Destiny 2's new raid was beaten in less than three hours

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Lightfall's Root of Nightmares had one of the shortest world first races in the game's history

Destiny 2
(Image credit: Bungie)

The new Destiny 2 Lightfall raid, Root of Nightmares, was cleared for the first time just two and a half hours after it launched. 

Bungie's acknowledged reports of the first completion on Twitter, though it's still validating the results at the time of writing. But Twitch clips don't lie; as many players have pointed out, a fireteam led by RoenXD from the group Hard In The Paint was seemingly the first to beat the final boss. There certainly didn't appear to be any foul play, so I'd say we have a winner. (Update: Bungie's made it official.) 

Assuming these reports are accurate, Root of Nightmares has had one of Destiny 2's shortest raid races. For context, the Vow of the Disciple raid in the previous expansion, The Witch Queen, took just over seven hours, according to Destiny Raid Report. Beyond Light's Deep Stone Crypt took about five and a half hours, and Shadowkeep's Garden of Salvation was just over six hours. 

Nothing else even comes close to the 18-hour race for Forsaken's Last Wish raid, of course. And at two hours and change, the Root of Nightmares is more on the level of Scourge of the Past and the Eater of Worlds raid lair, which took teams around an hour and a half to clear. 

Why was this raid race so much shorter? It's partly a function of how encounters are designed. The main hurdles in the infamously long Last Wish race were complex puzzles, for instance, whereas the actual combat was fairly tame. Root of Nightmares doesn't seem to have that kind of roadblock.

Just as importantly, raiders are getting better at figuring out Bungie's design language, and on top of that, Guardians have gotten exponentially stronger since the last raid. Between the 3.0 subclasses, Strand, and new Exotics, we're stronger than ever despite mod nerfs, so even the toughest bosses will fall more easily. Still, a day-one raid completion is quite the achievement, so well played to all involved. 

Earlier this week, Lightfall added an Exotic mission to Destiny 2's oldest area. 

Austin Wood
Austin Wood
Senior writer

Austin has been a game journalist for 12 years, having freelanced for the likes of PC Gamer, Eurogamer, IGN, Sports Illustrated, and more while finishing his journalism degree. He's been with GamesRadar+ since 2019. They've yet to realize his position is a cover for his career-spanning Destiny column, and he's kept the ruse going with a lot of news and the occasional feature, all while playing as many roguelikes as possible.