Destiny 2: Crown of Sorrow Raid Guide | How To Beat Every Encounter

The Season of Opulence has arrived in Destiny 2, and that includes another new extremely challenging raid for Annual Pass owners. The ‘Crown of Sorrow‘ raid sends Guardians deep into the Leviathan lair of Emperor Callus, where you’ll explore a massive section that’s been taken over by the Hive. You’ll have to unlock a whole lot of Exotics and grind those Power Levels, because this is the hardest raid yet.

The ‘Crown of Sorrow’ raid is all about a single mechanic — the Witch’s Blessing. Both a blessing and a curse, this buff allows certain players on your team to shoot invincible enemies in the raid, but it also sticks them with a ticking time bomb. If you don’t swap the buff with another player to reset the timer, you’ll be dead meat. And that’s just one of the many complicated, puzzling mechanics.

To help you complete the raid, we’ve got all the steps you need to know to beat each encounter. There are four primary encounters, but the real challenge is waiting at the end. All props go to Youtuber KackisHD for sharing many of the details concerning this raid, and being the first console players to complete the raid start-to-finish.

Destiny 2: Crown of Sorrow Raid Guide | Table of Contents

Encounter #1: Menagerie Depths – Dispel The Hive Ward
Encounter #2: Kingdom of Sorrow – Parkour Puzzle
Encounter #3: Kingdom of Sorrow – Gahlran’s Deception
Encounter #4: Gahlran, The Sorrow Bearer [Final Boss]

Encounter #1: Menagerie Depths – Dispel The Hive Ward

GOAL: Survive for a certain amount of time.

Send three fire-team members to gain the ‘Witch’s Blessing‘ buff in the glowing circle, near the starting point in the first encounter area. Due to the nature of this encounter, it helps to pair players off into groups of two — one player with buffs, one without.

Witch’s Blessing Buff Effect: This timed buff allows you to shoot certain enemies — some are vulnerable, others glow white and are invincible. Depending on whether you have this buff active or not, you’ll be able to damage certain enemies during this encounter.

The goal of this encounter is to split your team so one group is always re-charging the limited-time buff — this buff is required to defeat invincible enemies in the area like the Knights. Defeat enemies until crystals spawn.

How To Destroy The 3 Crystals: Crystals will spawn in three locations in the arena — left, right, and center. Destroy them by shooting the crystals with a buffed player and a non-buffed player AT THE SAME TIME. If you don’t destroy them quickly, you’ll get a team wipe.

At this point, you’re probably running low on the timed ‘Witch’s Curse’ buff. To refill it, follow this step.

How To Refill Your ‘Witch’s Blessing’ Buff: To recharge, find the purple orb surrounded in glowing energy in the middle of the arena. Enter the glowing circle and shoot the orb all at the same time. Make sure everyone is inside the circle, and players with / without the buff shoot it at the same time.

This will cause your buff to recharge — and swap. Players without the buff will gain it, and players with the buff will lose it. Stick with your paired 2-Guardian teams, and you should be fine.

How To Complete The Encounter: Keep killing reinforcements, destroy the crystals, and shoot the purple orb to swap the buff. After an amount of time has passed, the encounter will be complete. You just need to survive to win.