How to prepare for Destiny 2’s upcoming raid

As we all continue to sink our teeth into Destiny 2: Lightfall and, hopefully, collectively agree that while the story is quite bad, the endgame content is in a great place, let’s talk about getting ready for the upcoming raid. The newest one, Root of Nightmares, launches this Friday, March 10th, whenever the game typically resets in your time zone. If you plan on puzzling out encounters with clanmates or friends, here are some tips for being as prepared as possible.

Reach 1780 Power

That’s right: the soft cap for power this season might be 1800, but since Contest Mode will be in place until Sunday, you’re capped at 1780. This shouldn’t be out of reach for anyone serious enough about Destiny 2 to want to raid day one — after all, the Legendary campaign rewards a full set of 1770.

Unlock your Strand fragments

It’s probably a good idea to get your Strand subclass sorted out, for a couple of reasons. For one, Titans are insanely powerful. A huge amount of crowd control and a powerful Super Ability means I have no doubt raid teams will be bringing along at least one or two. To further incentivize you, one of the game’s best exotic weapons is locked behind a brief quest that requires a fully kitted-out Strand tree.

Final Warning, the new “smart pistol” is a very powerful Strand primary that has both incredible add-clear and single-target potential. Unlocking your full Strand subclass and netting this weapon is a great goal to have in mind before Friday.

Put together a couple of builds using the new loadout system

Veterans are probably having no issue with the new, simplified mod and loadout system, but newcomers are going to want to familiarize themselves with it before raid day. One of the biggest newbie traps is coming into high-tier content without appropriate mods equipped, so be sure you do a little research and kit yourself out with mods suiting your playstyle, subclass, and weapon choices.

The new mods are more flexible than ever, so it’s hard to go wrong, but I’d recommend at least one stat-boosting and one weapon-boosting Armor Charge mod, along with Time Dilation to ensure you’re getting the most bang for your buck.

And that about covers it — pending your ability to find five others to play with. I’d recommend checking the Fireteams section of Bungie.net or using the community discord.

Good luck out there, I’m sure we’ll all need it.