In Destiny 2, the new raid “Root of Nightmares” started and brought guardians from all over the world together for the traditional World First race. They all wanted to be the first to unveil new secrets lying in a terraformed pyramid. MeinMMO tells you who was ahead and how close the race to victory was.
What raid race is it about? At the launch of Lightfall, Bungie created a brand new raid that started on March 10 at 6:00 PM in the game with the race for World First.
The raid “Root of Nightmares” offers brand new content to explore for everyone who owns the Lightfall DLC. It consists of a total of 4 encounters. They needed to be discovered and completed as quickly as possible during the World First race. In 2023, a total of three teams were tied for a long time.
What does “Competitive Mode” mean in Destiny 2?
In Competitive mode, all players are leveled to a uniform power level, so the only way to victory is good team coordination.
A higher power level does not bring any advantage, as every player is limited to a maximum of 1780 power due to Bungie’s rules. Therefore, the unique challenge of the raid lies in mastering it with 20 power levels too low. And that is something that even experienced players feel significantly. Shots from opponents hit harder and you can take less damage.
However, whoever masters the raid first within these parameters wins the prestigious race for the Day-One competition. In this case, the Worlds First for “Root of Nightmares.”
Traditionally, Bungie holds a Day-One race at the launch of each new raid in Destiny 2. This applies to both new paid raids and to free legacy raids.
Clan “Hard in the Paint” secures victory in 2023
How long did the raid last? Right at 6:00 PM, the raid appeared in the game and the guardians could start it for the first time. However, the opponents from the “Root of Nightmares” raid did not stand up long against the capable fireteams.
Already around 8:25 PM, the first team from Clan “Hard in the Paint” completed all encounters and Bungie announced: “We have reports of a Destiny 2 ‘Root of Nightmares’ World First completion.”
The last Word First winners, Saltagreppo and the Elysium team, cracked the second one at 7:06 PM and rushed to the third encounter. However, a few setbacks set them back. Thus, only All_The_Players from Clan “Unparalleled” could keep up.
Around 8:16 PM, all teams were working on the perfect damage phase against the final raid boss. However, at 8:25 PM, Clan “Hard in the Paint” was able to decide the race. They thus returned to orbit as the first team after 2 hours and 25 minutes.
For comparison:
- In the “Garden of Salvation” in 2019, the final boss fell after 6 hours and 13 minutes.
- The Day-One raid in 2021 for the “Glass Vault” was completed in 1 hour and 43 minutes.
- In 2022, during the Witch Queen raid “The Oath of the Student,” it took 7 hours and 14 minutes.
- And the 2nd World First in the legacy raid Kingsfall required 5 hours.
After extensive review, Bungie confirmed on Twitter at 10:21 PM that everything was correct and named the 6 players Roen, Osiris, Punz, Kai, SK, and Grangalf as this year’s winners. They all receive the World-First title belt engraved with their names.
Hate and nasty comments against last year’s winners
This is how toxic the Destiny community reacted: The dark side of this joint raid race of the guardians surfaced again through toxic comments from the Destiny community.
Some players expressed that they welcome the fact that with the victory of “Hard in the Paint,” Clan Elysium,which had previously secured the title three times in a row, has failed. Specifically, Elysium member Saltagreppo has been associated with calls for harsh elite nerfs in the game that many rejected since last year.
I really hope that [Saltagreppo] finishes in 10th place and everyone can laugh at him. I never wanted anyone to fail on Day 1, now I do! […] I want you to fail to become World First so I can laugh at you, as most in the community, I fear.
wrote the user Oreo on Twitter
Even if this race is certainly a competition in some way, one still knows each other for years and stands together. None of the clans competing for the World First raid had such disdain for their competition. On the contrary, SK from the winning clan “Hard in the Paint” commented shortly after the nasty hate comments from the community against Clan Elysium:
To all of you flaming Clan Elysium or Saltagreppo or any of the other guys. You are not fans of Destiny 2. Many of us in the top-end raid scene have known each other for years and it is all just a friendly competition. These guys don’t own or deserve any flame at all.
wrote SK shortly after the raid on Twitter, which his teammates shared
This increased the tension: Already beforehand of the raid race, players were worried about some bugs in the game. Also, a total of 9 items were disabled for the race.
- Destiny 2 disables 9 items for the launch of the new Lightfall raid “Root of Nightmares”
- The invisible and FPS bug were also hotly discussed as an issue during the raid. At least for the former, Bungie has already announced a fix for March 16, and even postponed the Iron Banner for this reason.
Nightmare raid race was a viewer magnet on Twitch
So many wanted to watch the World First race: Shortly after the raid started, Destiny 2 topped the viewer numbers on Twitch.
- Over 468,000 concurrent viewers catapulted Destiny 2: Lightfall to first place shortly after the raid started, ahead of “Just Chatting,” League of Legends, VALORANT, Fortnite, and CS:GO.
- Around 7:41 PM, the concurrent viewer count peaked at 520,000.
- In comparison, there were only 246,000 concurrent viewers during the World First of the Kingsfall raid, thus placing third behind the Just Chatting and League of Legends streams. (via twitchtracker.com).
A new addition to this year’s raid race was also the official livestream from Twitch Rivals.
When does the competition mode end? All players who do not want to experience the raid in competition mode will have to wait a bit longer. Bungie will keep this mode activated for 48 hours this year. Only from Sunday evening at 6:00 PM can the raid then be played in normal mode.
Did you watch the race and secure the Twitch emblem? Or are raid races and winner belts not of interest to you at all? And what do you think of the diss against Saltagreppo and his clan? Feel free to leave us your opinion.
Destiny 2: Players blow themselves up for praise – Explosively bypassing the new system
