This Destiny 2 player's ridiculous raid boss solo will probably never be repeated
Taking on Riven alone required use of a now-patched bug and a successful 1-in-45 gamble.
Destiny 2 player Tazus has defeated the game's hardest boss, Riven—an enormous wish granting dragon—completely by himself. He's the first to do it (and record it), and although he won't necessarily be the last, the brave solo heroes who come after will have to contend with one problem: it's no longer possible to defeat Riven the way Tazus did.
A damage-buffing bug to the top skill tree of the Hunter Arcstrider subclass was essential to the run, and that bug was patched out today. I'll spare you the nitty-gritty details—our friends at GamesRadar break it down here—but the bug allowed Tazus to deal massive damage, as if to a certain crab, with super-buffed Arc Staff attacks.
Note that even with the bug, the accomplishment is absolutely absurd. The extra damage simply makes the strat timing possible. Note also that Riven has a one-hit-kill attack that wipes the entire team, in this case Tazus, and it can only be prevented by shooting two of its 10 eyes—that's two specific eyes, not any of them. The only way to know which eyes to shoot is to have a teammate in another room relaying the information. As Tazus was alone, he just had to guess. That left him with a 1-in-45 chance of being correct (a 1-in-5 chance of hitting one of the eyes on the first shot, and then a 1-in-9 chance of then hitting the second eye).
Beyond that gamble, Tazus displays impressive calmness, skill, and quick gear swaps to put an end to Riven before having to roll the dice again, which wouldn't be possible without the bugged buff. The Traveler only knows how many times it took him to nail the perfect run, but Destiny raids have a long tradition of the best PvE players trying to beat them unassisted.
You can watch the run above, but you probably can't replicate it. You can read our interview with the designers of The Last Wish raid here.
Thanks, GR.
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Tyler grew up in Silicon Valley during the '80s and '90s, playing games like Zork and Arkanoid on early PCs. He was later captivated by Myst, SimCity, Civilization, Command & Conquer, all the shooters they call "boomer shooters" now, and PS1 classic Bushido Blade (that's right: he had Bleem!). Tyler joined PC Gamer in 2011, and today he's focused on the site's news coverage. His hobbies include amateur boxing and adding to his 1,200-plus hours in Rocket League.