Destiny 2 Salvation’s Edge Guide: How to Beat the Witness
The Final Shaper is looking to be D2’s best expansion yet, with its raid directly tied into the main campaign. In Salvation’s Edge, players must climb the spire in the Pale Heart and take the fight to the Witness. This raid is currently the hardest one in the game, with many complex mechanics at play. In this guide, we’ll give a quick rundown of each encounter and its mechanics.
Table of Contents
Encounter 1: Substrate
Part 1: Slaying adds
For this encounter, players should split into 2 teams of 3 players. Start by having someone grab the yellow pyramid energy in the center of the room. Doing so will open two doors and start a timer called “Final Shape Looming.” Both teams must then immediately take a room each and quickly tackle the mechanics before the timer reaches zero, wiping the entire raid out.
What players will see once they enter a room is that they’ll need to quickly take out specific enemies to progress. The first enemy that both teams will face is an orange bar Minotaur, followed by a Hydra. Once both teams have finished their respective enemies, they can advance into a room with an Overlord Champion.
Immediately kill the Overload Champion and head back to the center room where you first started the encounter, as a Tormentor will spawn after both teams have defeated the Overload Champion. Once you’ve taken out the Tormentor, you’ll need to once again head back into the room where you previously encountered the Overlord Champion and take it down again. Just like before, after killing the Overload Champion, head back to the center room to take down the Tormentor once again. Doing this will finally allow players to progress forward.
In case that seems confusing, here’s a quick rundown of what each team should do in this encounter:
- Follow your teammates into a side room.
- Kill every add and Hydras you see.
- Go into the next room that opens up
- Kill the Overload Champion
- Backtrack to the center room and kill the Tormentor
- Go back to the side room and kill another Overload Minotaur
- Go back to the center room and kill another Tormentor
- Return to the side room to get ready for the next mechanics
Part 2: Plates, Conductors and Resonance
Now that your team has killed two Tormentors, the plate in the first Overload Champion room will glow. One player in your team must stand near the glowing plate, and the other must stand ready near the second plate, which is indicated by a black monolith/pillar. The first plate player should run through the plate to send energy to the second plate. The second player must then run through the plate to send it back to the first. (Important: For plate runners, stepping on the plate too early will cause a Subjugator to spawn. Your cue to step on a plate is when the plate has a circle of light that closes in on its center.”
Ping-ponging this energy will cause a yellow triangle energy called Pyramid Resonance to spawn, which is vital to progressing in this encounter. Both plate players should send this energy back and forth until a message in the bottom left corner of the screen says, “All resonance has been pulled forth.” In the meantime, everyone should gather at least 3 Pyramid Resonances that spawn during the plate mechanic.
Once everyone has 2 or 3 Pyramid Resonances, the plate runner nearest to the black monolith must close both plates. To close both plates, one of the plate runners must have at least 2 Pyramid Resonances and shoot the glowing center of the black monolith before stepping on the plate. Once both teams have closed their plates, everyone must run back to the central room and kill the Subjugator that spawns there. Defeating it spawns a box, which everyone with Pyramid Resonance must interact with to deposit said resonance. Each Pyramid Resonance deposited will add extra time to the Final Shape Looming timer.
Repeat part 1 and part 2 until you have done this three more times.
Encounter 2: Herald of Finality
Part 1: Plates and Stolen Favor
Before starting this encounter, it’s recommended that every player use a Sword as their weapon of choice, since it’s the best boss DPS option. Ideally, you want one player wielding the Ergo Sum sword with Wolfpack Rounds and Heartshadow to apply Weaken on the boss.
The raid must split into pairs of three as there are plates in the left, right, and middle of the arena. This encounter shares the same plate mechanics as Encounter 1 but now introduces a second type of Resonance called Spherical Resonance. For this encounter, you must deposit the correct type of Resonance to begin the DPS phase.
To start the encounter, shoot the Taken Blight. This spawns orange bar Knights and yellow bar bosses called Trammels on each side. Kill both the Knight and the Trammel to start the boss mechanic. When all three Knights and Trammels are dead, one random player from each side will get the “Call to Reckoning” buff. Whoever has this buff must go to the square arena where the boss is. Both plate runners and people with Reckoning must destroy all big Blights that appear all around the area to expose the Herald’s weak spot. Players with the buff must destroy the weak spot to gain a new buff called “Stolen Favor.”
Part 2: Reading black monoliths using Stolen Favor
Once all three players have the Stolen Favor buff, they must return to their assigned side of the arena and look at the black monolith. It will either show a Sphere Resonance or a Pyramid Resonance. The player with the buff must grab the OPPOSITE Resonance, while the player assigned to the plate with the monolith must pick up the SAME Resonance. The black monolith can only be shot by the player holding the matching resonance to close the plates, like in Encounter 1.
