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The final week of Destiny 2‘s The Pantheon has arrived, featuring a whopping eight bosses and one mean Power disadvantage. Whether Guardians just want a clear for that sweet Emblem, or they’re pushing to hit a Platinum score on each encounter for the Godslayer Title, they’ll want to know what to expect from The Pantheon: Nezarec Sublime.
The Pantheon is a limited-time boss rush mode in Destiny 2, featuring encounters tuned to inch up the difficulty. Alongside encounter reworks, players also go against a Power disadvantage, starting at -5 in The Pantheon’s first bout and going up to -20 for Nezarec Sublime. While regular Raids can already be challenging, The Pantheon demands mastery, quick thinking, and coordination.
Modifiers matter
For The Pantheon: Nezarec Sublime, players have a few helpful modifiers to regain control in the encounters. First up is the return of Shot Caller from The Pantheon: Oryx Exalted. This modifier offers increased Special and Heavy weapon damage on top of damage resistance. Players can trigger the modifier by landing three precision shots in rapid succession.
Alongside Shot Caller are the Solar and Strand Surges. Each Surge empowers matching elemental weapons, meaning players will want an arsenal of Solar and Strand weapons for Nezarec Sublime. Of particular note, The Parasite, Whisper of the Worm, Apex Predator, Sleeper Stimulant, Sunshot, and Scatter Signal all work marvelously, depending on the specific encounter.
The first six bosses
If players have been following along with The Pantheon each week, they already know what’s in store for most of the boss rush. Guardians will still have to carve their way through all of the bosses previously defeated in The Pantheon: Atraks Sovereign, The Pantheon: Oryx Exalted, and The Pantheon: Rhulk Indomitable, only this time with a -20 Power disadvantage.
Some of these encounters can feel very different with the Power disadvantage and different Surges active. If players are struggling to overcome a boss, just remember to play to the strengths of the Surges and Shot Caller and to equip relevant Resistance mods on armor.
Riven
Riven mechanics
Most players are used to passing over Riven with a bit of cheese, but that’s not going to work anymore. Guardians will have to learn how to defeat Riven legit if they want a chance at toppling Nezarec. That said, once you know what to do, the fight is easier than it’s been made out to be.
Riven changes
Of course, the most significant change is that you can’t cheese Riven anymore. This used to be done by having the whole Fireteam go into one room together and then use a glitch to respawn back at the start if Riven didn’t appear. For The Pantheon, that method is defunct, and Guardians must do all of the mechanics in the encounter.
Outside of doing Riven as intended, there are more enemies, and naturally, at a -20 Power disadvantage, they can hit like a truck. Doing the encounter’s mechanics safely will be the real challenge, with the only other notable change being that Riven sports additional resistance on the lower floors.
Nezarec