I've noticed many a person struggling with this challenge, so I figured I would write up a somewhat short but to the point guide through the encounter and challenge for new and old guardians alike that's helped me succeed this week with minimal error (already done all 3 challenge runs within 36 hours of reset). Disclaimer: Before I begin, I'm going to include basic weapon and class setups that I recommend based off personal experience and friendly suggestion. Now, inb4 "___ is better" remarks and et cetera because this community is beyond toxic, everyone has an opinion. You do what works for you. This is simply what I feel gets the job done smoothly. So if you're gonna comment with something of that accord, don't be condescending about it. Offer it kindly. [u]Weapon Setup[/u] [spoiler]Recommended Primary: Hung Jury, Chaos Dogma, any decent-mag scout in those archetypes with triple tap. [b](red jibber, Eclipse, and a lot of other people suggest any high-impact scout/hand cannon with explosive rounds for shanks.); (michaeljacksen suggests Genesis Chain) [/b] Recommended Special: Ex Machina, Black Spindle, Event Horizon, Devil's Dawn, basically any high-impact sniper with triple tap Recommended Heavy: Dark Drinker, Sleeper Simulant, Warpath/Dead Orbit Equivalent (don't know the name), Gjallarhorn[/spoiler] [u]Class Setup[/u] [spoiler]Titan: Defender with Weapons of Light, Bastion, Illuminated (Helm of Saint 14 is useful if the titan is the one killing the Captain; Glasshouse can be used if you have more than one titan.) Hunter: Nightstalker with Black Hole, Predator, Vanish in Smoke to get away if needed (Golden Gun with Deadeye and Celestial Nighthawk if you have more than one hunter) Warlock: Sunsinger with Radiance, Fusion Grenades & Starfire Protocol/Solar Grenades & Sunbreakers, Flame Shield, Touch Of Flame & Viking Funeral[/spoiler] [u]Phase 1: Ads/Aksis Teleports&Siva Swarms/Et Cetera[/u] [spoiler]Have two people to each side. Pretty straightforward. Once the encounter is started, everyone focus on teamshotting every shank you see (one of if not the top cause of wipes on Aksis is lack of shank control!) while avoiding Aksis' spam. [b]If you're taking a lot of damage, back up quick and call for cover! I can't stress this enough![/b] Once Aksis spams his three Siva Swarm shots, they're easy enough to avoid completely from every side depending on his location. If he's middle, left and right sides hide out of his sight behind either pillar, middle hides behind the back pillars. If he's on left, left side hides behind the front pillar, and middle and right hide behind the back pillars. And vice versa. If done right and everyone stays out of Aksis' sight, all the Siva Swarm shots will hit the pillars and not harm you at all. Be sure to communicate which side he's on. It seems pretentious but it's actually quite easy to follow while still killing shanks. After hitting middle, left, and right sides, he'll go back middle and the next phase begins.[/spoiler] [u]Phase 2: Empowerments, Captains, Servitors, Siva Charges[/u] [spoiler]Three people will randomly be charged with the empowered buff. You want to communicate if you are and what side you're on. You want one on each side. [b]Edit (thanks, red jibber!):[/b] You also want to designate who's running cannon and who's throwing charges, regardless of empowerment, as well as who's switching sides if two empowereds are on the same side. If you have two on one side, don't switch until your side's Captain is dead (make sure all shanks are cleared before going for the Captain!). I recommend having someone with a Dark Drinker on each side for easy Captain disposal (one person shoot/throw a grenade to safely distract the Captain and sword user runs around to get behind the Captain and uses the RT attack twice for safe measure). You can pick up a cannon if you're empowered, but just make sure you're on your side once the last siva charge is ready to be thrown. Call out Servitor elements and sides as soon as you see them. You also want one charge thrower per side to throw the charges as soon as the Servitors are down. Whoever uses cannon only has to hold the cannon charge for ~2.5 seconds before letting go. It takes 7 charges to drop Aksis' shield so be sure to count. Call out the last bomb and whoever has it does a countdown to throw once all empowereds are in place. You want to stand around the halfway point between where Aksis teleports and the Servitor plates.