Destiny 2 Nightfall Solo Guide: Savathûn's Song

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(Last updated: 2018/02/27)

The strike takes place on Titan, in the Hive-infested Arcology.

Patch 1.1.3 and later: Kill everything before the boss. When fighting the boss, snipe the adds from cover, and don't die. Original guide is below.

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This is a very long mission, and one of the most difficult to complete solo. Thus far it has only appeared with one set of modifiers.

There's a bit of luck involved with this strike. Hostiles can spawn and move in different ways, potentially requiring minor game plan changes on the fly. You might get lucky and have the bad guys bunched up, you might get unlucky and half of them hide behind pillars. Enemies that must be killed to advance might come after you or might go for a stroll. Sometimes you have to decide between patience or rolling the dice on an aggressive move. One of the worst moments is the dual-Shrieker dunk, which happens about 15 minutes in and has a roughly 75-second penalty for each failure.

There are a number of complicated multi-step sequences. Grab the orb, drop the orb, throw grenade, fire Coil, all while on the move into cover. Fire coil, proc Momentum, throw grenade, hit super. Fight Acolytes and Ogres while carrying an orb. You have to do these things to the point where it becomes muscle memory.

There are things that kill you instantly at close range, notably Ogre Eye Blasts. Step out at the wrong time and you're dead before you know what hit you. Happily, you then get 25 seconds to admire what hit you. The best part? If you're on a Striker Titan, you'll be killing two of them with a melee super.

The shielded Knights and orange-bar Revenant Knights will give you nightmares. These have arc shields and the ability to heal themselves while hiding behind an impenetrable force wall, which they can do surprisingly often. They take a very long time to kill with kinetic or energy weapons, and are strong enough to survive a direct hit from a rocket launcher. Sometimes they're cowardly, and hide in cover. The only saving grace is that Wardcliff Coil is often (but not always) able to kill them in one shot.

Disclaimer: I have not successfully finished this strike solo. After dozens of attempts in week 22, I got as far as carrying the final orb, but didn't make it to the dunk point. This is the only Nightfall I have utterly failed to complete. I believe the strategy laid out here is sound, but my skills were insufficient to the task.

Recommended Loadout

Equip standard loadout, but with the Wardcliff Coil. Arc energy weapons can give you a slight edge vs. the shielded Knights.

Modifiers: Momentum + Timewarp: Anomalies

You start with 14 minutes for normal, 9 minutes for Prestige.

• There are 30 anomalies, for a maximum extension of 15 minutes. Anomaly locations are noted in a separate list, and not called out in the guide unless there's a handy trick to getting them.
• The best class to use is Striker Titan, with An Insurmountable Skullfort. You can knock out groups of Thralls easily with Seismic Strike (shoulder charge), and use the dual Pulse grenades to deal heavy damage to immobile or slow-moving targets like Ogres and the boss. Your Skullfort fully recharges your melee on a shoulder-charge kill, and the Aftershocks ability significantly recharges your grenade on any arc-ability damage, allowing you to repeatedly charge your grenade by killing Thralls.
• Gunslinger Hunter is another good choice when combined with Celestial Nighthawk. You can do massive damage to Hungering Ogres and the boss, saving a lot of time.
• The Voidwalker's Blink jump can be used very effectively to dodge fire from the boss, and to proc Momentum.

The Wardcliff Coil is extremely useful for this strike, chiefly because of Knights and Revenant Knights. If you don't have the Coil, you can use a standard rocket launcher. Shoot the Knight with your energy weapon until it raises a barrier, then switch to your rocket. Fire when the barrier drops. If you just fire a rocket, the Knight may dodge the shot, and even if it doesn't the rocket won't be enough to kill it. If you don't want to use power ammo, use your energy weapon to knock its shields down, then use your hand cannon to land head shots.

You will see some players running toward or past enemies and shooting them with Wardcliff Coil while jumping, e.g. the Revenant Wizard near the start. The running and jumping is done to keep Momentum active while getting close enough to land the shot. It's usually safest to jump over or past the enemies and shoot down or sideways, rather than straight ahead, so that you don't blow yourself up if they suddenly move toward you.

Most of the things that are worth shooting with power ammo also drop power ammo. When in doubt, if it has orange-bar health, hit it with the Coil.

Walkthrough

Starting Area

• Get on your sparrow immediately. Drive outside then blast across the gaps, sticking close to the left side. (You can practice this by traveling to Titan and heading to the Arcology in the east. Go back and forth until you're confident that you can do it without slamming into the broken bridge.)
• There are two Revenant Acolytes before the entrance. You don't need to kill them, as they won't follow you through, but they drop power ammo. If you throw a Pulse grenade at the one on the walkway and shoot the near one, it costs less than 10 seconds since you need to move through the room to shoot the anomalies anyway.

