King's Fall

King's Fall is the raid of The Taken King expansion. It was unlocked on September 18, 2015, three days after the expansion's release. King's Fall will take players into the furthest depths of the Dreadnaught and serve as the conclusion to the Taken War storyline.

Unique among raids, King's Fall in Destiny 1 features not only a normal and Heroic mode, but also challenge modes like those in the Prison of Elders.

Note that if one wants to obtain the drops needed to obtain Touch of Malice in Destiny 1, they should have the quest The Old Hunger active before starting the raid.

King's Fall was reintroduced as a reprised raid in Destiny 2's Season of Plunder, on August 26th 2022.

Unique enemies

 * Adept (Major Acolyte)
 * Light-Eater Ogre (Ultra Ogre)
 * Vessel of Oryx (Major Knight)
 * Light-Eater Knight (Knight)
 * Shade of Oryx (Echo of Oryx variant)

Bosses

 * Warpriest
 * Golgoroth
 * Ir Anûk, Deathsinger
 * Ir Halak, Deathsinger
 * Oryx, the Taken King

Hall of Souls
This step is easily completed with a full fireteam of six.


 * 1) Separate the team into three groups of two.
 * 2) Two people pick up the two Relics (which appear as Tomb Husks) and wait as the rest of the fireteam destroys the center gate. Take out all enemies and locate the statue with another Relic. Both people must interact to slam their Relics into the statue at roughly the same time. Too much time between deposits will cause the previous statue to fall silent.
 * 3) This is where the three groups of two split comes in handy. Two people go left, two people go right and two people stay and take out all enemies in the center. As you travel either left or right you will encounter a Relic. For both sides one person must be a gunner and the other one a Relic holder. The gunner's duty is to guide the Relic holder back to the statues, distracting enemies and destroying shield gates on the way.
 * 4) After both relic holders locate the statue and activate the second Relics more Relics will appear, this time further away than last time. The whole team must repeat Step 3 until both Relics are placed into all six statues, thus being six rounds.
 * 5) After the team successfully activates all statues, a portal will open in the Court of Oryx and enemies will spawn. Kill them all and proceed into the gate. Once past, a chest containing mostly moldering shards will appear (varies between different Raids). The chest cannot be opened until the whole fireteam has passed through the portal.
 * 6) You will now leave Hall of Souls and enter the next location, The Crux.

Destiny 2: This section of the raid is largely the same. The only changes are that the walls blocking progression for carriers must be shot in the Taken Blight in the center to break them, and that the chest through the portal will contain gear (either a Scout Rifle or a Class Item). Beneath the Court of Oryx portal, three symbols can be found, which correspond to specific ones that can be shot throughout the raid to spawn a guaranteed Deepsight King's Fall raid weapon once Oryx has been defeated.

The Crux and Portico
For this part of the Raid, everyone is on their own. You must jump from swinging platforms to the other without falling; if you are a Warlock or a Titan, you can jump to each platform when it is all the way done swinging; for Hunters to do this, they require Bones of Eao and their double jump modifier set to Higher Jump. Once everyone is across, you reach the Portico.

This is a part where you will have to jump to ships in a particular order or else you have to start this over. Once you are past the first part, you come across a singular ship and two plates, one person must stand on each plate and at least one person must be on the ship to get through the door that disappears when the two plates are being stood upon.

While the two plates are being stood on there will be access to a secret chest, while riding the ship to get to the other side, when you are about to get past the shield wall, jump off to your left hand hand side and you will land on a spike-like platform, once you are here walk up the small walkway against the wall to the door above, watch out for little spikes that will make you fall. If two guardians are standing on the plates then the door will open, and you may get the secret chest.

Destiny 2: No changes to this section. Proceed as above.

Basilica
After leaving the Portico, you will enter a room with several Acolytes and Adept Acolytes. Assign roles to your team if you have not already. When everyone is ready, have the two in the middle kill the Acolytes and Adepts, while two on the left and right pick up the brands—Brand of the Weaving and Brand of the Unweaving respectively.