[/spoiler] [u]Phase 3: Teleports, Supercharge, Stun, DPS, Tower[/u] [spoiler]As just stated, once the last charge is thrown, all empowereds should be in the middle of their respective sides facing forward. The reason why I say middle is because he teleports and is ready to stun before the servitor plate lights up. So if he doesn't go to your side, you can just turn around and go to your plate. As soon as you see which side he goes to, call it out. You only have a few seconds to stun Aksis, so coordinate the stun with the supercharge. You can still supercharge after stunning Aksis, but you only have a second or two to do so, so try to get it before the stun. Once stunned, call out your empowereds again and switch sides accordingly. Non-empowereds should hit him with supers (every supercharge gives you your super back, so tether/radiance every stun) and DPS immediately, while empowereds get to their sides and position themselves for the next teleport before DPSing. Try to save the cannons until he's tethered/Weapons of Light is up for higher damage, but use all cannon ammo (like with the Servitors, you only have to hold the cannon charge for ~2.5 seconds before achieving max damage with it; once you see the sphere grow or hear the chime of it getting stronger, let go). Once all three supercharges and stuns are done and he goes back middle, choose a tower and burn it. You have a good amount of time to reach whatever tower everyone goes to before Aksis' Siva Mites wipe you, but don't fool around. Try to jump on one at a time or around other people so you don't miss the jump or bump someone/yourself off. Then you just rinse and repeat until you drop his health to final stand level. If you know you'll get him to final stand in time, save at least one cannon just to be safe. Note: You [i]can[/i] push Aksis to final stand before the third teleport. However, it [i]can[/i] glitch and activate a Servitor plate without you knowing, costing you the challenge. Your best bet is not to damage him with anything that causes DoT or while he's teleporting should you push him to final stand before the third teleport.[/spoiler] [u]Phase 4: Final Stand, Kick Aksis' Ass, Victory![/u] [spoiler]Once Aksis' health drops to a miniscule level (like ~5%, maybe?), he'll go back middle without a shield and generate Siva Mites. This is the final stand. Hit him with everything you have. You don't have as much time as when you burn a tower so make it count. Kick his ass and obtain your swee-I mean depressing loot (because screw you, Bungie) that you worked so hard for.[/spoiler] [b]Edit (thanks, SpakulatorX!):[/b] I forgot to put a tldr; I'm not thoughtful at all. [u]Tl;dr:[/u] 1. Kill shanks, block line of sight from Aksis. 2. Call out when empowered,; if double empowered, cannon guy switches after getting cannon. 3. Don't get killed by the captain. 4. Be in position when empowered; this is more important than DPS! 5. Don't jump into a hole. Follow these 5 easy steps and you should kill him in 3 phases, 2 if you have a good DPS loadout. [u]Closing Notes[/u] [b]Edit (thanks, diplomat696!):[/b] Communication is absolute key here; it may seem annoying but clearly calling out (don't have your mic muted!) everything crucial to the encounter makes things smoother for everyone. And make sure comms aren't cluttered with screaming, useless rambling, et cetera. Everyone has their respective job to do; just relax and stick to it. Don't try to do too much or take away from others. Split the workload. It takes some practice and unless you cover all bases from the getgo and experience no error in latency, you won't get it first try. But if you apply what I've written, it shouldn't take you too long. Unless you don't know how to follow instruction, in which case you shouldn't even be raiding, anyway. Questions? Comments? Corrections? Respond kindly. Edit 1: Obligatory "I'm trending!" edit because why not? xD Edit 2: Putting this here to clear up a point. I recommend a Triple Tap scout for Aksis damage but not for primary Aksis damage, if that makes sense. Special/Heavy/Cannon damage should be done first, but because of ammo droughts and synth wait times, I'd rather a person be doing at least that than nothing at all. But I did also edit in having an explosive round weapon for everyone suggesting it. Edit 3: Editted in majority-ruled class suggestions. Edit 4: Spoiler-ing everything so it's not so bulky.