Destiny 2: Season of the Haunted is more than just a bunch of spooky ghosts and one space rhino’s utter obsession with us. It’s a story about trauma and watching various characters come to terms with the nightmares haunting them. This got me wondering about what my Guardian’s Nightmares would be if they were forced to conduct a ritual aboard the Leviathan.
Yes, I know that the Shadowkeep expansion technically covered all of this with us battling against Crota, Ghaul, and other bosses from our past. But I will be honest with you: I don’t think my Guardian is really that afraid of Oryx’s kid. There are some other, real Nightmares clinging to my Guardian like Egregore Fungus does to, well, apparently everything.
Scorn Raiders
I honestly don’t know of any snipers in the game more annoying than Scorn Raiders. Their void crossbows do comical amounts of damage on higher difficulties, allowing them to one-shot most players with relative ease. These weapons also have a fairly quick fire rate, which gives users very little time to react. Even though they did get recently nerfed, they are still uniquely annoying to deal with. Honestly, I have lost track of how many times I died to Raiders in Grandmaster Nightfalls or the Legendary campaign.
Day One Atraks-1, Fallen Echo
Introducing the reason I never got the day one emblem for the Deep Stone Crypt raid. Like many teams, my group was stopped dead in its tracks by this malicious Fallen. While she is a pushover now, Atraks-1 was absolutely brutal on Contest Mode.
Not only were her mechanics unique and difficult to grasp, but also her health bar was comically large. This led to multiple failed attempts where my team just didn’t output enough damage to successfully kill her before she enraged. It was a supremely difficult encounter that acted as a gut check for a lot of fireteams. It’s why I now make a point to always try and “one phase” her whenever our paths cross. She deserves it for the hell she put my team through.
Stasis Pre-Nerf
Remember when the Beyond Light expansion introduced Stasis and the absolute chaos that followed in PVP? It’s difficult to imagine now with Solar and Void dominating a lot of the meta, but there was a time when the Crucible was a winter wonderland. Hunter’s Shatterdive was comically oppressive, a Warlock’s melee froze you for four-thousand years, and hearing a Titan active their Behemoth Super just made me set the controller down. If you played PVP when Stasis was first released, then you have some icy battle scars that may never heal.
Literally Just a Cabal with a Shield
My colleague Merritt has already written at length about these enemies, but I wanted to give them a special shoutout. Of all the enemies in Destiny 2, I’m not sure anyone has more of a body count than the Cabal Phalanx. Their shields can block melee attacks, bullets, glaives, grenades, and god itself. Traveler help you if you decide to get into a melee fight with one because they will make you past tense in a single swing. When my Guardian closes his eyes at night, he doesn’t have nightmares of Savathun or Oryx; instead, they’re of a lone shield boi running around the EDZ.
That Taken Hobgoblin Who Ruined My Flawless Prophecy Run
Fuck this Taken Hobgoblin and his stupid retaliation attack.
About half a year ago, I finally decided to try and beat the Prophecy dungeon without dying. I really liked the emblem and was feeling extra confident in my skills that evening. After a few hours of attempts, I finally made it to the final boss, who is honestly pretty simple. With two damage phases down, I just needed to go one more cycle and that emblem would be all mine.
Unfortunately for me, the Taken Hobgoblins in the damage phase room were feeling extra ambitious and wanted a promotion. About halfway through my third and final damage phase, I got walloped by this enemy’s retaliation attack at the same time the boss hit me. This, unsurprisingly, instantly killed me and almost made me hurl my controller across the room.
If my Guardian is haunted by anything in Destiny 2, it’s that Hobgoblin. It lives in my Warlock’s head rent-free, and every time I die to one, I think of that jerk in Prophecy. Why is that attack so damn strong? Why does it trigger from even a small amount of indirect damage? This guy is the reason I haven’t bothered trying to solo flawless Prophecy again.