The people who were not dealing with Acolytes and Adepts must get on their respective Annihilator Totems. Once every Acolyte and Adept is dead in the middle, have the two central Guardians go to left or right, one to each. The players with the Brands will get a buff called Deathsinger's Power x10 after 30 seconds, and the Brand will pass to a random player within it's safety bubble. If nobody is within to accept the Brand, it will pass to nobody and respawn at its initial location after a short time, likely killing anyone under the Totem and eventually causing a wipe.

Deathsinger's Power must be taken to the middle plate where they will slowly drain, illuminating glyphs on the main door. It is imperative that all stacks of Deathsinger's Power be deposited before returning to your side, as a player cannot accept the Brand while holding any stacks of Deathsinger's Power. This process repeats itself (except the initial Acolyte and Adept part) ten times on each side until the Warpriest deems you worthy.

Destiny 2: There are some changes to this fight.

You will need to split up into two teams of three again, per side. Picking up the Brand of Unweaving and the Brand of Weaving must still occur, but the transfer of this buff is different.

Now, to transfer the Brand from the player holding it, a player must pick up a Brand Claimer buff, spawned by defeating a Hive Wizard and then a Taken Knight, on the balconies to the sides of the doorway to the Warpriest. Once picked up, they will have a 30 second timer to return to the person holding a Brand to be able to interact with them to "claim" it, and take it upon themselves. The person holding the Brand will die if their timer for holding it runs out, losing all stacks of Deathsinger's Power, so you need to transfer it before it expires.

While under the influence of a Brand, any enemy killed will provide stacks of Deathsinger's Power. Minors provide 1, Majors provide 2. Depositing Deathsinger's Power works the same way, on the central plate in front of the door. Be aware that you can't pick up Brand Claimer if you have any stacks of Deathsinger's Power, so make sure to get rid of them all before you try to do so. You'll be told "Brand Denied" if you hold any Deathsinger's Power when trying to pick up Brand Claimer.

In essence, the trio of players assigned onto a side should be rotating between standing under the totem and killing to gain power, killing the Hive Wizard and Taken Knight so they can get Brand Claimer to relieve the person who is currently with Brand, and returning to deposit Deathsinger's Power in the center.

An Unstoppable Ogre will periodically spawn from the pool in front of the power deposit plate, so make sure you have Unstoppable weapons/season mods equipped to handle these.

Another tip for the person currently Branded is that if their timer is running low, they can get off the plate beneath the Annihilator Totem and run towards the person with Brand Claimer. You have more than enough time before the forced wipe occurs for the person who has Brand Claimer to take the Brand and make it back to the plate to pacify the Totem.

Warpriest
The Warpriest will not spawn until you step on all three plates at the same time. Use this as an opportunity to decide who goes on which plate (right, middle, and left). After everyone goes to their assigned plate, have one person step on each plate, and then the Warpriest will spawn. He is initially immune to all attacks and thus will start firing at all Guardians in sight with his Boomer in an attempt to suppress them. Don't be flattered. As the adds spawn, clear them out. When you hear a Knight yell (which is when all the Adepts are dead), a Hallowed melee Knight will spawn for each plate. Kill them fast. Once all three are dead, the Glyph sequence starts. Have one person call out the sequence. (Most often, the first sequence is either left, middle, right; or left, right, middle.) If you take too long to start the Glyph sequence or you fail it too many times, the Warpriest will summon a Wormstone Idol to reject the Initiate, therefore wiping the team. But if pulled off correctly, the person who stepped on the last plate will get the "Brand of The Initiate." This brand is the only way to inflict damage on the Warpriest; when their timer is at three seconds (stacks for 5 times), kill an add or the one with the brand will die, while the remaining five unload all their weapons' fire on the Warpriest. If the one holding the Brand dies, then the brand will be transferred to someone else. It is recommended that in order to start the damage phase, there should be a Nightstalker to tether the Warpriest so that the team will have an easier time firing at the Warpriest. This is a fight where Black Spindle would come in real handy.

