Garden of Salvation Raid Guide

Who knows what dangers lie in the Black Garden? Where Vex plot and plan and scheme, and obey the Sanctified Mind. One of the only solely Vex raids, and commonly considered one of the most complex raid in Destiny 2: Shadowkeep, the Garden of Salvation will require every ounce of cunning, strategy and teamwork you possess. Are you ready Guardian?

The first step of your journey is to avoid the Consecrated Mind. To do this, your fire team will need to use a Vex box to open a gate. A guardian must shoot the box, which will tether them to the box with a beam of light. That guardian can then tether themselves to another nearby guardian, or to a tetherable object, such as the gate. The light can only extend so far, so coordinating with your team will be a necessity.

Once the gate is open, enemies will begin to spawn, and the Consecrated Mind will begin their attack. Their attack comes in the form of a glowing white box they deposit on the ground. A guardian will need to pick this up quickly, or the team will wipe. Picking up the box gives the guardian a debuff called Voltaic Overflow. Guardians can only have 1 stack of this long lasting debuff at one time, or they will die.

The Consecrated mind will stay in the starting area until all of the enemies past the gate are killed, including an Angelic hydra that will appear, and a second gate has been opened using the same tethering mechanic as before. The consecrated mind will move to this second room, and the process begins again.

There are a total of 4 rooms, and the 4th room will have not 1 Vex box, but 3 required to unlock the gate. Once this final gate is unlocked, the final stretch of the encounter begins. Cyclopes will fire at your team from all sides, and the Consecrated Mind will deposit Voltaic Overflow after Voltaic Overflow. Once you reach the end of the final stretch, the encounter is over, and the rest of the Garden awaits.

The goal of this second encounter is to summon the Consecrated Mind after they fled at the end of the last one. This is done by defending the 5 confluxes stationed around the map, starting with the 4 in the corners. Confluxes can be activated using Vex Boxes, and doing so not only activates a portal connecting the 4 boxes to each other, but gives the guardians who tethered the Conflux a buff called Enlightenment. The enlightenment buff allows your guardian to destroy enlightenment shields, which otherwise negate all damage. Enlightenment shields do not regenerate, so once they are destroyed, a guardian without the buff can also damage the enemy behind the shield.

Each conflux will have 3 Angelic Hydras and a bevvy of other enemies bearing down on it, and all of the enemies will have this special shield. Defeating the 12 Angelic Hydras will unlock the final conflux, leading to a final, 3 wave assault on the central conflux. If your fire team can hold out, all they’ll need to do is tether to the Vex box that will spawn in at the end of the fight.

The Consecrated Mind has been summoned. At the start of the fight, they will be, of course, completely immune. Enemies will spawn in, including Minotaurs, which are required for activating the damage phase. Meanwhile, the Consecrated Mind will do what they do best, depositing Voltaic Overflows. However these Overflows have a twist. The Consecrated Mind will Detain whichever Guardian picks up the Overflow. The Mind will then extend its eyes, and the Detained Guardian is the only one who can see which eyes must be shot to prevent a team wipe. If any weakspots aren’t shot, or if an eye that isn’t a weakspot is shot, the Consecrated Mind will instigate a team wipe.

In order to start the damage phase, the Minotaurs around the map will need to be killed. Each killed Minotaur will drop 5 motes that can be deposited into the relay in the center of the map. When 30 motes have been deposited, the Consecrated Mind will go to the relay and display all of their eyes. All of them must be shot for the damage phase to begin. Once they start taking damage, they will start to retreat away from the relay. When they finish their retreat, the damage phase will be over. Rinse and repeat as needed to vanquish the Consecrated Mind.

After making it past the Consecrated Mind, only one more challenge awaits. The Sanctified Mind, Sol Inherent. There is a lot to keep track of in this fight. The Sanctified Mind can destroy parts of the arena, which can be repaired with Vex Boxes. In addition, there are two relays that correlate to the 2 weakspots on the Sanctified Mind, the knee and shoulder. Shooting 1 will spawn a blue portal, and shooting the other will spawn a red portal. Traveling through one of the portals transports your guardian to a separate island filled with vex. Killing the vex will give your guardian red or blue motes, depending on the portal you travelled through. In order to return to the main arena, another guardian must open the same portal your guardian travelled through. Doing so will return the original guardian to the arena, where they can deposit their motes in the appropriate relay and receive the enlightened buff. A very important buff to have, as the Sanctified Mind will spawn in enemies with enlightened shields.

Once both relays have 30 motes, the next phase begins. An Angelic Enemy will spawn in, locking the Vex Boxes until death, meanwhile, the Sanctified Mind will show either a Blue or Red symbol which correlates with a Vex Box. Tethering the correct box to the symbol, and then doing the same for the opposite box, will start the damage phase. Repeat as necessary to bring the Sanctified Mind to their knees, and then all spoils of the Garden of Salvation will be yours. Happy hunting Guardians.