Some of the best and most unique weapons in Destiny 2 come from Raids, and through Master difficulty challenges, the rewards get even better. Vow of the Disciple is no exception.
This guide covers all there is to know about the Master Challenges from Vow of the Disciple: their rotation, rewards, and, most importantly, how to complete them.
Vow Challenge this Week
This is the complete schedule for Vow of the Disciple’s Challenges for Season of the Witch (S22):
Week | Challenge | Encounter | Week # |
---|---|---|---|
22 August 2023 | Defenses Down | Exhibition | Week 1 |
29 August 2023 | Looping Catalyst | Rhulk | Week 2 |
5 September 2023 | Swift Destruction | Acquisition | Week 3 |
12 September 2023 | Base Information | Caretaker | Week 4 |
19 September 2023 | Defenses Down | Exhibition | Week 5 |
26 September 2023 | Looping Catalyst | Rhulk | Week 6 |
3 October 2023 | Swift Destruction | Acquisition | Week 7 |
10 October 2023 | Base Information | Caretaker | Week 8 |
17 October 2023 | Defenses Down | Exhibition | Week 9 |
24 October 2023 | Looping Catalyst | Rhulk | Week 10 |
31 October 2023 | Swift Destruction | Acquisition | Week 11 |
7 November 2023 | Base Information | Caretaker | Week 12 |
14 November 2023 | Defenses Down | Exhibition | Week 13 |
21 November 2023 | Looping Catalyst | Rhulk | Week 14 |
As with most things in Destiny 2, Master Vow challenges are on a weekly rotation. On any given week, only one Master Challenge is available to farm. PS: The week officially resets on Tuesdays at 9 AM PDT, Destiny 2’s official reset time.
ℹ️ Be aware that all the challenges become available on weeks when Vow of the Disciple is the featured weekly raid.
Power Level Requirements
If you’re interested in farming Master Vow of the Disciple challenges, make sure your Guardian has the proper Power Level (including your Artifact’s bonus Power):
Difficulty | Recommended Level |
Normal | 1600 |
Master | TBC |
More Destiny 2 Raid Challenge guides:
Destiny 2 Vow of the Disciple Master rewards
With all the added difficulty that Master mode brings, especially with the challenges, it can be hard to understand why you would even step foot in it. But there are actually tons of different reasons to tackle Master Vow of the Disciple, including cosmetic and gameplay-focused rewards.
First, regardless of whether you complete the challenges, you will receive masterwork materials as a reward—Enhancement Cores, Enhancement Prisms, and Ascendant Shards are all obtainable. These only come from a few sources, so farming them here during certain weeks can be a good idea. Spiky high-stat armor also comes from Master mode, and the focused stat changes weekly.
If you complete the challenges, however, you’ll receive extra rewards. Every challenge you complete, you’ll get a random Adept raid weapon.
Art | Name | 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? |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Cataclysmic | Linear Fusion Rifle | Precision | Legendary | Heavy | Solar | The Witch Queen | Yes | Heavy | Solar | S › Best | PvE | Vow of the Disciple Raid | Yes | Witch Queen | Season 16 | Heavy | Craftable | Top-tier | Bait and Switch | |
Deliverance | Fusion Rifle | Precision | Legendary | Special | Stasis | The Witch Queen | Yes | Special | Stasis | S › Best | PvE | Vow of the Disciple Raid | Yes | Witch Queen | Season 16 | Kinetic | Craftable | Top-tier | Bait and Switch | |
Forbearance | Grenade Launcher | Wave | Legendary | Special | Arc | The Witch Queen | Yes | Special | Arc | S › Best | PvE | Vow of the Disciple Raid | Yes | Witch Queen | Season 16 | Energy | Craftable | Top-tier | Bait and Switch | |
Insidious | Pulse Rifle | Aggressive Burst | Legendary | Primary | Arc | The Witch Queen | Yes | Primary | Arc | A › Strong | PvE + PvP | Vow of the Disciple Raid | Yes | Witch Queen | Season 16 | Energy | Craftable | Top-tier | Bait and Switch | |
Lubrae's Ruin | Glaive | Adaptive | Legendary | Special | Solar | The Witch Queen | Yes | Special | Solar | D › Worst | - | Vow of the Disciple Raid | Yes | Witch Queen | Season 16 | Energy | Craftable | Bait and Switch | ||
Submission | Submachine Gun | Lightweight | Legendary | Primary | Kinetic | The Witch Queen | Yes | Primary | Kinetic | B › Average | PvE + PvP | Vow of the Disciple Raid | Yes | Witch Queen | Season 16 | Kinetic | Craftable | Bait and Switch |
Standard Vow of the Disciple weapons are already great. Yet, Adept variants have more perks per column, give even more stats when Masterworked, and can accept unique Adept mods. Additionally, if you want to go for the Disciple-Slayer title, you’ll need to complete all four challenges on Master difficulty.
So with all those incentives, how do you complete these challenges? Read on, as we have a guide for every single one, covering both loadouts and strategy.
