Destiny: Rise of Iron - Wrath of the Machine Raid Heroic Difficulty Guide

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Wrath of the Machine has received the Heroic difficulty treatment, and now you can push your Guardian’s light level to 400 thanks to the October 18th patch to Destiny: Rise of Iron. Heroic isn’t just a difficulty increase — it also alters the mechanics of certain sequences. Here, we’re going to reveal what’s been changed from the vanilla version of Wrath of the Machine, and give you a quick primer on the new features.

Before continuing, you should have a pretty good grasp of the basic version of Wrath of the Machine. We won’t explain how to complete every individual section or boss here — this is all about the changes, and how to conquer those changes. If you need help with any unaltered part of the raid, check out the Complete Wrath of the Machine Raid Guide here.

Find even more Destiny: Rise of Iron articles on Gameranx:

Wrath of the Machine Raid Heroic Difficulty Guide

Check out each step of the raid below to see what’s changed, what hasn’t, and how to handle the altered mechanics.

Before starting the Heroic raid, here’s one important note about chests. The RED CHESTS are the special Heroic chests — if you’re running low on keys, only open the red chests after each boss encounter.

Part #1: Foundry 113 – Vosik Encounter #1

The battle against Vosik hasn’t changed at all. The minions are tougher due to the raid’s higher light level requirements, but the mechanics haven’t been altered at all. Follow the same steps to charge the generators and knock out Vosik’s shields as the normal version of the raid.

Basic Encounter Mechanics:
1. Collect four pillars of light (before the timer runs out) and slam a generator to charge it slightly. Continue to do this until a generator is fully charged.
2. Pick up the SIVA bombs and throw them at Vosik to drop his shields.
3. DPS until his shields recharge, and rinse / repeat.

Vosik’s health bar is longer, so it might require another round of generator charging and SIVA bomb chucking to take him out — thankfully, the generator charge timer isn’t any shorter.

Part #2: Vosik’s Lair – Vosik, the Archpriest Boss

Once you reach Vosik’s Lair, you’ll complete the battle against Vosik and bring him down for good. The basic mechanics of this battle haven’t really changed. Just follow the same cycle as before;

Basic Encounter Mechanics:
1. Throw multiple SIVA Bombs at Vosik to remove his barrier+shield.
2. Shoot the monitors to stop the SIVA Density attack.
3. DPS once his shields are completely down.
4. Hide in the safe rooms when his shields recharge + SIVA Density attack.
5. Repeat until dead.

The major difference is this; everyone will need to throw SIVA bombs. Six SIVA bombs spawn into the area instead of three — all six Guardians will need to throw bombs all at once to put a dent in Vosik’s shields.

NOTE: On Heroic, 6 SIVA Bombs spawn instead of 3. You’ll need to throw ALL 6 at once to damage Vosik’s shields. 2 bombs spawn on the left, 2 in the center, and 2 on the right.

Another major difference are the SIVA Density monitors. In Heroic, only the large monitors will be highlighted — the larger monitors can’t be destroyed solo, you’ll need 2-3 Guardians to shoot at these to bring them down. It only takes a few seconds, but you risk a team wipe if they aren’t interrupted fast.

During the SIVA Cluster attack where you have to hide in the safe rooms — on Heroic, the doors are lowered, so you have to slide / crouch to enter the safe rooms.

Otherwise, everything is the same. Here’s a quick overview of everything new in this phase:

Heroic Mode: Changes Overview – Vosik Boss
- 6 SIVA Charges drop instead of 3 — you’ll have to throw them in sync to damage his shields.
- The SIVA Density attack monitors have more health.
- The safe room doors are lowered.

Moving on, we’re going up against the Siege Engine.

Part #3: Cosmodrome Wall – Siege Engine Boss

This encounter is mostly identical to the normal version… until the end. The tougher minions aren’t the only problem, the Siege Engine (in general) moves faster, giving you less time to complete every part of this battle.

Basic Encounter Mechanics (Phase 1):
1. Shoot the two turrets on the “head”.
2. DPS the exposed core.
3. Jump onto the Siege Engine when the wall falls off.
4. Ride the engine through the wall.

