How To Beat Crown of Sorrow Destiny 2 Raid


With the launch of Season of Opulence, there is a new raid lair that comes with this DLC. This DLC is mainly about helping Emperor Calus to fight back Gahlran and hive’s army. It was said that Savathun intend to let Emperor Calus to wear the crown in attempt to control him but the plan failed. Instead, Calus was smart enough to ask Gahlran to wear the crown first.

The moment Gahlran wore the crown, he got controlled by Savathun’s curse and that’s how the hive invasion begins. Here we go, once again we are going back to Leviathan to help Emperor Calus. The recommend power level for this raid is 740 power level and the size of this raid is similar to Scourge of the Past (SoTp) which consists of 3 encounters and 1 jumping section. First encounter for Crown of Sorrow starts at 715 follow by 725 on the next encounter and finally 735.


Here’s the encounters for the raid:


  • Dispel the Hive Ward (1st Encounter)
  • Jumping Puzzle
  • Defeat Gahlran, the Sorrow-Bearer (2nd Encounter/Phase 1)
  • Defeat Gahlran,the Sorrow-Bearer (Final Encounter/Phase 2)


Dispel the Hive Ward (1st Encounter)



This will be the first encounter for the raid and it’s recommended at 715 power level. First of all, this entire area is split into three sections which are red room, mid lane and green room. The fireteam members will then be split into three pairs and each pair consists of two members. Assigned one member from each section to pick up the witch’s blessing buff. Three of them simply have to hop into the green circle to receive the blessing to start the encounter.

After they picked up the witch’s blessing buff, they will have to kill the two hive knights first before heading to back their respective section. Thus, this puts you with witch’s blessing buff and your partner non blessing. There will be certain enemy only you can damage whereas your partner can’t due to the buff you got. Witch’s blessing buff last for 59 seconds before it turns into witch’s curse which will cause the entire team to wipe. Failure to swap buff will cause the wipe mechanic.


Here’s how you beat the encounter:


  1. Split into group of 3 to cover every section and have 1 people from each group to pick up the witch’s blessing first. You and your partner will kill your own respective enemies that you can deal damage to. It’s going to be blessed and non-blessed enemies.
  2. After a while, you will see “witch vessel awaken” pops out on the bottom left screen which indicates a crystal spawn on each section.
  3. This crystal can only be destroyed by a blessing and non blessing person which will be you and your partner. After that, everyone will head over to the purple crystal to refresh buff. Successfully switch buff will pops a message indicating “witch vessel bestow a new shape”.
  4. Continue to kill the enemies and 2 orges will spawn, 1 spawns on red room and the other on green room. It’s going to be a blessed and non blessed orge which means people with witch’s blessing only can damage the orge. While the non blessed orge will be immune to their attacks. It is important to kill the orges fast because their blast could be deadly.
  5. Upon successfully execute the entire process and you will see a message pops out “ritual phase complete”. This shows you complete first round. Rinse and repeat the same process for three more times and you will beat this encounter.



Limited Blessing Raid Challenge


This challenge is quite easy and the requirement for it to have less than three people with blessing at all time. Assuming you are familiar with the mechanics already, you will always assign a person from red, green and middle to grab the blessing. However, for this challenge you can only assign red and green room people to get the blessing. Even between the switching buff phase, only the green and red group people will switch the buff. Lastly, just to be consistent with the buff have four of you guys to switch buff every two waves of enemies. Rinse and repeat this until you complete the challenge.

The video below will be the showcase of how our group complete the challenge:


Jumping Puzzle Section


This is a jumping puzzle section which you will all split into a group of 3. Similarly to 1st encounter, have 1 people from each group to pick up the witch’s blessing buff first and. After that, have 2 groups to go for the jumping sections, they will focus on destroying the crystals that spawn on the piston. This crystal has a shield in it so the people will have to be inside the crystal to destory it.

Meanwhile, the last group will help to shoot the crystals that spawn in air. Successfully destroying all crystal on time then have everyone go to the purple crystal to refresh the buff. For every purple crystal that you reach, it will be a checkpoint. Do this for 3 more times and you will beat this encounter. Lastly, the loot for this section is going to be a non-powerful drop.






