Battleborn Taken King Guide

Oryx (Normal)

For pretty much the whole guide I've been been laying it out as if you were playing hard mode, since the differences weren't that great. However I'm going to change it up here. While most of the base mechanics are the same in normal vs hard, there is one small difference that changes the whole game.

Here's the basic guidelines to the strategy you should be doing:

The guides will build on each other, so if you don't see a certain strategy tip in the normal section, it's probably in one of the later ones.

This part will be doing Oryx normal style. Once you run this a couple of times, you should be able to progress to hard mode. I do want to point out, that even though you may have made it this far, you might not have the light level to beat Oryx. If so, don't sweat it. Try again next week and hopefully the drops from the bosses will get you up high enough (The entrails I talked about earlier helps for those).

So let's get started!

Starting it off

There's a light at the end of the runway, maybe it will be your friend! Run towards it!

Unfortunately it's really Oryx, who does not want to be your friend. Which is strange, because after everyone you've killed on this raid, he's probably running out of those.

At the start, Taken will spawn on the front left & right corners. These guys are not a problem, and you can easily wipe them out. Frankly, they are there to provide you with ammo.

As soon as you kill the first Thrall, Knights will spawn on the front two platforms. They like setting things on fire (fire bad!) so wipe them out quick.

As soon as the last Knight falls, Oryx is going to pick a plate in the front and slam it with his fist. Because that's supposed to scare you or something, or there was a spider, I don't know. What's interesting is he leaves a glowy ball behind on the plate. What's also interesting is clockwise to where he slammed, the pineapple is in the sky again.

Guess what? You're jumping platforms again! Woo hoo!

The good news is, you get to pick your runner. And it's easy to know where to start (the plate Oryx slammed). The first person on the platform will get "torn", and will start jumping platforms for the pineapple.

But there's a wrinkle. Next to each platform on the sister's platform side, is a little pool. Coming out of that pool will be an Ogre, ready to wreck your day. Also appearing in the far corners, are Taken. Also ready to wreck your day.

Not letting your day get wrecked

It will take some coordination to get through this. So once again, let's talk about roles:

The platform people should act just like they did in the Daughters. Calling out when they go up so they're in the correct order. Just remember the runner goes first. Also, as the runner you will attract Oryx's attention. So as soon as the floating platform appears, take off before Oryx blasts you. Frankly you can't really stop once you get moving.

Our Ogre killers should start in the center, facing the pool next to the platform where Oryx slammed. Sniper rifles or machine guns work best here. The Ogres will appear in order counter-clockwise to where Oryx slammed. So smash the first Ogre then move onto the next. People on platforms are responsible for hurting their Ogre. For low light level teams, the pair of Ogre blasters won't have time to finish off the Ogre, so throw 2 or 3 sniper shots into the head then move onto the next one. Let the platform person finish it off. However Ogre 4 is all yours. Make sure to keep dipping into the bubble between Ogres. You might notice the blight that is left behind from the fallen Ogre. Stay far away from those right now.

Now as your runner is going for the pineapple, a tomb ship will be coming towards the front of the map. When it arrives, a Knight called the "Vessel" will appear, with a familiar looking gray shield.

Runner, I hope you've figured out that's the shield you need to steal. But then, I said you needed to be fast, I didn't say you needed to be smart.

Once the runner calls out "pineapple, pineapple, pineapple!" Everyone on platforms should get off and run to the center, helping kill the 4th Ogre if necessary. The runner needs to sprint right to the very front and steal the shield from the Vessel. Once the shield is stolen, the runner needs to sprint for the center where the team is anxiously awaiting.

People in the center can hide in the Titan bubble if need be until the runner arrives with the shield. Once he's there, blast the Vessel until he dissolves into the night.

Oryx will slam the platform again (real mature dude), and that's the signal for tummy time! As soon as you see his glowy center, blast him until he staggers.

Let's take a second here and realize that for low light people, this might be as far as you can go. You get all the mechanics down and he just won't stagger. At this point, do a couple more runs to practice the mechanics then call it a week. Do the raid next reset and get more gear. Or bribe someone with high light level to help you stagger him :)

Q: Dude, he's staggered, but it looks like we've done no damage! What gives?

A: You can't damage Oryx with guns really. Remember those blights that dropped after you destroyed the Ogres? There's a ring around each one. If you stay inside that ring for a couple of seconds, you will see a message that you detonated a corrupted light, and it will wipe out the remaining bad guys, and hurt Oryx. Detonating 16 blights will kill Oryx.

Q: Wait, wont' it kill me too?

A: When you detonate your blight, you have just enough time to run back to the center and get inside the shield. However, since you want to probably detonate all 4 blights each round, you need to have some coordination. Have someone count down 5-4-3-2-1-Detonate! When the caller says detonate, you cross the line. Do not cross the line early.

Q: Counting from 5? Why so long?

A: There's a lot of chaos, and adds firing at you. So it gives everyone a chance to go in the right direction or make any course corrections.

