set into the sloping hull on the far side of the area. The chest is in the room through this door.

Possible rewards:


 * 2 Moldering Shards
 * 3-7 Wormspore
 * 1 Antiquated Rune
 * 1 Hadium Flakes
 * 2 Special Ammo Synthesis
 * 2 Heavy Ammo Synthesis
 * Exotic weapon or armor

Loot Drop Points

 * 1) After entering through the first Portal
 * 2) After the Totems
 * 3) After killing the Warpriest
 * 4) After killing Golgoroth
 * 5) After killing the Daughters of Oryx
 * 6) After killing Oryx

List of Loot
All loot obtained in Normal mode drops at a random Attack/Defense rating between 310 and 320.

Hunter

 * Darkhollow Mask (helmet)
 * Darkhollow Grasps (gauntlets)
 * Darkhollow Chiton (chest armor)
 * Darkhollow Treads (leg armor)
 * Darkhollow Mantle (cloak)

Titan

 * War Numen's Crown (helmet)
 * War Numen's Fist (gauntlets)
 * War Numen's Chest (chest armor)
 * War Numen's Boots (leg armor)
 * War Numen's Mark (mark)

Warlock

 * Mouth of Ur (helmet)
 * Grasp of Eir (gauntlets)
 * Chasm of Yuul (chest armor)
 * Path of Xol (leg armor)
 * Bond of the Wormlore (bond)

Weapons

 * Anguish of Drystan (auto rifle)
 * Smite of Merain (pulse rifle)
 * Doom of Chelchis (scout rifle)
 * Zaouli's Bane (hand cannon)
 * Midha's Reckoning (fusion rifle)
 * Defiance of Yasmin (sniper rifle)
 * Silence of A'arn (shotgun)
 * Qullim's Terminus (machine gun)
 * Elulim's Frenzy (rocket launcher)

Other

 * Kingslayer Shell
 * Kingsbane emblem
 * Moldering Shards (Normal only)

Heroic
All loot obtained in Heroic mode drops at a random Attack/Defense rating between 310 and 335. Armor and weapons are given the prefix "Harrowed" and have a darker appearance than their normal-mode counterparts.

In addition to Harrowed gear, the emblem The Ascendant will drop when Oryx is defeated on Heroic. Oryx is also guaranteed to drop an item on Heroic, so Moldering Shards are neither dropped nor consumed.

390 Light
The 390 Light version drops everything from the 335 Light version as well as the following:


 * Malevolence shader (Oryx)
 * XV1 Usurper Sparrow (Oryx)

Challenge modes have a guaranteed drop of one of the following:


 * ARC undefined Anguish of Drystan (Adept) (auto rifle)
 * Smite of Merain (Adept) (pulse rifle)
 * Doom of Chelchis (Adept) (scout rifle)
 * Zaouli's Bane (Adept) (hand cannon)

Challenges
Each boss challenge has a separate loot drop associated with it. The drop will contain one item from the boss's normal loot collection with an attack or defense of 310, as well as an Artifact at 310. If the challenge is completed on Heroic, the drop will also contain a Harrowed item at 320 and an artifact at 320.

There are also items which may only be earned from specific challenges.


 * Warpriest Challenge
 * Worm Gods' Servant emblem
 * Calcified Fragment XLIII, "End of Failed Timeline"


 * Golgoroth Challenge
 * Devourer of Light emblem
 * Calcified Fragment XLIV, "Strict Proof Eternal"


 * Oryx Challenge
 * Of Light and Hunger emblem
 * Calcified Fragment XLV, "I'd Shut Them All In Cells."
 * Agonarch Karve Jumpship (Heroic only)

Trivia

 * In the pistons jumping puzzle area, there is a secret room that contains Oryx's Basketball Court. This room is an Easter egg and contains no additional loot.