Destiny 2 Leviathan raid guide and walkthrough: Checkpoints, shortcuts and every main challenge explained

Our explanation of how to complete the Destiny 2 raid.

Destiny 2’s first raid is possibly the activity players have been looking forward to the most from the sequel.

Destiny Raids is an end-game activity that is restricted in high demands, where a group of players take up puzzles and bosses to earn exclusive items – and the Destiny 2 Leviathan raid is no different.

While they may take half a dozen hours (or more!) To play for the first time, they’re designed to be replayable, and random loot encourages players to revisit them week after week, bringing them closer to the level cap with each session.

Without spoiling the details here, Leviathan plays a bit differently when it comes to checkpoints and exploration, which we’ll be delivering to – along with standard room and boss explanations – in our Destiny 2 Leviathan guide and walkthrough.

Here’s everything you need to know to complete the Destiny 2 raid, including how to defeat the Leviathan raid boss, as well as all the loot rewards you’ll earn for completing the raid and raid lair.

Destiny 2 Leviathan Raid Walkthrough Guide

Earlier, Bungie stated that Guided Games will be available long after the Leviathan raid launches, at some point in 2017. However, since the new Last Wish raid arrived in Destiny 2, Guided Games appear to no longer work in the event of a Leviathan raid.

How to Start the Leviathan Raid in Destiny 2

Now that the raid is officially available, you can fire up the Director (after gathering a fireteam of 6 players) and head to the Nessus orbit area where you are tasked with taking down the Emperor Cabal Calus. The Destiny 2 Leviathan Raid is designed to test every aspect of players’ knowledge of the game, so make sure you have the best gear with you as well as weapons that deal solar, arc, and void damage with you.

After initiating the Destiny 2 Leviathan raid, you’ll find yourself on a long walkway leading to what looks like a huge castle. Ignore all the enemies in the area because while you can fight them, they’re not much more than distractors, and go inside using the path to the right of the giant door.

Leviathan Raid Checkpoint System

The Destiny 2 Leviathan Raid actually has a checkpoint system, although it’s not one that is immediately obvious when you try it for the first time. If your fireteam were to go out into the community center area of, say, the Gardens of Pleasure, they would have to re-enter the opening level of the raid Castellum.

After that, however, they would be sent back to the Pleasure Gardens section, skipping the Royal Pools area, as they had already defeated it in a previous raid attempt. It’s definitely not a system you’re privy to as it feels like you’ll have to overhaul the entire raid when you first return to Leviathan, but it’s definitely a checkpoint system of sorts.

Destiny 2 Leviathan Raid – Castellum Walkthrough

In the first challenging part of Leviathan’s Raid, you’ll find yourself in a large, open area, so go straight ahead and you’ll find yourself in an area with outlines of three banners, all of which must now be harvested. Combine troops are now openly hostile to your fireteam as well.

At this point in the Destiny 2 Leviathan raid, you will have to split into two teams. We recommend that four players on your fireteam stay behind and defend the point with blank banners, while two players come out and find three Standard Bearer enemies, killing them and taking the banners that appear in their wake. Once you get one of these banners, you must take it back to base and place it in the appropriate slot.

As soon as you have your first banner, the Cabal hordes will begin to come in for the four Fireteam players defending the base. If more powerful Cabal troops reach the base, they will steal one of the banners, forcing your team to repeat the whole process. That’s why it’s so important that four players stay behind and defend captured banners, while two players set out to take care of the ensigns and the banners they protect.

Once your fireteam has captured all three banners, the door behind you will open and you’ll be able to claim your first Leviathan Loot Chest as well as proceed to the next area.

Destiny 2 Leviathan Raid – Royal Pools Walkthrough

In the second area of Destiny 2 Leviathan Raid, you’ll find four pressure plates in the four corners of the area, and the fifth is in the center. The center pressure plate provides players with a buff called Psionic Protection that prevents players from taking water damage around the arena for approximately fifty seconds.

