Grandmaster Nightfalls is the ultimate PvE endgame experience in destiny 2, and even outperforms Master difficulty raids. Proving Grounds is one of the easier GMs available during the Season of Defiance. As with any GM, you need to play safe and smart, but an efficient run can only take twenty minutes or so with a competent fireteam and the right builds. In this guide, we’ll cover the best strategies for completing Proving Grounds during the Season of Defiance.
Proving Grounds Grandmaster Nightfall builds and considerations
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One of the first and most important things to build around is your anti-champion loadout.
Proving Grounds contains Barrier Colossus enemies and unstoppable Incendiors. Ideally, Strand is performed by a member of your team, with the best option being a Strand Titan with the Abeyant Leap leg armor for quick and easy hanging access. One of your teammates needs an Anti-Unstoppable Scout Rifles for harder to reach champions.
Another member of your team (or the Strand user for dual duties) should also have a fast-firing Void weapon and the Volatile Flow Seasonal mod. While Barrier Champions are easy to deal with while they’re locked, if you need to deal with them in other ways, you can use this season’s simple ability to activate fugitive turns to penetrate barriers without much trouble.
If you have a Hunter on your team, they can also equip the Gyrfalcon’s Hauberk and a Void Machine Gun like the Commemoration or Retrofit Escapade for another great way to take down Barrier Champs.
You also need at least one Well of Radiance Warlock as it can offer both survivability and increased damage output. Currently, this Warlock will also want to run either Starfire Protocol or Sunbracers, as these two Exotics currently offer the best bonus DPS for their class.
As for gameplay, you can’t get into a crowd of enemies, even if they appear like faint red bars in Grandmasters. You’ll always be 25 power below any enemy in the activity, so even the smallest, least threatening enemies can hit you with a shot or two.
Use cover wherever available, abuse “cheesy” spots, and don’t be afraid to blast your Super if it forces you to survive. Your revives are limited in GMs, you cannot respawn manually. If everyone dies, you go back to orbit, so dying in the middle of danger only puts your teammates at a disadvantage and could cost you the whole thing.
How to complete each Proving Grounds encounter Grandmaster Nightfall
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There are four main encounters in Proving Grounds Strike:
- The introduction: Where you clear adds until a two-phase boss spawns and you have to turn off his shield generator to kill him.
- The tank room: Where you have to deal with bosses, champions and two Cabal heavy tanks that appear in the middle of the encounter.
- Redirect performance: where you have to dunk two engine cores while dealing with dozens of enemies.
- The executive room: where you fight the boss, waves of enemies and champions, and break the boss’s shield generator twice while dodging fireballs he throws at you.
Here’s how to complete each encounter in turn.
How to beat the proving ground grandmaster intro
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Your priority in the Proving Grounds intro are the Scorpius Turrets on the left. If you wish, you can ignore the initial enemies and head for the pipes to the left of the starting area. It’s also quite doable to walk through the enemies by points.
There are two champions initially: an unstoppable on the hill and a barrier closer to the land tank, under the pipes.
Eliminate the unstoppable first, then focus on the barrier. A second Unstoppable will spawn near the barricades as you head towards the tank. Take it out from afar and clear towers as they spawn.
Once the second Unstoppable is defeated and you defeat more enemies, the door to the tank will open and both the boss and a third Unstoppable will appear. Hanging behind the rocks to the left of the barricade is a closer but safer spot for your fireteam to hold on to, but you can also pivot further toward the center rocks for more distance.
When the third champion is defeated and more adds are removed, damage the boss until he reaches half his health. At this point, he retreats behind a large dome shield with a generator inside.
More enemies will spawn to the far left of the area, including another unstoppable champion. Your Beach Titan can completely negate its threat with a well-timed suspend, but the champion doesn’t spawn right away, so you’ll want to take down some of the less threatening adds first.
The shield generator is the next tricky part. The boss can stomp when you’re close, and his cannon will hit any guard who gets too close with two shots. A Titan with a full barricade can get in relatively safely, and your team can quickly dash in and out to deal damage while one person pulls aggro. Rounds from the Skyburner’s Oath Exotic Scout Rifle also go right through the generator’s barrier if you want to take it down the easy way.
When the boss’s shield is down, all that remains is to melt the boss, as no more enemies will spawn.
