Destiny 2 Pantheon adds Riven but you can’t cheese her anymore

Riven and Nezarec were the final two bosses who got added to Destiny 2‘s raid boss gauntlet Pantheon. However, there’s a big catch as you can’t cheese Riven anymore.

Riven is one of the most iconic bosses in Destiny for both good and bad reasons. She is often regarded as the greatest raid boss, on account of her difficulty level and being heavy on mechanics. At the same time, there is a shortcut that has existed since her release which allows players to skip through all of the mechanics with ease.

A lot of players were confused about what Bungie would do with Riven in the Pantheon since the cheese would make the encounter too easy. As it happens, you cannot skip Riven’s mechanics in the Pantheon as Bungie found a solution six years after the release of the Last Wish raid.

The way Riven works in Pantheon is that, during the first two floors, she has a 90% damage reduction. This removes any chance of cheesing as your Lament and Falling Guillotine will barely deal any damage. That’s not all either, as the joining allies bug has also been patched. Once you reach the final floor, the damage is returned to normal, but by then you are forced to execute the mechanics rather than skip them.

Additionally, breaking Riven’s blisters deals a massive amount of damage as well. This means that if you did not know how to execute Riven’s mechanics until now, you have to learn it, provided you want the Godslayer title.

The Last Wish raid is the best end-game content ever created by Bungie. It took 19 hours for World’s First clear, and only 12 players in total have the Day 1 emblem. However, the Riven cheese meant that the majority of the community never got to feel why it took over six hours for the day 1 teams to clear Riven.

Pantheon makes sure that every player gets that experience since not only the mechanics skip is gone, but you are locked at a 20-power deficit. In other words, you will always be 20 light levels below the boss encounter. This makes Pantheon Riven a nightmare for LFG teams who are learning the mechanics for the first time.

To clear Riven now your team will need perfect execution, clear communication, and optimal DPS. The good news is that the cheese still exists in the Last Wish raid, with only the Pantheon version of Riven being affected by these changes.