To start this challenge you will need four fireteam members to stand on four plates, and this will cause hordes of enemies to start appearing. You’ll want four players to stay on their pressure plates, and two players to run around the arena, helping where needed. A Ceremonial Bather will spawn at each pressure plate and you should focus your fire on eliminating those tough enemies immediately, rather than moving away from the pressure plate if you can help him.

Basically, all four players must stand on their pressure plates until a series of lanterns appear in the arena, which must then be destroyed as quickly as possible to close the King’s Pools area. If you can’t destroy the beacons in one fell swoop, you’ll need to repeat the whole process before giving another shot at them.

Destiny 2 Leviathan Raid – Pleasure Gardens Walkthrough

The third attempt in Destiny 2 Leviathan Raid is much more difficult than the previous two, and you want to find out why. First, kill all the enemies when you get to the Gardens of Pleasure and go to the large statue. Two members of the fireteam should now pick up the orbs there and charge them with light. Once done, a hole will appear near the statue and all other Fireteam players will be able to pick up the pollen inside.

Now you need to go to the flowers, but be careful not to be spotted by any of the royal beasts patrolling the area. So use the two ball-holding players to guide the pollen-holding players towards the flowers, being careful to avoid all the King’s Beasts, and once there, use the ball-holding players to attack the flowers, causing them to power.

Once properly charged, players with pollen should now gather and put themselves into one Royal Beast. However, doing so will start a countdown which will cause your fireteam to die if it reaches zero. Therefore, you must kill the King’s Beast quickly and repeat the process until every King Beast scattered around the area is killed.

During this challenge, it’s important to stay in touch with your fireteam as the key is to go unnoticed on your way to the flowers, otherwise the countdown we mentioned earlier will begin.

Destiny 2 Leviathan Raid – Gauntlet Walkthrough

The fourth installment of the Destiny 2 Leviathan Raid will test your teamwork and collaboration, and you can’t successfully complete this section without talking to your fireteam. Two orbs will spawn at each end of this arena, and two from your fireteam will have to pick them up and then end up in the tunnel.

At this point, the two tunnel runners will have to complete the obstacle course by jumping over the colored hoops. You can see which hoop to jump over regardless of where the ball enters, and runners will need to pinpoint the position of the ball to the rest of their team outside the tunnel so they can shoot the correct triangle and open the hoop inside the runner tunnel.

After successfully passing the tunnel, run with the ball straight to the center of the arena and submerge it in the center of the map. After you do this three times, your entire team should pick up the orbs from the center of the arena and end up in the tunnel. Then you must complete the obstacle course one last time, all taking turns to make sure that each member of the fireteam will jump over the ball hoop at least once per track.

After your fireteam has made its way through the course one last time, head to the center of the arena and assemble the orbs to get closer to the Leviathan’s Raid Gauntlet section.

Destiny 2 Leviathan Raid – Emperor Calus Boss Fight

In the final part of the Destiny 2 Leviathan raid, the Emperor Cabal Calus himself will finally appear in front of your fireteam and challenge you to one mega-duel. To start the fight, shoot the cup from Calus’ hand and a horde of enemies will appear in the throne room which you will have to deal with. Eventually, Calus will teleport half of your fireteam to the purple dimension and the other half will stay in the throne room to defend themselves.

It’s easy for the team in the throne room as all they have to do is stay alive and not kill any of the four Psions with symbols hovering over their heads. As for the team in the purple dimension, they will have to shout the symbol hovering above Calus’ head to the team with the Psions, who then have to kill the Psions with the appropriate symbol above their head.

Repeat this process each time the symbol above Calus’ head changes and the surrounding shield finally drops. Now, make your way back to the throne room with the orbs and regroup with the rest of the fireteam by standing on top of any platform that is glowing to activate the Willpower buff.

Shoot Calus until he becomes invincible, then head to the next glowing platform to take off his shield and shoot him again. You’ll have to repeat the entire process above until Calus finally dies, which is no small feat.

