Everything You Need To Know About Beating Calus In Destiny 2: Lightfall

Destiny 2's Lightfall expansion is full of challenges, especially the campaign's final boss, Calus. Players can beat Calus with specific strategies.

After the introduction of the Legendary Campaign in 2022's Destiny 2 (D2) expansion, The Witch Queen, fans eagerly awaited another challenging mode with Lightfall. As promised, Bungie released another Legendary Campaign and a new subclass for Warlocks, Hunters, and Titans to learn.

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While players were excited about the harder mode for the main story, Lightfall proved to be a bit more of a challenge than most people were expecting. Mainly due to how the new subclass, Strand, was introduced, many fans found getting used to the new super on top of the extreme difficulty of the Legendary Campaign was too much, especially when it came to beating the campaign's final boss, Calus, Disciple of the Witness.

Upon entering the encounter with Calus, Guardians will find themselves in a circular arena with Calus standing in the middle. There are little alcoves around the map full of respawning enemies designed to try and knock players off the map. There are also three catwalk platforms circling the main arena.

Calus will never leave the main area. Smaller enemies like Psions will continuously spawn around Calus, while larger enemies will stay back in the alcoves. This map is designed with the idea of Guardians being knocked off the map, with the only real hope of survival being the Strand grapple. Destiny 2 players must be mindful of where they step because falling off this map is embarrassingly easy.

Guardians will face Calus in a two-phase fight. The first phase (Phase 1) is a pretty straightforward D2 boss fight. Calus will stay on the center platform with a massive gun that he'll continuously fire. In this phase, he eats a lot of damage and can also create shields. The key to this phase is to keep moving while trying to melt Calus as quickly as possible. Phase 1 is much longer (and harder) than Phase 2, so most of the tips and tricks will be more heavily applied to the first phase.

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Phase two is a lot more hands-on. Guardians will be forced onto the center platform with Calus, where he will ditch his firearm in exchange for two massive blades. Calus will charge the player and attempt to kill them with relentless melee attacks. Keep moving and never let him get too close because these hits hurt. The good news is, Calus is much more squishy in the second phase, meaning as long as the player can stay away from him and do consistent damage, he'll go down quickly.

During many missions in the main campaign of Lightfall, after completing a restricted respawn location, Guardians will reach a checkpoint that will save their progress. Even if players haven't finished the entire mission, if they die again or they leave, they will keep their progress from their most recent checkpoint.

Calus has no checkpoints. Once the player starts the encounter with him, they will have to fight him until he's dead. This means there is no checkpoint between Calus' first and second phases. If the player fails in the second phase, they will have to start all over from the very beginning.

Before challenging Calus, Guardians will once again have the chance to pick up Strand. In this particular encounter, the Guardian can choose to ignore it, but it's the best subclass to run for this encounter. While it may be tempting to run a subclass the player is more familiar with, this encounter was created with Strand in mind.

Mainly, the mobility that Strand offers is the key to being successful. Due to the constant damage the Guardians will be taking from Calus and his Shadow Legion, Guardians will need to be able to move around more quickly than simple jumps will allow. The grapple is necessary to escape danger — just be careful not to swing off the arena by accident.

Because Strand isn't technically the player's subclass yet, it's finicky to play with. For the duration of the Lightfall campaign, when the Guardian is empowered by Strand, it's temporary, so it doesn't behave the way a normal subclass will.

If the player dies and is revived by a teammate (assuming they're on co-op), their ability charges will be gone. While the grapple and class abilities (like healing rifts and shield walls) refresh quickly enough, a death means rebuilding supercharge from scratch. Players should remember this because casting Supers will be key to killing the bigger enemies.

Three catwalks surround the main arena. While these catwalks will be locked off for Phase 2, they're vital for Phase 1. These are the easiest vantage points for Guardians to hop onto and shoot Calus. Each catwalk has barricades that Guardians can hide behind and as long as they stay closer to the middle, the smaller enemies will struggle to hit them.

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It's better to use a basic jump to get up onto the catwalks. While there are Strand grapple points to latch onto, it's far too easy to come in with too much momentum and miss the landing if using Strand. While the Guardian will be safer on the catwalks, it's also important to remember to keep moving between the three platforms.

