If you believe last season’s Grandmaster NFs were difficult, you’re in for a surprise. The Corrupted on Grandmaster difficulty has to be one of the hardest Destiny 2 activity by a landslide. However, all of you who wish to unlock the ‘Conqueror’ seal in Season of Arrivals must complete it. With that said, The Corrupted isn’t impossible and we’re here to help you knock it off your do-to list. In this guide, we’ll help you learn all you need to know about The Corrupted Nightfall on Grandmaster difficulty, best builds, and some tips to help you complete it in Destiny 2.
Destiny 2 The Corrupted Grandmaster Nightfall Ordeal
Before we start, remember that it’s an 1100 Power Level activity that requires you to be 1075 PL. However, due to ‘Contest Mode’ modifier, Power Level over 1075 doesn’t provide any additional incentives. Aside from this, you’ll also need a pre-made fireteam of 3. First, let’s talk about elemental shields and champions you’ll run into:
| Elemental Shields | Void, Solar, Arc |
| Champions | Unstoppable, Overload, Taken |
| Boss Cheese | Possible (non-Platinum) |
In Season of Arrivals, Overload Rounds can now only be applied to Bows, Sidearms, and Hand Cannons. Unstoppable Rounds, on the other hand, can only be applied on Hand Cannons and Pulse Rifles. You can also unlock Inferno Whip and Overload Grenades from the Seasonal Artifact but we don’t recommend it. You’ll also need to deal with all 3 elemental shields. As for subclasses, there are a few options at your disposal:
- 3x bottom-tree Hunters with 100 Mobility and Sixth Coyote
- 1x Sentinel Shield Titan w/ Ursa Furiosa, 1x bottom-tree Hunter w/ Sixth Coyote, 1x Chaos Reach Warlock
- 1x Ward of Dawn w/ Helm of Saint-14, 1x Well of Riddance w/ Phoenix Protocol, 1x bottom-tree Hunter w/ Sixth Coyote
Now let’s talk about weapons and mods you should consider:
| Kinetic Weapons | Mountaintop, Izanagi’s Burden, Dire Promise, Spare Rations |
| Special Weapons | Divinity, Kindled Orchid, Arc/Void/Solar Bow, Gnawing Hunger |
| Power Weapons | Wendigo GL3, Anarchy, Edgewise, Hammerhead, Xenophage |
| Armor Mods | High-Energy Fire, Counter Charge, Powerful Friends, Minor Resist, Major Resist, Boss Resist, Solar Resist, Overload Grenades, Special Finisher, Oppressive Darkness |
| Weapon Mods | Overload Arrows, Overload Rounds, Unstoppable Rounds |
To give you a better idea of how we did it, this is what my fireteam and I ran:
- Bottom-tree Nightstalker w/ Sixth Coyote: Mountaintop, Gnawing Hunger, Edgewise
- Well of Riddance Warlock w/ Phoenix Protocol: Dire Promise, Divinity, Wendigo GL3
- Sentinel Shield w/ Ursa Furiosa: Izanagi’s Burden, Arc Bow w/ Overload Shots, 21% Delirium
Tips and Strategies
Immediately after the strike starts, head to your right side and kill the boss. This will allow you to proceed forward if you don’t care about 2x Overload Champions. If you wish to deal with the Overload Champions, try to get rid of the snipers first. Take the next section slowly and proceed to the elevator room.
In the elevator room, don’t start the encounter right away. You can pass the orb to your teammates and they can change the weapons to drop the charged orb on the ground. We’d recommend leaving around 20-30 charged orbs in different areas of the room. Once done, start the encounter and rely on charged orbs to deal damage. Try to leave at least 3 of these charged orbs for a boss chest explained below.
In the next area, you’ll come across 2x Unstoppable Champions, a few Arc-shield Knights, and some Shriekers. Once again, try to take things slowly until you reach the Ogre room.
In the Ogre room, you’ll need to deal with 3x Overload Champions (in Ascendant Realm) and 1x Unstoppable Champion. If you don’t want to deal with them, you can try and nuke the Ogres right away. We highly recommend backing off a little once you’re about to be teleported to the other area.
In the next section, there will be 2x Overload Champions on either side of the stairway and 2x Unstoppable Champions at the bottom of the stairs. Deal with them and jump down.
After jumping down, you can wait for the Wanted Enemy to disappear if you’ve got time or ask your Hunter to help you escape. There will be 2x Overload Champions in the area you’d need to deal with if you want the Platinum completion.
After coming to the boss room, damage the boss as much as you can and throw everything at the adds. This room is pretty hectic and there are multiple ways of approaching it. What we did is Divinity the boss and damage her. After adds appear, we’d blind enemies from behind the Sentinel Shield using the Wendigo GL3 and clear everything – remember that using Sentinel Shield while inside a Well of Riddance won’t charge it.
Once she teleports, chase after her deal with another Overload Champion and an Unstoppable Champion in the Ascendant Realm. Now all that remains is to avoid getting thrown off the edges by Sedia. You can keep on sliding to make it a little easier. There will only be Solar shields in this area so make sure you’ve enough ammo for your Edgewise, Xenophage, etc.
Boss Cheese
To cheese the boss, you’ll need to take 3x charged orbs all the way from the elevator room to the first boss room. Once there, don’t start the encounter and stay on a far off platform from where you’re easily able to shoot the boss. Throw one of the charged orb to drop her shield and leave her at like 1% HP. Once done, start the encounter and finish her off. Remember that this won’t grant you the Platinum completion but if you only care about completing it, this is a very easy way to do so.
That’s all we’ve got in our Destiny 2 Season of Arrivals The Corrupted Grandmaster Nightfall Ordeal. For more help on the game, you can check out our detailed Destiny 2 wiki guides.