Vow of the Disciple Guide

Disciple's Bog
Acquisition
Collection - The Caretaker
Platform Puzzle
Exhibition
Rhulk, Disciple of the Witness

Done by: Rebirth#3299 | Feb 10th 2023

Drop Table

Weapons

Origin Trait:

Souldrinker - Restores Health on reload based on the amount of hits before reload. Health gain per hit varies between Weapon Types. Ranges between 20 HP to 80 HP for a full magazine.

Submission
Legendary // Lightweight Frame // Submachine Gun

Desirable Perks

Barrel:

Smallbore
Corkscrew Rifling

Magazine:

Accurized Rounds

Column 1 Perks:

Overflow
Subsistence

Column 2 Perks:

Frenzy

Masterwork: Range, Reload Speed
Mod Slot: Minor Spec, Adept Range, Adept Big Ones Spec

Easily one of the best kinetic primaries in the business (for how weak they are currently), the Submission boasts a formidable perk pool for all sorts of content, as well as one of the best origin perks. Overflow plays perfectly into the origin perk, and frenzy is a reliable damage boost in any PvE content of consequence.

Insidious
Legendary // Aggressive Burst // Pulse Rifle

Desirable Perks

Barrel:

Arrowhead Brake

Magazine:

Accurized Rounds

Column 1 Perks:

Rapid Hit
Demolitionist

Column 2 Perks:

Rampage
Vorpal Weapon
Adrenaline Junkie

Masterwork: Range
Mod Slot: Minor Spec, Major Spec, Adept Big Ones Spec

A decent pulse rifle for those who use them. In terms of arc Pulse Rifles, this is easily the best, with a very nice-feeling roll of Rapid Hit+One for All. Interestingly, this weapon can roll Dragonfly in the first column, which is rarely seen there. Using the same archetype as the beloved Blast Furnace from Season of the Forge , it holds its own in the Crucible with perks like Rapid Hit and Rampage. Currently the only craftable Aggressive Burst left, as the Disparity pattern is unobtainable, though it can be brought by Banshee or Xur.

Forbearance
Legendary // Wave Frame // Grenade Launcher

Desirable Perks

Barrel:

Quick Launch

Magazine:

High-Velocity Rounds

Column 1 Perks:

Ambitious Assassin

Column 2 Perks:

Chain Reaction

Masterwork: Reload Speed
Mod Slot: Minor Spec, Major Spec, Adept Big Ones Spec

Cleanliness is godliness, and when it comes to cleaning rooms there is a reason people bow down to this weapon. As a waveframe Forbearance is laughably easy to use. Chain reaction causes everything killed by the blast to explode yet again, spreading the good word to all who may hear it. Ambitious assassin reloads for two shots in the magazine, reminding you that this weapon heals you based on the number of hits dealt before reloading. Commonly worshipped as the best weapon in the game.

Deliverance
Legendary // Precision Frame // Fusion Rifle

Desirable Perks

Barrel:

Arrowhead Brake

Battery:

Accelerated Coils
Liquid Coils

Column 1 Perks:

Demolitionist

Column 2 Perks:

Chill Clip

Masterwork: Charge Time, Range
Mod Slot: Major Spec, Adept Big Ones Spec

A decent alternative to the Riptide, the Deliverance has a competitive perk pool in both PvE and PvP. In PvE, the roll of Demolitionist + Chill Clip is one of the best options for certain Stasis builds and synergies, especially those involving grenades. Shooting multiple rounds slows and eventually freezes targets, making it capable of stunning champions. In PvP, the Deliverance is able to roll the coveted Fusion Rifle perk Tap the Trigger, which adds a reliable stability boost for easier landing of the fusion bolts. This can be paired with Perpetual Motion or Heating Up, both of which give a Stability bump.