While the catwalks are the safest vantage point during Phase 1, it's important to remember the need to keep moving. If the Guardian spends too long in a single place and Calus is unsuccessful in killing them, Calus will call in an air strike along the catwalk, instantly killing the Guardian if they don't move out of it.

It's better to move from platform to platform before an airstrike is called in. Every 10 to 15 seconds, the player should abandon their current catwalk and make their way to a new one. If they get caught in the air strike, they'll know by golden beams reigning down on them and turning their entire screen gold. Guardians have a split second to react by jumping or grappling out of it before it kills them.

In Phase 1, Calus will simply keep respawning his ads. While killing some of them will be unavoidable (like the Psions surrounding Calus in the middle of the arena), there isn't much point in fighting all of them. It's more effective to ignore the ads that spawn on the alcoves and also avoid going to those alcoves all together if possible.

Fighting the ads will just result in losing ammo because they eat damage. It also increases the risk of death exponentially because these small enemies are designed to hit hard and knock players off the map. Focusing on Calus and the enemies in the arena's center is genuinely the better way to play.

During Phase 1, Calus will summon two different Tormentors. These are one of the hardest enemies D2 has introduced to the game because they fixate, chase after the player, hit exponentially hard, and can also suppress the Guardians. The first one will be summoned when Calus loses one-third of his health. The second will be summoned when he loses two-thirds of his health. His health bar has two line indications that will alert players to the arrival of a Tormentor.

Ignoring the Tormentors is impossible. They will chase the Guardians all around the arena, even up onto the catwalks (no other enemy can go onto the catwalks). If they get too close, they will suppress the player to keep them from escaping or using their abilities. Tormentors also can grab Guardians and do a finisher move on them that's an insta-kill. Dealing with the first one the second it comes in is the best strategy. If both Tormentors are on the field at the same time, it will be extremely difficult for the player to deal with or avoid them.

Guardians will start Phase 1 with their super ability. After communing with Strand and rallying at the banner, Guardians should be full on all of their abilities and ammo. While it's tempting to use the super immediately to melt Calus or clear out ads, it's better to melt the Tormentors when they spawn in.

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One super likely won't kill the Tormentor entirely, but it will do a large chunk of damage, making it easier to get them down. The Tormentors can suppress the player out of their super, so it's important to be mindful of how close the Tormentor gets. Players playing with a full fireteam can easily melt a Tormentor by throwing multiple supers.

The Osteo Striga is a powerful exotic submachine gun that tracks enemies and applies a toxin effect to them that will continue to do damage over time. Since the Osteo Striga is a submachine gun, it also has infinite primary ammo, making it a powerful tool for any Guardian because they won't have to worry about collecting ammo packets.

The Osteo Striga will apply the toxin to Calus and do damage to him for as long as he's inflicted by the toxin. Additionally, it will also prevent him from creating his shields.

Witherhoard is a powerful grenade launcher that creates a blight on or around its target. The blight effect lingers for quite a while, damaging anything that comes in contact with it. For this reason, it can be a very powerful tool in dealing with hoards of enemies and large bosses like Calus.

Like the Osteo Striga, Witherhoard will damage Calus over time and keep him from creating shields. The Witherhoard does use special ammo (green ammo packets), so players should run special ammo finder mods. It's also important to remember that Witherhoard only holds one grenade at a time. It will need to be reloaded after every shot and takes several seconds to reload.

In addition to Osteo Striga or Witherhoard, Guardians should focus on bringing other long-distance weapons that will do a decent amount of damage. Because Guardians will spend most of Phase 1 on the catwalks, being able to hit Calus from a distance is important. Scout rifles, rocket launchers, hand cannons, sniper rifles, and any other gun with range will be advantageous.

Running two guns that use primary ammo will also be helpful since the player won't need to worry about collecting special ammo or running out of ammo for their primary slot weapon and special slot weapon. This isn't necessary, but it can lift the burden of collecting multiple ammo types.

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Amber is a screenplay and creative writer with a strong passion for dissecting media. A gamer, film enthusiast, and chronic binge-watcher, some of her favorite things include Tomb Raider, Star Wars, Loki, and most things horror.