Now that Destiny's Crota's End raid has a hard mode, the race is on to find creative ways to exploit and solo the raid's various sections. This afternoon, I actually figured out a decent way to solo your way through the first phase.
It's mostly the same method as in normal mode, but with a fairly specific twist at the end. Here's what you'll need:
- A titan defender with the "bastion" perk enabled.
- A Patience & Time sniper rifle.
- Some actual patience and time.
- A MIDA Multi-Tool with the speed perk unlocked, though that's not required so much as it is recommended.
Do the first parts like you normally would. Juke the thralls, get up on the rock, jump up onto the ledge. (It's very easy with a titan.) Make your way along the ledge and kill the knight, who is now a yellow knight, so he takes a few more shots. Equip Patience & Time and make your way to the last light and the bridge activation platform.
From there, trigger the light and activate the platform, then jump up onto the rock to the left of the light. Don't worry about the light's explosion knocking you off—it won't do anything to you since the hotfix that removed explosion physics. (Edit: We've tried other versions of this, and it looks like you have to be crouched to stay safe. So, crouch!)
Okay, business as usual, right? Here comes the ogre. Oh shit, the ogre is a Hallowed Ogre with a yellow health bar, and it's pretty difficult to kill solo. If you've got a Gjallarhorn and are very accurate with it, you can probably take him down, but it's gonna be tricky.
While I'm sure there's more than one other way to do this, here's what I did to get past him:
- Wait until he goes behind the big rock, with Patience & Time equipped.
- Just before he comes out (which is when he begins to shoot at you), aim down the sights. You should be aiming at the rock before you can even see his hand.
- When he comes out, you'll be invisible for about ten seconds, and he'll just sit there.
- The moment your invisibility wears off, trigger your Ward of Dawn.
- Chill in the bubble and equip MIDA Multi-Tool. Face the bridge.
- The second the bridge is built, make a break for it. Juke often to dodge any stray ogre fire, and to dodge thralls that pop up on the bridge.
- Profit
That's what I did, and it worked. I even got a gun out of it! If you or any of your raid buddies have a titan with Patience & Time, you should be all set to make it through the first checkpoint, and to sherpa your friends through, too. Of course, it'll be a fun challenge to do it legit, as well.
If you've got any other methods you've come up with or seen, I hope you'll share them below. (For example, it miiiight work better to go onto the rock that's closer to the bridge, but I don't go to that one anymore, so I can't say for sure.)
I've actually been avoiding streams, since my team is going to give Hard Mode a run for its money later tonight, and I want to try it as fresh as possible. (Wish us luck!) With that said, I pulled this off, and wanted to share.