VotD Master Challenges: Guides & Loadouts
Art | Raid Challenge | Encounter | Description |
---|---|---|---|
Swift Destruction | Acquisition | Kill all Champions within a few seconds of each other, on all rounds. | |
Base Information | Caretaker | Only pick up one (1) stack of Knowledge (Glyph) per run. | |
Defenses Down | Exhibition | Each player can’t kill more than one Taken Knight in total. | |
Looping Catalyst | Rhulk | Do not lose Leeching Force before the damage phase. |
Vow Acquisition Challenge: Swift Destruction
While this is the only Vow challenge that doesn’t directly relate to mechanics, Swift Destruction is still a bit of a pain.
To complete this challenge, you and your fireteam must kill each Unstoppable Abomination within 5 seconds of another Unstoppable Abomination.
For loadouts, it’s really up to you here. There are both Overload and Unstoppable Champions, meaning you should have at least one covered. Stasis and Void subclasses excel here, along with rocket and grenade launchers for both ad-clear and quick Abomination kills.
Regarding strategy, there are multiple ways to do this. The first is to simply leave the Unstoppable Champions alone. A maximum of three can be alive at a time (one per side), making it relatively manageable. However, we recommend killing them in one of two ways. The first is to kill all three Unstoppables simultaneously at the end of each phase. Or instead, you can kill two sets of two Unstoppables per phase right as they spawn. While the first strategy allows you to only deal with 9 Champions instead of 12, it requires more communication from your team, so choose what’s best for you.
This challenge is about communicating effectively and melting Champions as quickly as possible—two things that get especially difficult in Master mode. However, if you have a good team that has their loadouts and strategies figured out, this one will be a breeze.
Vow Caretaker Challenge: Base Information
Base Information is a deceptively tricky challenge on Master mode that can impact every role in the encounter.
The challenge is straightforward, requiring your fireteam to pick up and deposit only one knowledge buff at a time. That means you’ll need to make nine trips through the darkness room on each floor (instead of the usual three).
Due to the nature of this challenge, loadouts can stay the same as usual. The only extra thing we’d recommend is for the people on ad clear to have tons of Overload rounds or abilities in their loadout. An Overload Hobgoblin spawns every time the Obelisk asks for an offering, so be sure to have weapons to deal with them.
The only strategy change here is obvious—you should only pick up one symbol at a time. Beyond that, while there aren’t any other new strategies you should adopt, other jobs will get more difficult. As stated earlier, people on ad-clear duty will have to deal with more Overload Hobgoblins. Additionally, the players stunning the Caretaker will need to be competent as it will take more time to get to the DPS phase.
No matter what, this challenge is bound to take your fireteam a couple of tries to complete. However, if everyone has prior experience in their role, this challenge hopefully won’t take too long.
Vow The Upended Challenge: Defenses Down
The hardest challenge in this raid, Defenses Down asks your fireteam to communicate more than usual while also giving you less time to do so.
The challenge makes it so that each person on your fireteam can only kill one shielded Taken Knight (Disciple’s Hourglass) in the whole encounter. Remember that there are seven knights total, meaning you’ll need to skip one somewhere.
Significant amounts of both Overload and Unstoppable Champions spawn in this encounter, so be sure to have one or both covered in your loadout. Other than that, however, this challenge doesn’t ask for anything specific.
Strategy is the main thing that will change when attempting this challenge. As mentioned previously, you’ll need to skip one knight during this encounter, leaving you with less time in one room. The most common one to ignore is the second knight in the second room (the one with only the Aegis and Darkness relics). You’ll also need to swap Darkness relic holders in the middle of some rooms to allow everyone to kill a knight. Even though there are rotations you can find online to make this go smoother, you can also just wing it as long as you communicate who has and has not defeated a knight.
Lastly, remember that if you have extra revive tokens, you can have someone purposefully die to remove their lockout timer; this will allow them to pick up a new relic right after depositing one.
Defenses Down is one of the most difficult raid challenges on Master difficulty right now, so make sure everyone has some extra time to spare. Practice makes perfect, so don’t give up on this one!
Vow Rhulk Challenge: Looping Catalyst
In complete contrast to the last challenge, Looping Catalyst will have almost no noticeable changes for most groups.
All the challenge requires you to do is not lose the Leeching Force buff in the first phase (before you begin battling Rhulk head-on).
Just like in the previous encounter, both Unstoppable and Overload Champions spawn in the form of Glyphkeepers, so make sure you have something to combat them.
The strategy shouldn’t change here whatsoever. As long as you pay extra attention to your buff timer, this challenge will be a breeze for you.
There isn’t anything else to say about this challenge, as it just asks you to do the encounter as usual. And while that fact did cause some initial backlash throughout the community, it now makes for an easy encounter to farm for materials and Adept weapons.
Your turn
Hopefully, you now have everything you need to know how to conquer Master challenges in the Vow of the Disciple raid and “easily” farm Adept weapons in Destiny 2.
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