Destiny: King’s Fall Raid Guide

Check this detailed guide out for everything you need to complete the King's Fall raid in Destiny: The Taken King.

Destiny‘s latest raid, King’s Fall, is longer than either of the previous raids and takes a lot of teamwork and coordination. You can’t solo this one! They set the raid up in a way that is difficult if you don’t know the mechanics, but if you figure them out and have good communication, anyone can beat it.

Recommended Videos

I’m here to explain the raid so you won’t have to scratch your head, wondering what to do next. Check out my Taken King Beginner Tips and Tricks if you need help getting through the game and getting ready to raid.

This guide will go over everything in the King’s Fall raid including:

Click each section to jump down the page.

  1. Opening the portal and ship jump section – What to do when you get in the raid and getting past the moving ships.
  2. Totem Charge Relay Race – The mechanics and how to complete this encounter.
  3. Warpriest and the dark maze – How to beat this boss and make it through the maze afterward.
  4. Golgoroth and pushing jump section – How to beat this boss and make it past the next jumping section.
  5. Daughters of Oryx – How to beat the Daughters of Oryx encounter.
  6. Oryx, The Taken King – How to beat Oryx.

1. Opening the portal and ship jump section

When you enter the raid, you’ll be near the Court of Oryx, but now there are two relics. When you pick one up, enemies spawn and a wall appears in the middle. 

  • Pick both relics up.
    • These people can’t drop the relic at any time or you start over.
  • Destroy the wall and the enemies.
  • Have both relic holders go to the statue with the circle opening and hold the reload button to dunk the relics inside.

This causes two more relics to appear, one on each side, through the hallways. 

  • Split the raid up with two on left, two on right, and two in the middle.
  • Each side goes until you see the relic.
    • One person picks it up and the other kills enemies and destroy the walls that show up.
    • The people in middle kill the enemies that spawn in the middle, then help destroy the walls on the side if needed.
  • Once you do this on all 6 statues, the portal opens.
    • You can run through the portal without killing the enemies that come out.

Once you get through, there’s a chest that gives smoldering shards. If you have 20 smoldering shards when you kill Oryx, you’ll get extra rewards.

The next part is a Pendulum jump section, but it doesn’t require anything tricky. Just jump from one swinging platform to the next until you make it all the way across.


Abandon Ship jump section

After making it to the open area with several ships, you are at the first real jump puzzle section.

  • You start by getting on the big ship in the middle, then it starts moving.
  • Now, you have to jump from ship to ship as you make it to the far end of the room.
  • If you make it to the platform on the left, you start from there if you die.

This is a section that is easier to see than read. The video shows the way I went to complete it

Note: At the 3-minute mark I jump high to the next ship, then jump to the next one and only make it because of a sword swing. This was the hard way to do it.

Instead, duck underneath the first ship, then easily jump to the next one when it gets close.

After everyone gets across, go up the stairs and you will see two plates to step on, one on each side. 

  • Have two people step on the plates, then the rest jump on the ship.
  • The plates open the door so the other that the ship can pass through.
  • Once they make it through, there will be plates on the other side to open it for the remaining two people.
First Chest

There is a chest at this section that is fairly easy to get.

  • When you are on the last ship heading towards the huge doorway that must be open, jump off to the left before you go through and you’ll see narrow ramps you can land on.
  • Follow this up to a door, go through for the chest.
  • You can jump down to the plates that open the path for the two people who stayed behind.

2. Totem Charge Relay Race

Once you pass the ship jump section you’ll reach a room with a plate in the middle, totems through hallways on each side, and orbs to pick up. This is the first raid loot encounter.

To complete this encounter, you must charge the door until it opens. You do this by standing on the middle plate with the Deathsinger’s Power buff.