After the last brand expires, all players must hide behind one of three Monolith because the Warpriest will call upon his Oculus, an Oversoul similar to Crota's Oversoul. If you do not stand behind a Monolith, you will die to Searing Torrent from the Oculus. In Hard Mode, the Warpriest will draw power from a Monolith and will gain a Taken ability based on the Monolith (left is Axion Dart, middle is Hobgoblin retaliation swarm, and right is Darkness Blast). This repeats until the Warpriest is dead, just with different Sequences. After two Pillars (or half the fight) have been destroyed, Taken start spawning along with Knights with yellow health bars spawning right on the plates.

After four shooting rounds have passed and you have not yet killed the Warpriest, your whole fireteam will die due to there being no Monoliths to hide behind from the Searing Torrent, which kills everyone. After Enraging, Searing Torrent's effect of killing you is persistent even after the Oculus goes away.

Destiny 2: The cadence of this fight has changed, with a Hard Mode feature rolled into the regular fight (the Warpriest has the power to use all 3 Taken abilities throughout the fight, not needing to obtain them after each damage phase ends).

To begin with, assign your teams per plate, two to each. Three people should take it upon themselves to be people who will always stand on the plates for the glyph reading sequence, which leaves three players left to pick up the other role of the fight, which is Brand Claimer. Two players will need to take this role, as extension of the Brand timer is no longer a feature through simply killing an enemy. Instead, you will need to kill a Taken Knight during the damage phase to get a Brand Claimer buff to drop. Once picked up, the person holding it can interact with the Branded person to claim their Brand, thus extending the fight timer. This can be done twice before the Warpriest summons their Oculus, of which you still need to hide from.

Glyph reading is also committed differently. Instead of having a player stand somewhere with the backs of all three of the monoliths visible to tell which is which, this time it is the plate standees who do this job. Once you defeat the three Knights, a message will appear stating the glyph reading sequence has begun. The person who has middle plate duty should stand on theirs and check the left and right monolith for a glowing white back, visible from their position. If they can see this, then it will be the job of that side to stand on their plate when they need to. If there is no glowing white back on either, it will be the middle plate first. Once identification has been completed, middle will step off their plate until the Hive symbology on it disappears. Then, whoever is first will step on their plate and look for the same white glow on the other monoliths and call that out. That side will then get on their plate, and whoever is left out of the trio of plate steppers will need to get on their plate. This will then provide the Brand of the Initiate to the last plate stepper. Be aware that if a monolith has been destroyed in a previous glyph reading sequence, the white glow indicator is replaced with a pillar of flame indicator instead.

This Brand of the Initiate comes with a large glowing red aura, and anyone inside can damage the Warpriest. Players ought to gather up to begin damaging the Warpriest, and the two players assigned as Claimers before will need to decide who will claim first. They should seek out the first Taken Knight spawn (either up on the balcony on left, in middle between the right and middle monolith, or up on the right side platform), kill it and pick up the Brand Claimer buff from it, and return to the group. The Branded player should count down from 10 when their buff reaches this, so the Claimer can take it just as the timer runs out, so as to maximise the time available to deal damage. Failure to claim the Brand will cause the Branded player to die and the Warpriest to immediately summon the Oculus in an attempt to kill any players not hiding. If you successfully claim the Brand twice, the person holding it last won't die when it expires, but the Warpriest will move on to summoning the Oculus to wipe out. Choose a monolith to hide behind as a team, survive, and move on to repeat the same steps to enter the next damage phase.

