Certain boss fights gaming raids represent the pinnacle of end-game PvE activity. Destiny 2: Forsaken has Riven of a Thousand Souls (we’ll just call her Riven) from the Last Wish raid. She’s an Ahamkara, a celestial dragon, corrupted by the Taken, and she’s no slouch. It took the world’s first team — Clan Redeem — almost 19 hours to clear the raid, spending a dozen hours on Riven alone. But that’s three weeks ago. This time around, with many players already at high power levels (PL), lots of teams are doing the cheese.
What’s this cheese you ask? Well, you pretty much just ignore almost every mechanic and burn her with an insane amount of DPS via cluster bomb rockets. Check out the video below from YouTube channel LaserBolt:
Destiny 2: Forsaken Last Wish Raid – Riven Cheese
The Riven boss fight has a lot of moving parts, which has caused frustration for countless teams. If someone screwed up their callout, you’re dead. If the other team cannot stagger, you’re done for unless you make some extremely lucky guesses. Oh, and God forbid someone forgot to shoot their eye (or they shot the wrong eye). Many players have raged uncontrollably or given up in past weeks all because of tiny mistakes. With the cheese, however, it’s made everything hilariously easy.
Here’s what your fireteam needs:
All players should be 590+ preferably, although a few 581’s will suffice. If you’re having trouble getting to a high enough power level, you can always check our leveling guide, which can help you get to 600 PL in no time.
Every player should have a rocket launcher with cluster bombs. The Roar of the Bear from this past Iron Banner and old favorites such as Curtain Call and Sins of the Past should suffice. You’ll also want to make sure that you’re using armor pieces with the “Rocket Launcher Reserves” perk so that you can have extra rockets. Wearing multiple gear pieces with the perk can net you seven to nine rockets.
You’ll want at least one Dawnblade Warlock with the Attunement of Grace/Well of Radiance tree leveled up. The Warlock needs to equip Lunafaction Boots so you no longer need to reload your weapons.
Lastly, you’ll want at least one Sunbreaker Titan with the Code of the Fire-Forged tree for Melting Point.
What’s Next?
Rather than splitting the team into two for the two sections of the cavern, just get everyone to the same room. Take out the hobgoblins that spawn and just clear out the remaining mobs. If the Taken Captain/Eye of Riven spawns first in the room, you’re in luck. If it’s Riven, well, you guys will have to wipe since it’s the “stagger mini-phase” and not the DPS one.
Now, let’s assume the Taken Captain popped up and got killed. Riven will spawn soon. Everyone should huddle up at the center of the room waiting for the boss to pop up. Once Riven appears, two things need to happen in a timely fashion:
- The Warlock has to melee a psion mob to provide an additional damage buff for the team. Then, they need to drop the Well of Radiance immediately afterward.
- The Titan needs to be ready to Melting Point Riven from the side.
That’s when the magic happens. Everyone fires their rockets into her mouth, watching her HP drop to the last ten percent. With that done, you’ll just need to do the platforming part and take out her remaining health for the final stand.
Here are some additional videos from YouTube users TritanArmy and Schendzie:
More DPS! More DPS! More DPS!
Assuming everything went well and everyone fired 7+ rockets each or did roughly 2.5 million+ damage, Riven should teleport all of you to the Ascendant Realm to do a bit of platforming. If your team is having trouble, you could also consider a few tweaks.
For instance, if you have an extra Titan that’s at a lower PL, that player can instead switch to a Sentinel with the Code of the Commander tree. The Titan just pops their super and puts up the translucent barrier. This gives you a damage boost that also stacks with the Well of Radiance.
An additional debuff that you can place on the boss is the Shattering Strike from a Nightstalker with the Way of the Wraith subclass. To do this, the Hunter has to crouch and get a precision kill on a mob a few seconds before Riven spawns. The Hunter should still be invisible once Riven appears, which is when they do a melee. Shattering Strike will do a debuff much like Melting Point.
Also, if you have an abundance of Hunters in your team, you can have a majority of them use Golden Gun (bottom tree). With Celestial Nighthawk equipped, your Gunslingers can do tremendous damage before firing rockets.
Lastly, if you’re still having trouble taking Riven out on the first floor of the fight, you can always just keep going until you reach the DPS phase in the upper chambers. From there, you can do the rockets/cluster bombs cheese with gusto.
When You Cheese Riven There’s Just One Problem
Sadly, as with all cheeses in video games, skipping or circumventing mechanics only leads to players remaining clueless about what to do next. It also means a lack of cohesion for the entire team.
That image above is from the Destiny mobile app. Console players got past Riven easily because of the cheese. Too bad they cannot figure out how to do the Riven’s Heart/Queenswalk Gauntlet encounter to even get the chest at the end. They had to find new players or groups just to get things done. It’s a far cry from previous weeks when barely anyone had a Heart checkpoint. This time around, groups that were just thrown together to cheese are struggling at that last part.
In any case, it’s all up to you if you want to forego the mechanics and cheese, especially if you’re at a high enough power level. We do recommend doing it legit a few times just to get that on your bucket list. Likewise, it’s always a great feeling to know and understand an encounter perfectly. Who knows if this will ever get fixed, right? Of course, if ever you need any help, our complete Last Wish raid guide has got you covered.
