Grasp of Avarice Guide: Loot Cave, Door Puzzles and Phry'zhia the Insatiable

Short answer. Grasp of Avarice is a three-player dungeon from the Bungie 30th Anniversary Pack, and most of its encounters run on one debuff, Burdened by Riches. You beat Phry'zhia the Insatiable and Captain Avarokk the Covetous by feeding those riches to a white crystal. It's also a required step for Gjallarhorn.

Last checked: November 1, 2026.

Grasp of Avarice, cleared on your account

Full dungeon $20. Final boss only $10. Master completion $35. Played by hand, without any bots or cheats.

Grasp of Avarice carryGjallarhorn

How Burdened by Riches works

Defeated Fallen drop engrams that flash red and gold. Picking one up gives you Burdened by Riches, and when its timer runs out, you die. More stacks extend the timer but don't save you.

To get rid of it, stand close to a white crystal. The crystal absorbs your stacks and you live.

Loot Cave

Goal: feed the crystal inside the Cosmodrome loot cave to open the way down.

1. Kill the wave of enemies that rushes out of the cave.
2. Pick up the red and gold engrams they drop.
3. Take your stacks inside to the white crystal and stay close until it absorbs them.
4. Feeding the crystal opens a hole in the cave floor. Drop through it with your team.

Door puzzles before Phry'zhia

Between the loot cave and Phry'zhia are three puzzles: the trap door, the ten-door switch room and the Scorch Cannon door.

Trap door and lever

1. Take the second door on the right and pull the lever.
2. Go through the winding pipe and jump up to the small platform on top of the chain-link fence.
3. It's a trap door: fall through, and a secret room is on your right. Pull its lever to unlock the path forward.
4. Go back through the pipe, climb to the six tunnels near the top of the room and take the closest one on your left.

Ten-door switch room

A screen shows ten doors in two rows. You need the fifth room on the top row. Every room has a switch, and each switch opens some doors and closes others.

1. When the target room is open, pull its switch.
2. The large door at the end opens and enemies come through. Kill them.
3. Pull the switch by the large door to move on.

Scorch Cannon door

The circular room has four doors with Fallen behind them, and one of them carries a Scorch Cannon.

1. Take the cannon to the last closed door.
2. Fire it at the energy box next to that door, hold the trigger to charge the embedded shot, then release to detonate it. The door opens on Phry'zhia.

Phry'zhia the Insatiable

Goal: deposit enough riches in the crystal to break Phry'zhia's shield, then damage it.

1. Phry'zhia starts immune. Kill the Vandal at the back of the arena and take its Scorch Cannon.
2. Pick a side room. Fire into the generator above its door, hold the trigger to charge the embedded shot, then release to detonate it and open the door.
3. Clear the enemies inside and collect their engrams for Burdened by Riches.
4. Get back to the white crystal near the arena entrance before your timer runs out, and stay close while it absorbs your stacks.
5. Open the other side and repeat. Opening one side closes the other.
6. When Phry'zhia loses its shield and the game says it has succumbed to temptation, start damage.
7. When immunity returns, run the cannon, room and crystal loop again.

What matters: the damage phase depends on how many riches you deposit, not on opening both doors.

The mine run

Goal: disarm four mines in order on your Sparrows before any of them goes off.

1. Pull the switch on the left-hand side of the room and get on your Sparrows straight away.
2. Four mines are now active. If any of them goes off, the whole team wipes.
3. Stand next to the armed mine for a second or two. That disarms it and arms the next mine in the sequence.
4. Running over the switches around the map with your Sparrow adds time before the next mine detonates.
5. Disarm the last mine and ride on to the next encounter.

Cannons and the pirate ship

Goal: fire cannonballs at the ship until its shield is down.

1. Pick up a new Scorch Cannon. It activates the large cannons around the map, which launch you and your team.
2. Launch to the platform with a shielded Abundance Monitor.
3. Kill the unshielded enemies and take their Burdened by Riches to the crystal in the middle of the platform. Enough deposits break the Monitor's shield.
4. Defeat the Monitor to turn it into a cannonball. Roll it to the cannon, aim at a glowing node on the pirate ship and fire.
5. Repeat until the ship's shield is down, then board it.

Captain Avarokk the Covetous

Goal: overload the power supplies, feed the crystal, then damage the Captain.

1. Grab a fresh Scorch Cannon.
2. Use it to overload the three power supplies in the arena. Each one makes Burdened by Riches rain down.
3. Deposit all of it in the crystal. Once enough has gone in, Avarokk loses his shield and damage starts.
4. Repeat until Avarokk falls.

Avarokk is the last boss of the dungeon, and a Grasp of Avarice final boss kill on its own is $10.

Loot and Gjallarhorn

The dungeon's weapons are Matador 64, Eyasluna, 1000 Yard Stare and Hero of Ages. None of them is craftable, so you farm for rolls.

Grasp of Avarice has a Master mode, and that changes the farm. In the weeks it's one of the two featured dungeons, Standard drops its best weapons and armor. In other weeks Standard drops lower-tier gear, while Master drops the best every week. The Director Challenge and the hidden chests pay out once a week. Our guide to what's still weekly in raids and dungeons covers the limits.

For Gjallarhorn, the quest And Out Fly the Wolves sends you to investigate the Loot Cave for Shaw Han, and that step is done only when you complete Grasp of Avarice. You also acquire Gjallarhorn's Exotic catalyst in Grasp of Avarice, then complete its progress by defeating targets with Gjallarhorn. If you'd rather skip the quest, our Gjallarhorn service starts at $29.

Next dungeon on your list? Our Spire of the Watcher guide covers it.

Grasp of Avarice prices

• Full completion$20
• Final boss kill only$10
• Master completion$35
• Solo Flawless completionadd-on +$70
• Gjallarhorn ornament unlockadd-on +$10
• Gjallarhorn catalyst unlockadd-on +$10
• Hidden chestsadd-on +$5

FAQ

Skip the traps

Full dungeon $20 or Master completion $35. Add the Gjallarhorn catalyst unlock for +$10.

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