As the Warpriest is prone to running around on his balcony during the entire fight, damage opportunities may be lost if trying to use a plate as a gathering spot for committing damage. Instead, it is recommended to use the space between the right and middle monoliths as a place to plant Wells and do damage, as you will be able to comfortably view the Warpriest no matter what side of the balcony he runs to. It also provides close access to both the right and middle monoliths for hiding from the Oculus. The only problem is accessing the left monolith, which players must climb to. If this is your last monolith, it is advisable to end your damage phase early to provide enough time to reach it to avoid a wipe.

Another tip is to utilize Aeon exotic armor to spawn Special and Heavy ammo via finishers performed on the Elite and Major Knights, Wizards and Taken Minotaurs that will spawn throughout the fight. The Warpriest is bulky and as they like to attack you during your own attempts to damage him, shots may be missed via flinching, and ammunition may run low or dry.

Golgoroth's Cellar
After defeating The Warpriest you will go through the portal and end up in Golgoroth's Cellar and will have to traverse a maze to get to the boss. Once your fireteam reaches the exit a door will open and you will be able to fight Golgoroth. Start the fight by shooting the orb hanging from the ceiling and Golgoroth will spawn with lots of Thrall, Cursed Thrall, Acolytes and Adept Acolytes.

After killing all the enemies, except Golgoroth, have one player shoot Golgoroth in the back while the rest shoot one of the orbs hanging from the ceiling and when you stand in it, you will get a massive damage buff against Golgoroth by entering the Pool of Reclaimed Light, and you will do the most damage by shooting him in the chest. To do that, have the player who has captured his Gaze stand behind the players on the upper platform shooting the projectiles Golgoroth is firing at you. When the Gaze timer reaches zero, that player must tell their fireteam to get out before Golgoroth wipes them.

Repeat the process until Golgoroth dies and you will receive your loot. when you're ready, proceed into the cave behind the Tablet of Ruin (Soulsiphon Plinth) into the Transept. If a player dies it will charge the Tablet of Ruin and if all six players die, or Golgoroth Enrages, the Tablet will complete and it is a wipe because you will be Drained of Light by the Soulsiphon Plinth.

Destiny 2: This fight once again features some small changes, but is overall the same.

This time, there is a pattern to the orbs that spawn pools. Only one will appear at a time, with the next one appearing shortly after the destruction of one. The pattern of spawning is left, right, left, right, left, right, moving towards the Tablet of Ruin.

Once all enemies spawning from the back and sides of the room have been eliminated, capture Golgoroth's gaze by damaging their back enough while positioned appropriately to reveal the soft innards of their stomach to your fireteam. While Golgoroth's gaze is being captured, the fireteam should be shooting down the first Pool of Reclaimed Light orb from the ceiling. They take a lot of damage before they fall, so everyone in the damage team should be helping out. Timing both the gaze capture and the dropping of the pool is advisable, to maximise your time to hurt Golgoroth.

Once the timer on the gaze gets low, another gaze-holder should be standing diagonally opposite the gaze holder, ready to pop the back and obtain the gaze. They should then run to position themselves behind the current Pool of Reclaimed Light, so the fireteam can shoot the stomach of Golgoroth. The previous gaze holder can now move into position so they can view the back of Golgoroth, ready to take the gaze when the current holder gets low on time.

Repeat movement between shooting down the pools, gaze swapping and generally doing damage until you exhaust all 6 available orbs, at which time Golgoroth will grow tired and the fight will repeat the first section of killing everything that spawns. If you lose the gaze, any of the orbs left unused on the ceiling will add one glyph to the Tablet of Ruin. Filling up all 6 will cause a wipe. Fireteam deaths no longer contribute to runes filling up, but dying is inadvisable anyway.

Another mechanic to watch out for is Unstable Light. A person standing in the Pool of Reclaimed Light will randomly obtain the Unstable Light debuff. Once this timer expires, they will explode, harming anything nearby in a severe fashion. Instead of blowing up your fireteam in the Pool, run towards Golgoroth as the timer runs out, and detonate near them. This will deal a huge amount of damage to the boss, more than making up for the lost damage of people swapping the gaze.