Arcology Entrance

• Convention: you enter from the south. The exit door is in the west.
• Shoot the Acolytes. Use a running Wardcliff Coil shot on the Revenant Wizard. Activate the door as soon as the Wizard is down, even if there are Acolytes. You'll hear a growl.
• Shoot or melee the Thralls as they drop in, then use the Coil on the Wizard when it takes up station in the middle. Move back toward the center of the patio, killing Thralls. (The Thralls seem to scatter a bit if you move too far away from where the Wizard was, or get near the exit door, so stay in the center patio.)
• Glitch: move to the western edge of the northern patio after hacking the door, and look south. You'll see another Revenant Wizard floating in. Kill it with your energy weapon. If you stand in the right place, the Thralls get stuck on the wall and can't reach you, allowing you to kill them easily. (See Modern Tryhard's week 13 video at 1:40.)
• When the Wizard and all but two of the Thralls are dead, you'll hear a growl, signaling the arrival of the next wave. Move to the northern part of the patio.
• A Revenant Knight and two Acolytes will drop in front of you. Throw a grenade and hit the Knight with the Wardcliff Coil. The exact drop position is somewhat random, but should be in one of two locations. Sometimes the Acolytes fall away from the Knight, sometimes they land together. If you stand on the raised area and look up, you'll see them coming in and have a clean Coil shot on the Knight.
• A second Revenant Knight, which dropped in on the south side, will move into the middle of the exit door patio. You can kill this next, or put it off for a bit.
• Approach #1: Move onto the wide northern stair area and shoot the Acolytes and Cursed Thralls. This site gives you a pretty open view with no risk of getting blown up from behind. When the hostiles clump up, use a grenade or the Coil. When you've thinned the ranks, run to the center patio and kill the second Knight.
• Approach #2: Move into the center of the patio. Kill the second Knight, then fire-hose hostiles with the Coil.
• If you run or jump past the Cursed Thralls they will self-destruct after a short delay; this can be faster and easier than shooting them. Momentum should heal any damage you take from nearby explosions.
• When all but two of the hostiles are dead, the first door unlocks, and your objective updates.
• As an early time check, you should have 13+ minutes left at this point (normal mode).

First Ogre Room

• There are three doors between the entrance and the Ogre room. Move near the first door to trigger it, which releases a group of four Thralls that will charge at you. A few seconds later, the second door opens to release another group of Thralls, including one Revenant Thrall. You have to move near the third door to trigger it.
• The third door opens to reveal a Hungering Ogre, two shielded Knights, five Thralls, and one Revenant Thrall.
• Striker Titan: passing through a Rally Barricade disorients hostiles, so place one in front of the door. Run away from the door to build up speed, then shoulder-charge the first bunch. Run back a little, then run back in past the second bunch. Trigger the third door, and throw a grenade at the Hungering Ogre. Sprint around (for Momentum and to charge your melee) and shoulder-charge the second bunch of Thralls. This should recharge your grenade instantly. Throw a second grenade at the Ogre (you want to sort of jump halfway across and throw as you're landing, rather than just running out, to throw off the Knights). Pause for a second, and make sure the Ogre isn't actively blasting. Run into the room, jump up, throw a grenade at the Ogre's feet, and pop your super when you're close. Kill the Ogre and (ideally) damage the Knights. Kill the survivors with guns or the Coil. (This is an excellent example of combining class talents and exotic perks to dish out a lot of damage in a short period of time.) On normal, your super can knock off 2/3rds of his health, so two Pulse grenades plus your super should do the job.
• Gunslinger Hunter: kill all the Thralls before advancing. Use your Celestial Nighthawk on the Ogre's critical point, then clean up with the Wardcliff Coil.
• If your super hasn't charged, run back to the patio area. If you move back far enough the Ogre will stop shooting, and will start to wander to the back of the room. You can kill it safely from a distance with your scout rifle.
• If using a melee super, get a good running start so you'll have Momentum active when you hit the Ogre.
• If you need to heal, run back and forth, jumping over the doorway so the Ogre and Knights don't hit you.
• The next door will open when the Hungering Ogre and both Knights are dead.

Intermission

• After a bit of running, you'll get to a room with four Revenant Acolytes and a ramp leading down to a couple of traps.
• Head to the left of the ramp as you enter to find the first two Revenant Acolytes. Kill them with one shot from the Coil. Sprint through the ammo to reload.
• Peer down over the edge to see the next two. Kill them with one shot from the Coil. (The second pair may not be closely adjacent. If that's the case, aim at the first one, hit the fire button, and quickly drag the reticle to the second one. The stream of rockets will spray them both. Sometimes you get unlucky and they'll be on opposite sides of the room.)
• It's important to kill all of them, as they will follow you into the next area if you don't.

First Dunk

• Run into the next area, where you are greeted by some Acolytes. Kill them, trying not to hit the Savathûn's Handmaiden. The Handmaiden won't activate until damaged or you get near the stairs, so if you're careful you can sneak up on her and kill her with a Coil shot before she has an opportunity to shoot back. Don't shoot Acolytes standing next to her as your explosive rounds can cause collateral damage.
• Killing the Handmaiden exposes the Void Charge and activates the Shrieker.
• Run up the stairs and grab the orb. The Shrieker can hit you behind the orb pedestal, so don't linger. This triggers the arrival of a Revenant Knight and some Acolytes near the dunk point. Drop the orb, run forward to the cover on the right, and immediately hit the Knight with a grenade. Follow up with a Coil shot. If done correctly, this will mostly kill the Knight, to the point where you can drop it with a few shots from your hand cannon.
• A few seconds after the Knight spawns, another Acolyte drops in. It always appears in the same place, so it's an easy kill from the balcony.
• When the enemies are dead, pick up the orb, run off the back edge of the balcony. Don't run down the stairs, or the seeking projectiles will get you. If your health is low, wait until the Shrieker pauses.
• Run under the balcony to get Momentum back, and dunk the orb. You should have enough cover from the balcony supports on the way in to allow you to dunk without dying.
• Sometimes the enemies will hide from you. It's not uncommon to fail to kill the Knight. So long as there's only the Knight left, and it's hiding behind a pillar, you may be able to run in, dunk, and jump clear with a little health left. If the Knight is exposed, shoot it until it hides or walls up, then run in. It may well be faster to just dunk and die then play hide & seek with the Knight.
• You don't need to kill the enemies to move on. If you die here, just run through after you rez.
• You can shoot both anomalies before you touch the orb. If you stand against the left wall, a little back from the bottom of the stairs, you'll have an angle on both of them. It's wise to do this in case you need to dunk & run.

