Challenge of the Elders

See also: Prison of Elders

Overview

Challenge of the Elders is a new mode in Prison of Elders introduced in the April Update. The mode is 3 rounds long and is essentially a boss blitz. This event has modifiers and bosses that change every week. You will encounter a boss on each round but the objective is not simply to win but to win with style, you need to score points to fill your Elders' Sigill. Your reward for meeting the single playlist score is always a weapon, meeting the cumulative high score rewards an armor piece.

Points Calculation

• -50 points when the boss' enrage timer is announced.
• -50 points every 45 seconds after the enrage timer is announced.

Week 1

• Score Goals: 30,000 Single, 90,000 Cumulative
• Variks will grow impatient and deduct 50 points every 45 seconds after he becomes impatient. This isn't that bad, so really focus on landing precision kills and clearing all enemies before the boss.

Round 1: Overmind Minotaur

Overmind Minotaur spends the majority of his time sitting in the middle of the arena firing his massive weapon at you while Vex spawn in from the doors. The trick to this boss is his ability to "Spot" Guardians and encase them in a containment field that you'll need to break yourself out of. Primary Weapons are the way to go, Scout Rifles in particular for their range. A Ward of Dawn counts as hiding from the Overmind Minotaur and thus you aren't spotted so use it get a lot of damage in. Ideally you want to finish this round above 5,000 points.

Round 2: Sylok the Defiled

Sylok the Defiled is like most Hive bosses in the Prison of Elders, your best spot is going to be off to the left where you have convenient cover and range. Scout Rifles and Sniper Rifles will be the way to go once again though a good Hand Cannon goes a long way with the charging Thrall. Beware of the flames that Sylok will shoot out, they are similar to a Taken Knight but burn much longer and are more widespread. Wizards are best taken out as soon as they appear. Ideally you want to finish this round above 15,000 points.

Round 3: Pilot Servitor

Pilot Servitor is the round 3 boss. The far right corner of this area is going to be the easiest to survive on but it gives you limited range, so moving to the left corner occasionally to rack up some points is recommended. Auto Rifles and Shotguns will do best to eliminate rushing Captains, but you need the precision kills to maximize points so stick to a high powered Hand Cannon and Sniper Rifle. The Pilot Servitor now unleashes bouncing bombs similar to Fallen Walkers, so you want to keep your distance. Focus on nearing 30,000 points then defeat the boss.

Tips and Tricks on Getting 90k Cumulative High Score

Aim Goals to Aim For

• Round 1: 8-9K
• Round 2: 23K-24K
• Round 3: 45K-46K

Precision Kills

• This a bit of a derp tip.... This week's modifier is precision kills. Bring a scout or a hand cannon. Get that auto rifle out of here. Also, bring a sniper and machine gun. Don't waste kills on weapons that are impossible/ hard to get precision kills with. Also, don't kill enemies with grenades, melees, and supers unless absolutely necessary. You are wasting points every time you do this. In round 3, a super kill will give you 100 points. A precision kill will give you 270.

• Exceptions: On the first round, a super kill will net you 10 more points than a precision kill (plus a 40 point orb). Also, the shanks in round 3 can't be precision killed, so use a grenade, melee, or have a friend hit them (not kill them) and then melee for extra points (melee points plus assist points).

Assists

• I've found a couple easy ways to get some extra assist points, which may seem like small potatoes, but I assure you that they add up. One method is just to group with a friend and get non precision hits (shoot the legs) and let your friend finish them off with a precision kill.

• Another, far easier method is firefly. Get a precision kill, trigger firefly which will damage and stagger surrounding enemies, and let your friend get the next precision kill, giving you assist points. If they also have firefly, they probably slightly damaged and staggered the next enemy, giving you an easy precision kill and giving them assist points. Rinse and repeat. Note: I've seen a lot of people say not to use firefly because it can unintentionally kill other enemies, but in my experience that rarely happens enough to ruin your score.

• Another easy way to get assist points is to use a Nightstalker tether. I'll come back to that a little further down.

Reenforcement Time Management

• The more time you take, the more points Variks will take away, but if you're fast enough, taking the time to kill all adds will easily net you more points faster than he can take them away.

• Enemies spawn based on boss health. The first thing you should do when starting a round is get rid of the adds as quickly as possible, but still take the time to get those precision hits, assists, etc. Once the adds' numbers have started to dwindle, designate one person to start damaging the boss while the other two fireteam members finish cleaning up (if you are playing with just two people, this is a much more important step). Once all adds are gone, everyone should be damaging the boss as hard and fast as they can to get the next wave of enemies to spawn as quickly as possible. Repeat this until the end of the round.

Make Orbs / Using Supers

• You get points for making orbs! Pick the right subclass! (Note: Crest of Alpha Lupi/ Light Beyond Nemesis can improve these methods but it's really not necessary)

Nightstalker

• Get to know where enemies will spawn, and the moment you see the notification that the next wave of enemies is coming, shoot a tether with black hole and light of the pack near that door/area/whatever, but let your teammates do the killing. Doing this will not only give you points for orb generation, but you will also get assist points for every tethered enemy your friends kill.

• If your super is charged after the last wave of enemies has spawned, tether to boss to help take him down ASAP.

Defender

• Put on Gift of the Void and pop your bubble as soon as you can and as often as you can. Don't waste time waiting for the perfect moment. Just do it, preferably near the boss or an area with lots of enemies hitting your bubble to make more orbs.
• Also, as long as you're good at getting machine gun precision kills, don't forget to use your heavy with the sub class perk Iron Harvest on. You'll often make orbs this way. This works especially well in the last round on killing shanks since you can't get precision kills on them anyway.

Sunsinger

• Pop your super and get precision kills with your gun. Don't throw grenades or melee everything to death, keep shooting. Don't use it to come back to life either. Just use it when enemies spawn and play like normal. You'll make orbs for just regular old gun kills while it's active.