EDIT: FOR 6 MINUTE KILL - it seems the fastest possible way for killing him as the sword carrier is to do the big R2 smash attack (sword smash) you can get 3 of those in 1 shield. Our fireteam just did this, and INevrBackDown was able to get 40% (yea 40) in one sword cycle.... thats 2 shields and he got crota down to half health.... you have to be very lucky with the timing so whoever is calling it out... if you are doing enough dps, the sword carrier should start to jump in when crota has around 30% of a shield left..... if this is done correctly crota can be killed on picking up the 3rd sword (only 1 wave of hallowed ogres) EDIT 2 (6 minute 40 VIDEO) : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rLgswc9xJ5E&list=UUWlyagCIsvCyyuYtAZz8xMw EDIT 3: ok so i've just uploaded a 6 minute 40 kill the fastest strategy - here you see INevrBackDown solely using the R2 smash attack and he manages to get 40% of his health in one cycle which was pretty crazy... this strategy is actually quite forgiving since two people died and we had enough time to kill the oversoul and also kill crota within the 6 minute (or so) mark.... this is a dps point of view for those that requested it.... the dps'ers should call out when to attack crota around a 30% shield.... not to mention that only 2 people in the raid were 31... the rest were 30 and we got the shield down pretty fast - as you see it can go down just as quick with a vision of confluence and corrective measure so my fireteam and I have just beat crota after a gruelling 4 hours of trying, we finally managed to get a strategy that works my team setup: lvl 31 warlock (me) lvl 30 warlock x3 (sunsingers) level 30 hunter x2 (gunslinger and blade dancer) Step 1: as soon as the you start the encounter and the doors open: jump over everything and get downstairs step 2: sword carrier needs to grab the chalice, everyone else KILLS the swordbreaker knight (orange dude) step 3: everybody else quickly runs back a bit towards the underground entrance, whilst the sword carrier jumps onto the rocks shown in the video step 4: as the sword carrier gets onto the rocks, everybody else takes out crota's shield intermediate step 4: ONE GUY focuses on killing the knights on the 6th platform (everybody should be behind cover by now and wont get hit by anything) step 5: sword carrier gets onto the platform and damages crota when he falls to his knees - 2 SECOND window frame so dont try to max damage output you should have enough tries if you get the shield down again, melee R1 attack x3 and one melee sword smash should do it R2 attack step 6: when his shield pops back up sword carrier jump down and everybody else focus on getting the shield down again step 7: sword carrier makes their way to the rocks again (waits a few seconds more as the shield is a bit harder to take down) and jumps back up does the same thing again - try to land the sword super in it deals a bit more damage - SWORD DAMAGE stats: R1 Melee = 6000, R2 melee = 14000, sword super = 16800 step 8: once the sword disappears, the sword carrier needs to jump back to where everyone else is and wait for another swordbreaker knight to appear, and kill it.... then repeat this process step 9: after every TWO (2) sword drops - technically 4 shields of crota - hallowed ogres will spawn, at this point everybody needs to run all the way to the back of the room downstairs and take out the ogres from there - WEAPONS OF LIGHT HERE step 10: repeat. notes: if someone dies the most efficient way to kill the oversoul is sniper rifles - my team had icebreakers and i had praedyth's revenge but any high impact/ high rate of fire sniper rifle should work... gjallarhorn ONLY on hallowed ogres/killing crota's second shield, and I used it on the swordbreaker knight in case we hit enrage timer i wanted to speed it up also if Crota runs off to the right platform when you are trying to get the second shield down, dont worry everybody just run back to the room below dont even bother taking off his shield because its really hard... just continue the cycle again once he's in the middle - you may need to wait on killing the swordbreaker dude until he's back in the middle otherwise a very hard fight, good luck to all with this encounter! can't imagine a hard mode version of this