Destiny's Challenge of the Elders: How to beat Val Aru'un

Shoot the little dudes. Shoot the big dude. Have a banana.

How to beat Val Aru'un

This page is part of our guide to Challenge of the Elders, the Prison of Elders end-game activity included as part of Destiny's April update. It's updated every Tuesday and includes all the information you need on the weekly reset, modifiers and bosses.

The old Level 28 Prison of Elders boss is back with vengeance, but once you’ve figured out his tricks this Cabal outcast is a push over.

High Light level Guardians can breeze through this Prison of Elders encounter, barely having to leave the confines of the airlock enclosure. In fact, if you’re constantly watching each other’s back, this is the best place to stay for the dozen minutes at most it’ll take to defeat old Aru’un. His minions are the biggest problem by far, in particular the Phalanx that rush your position to smash with their shields, but especially high ranked Psion Flayers.

Aru’un spends much of his time invulnerable to attacks of any kind, an unusual mist-like shield absorbing all damage. It’s soon apparent that this is similar to those that protects Psion Flayers, as you’ve encountered many times in the Dust Palace strike. Aru’un gains this shield from the high ranked Psion Flayers that withstand a lot of DPS before crumpling.

Only after taking down several of the Psion Flayers does the shield around Aru’un finally drop, allowing the team to focus all fire on the pitiful Val’s slow moving bulk. You’ll have roughly 20 seconds of DPS time before more Psion Flayers rush into the arena to protect their ignoble leader. If you haven’t figured it out by now, the routine here is mostly adds control, ensuring that no lumbering Cabal clog the corridors and that regular Psion are cleared out of the way. After three or four rounds like this, Aru’un crumbles into dust.