- For example, if the monolith shows a Sphere, the player with the buff must pick up Pyramid Resonances, and the player without the buff picks up the Sphere Resonances. The Sphere Resonance holder then shoots the monolith.
- If the monolith shows a Pyramid, the player with the buff picks up Sphere Resonances while the player without a buff picks up Pyramid Resonances. The Pyramid Resonance holder then shoots the monolith.
Once all three monoliths from each side are shot with the correct resonance, you’ll know you’ve completed the objective when a message says, “The resonance conductor sparks to life” three times on the bottom left corner of the screen. This starts the boss DPS.
Part 3: DPS phase
Before damaging the boss, everyone must deposit their Resonances on the altar, exactly like in Encounter 1. The more Resonance deposited, the longer the DPS phase will last. Everyone must then use a Sword to damage the boss, as these weapons are the most effective for DPS in this scenario. Once the boss is immune, everyone must go back to their assigned plates and do Part 1 again.
The final stand has no other mechanics, but yellow bar enemies will start spawning in the arena with you. By this point, you need to muster every ounce of healing source and other resources for your DPS.
Encounter 3: Repository
Part 1: Plates, Resonance and Stolen Favor
By this point, you and your team should be familiar with the plate mechanics as this encounter uses the same system. In this encounter, there will be two new Resonance types: Cube Resonance (Square) and Tetrahedron Resonance (Diamond).
Each arena will always have 3 pairs of plates along with three black monoliths. Like Encounter 2, the team must shoot the black monoliths while carrying the matching resonance. Here, random players will be given the Stolen Favor debuff, which again, allows them to read the symbol on the black monolith. The buff holders must coordinate with everyone holding a Resonance by telling them which monolith has what shape.
Part 2: Opening the door to the next arena
Like Encounter 1 and 2, an altar will spawn once all three resonance conductors (black monoliths) are active. Yellow bar Scorpio turrets will spawn in the arena, so destroy those first before heading to the altar. Everyone must deposit all their resonances to spawn an Unstoppable Champion, along with some adds. For the door to open, players must kill every spawn that appears after the deposit.
Once you open the door, you will repeat the same mechanics two more times. Follow parts 1 and 2 again until you complete the encounter.
Encounter 4: Verity
This is one of the most complex encounters for Salvation’s Edge and can be difficult even for the most experienced of players, so we’ll try to explain it as simply as possible.
Note 1: Transmog
Before starting the encounter, it’s recommended that everyone picks a completely unique transmog set, as there will be statues of each player in the team. If players have the same silhouette or the same armor, the encounter will be more difficult. Ideally, pick any armor that stands out, like a helmet with horns or a chest piece with wings, anything to help you distinguish each statue. It is also recommended that everyone picks a unique Ghost shell, as this will also tie into the encounter’s mechanics.
Note 2: Encounter callout legend and chart
Verity requires using the in-game text chat as callouts since it will be easier to solve the mechanics of this encounter. Here is the glossary of terms used specifically for Verity:
- Square = S
- Triangle = T
- Circle = C
The team will also have to combine two 2D shapes to make a 3D shape. This is for reference in case you are responsible for combing 2D shapes.
- Square + Triangle = Prism
- Triangle + Circle = Cone
- Circle + Square = Cylinder
- Square + Square = Cube
- Triangle + Triangle = Pyramid
- Circle + Circle = Sphere
Note 3: “The Witness notices your efforts.”
Once in a while, the Witness will “kill” all the players in the inside realm. Do not panic; this is an intended mechanic and will NOT consume a revive token. The outside team must grab the Ghosts of the “dead” players and place them into specific pedestals near the entrance. These pedestals are arranged from left to right, with #1 being the far left pedestal and #6 as the far right pedestal. The outside team must deposit a player’s Ghost on the statue of that specific player to revive them. However, to the outside team, the pedestals of the “dead” players are empty.
The inside players can see only one statue of their “dead” teammates, so proper communication is required. One outside team member can do the revive mechanic alone so that there is less confusion on which Ghost should go where.
