How do you clear the Vesper’s Host dungeon in Destiny 2? Bungie has introduced contest mode for a dungeon for the first time in the franchise’s history. Contest mode, for the uninitiated, is a 48-hour window where the difficulty is ramped up and extra clearance conditions are implemented. Previously, Destiny only did this with its multi-stage raid encounters, for fireteams of six. This time around, it’s the new dungeon’s turn, so grab two friends and jump in.
Destiny 2‘s newest dungeon takes place in a somewhat familiar location. If you’ve ever cleared the Deep Stone Crypt, you’ll recognize a lot of the mechanics on offer here, only this time they’re mutated in the space game. There are three main encounters, and this Destiny 2 Vesper’s Host guide is a work in progress as we try to clear during contest mode and grab the relevant screenshots and video footage to help you achieve the same.
Vesper’s Host dungeon start
To begin with, you’ll spawn in space outside the station and there’s a very short traversal section. Thankfully, unlike Deep Stone Crypt, there are no frustrating sparrow sections or freeze mechanics to contend with. The audio is muffled, as is the case in Deep Stone Crypt’s space areas, but that’s nothing to worry about.
You’ll enter a room full of enemies – clear them, and you’ll get a message stating that augment carriers have spawned. These are your operator and scanner augments, which you’ll remember from Deep Stone Crypt. The scanner can see several spots on the map which mark nodes that can be shot by the person carrying the operator augment. However, to figure out which ones to shoot, the scanner needs to pay attention.
With one fireteam member holding the scanner augment, travel to the nodes, and you’ll notice they softly beep and turn white on the minimap in the upper left-hand corner. If the node stays white on the map, instruct the person carrying the operator augment to shoot it. If it disappears, do not shoot it – you will die. Successfully shooting the right nodes will open the door to the next area.
Head through the airlock, and pass the enemies. Shoot the yellow-bar vandals and jump down the hole in the floor to the back of the room. This will reset your kill timer if any fireteam members have died, and restore your revive tokens.
There’s another short traversal area – shoot the tripmines before jumping otherwise they’ll kill you. You’ll soon find yourself outside a room with more sniper vandals. Take them out and follow the wall to the right, then head through the door before dropping down a shaft (carefully) which has more tripmines inside it. After this section, you’ll notice a rally banner.
Vesper’s Host – Activation
The first main encounter has a very short countdown timer of six minutes in contest mode. You will have to be exceptionally quick at clearing this area. Head to the large circular object in the front middle of the room and interact with it to “Reboot system”. A large brig will spawn, kill it and other enemies until another scanner augment carrier spawns. Kill it, pick up scanner, and head into any of the three doors that have opened at the side of the room. There’s a yellow brain room, red heart, and blue lungs.
Rush through, killing all the enemies. You’ll need to refresh your augment at the various stations as it has a 59-second countdown timer that kills you when it expires. You’ll reach a room after a short platforming section with more nodes. Carry out the same method as above to shoot the relevant nodes which will spawn a nuclear core. Grab it quickly, refresh your augments if necessary, and rush back to the main room. A brig will have spawned again, which casts a barrier over the vestibules that you need to dunk the core in. The core also has a timer that creeps up, and you will need to juggle it between fireteam members to avoid being exploded.
Repeat this process for the three rooms, bearing in mind that you have two minutes per room, to clear the Activation encounter. If you’re familiar with the glitch for duplicating bombs from Deep Stone Crypt, we can confirm it works in the same way here: just take the nuclear core from your fireteam member at the same time they interact with the vestibule to dunk it. You’ll duplicate the core and can instantly dunk it in the adjacent receivers.
Vesper’s Host Raneiks Unified
The first boss encounter comes next, and it can be a little tricky to figure out how to begin doing damage.
You’ll find a Machine Priest – kill it, and this will teleport your fireteam somewhere new. Once you have teleported, clear as many enemies as you can and pick up a new (but familiar) augment called suppressor. While holding the suppressor augment, press your grenade button underneath the boss to place a decoy. This decoy will detonate, stunning and splitting the boss into sections.
The player with the scanner augment must identify the highlighted servitors and call out their identifying numbers. The player carrying the operator augment needs to shoot the nodes that correspond with those numbers – marked with the digit on the front of the node. Repeat this until four nodes have been activated. Raneiks will then teleport back to the spawn area for a damage phase. The player carrying the suppressor augment can repeat the process and cause him to be stunned and split again at any point.
Deal damage to the servitors that have been split, and repeat the above process until you defeat Raneiks Unified.
Corrupted Puppeteer
The final boss of the Vesper’s Host dungeon is a familiar guy – Atraks. Only this time, he’s a little more convoluted than usual. He’s also undergone quite the makeover… yikes. You’re going to use the same suppressor, scanner, and operator augments from the other encounters to identify and shoot the correct numbered nodes which will allow you to access the lower area of the arena.
You’ll find yourself in a room with the “real” Atraks and some clones, shoot four more nodes and ask the fireteam member with the scanner augment to identify the correct Atraks clone to damage – similar to the encounter in the Deep Stone Crypt raid. The person holding the suppressor augment will be able to “dunk” it within a radius of the clones to split and/or damage them – the time to do this is indicated by the tooltip message which reads, “The Corrupted Puppeteer forms new puppets”. After correctly shooting four nodes in the room with the “real” Atraks a message will appear in capitals warning of impending shutdown. At this time your entire fireteam needs to shelter within a bunker, opened and closed by the person holding the operator augment, until the wipe mechanic is complete.
You’ll then return to grab a nuclear core and dunk it in the correct receptacle as called out by the person holding the scanner augment, which will lower the “real” Atraks’ shield and allow you to damage him after repeating this a total of three times. This will take you to a large arena outside, where you should lay as much damage into Atraks as possible. We found it more successful to sit in a Warlock’s Well with healing grenades and throwing grenade launchers in. There will be a lot of incoming damage, so be aware of your health bar, but the most important thing during this section is damaging Atraks as much as you can to shorten the next phases.
Head up for a damage phase and lay as much ammo into him as possible. You’ll then return to the phase where you need to damage a clone and dunk the nuclear cores again. Each time you do this will extend the damage phase but also prevent a full fireteam wipe.
After defeating Atraks in contest mode you’re guaranteed the Ice Breaker exotic, as well as the contest mode emblem, but be quick – you can only achieve this until October 13 at reset. For those that don’t want to participate in contest mode, the normal mode is now activated since all three of the podium spots have been taken by successful fireteams. Congratulations to all who clear it, and fear not – this guide will be updated with maps, diagrams, and video explanations as soon as possible.
This guide is a work in progress and is being added to throughout contest mode.