Transept
Upon entering the Transept area of the King's Fall raid you will encounter a jumping puzzle, the party must watch out for large pillars that come out of the wall that try and push the guardian off the edge. They must jump from platform to platform avoiding the large pillars that come out of the wall. At the end of these are three plates that activate invisible platforms. These three plates must be stood on at the same time to make the invisible platforms permanent. Also, there is a secret Exotic Chest located near the top of the area. If you turn right and jump onto a platform on the side of a large pillar and continue to jump upwards you will eventually find a large doorway, similar to the ones that lead to the chests in Hull Breach and then you jump into the doorway and you make a loop around and you find the exotic chest. When you are about to make the last jump to the final platform watch out for the pillar in between you and the final platform because it only activates when you get close to it. Then if your entire fireteam is on the final platform the door leading to the Threshold will open. However, when you are on the invisible platforms leading to the Exotic chest, you can skip the golden platforms. If you are a Warlock or Titan, you'll need a Sword, but if you are a Hunter, you need the Bones of Eao and any super with the Triple Jump perk. In order to pull this skip off, you have to sprint to the end of the platforms opposite to the Exotic chest, and then jump. For Warlocks and Titans, they can do the Glide Sword glitch (the sword glitch is where you use your jump ability to the highest it can get you, then alternate between using the RB/R1 attack with the Sword, and using your jump boost. With some luck it should work.). For Hunters, they can just use all of their jump boosts to get over. You must have max agility in order to perform the glitch. Any weapon or armour with the +2 agility perk is also useful.

Threshold
After leaving the Transept, you will encounter a small jumping puzzle. Complete it to advance to the next part, the Daughters' of Oryx fight. One random player will be torn between dimensions. All players except two, who will be helping with the adds, must be on a plate. There is one in each corner of the threshold. They must step on each plate in a counterclockwise order.

When someone steps on a plate, a one minute timer starts. At 0:40 seconds, a Taken Vandal will spawn. The player who was torn must step on a jumping puzzle made by the plates. They then must jump to the sleeping Daughter, who on all odd runs, will be Ir Anûk, and on all even runs will be Ir Halak. Then, for the rest of the timer, all players must damage the Daughter whose brand was stolen. This repeats itself until both daughters are dead. On hard, the timer starts after a blinding white light is gone.

Confronting Oryx
Before spawning Oryx there will be a black orb at the end of the room. Approaching it begins the fight so take this time to talk strategy and gear up accordingly. When you approach the orb, Oryx appears much larger than before. A Relic similar to the daughters' one appears, and the same counter-clockwise pattern of platforms begins. The difference is two people jump on the first platform with the first one touching it becoming torn. Choose the most parkour savvy party member to do the platforming. While you stand on the platforms, Light-Eater Ogres spawn (Light-Eater Knights on hard) in the order of platforms you should stand on. The two people on Add control will need to kill the Ogres. They are problematic, and you need to kill them to spawn orbs of corrupted Light to damage Oryx. (And it's crucial to kill the Light-Eater Knights after dealing with the Orges, because they will steal the orbs that were dropped).

When the person grabs the Relic, they have to steal "The Aura of Immortality" from the Vessel, a special melee Knight wandering the area. After stealing the Aura, kill him. He will eat the orbs, which are crucial for dealing max damage on Oryx. After dealing with him, find Oryx and shoot his chest when it glows white or he will wipe everyone if not enough damage is done. After you stun him, the players that are assigned to their platform need to stand in the aura of the corrupted Light. Pay attention to the Updates in the lower left corner for the "X has detonated a corrupted Light." Get back to the person with Aura of Immortality. This player should not move from rough center during the detonation sequences since the detonation will wipe the area outside of the Aura and stun Oryx. Failure to detonate results in wipe. Unload into Oryx who will fall and reappear at the starting position.

