Battleborn Taken King Guide

Daughters of Oryx

Here you go, the final arena. Spend some time looking around, because you're going to waste a lot of your life here. Ignore the sisters up their platforms, you can't hurt them right now and they won't bother you as long as you stay off the 4 platforms.

They'll just watch you. Constantly. It's kinda freaky. Not as freaky as the guy on your fireteam who just turned gray. We'll come to him in a minute.

There is a special skill you need to succeed from here on out. Pay attention now, because it's very technical. You must know which direction counter-clockwise is. Make sure to test you fireteam by asking them to run around the map in a counter-clockwise fashion. If they can't do it, yawn, say it's late, get the hell off that fireteam and find one that understands basic directionality.

Before we get started, let's talk about coordinates and directions. See that big ball in the distance (i.e. Saturn)? That direction is the front. The side with the door you came in is the back. So left and right are relative to facing the front.

Now hopefully you've noticed the 4 plates on the corners of the map, back left, back right, front left, and front right. But here at Battleborn we realize that's just too much work to say. So we number the plates, starting from the back left, and going in a counter-clockwise direction. So for those of you who have difficulty understanding simple concepts:

Now the way this works, is that as soon as you step onto one of those platforms, a 1 minute timer will start. At the end of that 1 minute, the sisters will kill you with the mother of all temper tantrums. Apparently they need to warm up their vocal chords or something like that. Your only hope of living is to be in some sort of shield. It looks like the only shields available are in use right now, so we're going to have to steal one of them. Like any light loving Guardian would do.

And that, my freaked out friend who is seeing all the world in gray, is where you come in.

Look above the platforms, shining high above one of them is a glowing orb. It's called the pineapple. To steal a shield, you're going to need that pineapple.

Will you stop trying to jump up to it and wait for me to finish explaining?

So as soon as someone jumps on one of the 4 corner platforms, ghostly platforms will start appearing. The only person who can jump on those platforms is someone who has been torn between dimensions, i.e. that's you my black and white friend.

However, since Oryx is a dick, you must jump up on the corner platforms in a particular order. Lucky for you the order is pretty easy to figure out since Oryx didn't do well in evil overlord puzzle class. Start with the platform counter-clockwise to the platform with the pineapple above it. Once the platforms are all lit up, you can jump up the ghostly platforms in a counter-clockwise fashion until you reach the glowy pineapple in the sky.

Ok, now that you have the pineapple, you need to get to the platform holding the sister on the left. i.e. Not the one on fire. Fire bad. Once there, you can use the square button to steal the shield.

Now this shield is different than the Titan shields you're used too. First off, nothing can hurt something inside the shield. That's right, you're invincible! Even better, unlike the Titan shield, you can shoot out of it! Which means you can kill the sister whom you stole the shield from. Feel free to do your best evil mastermind laugh.

Now after the minute ends, anyone not in the shield dies. The shield will go away, and you basically repeat with the pineapple starting in a different place each time. Oh, and a new person is picked at random to get all black and whitey.

Q: I don't like the idea of jumping platforms, how do I avoid that role?

A: You can't, and just by saying that, you've increased your chances of getting torn. Congrats!

Ok, so we've talked about getting the pineapple, but the rest of the team will have things to do as well. So let's break down the roles for the team you should figure out before entering the sister's area:

Round 1

Everyone get in position, then the runner and the person covering the plate counter-clockwise to the pineapple jump up and start this off. Make sure the person who is covering the first platform says something like "First platform up!". Talking is very very important here. You should try it. Say "Hi, my name is [blank] and I'm covering platform [blank]".

The next people in counter-clockwise order should jump up on their platforms, also vocalizing so things happen in proper order. The 4th person should not go on their platform. Instead help out with adds, but stick close to your platform for reasons I will be getting to soon.

A quick note to the people who have hopped up on the platforms:

Basically keep your feet on that platform until you hear the runner tell you they have the pineapple. If you're getting hit, duck down and move to the back of the platform (i.e. constructive cowardice).

Acolytes and a Centurion will appear in the center, the person assigned to adds should blast them with grenades and heavy weapons. People on the platforms should also assist, they tend to drift to the front, so the ones covering platforms 3 & 4 will have the best shots.

Kill the Acolytes first or they will start dropping eyes like crazy.

Now pay attention here, because there's a nasty surprise coming. At 45 seconds left, ledges appear in the air behind the 4 corner platforms, and a sniper starts warping in. With 40 seconds left they start shooting. You must must must kill your sniper. This is why the 4th person should hang around their plate.

At 32 seconds left, the 2nd wave of adds appears. Instead of the center, two groups spawn at each end of the main runway, between the....rock triangular things. You'll know it when you see it. People covering platforms should throw grenades as they warp in to try to take them out quickly.