 

Here’s the best way to beat the Totem Charge encounter:

  • Split the raid into 2 groups: 3 people on each side.
  • 1 person picks up the orb on each side and the other 2 stay in the aura with them.
  • Run to the totem inside that starts glowing red.
    • Someone must be on this totem at all times during the fight.
  • Everyone stay in the aura and kill the enemies that come out. A knight spawns at the top.
  • The person with the aura gets a timer, when it ends the aura passes to someone else standing inside.
    • Another person will also get Deathsinger’s Power after the switch.
  • The person with Deathsinger’s Power must run to the middle and stand on the plate until all 10 charges go into the door.
    • Once your Deathsinger’s Power buff goes away, run back to the aura you started in because someone else will get Deathsinger’s Power and you need to keep the aura going.

You keep running back and forth with the buff until the door full charges and opens. A chest spawns in the middle with loot once it is over.

3. Warpriest boss fight and the dark maze

When the charged door opens the next room is the Warpriest fight. When you walk in you’ll see 3 columns with glyphs and a plate in front of each one. All plates must be pushed down at the same time to start the fight.

When the boss comes out, he is immune to damage. You can only damage him when you are in the Aura of the Initiate. More on that in a bit.

Before the fight starts assign a person to each plate because you’ll have to call out which to step on during the fight and this makes it easier. You’ll also want to assign one person to look at the back of the glyphs.

  • When the fight starts, kill the enemies until knight majors spawn, the ones with yellow health bars.
    • There will be one on each side, so 3 total. Kill these to start the glyph sequence.
  • When they spawn, one person goes to the platform the Warpriest is standing on so they can see the back of the glyph columns.
  • When the sequence starts, you must stand on the plates in the correct order. The back lights up when it is time to step on the plate.
    • People that stand on the plate must stay on the plate until the sequence ends.
  • Once all three get stepped on, the last person to step on a plate gets Aura of the Initiate and a timer counts down.
  • Everyone must stand in the aura to damage the boss. The person with the aura should not leave and everyone must go to them.
    • The person with the aura must kill enemies to refresh the timer, if the timer runs out, you die. Everyone else should focus on shooting the boss.
  • Eventually, a bright light appears. When this happens, stand behind the column. If you don’t, you die.

When this is over, the column gets broken and you go back to killing enemies. You repeat this until the knights spawn again, kill them to start the glyph sequence again. Rinse and repeat.

When the Warpriest boss is at 50% health:

Taken will start spawning instead of Hive. You do the same thing, but Taken knights will spawn near the plates this time. Kill them to start the sequence again.

  • When two are down, you don’t have to run to the back anymore. A flame comes from the broken columns when it is time to step on that plate. If no flames come up, then it is the column that is not broken.
  • You should be able to kill the boss during the 3rd aura.
    • If you don’t you, can try for a 4th time, but you must kill him before the light shows up because there will be no more columns to hide behind.

Video of taking down the Warpriest.

There is no chest after this boss, he drops the loot in engrams.

Dark Maze

This maze is hard to see because it is dark. The above video shows how I got through it. The_New_Monarch on reddit made a map to make things easier. This map also shows how to get the hidden chest. You must step on the plates in the correct order. The order is random, but it always starts on 3.

Easy Dark Maze map

4. How to beat Golgoroth and the pushing jump section

Golgoroth stops a lot of people because you need heavy coordination and a lot of damage. Once you get the hang of it, it isn’t so bad. There are a few different ways to do this, but I’ll go over what our fireteam found the easiest.

When you enter the room there is an orb hanging from the ceiling in the middle. When you destroy this, you start the fight. Before the fight, assign two people to take Golgoroth’s Gaze, they will be switching the gaze back and forth (we’ll go over how to do that in a second).

Once the fight starts, head to the back of the room to kill all the enemies that spawn. Enemies continue to spawn out of the doors in the back and sides as well.

6 orbs appear on the ceilings, similar to the orb you destroyed to start the fight.

