Battleborn Taken King Guide

Golgoroth

As with the Warpriest, there is a challenge mode for this boss. But I recommend you read this first.

Feel free to run around the area as you won't trigger anything. Pay particular attention to the corners near the entrance as that's where you're going to spend a lot of your time. Think about personalizing the space a bit. While you're wandering around your instincts are probably going to be warning you about being inside the pit in the center of the room.

You have some damn good instincts.

Eventually, as befits a true Guardian, who defends the light, you're going to see the glowing light in the center of the ceiling. And like any great protector of all that is good and light, you'll shoot it.

At that point, Golgoroth will emerge from the floor because you just broke his heirloom light bulb that had been handed down from generation to generation of of Ogres. Frankly this response shouldn't surprise you since you just spent the last section in near darkness. Light bulbs are a huge deal here.

Bet you feel like a prick now.

That feeling will last about 15 seconds which is about the amount of time it takes Golgoroth to send his eye beams at you, which in case you were wondering, hurt a lot. Bet you're glad you paid attention to all that cover in the corners by the doorway aren't you?

Eventually you'll return fire, and while you'll be quite busy holding off Thralls of the normal and cursed kind....

Actually, let's digress for a minute. Who the hell is cursing all these Thralls? I mean a couple of cursed ones I could expect, any Thrall society will have it's outcasts. But now it looks like they have their own community! With that many cursings going on, I'm surprised Cayde hasn't run a diplomatic mission to Thralldom. The message would be simple, "Join the Vanguard and we won't curse you". Considering the number of Cursed Thralls here, surely a great deal of Thralls would know one personally. They'd have to think, "Hmm, I wouldn't be able to rip people to shreds anymore, but I wouldn't have to worry about becoming a bomb. And my wife wouldn't have to worry about me keeping her up all night with that constant glowing and shrieking". To me that's a damn good deal.

But seriously, who is cursing them? Screw Oryx, let's find that guy.

Where was I.....oh yes, cowering from eye beams, Thrall swarming over you, periodically shooting Golgy. At some point you'll probably notice that while your damage numbers look ok, his health bar isn't really going down very fast. Probably right after that one of your teammates will notice that his back has a nice fleshy part that shows critical damage when it gets hit.

The thrill of that realization will last about 5 seconds as after a hit or two Golgoroth focuses on your dear friend, and unleashes a torrent of orbs that swarm around his cover and blast him to bits. At which point you decide not to be that guy.

Your team will be wiped out in the next minute or two, so grab all the ammo you can.

Take a breath, remember you have this wonderfully entertaining guide in front of you, and let's work this out.

Starting it off

Go to the corners and look down their respective hallways. That, my friend, is what we call a clear field of fire. There are a lot of places you can be hidden from Golgoroth and still shoot down that corridor.

So split up into two teams, but the person with the least powerful Sniper Rifle / Light should be on the left hand side. Unless he's incredibly jittery, then pick someone else. The second least power Sniper Rifle should be on the right hand side. I'll explain why in a bit, be patient.

After dropping the precious light bulb (prick), setup behind cover and enjoy the massive Thrall shooting gallery that is about the commence.

After the Thralls are done, you'll notice 6 orbs appears on the ceiling, ignore them for a moment as Adepts an Acolytes are streaming out. Again, it's a shooting gallery that shouldn't be a problem. Feel free to taunt them as you mow them down, they deserve it.

However there is an Adept on each side that won't charge towards you, but will hide out on the bridge. These guys need to go down, crossfire from one side to the other sometimes works, or just go up there when the rest of the baddies are dead and wipe them out. Don't leave them standing or you'll regret it in about 45 seconds.

Now we've cleared the bad guys, that just leaves Golgy, so collect any ammo lying around and get ready to do some damage.

Damaging Golgoroth

Ok, those orbs that appeared on the ceiling? People like to number them starting from the front, so you have Left 1,2,3 and Right 1,2,3. Which is wonderful and great because you're only ever going to care about the first one on the left (L1).

Now remember I said keep the weakest on the left, and the 2nd most weakest on the right? Well you guys are about to become super important. To make things easier I'm going to call the 2nd weakest #1, and the weakest #2. Everyone should now be back on the side where you started, and #1 should go up the right hand side and go out on the right hand bridge. If Golgorth starts shooting at #1, everyone else shoot Golgoroth in the legs to get his attention.

Do not shoot him in the back.

Ok #2, take out a sniper rifle and...shoot him in the back fleshy part.