Part 1: Inside players
When the encounter starts, three random players will be teleported into a solo instance of the arena, which we will call the inside. In this room, there will be three statues of the players who were teleported. These three statues in the back display 2D shapes: square, triangle, and circle. One player should type in the chat the order of the 2D shapes shown in the inside realm to let the people outside know. This should be arranged from left to right (i.e, Left statue holds Triangle, middle holds Circle, and right holds Square, type “TCS” or Triangle, Circle, Square)
In the inside realm, Knights will spawn in the arena. Killing these Knights will drop a 2D that becomes a buff when picked up. Your end goal as a solo player in the inside realm is to pick up two shapes that are NOT the shape YOUR statue is holding. If the Knight you kill drops the SAME shape as one your OWN statue is holding, ask your fellow inside members if they need the shape you don’t need and deposit it into the statue of the teammate that needs it. Once you have picked up two shapes that are NOT the ones your statue holds, you can leave the inside and go back outside.
Part 2: Outside players
This process is called “Dissecting.” In order to know what shape you will receive when dissecting a statue, look at the BASE shape of the 3D object shown in the statue. That shape will be the one you receive when you dissect a statue. To make things easier, interact with a 3D object that uses the same shape twice (i.e, Sphere = Circle + Circle, Cube = Square + Square, Pyramid = Triangle + Triangle.) as you will know exactly what shape you will get when dissecting a statue.
If you are on the outside of the arena, your job is to take a shape from one of the three statues and transfer it to another statue. The end goal for your role is to make a 3D shape on each statue that does NOT use the 2D shape as listed by the inside team. So if the order is Square, Circle, and Triangle, the outside team must swap two opposite shapes on each statue to free the inside team.
Once all three statues have 3D objects whose shapes are OPPOSITE of the shapes shown in the inside realm, this will start the next mechanic.
Part 3: Fake “wipe”
Once all three inside players are free, everyone must go towards the entrance of the arena. While doing so, the Witness will “kill” all but one player. The surviving player must then take a Ghost and deposit it on the correct pedestal. Again, the “dead” players must coordinate with the surviving ones to tell them which pedestal they should place each Ghost on. Once the team is all revived, you must do Parts 1 and 2 again. After the team does this cycle three times, the encounter will be complete.
Final Encounter: The Witness
The Witness is the ultimate boss for Salvation’s Edge and can be quite a difficult one at that. In this fight, precision damage weapons are ideal, so linear fusion and sniper rifles are the best possible options. Two people must be assigned as the runners while everyone else does add clear.
Part 1: Destroying The Witness’ arms
In this encounter, you must destroy one of the hands of the Witness that appears all around the arena. The weak spot for each hand is the armband. To destroy one of its arms, you will need the correct Resonance, which will be displayed on the armband after you shoot at it while standing in a marked attack zone.
The armband will display a shape, either Circle, Triangle, or Square, and a color, either Yellow, Red, or Green. To destroy the armband, you must receive two different Resonances based on the shape and color displayed on the armband.
To obtain a Resonance, you need to stand on the marked area where the Witness’s hands will attack for around 2 seconds.
- Hand reaching up from the ground that launches Darkness “bees” = Circle/Spherical and Yellow.
- Hand hanging from above, attacking with triangular ground blasts = Triangle/Pyramidal and Green.
- Hand horizontally lined up that fires lasers = Square/Hexahedron and Red.
Take note that these attacks can deal lethal damage if your Resilience stat is not high enough. Unless you are confident in staying alive after the attack, do not stay in the danger zone for too long.
Once you destroy an arm, you will gain a buff called “Glyphbreaker.” After receiving this buff, go to the center area of Light and shoot any of the glowing buttons on the Witness’ chest. The damage phase will occur once all these buttons have been destroyed.
Part 2: “The Witness tests you…”
When this message appears in the bottom left corner, the player who recently destroyed an arm must go to the center and get ready for this mechanic. The Witness will spawn a grid of Darkness objects right in front of it. To solve this mechanic, you must remember the most recent arm you destroyed. Consult the list in Part 1 as a reference. You must shoot the Darkness objects but do not shoot the objects that would create the shape of the arm you recently destroyed. Essentially, you are “trimming” the Darkness objects that do not create the shape you need to make. Once you create the right shape, you can go back to your business.
Part 3: DPS phase
After destroying all the chest buttons, everyone must go on the center platform and get ready for damage. This does not mean that your team is safe, as the Witness will launch Darkness attacks on your entire team. Make sure that you stay aware of where the Witness will attack you, as those can kill you quickly.
Its most dangerous attack is when its eyes shine for a bit, causing it to reel back both arms to unleash an attack that will hit anything on the ground. To avoid this attack, everyone must jump and stay in the air. Failing to do so will result in death.
When the DPS phase ends, the Witness will slam its hand on the center arena, killing anyone still standing on the platform.
The Witness will enter its final stand on 20% health. Pull out all the stops to finally defeat The Witness and claim your raid rewards.
