With the dungeon race finally over and Biggz and his team taking the trophy for winning world first, Sundered Doctrine is now available for those who wish to experience the dungeon without the pressures of Contest Mode.
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Destiny 2's new dungeon in Episode Heresy takes us back to Rhulk's Sunken Pyramid featured in the Vow of the Disciple raid in the Witch Queen expansion.
Related
Destiny 2: Every Dungeon, Ranked
Dungeons are a key part of Destiny 2's endgame activities. Offering unique challenges for your fire team, the best ones really put you to the test.
Much like Vesper's Host, Sundered Doctrine further expands on the raid it's derived from, giving a fresh spin on what we've experienced.
Sundered Doctrine features three loot encounters, with two boss fights among them, each bookended with the pyramid's labyrinthine rooms and puzzles that challenge your understanding of the dungeon's mechanics.
Quick Links
How To Access Sundered Doctrine
Preparation - Suggested Loadouts
- Encounter 1: Riddle
- Encounter 2: Zoetic Lockset
- Encounter 3: Kerrev, The Erased
Core Mechanics
Opening Section
First Encounter: Riddle
Navigate The Labyrinth
Pre-Second Encounter Mechanics
Second Encounter: Zoetic Lockset
Traversal And Light Puzzle
Third Encounter: Kerrev, The Erased
How To Access Sundered Doctrine
To access the dungeon, you must first go to the Tower and speak to Ikora. She will give you the quest to access Sundered Doctrine.
Once you have the quest, you'll be able to select the dungeon node in the Savathun's Throne World destination.
Preparation: Suggested Loadouts
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We'll be taking a slightly different approach from my previous guide on Vesper's Host. Instead of one clunky table detailing every weapon and ability, I'll be listing loadouts that I've used for each encounter.
You don't have to stick to these loadouts-- you can make alterations that may better suit your playstyle. If nothing else, prioritize survivability.
Encounter 1: Riddle
This is add-clear heavy sprinkled with some miniboss Subjugators. Prioritize weapons and abilities that maximize killing multiple enemies at once.
Rapid-fire weapons that deal precision damage (auto rifles, machine guns, SMGs) can help you easily shred the weak spots of Husks to prevent their worm-like Geists from attacking you.
Titan | Warlock | Hunter | |
|---|---|---|---|
Subclass | Prismatic (Berserker) | Prismatic (Song of Flame) | Prismatic (Silence and Squall) |
Aspects | Knockout Consecration | Feed the Void Bleakwatcher | Stylish Executioner Winter's Shroud |
Abilities | Grenade: Shackle Melee: Frenzied Blade | Grenade: Storm Melee: Arcane Needle | Grenade: Grapple Melee: Combination Blow |
Exotic Armor | Stoicism (Class Item)
| Escape Artist (Arms) | Relativism (Class Item)
|
Encounter 2: Zoetic Lockset
This encounter has long, sustained DPS phases, which means you'll need precision weapons with excellent ammo economy, i.e. snipers and linear fusions.
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Because the precision hitbox is hard to miss, you should be able to hunker down and comfortably deal damage.
If you want to optimize your damage output, make sure to put the necessary ammo and damage mods on your armor!
Titan | Warlock | Hunter | |
|---|---|---|---|
Subclass | Arc (Thundercrash) | Solar (Well of Radiance) | Prismatic (Golden Gun) |
Aspects | Knockout Storm's Keep | Hellion Touch of Flame | Stylish Executioner Winter's Shroud |
Abilities | Grenade: Pulse Melee: Thunderclap | Grenade: Healing Melee: Incinerator Snap | Grenade: Grapple Melee: Combination Blow |
Exotic Armor | Hazardous Propulsion (Chest) | Speaker's Sight (Helmet) | Celestial Nighthawk (Helmet) |
Notable Exotic Weapons |
| ||
Encounter 3: Kerrev, The Erased
This boss runs around a lot during the damage phase and has a small critical hitbox. To ensure you deal consistent critical damage, I would suggest one person be relegated to Divinity duty while everybody else deals heavy precision damage.
Twilight Arsenal also weakens the target, so you can deal some extra damage that way.
Titan | Warlock | Hunter | |
|---|---|---|---|
Subclass | Prismatic (Twilight Arsenal) | Solar (Well of Radiance) | Prismatic (Golden Gun) |
Aspects | Knockout Consecration | Hellion Touch of Flame | Stylish Executioner Winter's Shroud |
Abilities | Grenade: Shackle Melee: Frenzied Blade | Grenade: Healing Melee: Incinerator Snap | Grenade: Grapple Melee: Combination Blow |
Exotic Armor | Stoicism (Class Item)
| Cenotaph Mask (Helmet) | Celestial Nighthawk (Helmet) |
Notable Exotic Weapons |
| ||
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Core Mechanics
Sundered Doctrine reuses two core mechanics of the Vow of the Disciple raid: knowledge (Heightened, Brimming, and Overflowing) and symbols.
