Rite of the Nine is here, which means that it’s time to step back into some beloved dungeons with a new coat of paint. First up in the rotation is Spire of the Watcher — The Witch Queen’s Cowboy-themed dungeon — so, saddle up, and lock in.
There are a few changes and additions to the Rite of the Nine dungeons, and so this guide will go over all of the changes and differences between the original dungeon and the Rite of the Nine version. All of the changes are in the Eternity and Ultimatum modes, and definitely add a level of complexity to the dungeon.
Our Spire of the Watcher guide will also go over the weapons, collectables, and everything else you need to know about the new iteration of Spire of the Watcher in Rite of the Nine.
Overview
Hailing from Season of the Seraph, Spire of the Watcher is set on Mars and pits you against a group of the Vex known as the Sol Divisive. They are trying to breach the Spire to steal the data from Rasputin’s submind and sabotage your attempts to rebuild the Warmind to help the fight against The Witness.
Firstly, there are a few modifiers on both the Eternity and Ultimatum dungeons to be aware of:
- Brawn: In Eternity mode, the Brawn modifier gives you massive amounts of health, but removes all health regeneration. Defeating challenging enemies will help you and your nearby allies recover health, as will other forms of healing.
- Notswap: In Ultimatum mode, the Notswap modifier means that swapping Exotic armor or ammo type in the Kinetic or Energy weapon slot drains all ability energy.
Spire of the Watcher has three encounters, all of which revolve around a ‘wire’ based mechanic. Essentially, you need to connect a source of power by connecting nodes to drive the current to the endpoint. You do this by shooting the nodes in order, powering them and changing the wire from yellow to blue.
To shoot the nodes, you need to have a buff called Arctrician, which you get from killing specific enemies — Conduit Minotaurs. They’ll drop a pool of light, which you step into to retrieve the buff for 45 seconds, which’ll extend by 5 seconds every time you shoot a node.
That’s pretty much the major mechanic for the whole dungeon, so once you know how to use the Arctrician buff, you should be set to complete all of it. Familiarising yourself with where each room’s nodes are will be key to learning Spire, but otherwise the rest of the dungeon is as simple as ad clear and DPS.
Guide
Importantly, with Rite of the Nine, there is an Explorer mode for each of the dungeons that you can use to learn the dungeons by playing. If you’d prefer to do so, go and hop in to play as you follow along with this guide!
Opening
The opening of Spire of the Watcher is designed to help you learn the Arctrician mechanic and unlock the Spire for the rest of the dungeon.
Run forward until you reach a set of buildings with wires, and importantly, Vex enemies to kill. Here, you’ll want to find a Conduit Minotaur to kill for the Arctrician buff, which will allow you to power up the four end nodes in the middle of the area.
Here’s a map of this encounter — made using MS Paint, in Destiny tradition. Follow the wires from the start points, and you should be able to easily find the nodes, but the arrows on the map should help if you get lost.
Rite of the Nine Changes: New to Rite of the Nine, a Vex Hydra boss called Amphion, Awakened Mind, will appear in the Eternity and Ultimatum modes. It’s a pretty decent damage check, and any solid DPS strategy should work on taking him out.
Once the hatch opens, jump through and down into the Spire. Once you’ve fallen down, turn to the left and look up for a platform with a vent.
Keep following the vents down until you get to the room with the massive window, and turn left. Walk to the end of the room and look up.
Climb up the vents until you reach the large jumping puzzle in an open area.
Jump across the room, making sure to be careful of falling as well as being careful of the ads around. You can use an Eager Edge sword to make this easier.
Rite of the Nine Changes: Some platforms will rise as you make your way through the jumping puzzle, making it easier for your teammates to catch up without falling.
Keep running through and up the following rooms until you make it to the first true encounter of the dungeon.
COLLECTIBLE 1
The first collectible is in this jumping puzzle, near the end. On the final side, jump to the top platform and run around to a computer panel. The collectible is on top of that panel.
Ascent
Ascent, the first encounter of Spire of the Watcher, is essentially the same as the opening encounter, but far more dangerous and chaotic. Rally up, jump around, and find the Conduit Minotaur to kill, get the Arctrician buff, and start the encounter.