Seal and Crystals

• Drop down and activate the pylon. Run through the nearby door when it unblocks.
• The next room has five Acolytes and a Revenant Knight.
• Titan: Wound then shoulder-charge the first Acolyte you see to restore grenade energy. If you don't wound one first you'll drain your melee energy, though it should recharge in time for the next sequence.
• Weaken the Knight with guns, then kill it with the Coil when it hides behind the barrier.
• Shoot the crystals to drop the barrier.
• You should have 12+ minutes left at this point (normal mode).

Ogres and Wizards

• You only need to kill the two Hungering Ogres to open the next area. Killing other stuff is often necessary to stay alive, however. (See The HM05's Hunter video for an example of only killing Ogres.)
• The first half of the room has a Hungering Ogre, a few Knights, and a whole lot of Acolytes. You want to avoid engaging anything but the ogre. The trick is to get up on the high peninsula that divides this area into two sections.
• As you enter, turn left, and hug the wall. Throw grenade(s) at the Ogre as you run. A group of Acolytes will run past you headed the other direction. When you get around to the other side, jump up out of the water, and then onto the circular planter in front of you. Jump from there to a thin ledge on the wall (which you can walk along to shoot the anomaly that's hiding off the edge), and then up on top. You may bump your head if you jump straight up, so you need to come at it as if you were jumping across the part where it bends in.
• Striker Titan: throw both grenades at the Ogre as you run, then shoulder-charge the Acolytes running past you. You won't kill them, so your melee won't recharge, but you won't need that for a bit, and the arc ability damage will charge up your grenade.
• Once on top, kill the Hungering Ogre with your scout rifle. You want to just peek over the edge so that most of the Ogre's shots hit the peninsula below your feet and not you. (Better Devils seems to do slightly more damage per shot from this range, but Manannan SR4 has 200 RPM vs. the hand cannon's 140 RPM, and takes less time to reload. So the scout rifle seems to have an edge on DPS for the 30+ seconds it will take to kill the Ogre.) Try not to use your grenade here, as you'll need it for the next Ogre.
• Titan: you can use a Rally Barricade to boost your reload speed, but do not depend on it for cover. If the Barricade expires while you're under fire, the Ogre Eye Blasts will melt you.
• The peninsula is just long enough to proc Momentum, but you'll need to start at one end and jump-run all the way across. (You'll notice that your jumps are very short. Apparently there's an invisible ceiling.)
• When the Ogre is dead, a second Hungering Ogre will appear at the top of the stairs on the other side of the room, and a couple of Knights will appear near the bottom of the stairs to the right. When it's at the top of the stairs the Ogre has a clean shot at you. Move to the far side of the peninsula and jump-run across to keep momentum going until it's far enough down the stairs that it can't hit you. Use your scout rifle and throw a grenade to reduce the Ogre's health.
• When the Ogre gets to 75% health, a pair of Revenant Wizards will spawn in, with a few Acolytes. The Wizards have a direct line of sight to your position, so you want to shift your fire to those, hitting the leftmost one with your scout rifle to drop its shields then switching to your kinetic. After taking some damage it'll move to a lower position where you can fight it more effectively. The rightmost Wizard tends to take up position at the bottom of the staircase, where it can usually be ignored; if it moves back to the upper stairs, kill it before engaging the Ogre.
• You probably want to kill Acolytes in this area, especially any standing on the upper staircase, as their fire bombs can hit you. There's usually no need to engage the Knights.
• The Hungering Ogre is probably now standing right next to the wall below you, making an easy target for the Wardcliff Coil. DO NOT attack it until you're ready to kill it, as it will start walking back up the stairs when it takes damage. If the Ogre is lurking farther away, step to the edge then back to bait him forward.
• Titan: wait for your grenade to be ready. Fire the Wardcliff Coil to weaken it, then get a running start for Momentum, jump, throw a grenade, and pop your super. The Ogre will knock you around, so try to land to the left of it, between it and the wall or the circular planter. Remember that slam damage falls off rapidly with distance, so get up close before you pound.
• Gunslinger: if you use your Celestial Nighthawk shot on the Ogre right after it spawns, you will remove most of its health before anything else spawns in. One or two Wardcliff Coil hits will finish it off. (In normal mode you can just hit it with your super, then rush it with the Coil and run out of the room without engaging any other hostiles.)
• When the Ogre dies, run like hell for the exit.
• If you die while up top, you will rez back in the crystal room. You want to jump back up on whichever side doesn't have a live Ogre. The trouble is that if your Mobility isn't fairly high (i.e. you're not a Hunter) you probably can't make it up the side where the first Ogre is -- you need to jump off of the low pillar, and e.g. a Titan with a Mobility of 2 couldn't quite get enough height with Strafe Lift. It's possible to get back up the back side even with a live Ogre, but it's dicey.

