With Destiny 2‘s 48-hour Salvation’s Edge Raid race crowning a winner, it’s time for the rest of the community to give it a shot. Verity, might seem the most vague and daunting encounter in Salvation’s Edge, but it’s not so bad once players get a handle on mechanics.
Verity is the fourth encounter in the Salvation’s Edge Raid, following Substratum, Dissipation, and Repository. While the first three encounters taught players how to generate Resonance via plates, the fourth encounter throws that all out for a more esoteric mechanic. Guardians’ observation skills are put through the wringer, as the name of Verity’s game is attention to detail.
Loudouts and gear for Verity
The fourth Salvation’s Edge encounter, like most in the Raid, doesn’t have a boss. While players won’t need to worry about equipping a loadout for maximum damage, the Verity arena isn’t exactly a walk in the park. There’s a good chance that each player will have to spend at least a third of the encounter by themself.
As such, Guardians should ensure they have the means to keep themselves alive. There are quite a few ways to go about it, from weapons with restorative Perks like Heal Clip to something as simple as a Solar healing grenade or the Recuperation armor mod.
Players will face off against Taken Knights, Ogres, Dread Husks, and some other rabble throughout the encounter. In addition, Unstoppable Champions spawn consistently throughout the fight. Players will want a solid secondary or heavy weapon to make short work of these foes and be sure to take something that can stun the Unstoppable Champions.
Salvation’s Edge encounter map (Verity)
Verity occurs in one large chamber. Surrounding the Rally flag, there are six podiums with statues reflecting the players in the Fireteam. Each statue has the same armor as the corresponding player, which will be important later to help identify one Guardian from another. Further back, there are three more podiums: one on the left, another middle, and a third on the right.
Verity, Inside
When Verity starts, three players are randomly selected and teleported to a personal arena instance. We’ll refer to this as being “inside.” Only the back half is accessible, with a barrier preventing players from heading back toward the Rally flag.
If the inside players look around, they’ll see that one of the three statues represents their character. As opposed to the statues at the front of the room, each of these shows the character holding one of three shapes: circle, triangle, or square.
At this point, any inside player should communicate the order of the statue shapes, from left to right. This informs the outside team on how to proceed with their mechanic. With the callout noted, inside players can get to work.
Looking at the back wall, Guardians can see which two shapes are available in their room. The first goal is to get two of the same shapes your statue holds in your room. To do this, kill the two Taken Knights and pick up any shape different from the one their statue is holding. It’s important to note that Guardians should only pick up one shape at a time, or they will combine into something new. With the different shape in tow, players want to dunk it on the statue holding that shape.
For example, if you are inside and see your statue is holding a triangle, and the back wall is showing a triangle and a square, you’d defeat Taken Knights until a square drops and then dunk that on the statue holding a square. All inside players should confirm their read on the back wall projector before attacking Knights, as there’s a chance some Guardians will enter the inside room and already have both of their shapes available.
Once inside players have traded to get double the shape their statue holds to appear on the back wall projection, it’s time for the next task. Now, Guardians want to give one of their shapes to each of the other inside players. At this point, if it hasn’t already happened, an Ogre is likely to spawn. This happens after both of the Taken Knights go down, and after the Ogre is gone, more Taken Knights will spawn. With the Knights back, Guardians can eliminate both and pass around their shape.
At some point, around when Guardians pass their shape to other inside players, The Witness kills the three inside players. This can’t be avoided, but the outside players can bring them back. After an outside player collects your Ghost, they’ll need to dunk it at the correct podium by the Rally flag. The arrangement in which players appear isn’t static, but dead players can see where one of the inside players appears through the spectator cam. Inside players will never be able to see themselves, so it can sometimes come down to process of elimination. Distinct Ghosts and armor cosmetics make it easier to recognize players.
Once players are respawned, they can finish giving their shape to the other inside players. If everyone did things correctly, after another Ogre and two more Knights, inside players should see the two shapes they’re not holding. At this point, ensuring everyone inside has what they need is crucial, as shape trades lock up after players start combining shapes. As long as all inside players are ready, each can pick up their two differing shapes from their statue to combine them into a 3D shape. This is the final task for inside players, and all that’s left is waiting for the outside team to finish their mechanics to open the path back to the Rally flag.
Verity, Outside
Outside players have fewer steps, but there’s a little more happening around the arena. After the three inside players get pulled, the outside players will want to designate one player for Dissection and the other two on clearing duty. Throughout this encounter, the outside team will face a near-constant flow of enemies accented with Unstoppable Champions. The add clear member must be on top of things to ensure the Dissection player can freely move around.
For the Dissection player, the first order of business is waiting for the callout from the inside players describing the order shapes appear on statues from left to right. Once that callout is clear, the Dissection player can get to work. The goal is to make the same 3D shape each inside player will end up with on their statue. Looking around, Dissection players will notice that there are already 3D shapes in each statue’s hand, but they need to be corrected.
To fix this, Dissection players need to trade shapes between statues. This is done by collecting a shape from a Taken Knight that you want to remove from one statue and then doing the same thing again with the shape you want there instead for another statue. For example, If the callout from inside players was triangle, square, circle, outside players know the triangle player needs a 3D shape made from a square and a circle. If the statue currently has a cone (square and triangle) Dissection players would kill a Knight to collect a triangle and then interact with the cone statue. From there, they would kill another Knight to collect square, and take that to the square statue (as it won’t need square for its 3D shape). The two shapes will swap, and Dissection players should see that the cone has now become a cylinder (square and circle combined).
At some point during the Dissections, The Witness will kill all three inside players, and their Ghosts will appear to outside players. Each player must pick up a Ghost and have the dead player help identify where to dunk on the six podiums by the Rally flag. Once everyone’s revived, outside players can get back in position to continue building 3D shapes.
Verity, Intermission
After each inside player has made a 3D shape out of the two shapes they’re not shown holding, and once the outside Dissection player has recreated those 3D shapes on the three inner statues, inside players can reunite with the rest of the Fireteam. This is only a brief reprieve, however. Unstoppable Champions will appear on the left and right side, followed by The Witness, killing all but one player soon after.
This is a larger version of the earlier mechanic that wiped the three inside players. The one remaining player will have to get the first revive, again getting help from the dead players who can see another Guardian’s position. However, after more players are up, they can join in on the reviving fun too.
Once all players have been revived, one cycle of the fight is complete. From there, another three random players will be pulled inside, and the process will start again. The Fireteam completes the encounter after the third successful cycle.
