Destiny: How to Do Max Damage in the Aksis Boss Fight
By Anthony Taormina 12 October 2016
A statistical study of weapon types shows Destiny players which weapons are the best for using on Aksis during the final boss fight in the Wrath of the Machine raid.
When developer Bungie first revealed that Destiny’s new raid, Wrath of the Machine, would be DPS focused instead of mechanics focused players were curious to find out what that meant. Now that Wrath of the Machine has been out for a few weeks, and is set to release its Heroic Mode in a week, players have shifted their focus onto finding the weapons that do the most damage, especially in the final boss fight.
Enter popular Destiny streamer and content creator Datto, who has put together a damage breakdown for the top tier weapon choices when it comes to the Aksis boss fight in Wrath of the Machine. Obviously, the cannons are going to be the first choice when it comes to doing damage, as each can dole out upwards of 120,000 HP of damage per charged shot, but Datto’s video focuses on what weapons the other three players (those not holding cannons) should use.
Check out Datto’s findings below:
At first blush most would think that the Sleeper Simulant would be the best weapon for doing maximum damage to Aksis. The exotic fusion rifle heavy is capable of doing focused precision damage, and with the Weapons of Light buff, Sleeper can do 374,328 HP of damage across its 9 shots.
Another popular choice for doing damage to Aksis is the Raze Lighter exotic sword, which has been known to one hit kill bosses throughout Destiny. However, it’s much harder to get a Weapons of Light buff and get in enough sword swings to make a difference, so in this case Datto measured Raze Lighter’s damage without the buff. Across 14 swings (the full ammo count for the sword), the Raze Lighter did 290,517 HP of damage.
But the real winner out of the test is Dark Drinker, the exotic void sword. Without Weapons of Light, Dark Drinker is capable of doing 397,632 HP of damage using 14 swings of its R2 attack. That’s more than Raze Lighter and more than Sleeper Simulant with Weapons of Light.
Why exactly Dark Drinker does so much damage is unclear, but many are theorizing that the sword’s swirl attack actually hits multiple points on Aksis per swing. Whereas Sleeper and Raze Lighter only hit once, Dark Drinker hits multiple times per attack.
The findings are quite illuminating when it comes to doing maximum damage to Aksis and may have players switching up their strategies moving forward. Moreover, if the fireteam can position a Weapons of Light bubble in such a way that the Dark Drinkers can get the buff, it’s possible that the sword will do even more damage.
This new strategy could come in handy next week when Wrath of the Machine Heroic Mode releases, and brings with it some new mechanics. If, for example, the Heroic Mode version of the boss fight took out the cannons or limited the cannons, then we could see Dark Drinker becoming the new go-to weapon. Not to say that Sleeper Simulant is a bad option, but when it comes to the best option for non-cannon players the Dark Drinker is the new favorite.
Destiny: Rise of Iron is out now for PS4 and Xbox One.