Leviathan is the first raid in Destiny 2, introduced on September 13, 2017. Participation in the activity requires Power Level 260 to unlock. Leviathan is completed by two separate raid activities for the Lair: The World Eater (Curse of Osiris) and the Spire of Stars (Strategist). Below is a…

The underbelly is a secondary area of the raid where Cabal tech is revealed and various encounters can be accessed from the side entrances, bypassing Castellum if unlocked. It also contains a lot of extra reward chests that can be unlocked with the keys they drop as rewards per encounter.

To get to the underbelly, the fireteam must return to the wharf (the easiest way to do this is by exiting and restarting the raid if it is already deep in the Leviathan). Then, instead of climbing to Castellum, the team has to use the side ramps that go down past the bridge where the team spawned. At the bottom of these ramps is a room containing six switches. The switches need to be activated in a fairly quick sequence. When entering, switch 1 is on the far left and switch 6 is on the far right, the sequence is 1-5-3-2-4-6. A message will be displayed when the sequence has been entered correctly. The team can then climb the wharf as far as the elevator, but instead of entering the elevator stay outside and continue climbing outside. On the upper level, behind the elevators, a large pipe leads into the dark in a pool of toxic water. Hopping on that pipe and following it all the way takes the team to a series of jumping puzzles and then to an elevator fan that can be activated by a nearby switch to enter the correct underbelly.

The underbelly is a very large area that can be freely explored, creating a ring that forms the basis of the raid architecture. Some areas are equipped with security drone kits. There, the chest must be unlocked by killing all drones within a few seconds.

Here’s how to get into a raid, as well as our guide and top tips for defeating the Leviathan Raid in Destiny 2.

Leviathan Raid Guide

Part 1: Embankment

After starting the raid, go straight ahead until you come across enemies. These enemies won’t hurt you until you shoot them. Avoid attacking them, run by and go up the slope and through the door.

Part 2: Leviathan Castellum (Part 1)

After reaching Castellum, you will begin a process in which you will defend the three Standards. To achieve this, your group should split into two teams: one to defend the central point where the banners are to be taken, and the other to retrieve them from their respective owners. Remember that if the Combine Legionaries manage to get too close to the central point, the captured banners can be taken.

When all three banners are returned, the door opens a path in front of you, where you will find the first of the Leviathan Raid Loot Chests, containing the powerful Legendary Engram, the Selected Calus Shading, and the Emperor Calus Tokens. Remember that, as mentioned above, the order of the next meetings changes from week to week – then you will go to the Royal Pools, the Gardens of Pleasure or the Gauntlet.

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Part 3: Royal Pools

Here you will find four pressure plates, the fifth of which is in the middle. Each of these plates has a ball that gives you a time-limited buff to protect you from environmental damage (which you suffer while standing in the water in this area). Make sure you and your teammates activate this buff before starting the trial, as standing in the water in this area without doing so will quickly drain your health. When you’re ready, have four of your party members stand on a different pressure plate.

The test assumption is as follows: four people must maintain their position on the appropriate pressure plates to slowly lift the weight onto the chain. But as you’d expect, powerful enemies emerge, making the process much more difficult. As the attack progresses, make sure you and your teammates re-activate the buff. Basically you will have two groups of three players for each side; one player will grab the buff and take the position of a teammate on the plate; that player then gains the buff and changes to the position of the other player, and so on.

When the chains in all four areas are raised sufficiently, you will hear a musical signal that must all immediately move to the center (where the boost is). Five players should focus on destroying the lanterns hanging in this area, and one on the nearby enemies. Your buff will run out at some point, at which time you should leave the water out to avoid dying. Eventually, an enemy Psion will appear here and must be killed with a melee attack (or maybe one that you will have to shoot). At this point, go back to your plates and repeat the process. Once all the lanterns are destroyed, the trial will end and a Loot Chest will appear containing the Emperor Calus Token and potentially some drops of equipment.