More Crystals

• The next crystal cave has four Revenant Acolytes. Their positions within the room are somewhat random. Blast them with the Coil, sweeping it across. Ideally you want to take out at least two with your first shot.
• Ideally, there will be one ahead of you on the right, and the other three on the left. You kill or wound everything with the Coil, sprint forward and reload by picking up the ammo brick, then spin around and finish the job. In practice their positions are somewhat random, and occasionally one will charge out of the room at you (if you fire the Coil on reflex... boom).
• A couple of Knights who were lurking outside the Ogre barrier may pursue you, then stand back in the tunnel and snipe at you. They usually won't follow you into the crystal chamber, but sometimes one will chase in about halfway then retreat back. They disappear when the last crystal is smashed.
• If you go too slowly, the Knights will melee you in the back. If one is coming up fast behind you, you will need to blast a path through the Acolytes and jump-run straight into the room. (You can try taking a hard right as you enter the room, but that didn't end well for me.) If you don't see solid red in your radar, you can duck back, reload the Coil, and take a second shot before running in. Otherwise, try to kill something, then jump-run through to reload the Coil by picking up the power ammo drop. Jump up, spin around, and spray behind you, as the Acolytes will likely chase behind and will kill you quickly if they get a clean shot.
• Hunter: fire the Coil, use dodge to reload, and fire again if needed.
• This is a bad place to die, as you will usually rez back at the doorway to the first six-crystal room. Running through the previous area isn't too challenging, even with a Wizard and most of the enemies alive (thanks, Momentum!), but it takes 30 seconds to run all the way back here.
• NOTE: I died here a lot. The Knights chased hard after me 80% of the time, forcing me to rush in, and the Revenant Acolytes hit really hard up close. The random positioning makes this a little bit different each time. It may be better to kill one Knight with the Coil so you don't have to force the room.
• You should have 11+ minutes left at this point (normal mode).

Another Orb

Step 1: clear the way

• The next area has a bunch of Knights, Acolytes, and a pair of red-bar Savathûn's Handmaidens. The goal here is to run past the hostiles near the start, then get the rest to bunch up so you can AoE them. You can skip a Knight and half a dozen Acolytes this way.
• Run straight ahead and turn right when you reach the back wall. Continue around, jumping into the raised terrace. Run toward the orb, jumping over the intervening enemies, aiming toward the right side (so you can use the curved wall bit for a little cover as you land). As you approach the orb, throw a grenade at the Knight near the orb. Run and jump past them, spraying the Handmaidens with the Coil as you go by. You'll get beat up but Momentum should carry you through it. Keep running past until you get to the stairs. It's safest to run all the way to the bottom, as sometimes the Knights and Acolytes will lob bombs. (If you do this just right, you'll kill nearly everything, though in practice you'll often need to finish off the Knight with another Coil shot.)
• Five Thralls and a Revenant Thrall will spawn from a doorway on the right as you fly past, so kill them from the cover of the staircase (using shoulder charge on Striker Titan).
• Move back toward the dunk point. The hostiles want to use this as a rally point, so any surviving Knights and Acolytes should be gathered there. If any Knights survived, sprint in to keep Momentum, jump up high, and hose them down with the Coil.
• Pick up the Void Charge, drop it, and run back to the stairs. This triggers the spawn of four Thralls, and a Revenant Cursed Thralls nearby. Also, two Revenant Cursed Thralls, a Revenant Knight, and two Acolytes will come out of the doorway ahead.
• Shoot the hostiles as they come up the stairs, and throw a grenade at the doorway when the Knight and Acolytes appear. Ideally the grenade takes out the Acolytes and causes the Knight to shield up, at which point you can blast it with the Coil. That won't always work out, but from the balcony you can snipe at the Knight's head with your energy weapon, then rush him with the Coil when he walls up.
• Looking through the doorway, there are a few Acolytes straight ahead, and a Revenant Knight with two more Acolytes down the hallway to the left. There's an exploding barrel to the left that will kill or weaken most of the Acolytes across the hall.
• The traps and narrow hallway make this an awkward place to engage the Knight. Hit it from a distance, dodging the Knight's Hive Boomer shots, then rush in with the Coil. Sometimes you can get a bit of an angle from the room across the hall where the anomaly is, but more often than not the Knight hides down the hallway. Always kill the Acolytes first, as they enjoy jumping in front of the Knight when you deploy the Coil. (The ONE TIME they act bravely...)

