Destiny 2 community is back at it again with another boss fight cheese. Might I add, this cheese has been discovered merely days after the new (old) raid has been released. The race to worlds first is done, and here we are, 5 days after the climb, too lazy to take on the Final Encounter, Atheon legit.
The first thing you need to know is that this cheese STARTS at the Gatekeeper encounter. Whoever is going to do this cheese will need to have been inside Venus (right portal) for an extended period of time. This is because of spawn exploits but I’ll explain that later.
ALSO, there is also a way to cheese the Gatekeeper encounter, so if you want that cheese, here is a guide to The Gatekeeper Encounter Cheese. (when we have it up.. working on a guide for that now)
The key to this cheese is to end up in Venus AFTER the Gatekeeper encounter concludes.
Atheon Cheese Step By Step TLDR
- Have 1-5 members of your fireteam spend a significant time inside the venus portal during the Gatekeeper encounter. (you NEED at least one person outside of Venus to start the encounter once you are done with damage regardless of if you kill him completely)
- Beat the Gatekeeper encounter (protect the conflux at the end, kill the wyverns, end the encounter, earn the chest)
- When the encounter ENDS (NOT DURING) the members of the team that were in Venus need to start jumping off the edge and respawning.
- Eventually, the members that spent time in Venus will respawn inside Venus (Atheon is big chillin inside the Venus portal)
- The members of your team that made it into Venus can damage him / kill him completely if you don’t want to do the final fight at all
- Defeating Atheon without actually doing any stages of the final encounter doesn’t give Sherpa credit but it DOES give the Eyes on Atheon triumph
- If you kill Atheon completely, the players outside of Venus, in the main room, have to start the encounter (shoot the box) and this will pull Atheon in and signal the defeat.
- IF you plan to do the cheese to get Atheon low then continue to defeat the boss legit (to get sherpa credit), the members inside Venus need to leave and join back. [BECAUSE you will not “join allies”… if more than 3 players are inside the portal during the legit encounters it wipes you and your cheese damage is lost forever (unless you have a Gatekeeper checkpoint to retry)] learn from our mistakes!!!!
Why Dying and Respawning Works
Now, this one had me stumped for a minute, not going to lie. I knew this method works, but I couldn’t figure out why we would respawn in Venus! Thankfully a group of LFGs broke it down and explained some of Destiny 2 mechanics. Spending a significant period of time at any location is seen as a potential spawn point upon death.
Therefore, if you die repeatedly in a single location, the game sees that spot as unsafe and will backtrack your body to a safer place. So, if you spent a lot of time in Venus, come out of the portal and die repeatedly in the main room the game sees that room as not safe and ports you out back into Venus. (If you did not spend time in Venus, do not attempt this. You will be teleported outside the vault door and get stuck out there.)
Breaking the Cheese Down With More Detail
So to summarize… At the Gatekeeper encounter have members of your fireteam spend a good chunk of time in the right portal. Also known as the Venus portal.
When it’s time to defend the conflux in the center, everyone comes out and kills the waves of enemies, ending with the Wyverns. Once the Wyverns are defeated your final chest will spawn.
After your chest for defeating the encounter spawns, self revive becomes possible again. During encounters, you get one rez token per person, but in between encounters you can die and respawn yourself as much as you’d like. Players that spent time in Venus should start jumping off the ledges to force a back-track respawn.
We found that dying quickly after respawning makes this work faster. So don’t run across the map and die. Try to find a ledge closest to where your body spawned. This helps with the whole “this spot is unsafe” theory, therefore your location of respawning should be adjusted.
Some guides express that players coming out of the Venus portal should spend little time on the ground as to not make a spawn point in the main room. AKA jump around during the defend the conflux portion of the encounter. We found this extra step wasn’t necessary. So long as we hopped off the ledges repeatedly near our current respawn points we all eventually ended up inside Venus.
Killing Atheon
Once inside Venus, you can choose to kill Atheon completely or leave a small sliver of health (enough for one round of damage phase). There are reasons for both scenarios. Either way, you will have to actually start the encounter to trigger his death OR the continuation of the encounter. So don’t forget to leave a player outside in the main room to start the encounter once you crazy animals are done beating up Atheon inside Venus.
Killing Atheon inside Venus, as we mentioned above will give the Triumph Eyes on Atheon. This triumph is the one where you have to defeat Atheon without killing any Supplicants. It is a really hard one to achieve during the legit encounter. The downside to killing Atheon; you will not get any Sherpa credit if you are taking a new player through the raid. This doesn’t make sense to me because you still get a reward chest at the end like if you defeated him regularly… So IDK why but it is what it is.
To check Atheons health while in Venus, have someone bring Darci (the sniper exotic). This is the only way to check his health since there will not be a health bar associated with Atheon.
If you wanted that Sherpa credit, you will have to leave a small sliver of health on Atheon. Start the encounter and defeat him as usual. BEFORE you start the encounter, players inside Venus need to leave the fireteam and rejoin. Leaving and coming back will respawn everyone back in the main room.
This is not a step you can skip! When Atheon teleports you during the encounter – if more than three members are inside a portal it triggers a wipe mechanic and all that juicy cheese damage is gone. This encounter does not pull you into the main room via the “joining allies” mechanic. Nor does Atheon know who is where, he assumes all are in the main room.
So there you have it! I think that’s all there is to cover, this cheese is really simple. While it’s still here I’d recommend getting some quick clears in. Bungie will probably patch it ASAP.
