Destiny 2 Desert Perpetual Raid Guide – Complete Walkthrough

Here’s our comprehensive guide on how to complete every encounter in the new Desert Perpetual raid in Destiny 2.

Desert Perpetual is the newest raid added to Destiny 2 as part of the Edge of Fate expansion. The Contest Mode version of the raid launched today (July 19, 2025), available for the first 48 hours, with Normal Mode unlocking as soon as the first team clears the final encounter.

This raid takes place inside the Singularity on Kepler, set in the mysterious Unknown Space of the Nine. Your main enemy throughout the raid will be Maya Sundaresh’s Choral Vex. In this article, we’ll talk about everything you need to know in order to complete this raid, from the opening encounter to the final boss fight.

Opening Encounter

When you load into the raid, you’ll watch an intro cutscene showing the middle platform. This is where you’ll pick which encounter to complete first, second, and third.

You’ll spot a Purple Crystal Tower in the middle, which lets you choose between the available encounters. Just head to this crystal, use the elevator in the center, and interact with the platform that corresponds to your chosen encounter. The path you need to take will open up in the direction of the encounter you selected.

This raid is non-linear, so you can pick the order you want to tackle the first three encounters. Here’s a quick look at three platforms, the text you see when you interact, and the respective boss fights:

• “Axion is axiom” – The Living Rhythm Encounter (Wyvern boss)
• “Interference patterns swell” – The Inverse Function Encounter (Hobgoblin boss)
• “All are entangled” – The Clear Sight Encounter (Hydra boss)

The Living Rhythm Encounter

In the Living Rhythm encounter, your main goal is to take down Iatros, Inward-Turned. The room has three pillars, each with three big Vex boxes on them.

At the start, six Vex Minotaurs will spawn. When you defeat them, they’ll drop Chronos, which can be blue, white, or red. Depositing these Chronos into the Hourglass in the center of the room buys your team more time and prevents the wipe timer from ending your run. Each deposit also progresses the encounter to the next stage.

After enough Chronos have been deposited, every player starts to gain stacks of a buff called Diastole. When you reach 4 stacks, you’ll be launched up into the air. At the same time, one of the three plates in the room will start glowing with a “white” particle effect above it. Stepping on this plate gives you a debuff called Absolute Temporality.

Here’s the goal: Your team needs to build three sets of three platforms for the person holding the debuff (Team C) to climb. At the top of each set of platforms, there will be a small white Vex cube to interact with. Grabbing all three cubes starts the damage (DPS) phase, but keep in mind, the boss will go to the middle and keep on moving. 

The color of the Chronos pickups from the Minotaurs tells you where the boss will spawn. (see the attached image for reference)

• Red Chronos: The boss spawns on the Red platform and then moves to the Blue platform.
• Blue Chronos: The boss spawns on the Blue platform and then moves to the White platform.
• White Chronos: The boss spawns on the White platform and then moves to the Blue platform.

Here are the roles you need to set up for each of your members to do:

• Team A: Two players focus on finding and defeating the Minotaurs. Pick up the Chronos they drop and deliver them to the Hourglass in the center. Keep doing this as the encounter progresses.
• Team B: Three players should stand by the pillars at the bottom, right where the Vex boxes are. Their job is to shoot the boxes to build platforms for the next step.
• Team C: One player is responsible for climbing the platforms as they appear. This player should look for the plate with the white energy effect to pick up the debuff.

Order of Operations

1. Team A deals with the 6 spawned Minotaurs and delivers their Chronos (they do that throughout the encounter until you reach the DPS Phase)
2. Team B and C help with clearing ads until all six Chronos are deposited.
3. As soon as the 6 Chronos have been delivered to the Hourglass, Team B gets in position by their assigned pillars, and Team C looks for a vex plate with white energy.
4. Team C steps on the plate to get the Absolute Temporality debuff. As soon as Team C’s Diastole buff hits four stacks, Team B shoots the bottom Vex box on their pillar to create a set of platforms.
5. Team C climbs the first set of three platforms to interact with the small white Vex cube.
6. After calling it out and grabbing the first cube, Team B and Team C repeat the process, this time, shooting the middle Vex box, then the top Vex box for the next two climbs and cubes.
7. After Team C interacts with the third and final small vex cube, the Damage phase will begin.
8. Your team will have around 15-20 seconds to damage the boss.
9. After the damage phase, repeat the entire process until you defeat the boss.

The Inverse Function Encounter

Coming Soon…

The Clear Sight Encounter

Coming Soon…

Koregos, The Worldline

Coming Soon…