New in the Destiny 2 30th Anniversary Pack is the Grasp of Avarice dungeon, sending Guardians deep into the loot cave from early in the franchise’s life. At the cave’s heart lies the key to starting the Gjallarhorn quest and unlocking the iconic Exotic rocket launcher.
Grasp of Avarice is a bit larger than both Pit of Heresy and Prophecy but falls just short of Shattered Throne. Thankfully, it has great bosses and some of the best rewards available right now in Destiny 2.
This walkthrough guide covers all puzzles and the four encounters in the Grasp of Avarice dungeon. It also acts as a companion to our Gjallahorn acquisition guide and catalyst guide.
Destiny 2 Grasp of Avarice Walkthrough
Grasp of Avarice First Encounter: The Loot Cave Entrance
Select the Grasp of Avarice activity from the Eternity menu in the director. You’ll drop in the dungeon just before the fabled loot cave.
Clear the Fallen and take your fight to the Hive. Many of the red bar enemies will drop an engram that grants you the Burdened by Riches debuff. You’ll have 30 seconds to either pick up another engram or die. You can hold dozens and dozens of stacks of Burdened by Riches, but you won’t need to have that many to progress through Grasp of Avarice.
The Hive spawn infinitely here, but within the loot cave itself is a crystal structure. Standing near the crystal will drain Burden two stacks at a time, and as you fill it, the structure expands physically alongside a sound cue.
Once crystals have expanded, there will be another unique sound and a burst of white energy. For this first Grasp of Avarice encounter, filling the crystal will cause the floor to collapse into more crystals, leading you into the depths. Follow the path along the left side until you reach a large blast door.
Route to the Second Grasp of Avarice Encounter
There aren’t many enemies in the next section of Grasp of Avarice. Your main threat is a long series of rooms and corridors filled with spike traps, bottomless pits, and other means of instantly killing your Guardian.
The blast door with blue arrows pointing toward it has two regular-sized doors near it. One of them has a skull and crossbones symbol near it. That’s the one you want. The other one without the warning has a wall of extending spikes behind it that will kill you.
Beyond the skull and crossbones door is a small room with a lever at the other end. Watch out for the raised switch on the floor. It activates more spikes. Jump over the spike switch, activate the lever, and go into the pipe.
At the end, you’ll reach a long room with a bottomless pit. There’s a small platform in the middle, which is actually a collapsing floor. There’s another lever at the other end of the room, but it’s bait, so leave it.
To progress further into the Grasp of Avarice dungeon, jump on the collapsing floor and fall just a little bit. There’s another small room beneath with the actual lever you want. Activate it and return to the blast door chamber.
This time, jump up the vents until you see three smaller pipes leading into the wall. Take the one closest to the blast door. Activate the floor switch and jump through the opening in the ceiling.
Continue up, watching for spike traps, to reach a water basin with moving doors. Head into the one closest to the left of the starting platform. Clear the room, then flip the lever at the end of the room. There are spike traps here, too, like everywhere in Grasp of Avarice.
Exit the first room and head to the newly opened vent on the right side of the chamber. Activate the switch inside and jump across the chasm. Take the ceiling opening into a room with another lever. Activate it and return to the main chamber. Head back across the chasm and deactivate the switch in the room. Beware the Shrieker that spawns.
One of the large bay doors will be open. Clear the enemies and activate the switch at its back to open the doors at the other end of the room. Make your way there, and open the door in orange light.
You’ll reach a large circular room with Fallen and Hive enemies. Head right of where you come in to find a circular design on the wall above another switch. Activate it to open the bay doors on the other side of the room, Bay 3. Then activate the switch inside. Repeat until one door remains. A group of Fallen will spawn out of Bay 2, and the yellow bar Vandal will have a Scorch Cannon.
Grab the cannon and go to Bay 4, where you’ll find a deposit device. Shoot a single shot from the cannon into the device. Let the charge tick three times, and the door will open.
Beyond Bay 4 is a long, red-lit staircase. Go up to the first alcove and make your way inside. A barrel will come crashing down the stairs. Then make your way into the hall at the top.
Travel until you reach a dead-end, then turn around. Go into the orange-lit vent and across the waterlogged room. You’ll come out into a boss arena, the first of two such fights in Grasp of Avarice.
Grasp of Avarice Second Encounter: Phyr’zhia the Insatiable Boss Fight
The first real Grasp of Avarice fight against Ogre Phyr’zhia the Insatiable. You’ll use both mechanics you’ve been taught so far: banking engrams and Scorch Cannon doors. This time, however, you have to contend with rapid-fire laser beams from the boss and hordes of enemies.
