I have an idea for an interesting new raid, that you guys could probably link into one of your future expansions, if you have one that involves retaking portions of the earth that are hidden in the darkness. [spoiler]We have seen that the last bastion of human life is in Russia, surviving under the unconscious traveler, which has begun healing following the destruction of the vex god in the black garden. After the defeat of oryx, skolas, and maybe a few other dangers to come, eventually, guardians will come to the conclusion that it is time to try to reclaim earth, and remove the menaces over the world. Somewhere along this conclusion, they discover a tower, surrounded by ice and snow. The base of the tower however, for a few dozen feet at least, appear to be hot, and filled with vibrant plant life.. Upon closer inspection it is realized there is no real entrance other than the sewer system below, through an icy cavern a little distance from the tower. [u][b]First Challenge: The Sewers[/b][/u] The first challenge, is entering the tower. The sewer twists and curves, branching in many places like a maze. Within this maze are 5 hidden buttons, and the door to the base floor of the tower, which has an activatable lever. The lever however won't budge until the buttons are stepped on in a certain order. when the order has been found, a loud grinding noise will be heard throughout the sewers, and dust will fall from the ceiling for a few moments. after the lever is pulled, the gate will slowly grind open, revealing the basement of the tower. [u][b]Second Challenge: The Gate Keepers.[/b][/u] Drawing a little inspiration from Krughor for this one. Two boomer Knights, or the equivalent of whichever enemy is currently being fought, come through a gate in the back of the room, which leads to the stairs the guardians will need to go up. Around the room in a circle from where the knights came from, are large pillars connected to the ceiling. on the left and right side, there are what appear to be chutes, and a stream of thrall in increasing amounts will come down and out of these chute to attack the guardians. For the first wave, 20 thrall come out. After the 20 are dead a bright flash of light, and the knights are stunned for 30 seconds, simultaneously, 2 cursed thrall appear. These cursed thrall have very little health, but have double the normal blast radius, and deal double the damage. The only way to damage the knights is by luring these cursed thrall to the knights and blowing them up. After the thrall explosion, the knights become vulnerable to incoming fire for the duration of their stun, then the next round begins. Each wave of thrall will have 1.5x more thrall than the previous round (20, 30, 45, 68, 102) however the cursed thrall will always only be 2. During the time the thrall are attacking the guardians, the knights just keep shooting at the guardians at range, staying inside the circle of pillars. If after the fifth round, if neither of the knights have perished, they both enter and enraged state, can leave the pillar structure and are still immune while hunting down and extinguishing the guardians. If one of the knights are defeated, regardless of which round of thralls you were on, the other enrages, but is not immune. no more thralls will spawn. he can leave the pillar circle now, but now he is the only enemy you have to deal with, and he is damageable. when each of the knights die, they will drop an orb. taking both the orbs to the door they came through will open the gate, allowing you to use the stairs to reach the next floor. These knights will also spawn the first raid drops of this raid. Probably an Armor piece or (rarely) Part of a sword. [u][b]Third Challenge: Circle of the Doppelganger.[/b][/u] In this room are 6 pressure plates. all 6 must be stood on to open the gate, however, the way they lock is different from others. When all 6 players are on the plates, one at a time are pulled into an alternate reality, where they fight a taken version of themselves, with the same equipment, in an arena that looks identical to the one everyone is standing on the plates. to everyone else, the person currently fighting his double will appear to be torn between dimensions, as in the oryx raid, and still on his plate. The doppelganger has access to the same skills and equipment that player has, and is a 1 on 1 duel to the death. if the player dies, the doppelganger returns in the place of the player into the previous room, which a large shield, and will try to defeat the entire party. if the party manages to kill the doppelganger, the player who died becomes revivable, but now the entire party has to start the process again. If the player wins, their plate becomes highlighted in red, signifying it is ready to lock when all the plates are complete, and the next player crosses over to fight their doppelganger. Once all six are ready to lock, the plates will flash brighter for a second then dim. once the light is gone a loud click will be heard and the gates will open, leading to the next flight of stairs. [u][b]Fourth Challenge: The Burning Pillars.