The race to clear Destiny 2’s new dungeon proves it’s harder than a raid

For the first time ever, Bungie has put on a world’s first race for a new Destiny 2 dungeon. Usually, races are reserved only for raids – which are meant to be the space shooter’s toughest gauntlets – but with the new Vesper’s Host dungeon, it’s breaking tradition. The new dungeon also seems to be one of the most challenging Bungie has ever released, as its world first completion time is longer than several raids.

The most recent Destiny 2 raid, Salvation’s Edge, was one of the hardest activities Bungie has ever made and its world first clear took over 19 hours. While the time taken to clear Vesper’s Host in the FPS game is nowhere near this enormous number, it is longer than a number of classic Destiny raids and the Lightfall expansion’s embarrassingly-easy Root of Nightmares.

At the time of writing, official verification is still needed from Bungie, but the first fireteam to clear Vesper’s Host, Team Indebted, did so in a time of four hours and 23 minutes according to the official Twitch Rivals watch-along stream. For comparison, Root of Nightmares took a meager two hours and 25 minutes. Vesper’s Host is also now officially more challenging than Scourge of the Past and Destiny 2’s reprised versions of Vault of Glass and King’s Fall.

It was also close to going past the world first time for Crown of Sorrows, which was cleared in four hours and 40 minutes.

Given that dungeons are often shorter, contain less puzzles, and have a maximum team size of three versus the six you get in a raid, many are pleasantly surprised to see this level of difficulty in Vesper’s Host. While a normal mode will be unlocked for less hardcore players to try, this will certainly keep dedicated Destiny 2 players happy – especially as it comes just a few months after the extremely tough Salvation’s Edge. While that’s always important for any multiplayer game, it’s particularly crucial for Destiny 2 right now, which has seen player counts fall and sentiment sour in the aftermath of its saga-ending The Final Shape campaign.

The debut of Vesper’s Host, though, has seen it achieve its highest peak player count on Steam since mid-July. Destiny 2 achieved a high of 89,000 players following the release of the dungeon.

If you’re looking to take on this new gauntlet yourself and think you’ll need a bit of assistance, be sure to keep our Destiny 2 Vesper’s Host walkthrough close by. Our regularly updated list of Destiny 2 emblem codes will also make sure you’re never too far away from a freebie.

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