This is the phase 1 of Gahlran boss fight encounter and the recommended power level is 725. There will be new mechanics involves for this encounter but this time you’re going to transfer witch’s blessing buff around players. First of all, the area is going to be split into 3 quadrants which is dog, void and rock. Simply shoot at the boss to start the encounter, and there is going be a random green pool that spawns in one of the three quadrants.

Assigned one of the player to get the witch’s blessing first and it is similar to 1st encounter. Player with witch’s blessing can damage certain enemies and others will be immune. Team coordination and communication is important to keep the ads under control. At this point, the boss is going to spawn randomly into one of the three quadrants.

Next, there will be 2 waves of wizard and acolytes that spawn. After that an orge will spawns and kill it quick before heading to the purple crystal to transfer the buff to 2 other players at another quadrant. Upon transferring buff this means that 2 people on the quadrant will both have witch’s blessing.

With that, the invincible wall is now open and you can move between the 2 quadrant. For now, have one of the people from 1st quadrant (non blessing player) will swap over to 2nd quadrant and vice versa. As a result, this will put 1 player with witch’s blessing and 1 with non blessing in each quadrant.

You will pretty much have to repeat the same process until it is time to transfer buff at the last quadrant. All 6 players will have to go to the crystal to transfer buff. Successfully transfer the buff will open up the last quadrant and starts the DPS phase. Lastly, there will be 2 people with non-blessing and 4 people with witch’s blessing which is what you want ideally for DPS phase.

**Important note**

During DPS phase, players with witch’s blessing won’t be able to damage the boss so assigned them to stand on those boxes. Mini gahlran will have a shield on him which can only be break when a blessing and non-blessing player punch it together. Typically players with non-blessing can damage the boss.

Also, players that have witch’s blessing should stay far away from the boss otherwise the shield could take away the blessing. Each players with witch’s blessing can take turn to break the shield with non-blessing player to keep the DPS phase going. After losing the blessing only then they can start deal damage to the boss.


Here’s the simplified strategy:


  1. Have one people from whichever quadrant that has the green circle to pick up the witcher’s blessing first. Everyone will kill waves of enemies that spawn quickly and wait for the orge to spawn.
  2. After that, the player with witcher’s blessing will transfer it to two players on the second quadrant. Then swap one of the players around 1st and 2nd quadrant.
  3. This is because you want to have one blessing and non-blessing player on each quadrant to be able to deal damage to the enemies.
  4. With that once again you will clear out the enemies and wait for the orge to spawn. Quickly kill the orge and head over to the purple crystal when everyone is in the crystal and swap buff.
  5. Doing this correctly, you will have 2 people with non-blessing and 4 people with witch’s blessing. The wall between 2nd and 3rd quadrant will be open and that’s the cue for DPS phase.
  6. Have 1 blessing player and 1 non-blessing player to punch the boss at the same time in order to bring down his shield. Only player with non-blessing can deal damage to the boss.
  7. Lastly, if you team is well coordinate you could easily 1 phase the boss or just repeat the process one more time and kill him.

For example, people on void room gets the witch’s blessing first and the rotation will be going clockwise. In that case, it is going to be void side to rock side then lastly dog side. You will start off with a person that has the blessing then it will passes down to 2 people and final phase is going to be 4 people that has the blessings. It is recommended to have 4 people with witch’s blessing and that way you can go for 4 DPS phase on the boss.



Total Victory Raid Challenge


The total victory raid challenge requires you and your team to break Gahlran’s shield for 5 times in a single damage phase. Having anarchy will make this challenge a lot easier. Hence, assign a person with anarchy and make him has blessing towards the damage phase. There is a way to manipulate the blessing in such a way that the anarchy guy will always ends with witch’s blessing.

At the DPS phase, have everyone with witch’s blessing except the anarchy guy break his shield at once. Doing so will leave 5 person with non blessing and the anarchy guy with blessing. The anarchy guy will just have to shoot anarchy shots on gahlran’s body and anyone can punch Gahlran to break the shield.