[/b][/u] In this room is a wizard, or other equivalent, on equal size with one of the Daughters of Oryx, in the middle of the room, protected by a barrier. Around her are 8 pillars, each one with a similar effect around it as the chests in the oryx raid before they can be opened, and anyone who gets too close to them will be burned. From this room are three passages leading to small chambers. Within each one is a weaker ultra class monster. The monsters and the daughter will not take aggression until the players do. During this part, all three ultra class monsters have to be extinguished within a few seconds of each other, and each one is just strong enough to be a challenge for 2 players. None of them should be capable of leaving their small room. When they are extinguished correctly, one of the pillars will stop burning and form an orb at the top. A player must pick up the orb and smash the wizard. The wizard, non aggressive til now will lose the shield around her and attack the players for 15 seconds, but will not move from her place. During this time, the players are able to freely damage her. She should have enough health that it would be challenging to do this in 8 attempts to finally kill her. After the 15 seconds expire, the shield reappears, she stops attacking, and 3 new ultra class monsters spawn. This cycle repeats until the wizard is defeated. When the wizard is defeated, this will be the second raid drop of the game, giving either a random raid weapon or a sword piece rarely. [u][b]Final Challenge: Reignier, The Dark Guardian[/b][/u] Upon defeat, there is no gate openning. A black light circle appears in the middle of the room, created by the wizard. From it spawns what appears to be a guardian, with a ghost emitting black light instead of white. His armor is a glowing dark purple, and between the armor plates, the base material appears like the taken skin. He is equipped with a Shrapnel launcher, Assault rifle and a Sword. He makes a guttural sound, pulls the shrapnel launcher off his back, and immediately enters combat with the guardians. [b]Stage 1: 100% - 70% Health.[/b] The enemy guardian stays at range with a regenerating Void shield, shooting the Shrapnel launcher at guardians in sight. Every 10 seconds or so, throwing a Void Wall grenade at one of the players. If a guardian gets too close, he will use a blink jump up and shoot a widespread cone of void energy downward before floating to the ground elsewhere in the room. [b]Stage 2: 70% - 30% Health.[/b] Upon reaching 70% health, he becomes immune and staggers, dropping the shrapnel launcher. He draws out the assault rifle, which deals solar damage, and a new solar shield forms around him. He loses immunity after the shield bar fills, and switches tactics. he now chases the guardians, shooting at them, trying to get in close. When he catches a guardian, he will punch them, setting them on fire for a few short seconds, but also planting a bomb on them. The bomb has a timer, and can only be removed by another guardian. however, when the bomb is removed, the second player now has it. The bomb should have a 30 second timer that resets when it taken by another player. there should be a 20 second debuff on the player who originally had a bomb on them, preventing them from taking it back. The enemy guardian will still attempt to close in on other players, planting bombs on a max of 3 people. When 3 bombs have been placed, he will enter enraged state. he is still damageable, but he will start intermittently throwing grenades that create sunspots while shooting with the assault rifle from afar. Players with bombs on them will take double damage from these grenades and sunspots. If a Bomb reached 0 on the timer, it consumes that players light, and then explodes, killing them and dealing damage to players near them equivalent to how much light the bomb consumed. [b]Stage 3: 30% - 0%[/b] At reaching 30%, he again staggers and becomes immune. This time an unelemented shield surrounds him and he draws forth the sword. The sword should have a green, poison aura to it. He now pursues the players with the sword. The sword itself is damaging, but also, players hit by it suffer a similar effect as when shot by Thorn, dealing damage over 5 seconds time. if you manage to trigger your regeneration somehow, the poison debuff disappears. occasionally (15-20 seconds), he will swing the sword horizontally producing a green wave that flies in the direction of the FARTHEST player from him. If multiple players are equally distant from him he will choose the one with the least health. This wave is easily dodge-able, but if it hits a player, will result in an unending poison debuff, only expiring when the player has died. On death, he gives a weapon, armor, and sword piece. [/spoiler]