As the final boss of the Lightfall campaign in Destiny 2, Calus is a real challenge. Many players have had trouble with this encounter.
We will go over what Loadouts you will want to bring as well as some strategies that will make this fight much easier on yourself.
Recommended Read: How to Catch Exotic Fish in Destiny 2
To beat Calus in Destiny 2, use a Loadout that lets you stay alive for a long fight. Take your time and stay behind cover as much as possible. Clear enemies before dealing damage to Calus and focus on killing Tormentors. For phase two, use your Grapple ability to stay away from Calus and deal damage only when you are safe.
Table of Contents
What Loadout to Use Against Calus
Before you even begin the fight with Calus, there are some preparations you will need to make with our Loadout.
Stats
For starters, you will want to try and max out your Resilience stat to 100. This will give you the most survivability possible, which is our main concern with this boss fight.
Next, try and get your Recovery as high as possible. It doesn’t have to be max, but the higher the better.
The rest of your stats shouldn’t be a concern. This will be a long fight. You will get your grenade and Class abilities back in time so long as you can just live.
Weapons
There are a fair bit of minor and major enemies in this fight. Clearing them out quickly is key. We recommend taking in an Exotic Primary weapon such as Ostio Striga or Quicksilver Storm.
A strong Primary weapon will make sure you don’t waste too much Special and Heavy ammo on adds, as you are gonna need them for boss damage.
For your Special weapon, you can bring whatever you are comfortable using. A good Fusion Rifle can make quick work of the shielded enemies, as would a Shotgun.
If you are having trouble clearing groups of enemies, consider using a Grenade Launcher with Disorienting Grenades to blind enemies before approaching.
As for our Heavy weapon of choice, you should probably consider using a Machine Gun. This will give you a decent amount of boss damage throughout the fight while giving you the option of quick add clear should you need it fast.
Machine Guns are also great at dealing with the Tormentors. If you don’t have a good Machine Gun on hand, then your best bet is going to be a Linear Fusion Rifle for good boss damage and quick Tormentor kills.
Strand
Your subclass of choice won’t really matter for this fight, as you will want to be using the provided Empowered Strand subclass for this encounter.
Calus has a lot of health. You won’t be winning this fight through quick damage rotations. This encounter revolves around your survival while whittling down Calus.
There are many Grapple points stationed around the arena that you can use to quickly evade Calus’ attacks.
Be sure to only use your Grapple ability on these Grapple points, as they won’t consume your Grapple. This means you can run circles around the enemies to avoid being outnumbered.
How to Beat Calus in Destiny 2
Now that you have your Loadout ready, you can begin the fight. Right away, you will notice that there are platforms connected to the center stage by stairs.
Choose one of these platforms and keep it clear of enemies. You won’t need to move from your spot too often, as the enemies will keep coming your way.
Throughout the early stage of the fight, Calus will shoot homing Darkness missiles at you. Be sure to shoot them out of the air with your Primary weapon.
Once you have cleared out the majority of the enemies, you can begin unloading your Heavy ammo at Calus. After you have dealt about half a bar of his health, he will spawn in more enemies.
Focus on killing the shielded Legioniers and Shadow Guard Incendiors, as they will deal massive damage and try to push you off of the stage.
Calus will begin firing what looks like a Darkness orbital strike onto your platform. Be sure to move away from it before it hits, as getting hit will most likely lead to a wipe.
After you’ve dealt with another wave of enemies, you can begin damaging Calus again. You should be able to break his first bar of health now.
This will cause Calus to go immune, gain a shield, and spawn in a Tormentor. Be sure to focus on killing the Tormentor as quickly as you can. This is where your Machine Gun or Linear Fusion Rifle will come in handy.
Do not let the Tormentor get close to you. If it slams the ground next to you, it will suppress you and send you flying off of the map.
Circle the arena with your Grapple points to evade the Tormentor until you can finish it. If you happen to have your Suspend ability up, that is also a good way of dealing with Tormentors while giving you easy access to their crit spots.
Now you can begin damaging Calus’ shield. If you have your Strand Super ability up, this is a good time to use it.
Breaking his shield will spawn another wave of enemies, so use the remainder of your Super to take them out before it runs out. If you are on Warlock, run.
Kill any leftover enemies before continuing to damage Calus. Once he only has about a third of his health bar left, he will spawn in another Tormentor.
Deal with it before it deals with you. Again, if you are low on ammo at this point, you can use your Suspend ability to make killing the Tormentor easier on yourself.
Calus will once again have a shield up. Take your time now to kill off any extra enemies and find Special and Heavy ammo bricks before finishing off his last third of health. Now for the hard part.
Phase Two Strategy
Yeah, it’s not over yet. Calus will now transform his gun into two large swords and start chasing you around the arena. You will also lose access to your safety platforms, forcing you to stay close to Calus.
Now more than ever, be sure to only use your Grapple ability on the Grapple Points to run away from Calus while peppering his health.
If you have your Super ability up again, now is the perfect time to use it. If not, take your time and don’t let him get too close, or else he will send you flying off of the arena.
After you break his first bar of health, he will gain a shield. If you are using your Super, you should be able to break both his health bar and the shield in one go. If not, continue Grappling around and take your time to whittle him down.
While you don’t have a timer for this fight, enemies will begin spawning periodically. Even though they are minor enemies, be sure to deal with them fast, as they can shoot you out of the air.
There aren’t any other additional hurdles for the last two bars of health. Stay safe and use your Heavy ammo to finish Calus.
Cheese Strat
If you are still having a tough time with this encounter, as many of us have, then you can cheese both phases by going under the map for phase one and above the map for phase two.
For the first phase, you can get below the staircase where you put down the Rally Banner by jumping onto the scaffolding.
This can be a tricky jump but is well worth it. From there, make your way under the stairs. You can shoot Calus from between the steps with no danger of dying.
Once Calus is close to phase two, use the scaffolding to get back up on the arena. Head to one of the far-up platforms that circle the outer edge of the arena. Finish phase one safely from up here.
As phase two begins, you will see the bubble begin to form, which shrinks the arena. Stay on the outer platform.
You will notice the Joining Allies message appear, don’t worry. Wait for the bubble to form about one-third of the way before using your Grapple to reach the top of it.
Here, you can stand on the bubble far above the arena and damage Claus safely.
If you’d like a video explanation, check out Esoterickk’s guide.
That’s how you beat Calus in Destiny 2. This is a tough fight, so be sure to take your time.
Are there any tips you would like to give to someone who is struggling with the Calus fight? Let me know in the comments!