Here’s the showcase of how our group did the challenge:






For the phase 2 of the fight, you will finally be killing the giant gahlran. The recommended power level for this section is 735 and anything above will allow you to deal more damage. Besides that, the raid mechanics for this encounter is pretty much the sum of all the previous encounter. You will need to apply what you learnt through 1st encounter, jumping puzzle and phase 1.

First all of all, similar to phase 1 stick to the same partner on all the quadrants. There will be a green pool at the middle area, so have 3 players stand in the middle to get the witch’s blessing buff. After that, head back to respective sides and start killing the enemies with your partner. While you’re killing the enemies be aware of the cue sounds which indicates the spawn of a crystal. The crystal can spawn anywhere and it will go clockwise from that quadrant.

Next, while this is happening you and your partner will have to rotate witch’s blessing buff with each other. Long enough to make the mini gahlran spawn, and then you (blessing) and your partner (non blessing) punch the mini boss to take down its shield. Shortly after that you can see the hand of the giant gahlran glows green, shoot it quick and it will take a giant axe to kill that mini gahlran.

As soon as you took down gahlran’s shield, both of you won’t have any buff anymore. So assigned one of the player to make a call out, requesting witch’s blessing for your side. For example, after void side took down mini gahlran then they can make a call out “void side needs blessing”. Then one of the blessing guy from either quadrant can shoot the crystal to give you the buff. Shortly after that a crystal will spawn, once again break the crystal with your partner.

Every group on their side will have to make the giant gahlran axe the mini galhran then DPS phase will begin soon. As shown above, after you shoot both of his arms and then the head, if the message “Gahlran deception subsides” then that is the decoy. Whereas if the boss stays there it means that’s the real boss and one final crystal will spawn beforehand. Whichever side that the crystal spawns, that particular team will have to handle it.

Finally, before going for DPS phase, have all 6 people refreshes their buff again so that you got a full minute to DPS the boss. At certain interval of period during DPS phase, he will try to raise his arms, quickly lower his arms by shooting it. The quicker you lower his arm the more time you have for DPS.

Here’s the simplified strategy:

  1. Have 3 players to pick up the witch’s blessing buff and head back to their quadrant to kill enemies. Be aware of the first location of a crystal spawn then it goes clockwise from there.
  2. Kill the waves of enemies that spawn and remember to rotato buff between you and your partner.
  3. After a while, a mini gahlran will spawns and it has a shield that protects him. You and your partner both blessing and non-blessing will have to melee him in order to break his shield.
  4. Get out from that area and turn around to shoot his arm that turns green. Successfully shooting the arm will make him axe the mini gahlran.
  5. Head back to your designated purple crystal and request for witch’s blessing. Reason why you’re requesting the buff is because after melee the mini boss people with blessing will lose it. Hence, one of the player with witch’s blessing from either quadrant will shoot the crystal to give you a buff.
  6. Every team will have to perform the same thing and then wait for both of his arms turns green. Quickly shoot both of his arms then the head to reveal the real location of gahlran. If it’s a decoy a message saying “gahlran deception subsides” and if it’s a real boss it will stay there.
  7. A final crystal will spawn so quickly destroy it then everyone refreshes their buff again. This will ensure you have a full 1 minute to dps the boss.
  8. During the DPS phase, the boss will try to raise his arms again, the quicker you lower down his arms the more time you will have for DPS.
  9. Lastly, with proper team you will easily one phase the boss. If not everyone in the team refreshes their buff and repeat the process again.



With Both Hands Raid Challenge


The third and final raid challenge for Crown of Sorrow. The only requirement for this challenge is that you will have to assign which hand to shoot between you and your partner. Assuming you pick Gahlran’s left hand then you can only shoot his left hand otherwise you will fail the challenge.

After you and your team successfully reveal the real Gahlran, whichever side he is that team can only shoot his arms. first to begin DPS phase. And in the middle of DPS phase, when he’s raising his hands again have team 2 to lower down his hands. Our group decided to go with clockwise direction. For example, if Gahlran is on void side, the void team will lower down his hands first followed by rock side and lastly dog side.

Here’s the showcase of how our group did the challenge:


With that, this pretty much concludes the entire Crown of Sorrow raid. Good luck on getting all the loots that you need!

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