Step 2: special delivery

• Go back and grab the Void Charge.
• You can leave the Void Charge on the ground for about 20 seconds before it dissipates. A one-way trip from the orb holder to the entrance of the Shrieker room takes about 20 seconds, so if you let it dissipate it will cost you up to 40 seconds. If you find yourself forgetting, pick it up and drop it every time you reload. Note there's a diamond around the HUD indicator pointing to the orb that fills in, letting you know how close to disappearing it is.
• Nightstalker Hunter: you can sneak the orb to the dunk point, saving a great deal of time. You'll be killed after the dunk, but that's hard to avoid anyway. See The HM05's video for an example.
• As you run back in, you'll discover that three red-bar Ogres and eight Acolytes have spawned in. This seems to be triggered when the orb is carried beyond a certain point.
• There seem to be two basic configurations for the room. In one configuration, most of the hostiles will be in the process of leaving the room. If that happens, run to the doorway to the orb room and let loose with the Coil and a grenade, then quickly get back up on the balcony and around the corner. You need to move through the center of the room so the central pillar blocks Ogre fire while you're running away -- Ogres can get to the doorway surprisingly quickly.
• In the other configuration, one of the Ogres is just hanging out near the bottom of the stairs. Easy kill with the Coil. Shoot some Acolytes, but be prepared for a second Ogre to come out and play.
• A good place to fight from is the left corner of the balcony, crouched to shoot under the railing. Always try to fight Ogres from the balcony, even when they're deep in the Shrieker room. The range is long enough that they may not even fire.
• Melee attacks with the Void Charge equipped will temporarily stun enemies. You'll need three hits to kill an Acolyte, but they won't be firing back.
• You need the Shrieker room to be completely clear before you enter. Try to keep track of how many Acolytes you've killed (should be 8). This can be a challenge if grenades or the Coil are involved. Use the 3rd-person view while holding the orb to peek around corners. Ogres and Acolytes will often hide near the Shriekers, so take advantage of the Explosive Payload perk in the Mannanan SR4 and Better Devils by shooting the floor near the front and sides of the pillars. If you see damage numbers, there's an enemy hiding.
• There's an explosive barrel near the right pillar. Sometimes that can clear out a hiding enemy.
• If you run in and discover that there's still a lurking Acolyte, you will probably be killed by the Shriekers if you try to make a U-turn. Warlocks can create a healing rift behind one of the pillars to give you an opportunity to kill the Acolyte and emerge with full health. Other classes are probably screwed unless you manage to kill the enemy before they hit you, although you can try to rush directly to the dunk point and hope for luck.
• NOTE: I don't have an approach that consistently allows you to survive the dunk, though this will allow you to dunk before dying. Fortunately you rez nearby, so it's only about a 30-second penalty. If you die without dunking it'll cost you a bit over a minute to get back into position with the orb, plus time to set up a dunk; call it 75 seconds.
• The basic plan is to run back to the staircase to quiesce the Shriekers, then sprint in to take cover behind the left pillar, aiming for the vertical stripe on the left. You'll get hit a bunch, but you'll reach the pillar before getting killed, and since Momentum will be active your health bar will continue to go up even after you stop moving. You then need to sprint to the dunk point. Note that jumping and dodging doesn't really help on the initial run in, as the Shrieker bolts home in on you.
• If you watch the Shriekers closely you'll notice that they fire in a 16-shot circular pattern. After a certain number of cycles -- should be 5 or 6 if they activated as you ran into their room -- they pause for a couple of seconds. If you can time it so that they're inactive while you run to the dunk point, you should be able to survive with a tiny bit of health left.
• If you stand for a while behind the pillar you'll see them stop, run for 2 or 3 cycles, then start again. So the good news is that they have down time, the bad news is that it's brief and hard to predict.
• Approach #1: Run to the pillar on the left, and wait. Watch the Shrieker on the right. When it pauses, charge in. This avoids some amount of damage, and if the left Shrieker started firing slightly late, you might catch it during its full downtime. You should be able to get the dunk, and might live.
• Approach #2: Run to the pillar on the left while watching the Shrieker on the right. When it reaches the end of the fifth cycle, run and dunk. If it's a 5-cycle pattern you'll run out during the break, if it's a 6-cycle pattern you'll eat most of one cycle and then get a break. You're more likely to live in the former case. (Variation: plan to run as the 6th cycle is ending, but if you see it pause after 5, immediately run in.)
• Approach #3: Run to the pillar on the left, hooking around the left side, then directly to the dunk point. The idea is to avoid the incoming fire from the left Shrieker for as long as possible, and hope that Momentum keeps you alive long enough to dunk the orb. This doesn't always work, and is always fatal when it does.
• There may be an advantage to doing a jump-melee-sprint sequence when heading to the dunk point. Practice this when running around so it's natural. The fire button (e.g. LMB on PC) will do a melee when the orb is equipped. Note you can perform the dunk by holding the "activate" button down as you run toward the receptacle -- you don't need to wait until you're in range.
• Trivia: Hunters can suppress the Shriekers with a Shadowshot tether.

Back to the Seal

• A pair of orange-bar Savathûn's Handmaidens are sleeping above the sealed entrance. Kill them with the Wardcliff Coil. The first one is easy (since they're not paying attention), the second one will do a credible job of trying to kill you quickly.
• Titans should pop a Rally Barricade here to get a quick reload. Hunters can reload with dodge. Warlocks can shoot the first one, sprint to collect the heavy ammo drop and get an instant reload, then shoot the second one.
• Drop through the tunnels. The goal is to run into the boss area as quickly as possible, stopping only to shoot anomalies.
• Shoot the anomaly on the left, ignoring the Cursed Thrall that runs out past you. Run forward on the ledge on the left. If there's a Thrall in the doorway, kill it, as a single Thrall can block you (and you'll die). Run through the door, jump up on the mound ahead on the right, and shoot the anomaly. Continue forward on the right side, then shoot the anomaly on the left. Drop down and sprint through the door. It's safe to just run past Thralls, but if you stop you die.
• If you need more power ammo, kill the Revenant Cursed Thralls.
• Ideally you have at least 10 minutes on the clock when you reach the boss.

Boss Fight: Savathûn's Song

• Weapons used:
  • Shrieker bolts. Mild seeking ability.
  • Axion Darts. Slow-moving tracking missiles.

