Echo of Oryx

"Of Oryx, that admirable monarch, I have only a little to say. Why? Because He is all in the action, fellow traveler, His philosophy is all on display. He has twinned himself so closely to the power He admires. He has become many-placed, many-formed, sending out emissaries of himself to ask after the truth. [...] The echoes of Oryx go forth to ask a question: are you the truth? And that means — well. You see, I’m sure."

- Toland, the Shattered

An Echo of Oryx is a shadowy projection of Oryx, the Taken King created by the power of the Darkness. Using an Echo allows Oryx to enact his will remotely from the confines of his Dreadnaught; Oryx can summon and command Taken troops via the Echo and wield some of his other powers. Once the Echo is vanquished, however, Oryx's power in an area fades and any Taken he summoned are recalled. The Echo is encountered multiple times in the main story; to liberate Earth, Venus and Mars from the Taken Blights, the player must defeat the Echo on each world. A more powerful variant of the Echo of Oryx known as the Shade of Oryx is encountered in the King's Fall Raid.

Gameplay
The Echo of Oryx is encountered many times throughout The Taken King storyline. He is first encountered in the story mission Cayde's Stash. He attacks by firing Darkness Blasts and will summon waves of Taken as well as teleport to evade danger.

He is seen in the mission Enemy of my Enemy, where he has all of the aforementioned abilities in the first encounter, but he has one extra mechanic: the Echo will drain a Guardian's Super using the "Grasp of the King" debuff. If he is not interrupted, then the Guardian will be killed outright with an ability called "King's Decree". This also applies to the encounter in Entropy's Pinnacle.

In the mission Kings of Decay, the Echo will not attempt to drain a Guardian's Super, but instead, when he teleports away to summon Taken, he will make a blight bomb appear above a Guardian's head. The bomb creates a circle of fire on the ground; get out of the way or you will die.

The encounter in Tenebrous Tunnels is very brief, as the Echo will teleport away from the Guardian while summoning Taken, although he will occasionally retaliate with Darkness Blasts.

However, the Echo is at his most dangerous in the mission Fear's Embrace. Not only will he have all of his previously aforementioned abilities, but will also summon Taken Blights for area denial, prime the Cabal flame jets to fire, and release poison gas from the vents. This makes for a hectic battle.

The final encounter with the Echo is in King's Fall during the Oryx fight, but the Echo will instead be called the "Shade of Oryx". He will be armed with a Cleaver and his fight will be very reminiscent of the final phase with Oryx in the mission Regicide. He will constantly charge in to try and slash a Guardian in half. His attacks are also timed very carefully and unpredictably, making this encounter very difficult. When the Shade is defeated, Guardians will be teleported back out of the Darkness Dimension that Oryx banished them to; this fight may happen multiple times.

List of appearances

 * Destiny
 * The Taken King