Foreword -As I'm sure many of you know by now, the Crota's End raid is something of a chore to do. Especially Hard Crota. However, I hope to provide a grab bag of tips and tricks that will be of some use to those of you not already acquainted with them. Of course, if you feel i've left out a strategy, or one of these has been patched, etc., be sure to comment and let me know. Loot Table (guns/armor) -Lanterns: Gauntlets>Boots -(Hard): Oversoul Edict (arc pulse rifle) -Bridge: Boots>Chestpiece -(Hard): Abyss Defiant (solar auto-rifle) -Deathsinger: Class Item>>>Exotic Weapon -Crota: Hunger of Crota (solar rocket launcher), Song of Ir Yut (arc machine gun), Swordbreaker (void shotgun), Black Hammer (solar sniper rifle), Light of the Abyss (arc fusion rifle) -(Hard): Word of Crota (void hand cannon), Fang of Ir Yut (arc scout rifle) The Abyss (Lanterns) -The 1st couple of doors to the left of spawn can spawn a materials chest, continuously check and wipe until you get a chest spawn. -The generally easiest way to get through the Abyss, particularly on hard. First have at least one fireteam member stay back at spawn. Then have preferably either a hunter or warlock with max agility, and an agility boosting weapon, run the maze to the end. (On hard it may prove necessary to assign a guard to the runner to ensure they survive the first three lanterns.) The runner will want to jump onto the rock to the right of the bridge plate by jumping between the metal half wall and the rock. From here they wait for the ogre to spawn, and either kill it, or wait until it begins to fire on them at which point they fall behind the rock and fight off thralls. THE RUNNER MUST ASSEMBLE THE BRIDGE. This way, should they die, the remaining team members can walk through the maze easily and reach the end. The Bridge -At this section, one team member will step on the bridge plate just long enough to start the encounter. As soon as he spawns, every team member will shoot the swordbearer. Once he falls, preferably either a warlock or titan with max agility will collect the sword, and make haste to the top of the wall closest to the chasm near the right tower (the higher one). From here, they will jump as high and far as they can, and just before the top of their jump, will begin to mash light attacks with the sword. They should angle their flight so that at roughly halfway across the chasm they are over the bridge, lest they hit a kill barrier. Once across, they will hide behind the cylinder to the left of the bridge. At this point any team members should wipe or leave the zone, and the person across should respec their stats for survivabilty. The person across must simply be careful of spash damage enemies, and keep killing. Any Sunsingers left behind may self-res as soon as the thralls despawn on their side. After roughly 20 kills made by the players, the ogres will spawn. They must be killed to finish the stage. The one nearest to the player may enrage after taking enough damage. At this point it must be killed quickly as it can knock the player to their death. The Hallway -There is a materials chest at the end of the hallway that may only be obtained with a fast enough completion. -The hallway consists of two barriers held up by shriekers, who will respawn on hard, a shitload of thrall, and finishes with a special explosive thrall. -It will often be easiest to assign a person with either a Hunger of Crota or a Gjallarhorn to killing the shriekers, while the rest of the team runs The Deathsinger -This encounter will start as soon as any aggro is drawn onto the fireteam. At which point you will be notified of the immenance of the Deathsinger's liturgy. You must lure out and kill a hollowed wizard on each side before killing a shrieker within each side to gain access to the Deathsinger. You may either attempt to enter her chamber, or get above it (see below). She will take significantly more damage once she begins the liturgy, but you will only have 30 seconds to kill her. After her death, you will need to kill knights and acolytes for a few minutes before finishing the section. -To get above the Deathsinger's chamber, you must go to Crota's spawn point across from the Deathsinger's chamber and jump onto the left (facing away from the Deathsinger's chamber) strut base and then jump to the outcropping of rock on the end of the wall. From there you will jump up the rock wall's edge and onto a ledge across from the nearby tower. You will jump onto it's ledge, and then follow the right and leap onto the cliffs. At which point you will position yourself and jump/fall to the balconies below and enter the central room. You may shoot through a crack between the crystal and the floor into the Deathsinger's chamber once both shriekers have fallen. -While the sword knights will continuously spawn, the knights with boomers and shredders will not respawn after the Deathsinger's defeat. Crota -The crystal must be hugged by all guardians simultaneously to start the boss fight. There is no regen aside from normal mode's chalice of light, which will spawn in front of Crota. You will have a few seconds to prepare for the upcoming assault by Crota's forces, a titan's ward with blessing of light helps a lot in hard mode. -Normal strategy: Once all attackers are killed, you may either use the hard placement, or go to the hallway below the crystal, while one person fetches the chalice and rejoins/heals the group. The swordbearer of the group will take the chalice and kill the swordbearer and take the sword. They may then stand atop either the central box or one of the side rocks. Once the swordbearer is ready they will tell the team to fire their rockets at Crota. As they do this, they will begin to move toward Crota. Once he goes down, they will want to get 2-3 (or even 4) hits on Crota before he gets back up. They will return to a rock or the box, call for another volley of rockets, and try for more hits on Crota, before returning to the hallway. They will then wait for Crota to return to mid before kiling swordbearer and repeating the past steps. After the 2nd sword, 2 ogres will appear, they will charge the hallway and must be dealt with. However, in most cases, Crota should be killed by the 2nd sword. -Hard strategy: Get Stun.