After making your way through the Castellum (possibly numerous times), you will find yourself in Calus’ hardest challenge room in Destiny 2’s Leviathan Raid: the Gauntlet.

The Gauntlet is a large, circular room with pillars, doors and a central hub room. On the outside walls, you can see a track running behind the barriers. Once you follow the hallway and ride the elevator up, prepare to race. The Gauntlet mixes the perfectionist aspect of the Royal Pools and the communication aspect of the Pleasure Gardens, although less is required of each.

Start by splitting your team into groups of two and four once again:

• Shooters will stand on their pillar and shoot the gates for Runners
• Runners will run around the track and communicate with their Shooters

We’re going to break this encounter up into phases and roles, as well as detail loadouts.

Loadout

Kinetic weapon

An auto rifle is an excellent choice for the Kinetic slot, as they can kill enemies in the first phase quickly and shoot triangles. efficiently. Try Ghost Primus or Origin Story. However, since combat is limited here, you can take something else if you are more comfortable.

Energy weapon

A good scout rifle can help you and your teammates quite a bit here. Not only do they provide excellent range during the triangle section, but they can be quite helpful with shooting enemies at an ally’s plate during the first phase. The Conspirator or The End scouts are perfect here.

Power weapon

For Power weapons, you want something that can kill Centurions quickly. They have Solar shields, so a Merciless or a solar fusion rifle is great here. A Sins of the Past or Curtain Call rocket launcher can also take down these beasts very quickly.

Armor

For Titans, take the running boots Dunemarchers. For Warlocks, take the running boots Transversive Steps. For Hunters, take the Celestial Nighthawk helmet for instant Centurion kills (for you or a friend) or the Orpheus Rig boots for massive tethers.

Starting the fight

Each Shooter will be assigned to a pillar, each of which corresponds to the same familiar symbols in the other fights: axes, cup, hound and sun.

1. Have the four Shooters jump on their pillar to push it down into the ground to start the fight.
2. Runners should stand around the white teleportation machine by cup and hound.
3. When the fight begins, waves of Cabal will begin to run through all eight doors in the room. Kill them quickly so that you don’t get overwhelmed, being sure to help out your allies in need.
4. Once all of the Cabal are dead, four Imperial Centurions will spawn, one on each side. Kill them quickly and have the Runners prepare to stand by their teleportation device while the Shooters stand on their pillars.
5. Have the Runners grab the Psionic Charge, which will spawn on the teleportation device shortly after the Centurions fall, to move into the next phase.

The race: shooters

You will be confined to your place and the space in front of it. Shooters will each stand on their plates and not move except for one moment.

The Runners sprint around the circle, calling out triangles as that need to be shot. This is where things get a little hard, even when using the simple method. You will have two symbols that you must be listening for at all times. One of the symbols will be your own, the other will be that of your buddy.

• Plate buddies are split up like so:
• Axe and cup
• Hound and sun

Between you and your buddy, you need to decide who will be shooting the topmost triangles called and who will be shooting the bottom-most triangle called. Once that is decided, listen for the Runner to call out one of the two symbols you are listening for. Once you hear the call, prepare to fire.

If you are on the Axe plate and you hear the Runner call “Cup: top bottom,” turn to your left and fire a constant stream of bullets at your assigned triangle location at Cup, which is your buddy’s platform. When both players are shooting these triangles simultaneously, the Runner will make it through the barrier.

When the Runner calls the symbol on your plate, you have another step. As soon as the triangle in front of you turns green (or red if something gets messed up), jump off of your platform and stand under the triangles. A Psion in a bubble will spawn in front of you. Punch it as soon as possible and then get back on your platform. If you do not punch this Psion fast enough, it will spawn reflections around the room. If these reflections aren’t killed quickly, the entire team will die.

If you do this section correctly, getting green on both of your shots, each Runner should arrive safely back in the room.

When the Runner slams, the whole thing starts over again. Repeat the opening section and the race again. However, on the third time through, the pillars will begin to move, so the pillar Shooters must be accurate.

The race: Runners

Once you grab your Psionic Charge, you will be teleported onto the race track and be held behind a barrier for a short amount of time.

1. Look to the nearest gate of nine circles. As long as your Shooters are standing on the pillar, one of the nine circles will be red rather than blue. Tell your Shooters the two horizontal lines that do not have the red in them. For example, if you’re at Cup, and the center most circle is red, you will say “top and bottom.” Your Shooters will now know to shoot the top and bottom triangle at Cup.
2. Begin running toward the gate, careful not to touch it too quickly. Once the Shooters do their shooting, the gate will turn green and there will be a silver orb inside of the previously red circle. Jump through the circle and collect the orb, maintaining momentum.
3. Continue running forward and make another call. Jump through and collect the orb. If you fail to collect the orb twice in a row, you will explode, losing progress this run as well as your life.
4. Once you have jumped through four gates, you will make it to the finish line. A giant orb is here to ensure that you don’t explode on your way out. Collect the orb and pass the finish line to be teleported into the main area again.
5. Run into the center room and slam your Psionic Charge into one of the nine elevator mouths.

You will now repeat the entire encounter again, including the race. However, the second and third time through the race, Calus will create pits in the floor, making it possible to fall to your death. Be careful and jump accurately to avoid these pitfalls.

The final race: Everyone

Once the Runners have slammed three times, six Psionic Charges will pop out of the middle.

1. Each player must run to the center and grab a Charge. Everyone will be teleported onto the racetrack and locked in the barrier. The holes are still there, as are the pits. Only four orbs will spawn per gate, so communication is key.
2. The easiest way to organize this section is to number off. Have three of your Shooters take even numbers and your Runners take odds. The fourth Shooter, the one without a number, should be someone who is not the strongest Destiny 2 platform jumper. Have them lag behind and collect the charges that the others don’t. You will then alternate between odd-numbered players grabbing the first charges and even-numbered players grabbing the second. This will alternate throughout the racetrack.
3. Once at least three players have slammed the final three mouths, the encounter is over and you win.

Be aware that the race takes more than 30 seconds, meaning that if anyone dies early on in the final race, the the darkness will consume the entire raid before anyone can pick that player up.

The really tricky part of this section is having all six players survive until at least the end jump. Have your strongest Runner hold onto a revive token during this encounter. When they make it through in the final race, have them resurrect a dead ally before they slam. This will reset the death timer. As long as you don’t die because of the timer and at least three players get through, you will be showered in loot.

Congratulations Guardian, you have defeated Calus’ Gauntlet. Now it is time to meet the Emperor in person.

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The Prestige version of the Gauntlet adds several new mechanics:

• Players can only run once, forcing the roles to swap every cycle
• Psionic reflections automatically spawn when a runner passes through a gate
• Calus offers only three charges per gate during the final race
• Enemies are far more difficult

Check out our guide to the Prestige Gauntlet for strategies.