Q: There are a lot of adds out there! And you expect me to leave the shield?

A: Take a couple of seconds before the countdown and wipe out any Eyes or Centurions that you see. You have more time than you think.

Q: It says Oryx regained the favor of darkness and closed his chest! WTF?

A: You don't have that much time...

Q: Which one is MY blight?

A: Your blight will be the one around the last platform you were on. That leaves one of the blights for one of the Ogre killers to take care of (they can rock, paper, sword for it).

Q: I'm the runner, what am I doing during this?

A: Staying in the center and hitting Oryx in the chest. If you don't keep hitting them there, he'll get bored quickly and close up his chest.

Q: I died on the way back to the shield!

A: Don't worry, it's normal mode, so you can get resurrected. However I recommend staying dead until after...

Intermission: Air Raid

Hopefully you've detonated all 4 orbs, but do any bit of damage and you piss Oryx off quite a bit. He throws himself back from the platform, and prepares to unleash the most diabolical scheme ever devised.

Exercise

Oryx will start throwing lighting down from the sky, the only way to avoid it is to keep moving. Since Oryx throws it at everyone at around the same time, everyone needs to be running. The safest thing to do is run around each platform. However if you can do basic math, you'll notice that leaves 2 people hanging. Another decent place to run is going up to the Daughters platform and jump from platform to platform in a figure-eight type pattern. Another place to run is around the stairs in the back, or up and down the main runway. Just keep moving. This is also why you shouldn't resurrect someone until after Air Raid. More places to run.

Q: There are Knights shooting at us! What do we do?

A: Ignore them and keep running. They will despawn when Air Raid is over.

Round 2

Ok, Oryx will now go to one of the back platforms, but the mechanics are the same. You will continue to do Air Raid in between until you've detonated 8 blights in total.

If you have detonated 8 blights, then Oryx changes it up.

Intermission: The Shade

Near the front of the map, Oryx will create a big black dome. Stay away, it will kill you if you touch it. This includes licking it. Yes, I'm talking to you. Your mother told me about what happened that one winter, so I know how you are.

Your first priority will be the Knights that spawn on the front 2 platforms. After that, Thrall will spawn in the front corners following the pattern: Right, Left, Left, Right, Right, etc, etc.

Q: Help! People on my fireteam are disappearing! Where did they go?

A: One by one, your team will be sucked inside the bubble to face the Shade of Oryx.

Q: Help! I've been sucked inside a foggy bubble! What do I do?

A: You are facing the Shade of Oryx. It will hang around outside the edge of the bubble. However, you can shoot it. Periodically it will warp left 90 degrees, right 90 degrees, or 180 degrees. Don't worry, you'll get help along the way as your teammates get warped in one by one. Keep tracking it and try to hit it in the head. Machine guns are good here. Eventually it will charge in, at which point you need to avoid it's big sword which will kill you with one swing. After it's swing, it will take off again because it's a complete coward.

Q: I'm in the bubble putting the hurt on the shade, but where are these Thrall coming from?

A: Remember above I talked the Thrall that spawned in the front corners? If your team doesn't kill them, they come into the bubble to ruin your day. So if you're in the bubble, your teammates aren't doing their job! If you're outside the bubble, the doorbell rang...

Q: I got warped in and got killed by the shade immediately! WTF?

A: If the shade is charging, and you warp in around where it is at that point in time, it will immediately swing at you. It's in your best interest to jump if you get warped in after you hear the shade charge (hopefully your teammates call it out as well). However if the timing is wrong, then you will have no chance to do even that. It's not fair, but hey, he isn't Oryx the Fair.

Q: We're in the shade bubble, and everything turned red and we died! What happened?

A: If you don't kill the shade in time, it wipes you out. Basically if the shade charges twice, you're in trouble.

Q: We're having problems finishing off the shade. What else can we do?

A: Hunters can Shadowshot the shade, even after it warps the tether will still affect it for a bit. It's amazing how much damage you can do to a tethered shade. Otherwise, make sure to take advantage of the shade charging to keep hitting it if it isn't coming straight for you.

Q: Some people call the shade 'her'. If that's true, how do I get her to go on a date with me?

A: I'm glad you asked! I've recently completed The Battleborn Guide to Dating the Darkness. It will give you step by step instructions on bringing romance to a Taken's existence.

Round 3

Oryx will go back up front, rinse and repeat with the shade.

Round 4

Oryx will be up front again, but usually the opposite side. Rinse and repeat again, and if you've detonated 16 blights, you'll see his health bar reach empty.

Suprise!

However you're not done, Oryx will appear again up front and call upon the powers of darkness again. When his chest opens blast him with the biggest guns you have. This should be doable unless you lost a lot of guardians on the last blight detonation.

If you fail at this point, you're probably going to feel pretty depressed. That's normal, start drinking and try again.

Otherwise, congrats! You're on your way to beating Oryx in hard mode!