If you've played Vow of the Disciple or the Dual Destiny Exotic Mission, then you already have an innate understanding of this dungeon.
For those who have not played Vow of the Disciple, you'll need to familiarize yourself with all 27 symbols of that raid and their respective callouts (or you can make up your own between you and your friends).
While some symbols may be absent in this dungeon, it might still be useful to know them in case you decide to play Vow of the Disciple or if they appear in the dungeon later.
Opening Section
When you load in, you'll arrive to find a jaw-droppingly stunning view of the interior of Rhulk's pyramid. It appears that Hidden agents have set up camp where you can solve puzzles for the quest. For now, continue down the bridge.
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As you approach a towering wall where the entrance should be, turn left towards the waterfalls. The nook behind the first waterfall is the true entrance to the dungeon.
Make your way through and Dread will spawn, including Grims, Weavers/Attendants, and two yellow bar Subjugators (Stasis and Strand) will spawn. Defeat them and continue down the path.
At the end of the room, you'll see a weird sliding block that you can stand on and lower, opening up a narrow path for you to traverse. Navigate your way through and fall down a tunnel. You'll arrive at another swamp section with more adds and a single stasis Subjugator.
You might get a little lost in this section--don't worry, as the exit is right behind a small waterfall at the right of the end of the room. Once through, you should soon arrive at the first encounter of the dungeon.
You don't have to kill any enemies to proceed (though it might make things easier), as you can simply ignore them and waltz through the maze.
First Encounter: Riddle
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The easiest way to explain how this dungeon works is that you are making the pyramid follow your commands through the use of symbols. In the center of the room, you'll see a wheel with seven slots.
For this encounter, you'll only need three slots for glyphs, which compose a coherent sentence consisting of the order: noun, verb, and noun.
In other words, you're trying to say something through these symbols, and the pyramid will only accept truthful sentences.
Incorrect statements will cause the pyramid to reject it, spawning a boss-type Tormentor to attack you, resetting the symbols and beams.
Your goal is to direct beams of light from the center room into one to three of four other rooms. You may label these rooms however you wish, but it's common practice to label them as the following:
- Bottom Left / L1
- Top Left / L2
- Bottom Right / R1
- Top Right / R2
Before starting the encounter, I suggest familiarizing yourself with the layout of the room. The community has drawn a map of the room along with every possible route to redirect the darkness:
You want good add-clear, along with roaming Supers like Song of Flame and Berserker. The hardest-hitting enemies will be Subjugators, but they can be easily crowd-controlled with Suspend or Blind effects.
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Once you're ready, begin the encounter by rotating the center lens. A darkness node will appear over each starting lens. Shooting a node will activate a beam of darkness to the corresponding lens. Each lens can point in at least two directions.
Once the encounter begins, Husks will periodically spawn around the main center room, serving as occasional nuisances.
Go around the other four rooms (or split off if you're in a team) and search for an orange bar Grim named the Truthspeaker. Killing it will drop a floating symbol that will indicate where you need to direct the beam.
At the same time, each room will contain Dread Psions and "Lens Bearer" Subjugators. Defeating the "Lens Bearer" will drop a lens that you can pick up.
Keep in mind that the three glyphs in the center wheel spell a coherent sentence, so if the left and middle symbols are "Traveler" and "Give," then it's safe to assume that the right symbol should be "Light."
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For example: you've killed the Truthspeaker in L2 and it drops the "Traveler" symbol. You or a teammate will then have to locate a room that has a wheel with the "Traveler" symbol, which turns out to be R2 in this example.
By activating the darkness node and then rotating the lenses, you'll redirect the beam of darkness from the center room to R2's wheel. Doing this correctly will trigger a dialogue prompt that says "The Pyramid accepts a truth."
In Contest mode, there is a time limit. Thankfully, Normal mode does not have a time limit. Be sure to take your time, as messing up will spawn a Tormentor.
Once you've completed the first round, you'll need to do this two more times, each with an increasing number of glyphs you'll need to activate. The second round requires two completed beams, and the third and final round requires three completed beams.
Since only one Truthspeaker spawns at a time, you'll need to complete these beams one by one. Take your time, and study and use the map as a reference should that be necessary.
Once you've completed the third round, all three main lenses will point toward the big wheel in the main room and the encounter will be completed. Collect your loot and proceed deeper into the Pyramid.
Order of operations (Summary):
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- Rotate the center lens to start.
- Go around the find the Truthspeaker Grim in one of four surrounding rooms or figure out the missing symbol from the Riddle.
- Defeat Subjugators and pick up the lens dropped.
- Find the correct plate with the symbol needed and figure out the best path back to the center room.
