Pantheon is Destiny 2's ultimate Raid challenge, here's how it works

Destiny 2's new Pantheon mode is a daunting challenge for Guardians and their raid teams to tackle ahead of The Final Shape. Destiny 2's recent Into the Light update has added plenty of things for us to do while we await the next and potentially final major expansion for the game.

This includes Pantheon, a new raid gauntlet that pits us against some of the toughest bosses in the game, with some added spice to keep things interesting. Here is what we know so far about the new mode.

What is Pantheon?

Pantheon takes bosses from across the many raids of Destiny 2 and smashes them together into a gauntlet that must be completed in order.

You begin a run in Pantheon with one encounter, and when you complete it, you interact with a transmat banner to move on to the next one. Each encounter will have some small changes from the original versions, and there will be a bonus timer for additional rewards.

The timer works in a similar way to Nightfalls. You gain more points for progress while the timer is active, and a bunch of extra points for completing the boss fight before the timer runs out. Accrue enough points during the fight, and you will get those bonus rewards.

Which bosses are in Pantheon?

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In total, there are eight raid bosses that appear in the gauntlet. Those bosses are as follows:

• Golgoroth (King's Fall)
• Caretaker (Vow of the Disciple)
• Zo'aurc (Root of Nightmares)
• Atraks-1 (Deep Stone Crypt)
• Oryx (King's Fall)
• Rhulk (Vow of the Disciple)
• Riven (The Last Wish)
• Nezarec (Root of Nightmares)

There are four tiers of Pantheon, starting with The Pantheon: Atraks Sovereign. This first one will feature just the first four bosses of the order. Each week, a new tier will unlock, with more bosses and higher difficulty.

What are the rewards?

A challenge this great needs rewards to match, and Pantheon certainly seems to have managed that. First of all, there are emblems for each tier of the gauntlet, so you can show off just how far you made it.

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Weapons and armour are on offer, and it appears that some of the raid weapons will even be available. Recently, an update to Destiny 2 removed the requirement to own the relevant expansions on many weapons from Deep Stone Crypt, Vow of the Disciple, and Root of Nightmares. This quite heavily hints that through Pantheon, a mode that will be available to all players for free, these weapons can be acquired.

If the promise of raid weapons isn't enough to entice you, how about guaranteed raid exotics? The Divine Weaponry quest tasks you with completing Pantheon on any difficulty, and your reward is your choice of any raid exotic from the raids featured in the mode. This means no Vex Mythoclast unfortunately, but all of the others are available.

There are two exotics available this way, as the Divine Weaponry II quest also awards you a raid exotic, but for completing The Pantheon: Rhulk Indomitable or The Pantheon: Nezarec Sublime. Those are the two highest-difficulty challenges of the mode, so you'll need to work a lot harder for that second exotic.

The exotic weapons you will be able to choose from are:

• Conditional Finality
• Touch of Malice
• Collective Obligation
• Eyes of Tomorrow
• One Thousand Voices

If any of those weapons have eluded you over the years, here is a great opportunity to grab some of the most powerful weapons in the game, no luck required.

That is it for our rundown of Pantheon. For more, head to our Destiny 2 homepage where we have guides for other BRAVE Arsenal weapons as well as the upcoming Prismatic subclasses, exotic class items, and our favourite builds for Hunters, Warlocks, and Titans.