This encounter is a lot more vertical than the opening, and while following the wires is far easier, it can be difficult to do that while also staying alive.
Rite of the Nine Changes: In this encounter, there are Seeker enemies (like in Vault of Glass and Starcrossed) which will launch at you and detain you in a bubble for a few seconds. You can shoot them before they hit you, and it’ll stop the detainment. On top of this, the gravlifts are locked by flying Harpy and Hydra minibosses that you have to kill to progress.
Otherwise, this encounter is pretty simple and linear. Instead of it being a complicated route, the switches are easy to follow as they’re wrapped around the building, and it’s about staying alive and making sure that you know where to shoot the switches from without falling off, which takes time and practice.
There are three floors with two circuits each, with each one increasing in verticality. Make sure you’re always aware of your surroundings, as one misstep could lead to a very steep fall to your death.
Rite of the Nine Changes: There will be a Vex Minatour miniboss called Ohmon, the Resistant at the end of this encounter, like the first. He’s pretty easy to kill, just watch out so you don’t get surprised.
Once you’re done with this, jump up to face Akelous, the Siren’s Current.
Akelous, the Siren’s Current
Akelous, the Siren’s Current is the first boss in Spire of the Watcher. Bearing a massive similarity to the Consecrated Mind from Garden of Salvation, the damage phase is a familiar one if you’re a fan of the Black Garden raid.
Once again, the actual circuit puzzle in this raid is easy. Essentially, there are four nodes in the middle to start from, and four beams that protrude from the edges of the Spire. You need to complete each of the circuits, one on each beam. It’s as easy as following the wires, but the tricky part is having to traverse around the beams without falling off.
Rite of the Nine Changes: There is a change in how you complete Akelous, in that you need to complete the nodes in order based on the geometric shapes displayed in the centre of the encounter. While this is still simple, it requires some strategisation.
Once you complete each of the circuits on the beam, the boss will go towards the last one. Shoot each of his eyes as fast as possible, and damage will start. Much like his Garden of Salvation counterpart, he’ll start moving back among the beams, and you’ll need to damage him as much as possible before he goes back to the middle.
The Queenbreaker and a Trace (to shoot his eyes and the nodes) is pretty much the standard damage plan here, outside of a crit spot, Akelous is immune, so having precision damage for that crit spot is vital. And, what does better precision damage right now than The Queenbreaker?
Once you’re finished, collect your loot and head back down into the spire to descend.
Descent
Going back into the Spire, Descent is all about making your way deep into the Spire to find the final boss. Jump down below the chest in the prior encounter, and make your way deep down elevator shafts to a room full of wires. This room will teach you the next mechanic — we’ve been using yellow wires so far, but this room introduces the concept of red wires.
Clear the room out, and then grab the arctrician buff. You’ll need to look around the room to be able to find multiple red nodes. You need to shoot these nodes in a certain amount of time, or you’ll get a “Lockdown override failed, Arc Nodes reset” warning in chat. Once all of them are shot in a good amount of time, though, you’ll be able to progress.
Rite of the Nine Changes: All but one of the nodes will be closed, and you’ll have to shoot that one first to open the next. One by one, you’ll need to find the next node opened and shoot each one in that order instead of in a random order.
Once you’ve completed that, jump down and descend past the fan blades (be careful, or you'll die like I did, many times). You'll find another, similar room. Do the same, and continue down. Keep going, and there will be a room with a hydra in the middle — once again, there are five red wires and five nodes. Shoot the nodes in the right order, and you’ll be able to continue through to the final encounter.
COLLECTIBLE 2
The second collectible is also down here, too, right before you drop down into the final boss arena, behind a few boxes.
Persys, Primordial Ruin
The final boss of Spire of the Watcher, Persys, Primordial Ruin is a Wyvern boss that will require taking everything that you’ve learnt so far and combining it to clear the dungeon. The room is split into two, the main room and the ‘blast room’, which will become important later on.
Once you’ve rallied and stepped far enough, the encounter will start, and two Hydras will spawn, one on each side of the room. Kill those Hydras to spawn Conduit Minotaurs, and grab the Arctrician buff. Then, head to the centre of the room. Around the room will be five red wires, all of which will need to be shot, just like in Descent.