- Try rotating the lens holders before you place the lens. Rotating the lenses 3 times will break them, forcing you to find a replacement.
- Completing a beam finishes phase 1, resetting the beams and symbols.
- Phase 2 requires 2 separate beams from the starting room to 2 surrounding rooms. Two panels will be missing, so you'll need to find at least one Truthspeaker to figure out the rest.
- Phase 3 requires 3 separate beams from the starting room.
Navigate The Labyrinth
A new path will open under the first encounter chest. As you enter, you'll find yourself in a dark labyrinth. There's no specific path, but there are three darkness cruxes that you can shoot to spawn the first secret chest within the maze.
Leave the labyrinth, and you'll arrive at a spacious cave filled with Grims and Psions, which you can either fight through or ignore. There's a doorway at the end of that cavern, which will lead you to a dark corridor with small side rooms.
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Drop down the hole in the third room to the left and you'll arrive at a crawl space with a deep chasm between two cliffs. Continue down the end of that tunnel, and you'll find a small hidden ledge underneath the left-side cliff.
You'll then be greeted by large spiked balls rolling down a slope, reminiscent of an Indiana Jones trap. On the side of the slope are nooks where you can jump in a zigzag pattern.
Time your jumps correctly so you don't get hit by the balls. There should be a hole in the middle of the slope. Enter it and continue onwards.
There will be more spiked balls rolling down paths, and it's basically be a short game of Frogger. Make your way downwards and mind the large gap.
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Pre-Second Encounter Mechanics
After navigating through spiked balls, you'll arrive at a room with a pair of lenses, wheels, and a locked door with two symbols. This is an introduction to the mechanics of the second encounter.
The activated lenses are pointing toward their respective wheels, which are spinning either clockwise or counter-clockwise. The direction of the spinning can be changed by shooting the darkness node above the wheel.
You'll notice one of the seven glyphs is glowing. Your goal is to match the glowing glyphs with the ones next to the locked door.
To do so, you'll need to kill a Hive Wizard, which will drop a darkness shard, giving you a stack of "Heightened Knowledge" (one stack) "Brimming Knowledge" (two stacks), then "Overflowing Knowledge" (three stacks).
One stack of knowledge will move the glowing glyphs by one in the direction of the spinning wheel. Keep dunking until the glowing glyphs arrive at the desired symbols, which will unlock the door, allowing you to proceed to the second encounter.
Second Encounter: Zoetic Lockset
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Follow the path and reach the rally banner for the next encounter. Whenever you're ready, drop down and you'll face the Zoetic Lockset, four modified Dread Shriekers that have a shared health pool.
You'll notice four wheels like the ones in the previous room. When the Zoetic Lockset looks at the wheel, it reads its glowing glyph and activates one of five effects based on the symbol:
- Hive: Spawns miniboss Ogres on both sides of the room.
- Knowledge: Spawns miniboss Knights and extra Wizards on both sides of the room (r ecommended if you're running low on ammo)
- Commune: Shoots large seeker darkness projectiles (often called "bees") that you can shoot.
- Stop: Stops adds from spawning for a duration.
- Kill: Starts DPS phase.
The DPS phase can last a while, so you'll need to prioritize ammo economy and survivability, as the boss will continuously shoot darkness at you. Well of Radiance, rally barricade, linear fusion rifles, and sniper rifles would be good for this encounter.
You'll notice a "Lockset Progression" bar at the top of your screen, along with four large panels on the far side of the room. The large panels correspond with the wheels from right to left.
As the Lockset Progression bar increases by each quarter, the Zoetic Lockset looks at a wheel, which locks the highlighted symbol onto the panel.
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You'll need to defeat Hive Wizards and collect the darkness that drops, and dunk them into the wheels to highlight the desired symbol.
The Lockset will look and read the wheels from right to left. To have the least amount of enemies, you can configure the glyphs in the following order: Stop, Stop, Stop, Kill. You'll get to the DPS phase with very little hassle that way.
Order of operations (Summary):
- Defeat Hive Wizards that drop Knowledge pickups.
- Input appropriate stacks of Knowledge to the podium in front of the wheels. Starting from the right-most wheel, rotate the glyphs to the Stop symbol.
- Input Knowledge to the second right-most wheel to Stop.
- Input Knowledge to the third right-most wheel to Stop.
- Input Knowledge to the left-most plate to Kill, beginning DPS.
- Deal damage to any of the open Shriekers until the DPS phase ends.
- Rinse and repeat until the boss is dead.
Traversal And Light Puzzle
Once you defeat the Zoetic Lockset, take one of the Shrieker eyes and roll it to the circular slot in the middle of the room, which opens the door for you to proceed.
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Navigate the pyramid. Eventually, you'll arrive at a room with a giant worm god skeleton in the middle and a darkness lens puzzle. You must complete the puzzle to open the door which takes you to the final encounter.
