Destiny: Rise of Iron Wrath of the Machine raid guide - how to beat the Siege Engine
Defeat the Siege Engine for Metal and Flesh and Wrath of the Machine with our Destiny: Rise of Iron raid guide.
This Destiny: Rise of Iron raid guide page deals with the second boss of Wrath of the Machine: the Siege Engine (or Death Zamboni).
Resident Destiny expert Arekkz goes over the Siege Engine boss fight in the video above, if you're more of a visual learner; otherwise, here's our breakdown of what happens.
The Siege Engine boss fight is split over two phases, which we'll discuss in turn.
Siege Engine - first phase
Your very first task in the first phase are to shoot off the left and right turrets on the Siege Engine's "head" - they look like little ears sticking up, sort of. This will cause the machine's core to open, and if you snipe the core, you'll be able to board the Siege Engine.
Unfortunately, you'll be absolutely swarmed with adds while this happens. Depending on your fireteam skill level and sniping strength, you should be able to pull this off with a split of four snipers and two floaters; if you have a Stormcaller to mow down the adds, you could even have five snipers if you really struggle to do damage on the Siege Engine. As a back up, a Nightstalker with a Tether can help slow adds and keep them off the snipers. If all the adds are down for a moment, the floaters should help with the sniping where possible and if necessary.
When the core goes down, hurry over the field to the Siege Engine and climb on up, watching for adds as you do. Be careful: the Siege Engine will continue advancing, and it will kill any Guardian foolish enough to be run over. Ride the Siege Engine through the far wall to win this encounter. Stay towards the back to reduce damage when it breaks through the wall.
Only one Guardian needs to make it to the top of the Siege Engine to be victorious in this phase; just jump over and resurrect any fallen comrades in the Siege Engine's wake.
Siege Engine - second phase
After breaking through the wall, the Siege Engine grinds to a halt and you'll need to get it going again. To do this you'll have to retrieve three parts and carry them back to the Siege Engine - before it explodes.
Players are slowed while carrying Siege Engine parts, and they can only maintain the carry for ten seconds, with an "exhausted" cooldown during which they can't carry again.
There's an obvious solution here: split into three groups of two, and be sure each team of two knows who will carry first. Have the first player pick up the part while the second hits adds as hard as they can. The player carrying the part should call out when they drop, so the second player can take over. The first player then takes on add duties, and the two continue to rotate as they move the part up the bridge towards the Siege Engine.
A hot tip: to avoid communication on comms if you don't know each others voices well, it's best if each team sticks to one particular part: the Warhead, Drive Shaft and Engine Block. You can call out "dropping Warhead" or whatever and the other player on Warhead will immediately know it's their turn.
The three parts drop together from a ship at the far end of the arena, so as soon as the Siege Engine passes through the wall you should rush forward and prepare. You must kill a Captain to spawn the parts, so hit him first to get things started and let the players on add duty clean up the Dregs.
The players clearing adds should be very careful to also clear the mines in the field; there's not really time to shoot and defuse them, but the last thing you want right now is to be slowed. One strategy is to have one of the three players on add duty run through and set off all the nearby, then return to grab their part, so the mines are defused before the carriers get to them.
If survivability is a problem, Titans may want to place Blessings of Light bubbles at strategic points along the path to protect players from the drop ship above. You can try moving as a group and timing the run around the drop ship's visit; if you leave the parts where they fall in the bubble and wait for the ship to leave leave you'll have a tighter schedule, but you can clear mines and adds while you wait for a nice clean run forward.
One final note about parts: be careful not to bump each other off ledges while carrying.
Update: Holy heck, Hunters using the Nightstalker's Keen Scout perk and Warlocks wearing Transversive Steps can speed carrying up significantly by crouch walking. Amazing. Will probably be patched.
When you have carried the parts about two thirds of the way to the Siege Engine, an Elite unit called Meksis will spawn on top of the Siege Engine. This causes the ramps to retract, blocking your path up with the parts, because you can't jump while carrying them. Everyone should abandon their parts as soon as they drop to leap onto the Siege Engine and kill Meksis as quickly as possible. This lowers the ramps again.
Once you have the parts on the deck, you must place them in their respective slots. Facing the way you would be as you climb the ramp onto he Siege Engine, the Drive Shaft goes at the front right. The Warhead goes on the right walkway. The Engine Block goes at the back left.
If you are successful replacing the parts, the Siege Engine reactivates. Ride it through the second wall to ensure victory.
Fireteam composition and suggested gear
Snipers are obviously necessary for those sniping the Siege Engine during the first phase, but a shotgun or fusion rifle is hugely helpful for everyone else, because it'll eat up the shields on adds.
Heavy weapons should be focused on safely clearing adds quickly; Raze Lighter is the obvious choice.
Build-wise, survivability should be everyone's aim in this phase.