Just like before, there’s no real trick to this phase of the battle. Things don’t get tricky until the second phase, when the dropship arrives with the Siege Engine parts you’ll need to carry and mount on the Siege Engine itself.

Basic Encounter Mechanics (Phase 2):
1. Kill the minions around the engine parts where the dropship arrives in the second arena.
2. Pick up the dropship parts — they encumber Guardians fast. Drop parts to swap carriers.
3. When the parts are near the Siege Engine, jump onto the main section and shoot the core on the back of the head until a ramp lowers.
  - Kill the Splicer engineer Meksis when he spawns.
4. Insert the three parts into the three slots on the Siege Engine. One is on the right, one is further ahead on the right, and one is at the back-left corner.

There’s one major change to this encounter — a surprise Devil Walker. It spawns when you deliver all three engine parts near the Siege Engine after dropping the ramp. You can either destroy or down the tank (destroy the legs) and run past to deliver the parts.

The engine parts go into the same slots. Once all the parts are mounted, jump off the Siege Engine before it falls off the wall to complete the encounter. Not much changed here, but this is the overview.

Heroic Mode: Changes Overview – Siege Engine Boss
- Siege Engine moves faster.
- Devil Walker spawns in Phase 2, after lowering the ramp.

Moving on to the final arena and the penultimate boss.

Part #4: Perfection Complex – SIVA Source Boss

A noticeable change appears right at the start of the SIVA Source boss — SIVA turrets. These mounted, stationary guns don’t take much to disable, but they can only be disabled. They cannot be destroyed. Three turrets appear — one on the left, one in the center, and one on the right.

Note: “Destroying” a SIVA turret will disable it for about 15-20 seconds. It will revive after the temporary defeat.

SIVA turrets are powerful, so they can’t be ignored. Always destroy turrets before collecting SIVA charges. Otherwise, the battle plays out exactly the same as before.

Basic Encounter Mechanics:
1. Kill the Splicer Captains to collect all three Elemental Cannons.
2. Use Elemental Cannons to destroy matching Elemental Servitors to spawn SIVA charges.
3. Destroy the SIVA Containment Cores with SIVA charges; 2 cores in Round 1, 3 cores in Round 2, and 7 cores in Round 3.

That’s all there is. Here’s the overview.

Heroic Mode: Changes Overview – SIVA Source Boss
- 3 SIVA Turrets spawn on the SIVA platform. Cannot be destroyed, only disabled temporarily.

Nothing gets too difficult for the final battle — there’s only one major change to pay attention to.

Part #5: Aksis, Archon Prime Final Boss

So, what’s changed here? Not that much — you’ll only have to deal with more Servitors.

Note: More servitors spawn into the arena instantly after downing others — you’ll always have an influx of three Servitors exiting through the three doors.

If you’re tough enough to deal with Servitors, this actually makes the fight easier. The more Servitors you defeat, the more SIVA charges will drop, the faster you can bring down Aksis’ shields.

Basic Encounter Mechanics:
1. Kill the Splicer Captains to collect all three Elemental Cannons.
2. Kill the Elemental Servitors that spawn — they drop SIVA charges.
3. Use SIVA charges to bring down Aksis’ shields.
4. Send Empowered Guardians to slam Aksis when he teleports.
5. DPS after each slam — Aksis will teleport three times.
6. Aksis will recharge shields and launch a SIVA Density attack. Stand on one of the pillars behind the arena to avoid it.

And that’s it. When Aksis’ health is very low, it will do a last-ditch SIVA Density attack — just keep shooting him. There are some other strange quirks of the battle that don’t seem to mean anything at this point; Aksis glows red, and Aksis will phase in-and-out sometimes after teleporting. These changes don’t seem to alter the actual battle much.

Heroic Mode: Changes Overview – Aksis Boss
- Elemental Servitors spawn much faster than before.
- Aksis glows red (???)
- Aksis will phase in-and-out after teleporting in the final sequence.

That’s everything new in the Heroic ‘Wrath of the Machine’ raid. Nothing too mind-blowing here, but it does makes your Guardian’s jobs tougher.

Noticed anything else new in the Heroic version of the raid? Got some strategies of your own? Let us know in the comments!