In this Destiny 2 guide, we’ll explain the Defenses Down challenge for the Exhibition encounter, as well as some strategies for completing it.
Destiny 2: The Witch Queen’s Vow of the Disciple raid saw its third challenge launch the week of April 5, 2022. The raid’s challenges will rotate through the four raid encounters on a week-by-week basis.
Defenses Down challenge objective
To complete the Base Information challenge, you must complete the Exhibition encounter with no one killing more than one shielded Disciple’s Hourglass Knight. This is the Taken Knight that you kill with the Darkness Laser to extend the encounter timer.
If you need a refresher on the encounter or raid itself, you can follow our Vow of the Disciple raid walkthrough.
Defenses Down challenge strategies
The strategy for this encounter is pretty straightforward, but you will want to talk about the rotation of relics with your group before the encounter starts.
If your group is quick enough, the easiest way to complete this challenge is to only kill one Knight per room. This just means that four different people will have to take the Darkness Laser. Our group did this already, so the only thing we needed to change was the relic rotation slightly so that a different player used the Darkness Laser in each room. Below is a sample rotation for this strategy.
Destiny 2 Defenses Down Challenge 1
Room | Player 1 | Player 2 | Player 3 | Player 4 | Player 5 | Player 6 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Room | Player 1 | Player 2 | Player 3 | Player 4 | Player 5 | Player 6 |
A | Darkness Laser | |||||
B | Darkness Laser | Templar Shield | ||||
C | Eye of Riven | Darkness Laser | Templar Shield | |||
D | Eye of Riven | Darkness Laser | Templar Shield |
While it is easier to complete this challenge by only shooting one Knight, you can do it with all six players shooting a Knight. There are seven total Knights in the encounter, the first one in the starting room, and two per room after, so you will need to skip one Knight. The easiest Knight to skip is the second Knight in room two. This room only has two Relics, and you can complete this room quickly, so skip this one. The most difficult part of this challenge is creating the rotation, so take some time before the encounter to talk it out with your group. Below is a sample rotation for this strategy.
Destiny 2 Defenses Down challenge 2
Room | Player 1 | Player 2 | Player 3 | Player 4 | Player 5 | Player 6 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Room | Player 1 | Player 2 | Player 3 | Player 4 | Player 5 | Player 6 |
A | Darkness Laser | |||||
B | Darkness Laser | Templar Shield | ||||
C | Eye of Riven | Darkness Laser | Templar Shield | |||
D | Eye of Riven | Darkness Laser | Templar Shield |
The full 75-second timer resets when you place the Darkness Laser into the holder at the end of every room. This means that you can place the other two relics into their holders and start your 30-second cooldown while the Darkness Laser player holds onto it until the two other relic players’ cooldowns are gone or you run low on time. This should make the rotations in the final two rooms easier.