Destiny 2 The Corrupted Grandmaster Nightfall Guide

Destiny 2 Grandmaster Nightfalls are finally here, and there’s no other strike more thematically appropriate for Season of the Wish than The Corrupted. While it was originally known for its unforgiving difficulty levels, Bungie has re-tuned the strike over the past couple of years and isn’t so bad now.

Regardless, completing The Corrupted GM requires significant team coordination and knowledge of the activity. That’s why, in this guide, we’ll cover everything you need to know to complete The Corrupted GM: the best loadouts, effective strategies, and more. Read on, and we’ll have you one step closer to your Conqueror seal and powerful loot in no time.

Updated as of Season of the Wish (S23).

The Corrupted GM: Loadouts & Subclasses

Ensuring success in this activity begins before you even leave orbit: we first need to speak about loadouts. Let’s take a look at what each member should be running.

Subclasses and Exotics

Effective builds for The Corrupted are similar to what you’d expect for other GM activities: Well of Radiance Warlocks, Strand Titans, and Void Hunters are the strongest. If you choose these subclasses over alternatives, Cenotaph Mask, Aeon Safe or Abeyant Leap, and Omnioculus are the best exotics, respectively.

Some of you who have already completed endgame PvE activities probably sighed when reading that last paragraph; being the meta ever since GMs were introduced, running those subclasses repeatedly can be tiresome. However, we have good news: other options are just as strong. Stasis and Void Warlocks, Solar and Void Titans, and Solar and Arc Hunters can all also excel here. As long as you have a relatively strong build ready to go that doesn’t require rapid kills to kickstart, anything will be fine.

Armor	Class	Type	Requirements	Source	Released	Requires	Exotic Perk
Cenotaph Mask	Warlock	Helm	Lightfall	Lost Sectors	Season 21	Lightfall	Exotic Perk: "Steadily reloads a portion of your equipped Trace Rifles's magazine from reserves. Damaging a vehicle, boss, or champion with a trace rifle marks them as the target. When an ally defeats the marked target, generate special ammo for yourself and heavy ammo for your allies."
Omnioculus	Hunter	Chest	Beyond Light	Lost Sectors	Season 13	Beyond Light	Exotic Perk: "You gain a second Smoke Bomb charge and have damage resistance while invisible. When you make an ally invisible, they gain damage resistance while invisible and you gain melee energy."
Abeyant Leap	Titan	Legs	Lightfall	Lost Sectors	Season 20	Lightfall	Exotic Perk: "Drengr's Lash spawns two additional projectiles, tracks targets more aggressively, and travels farther. Gain Woven Mail when suspending targets."
Aeon Safe	Titan	Arms	Free-to-Play	Exotic Engrams	Season 2	Free-to-Play	Exotic Perk? Instead of an Intrinsic perk, Aeon Exotics have an additional mod socket which is used for Aeon Cult mods.

Loadout

Moving on to weapon loadouts, The Corrupted features Overload and Unstoppable champions. For this reason, we’d recommend Divinity, Le Monarque, and seasonal Unstoppable weapons of your choosing.

Opt for mid to long-range special weapons like fusion rifles, grenade launchers, and sniper rifles for this strike. Linear fusion rifles, rocket launchers, and Leviathan’s Breath tend to be the best picks for the heavy slot, but the choice between them is almost entirely personal preference.

Art	Weapon	Type	Archetype	Rarity	Ammo?	Element?	Requirements	In loot pool?	Ammo	Element	Tier	Excels	Source	Craftable?	Requires	Released	Slot	Can be Crafted?	Best of?	Top Perk?
	Divinity	Trace Rifle	Exotic	Exotic	Special	Arc	Shadowkeep	Yes	Special	Arc	Strong ❘ A	PvE	Exotic Quest	No	Shadowkeep	Season 8	Energy	No	Top-tier
	Le Monarque	Combat Bow	Exotic	Exotic	Primary	Void	Forsaken Pack	Yes	Primary	Void	Best ❘ S	PvE + PvP	Exotic Kiosk	No	Forsaken Pack	Season 5	Energy	No	Top-tier
	Leviathan's Breath	Combat Bow	Exotic	Exotic	Heavy	Void	Shadowkeep	Yes	Heavy	Void	Strong ❘ A	PvE	Exotic Kiosk	No	Shadowkeep	Season 8	Heavy	No	Top-tier

GM Power Level Requirements

If you’re interested in running a GM, you need to have a proper Power Level (including your Artifact’s bonus Power):

For the record, Power Level requirements were drastically reduced this season to allow more players to experience Grandmaster Nightfalls.

The Corrupted GM rotation

The Corrupted GM Guide

Entrance and Elevator

Begin the strike by slowly pushing forward through the waves of enemies. Take it slow, watch for snipers, and remember to use the available cover through the side routes. After reaching the temple, enter through the portal and approach the elevator.

The Corrupted GM Guide, Destiny 2

In the elevator, kill all the psions before they duplicate and hack the terminal. Kill the next wave of psions as quickly as possible, then pass a relic between teammates to take down the centurion’s shield. 

After defeating the first wave of enemies, a taken blight will spawn in the center of the arena, significantly decreasing the available traversable space. In this section, don’t be afraid to use Supers to survive the additional waves of enemies.

Castaway Ogre Encounter

After avoiding the shriekers on your way to the next room, you’ll begin the ogre encounter. Here, your safe spaces are in the upper balcony regions on the far left and right of the room.

Begin by defeating all ads and champions that approach you in these spaces, paying close attention to your surroundings when teleported so as to not get caught off guard. Once all champions are dead, defeat the taken ogre in the ascendant plane first. After getting teleported one final time, kill the hive ogre.

Defeat all the enemies and champions on the bridge to the next area, paying careful attention to snipers on the left and right and the elite vandal at the exit door. Once you reach the drop shaft in the ascendant plane, keep in mind that only one person needs to make it down (the rest will immediately be teleported after), so go one at a time. Continue slowly working your way through ads until you reach the final boss.

Defeating Sedia, The Corrupted

In the first section of the boss fight, you and your team should position yourselves on the edge of the main entrance to the arena. Additionally, keep in mind that you can move to the islands you jumped from if you need to at any point in the fight.

Use heavy ammo and any available roaming Supers to keep ads at bay while ensuring you avoid line of sight with Sedia at all costs.

Moving into the ascendant plane, continue through the space slowly and let Sedia move ahead of you. Once you reach the final arena at the top of the archipelago, have your most agile player grab the orb on the opposite side to take down Sedia’s shield. Once again, use Supers here to survive and pump out optimal damage to Sedia.

Before you go

If you’re interested in tackling the Conqueror title and clearing all GMs this season, we have a guide for the Lake of Shadows GM here.