How to complete the tank room in Proving Grounds Grandmaster
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Go into the tank and follow the quest markers until you reach a drop down. You can take some time to clear out any nearby adds, or drop down and take cover behind one of the blast shields on either end of the platform. You can also rotate around the shorter cover if needed.
Take out the two Psion Snipers on either side of the room, then focus on the Barrier Champions. Note that there are a few random boss spawns in this room, ranging from a second Colossus to a Centurion to a Psion. Take care of those next. You also need to watch out for the Interceptor vehicles roaming the area, as these can perform a nasty one-shot from almost anywhere. Use your Well of Radiances liberally here, especially when the War Beasts spawn after removing enough of the initial add-wave.
When the interceptors and accompanying enemies are defeated, the doors in the back of the room will open, revealing both tanks and many additional enemies. Two more sniper psions will also appear on the upper platforms on either side of the room.
Use everything you have to kill the tanks as quickly as possible, especially by shooting at their legs, since destroying three will cause the rest of the vehicle to go up in smoke. Linear fusion rifles are great for this, but anything with high burst damage will do as long as you focus the tanks as soon as they spawn.
Now all the remaining enemies – garbage mobs, extra bosses, and barrier champions – become more passive, and you can stay near the entrance and take them out at will.
How to redirect the Proving Grounds Grandmaster
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Go through the level until you start falling down. At the first door you come to, you’ll face a small cluster of enemies and a single unstoppable champion in the center.
When these enemies are defeated, a power core will appear, and picking it up will open the door on the other side of the room. Drop it before proceeding. Be careful when you jump over; Sometimes larger rocks will come by and kill you when they meet.
Once the door opens, you will be confronted with three red bar gladiators who will hit you with a shot if their cleavers hit you. Let your Strand Titan hang them up for easy cleaning. There are two Scorpius Turrets in the next room on the left, a group of Legionnaires with orange bars, and a Barrier Champion on the right. Opening a fountain in the door gives you a safety net to deal with anything.
Head back to the power core as it will despawn as you kill the enemies. Deposit it in the terminal. The door at the far end of the room will open, and you can stay in the main area to take out a few of the enemies before going inside. On the left side of the opposite platform is a Barrier Champion, a boss and some sniper psions to clear.
As you defeat the champion and bosses, more adds will appear behind you, including more Gladiators and Scorpius Towers on the right, and another Barrier Champion and Legionnaires on the left.
Eliminate these enemies and dip the second power core to open the boss room elevator door. More enemies appear, including Gladiators, War Beasts, and a Barrier and Unstoppable Champion. Defeat them and take the elevator up.
How to beat the Proving Grounds boss Grandmaster Nightfall
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Start the boss fight and then go back under the platform where it first appears. Stick to the side of the oven and you’ll have a good chance to quickly find a cover or swap sides if needed. Shortly after the initial salvo of fireballs (which you can either hide from or shoot at) two legionnaires and a phalanx will spawn on each side of the arena – defeat them and start dealing some damage to the boss.
A pair of unstoppable champions spawn when the boss reaches 1/3 health, one per side. Defeat them and you’ll soon notice that the boss is under a different shield. You can destroy it with Skyburner’s Oath, wait out the dozen or more volleys of fireballs, or you or one of your teammates can play the hero and risk doing things the old-fashioned way.
Once the shield is down a few more adds will spawn and you can continue the damage as normal. At one-third health, the boss becomes immune again, jumps onto his spawn-in platform, and pulls up another shield. Two more unstoppable champions will spawn and the boss will shower you with fireballs again.
The best strategy now is to run to the arena entrance to find the new safest spot. Strangely, the fireballs can’t reach you from the opposite end of the arena, but you still have to deal with the shield protecting the boss. Skyburners can shoot through the shield as before; You can wait out the fireballs, or the badass on your team can go in before then.
When the shield is down again, you can restart the damage. You can either stay where you are at the entrance or go back into the heated tunnel under the boss’s platform. Some additional adds appear, but no more champions. Damage the boss until it dies at that point, trying not to die yourself. If you are successful, you will be richly rewarded.
And this is how you complete Proving Grounds Grandmaster Nightfall in Destiny 2. It’s a lot and thank you for staying with us. We’ve covered many other endgame activities here, including the Vow of the Disciple Raid, Dungeons of Dualityand the Pit of Heresy Dungeon, among other. Our D2 leads hub has more.
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