Lubrae's Ruin
Legendary // Adaptive Glaive // Glaive

Desirable Perks

Haft:

Ballistic Tuning

Magazine:

Accurized Rounds
Extended Mag

Column 1 Perks:

Grave Robber

Column 2 Perks:

Swashbuckler
Vorpal Weapon

Masterwork: Range
Mod Slot: Major Spec, Adept Big Ones Spec

If being a glaive does not put you off from using this weapon, you may come to find that the age-old synergy between Grave Robber and Swashbuckler is actually fairly good on this weapon-melee kills reload the glaive, and increase the projectile's damage by 35%. A powerful synergy, but not powerful enough to offset the natural disadvantage this weapon has, namely being a glaive. Note that Swashbuckler does not increase the damage of the glaive's melee attacks. You can also opt for a defensive build using Immovable Object and Unstoppable Force, but this playstyle renders you largely immobile, given that the perks are best used when standing still.

Cataclysmic
Legendary // Precision Frame // Linear Fusion Rifle

Desirable Perks

Barrel:

Arrowhead Brake

Battery:

Enhanced Battery

Column 1 Perks:

Fourth Times's the Charm

Column 2 Perks:

Bait and Switch

Masterwork: Range, Charge Time
Mod Slot: Boss Spec, Adept Big Ones Spec

Arguably the king of LFRs. Cataclysmic boasts one of the highest damage perks on a Linear, paired with the powerful ammo economy perk of Fourth Time's the Charm, making it the strongest LFR in the game with few exceptions. The damage perk Bait and Switch is not difficult to activate, needing you to only deal damage with your other weapons before swapping back to the Cataclysmic. There are ways to maximize your DPS using the Cataclysmic and a weapon such as Izanagi's Burden or the Witherhoard. Damage tests can be seen here.

Collective Obligation
Exotic // Pulse Rifle

Details

When shooting a target that is weakened, volatile or suppressed from Void effects, this weapon leeches the debuff and stores it.

Void Leech mode can be activated using alt-fire with a minimum of one debuff stored, causing the weapon to inflict the stolen debuff(s) on every shot for a short duration. 20% damage increase while Void Leech mode is active. Gaining Devour, Invisibility or an Overshield reloads the gun.

Embrace the abyss with one of the strongest void primary weapons in the game. With no cooldown on the Void Leech mode, you can perpetually spread debuffs with every shot with a competitive damage boost. Synergizes well with the Nezerac's Sin and Gyrfalcon's Hauberk exotics.

The CO has great stats across the board, and feels good to handle, but comes with a bulky scope. The “In Finality” ornament for the gun removes the hilariously fat scope which drastically increases your field of view.

Raid Symbols

Deepsight Chest

There are a number of secret rooms that contain symbols in the Vow of the Disciple raid. After the Rhulk encounter, an additional chest will appear if you find the three required rooms and activate the symbols in them. This is a must-do for those who can finish the raid in one go since it will provide you a guaranteed raid weapon with Deepsight Resonance and weapon pattern advancement.

Destiny Symbol Tracker and Destiny Glyph Guides are helpful websites that can aid you in finding the glyphs needed to get your deepsight chest.

Disciple's Bog

A Projection of Savathun at the entrance must be defeated before you can proceed to the first encounter. There will also be a ton of additional enemies in this place. Once everything has been defeated, the doors will open, allowing you to move forward—ideally on your Sparrow. Anything goes in terms of causing damage to the Savathun Projection. She will be rapidly knocked aside by heavy weapons, such as the Gjallarhorn, Deathbringer, and other Linear Fusion Rifles, which do significant damage.

Payload Encounter

A payload escort mission, which is the "prologue" of the Vow of the Disciple raid, is somewhat reminiscent to the public event in the Throne Room. The flow is as follows:

Defeat Knowledge Bearers
Collect Knowledge
Deliver to payload

This fight introduces the debuff Pervading Darkness, which will be present throughout the duration of the raid. When this debuff reaches Pervading Darkness x10, you will die. Your screen will gradually get darker as it increases, obstructing your view. To get rid of the Pervading Darkness debuff during the cargo encounter, remain close to the payload.

