With the dust settled from the World First race in Destiny 2’s Salvation’s Edge raid, it’s now your turn to tackle the challenges within. If you’re finding the fourth encounter, Verity, a bit perplexing, you’re not alone. While it might initially seem obscure, understanding the mechanics makes it quite manageable. This guide will walk you through everything you need to know to conquer Verity.
Verity is positioned as the fourth encounter in the Salvation’s Edge raid, succeeding the Substratum, Dissipation, and Repository encounters. Unlike the previous encounters which revolved around Resonance plates, Verity introduces a more intricate mechanic that tests your observational skills and communication. Success in Verity hinges on attention to detail and coordinated teamwork.
Recommended Loadouts and Gear for the Verity Encounter
Image: A Guardian showcases a top-tier weapon, suitable for engagements in Destiny 2’s Salvation’s Edge raid.
Similar to most encounters in the Salvation’s Edge raid, Verity doesn’t feature a traditional boss with a massive health bar to deplete. Instead, the challenge lies in navigating complex mechanics while managing enemy pressure. A significant portion of the encounter will likely require players to operate independently, making survivability a key factor in your loadout choices.
Prioritize gear and abilities that enhance self-sustain. Weapons equipped with healing perks like Heal Clip can be invaluable. Consider Solar healing grenades for quick bursts of health regeneration or armor mods such as Recuperation to gain health back on Orb pickup.
Enemy composition in Verity includes Taken Knights, menacing Ogres, and swarms of Dread Husks, amongst other minor foes. Critically, Unstoppable Champions will consistently spawn throughout the encounter. Equip a potent secondary or heavy weapon capable of swiftly eliminating these Champions and ensure at least one fireteam member has an Unstoppable Champion stunning capability.
Salvation’s Edge Raid Encounter Map: Verity Arena Layout
Image: Illustrative map depicting the layout of the Verity encounter arena within Destiny 2’s Salvation’s Edge raid.
The Verity encounter takes place within a spacious, singular chamber. Upon entering, you’ll notice six podiums encircling the Rally Banner point. Each podium features a statue that mirrors the armor and appearance of a player in your fireteam. These statues play a crucial role in player identification later in the encounter. Further into the room, positioned against the back wall, are three additional podiums arranged left, center, and right.
Verity Encounter Mechanics: Inside Team Role
Image: Player perspective from inside the Verity encounter arena, highlighting a statue displaying geometric shapes in Destiny 2.
Upon encounter initiation, three players will be randomly selected and teleported to an isolated, instanced arena – we’ll refer to this group as the “inside team.” Within this instance, only the rear section is accessible, with an energy barrier preventing return to the main area.
Inside, each player will find a statue that corresponds to their character, similar to those at the front of the room. However, these statues differ by each holding one of three distinct shapes: a circle, a triangle, or a square.
The initial critical step for the inside team is to communicate the sequence of shapes displayed by these statues, from left to right. This callout is vital as it dictates the actions of the “outside team.” Once the shape order is relayed, the inside team can begin their mechanics.
Focus on the back wall of the instance. Here, you’ll observe a projection displaying two shapes that are available within your room. The primary objective is to manipulate the shapes in the room to ensure that the back wall projection shows two instances of the shape corresponding to your statue. To achieve this, defeat the two Taken Knights present in the room. These Knights will drop shapes that are different from the shape your statue is holding.
Important: Only pick up one shape at a time. Picking up two shapes simultaneously will cause them to combine into a different shape, complicating the process. Once you have a shape that differs from your statue’s shape, dunk it at the statue holding that differing shape.
For instance, if your statue holds a triangle, and the back wall projection displays a triangle and a square, you would defeat Taken Knights until a square shape drops. Then, dunk the square shape at the statue holding the square shape. Before engaging the Knights, all inside players should confirm the shapes displayed on their back wall projection to avoid unnecessary shape manipulation, as some players might enter the instance with their required shapes already present.
Image: Action shot within Destiny 2’s Verity encounter, demonstrating the shape exchange mechanic between players.
After all inside players have successfully traded shapes to display two of their statue’s shape on the back wall projection, the next phase begins. Now, each inside player needs to transfer one of their shapes to each of the other two inside players. Around this time, or possibly slightly earlier after defeating the initial Taken Knights, an Ogre will likely spawn. Eliminate the Ogre. Once defeated, more Taken Knights will respawn. Defeat these Knights to gather more shapes for trading.
