Excitement, stress, confusion, disappointment, frustration, and elation. Those are the emotions that best describe my Day One experience. Throughout the 24 hours, I felt at least one of these emotions. Most of the time, it was multiple, sometimes even all six. Before I continue, big spoiler warning, do not read further if you do not want the Vow of Disciple raid spoiled.

Just a quick note on day one raids. Raid teams get given 24 hours to complete the raid. Teams go into the raid blind and 20 power level below each encounter. If you remember from my previous article, this makes killing enemies and surviving a lot harder.

We took some time loading into the raid (thanks Peach and Luke), but we finally arrived at the entrance to Disciple’s Bog in Miasma, charged and ready to go. After clearing some enemies and Savuthûn’s projection, the door to the raid area opened up. A payload to push (hello Overwatch memories). More enemies to kill but no movement from the payload. We notice orange lights. Time to pick something up. A stacking buff of knowledge up to three stacks that charges the payload? Anyway, after a few deposits, the payload proceeds but stops a short way further. More enemies, and it is rinse and repeat at a few more stops until we reach inside the pyramid. As we rush in, we take note of each knowledge buff we saw. Maybe important for later?

Anywho, symbols we have never seen before, more to remember for later? Looking around for a door we hear, ” oh down these stairs” to which was met with a long drop. That ain’t stairs buddy. But it was the way to go. A room with a shootable circle. Another symbol. Nothing else, so maybe a secret? Moving outside and we get a glimpse of the scale of this raid, a worm god that is either being drained or injected. We had no idea which but contemplated the likelihood of it being a boss. Bigger room with symbols, perhaps a wish wall like Last Wish? Still, we move on. We find another room where you can shoot a circle to reveal a symbol. Fueling the belief in it being a secret.

Finally, we reach our very first encounter. Symbols by doors, a floating crystal, and three pillars. Encounter starts and the pillar lights up, starting to fill. Okay, enemies spawn stop them from getting to/shooting the pillar. It fills up, and we wipe. We have to do something to stop the wipe. Run into the rooms to see what is happening. Light and dark sun symbols on opposite walls. They appear in every room, which must mean something? After a few wipes, we figure it out. One of the three pillar areas either has a traveler or pyramid at the top, indicating either right or left of the arena. This tells us that there will be a taken enemy somewhere on the right if the Traveler or left if the pyramid that we need to kill. Killing the enemy displays a symbol below the first one to tell us the room to go in. Entering the room causes a third symbol to appear, either light or dark sun. This tells us which glyphkeeper to kill. Killing the glyphkeeper gives us another symbol, and resets the pillar’s wipe timer. Write the symbols down and repeat for the other pillars. Once complete, 9 symbols appear on each pillar. One of the three has the three symbols. Shoot them in quick succession and repeat the same process two more times. 2 hours in we complete it. Or did we? The wipe screen appears, and we realize Qubick was dead, our death timer ran out. I felt my heart sink. But we must go on. Sure enough, one attempt and fifteen minutes later our very first chest spawned. The sight of this chest was truly something of pure joy. A quick loot check, and we move further.

More confusing rooms later and we reach a large four-story room with what looks like a boss. Walk up to him, he looks at us and turns back. Okay then. The next floor is a rally banner. Encounter two, let’s go. A room with buffs from the payload part with symbols above them. A boss that shoots flying orbs, which one-shot you and another pillar. Deposit symbols by shooting them on the pillar when given the prompt for the offering. But the boss wipes us before 9 symbols are shot. Did I mention you are given a pervading darkness debuff that over time darkens your screen and will kill you at 10 stacks while in the room? So yeah, you can’t be in there forever. The scoreboard shows boss stuns. How do we stun him? No one knows. Keep going, and we will find out. A couple runs in, and some of us get damage numbers by shooting his face when it lights up. But it doesn’t always light up? What if we melee him to get him to slam and light up? Okay, that works, oh now his coffin on his back opened and can be shot. Boss stunned for a couple of seconds. So two members on stun duty, two members on symbols, and the other two shooting enemies. Damage starts; shoot him in the designated circles, 3 of them. Okay done, now two more floors and repeat the process. About 4 hours later the boss is slain, absolute joy, and then a wipe screen. Back to disappointment. What a roller coaster of emotions once again. Two encounters, two wipes right at the end. Deep breaths and we go again. One failed attempt later, we make it to the final stand, this time not needing a final circle phase. Now the boss is officially slain. Pure jubilation as the next chest spawns.

