Destiny 2 Leviathan Raid Emperor Calus Guide
Emperor Calus
Encounter: It’s time for the first and only real boss fight of the Leviathan Raid. If you’ve never played a Destiny Raid before, this will be quite different from anything else you’ve encountered in this Raid. If you’ve played past Raids, you know what to expect from the Leviathan Raid final boss fight and how tough it’s likely going to be.
The first phase is simple mobs of adds that need to be killed. After some time, Calus will clap and all players will be transported to the Outside Astral area. Three players can collect orbs to return Inside the Throne Room. Outside, each of the three players left will see a different symbol on Calus’ forehead. They communicate these to the Inside team, who takes out the Councilor on the circular platform for the one symbol not called.
Players Outside will continue getting sucked towards the giant projection of Calus, and they need to call out the symbols while taking out Psions and Councilor Projections that appear. As the Inside team kills the correct Councilors, barriers appear Outside that help them not get sucked all the way forward and killed. After three call outs, the Outside team will be see a bunch of Skulls pouring out of the Calus projections mouth. Killing these Skulls adds to the multiplier Force of Will buff that allows you to damage Calus.
Meanwhile, the Inside team will need to take down Calus’ shield to have him stop spawning Skulls and spawn three orbs to bring the Outside players back in. Once back, everyone heads to a circular platform to get the Force of Will buff and start doing damage to Calus. Occasionally Calus will raise his arm and a bomb will appear, which signals the move to the next platform. Once all four platforms are used, the cycle will start again, with each subsequent cycle getting progressively more difficult.
Once Calus’ health reaches about 1% left, he enters Last Stand, which is a final massive damage cycle that results in either you doing enough damage to him, or him killing the whole team. He has a shield for this portion that needs to come down before damage can be done to him. Take out the shield and his last bit of health in time to defeat the Leviathan Raid final boss and reap your rewards.
Strategy: Begin by designating three people for an Outside team and three for the Inside team. Inside will be dealing with a lot of adds and needing to survive, so I recommend this being your higher power level players. Start the fight by shooting the chalice out of Calus’ hand. Kill adds and wait for Calus to clap and teleport the entire group Outside. The three Inside players grab the orbs and teleport back to the Throne Room.
Outside players need to brace against the small purple barricade to avoid being sucked into the massive Calus projection’s mouth. Each of the three outside players needs to look towards Calus’ forehead. They will each see a different symbol. Call them out, so that the Inside players can kill the Councilor with the symbol that doesn’t match (ie. if Outside calls Axes, Dogs, and Sun, the Inside team would kill the Chalice Councilor). Killing the correct Councilor will spawn another barrier closer to Calus for the Outside team.
At each barrier, there will be three Psions and two projections that need to be quickly killed. Scions can bounce players over the barricade, and the projections will cause a team wipe. We found it easiest to line the Outside team up and assign each one to a Psion–left, middle and right–so that we could essentially spawn kill them, and then focus on the projections. We looked at what symbol we had to call while we were being sucked forward to the next barricade and immediately called it. It may take some time to get right, but the Outside team has it much easier than the Inside players.
After three sets of call outs, the final barrier will not have any symbols. Kill the final Psions and projections and the large Calus will start spewing ghostly Skulls from his mouth. The Outside players need to shoot as many of these as possible. Every Skull destroyed adds one to your Force of Will damage multiplier, which has a direct impact on how much damage you can do to Calus. During this time, the Inside team will continue to add clear, and they need to take down Calus shield to get the Outside team back in for damage.
This part is a bit tricky. Take down his shield too fast, and the Outside team can’t shoot as many Skulls to increase damage. Wait too long, and Calus will team wipe you. Try to find that balance. We’ve found that if the Outside team calls when they are around x50 on the damage, this gives enough time to take down his shield and still have between x60 and x70 on your multiplier. Once the Outside team clears Skulls, use the orbs spawned to transport back Inside.
Now everyone moves to one of the four circular platforms to get the Force of Will buff and do damage to Calus. Your team can do them in any order you want, but you want your whole team on one platform at a time to maximize your damage output, so communicate! Don’t jump on any of the other platforms until you are ready to use them because the Force of Will will only stick around each platform for a limited time after they are stepped on. We go with back left first, so that the Outside team can get to it quickly after coming back in.
Watch for Calus to raise his arm. As soon as he does, leave the platform. He’s spawning a solar bomb that is almost sure to kill you. Move to the next one and continue to do damage. Remember to communicate as a team and work out what order you will be going to the platforms in. Sometimes if Calus is staggered enough, he will not spawn a solar bomb, but you need to watch your Force of Will buff. If it goes away, it means that platform is inactive and you need to move on to the next one to continue dealing damage to Calus.
After all four platforms are used, the cycle will begin again. Repeat until you get Calus down to about 1% of his health left. He will regain a shield and enter Last Stand. It’s time to burn him with everything you’ve got. Unleash your power weapons, supers, grenades–anything and everything–until his shield and health are no more. Congratulations! You’ve just beaten the Leviathan Raid. Drop down the middle pit that opens up to collect your rewards.
Navigate quickly to any part of this guide:
- Raid Intro and Need to Knows
- Castellum/Entry Hub Guide
- Royal Pools Guide
- Pleasure Gardens Guide
- The Gauntlet Guide
- Emperor Calus Guide
- Rewards/Raid Vendor
Note: Keep in mind that you may need to adjust strategies for your group. The strategies posted are how my fireteams have managed to complete each encounter, and they now seem to be widely accepted by the Destiny community. Communication with your group is the key.