A Knowledge buff that Knowledge Bearer Abominations drop will be the item that you'll be transporting. Both the new Knowledge buff and the Pervading Darkness negative effect are still in effect. The number of stacks you acquire from the ground after you defeat Knowledge Bearer Abominations determines how many times this perk will stack, advancing from Heightened Knowledge to Brimming Knowledge and eventually Overflowing Knowledge. As you take care of the Pervading Darkness debuff, gather the Knowledge buff, and deposit it into the barge to advance it.

Hidden Chest #1

Three concealed Cruxes must be located and shot during this encounter. If you don't know where to look, the Cruxes might be difficult to overlook. Each Crux is located as follows:

Where the payload initially stops, beneath the tree on the left.

Near the location where the payload stops for the second time at the end of the lengthy hallway.

Beneath the bridge that the cargo travels over.

The fifth stop of the payload is near some additional buildings in a sort of courtyard in the heart of a Pyramid-tech town, after it has carried you past the wall blocking the way ahead. A trapezoidal-shaped structure can be seen on the right side of the path not far from where the sled stops. The chest is waiting for you if you enter the door on the side that is parallel to the route ahead and proceed around the back of the item that resembles a sarcophagus in the center of the room. If you missed the chest, you should be able to sprint back and open it even though this is essentially your last stop before entering the pyramid.

Glyph gallery, Lore code, and Imperious Sun Ghost Shell

Acquisition

Soon after the glyph chamber, in a large room with a gigantic rib bone in the middle and multiple doors with glyphs on the exterior, you have your first major encounter of the raid. Prior to the encounter, familiarize yourself with the layout of the area, paying particular attention to the locations of each door. There are a total of nine doors.

Loadouts:

Primary Weapons: Any decent ad-clear primary (SMG, Auto-Rifle, Pulse Rifle, Trinity ghoul, Ticcuu's Divination).
Special Weapons: Any decent ad-clear special (Wave-Frame Grenade Launchers, Trace Rifle) or decent High-Value Target (HVT) weapons (Slug Shotgun, Sniper, Ikelos-shotgun, Fusion Rifle).
Heavy Weapons: Any decent High-Value Target (HVT) killer weapons (Rockets, Grenade launchers, Swords, Xenophage, Lament, Gjallarhorn, Parasite) or ad-clear weapon (LMG).

Roles:

3 Runners/Readers:

Run around the Encounter area to Find a Taken Knight and kill it.
Read the symbols on the totems and go into the symbol rooms indicated by the totems and kill a chieftain.
Read the symbol/glyph dropped by the dead chieftain.

3 Defenders:

Defends the Obelisk from ads (ads mean trash mob/enemies).
Assist the runner in reading the symbols on the Totems.
Run around the Encounter area to Find a Taken Knight and kill it.

Encounter Flow: Kill enemies → Reading Phase → Shooting Phase

Kill Enemies

The Encounter room will consist of 9 rooms with a symbol on top (Grief, Stop, Brain, Drink, Commune, Kill, Give, Enter, Worship), 3 Totems and 3 Obelisk. The room is also split into 2 sides (Pyramid and Traveller). Split into 3 teams of 2, Each team should have one player as the reader and another player as the runner. There is 3 Totem (Left, Middle, Right) indicated on the Map. Each Team takes one Totem.

Left Team Runner will run for Grief, Stop, Knowledge rooms.
Right Team Runner will run for Drink, Commune, Kill rooms.
Middle Team Runner will run for Give, Enter, Worship rooms.

The encounter will start once a player shoots the Crux in the centre (indicated by the yellow Diamond). Clear all the enemies. Once all enemies are cleared. It is time for the reading phase.

