Destiny 2 Raids Guide - Prestige Difficulty, Challenges, Raid Bosses

Destiny 2 now has a number of Raid activities for you to undertake, although the sole one in the base version of the game is the 'Leviathan' Raid. In this Destiny 2 Raid guide, we'll be walking you through everything there is to know about a Raid mission in Destiny 2, including how you should be preparing to undertake one of the tough tasks.

For a complete walkthrough of the Destiny 2 Leviathan Raid, including puzzle solutions in the Royals Pools and boss guides, head over to our Leviathan Raid walkthrough.

Destiny 2 Raid Guide

Firstly, what are Destiny 2 Raids? They're extremely challenging endgame content, designed to test a group of six players in a series of chaotic and deadly encounters with numerous enemies. The Raids always have a minimum level requirement for all players involved, and they generally offer the best loot in the game, hence why players always seek to undertake them multiple times.

Destiny 2 Leviathan Raid Prestige Difficulty

Although a brand new Prestige difficulty level was added to the Leviathan Raid after launch with a Power level requirement of 300, this was then increased to Power level 330 with the release of the Curse of Osiris DLC expansion in early December. However, only those who purchased the expansion can increase their Power level beyond the previous cap of 305, meaning that if you don't have Curse of Osiris purchased, you basically can't play the Prestige Raid.

This isn't the first time that Bungie has locked players out of content that was previous accessible to them in the base version of the game. Should anything change regarding this situation, then we'll be sure to update this Leviathan Raid guide to reflect the changes, but for now, only players will the new Curse of Osiris expansion can take on the Prestige Raid.

Destiny 2 Leviathan Raid Optional Challenges

Bungie recently confirmed that the Destiny 2 Leviathan Raid would be getting new optional challenges, beginning on October 31.

These new challenges for the Leviathan Raid are entirely optional, and every Fireteam undertaking the Raid will be presented with a single optional challenge for the Raid once every week, which you'll be able to view in the Director. It's not yet clear what rewards these optional challenges will grant players, but Emperor Calus Tokens seem like a fairly safe bet.

Destiny 2 Leviathan Raid Release Date

The first Raid in Destiny 2, commonly being referred to as the 'Leviathan Raid', launched back on September 13, at 10 am PDT. This was right around a week after the full launched, and around the same time on September 12, Bungie will begin rolling out the Guided Games feature for a select few players, in what the dev is referring to as a 'soft beta'.

Destiny 2 Raid Level Requirement

Destiny 2 design lead Luke Smith revealed the Power level requirements for the Raid merely a day before the event was due to launch, stating that the Power level needed would be between 260 and 280. You'll likely want to get your Power level as high as possible before the Raid launches on September 13, but at least we now know that you'll ideally need to be around 270 for a comfortable journey through the Leviathan Raid.

Destiny 2 Raids usually take a fair few hours to complete, especially if you're going in blind for the first time. We'd estimate that the Raid will take at least 6 hours to complete when you're starting it out with no prior knowledge for the first time, and you should be prepared to dedicate hours of your life to every single challenge section of the Levaithan Raid, whenever you're taking it on.

As for future Raids in Destiny 2, we can probably expect them to require higher Power levels than the first Leviathan Raid. This is what happened with the Vault of Glass and subsequent Raids in the original Destiny, and we can also expect Bungie to raise the Power level cap beyond 300 in the future.

The Raids back in the original Destiny featured many different challenging aspects, such as climbing puzzles and objectives based around defending an area for a limited time. We've already arguably seen the return of climbing and aerial puzzles in Destiny 2, in the Inverted Spire Strike that was featured in the open beta for the game.

Destiny 2 Eater of Worlds Leviathan Raid Lair Guide

As of December 13, the Eater of Worlds Raid Lair has finally launched, for all players who own the Curse of Osiris DLC expansion for Destiny 2. For a complete walkthrough of all the various challenges and the final boss that you can face in the brand new mission in Nessus Orbit, head over to our Eater of Worlds Raid Lair guide.

We have a wealth of additional guides on Destiny 2 here at USgamer, and this content will only be growing as soon as we get our hands on the final retail copy of the game in the next few days. For now though, why not check out our guides on every Exotic weapon we've seen so far, or our guide on the opening Homecoming mission of Destiny 2.