Oryx's Rotation Pattern is:
 * 1) Front Right or Front Left for First Phase
 * 2) Back Left or Back Right for Second Phase
 * 3) Front Left or Front Right for Third Phase
 * 4) Front Left or Front Right again for Fourth Phase
 * 5) Back Left or Back Right for Fifth Phase

If the players do not defeat Oryx within these five phases he will Enrage, causing a wipe.

When he restarts, start running around your platform if you have one, and stay away from your friends since Oryx will start mortaring the area with dark-matter bombs. This cycle repeats until he's at 50% health. The first half of platforms and Ogres are the same, but instead of a mortar, he will summon a massive Blight. One by one, Oryx will suck Guardians into the Blight. Once inside, hammer the Shade of Oryx and be careful: health will not replenish in the Blight. The players still outside should kill the Taken Knights and Thralls that spawn since they will get into the Blight (Thralls) or mortar into the Blight (Knights). Eventually all six players will get sucked in if the Shade is still up. If you don't kill him fast enough, you will wipe. Shouldn't really be a problem at that point overall.

After one more cycle of corrupted Light detonations on his last bit of health, Oryx will appear at the front in a last ditch attempt to kill you. Unload all firepower into his chest. Supers are ineffective against him at all times, except Golden Gun with Celestial Nighthawk. Once he dies and starts floating towards Saturn, congratulate and thank your team and enjoy watching his dead corpse float into the void of space after looting the chest.

Messages

 * A statue hums with dark energy
 * A Relic appears
 * The Portal is open
 * The Annihilator Totems awaken
 * The Warpriest deems you worthy
 * Glyph sequence started
 * The Warpriest calls upon the Oculus
 * The Warpriest draws power from a monolith
 * The Tablet of Ruin is complete
 * Golgoroth focus his rage
 * Golgoroth shifts his Gaze
 * Failed to capture Golgoroth's Gaze
 * The platforms fade from existence
 * Oryx calls upon the Darkness
 * Oryx regains the favor of the Darkness

Rewards

 * Kingsbane - Emblem
 * Kingslayer - Ghost shell
 * Moldering Shards
 * Anguish of Drystan - Auto Rifle
 * Silence of A'arn - Shotgun
 * Doom of Chelchis - Scout Rifle
 * The Ascendant - Emblem (Hard Mode Exclusive)
 * Smite of Merain - Pulse Rifle
 * Zaouli's Bane - Hand Cannon
 * Midha's Reckoning - Fusion Rifle
 * Defiance of Yasmin - Sniper Rifle
 * Qullim's Terminus - Machine Gun
 * Elulim's Frenzy - Rocket Launcher
 * Touch of Malice - Exotic Scout Rifle
 * Bond of the Wormlore - Warlock Bond
 * Worm Gods' Boon - Warlock Bond (Hard Mode Exclusive)
 * Cloak of Seven Bones - Hunter Cloak (Hard Mode Exclusive)
 * Mark of the Old Challenge - Titan Mark (Hard Mode Exclusive)
 * Agonarch Karve - Jumpship (Hard Mode Oryx challenge exclusive)
 * Harrowed Set (Hard Mode exclusive)

Trivia

 * There is a basketball court located in the Transept that became the center of fan speculation that it would unlock a secret. However Luke Smith quickly clarified there are no rewards associated with it and it was just added for fun.
 * The Oryx encounter was the first Raid encounter to have a Last Stand ability.
 * Oryx is the first raid boss in the Destiny franchise that cannot be killed in one phase and/or a couple of seconds, as the encounter requires at least four phases to complete.
 * King's Fall is the longest raid in the Destiny franchise; with eight total encounters and five bosses.
 * King’s Fall is the second raid to be reprised and revamped for the sequel, Destiny 2, during the events of Season 18.

List of appearances

 * Destiny
 * The Taken King
 * Destiny 2
 * Season of Plunder