Destiny Weekly Nightfall Strike – The Devil’s Lair, Sepiks Prime

We’ll admit, we were a bit surprised to learn that the Weekly Nightfall Strike was Sepiks Prime, the not so intimidating final boss who we advise guardians to take on when they need to complete the Walking Tall bounty. After all, Sepiks Prime is largely considered to be the easier of the two battles on that one, with the Devil Walker usually taking at least two or three times as long to bring down. We were also surprised to learn this isn’t the Sepiks Prime strike that you remember. This one comes with some mission modifiers that are no joke.

Mission Modifiers for January 13 to January 19, 2015

• Epic – Heavily shielded and highly aggressive enemies appear in great numbers.
• Nightfall – If all players die, the fire team will be returned to Orbit.
• Arc Burn – Arc Damage from any source is greatly increased.
• Lightswitch – Minions of the Darkness deal much more melee damage.
• Minions of the Darkness won’t flinch, even after massive damage.

The beautiful thing about the parameters for this particular strike is that Juggler is nowhere to be found, a modifier that stops ammunition from dropping for the weapon you currently have equipped. This means you can take full advantage of the Arc Burn by spamming your secondary and heavy weapons.

The Fallen vs The Hive

The first part of this battle will see you take on three waves of enemies while your Ghost tries to hack its way through a barricade. You’re going to deal with both Fallen and Hive, and things are made much more difficult by the fact that they come at you in great numbers and from all directions.

Your best bet is to take up a position on the catwalk at the far end of the room from where you entered. There’s a nice little spot behind a shipping container that provides excellent cover in times of chaos. You will have to deal with the odd adversary jumping up to melee you, but it’s far more manageable than trying to deal with the mess on the ground level. When the three waves are complete, it’s time to move on to your first big boss fight.

Tip: Be sure to load up both Arc and Solar damage for this strike. The Arc damage will help you take down almost any enemy, but the Solar is particularly effective against the Shanks that are rocking Solar shields.

The Devil Walker

This is widely considered to be a harder fight than Sepiks Prime at the end, mostly because the Devil Walker is a bullet sponge. It’s easy enough to put critical damage on the big spider looking thing, but its offensive weapons are known to one-shot guardians straight into the after-life. Luckily for you, there are several spots that you can take your target down from while remaining relatively safe.

Your best bet to take out the Devil Walker is to stay at the back and near where you entered the area from. You can snipe its legs until you destroy one, then deal critical damage when the hood pops and the internal wiring is exposed. Just be careful – there is a popular rooftop near the doorway to this area, but the Devil Walker can still hit you here. We’re talking about the one that’s more to the left.

Tip: Things can get crowded with three guardians in one area, so why not venture to the far right corner from where you entered? You can score critical hits from here, and you’ll be largely ignored by the Fallen enemies who occupy the center field.

Sepiks Prime

Now that you’ve bested the giant mechanical spider, it’s on to the final boss battle of the strike, Sepiks Prime. It’s not as easy as the first time you ran the strike during the campaign, but it’s certainly not the hardest Weekly Nightfall that we can recall.

The most efficient way to end this fight quickly is with the use of an Arc weapon, and you might want to go one step further and equip a legendary or exotic machine gun. These devices of doom are going to deal massive damage to your foe, but you’ll want to switch back to your primary in order to deal with all of the minions that spawn in from time to time. These guys are also a great source of ammunition to help you take the fight back to your primary target. Just be sure to either stay mobile or find cover, your enemies can also deal massive damage if you let your guard down.

When Sepiks Prime finally falls (after a grueling 90 second battle), snatch up all the ammunition that’s laying on the ground and wait to see what your reward is. You should have 500 Vanguard reputation and some cool smoke looking thing orbiting your head, and if you’re lucky an exotic… but more than likely a rare.