Reading Phase

Top Symbol: Indicate which side the Taken Knight has spawned. It can only be either Pyramid or Traveller. If Pyramid is shown, there is a Taken Knight there needs to be killed on the Pyramid Side (the Left and Middle Team have to Find the Knight). If Traveller is shown, there is a Taken Knight there needs to be killed on the Traveller Side (the Right and Middle Team have to Find the Knight).

Middle Symbol: Indicates the rooms that the runner has to go in. It can only be only the 9 room symbols (Grief, Stop, Brain, Drink, Commune, Kill, Give, Enter, Worship). Once revealed, the respective runner should find the room and go inside the room that has the matching symbol indicated by the totems.

Bottom symbol: Indicates which Chieftain is to be killed. It can be only either a Light or Dark symbol. Inside the symbol room, it is split into two sides, Light and Dark. There will be one Chieftain on each side. The defender who is outside and near the Totems should assist and call out the bottom symbol to the Runner. The runner will then kill the Chieftain based on the symbol called out by the Defender. If the Bottom symbol is Light, Runner has to kill the Chieftain on the Light side. If the Bottom symbol is Dark, Runner has to kill the Chieftain on the Dark side.

Shooting Phase

Once all 3 different Symbols are retrieved, Each team will go to their respective obelisk. Now the obelisk will have 9 symbols appearing 3 symbols on each side (The obelisk has 3 sides). Each Team must look at their obelisk and find the 3 symbols that are called out by the runners earlier in the reading phase (The symbols that are dropped by the dead chieftain). Only one of the obelisks will have all 3 symbols appearing on the obelisk (one on each side).

Once you found the obelisk that has all 3 corresponding symbols. We need to activate that obelisk. To activate it, you have to shoot the 3 symbols that were called out earlier at the same time (there is a 5 sec period). Once you have successfully activated the obelisk, Congrats you have completed one phase of the encounter, to clear this encounter (which has 3 phases, 1 phase for each obelisk), you need to repeat this phase 2 more times and then you will get your loot.

Common Mistakes

Obelisk filling up: Most common wipe. The Obelisk has a meter that will slowly fill up over time. During the reading phase, there will be ads coming to attack the obelisk. If the obelisk is under attack, the meter will fill up at a faster rate. So the defender must defend the obelisk. Another way the obelisk will wipe the team is that the reading phase is completed too slowly. This is due to Nobody checking their totems to see which of their totems are activated, this leads to no one searching for the taken knight to kill, thus less time for the runner to go into the room and kill a chieftain. (Tip, every time a Chieftain is killed, the meter is reset to 0).

Too many deaths: Less common than you think, more common in Master mode/doing the challenge. This is just a survivability issue, if you have an issue with surviving switch to a subclass that helps you survive easier (Warlocks: void with devour/solar with a well of radiance/Stasis, Hunter: void with invisibility/Stasis, Titans: Solar hammer bonk/Stasis).

Encounter Triumph:

On My Go - Only kill Abated Adherents when they've started attacking an Obelisk in Acquisition.

Challenge Mode:

Swift Destruction - In the Acquisition encounter, all three Unstoppable Abominations must be killed in short succession.

Leave the abomination alive during the reading phase, you can stun him if you have difficulty surviving (but make sure you don't kill it). Once the reading phase is over. The entire team will countdown and kill their Unstoppable Abomination at the same time. Then proceed with the shooting phase. You can leave the abominations alive during the final phase as they will despawn when the encounter is complete and still counts as challenge completion.

Master Difficulty:

Scorn Glyphkeepers in glyph rooms are now Overload Champions.
Taken Knights around outside of main room have solar shields
Scorn Wraiths now have solar shields.

Collection - The Caretaker

Roles:

2 Runners/Readers (Unlocks the DPS phase):

Go into a room and pick up symbols, and then shoot the obelisk's symbols that correspond to the symbols the runner has picked up.

2 Ad-clearers:

Defend the Obelisk and kill any enemies on sight.

2 Stunners:

Buy time for the Runner team by stunning the caretaker and preventing the boss from reaching the obelisk.