Shortly after this Grasp of Avarice fight begins, a Fallen Vandal will appear, wielding a Scorch Cannon. Kill it, take the cannon, and look for the deposit device with the open hatch. There are two devices on either side of the arena, and they control a set of bay doors leading to separate, smaller arenas.
Only one device will have its port open at a time, and be careful about opening both. If you activate both devices, the doors opened first will close, trapping and killing anyone left inside.
Once the doors open, two Hive Knights and 10 or so Acolytes will spawn. Kill them to take their engrams, then back them in the arena. Do this twice to activate the damage phase.
Once it’s time to DPS this Grasp of Avarice boss, hang around the engram crystal with Well of Radiance and a Titan bubble if available. Use your standard damage tools: 1000 Voices, Fusions Rifles, Sleeper Simulant (especially after the buff), etc.
Route to the Third Grasp of Avarice Encounter
Once you defeat Phyr’zhia the Insatiable, collect your first loot drops of Grasp of Avarice and head to the back of the arena. The doors are open, and you’ll follow the halls back to the left. Go down through the Hive chitin-infested dungeon rooms until you reach a large pair of blast doors. You’ll find more levers. Choose the left one.
The blast doors will open, and a Scorn Mine will spawn, leaving you with 15 seconds to reach and disarm it. You need to be on your Sparrow and boosting when you start to see light creep through the opening doors to make it. There are four mines in total to disarm.
The secret to this Grasp of Avarice encounter is large red buttons scattered about the map. They’re small spheres with a red light that turns green and sounds with a low beep when active. You don’t need to be exact when touching them to turn them on; just be within a couple of feet.
Turning on the buttons will add about 5 seconds to the mine’s detonation time. There are two or three buttons per area, and most are located on the sides of the critical path.
Once you disable mine D in the giant skull, you’re done with this part of the dungeon. Make your way through the crystal caves to reach the third Grasp of Avarice encounter.
The Third Grasp of Avarice Encounter: Fallen Shield
Your task in this Grasp of Avarice encounter is to disable the shield beneath the giant sphere in the center of the area. To do so, destroy the four glowing batteries on its side.
There are five islands in this room. You won’t be able to reach most of them by jumping (save for select classes and with specific Exotics), but thankfully, each island has an inactive man cannon. To activate the man cannons, you need a Scorch Cannon, and the islands have one such Vandal each.
When you arrive in Grasp of Avarice’s Fallen Shield arena, look for a shielded Servitor floating around on one of the islands. Kill the Scorch Cannon Vandal, then find the deposit device. Let the missile charge and head to the base of the man cannon. Let the Scorch missile detonate to activate.
To remove the Servitor’s shield, you have to bank engrams. Fallen will spawn on the Servitor’s island and drop Burden of Riches engrams when defeated. Bank 20 or so to lower the shield.
Grasp of Avarice Servitors leave rollable corpses behind. Push the dead Fallen ball to the base of its island’s man cannon, aim the cannon at the battery, and activate it. Do this four times, and you’ll lower the Fallen Shield around the giant sphere. If you lose a Servitor-ball, another live one will spawn.
With the shield down, head to the central man cannon and aim it directly upward. Activate it to enter the sphere and the path to the final Grasp of Avarice encounter.
The Fourth Grasp of Avarice Encounter: Avarokk the Covetous
In the center of the Great Sphere is the final Grasp of Avarice dungeon arena. The setup is similar to the Phyr’zhia fight, but the engram crystal is in the center of the area on the raised platform.
There are two deposit devices on either side of the room. They raise two large containers per side with 10 engrams each. You’ll need to find the Scorch Cannon Vandal, but they don’t spawn immediately. Clear the initial wave of adds to have a brief period of calm to bank motes in the middle.
The boss, Avarokk the Covetous and two yellow bar mini-bosses spawn. One of them is a hard-hitting Marauder; the other is a deadly Tracer Shank. Both drop 10 engrams, but they respawn each phase.
The engram crystal needs at least 50 engrams to charge fully. Once you deposit enough, Avarokk will head to the bow of the ship ready for damage. You’ll have 30 seconds or so to damage him, then he will become Immune. Repeat the process as many times as it takes to defeat Avarokk and complete the Grasp of Avarice.
And that’s it for our Destiny 2 Grasp of Avarice walkthrough guide. For more tips and walkthroughs, head over to our other D2 guides.
Published: Dec 8, 2021 09:38 pm