The Root of Nightmares is the newest Raid in Destiny 2 and sees players come across a revived Nezarec who must be put down for one last time. As Contest mode has just ended, many Destiny players may be looking to dive into this beautiful and twisted test of their abilities. Although many players have stated that this final encounter is one of the easier ones in Destiny 2 history, there are still some mechanics that players will want to keep in mind.
Whether jumping into their very first Raid or simply looking to speed up their farming for some of the great loot that can be found in the Root of Nightmares, players should read on to find out what they will need to do to survive Nezarec's attacks and how to put him down for good.
How to Beat Nezarec, Final God of Pain in Destiny 2
After defeating Zo'Aurc, Explicator of Planets, players will enter the final arena of the Root of Nightmares Raid. Players will need to take everything they learned in the Cataclysm and Scission encounters and put it to good use here to get to the damage phase.
Just as in those encounters, players will need to activate light and dark nodes while under the corresponding buff. Assigning one person to deal with the Field of Light nodes and another to deal with the Flux of Darkness nodes is the best way to do this.
Meanwhile, the other players should clear adds. As usual, one player may want to equip one of the Aeon Exotic armor pieces to keep ammunition flowing, and wave frame grenade launchers will work a charm.
One player should keep Nezarec distracted by shooting one of his shoulders. This will release a burst of either blue or orange light and will make his chest vulnerable. Shooting it will keep his attention on that player for about 10 seconds. As Nezarec is a very aggressive boss, players may want to have another player ready to shoot him again to keep him from focusing on one player too much. Equipping glaives can also greatly help survivability.
The color of light that Nezarec releases upon being shot corresponds to the buff players will need in order to avoid the wipe mechanic. If the light is blue, then players will need the Light Refuge buff, if it is orange, then players will need the Darkness Refuge buff. This buff lasts about 15 seconds and allows players to survive the wipe mechanic when Nezarec casts it.
To get the Light Refuge buff, players will need to shoot an inactive Light node while under the effect of the Flux of Darkness buff. To get the Dark Refuge buff, players will need to shoot an inactive Dark node while under the effect of the Field of Light buff. By matching the correct buff, players will survive the encounter long enough to be able to activate all the Light and Dark nodes and begin the damage phase.
To make the most out of the damage phase, players will want to select one platform for everyone to stand on and place their Wells of Radiance or Wards of Dawn. As Nezarec does not have much health, players do not need to follow extremely specific rules on which weapons to use and can generally just use anything that deals good damage.
The usual builds, such as Izanagi Rocket or Starfire Warlock, will work well here, but players have also completed the encounter by using 
Rat King or 
Legend of Acrius, so anything goes really. After about 30 seconds of damage, Nazarec will become immune, and the cycle begins again.
If players activate the nodes fast enough, they can avoid the wipe mechanic completely and kill Nezarec extremely quickly. Either way, once they have finally ended Nezarec's whispers, they can collect their loot and head back to the Tower, knowing they completed the Root of Nightmares Raid.
Destiny 2 is available on PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X/S.