Loot check, more rooms like before, and an aesthetic jumping puzzle awaited us next. After this, the third encounter. About 7 hours in, not bad. A relic that beams. 3 enemies, two glyphkeepers, and a timekeeper with a shield? And more symbols. Next room, deposit beam, one person picks up the beam while someone else picks up the aegis from Vault of Glass. Pervading darkness, stand by the relic for a cleanse. More glyphkeepers, and we wipe. Okay, what just happened? Glyphkeepers tell 3 symbols each, six total and one in common. 3rd room, and now there is a taken orb from Last Wish, to cleanse blights. Not enough time, wipe. Find an optimal route. Finally, complete the 3rd room, BUT another room awaits us. Pure frustration and disappointment ensue. Keep going. Three and half hours later, we did it. Despite this being a shorter clear than the previous encounter, it felt far more satisfying to complete. No wipe at the end this time.

So more jumping, and we made it to the final encounter. A floating crystal, inspect it. Oh, it’s transforming. He’s upside down? He has a glaive? We get booped to Narnia? So many questions, no answers. Death to pervading darkness. Start again, no entrance this time but a large orange sphere not allowing you to enter. A large crystal to shoot about his head. Shooting it takes away the debuff. Leeching force buff? How do you get it? Now I have emanating force? Oh, I can run through the sphere; the boss is still immune. Try deposit at one of the pillars showing symbols. It worked? Sphere recedes. Also, something to mention, the boss does some kind of triple Kamehameha attack that kills you if hit. We wipe. Eventually, we realize there are glyphkeepers like in the previous encounter. Six symbols, three each, one matching. Two of the six pillars have the symbol, the person with emanating force deposits, do this about eight times. To get the buff, first, you need the leeching force, which you get from shooting the crystal. With the buff, you can stand on a plate that spawns two crystals. Two people shoot the crystal to take the buff away from the original person. One stands in the Kamehameha wave to get emanating force. The other stands on the plate to split the buff again. You do this to ensure at least one person has leeching force. He only spawns the middle crystal one more time before you wipe.

Forty minutes in, we make it to the damage area. This was a wild one. He dashes at you, does his Kamehameha, hell he even kicks your ass. Shooting his glaive, gives you leeching force. Get emanating force and deposit at one of the corner pillars. Shooting the glaive also spawns a symbol telling you where to deposit. He gets stunned, and a weak spot appears. Shoot the weak spot and repeat three more times. Damage time. He keeps the same patterns while you attempt to shoot him making consistent damage incredibly difficult. About thirteen hours later, 24 and a half hours into the raid, we had still yet to complete the fight getting ever so close. Sadly Luke and I could not continue, so we had to call it there. I felt awful, pure disappointment kicked in. We almost had it but fatigue got the better of us. So many fails down to stupid mistakes. Yes, the day one completion was extended by 24 hours, but most of us were too busy the following day.

The next morning, I felt dejected, more so than before I slept. But I could not be more proud of what we achieved. For such a difficult raid to almost clear it, was amazing. We faced stress, confusion, frustration, and disappointment, but we soldiered throughout it all in the hope of elation. Sure we did not get the clear, but that does not matter. Raiding with this team was top tier. To Qubick, Peach, Luke, Zlade, Miniteg, Palio, and Phoenix, thank you for making Day One so special.

The raid itself was fantastic. The aesthetics, encounters, contest mode, and the bosses were perfect. The final boss entrance and his arena were truly something special. As we said during and after the raid, he felt like a Dark Souls boss. After doing this raid on normal mode, and getting to t-bag the final boss, the raid is a lot easier, but day one was the difficulty it needed to be. Some people may complain, but ultimately this is the pinnacle of Destiny PvE, so it needs to be difficult. Day One Vow of the Disciple is a day I will not forget for quite some time.