Q: Wait! I saw what happened to the last guy who shot him there! Those orb thingies got him! Are you crazy?

A: They're called Axiom Bolts, and the fact that I'm crazy does not remove the need for shooting him in the back. Trust me.

Q: Trust you? You told us to jump into that big black ball at the Warpriest that killed us!

A: Hmm, that did come back and bite me, didn't it? But don't worry, there's something you can do to save yourself, shoot the Axiom Bolts. A pulse rifle is great for this, or a machine gun. You only need to survive for a couple of seconds.

After #2 shoots Golgoroth in the back, they will have his full attention. So everyone else drop out of cover and start shooting the L1 orb. Have a Titan drop a Weapons Bubble on middle of the ledge. When the orb breaks, a pool of goo will form in the pit under it. Everyone except #1 needs to drop into that pit and get into the pool.

At this point Golgoroth's back will have opened again, #1 should now take out their sniper rifle, position themselves in the back left corner, and shoot him in the back, drawing his attention. Now Golgoroth is facing all the Guardians in the pool, and his chest is open.

That pool is a pool of reclaimed light, it massively increases your damage to Golgoroth. Take out your sniper rifles and start firing.

Q: Ok, I'm #1 and I've captured his gaze, someone else is taking it from me in a couple of seconds right? RIGHT?!

A: No, you're going to have to hold the gaze for the whole 18 seconds. But don't panic. Try to get as close to Golgoroth as possible while staying up on the ledge.

Q: Closer?! Are you insane?

A: Again, I don't see how that's relevant. Anyway, if you stay far back, the orbs come faster and you have no room to move. You want to stay close so the orbs come out at normal speed, then slowly back up as you shoot the orbs, then sprint close again. Whatever you do, don't move side to side. If those orbs hit anything, they just bouncing around while still coming towards you making them very difficult to hit.

Q: I'm still getting hit by an orb every wave, and my health is quickly going down, is there anything else I can do?

A: If you have a Red Death, that will help a lot. Blasting an orb counts as a "kill" which has a chance to heal you. If you're a Hunter, Shade Stepping will cause the orbs to lose track of you.

Q: You said use a sniper to hit Golgoroth in the pit, I have a great Heavy Machine Gun, I can use that instead right?

A: Nope, use a Sniper Rifle. Golgoroth is apparently allergic to them. I've compared a 310 1000 Yard Stare to a 320 Heavy Machine Gun and the Sniper Rifle left it in the dust. Feel free to experiment for yourself, though I have to wonder why you're reading this guide if you're not going to trust me.

Q: Warpriest, black orb.

A: You need to learn to let things go...

Q: My screen turned green and then a couple of second later the rest of my team died!

A: On hard mode, when you're in the pool, a random person at a random time will get hit with a corrupted light. Their screen will turn green, and a countdown timer will appear on their bottom left. When that timer hits 0 they'll explode in a way that will damage everyone around you but them. If you get it, run out of pit before the timer hits 0, or make yourself a pariah to the rest of your fireteam.

OK, now #2 has one more job, it involves timer on the lower left hand side. When that timer hits 0, Golgoroth will stop focusing on you (and stop throwing Axiom Bolts at you). Golgoroth will also close his chest and start stomping and blasting at the people in the pit. So you might want to warn them by counting down the timer. Yelling "GET OUT! GET OUT! GET OUT!" when that timer reaches 0 might help as well.

Q: I started getting out when I was told too, but I died to a Cursed Thrall

A: There's a little niche behind the pool of light with a door that sends out a Cursed Thrall. Usually if you're moving fast enough you can get through the count and out just as he reaches you. But sometimes that just doesn't work. I usually recommend that #1 shoot that Cursed Thrall on their way to the pool when #2 grabs the gaze.

Ok, now after you escape the pool, the sequence of adds will repeat again. However there are Cursed Thralls in the pool (again, who is cursing these Thralls?) that you should take care of before the next damage round.

Continue to repeat until you've taken him down about 3/4 of the way. At that point Taken start spawning, which means you can start going more rapid fire at Golgoroth. Quickly clear the Taken, then start another damage round.

The catch is Taken will be spawning right behind the pool of light, so Hunters drop a Shadow Shot at your feet, and #1 you are now focused on Taken. A Supercell or Heavy Machine Gun works. A round or two of Taken and he should go down.

Now that you've killed Golgoroth (and covered up your crime of breaking the heirloom light bulb), clean that goo of of yourself and continue onwards through cave at the end of the room. However you might want to check out the challenge mode first.