Hopefully by now, the runner has called "pineapple, pineapple, pineapple!". That's your signal to leave the platforms and assemble together in a single place. The normal place to go is the back of platform #4, on the sister side. You get great cover from adds that are still up and you have a decent shot at the sister. Once the runner has taken the shield, start hitting the sister in the head. Again, you can't get hurt, so just blast away. But do not kill her. Just get her life down really low.

Once her life is low, use the remaining time in your bubble to wipe out any Taken bad guys still around. Your shield will actually last a bit past the timer, you can safely move out once the light fades.

Q: Why are we going to the corner to get cover from the adds? We're in an invincible bubble!

A: First the bubble probably won't be there when you arrive. Second the adds will continuously knock you around and spoil your aim. Thirdly, the bubble will go away at the end of the timer.

Q: WTF?! Why aren't we killing her?

A: If you kill the sister, you must kill the other sister in the next round. When there is one sister left, her shriek will kill you whether you have the bubble or not. Also, when there is only one sister left, she gets a huge armor buff. So what you're doing is giving yourself a little wiggle room.

Q: I was the runner, and after I got the shield she blasted me off the ship! Can she do that?

A: Well that's a sexist question. Just because she's a woman, you think she can't throw you off the ship? You think that's a man's job? If you're so insecure about a powerful woman, stay to the inside side of the plate when stealing the shield so if she blasts you, you stay on the ship. Pig.

Q: There are tons of bad guys after we hurt the sister, we can't clear them all!

A: When you have a relatively low light level team, this can happen. What you might want to try is to assign a Warlock with self-res to clear adds while everyone else hammers the sister. Just make sure they get back into the bubble in time.

Round 2

This is where the difference between hard and normal mode is. Once the light fades, in normal mode you have about 10 seconds or so to get in position and kick off the next round. In hard mode the timer starts immediately. So as soon as the light fades sprint to your platform. If you get torn, yell it out so the floater can cover you, then head to the first platform you'll be jumping on. Hunters can throw a Shadowshot at the center area to tether the spawning baddies to make life easier.

A quick note here, if you get torn, the worst possible thing to say is "I'm torn!". That helps no one. There's chaos ensuing and you don't have time for people to figure out your voice, or remember what platform you were on. Say something like "Platform #2 is torn!". Now the floater knows exactly where to go.

I want to also point out the #1 thing that goes wrong after the 1st round. If the platform you're covering is first, or you are the runner. DO NOT WAIT. Get on the platform immediately. The timer is already going. If someone is asking if someone's ready after round 1, that person is doing it wrong. Get those platforms up ASAP.

Don't forget about the snipers.

Everything else in round 2 works the same way, except now you'll take the shield from the sister on the right (again, fire bad), and meet behind platform #3. A weapons bubble is good here because its time to burn that sister to the ground. That's right, kill her. Then clear adds and get ready for round 3.

Q: We didn't kill her!

A: That's ok, you'll just have to go 4 rounds instead of 3.

Round 3

Ok, everything just like round 2, again the timer starts immediately and there will be lots of chaos. There's only one sister left so even though she's on fire, steal her shield anyway and meet behind platform 3 again.

You now have a competition. Can you kill the sister before the shield gets to you? If you win, you can brag about it all you want.

Q: We suck at jumping platforms! What can we do?

A: Jumping platforms is a harrowing experience. Precision jumping combined with the fact that if you screw up, you are pretty much wiping and starting again. Warlocks and Titans put on better control for your jumps, and Hunters put on triple jump. I'm not going to lie, Titans are the easiest class to screw up on since they go so far horizontally in their jumps. Its incredibly easy to overshoot the platform.

Frankly if you have people new to jumping platforms, and you have a bit of time, don't worry about killing the sisters. Spend some time doing practice runs. Somewhere around the 7th run or so it will begin to click. Investing some time now will make life much easier in the future. You're going to need these jumping skills for the next stage as well.

Q: The platforms are going up in the wrong order! What gives?

A: #1 reason this happens is people aren't communicating. Talk it out.

Q: I'm watching people go up in the correct order and the floating platforms are still not right! What gives?

A: This usually happens to a fireteam that's acting like a well oiled machine. Everyone gets up on the platforms quickly 1-2-3. What happens is a bit of network lag hits and the game thinks 3 got on before 2. So have the 3rd person wait until the 2nd person is set on the platform before starting their jump. That second makes a difference.

Q: Someone on our team wants to do this in 2 rounds instead of 3. Are they crazy?

A: Maybe. You can do this in 2 rounds, but you need to make sure everyone on the team can run platforms quickly and have high light level weapons. Otherwise its pretty much guaranteed after killing the 1st sister, your slowest runner will get torn. Frankly I've spent over and hour trying to get it done 'faster' in 2 rounds, only to go to a 3 round plan and get it done in one shot.

The sisters are down, and after all the trials and tribulations, you're ready for the main event. It's time to crush Oryx!