• Convention: you enter from the south, the dunk pillar is in the north.
• There are two commonly-used safe zones for shooting the boss. The first ("south position") is to your left as you enter the room. Positioning behind the bumpy cover allows you to safely hit the boss in the middle and in the east when crouched down. The second ("east position") is behind the tall pedestal on the raised area in the east, below where the boss hovers. From here you can safely shoot the boss when it's in the center or west. There's a third spot ("west position"), at the bottom of the central hill, peeking past the right edge of a tall rock on the south side of the east-west "road", but I don't use that in this guide.
• There is a short tunnel down and to the right as you enter the room. This can be used as shelter from the tracking projectiles.
• When in the east position, stand back a little from the pillar so you can see incoming Thralls. Pause firing occasionally to check radar.
• The boss can be damaged with melee supers, but you really don't want to be standing near it, even with the damage reduction.
• You can abuse the Wardcliff Coil Ammo Glitch excessively here if you're not playing Prestige mode. Switch to Curtain Call with at least one round in the Coil, and fire a barrage of rockets at the boss or large targets like Ogres. Switch back to the Coil and pick up a single power ammo brick, then back to Curtain Call. This can be used to great effect in the last phases of the fight.

There are several stages to this encounter:

• The boss is dormant until you shoot the crystal below it.
• At 90% health, three pairs of Thralls will spawn in the middle and west.
• At 85% health, Savathûn will clam up, teleport to the east, and reopen.
• At 80% health, some Thralls and Acolytes spawn in the east near the boss.
• At 70% health, Savathûn clams up. A pair of Knights and some Acolytes spawn in the east near the boss. (Also, one Revenant Acolyte from this or previous phase.)
• When the two Knights are dead, Savathûn opens briefly, then clams up, teleports to the middle, and reopens.
• At 60% health, four pairs of Thralls spawn in from center-north and center-south.
• At 50% health, Savathûn clams up, teleports to the west, and reopens.
• At 45% health, some Acolytes spawn in the west, as well as some Thralls.
• At 35% health, Savathûn clams up. (This is a bit into the 'O' in SONG.) Two red-bar Ogres and some Acolytes spawn in the west and southwest, with one Revenant Acolyte in the mix. When the first Ogre is killed, a third one spawns in.
• When all three Ogres are dead, Savathûn opens briefly, then teleports to the middle.
• At 25% health, groups of Thralls spawn to the north and south of center. In addition to the regular Shrieker fire, slow-moving tracking projectiles (Axion Darts) will start to be launched in groups of six.
• At 15% health, Savathûn clams up, moves to the north, and gains a shield. The boss will shoot Shrieker fire through the shield, but no Darts. A Void Charge is exposed, guarded by a sleeping Savathûn's Handmaiden.
• When the orb is picked up, two red-bar Handmaidens appear.
• When the orb is dunked, Savathûn returns to the middle. The Axion Darts resume.
• As you continue to damage the boss, a few pairs of Cursed Thralls spawn in the north and south center, including a Revenant Cursed Thrall.
• Note that the major boss actions are gated on 15% or 20% damage. Briefly, 15 / 15 / 20 / 15 / 20 / 15.

Fight strategy:

• For the most part, this is a matter of shooting the boss from cover while sniping adds. You can significantly increase your damage output with grenades, or (for a non-Prestige run) by switching from Wardcliff Coil to Curtain Call. (Because of the "Wardcliff Coil gift", you'll get nearly a full magazine so long as the Coil isn't empty when you switch. If that gets removed, you'd want to switch weapons no later than after killing the Handmaidens at the seal, so you can collect power drops from them and the Revenant Cursed Thralls on the way in.)
• Striker Titans: remember to run at the nearest wall or pedestal to charge your melee before killing Thralls. Try to throw a grenade at the boss whenever its available, so that your melee recharges your grenade. Only throw grenades at the boss.
• When you shoot the crystal, all of the Cursed Thralls will rush the exit. Those that don't make it will self-destruct about 5 seconds after you destroy the crystal. You don't need to clear the room before starting the fight.
• Characters without a melee super (e.g. Voidwalker and Gunslinger) should open by hitting the boss with their super. The fight is long enough that it will recharge before the end, possibly more than once.
• Start in the south position. Crouch behind cover and throw a grenade or two at the boss, then shoot it until it closes and moves east. Kill the Thralls that rush you. (From this position, you can hit the boss with a grenade by pointing your reticle a little above the top of the boss' spikes. See Modern Tryhard's week 13 video at 15:10.) Continue shooting it after it moves east.
• Titan: You may want to venture out and shoulder-slam a pair of Thralls that show up on the center hill when the first set of Acolytes spawn. That'll give you some energy for a grenade.
• If you have a melee super, shoot the boss from the south position until it closes, then pop your super and kill as many adds as you can. Make sure you get one Knight but not both. Retreat and kill anything you missed. You may want to use your power weapon on the Knights as they heal rapidly and raise their barrier often. Titan: slam twice on the Knight farthest from the boss, then work your way in toward the boss with the next two. If you start running as soon as the boss closes you should find a Knight near the spawn door. Slam down next to the door to knock it toward the clustered Acolytes, so that your follow-up slam kills the Knight and takes a bunch of Acolytes too.
• If you don't have a melee super, kill all the Acolytes and Thralls, then shoot the boss until it closes, then shoot the spawned Knights and Acolytes.
• The boss will open when the last Knight dies, so save one Knight for last.
• An effective way to deal with Knights is to stand behind chest-high pillars. They'll stand there lobbing shots that won't hit you. Unfortunately when their health gets low they tend to seek cover. (See Modern Tryhard's week 13 video at 16:35.)
• When the adds are dead, move to the east position. The boss will briefly open before moving to the center, and will only fire one cycle, so this is an opportunity to hit it with the Wardcliff Coil if you're quick (you're unlikely to do amazing damage here though).
• Throw a grenade or two at the boss and shoot it. From this position, you can hit the boss with a grenade by pointing your reticle at or slightly below the level of the grey smear near the top of the lower amber blob on the column to the left of the boss. (See Modern Tryhard's video at 17:10.)
• Four pairs of Thralls will charge you; stand back slightly from the pillar so you can see them coming. Titan: use your shoulder slam on the Thralls to recharge grenades, and stimulate healing.
• When Savathûn moves west, shoot it with your scout rifle from the east position. Fire a shot from Curtain Call if you have that -- your scout rifle is somewhat weaker due to the range, but rockets always deliver. You can also run around the north side of the hill, throw a grenade, then run back. Continue with the scout rifle until it closes. You don't need to worry much about the Acolytes, as those will mostly stay near the boss, but shoot anything that gets frisky.
• When the Ogres appear, it's safest to snipe from the east position, though it's faster to run toward the bottom of the hill and pop a few Acolytes with your hand cannon. Hit the Ogres from outside their firing range so you don't have to stop to heal up. Ogres will usually stay in one of two positions, near Savathûn or in the southwest. Acolytes will come forward a bit farther and lob solar grenades, but generally not past the center. If you don't see any Acolytes, head toward the south position after killing the second Ogre, and you'll find a bunch.
• The boss wakes up when you kill the third Ogre. It's wise to kill all the Acolytes before doing that.
• If you stuck with the Wardcliff coil, when the last Ogre dies you should run to the eastern edge of the plateau that the boss hovers over. If you're a Titan, place a Rally Barricade. Throw a grenade or two when the boss appears. Three hits from the Coil should be enough to advance to the next stage. You will probably die here. If you're a Hunter, shoot, dodge to reload, shoot, run away. If you're a Warlock, shoot once and flee.
• If you switched to Curtain Call, just throw grenades and launch rockets from the south position regardless of class. Save at least one round of power ammo for the next part. The advantage to doing big damage here is that you get to avoid the tracking-projectile phase. (See the Boss Damage Math section for details.)
• Occasionally Savathûn will stop firing Shrieker blasts and form tracking projectiles. This is accompanied by a sound like a train stopping. You either need to shoot all of them down, shoot 2+ down and proc Momentum, or run into the tunnel (which is much closer to the south position than the east) and wait until you hear an explosion. They will hit you behind cover and go around barricades, but can't seem to navigate the tunnel. If you want to shoot them, you need to hit each of them twice.
• When you hear, "here's our chance" or "it's time", the boss has moved to the far north and shielded up. Kill any nearby Thralls, then shoot the sleeping orange-bar Handmaiden with your power weapon. You can also snipe it from cover, though the boss' elevated position makes it tricky to hit the Handmaiden without getting hit by the boss in turn. (You can stand on the south side of the pillar at the east position to get a little cover from the boss.) Curtain Call will usually kill it in one shot, but not always, so clear the area of Thralls and prepare your scout rifle for cleanup.
• Conservative approach: Pick up the orb, run to cover. If you move just south of the central hill and peek around the sides, you should be able to shoot the Handmaidens without getting hit by the boss. Pick up the orb again and dunk it. You will probably live. Titans with Curtain Call can use grenades and a Rally Barricade barrage, and Hunters can use a Celestial Nighthawk shot to end it instantly.
• Aggressive approach: Run up and grab the Void Charge, then immediately run for the ramp. The two Handmaidens will spawn but won't start firing for a couple of seconds, but if you delay at all you'll get fried with their Darkness Blast. Jump up, dunk the orb, and die. (You need good platforming skills to pull this off -- any hitch in your movement, such as catching the edge of the platform while jumping up, will get you killed.)
• If you don't have a quick-finish option, jump back down, throwing a grenade near the end of the leap, and shoot the boss from the east position. Cursed Thralls, including one Revenant Cursed Thrall, will spawn from the north and south sides of the hill. Kill these as soon as you see them. When tracking projectiles form, shoot them down or run to the tunnel. Repeat until victorious.

Wardcliff Coil Ammo Gift Abuse

You can speed up the last half of the fight by switching from Wardcliff Coil to Curtain Call, perhaps more than once. Suppose you're playing a Striker Titan:

• Keep the Wardcliff Coil until the boss moves from the east to the center. You may want the Coil to clean up the Acolytes and Knights. Save one round of ammo.
• Beat up the boss in the usual way (two Thrall-fueled grenades plus gunfire).
• When the boss moves to the west, switch to Curtain Call. You will have 5 or 6 shots. Fire 3 at the boss. This is usually enough, but you may need to hit it a few times with the scout rifle.
• Fire the remaining rockets at Ogres and Acolytes. You can take off a bit more than half of an Ogre's health with one rocket.
• Switch back to Wardcliff Coil. Pick up the power ammo dropped by the Revenant Acolyte. Switch back to Curtain Call.
• Move to the south position and kill the last Ogre. Create a Rally Barricade. Throw two Pulse grenades and fire two rockets, then hide in the tunnel from the tracking darts. When the grenades finish ticking, the boss will teleport to the north and shield up.
• Use a rocket (and maybe some scout rifle shots) to kill the Handmaiden. It drops power ammo. Shoulder-charge Thralls to charge up your grenade.
• Grab the orb and shoot the Handmaidens from cover.
• Dunk the orb. From the platform, create a Rally Barricade, throw two Pulse grenades, and fire two rockets. (You probably only need one rocket, but they're not doing any good in your backpack.)
• Note you can get another full magazine if you take care not to grab the power ammo dropped by the first Revenant Acolyte (the one that appears with the Knights).

