Alright! Before we get into this I want to make it clear that[u][b] this is MY WAY of being a sword bearer.[/b][/u] I had enough success to be convinced to share this with other folks who might need some advice. This will cover when you should tell your team mates to shoot Crota down, when you need to start jumping up, what combo and how many hits to land on Crota, and when to/how to leave without getting killed. [i]I will not be covering what strategy to use when dealing with boomers/ogre's/adds. I will make a separate post covering the most efficient way to Kill Crota without having to generate many orbs or deal with boomers 90% of the time. [/i] [b]Lets get into it.[/b] As the sword holder, you need to be ready to pick up the sword whenever the sword bearer goes down. Do what you have to do, jump over thralls, jump over the sword bearer...Just keep your health high and you eyes ready for the sword. Once you have the sword here are the steps you need to take: 1. You will run to the left side and jump on top of the rock. As soon as you're getting ready to jump ontop of the rock, you have to tell your team mates to shoot. Make sure you can't see Crota from the rock because if you can, it is most likely that he can see you and shoot you down (we are aware of how inconsistent this is...) 2. Keep your eyes open and ears focused (what?) and be ready to hear/see the rockets coming from your team mates. Whenever you see rockets flying across Crota you will hurry and get to him. I suggest that you slide as you get closer to Crota to evade any of the shots he gets at you just so you can avoid getting hurt. 3. ( I will cover two combo's a and b) a) As Crota is going down this is the attacks/combo you want to use: Melee, Melee, Melee, Smash, Smash. b) It takes exactly 18 heavy smashes to kill Crota. The 15th smash is the one that causes Crota to enrage. So, if you have the sword and you are landing your 14th shot, I suggest that you drop the sword and wait for a fresh one. Why? Because you don't want the sword to disappear as you are hitting Crota. This means that Crota will move left/right depeding on the stratey your team is using. You will wait until Crota goes back to the Middle! ( I personally use the combo a because I know when to stop hitting Crota and I'm use to it). 4. As soon as you see Crota's skin color change, you will run away and jump and swing away through the air. Do not fly/run across the bridge because Crota will sometimes chase your sword bearing ass down! (Again, we know how inconsistent this is...) This is basically everything you have to do as a sword bearer. The rest is up to how your team whats to handle boomers and whether or not they can take Crota's shield down quick! This is effective with any strategy you want to use, but the best one (without having to generate infinite amount of orbs) is the one I can go ahead and provide for you guys if requested. I hope this helps, again, [u][b] this is MY WAY of being a sword bearer.[/b][/u] Edit: Made it clear in the title that this is for hard mode. I am led to believe that this can be done with a lv31 against a lv32 Crota on normal. Edit 2: Thanks to Sir Cums a lot for a reddit post that covers huge amounts of data and calculations. This is for those who prefer to see numbers to prove what works best. http://www.reddit.com/r/DestinyTheGame/comments/2p2p3n/analysis_crotas_end_final_boss_damage_c Edit 3: Thanks to KirbysBack for some footage that you can see if you are a visual learner instead of a reading type. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SbY0XZFsaNY