  • Once all the enemies are dead, get the two people taking gaze in position.
    • One person stands near the entrance behind one of the orbs with Golgoroth’s back visible and everyone else shoots that orb until it drops.
  • When the orb drops, the person behind the boss must shoot the glowing part of his back until the get a timer that says Golgoroth’s Gaze.
    • 4 people drop to the middle and run to where the orb fell, it gives them a damage buff if they stand in it. They should then shoot the glowing part of his chest.
    • The person with the gaze must shoot the orbs that the boss shoots out.
  • The other person getting the gaze should stand on the opposite end where they can see his back and get ready to shoot.
    • When there is around 5 seconds left, the ground team should start shooting the orb close to the second gaze person to drop another buff on the ground. The other person should also take the gaze at this point.
    • When he shifts his gaze, exploding thralls spawn at the bottom, so take them out quickly.
  • Repeat this, moving around the room to each orb and switching the gaze until you get to the last orb.
    • At this point, the extra person who doesn’t have the gaze can jump down to help damage the boss.
    • When time is almost up, everyone jumps out and get ready to kill enemies like at the beginning of the fight.
  • Repeat this until enemies are dead and go back to the gaze shifting part. When his health is low enough, Taken start spawning.
    • The Taken keep spawning in the middle no matter what, so take out the small amount at the top, then get ready to take the gaze again.
  • Note: When the Taken spawned in the video (below), we went to taking the gaze only twice at a time, and the first gaze taker dropped down to help damage during the second gaze.

Just repeat this until the boss dies. Whenever the gaze is lost, or someone dies, the big rune gets one charge. If the rune gets fully charged to 5 charges, everyone automatically dies.


Final Jump Section After Golgoroth

After Golgoroth, you reach the final jump section, which involves pistons coming out of the walls that will push you off.

  • Follow the platforms along the wall until you reach a plate.
  • Someone must stand on this plate to make platforms appear for everyone else to jump on.
  • The other side has another plate to stand on that puts a new set of platforms up on a different area.
    • When someone makes it across the second area, the platforms stay up even if you get off the plate.

There is a final chest in this section. theoryyylol on Reddit has a description of how to reach it:

Keep going past the pistons and jumping up until you reach the ball of light. This is the end of the jumping section and leads to the next room with another small jump section.

Just jump on the rocks and platforms until you reach the top. When everyone gets there, head into the next and final room.

6. How to kill the Daughters of Oryx

The last two fights are in the same area and requires a lot of communication and coordination.

When you enter the room you will see two small platforms, on left and one on right. There are also two platforms where each daughter stays. If you go through the middle past these platforms, you’ll see two more small platforms.

This fight requires jumping on the platforms in the right order. If you look in the air, you’ll see a light with a distance marker high above one of the platforms. You must reach this light to gain the ability to steal one the aura from one of the daughters.

Our fireteam numbered the platforms to make the fight easier. As you enter the room, the front left platform was 1, front right was 2, back left was 3, and back right was 4.

  • The order to jump on the platforms is counter-clockwise, starting from platform before the one the light is above.
    • Example: If the light is above platform 3, you jump on platform 2 first, then 1, then 4, then finally 3.
  • Everyone must stay on their platform when they jump on it.
  • One person randomly gets picked with a buff called “Torn Between Dimensions.”
    • This buffed person is the only person that can jump on the transparent platforms.
  • When the fight starts, the person with Torn Between Dimensions must jump on all the transparent platforms in the air, following the light, until they reach the final light.
    • They start wherever the first platform starts.
  • Once they get the final light, they have the power to steal the aura from a daughter. You can only steal the aura from the daughter who is not singing.
  • The person with the aura goes back to the middle near the entrance and everyone stands in to damage the daughter without the aura.
    • You can’t be damaged by the enemies while in the aura. it also protects you from the bright light that happens before the aura goes away.

After that, the light randomly appears over another platform and another person is randomly chosen for Torn Between Dimensions. Repeat the same process until you kill both daughters.

The people standing on the platforms have to kill the enemies that show up so they don’t die. If you die on a platform or move off, the floating platforms disappear, the person can’t get the buff, and everyone dies.


6. How to beat Oryx, The Taken King

When the daughters die, a chest spawns with loot and if you go forward towards the light, Oryx spawns.

Enemies will spawn, kill them until Oryx moves to the side in front of one of the platforms. Once he slams his fist on one of the platforms, an orb will appear. This works almost the same as the Daughters fight with a few changes.