During the shape trading process, typically around the time players are passing shapes to each other, The Witness will eliminate the entire inside team. This is a scripted event and unavoidable. However, the outside team can revive the fallen inside players. An outside player must collect each Ghost and dunk it at the correct podium located near the Rally Banner. The podium arrangement isn’t fixed, but spectating dead players can guide the outside team to the correct revive locations. Inside players can spectate and see the outside statues, although they cannot see their own statue directly, requiring a process of elimination and communication. Distinct Ghost shells and armor cosmetics are extremely helpful in quickly identifying players for revives.
After being revived, inside players should finalize the shape distribution, ensuring everyone has given one shape to each of the other two players. If executed correctly, after another Ogre spawn and subsequent Taken Knights, inside players should observe the two shapes they are not holding displayed on the back wall projection. At this point, confirm that everyone inside has the correct shapes. Shape trades will lock once shape combination begins. When all inside players are ready, each player picks up the two differing shapes from their statue. This action combines them into a unique 3D shape. This concludes the inside team’s mechanics for this phase. They now must wait for the outside team to complete their tasks to open the path back to the main arena.
Verity Encounter Mechanics: Outside Team Role
Image: Example of a completed 3D shape puzzle in Destiny 2’s Verity encounter, crucial for outside team mechanics.
The outside team’s role involves fewer steps but requires constant awareness and coordination. After the inside team is teleported, the outside team should designate one player as the “Dissection” player, responsible for shape manipulation, and the remaining two for add clear. Throughout this encounter phase, the outside team will face a continuous influx of enemies, including frequent Unstoppable Champions. Effective add clear is essential to allow the Dissection player to move freely and safely around the arena.
The Dissection player’s primary task begins after receiving the shape callout from the inside team, detailing the left-to-right shape order on the inside statues. The objective is to replicate the 3D shapes that the inside players are creating, but on the outside statues near the rally flag. Initially, each outside statue will already hold a 3D shape, but these shapes will be incorrect and need to be corrected to match the inside team’s shapes.
Correcting the shapes involves trading shapes between the outside statues. To do this, the Dissection player collects a shape from a Taken Knight that corresponds to the shape you want to remove from a statue. Then, collect the shape you want to add to that statue from another Taken Knight. Interact with the statue you want to modify. This will swap the shapes.
For example, if the inside callout is triangle, square, circle, the statue corresponding to the triangle player needs a 3D shape composed of a square and a circle. If this statue currently holds a cone (square and triangle), the Dissection player would defeat a Taken Knight to pick up a triangle shape, and interact with the cone statue. This removes the triangle from the cone statue. Then, defeat another Taken Knight to collect a square shape, and take it to the statue that needs a square (as it won’t need a square for its final 3D shape). This will perform a shape swap, and the cone shape will transform into a cylinder (square and circle combined), which is the correct shape for the triangle player’s statue based on our example inside callout.
Similar to the inside phase, The Witness will eliminate the inside team during the Dissection process. Their Ghosts will appear to the outside team. Each outside player must pick up a Ghost. The dead inside players can then assist in identifying which of the six podiums corresponds to each of them for revival. After everyone is revived, the outside team resumes shape Dissection until all three outside statues display the correct 3D shapes that mirror those being created by the inside team.
Verity Encounter: Intermission and Cycle Completion
Image: A dramatic scene from the final battle of Destiny 2’s Salvation’s Edge raid, depicting high-stakes combat.
Once each inside player has created a 3D shape by combining the two shapes they were not initially holding, and the outside Dissection player has correctly replicated these 3D shapes on the outside statues, the inside team can rejoin the outside team. This reunion is brief. Unstoppable Champions will spawn on the left and right sides of the arena, quickly followed by The Witness, who will eliminate all but one player.
This initiates a larger version of the earlier revive mechanic. The surviving player must initiate the first revive, again relying on guidance from the spectating dead players to locate the correct revive podiums. However, once a few players are revived, they can also participate in reviving their remaining fireteam members.
Successfully reviving all players completes one cycle of the Verity encounter. Following this, another set of three random players will be teleported inside, and the entire process repeats. Completing three successful cycles of this mechanic will conclude the Verity encounter, allowing you to proceed further into the Salvation’s Edge raid.
