<------< Atheon Fight (First Phase) >------>

Phase One **Timing and quick, powerful focus fire is beyond important through all phases of this fight** Phase one can be extremely confusing. You walk into the vault and there are enemies all over the place and no instructions anywhere. There are yellow hobgoblins, goblins and Minotaurs all over the place. There is also a Hydra called the Gatekeeper that floats around the room, he is the key to beginning the phase itself. One of the better strategies I have found is that you first need to clear the room of adds. (additional enemies). This ensures that you will have a level playing field when it comes time to start entering portals...portals? portals you say? Yes, portals. Remember the very beginning of the raid where you have to open the door and defend the glowing circles against praetorians who want to enter deep inside and strip your innocence away without so much as leaving you any cab fare? This system is back, but there are only two of them this time. They are located relatively close to the entrance to the Vault of Glass itself on the left and right side of the room and the hallways that spawn Praetorians (there are two on each side) are also very close to these. This means the Praetorians will have a very short distance to run before they reach the circle. EVERY team member is crucial at this point, I have not been in a fight here yet where at least 1-2 people have run out of almost all of their ammo types. Once you activate the circle, a vex portal will open up, and two of your teammates will have to go inside and start to wreck shop on an almost duplicate battlefield inside. This duplicate battlefield of the one you just left is complete with a gatekeeper, tons of hobgoblins and many other enemies. As soon as you kill the Gatekeeper, a Relic (The shield from the Templar fight) will spawn at the opposite end of the room, up a long flight of steps. When a player picks this up is when the real battle begins and each team member will have a specific job, because a few things happen. When the relic is picked up inside of the portal a Conflux, those white towers that the Vex like to strut over to and sacrifice themselves, appears outside of the portal map on the main battlefield. So, you have 2 players inside a portal, that leaves 4 outside trying to kill 1-2 Praetorians at a time, back to back. If a Praetorian enters the circle, the players who went inside the portal CANNOT get back to cleanse the group when needed. Oh yeah, Oracles begin to spawn at this point and mark the group requiring the relic holder to start cleansing. This fight can be chaos, pure and simple. Your team gets split up and your weapon selection really begins to make the difference here. So, say you fire up a ring, 2 players enter the portal just above that ring (up the steps), take out the gatekeeper, grab the relic and make it out alive....great work! Now you have to do the same exact thing on the other side. Fire up a ring, have a DIFFERENT player go in, grab a relic (the player who went in to assist with taking out a gatekeeper on the first one can go as long as he still has ammo, preferably a Void rocket launcher) and begin this process again. Okay, this may sound confusing so I will boil it down to what it really is. Fire up a ring, two players enter the portal, kill a gatekeeper, grab the relic, cleanse when needed inside and out, and get out of the portal. Once they get out the team will need to stay relatively close together when possible so the Relic carrier is not running all over the map trying to cleanse folks. You have 2 players in, and 4 players out at this point. The 4 players out need to defend the rings from Praetorians to keep the portal open for the players coming back. As SOON as the guys inside grab the Relic, A Conflux spawns in the middle of the non-portal map. ONE, I REPEAT, ONE player is sufficient to guard the conflux while the other three, and the two players returning, to head over to the other side and begin the portal process again. Please, please, please bring some heavy ammo synthesis with you at use them as needed at this point, it saves a ton of frustration. Everytime you see yourself having spare Glimmer, don't waste it leveling the Cryptarch, buy heavy ammo packs and SAVE THEM. So, we now have 3 players killing Praetorians, 1 of them has a relic and can use super moves/cleanses, 2 players inside the portal going for the other relic (killing the gatekeeper ASAP to make the relic spawn) and getting the hell out of there and one poor soul defending the conflux. This portion of the Raid is all about timing. The guy defending the conflux has to deal with about 10-12 enemies, all minotaurs. Their spawn is at the top of the long set of stairs towards the back of the room and through the glass archway a bit. This was my job last night, and this is what I learned. There seemed to be 2 waves of Minotaurs, they come at regular intervals about 10 seconds between each one. They have a single rifle and do not hit very hard but if you cannot take them down fast, they will overwhelm you. They have a regular shield and health bar and are relatively easy to kill. There are two waves of them before enemies start to make their way behind your position and begin firing on you, these are the same enemies that are spawning in the hallways where you just completed the previous round. Between Praetorian waves it is essential to try and pick these guys off as they are slowly gaining ground across the map. Here is why I say there are two waves, and timing is crucial. There are more than two waves of minotaurs, but the first two can be done by a single player since all he has to focus on is the Minotaurs, I had no problem doing this last night with a Scout Rifle that still had a couple upgrades to go before max. AFTER the second wave, if the enemies haven't been killed that appear on the opposite side of the room, will begin to make extremely short work of you, this includes 1-3 Level 27 Hobgoblins that can take a level 26 out in two shots. Never have a level 26 guarding the conflux at this point, all it takes is 4 Vex getting close to that thing and sacrificing to wipe the raid. If the second team (This can consist of the assisting player from the first portal run, but NOT the guy holding the Relic) gets in and out in time, you will have your full team back to defend the Conflux before the third wave, and additional enemies begin to spawn into Conflux range. I realize that this can sound extremely confusing, and it took me many wipes to figure this all out. I will summarize what I have learned here. - Enter Vault, Clear adds., kill Gatekeeper - Open left side portal, two players in, 4 players out, clear Praetorians from entering the ring and preventing the return of the original two team members who went inside. ** - The two players in the portal need to focus Heavy Weapons on the Gatekeeper at all costs, 4-6 Void rockets should kill it. The player in charge of grabbing the relic should launch a couple of rockets at the gatekeeper right off the bat to assist with this then begin to dodge and sprint to where the relic will spawn. Grab the relic immediately after it spawns, grab your teammate and get the -blam!- out of there, your team is struggling just as much on the other side. - After the first portal is opened and the Relic is picked up, the Conflux will spawn in the center of the room, one player needs to peel off at this point and kill the Minotaurs (Regular health and shields), two seperate waves of 5-6 Minotaurs each, that begin to walk towards the conflux. After the second wave, enemies, including Hobgoblins, may begin to shoot at your back. This is why timing is crucial, the faster you get the portals done, the faster all of your team returns to wholly defend the conflux. - Clear remaining adds., Oracles, Cleanse when needed and work together. Shield holders (Relic) will have to regularly cleanse at this point, but if your entire team is out, you have two relics and everyone is alive, there is absolutely no reason to wipe at this point. I hope this helps, as it took me a long time to write it, enjoy the phase and have fun! I will write a guide about Atheon this weekend, maybe tomorrow.