When Destiny 2 started the World’s First race in the raid “Crota’s End“, many expected that it wouldn’t take long for the first players to cross the finish line in the raid considered as a Strike. But it was really a challenging competition mode, making it exciting for everyone. The Destiny editorial team tells you how long it took and who claimed the victory.
Which raid race is it about? Last night, the old Destiny 1 raid “Crota’s End” made its comeback in Destiny 2. It started at 7:00 PM, and Bungie made significant changes to the difficulty of the raid.
- Crota and his encounters turned out to be a fierce competition, creating excitement among all participants including the spectators.
- The winning team had to defeat the raid Crota’s End twice, once in competitive mode and a second time in challenge mode, which was not easy at all.
- The leading teams failed multiple times and there was only a 1 minute and 5 seconds difference between first and second place at the end.
At 1:03 AM, Bungie announced: “As the father, so the son. Crota’s reign is over.”
Elysium secures the 4th World’s First victory in 2023
Here are the winners: Saltagreppo and the Elysium clan secured their fourth World’s First belt with the victory over Crota. Thus, they belong to one of the best clans in the entire history of Destiny 2, having won on Day One of the “Vault of Glass”, “The Oryx’s vow”, “King’s Fall”, and now also in “Crota’s End”.
Only in the raid “Root of Nightmares” were they beaten in 2023 by the clan ‘Hard in the Paint’.
How long did the raid last? Surprisingly long. Some players expected a quick race, as the raid was considered not particularly challenging. But Bungie wanted to test how hard a Day One raid could be. And so the race became demanding.
The winning team crossed the finish line at 12:51 AM and took 5 hours and 51 minutes to triumph over Crota twice.
The Destiny elite’s fierce neck-and-neck race
The race for Crota was by far one of the most exciting raid races seen in Destiny for a long time.
- Right on time at 7:00 PM, it began. In addition to clan Elysium with Saltagreppo, clan All the Players, as well as clan Math Class with Datto, were also present. Datto had recently taken a break from Destiny, but wanted to not miss this revival and finally be victorious.
- Before players even jumped into the abyss, they found an ominous “Chalice of Light”. Not the only change Bungie made to this raid from Destiny 1.
- Around 7:41 PM, players recognized that the knights on the other side in the bridge encounter were champions with huge health bars, meaning “Welcome to Destiny 2 Crota!” All teams had to fight hard to stay alive.
- Shortly before 9:00 PM, teams were able to defeat Ir Yut after taking a long time to figure out how the encounter works. All the Players was the first to get through.
Meanwhile, Destiny 2 also drew a lot of attention on Twitch. After it became known how exciting the Crota race was, Destiny 2 climbed to the top of Twitch’s viewer numbers behind Just Chatting and Starfield with 279,000 viewers.
However, the numbers still fell short of the World’s First of the brand-new Lightfall raid “Root of Nightmares” from early 2023. At that time, a peak of 520,000 concurrent viewers tuned in.
- After several teams caught up with Crota, it quickly became clear: The son of Oryx can now be damaged by more than just the sword of the sword bearer. Afterwards, it was only about who dealt the highest damage and coordinated calmly and quietly as a team. For Elysium, this is no problem with a well-coordinated, experienced team that knows each other.
- All the Players and Elysium tried out every possible DPS option with linear fusion rifles, rocket launchers, and the divinity. Throughout the race, however, Crota turned out to be a tough final boss. His health bar was surprisingly high and all teams struggled to even reach the second damage phase. A brutal fight, but also a true competitive difficulty mode.
- At 10:14 PM, clan Elysium defeated Crota in the nick of time and became the first team to go into orbit after the first competitive run.
Now began the real challenge of the World’s First race. Teams had to complete the raid again while mastering a secret challenge in each encounter.
- Team Elysium made an important discovery around 10:32 PM during their second visit to the bridge; they muted their voice communication to prevent others from adopting their strategy. Meanwhile, aTides and his team had also caught up to them with a mix of the clans Sigh, Respire, and Passion.
- At 12:00 AM, Elysium was back with Crota. But they had issues. Crota did not want to die, fighting relentlessly against the team. Moreover, he had retained some traits from Destiny 1 and teleported out of reach of the team. Some things don’t change even after nine years. Their fight against the final boss failed twice, making it even more exciting. Because that gave other teams a chance to catch up.
- At 12:45 AM, two teams were almost neck and neck. Elysium and team aTides were in a tight race.
- After nearly 6 hours, at 12:51 AM the team led by Saltagreppo triumphed over Crota in the final challenge, being just over a minute faster than aTides.
- Bungie confirmed shortly after at 1:03 AM that all was well, awarding clan Elysium the 4th World’s First victory.
We congratulate the Elysium team on their impressive and entertaining victory in a tough race against Crota.
This is how long it took compared to other World’s First raids:
- In the “Garden of Salvation” in 2019, the final boss fell after 6 hours and 13 minutes.
- The Day One raid 2021 for the “Vault of Glass” was completed in 1 hour and 43 minutes.
- In the Witch Queen raid “The Oryx’s Vow” in March 2022, it took 7 hours and 14 minutes.
- Oryx, Crota’s father, was defeated in the legacy raid “King’s Fall” in August 2022 after 5 hours.
- The Lightfall raid “Root of Nightmares” in March 2023 was completed after 2 hours and 25 minutes.
When does the competitive mode end? All players who do not want to play the raid in competitive mode will have to wait a bit longer. Bungie will keep the mode active for a total of 48 hours. You can therefore only play the raid in normal mode starting Sunday evening at 7:00 PM.
However, the raid could also be interesting for some players in competitive mode, especially if you are cursed by the eternal bad luck of the loot god with raid exotics. Because whoever defeats Crota within 48 hours is guaranteed to receive the new raid exotic “Necrochasm” without any ifs or buts.
Anyone can get the new raid exotic from Destiny 2, you just have to be good enough
Did you watch the race or maybe even participate yourself? Then feel free to tell us in the comments how tough you find the raid in 2023 and what you think about the renewed victory of Saltagreppo and clan Elysium.