To open the door, you must light up the symbols "Worm" and "Enter." The starting point of "worm" should be on the upper floor, while "enter" is at the bottom of the other side of the room. Shoot the darkness nodes to activate the beam to begin redirecting.
You'll also find a couple of lenses that are stuck in some Hive gunk, which you'll need to shoot to pick up and place in empty lens holders.
Follow the path in the gallery for reference:
Completing the puzzle opens the door for you to proceed. Keep climbing until you reach another side room where you'll fight some Hive and a Subjugator. After you defeat them, there will be a door that you must shoot to keep open.
Third Encounter: Kerrev, The Erased
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You'll arrive at a large room where Kerrev and its goons will be waiting for you. Rally and prepare for a complicated boss fight. Let's get our bearings first.
The boss arena is divided into three rooms: the main room, the left room, and the right room. The main room is where most of the fighting will take place, and the side rooms will be where you'll solve most of the puzzles.
This arena will have set locations for each symbol, which are on wheels that are scattered in different areas.
"Stop" and "Give" are underneath where Kerrev should be, with stairwells that lead downstairs.
The left room is blocked by a door that you must shoot to open, which will slowly close if you don't deal consistent damage to it, which could crush you. Inside, you'll face Husks. Shoot the door to exit.
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The right room is accessed through a sliding block, which closes on your way in. Inside this room, you'll face Hive Acolytes. To exit this room, simply find a small tunnel on the side of the wall.
Both left and right rooms feature a Subjugator miniboss, which you'll need to prioritize defeating before doing anything else.
In all three rooms, you'll also notice Strand threads tangling the lenses and darkness nodes. To free those lenses and nodes, you'll need to destroy the Strand threads with the Unwritten Empowerment buff, which you can get from defeating Unwritten Attendants that spawn all across the arena.
Destroying Strand nodes will spawn hostile Threadlings, which will chase and damage you.
You'll also notice a big wheel behind Kerrev in the main room. Remember that three symbols spell out a complete sentence, and there are two sentences on each side; one tells a lie and the other tells a truth. You'll also notice at least one word of each sentence is highlighted.
In order to bring down Kerrev's shield, you must tell a lie. This means activating the symbols that tell the lie and deactivating the symbols that tell the truth.
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The above image is an example. On the left, you'll see "Witness Drink Light." On the right, you'll see "Guardian Worship Traveler." The right statement is true and "Guardian" is lit up, so you'll need to find Guardian and deactivate it while locating and activating "Drink" and "Witness."
You'll know it's correct when three symbols on one side are lit up while the other three are unlit. Begin the damage phase by activating the pedestal in front of the wheel, which will gradually burn away Kerrev's shield.
The burning will also hurt you. To avoid being burned alive, stand behind any pillar or wall that casts a shadow before the DPS phase begins properly.
Kerrev is an extremely mobile boss, as it will run around the arena while trying to pull and suspend you with Strand attacks. Your best bet is to hunker down in a corner and deal damage with Well of Radiance and Divinity, along with powerful precision weapons.
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Once the DPS phase is over, you'll need to hide one more time while the Obelisk burns. Rinse and repeat until you defeat Kerrev.
Defeating Kerrev will progress your quest (which is unfortunately time-gated) and reward you with exclusive weapons and armor, with a slim chance of earning the new Finality's Augur exotic.
Next
Destiny 2 Is Like The Toxic Ex Who Will Always Overpromise And Underperform
Should I stay or should I go?
Destiny 2
Destiny 2 is a sci-fi epic looter shooter mmo that takes Guardians across the solar system and through alternate dimensions in the pursuit of defeating the enemies of Light.
FPS
Systems
- Top Critic Rating:84/100 Critics Recommend:88%
- Franchise
- Destiny
- Platform(s)
- PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, Xbox One, PC, Stadia
- Released
- August 28, 2017
- Developer(s)
- Bungie
- Publisher(s)
- Bungie
- Multiplayer
- Online Multiplayer, Online Co-Op
- Engine
- Tiger Engine
- ESRB
- T For TEEN for Blood, Language, and Violence
- Expansions
- Destiny 2: Forsaken, Destiny 2: Shadowkeep, Destiny 2: Beyond Light, Destiny 2: The Witch Queen, Destiny 2: Lightfall
- How Long To Beat
- 100+
- X|S Optimized
- YES
- Metascore
- 85
- Platforms That Support Crossplay
- PC, PS4,PS5, Xbox One &Xbox Series X|S
- Number of Players
- 1-6 (Co-Op)
- PS Plus Availability
- Essential, Extra, & Premium (The Witch Queen)
- Steam Deck Compatibility
- no
- OpenCritic Rating
- Mighty
- Cross Save
- yes
- Cross-Platform Play
- PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One & Xbox Series X|S