  • The person Torn Between Dimensions is not random this time. it is whoever jumps in the orb on the platform.
  • This time the whoever is standing on the first platform, jumps as soon as the person getting the orb jumps.
  • You only need to stand on 3 platforms, but it still goes counter-clockwise starting.

When you stand on a platform an ogre spawns near that platform. The two people not doing the platforms on Torn between Dimensions should stand on the two platforms the daughters were at during the last boss fight.

  • As soon as the ogre’s spawn, kill them and they will drop black orbs, ignore the orbs for now.
  • When the person jumping gets the last light, everyone can leave the platforms. A knight spawns with an aura that the person with the light has to steal, just like in the daughters fight.
    • Kill the remaining ogres, then head towards the middle.
  • Everyone must kill the knight quickly, then stand inside the Aura of Immortality.
  • After Oryx slams his fist again, everyone should get ready to shoot. When his chest opens and starts glowing, everyone must shoot him.
    • Shoot his chest quickly until he staggers. If you don’t stagger him, he kills everyone instantly.
  • After he staggers, 4 people need to run to the orbs that the Ogre’s dropped, one at each orb.
    • Wait until everyone is ready, then run into the orbs at the same time.
    • Stay in there until you see a message come that says you detonated it.
  • Everyone must run back to the aura quickly before the bright light comes. If you aren’t in the aura, this will kill you.
  • Continue to shoot Oryx until the light explosion. 

The light explosion from standing in the orbs is what damages Oryx, so it is very important to run in at the same time.

  • Now Oryx will go back to the middle and start spawning circles on everyone.
    • Just keep running until this part ends. It is easier to split up and just run in circles.
  • After that, Oryx will go to a platform in the back and repeat the same process of jumping on the platforms in order.
After two explosions, Oryx will go to the middle and spawn a huge dome.

He will randomly put people in this dome, one at a time. When inside, look for the Shade of Oryx and keep attacking the Shade until it dies. This is similar to the last story mission.

If you kill it fast enough everyone gets taken out and you repeat the platform part. You won’t have to do the running section once he hits 50% health. Repeat this until his health bar looks gone.

At 0% health Oryx will go to the middle for a last stand.

Everyone must shoot his glowing chest to stagger and kill Oryx. This is just like the previous stagger part, so you must do this or you die.

If you stagger him, he dies, you win, and you get loot.

I hope I explained the fights well enough for you to complete the raid. If you have any questions or need clarification of any steps, just let me know.


GameSkinny is supported by our audience. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn a small affiliate commission. Learn more
related content
Read Article Best 6 Build in Reverse 1999 (Psychubes & Team Comp)
6 looking out a glass window
Read Article How to Get a Dehydrator in Stardew Valley 1.6 (& How to Use)
Dehydrator in mushroom cave with dried common mushrooms ready to collect
Read Article How to Increase Your Grand Company Rank in FFXIV
Miqo'te in the Squadron Barracks
Read Article Does it Matter Which Grand Company You Join in FFXIV?
Miqo'te looking at Maelstrom command
Read Article The Best Companions in Rise of the Ronin
A screenshot from Rise of the Ronin
Related Content
Read Article Best 6 Build in Reverse 1999 (Psychubes & Team Comp)
6 looking out a glass window
Read Article How to Get a Dehydrator in Stardew Valley 1.6 (& How to Use)
Dehydrator in mushroom cave with dried common mushrooms ready to collect
Read Article How to Increase Your Grand Company Rank in FFXIV
Miqo'te in the Squadron Barracks
Read Article Does it Matter Which Grand Company You Join in FFXIV?
Miqo'te looking at Maelstrom command
Read Article The Best Companions in Rise of the Ronin
A screenshot from Rise of the Ronin
Author
Synzer
After gaming for 25 years, Synzer leveraged his vast knowledge of RPGs and MMOs into a job as a games journalist, covering the games he loves. Five years later, he's still writing about Kingdom Hearts, Pokemon, and Knights of the Old Republic. Synzer has a bachelor's degree in English and creative writing. You can see him in action on his YouTube channel (https://bit.ly/2F97BrR) and Twitch (https://www.twitch.tv/synzergaming).