The Pyramidion Strike is one of Destiny 2’s best, pitting you against a army of Vex and Taken on Io. You begin by entering the Pyramidion, a giant Vex temple similar to the Vault of Glass, and make your way through until you reach Brakion, the Genesis Mind. You will then have to destroy this giant Vex Hobgoblin, granting Asher revenge for the arm that Brakion corrupted and the Fireteam members he lost.

Pyramidion Nightfall modifiers

Modifiers are unique challenges added to the Nightfall every week. So far, there has been one that modifies how quickly you can kill things or how easy it is to kill you, and another that impacts the Nightfall timer. These change each week and require you to adapt for each new Nightfall.

Timewarp: Zero Hour

When the Zero Hour modifier is active, there is no way to extend the timer for the Strike. For the Pyramidion Nightfall, you have about 22 minutes to finish. If the timer runs out, the strike is over and there is nothing you can do about it.

The strategy for dealing with this modifier is to progress whenever possible. Every enemy that you can skip, you should skip. When you open the Vex gates, run through them regardless of the enemies you will leave behind. Killing offers you nothing outside of safe passage, so go as fast as you can and complete the objective.

Torrent

When Torrent is active, all of your abilities will recharge very, very quickly. This includes your grenades, class ability, melee ability and your Super. This modifier lets you use your powerful abilities far more frequently.

Anything that allows you to have double grenades, like Striker Titan’s Code of the Earthshaker, is excellent for this section. Use your Supers frequently and never stop using your grenades (especially if they are damage over time like Pulse Grenades). These abilities deal massive damage so do not let them sit on cooldown. Grenades and roaming supers like Stormtrance are perfect for clearing large sections of adds when trying to activate Vex gates.

Fight into the Pyramidion

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When you first land on Io, hop onto your Sparrow and drive toward the Pyramidion, the gigantic Vex structure in front of you. Make your way down into its central courtyard. A ton of Vex will spawn and there will be two plates on either side of the gigantic door. Split your party up and have at least one person stand on each plate. Hide behind cover and take shots at the Vex while holding down your area.

Once both plates have been completely charged up (a result of you standing in them), you will need to clear the rest of the Vex from the area. Take down the Goblins, Hobgoblins and Hydras in order to progress. Once everything is dead, the giant vault door will spiral open.

Enter the Pyramidion and make your way down the steps. After jumping down for a ways, you will be in a great chasm filled with Taken and Vex. Hop down the giant stairs, defeating enemies along the way. You can use your grenades from a distance to destroy your enemies or just run past all of the enemies to save time, like we do in the video above.

Once you reach the very bottom, you will find several spirals of Vex lasers.

Carefully avoid the lasers, unless you enjoy respawning over and over again. Once you are through the hall, defeat the Taken Phalanx across more lasers and keep jumping through the safe spaces. Hop over and under lasers until you safely make it into the first of three big areas.

Defeat the Taken

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The task for the first big room is simple: kill all of the Taken. On the Nightfall, however, this is much easier said than done. Now is a excellent time to pop a Super and use all the Power ammo you have. Take your time to carefully mow through the waves of Taken, as you can’t progress through here at all until everything is dead.

Once you have cleared the room, make your way to the north area until you see the frame of a Vex gate. More Taken will spawn, including a couple of very powerful Taken Minotaurs. Take these guys out with whatever you have and then progress through the Vex gate

Time for more lasers. Watch the beams as they spawn in and out of existence. Wait for an opening and slide through.

Activate the Altars

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After jumping through more death traps, you will be in the second of three big rooms. But this time, in addition to killing tons of Taken, you will need to capture plates. There are three plates scattered around the room: left, right and center. Defeat the Taken protecting these plates and move as a Fireteam from one to the other, watching each other’s backs and ensuring that you stay alive. If each of you are very individually skilled, you could split up three ways and each take a plate.

As you are activating the plates, more Taken will spawn so be careful and use your Power ammo and Supers.

Once all the Altars are activated, the door will open and a Vex gate will be in front of you. Quickly run past the spawning Vex and into the portal.

This may come as a surprise, but you will be greeted with more lasers. Rather than disappearing and reappearing, these move up and down, left and right. Wait for the proper timing and make your way through. Once you reach a great, impassible barrier, jump up the right and past more moving lasers.

You will enter a small room with a bunch of Vex fighting a Taken Wizard. Kill them or run past. Either way, you will now be in a hallway of lasers much like before. The only difference is that now they spin. Make your way through this hallway carefully and you will see another Vex gate. Jump through.

Hack the Network Towers

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After popping out of the gate, you will be in the third and final big room. There is a massive Taken infestation here. If you have one, use a room clearing Super like Fists of Havoc or Stormtrance here to thin out your enemy’s numbers.

To get through the Vex gate you will need to set Ghost up on each of the four pillars of light in the room. There is one on the left, one on the right, one in the underbelly of the platform and one in the center. Kill all the enemies you can and protect Ghost while he hacks. Once the gate is open, a big Taken will spawn. Kill him or run past. Once you are done here, go through the Vex gate.

If you have a Hunter Nightstalker in your Fireteam with Vanishing Step (from Way of the Trapper), that player can use the invisibility they get from dodging to sneak up on enemies surrounding network towers. As the Nightstalker runs through capturing, other players can distract enemies. You can see that strategy in the video above.

Destroy the Genesis Mind - Brakion boss fight

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After going through the portal, run down and hop into the big pit in front of you. Ride the gravity lift down, and you’ll be in the boss chamber. Take your Fireteam and run up to the huge Vex gate in front of you. Stand on the plate to summon the boss. Enter Brakion, Genesis Mind.

Brakion, Genesis Mind phase 1

Brakion is a fun but hectic fight. He will start by standing in front of you, attempting to shoot you. You have a moment here, before he really wakes up, to deal a bunch of damage to him. If you are a Gunslinger Hunter, you can use your Super here. If you are anyone else, throw grenades, rockets and whatever else you have his way (shoot him in the head). Once he is a little over half a life bar down, he will teleport away.

Brakion, Genesis Mind phase 2

Turn around from the main stage, and you will see him on the right side of the room. Brakion will lock himself up tight in a force field. As a team, run to the left of the Genesis Mind’s box and stand on the plate that is on the floor there.

Defend yourselves from Brakion’s sniper and the wave of Vex he will send your way (Titan Barricades are very useful here, as are Warlock Rifts).

If you have a Hunter Nightstalker in your Fireteam with Vanishing Step, the Nightstalker can stand on the plate using invisibility, while the other members of the team stand at a distance to distract and damage the enemies.

Once the plate is charged (the Vex data around the sides of the plate is complete), make your way over to the right side of Brakion and do the same thing.

Charging both plates will unlock Brakion’s cage for a brief moment. Whale on him with headshots until he teleports away again. He will be in yet another cage, but this time it will be on the left side of the map. Run over and do the same thing you did last time, starting with the left plate. However, this time around there will be far more goons to deal with.

Brakion, Genesis Mind final phase

Once you have destroyed the second box. Beat on Brakion for a while, and he will teleport again to the central stage. He will now start spawning additional enemies into the arena. Clear out enough adds to keep you safe while focusing on Brakion. He will start teleporting, so keep a eye on him.

After you have gotten about half way through his final health bar, his head will explode, revealing a Vex juice box in his chest. Shoot the glowing white square to continue dealing damage to the boss. However, in this phase, Brakion is very aggressive and will spring toward you very quickly. Kill him before he kills you, and the Nightfall will finally be over. Congratulations on defeating the Genesis Mind and thank you for avenging Asher’s Fireteam and right arm.