Recommended Videos

For Momentum + TW:A, look for videos from weeks 5, 11, 13, 15, and 22.

• Modern Tryhard - Solo Prestige Nightfall (Striker Titan, M+TW:A). Week 13.
• Esoterickk - Solo Prestige Nightfall (Striker Titan, M+TW:A). Week 13. Crazy finish with zero seconds left.
• Esoterickk - Solo Nightfall (Voidwalker Warlock, M+TW:A). Week 22. Uses the Wardcliff Coil Ammo Gift fully during the boss fight.
• The HM05 - Solo Nightfall (Hunter, M+TW:A). Switches between Gunslinger (for Ogres/boss) and Nightstalker (to sneak a dunk).

Boss Damage Math

All numbers are from week 22, playing a normal-mode level 270 Nightfall.

The boss advances to a new phase when its health has been reduced by a certain percentage, either 15% or 20% depending on which phase it's in. Watching behavior and making some educated guesses, it looks like Savathûn's Song has about 147,000 total hit points, so you need to do 22,050 or 29,400 points of damage to get to the next phase. It's possible to do more than the exact amount of damage required, making the next phase slightly easier.

Titan Pulse grenades do an initial burst of damage, followed by an additional 7 pulses (or 5 if you go Juggernaut instead of Earthshaker). The initial damage and the last pulse are weaker than the 6 in the middle, doing 62.5% damage. A pulse grenade thrown at Savathûn's Song does 707*2 + 1131*6 = 8200 damage. That's about 5.58% of its health.

Curtain Call is somewhat hard to evaluate because of the cluster effect, but a typical hit does 3730 + 1057 + 622*2 + 88*3 + 385 = 6680 damage. Sometimes it's closer to 7,000. About 4.54% to 4.76%.

Manannan SR4, at medium range (boss in the center), does 148+93 = 241 damage per shot. At long range (shooting from east at boss in west), it does 92+93 = 185 per shot. This is with Candle PS, which has a shorter range than Impulse MS3.

From medium range, a grenade is equivalent to 8200/241 = 34 shots. At 200 rounds per minute, this takes 10.2 seconds, plus the time required for two reloads. At long range, one grenade is equivalent to 44.3 shots, needing 13.5 seconds plus two reloads.

Two grenades plus 24 shots from the scout rifle is 22184 damage, enough to advance through a 15% phase. Three grenades would be overkill. For a 20% phase, you need three grenades plus 20 shots.

Two grenades plus a Curtain Call shot is 23,080 damage, enough for a 15% phase. Two grenades plus two Curtain Call shots is about 29,760, enough to advance through a 20% phase.

Three rockets do about 20,040 damage. Three is often enough to end a 15% phase, either because the damage was on the high side or the previous phase had over-damage, but I've seen it fall short. To end a 20% phase, you'd need five rockets.

A Celestial Nighthawk Golden Gun shot does 28568 damage, or 19.4%. It's enough to end a 15% phase -- notably the the final one -- with a single shot.

Trivia: doing 147,000 damage with a scout rifle would require 610 shots from medium range.

In Prestige mode the numbers are all different. At a 330 light level, weapons do more damage, but Prestige boosts enemy health disproportionately higher. So you may not be able to advance a phase with the same number of shots.

Anomaly Locations

Starting Area

• 01 In the lower area you'd get to if you ran past the entrance.
• 02 Hanging above the entrance crevice.

Arcology Entrance

• 03 Straight across, up high, on the far side of the room.
• 04 Up high on the side you entered from.
• 05 At top of inverted 'V' near the entry door, up high.

First Ogre Room

• 06 Above entry door (above/behind as you enter).

Intermission

• 07 When you get to the traps, turn around and look up high.

First Dunk

• 08 The room behind you when you see the running Acolytes.
• 09 On the platform with the orb, to the right side.
• 10 After dunking, look back and way up on the right side.

Seal and Crystals

• 11 As you enter, before you drop, straight ahead and up a bit.
• 12 Before you drop, behind you on the right.
• 13 Halfway down the pit, on the wall on right.
• 14 Behind a pillar, forward and left from where you land.

Ogres and Wizards

• 15 From entry doorway, straight ahead and up.
• 16 From entry doorway, left and much higher up.
• 17 Off the "cliff" edge, about halfway along. Requires jumping or an elevated position.
• 18 Near second Ogre, down in the water area.

More Crystals and Another Orb

• 19 Attached to ceiling; head to the left as you enter the crystal room.
• 20 As you enter the main room, against the wall and a bit back on the left side.
• 21 Above the first set of bad guys (where traps are), way up high.
• 22 Just before the orb, up high on the left, between the curvy decorative architecture bits.

Second Dunk

• 23 Side area off the corridor where the Knights, Acolytes, and traps are.
• 24 Three-pillar room, on the right side.
• 25 On the far side of the pillar backing the dunk receiver.

Return to the Seal

• 26 Before dropping down, past the pit in a small chamber on the left.
• 27 In the caves, before the last drop, straight ahead as you run through.
• 28 At start of the Thrall area, in a small room on the left.
• 29 Above the doorway at the mid point.
• 30 Before entrance to final chamber, up on the left side.

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Copyright 2018 Andy McFadden. All Rights Reserved.