Rite of the Nine Changes: Like in Descent, these will open randomly and need to be shot as they open.
Once you’ve shot these, the door will open and the nodes around the room will open. You’ll need to use the Arctrician buff to connect these nodes to the ending nodes, as expected, but there’s a catch. Each side of the room will have two paths, one of which will be active while the other will be closed. With this, wires can get crossed easily, so making sure to know which path you need to take will help immensely.
Luckily, here's another top-tier map to help you work out what is where in this encounter!
Rite of the Nine Changes: Like in Akelous, each of these paths will need to be done in a specific order. In the centre of the room will be a pattern to tell you which order to complete them in.
When completing the final path, you’ll need to bait Persys into the blast room and complete the path. Once both paths are done, “Reactor core purge- Armed” and “Reactor Isolation Chamber Active… Take Cover” will appear in chat. You need to run out of the blast room and into the main room (if you stay in there after it’s locked, you will die), and grab the Arctrician buff as fast as possible. Once again, you’ll have to do the red wire puzzle, and then, assuming you didn’t fail, get ready for DPS.
The DPS phase is pretty straightforward, as Persys will exit the room and be vulnerable. He’ll be pretty far away, which means that this is a great encounter for The Queenbreaker, with one person on Divinity to help alleviate the smaller crit spot.
Ultimately, rinse and repeat until you’ve cleared the dungeon. In the Ultimatum mode of this dungeon, you will need to three-phase Persys before Enrage happens, so be aware of that. But otherwise, just keep going until he’s dead, and reap the rewards!
Weapons
There are four returning weapons in Rite of the Nine’s Spire of the Watcher, all of which have new rolls for you to enjoy!
Liminal Vigil
Ammo Type: Primary
Weapon Type: Sidearm
Element: Stasis
Standout Roll: Headstone + Rimestealer
Liminal Vigil has had a couple of interesting new perks in Rite of the Nine, mainly in its second slot.
The Headstone/Rimestealer combination is a great survivability and AoE damage option that provides a strong Stasis combination to the potent archetype of a Heavy Burst sidearm.
Long Arm
Ammo Type: Primary
Weapon Type: Scout Rifle
Element: Arc
Standout Roll: Lone Wolf + Keep Away (PvP)
Long Arm hasn’t had much of an update when it comes to PvE, as Rapid Hit and Explosive Payload/Dragonfly are still the top tier. But, instead, in PvP it now has access to Lone Wolf and Keep Away, both solid perks that make this a fun contender to use in the Crucible.
Terminus Horizon
Ammo Type: Heavy
Weapon Type: Machine Gun
Element: Arc
Standout Roll: Reconstruction/Dragonfly + Jolting Feedback
In my initial guide to Rite of the Nine, I said — “a roll that has a reload perk + Jolting Feedback might take the throne as the best non-Song of Ir Yut Arc LMG”. And, I was right on the money, as this roll is absurd.
There’s an argument for both Reconstruction and Dragonfly here, as I really like my Reconstruction rolls on LMGs, but the combination of Dragonfly and Jolting Feedback seems incredibly potent as well.
Wilderflight
Ammo Type: Special
Weapon Type: Breech-Loaded Grenade Launcher
Element: Void
Standout Roll: Disorienting Grenades + Slideshot + Lead from Gold OR Spike Grenades + Envious Arsenal + Bait and Switch
Wilderflight has had an immense buff with Rite of the Nine, with both its blinding and DPS capabilities making it an essential gun to pick up from the event. Especially if Area Denial Frame BGLs get nerfed, I could see this becoming a strong DPS option.
Closing Time
The Rite of the Nine event is a great way to get back into playing some of the game's most beloved dungeons, and jumping in with our Spire of the Watcher guide will let you hit the ground running.
Keep an eye out for our guides on Prophecy and Ghosts of the Deep in the coming weeks, as well as a full recap and set of articles discussing the future of Destiny 2, the Edge of Fate, Renegades, and everything else that’s been cooking over the past few weeks.
The future of Destiny is great, and it starts here, so stay tuned!