Recommended Loadout:

Primary Weapons: SMG (For Readers), Any decent ad-clear primary for the rest.
Special Weapons: Any decent ad-clear special (Wave-Frame Grenade Launchers, Trace Rifle) or decent DPS special weapons (Slug Shotgun, Sniper, Arbalest, Lorentz Driver, Cloudstrike (preferably with catalyst), Izanagi's Burden, Witherhoard).
Heavy Weapons: Linear Fusion Rifle / Rockets (Not recommended, if using Rockets one person must Run Gjallarhorn).

You can go double special weapons for a higher heavy drop chance(Heavy drops are abysmal in this encounter).

Subclasses:

Subclass: 1 Warlock with Well of Radiance (good to have more), 1 void subclass for weaken debuff (Can use other forms of debuffs such as seasonal mods or Divinity), Instant-cast super: Blade Barrage (with Shards of Galanor), Thundercrash (with Cuirass of Falling Star), Nova Bomb, Golden gun(with Celestial Nighthawk).

Encounter Flow: Pre-DPS Phase → DPS Phase

Pre-DPS Phase

The encounter starts once you shoot the crux near the door. The boss will appear and slowly walk toward the obelisk. If the boss reaches the Obelisk, the team will be wiped. (This is the job of the stunners, prevent the boss from reaching the obelisk). Everyone will be doing their respective roles at the same time.

Runners

One runner will enter the room once the door opens.
The runner inside the room has the find and collect symbols. You can only collect up to 3 symbols maximum. (Similar to pre-encounter with Overflowing Knowledge).
The runner inside has to remember which 3 symbols he has collected and get out of the room.
The runner inside also cannot take their time as stacks of pervading darkness will slowly increase. Once it reaches 10 stacks the runner dies immediately.
After some time, the door will close, and when the inside runner needs to get out, the outside runner will open the door for the inside runner and get in.
- The inside runner who just got out has to shoot the symbols that he has collected on the obelisk (Runner collects Light, Traveller, Tower, the runner has to find the side(s) of the obelisk that contains Light, Traveller, Tower and shoot those symbols.)
Repeat till all 9 symbols on the obelisk have been shot to activate the obelisk.

Stunners

One stunner will be at the boss's front and one will be at its back.
The front stunner will go near the boss to bait a slam attack from the boss.
Once the boss slams, his face will glow, and the front stunner has to shoot his face.
Once his face is shot, a weak spot on the back will appear, and the back stunner will shoot his back to stun the boss, making him immobile for 10s.
Repeat till the runner team has finished their job.

Ad-Clearer: Easy role, kill anything you see moving, and prevent ads from shooting the obelisk.

Once the runner team finish activating the obelisk, it is DPS time.

DPS Phase

The boss will walk up to the obelisk and one of the 3 damaged plates (left, middle, right) will glow. (The first plate to glow will be where the boss came from, if the boss came from left, the left plate will glow).

Once the plate glows, all 6 ppl will jump in to get the buff Resonant Breakthrough, this is the buff that allows you to damage the boss. You can only receive this buff while on the plate.

After some time, the plates will fade and another damaged plate will glow, moving to the next damage. DPS will end once you have used up all 3 plates or successfully depletes a hygge chunk of his health.

(Tip: You will realise the boss's HP during the damage phase will have a chunk of pale yellow if you can damage enough till the pale yellow health chunk of health is gone, you will gain a 5-second buff where your damage is increased by 50%, so you should save your insta-cast super and wait till the chunk of health disappear, then throw your super at the boss).

Once DPS ends, proceed to the next level and repeat till the final stand.

Final Stand

Once you damage the boss to 20%, you will enter the final stand. Proceed up to the final floor and you will see 3 damaged plates. Similarly to the DPS phase, go into the plate and damage him till he dies, if the plate faded move on to the next plate. You have finished him off in the Final stand or the team will wipe.