With Crota's End Contest + Challenge modes coming in less than a week, I thought I'd write up a quick guide of how it worked in D1 (Age of Triumph) as a refresh of the mechanics for those who need it. [b]The Stills[/b] Fairly straighforward encounter. Follow the path, which was fixed every time, past 15 lamps. When not near a lamp, you gain stacks of Weight of Darkness, which impede your movement. Staying near a lamp removes these stacks, but the lamp will turn red over time and eventually explode, killing those next to it. Functionally, these same lamps appear in The Lightblade. Pits of death litter the area, as do Thralls and Cursed Thralls. As you progress, you will also encounter Knights. At the end of the area, you will find a plate next to a chasm. All you needed to do was touch the plate in D1, expect that someone must stand on it at all times here. Doing so will gradually form a bridge across the chasm. In the meantime, you must defend yourself - without any lamps - from waves of enemies, including Ogres spawning on the far side of the area. When the bridge is formed, your Weight of Darkness stacks will be removed. Turn, cross the bridge, run into the light and don't look back. Challenge mode: previously, none [b]The Bridge[/b] Note the presence of one central plate and two Annihilator Totems, one on each side. Standing on the central plate will form a bridge across the gap, but also activate the Totems, which must have someone standing underneath in order to prevent a wipe. The goal is to have all members of the team cross the bridge, but you can only cross a) when the bridge is fully formed, and b) while holding a Hive Sword. Assign players to the plate and Totems, the others help defend the area and kill the unique Knight, the Hive Swordbearer. Have someone pick up the Hive Sword and cross the bridge. After crossing, they will have to kill a Gatekeeper, who can only be damaged with the Hive Sword. Repeat until three players have crossed. The other side of the bridge also has its own central plate and Annihilator Totems. As the three people remaining on the starting side won't be able to maintain the bridge and cross it themselves, this second set must be used instead. The three people who crossed should assign themselves to these locations and defend, while the other three cross and kill their Gatekeepers. When everyone has crossed, a new set of Hive Swords will appear. Kill waves of enemies until a group of Gatekeepers spawn, killing them all will end the encounter. Challenge mode: previously, none [b]Thrallway[/b] Not really an encounter, but must be completed nonetheless. Kill Shriekers to remove the walls that block your path, while clearing endless Thrall in front of you. Fast enough movement will allow you to enter an actively-closing door that gives access to a chest. If one person makes it and opens the chest, the door will unlock. [b]Ir Yût, The Deathsinger[/b] Timed encounter. Split into two teams of three, one goes left and the other goes right, both going up the stairs and into the main chamber. Kill the Acolytes and Knights you find, to lure out the Wizards. Killing the Wizards causes the Shrieker to open. Once both sets of enemies are dead, Ir Yût's room opens, unload everything onto her util she dies. If you do not kill her before the timer expires, the whole team wipes. Challenge mode: Ir Yût must be killed with a Hive Sword. To make the Swordbearer spawn, you have to kill [i]everything[/i] in the arena, and then another wave of enemies. Once the Hive Sword is obtained, the boss will die to a single attack with it. [b]Crota, Son of Oryx[/b] Stand next to the crystal in Ir Yût's room to begin the encounter, and watch some cool cinematics while enemies fill up the rooms around you. When the walls disappear, clear them out. In this encounter, health will not naturally regenerate unless holding the Chalice of Light; have someone retrieve this from the lower area of the arena. The Chalice can be transferred from person to person by interacting when nearby. The Chalice did appear in the 390 version, but was not available in the original Hard Mode. Designate someone to the Hive Sword user, as this is the only way to damage Crota. They will kill the Swordbearer and pick it up when everyone is ready. Convenient places to stand when holding the Sword are small rock formations to the left and right of where Crota stands at the beginning of the encounter, below the platform. The Swordbearer will instruct the team to shoot Crota so his shield can be lowered. Rockets from a safe distance were the best bet, and having a weapon with DoT e.g. Thorn was helpful in preventing it from regenerating. When the shield is down, Crota will kneel and be vulnerable to damage from the Sword. The optimal combo, I believe, was 2 light attacks and 1 heavy, followed by the Super if you have it. Make sure to use the Super even if it disrupts the combo. If the team is fast enough, you can get Crota down twice within the 45-second duration of the Sword. The Oversoul is a mechanic that will cause a wipe if enough damage is not dealt to it in time - shoot the big green thing in the sky, very hard to miss. In the original normal mode, this only activated when a fireteam member died. In Hard Mode, it activates whenever Crota recovers from being downed. It will also activate when Crota enrages - once his health is low enough, he will enrage and activate the Oversoul repeatedly. If possible, keep his health above the threshold and use a new Sword so you can fully commit to killing him before he has too many chances to use the Oversoul. For every two Swords that are used, a pair of Ogres will spawn in the lower part of the arena, and they must be killed before a new Swordbearer will spawn. Boomer Knights will occupy the vantage points in the towers, kill one of them on whichever side the team chooses to position themselves on; killing both will cause them both to respawn, along with a Wizard. Crota will also be moving along the main walkway throughout the encounter (Crotating). It's easiest to damage him when he is in the centre, but confident teams can execute it anywhere. Challenge mode: no player can use the Sword more than once