The final stage of the Destiny 2 Leviathan raid is the fight with Emperor Calus, the exiled Cabal Emperor who has been chuckling at your performance the entire way through his impressive, gilded ship. You will need to use everything you’ve learned if you want to depose this already-exiled royal.
Compared to Wrath of the Machine, Destiny’s last raid, the Calus boss fight is significantly more straight forward than the Aksis boss fight, which is great for those who struggled but not so good for gamers looking for a similar challenge. When you're ready, be sure to check out the Leviathan Prestige raid changes so you're ready for the next challenge!
Leviathan Raid – Emperor Calus
The main goal of the Emperor Calus fight is to defeat Calus, a rather straight forward objective, but one with a few steps before you can actually start attacking him. To begin, you will need to be extremely rude and shoot the chalice from his hand.
Read: Learn how to quickly reach Power 305 to deal more damage.
The throne room will fill with Cabal, and once all the yellow-health bar enemies are dead, four Sol Councilors will spawn on the four platforms around the room, do not kill them. Calus will clap and your entire Fireteam will be teleported into a purple mind realm with a giant Calus head floating in the distance.
Two players should run forward and grab a black orb each, teleporting them back to the throne room. The four players left in the mind realm will need to call out the symbol they see appear on Calus’ forehead. Be careful, as Calus will try and suck you forward and into his mouth, but the only thing stopping this from happening is a barrier.
The players in the throne room will need find the symbol that is not called out on the platforms, and kill the Sol Counsilor that is on it. For example, if the players in the mind realm call out, “Dog, Chalice, Axes”, the players in the throne room will need to kill the Sol Councilor that is on the Sun platform, as that is the symbol that wasn’t called out. This phase of calling out the symbols happens four times before the next phase begins.
Every player will see a different symbol, except for two players – this is a safety net in case someone dies in the mind realm.
When the players in the throne room kill the correct Sol Councilor, the players in the mind realm will be able to safely move forward to the next barrier. These players in the mind realm will need to kill any enemies that spawn (Projections and Psions), while also calling out the symbols they see.
As mentioned, once four sets of symbols are called out, the next phase will begin. The players in the mind realm will need to destroy skulls that spew forward from the mouth of the giant head. The more skulls destroyed, the higher the multiplier will be during the damage phase.
Meanwhile, in the throne room, the two players here will need to clear minions and then take down the shield around Calus, who will be glowing a bright yellow-white. As soon as the shield goes down, the team in the mind realm will be teleported back to the throne room.
Once all players are in the throne room, everyone needs to stand on the same plate and shoot Calus to deal damage. You will not be able to deal damage unless you’re on a plate. After a plate runs out of power, everyone should move to the next plate, until all four plates are used. Be careful, because just before a plate is drained of power, Calus will set off an explosion on the plate, potentially killing anyone standing on it.
After using all four plates, you will need to repeat the above steps of calling out the symbols, killing the Sol Councilors, killing skulls, removing Calus’ shield, and damaging him. When Calus’ health drops to zero, he will enter a final stance where you must destroy his shield to completely defeat him.
Emperor Calus Strategies
First off, the reason for leaving four players inside of the mind realm when you only need three is because having four players allows for some wiggle room in case of any mistakes. If you only have three players, and someone dies, only two people will be able to call out symbols, meaning the players in the throne room have a fifty-fifty chance of killing the correct Sol Councilor.
It can also help to assign a call-out order, so everyone doesn’t yell their symbol at once. Players in the mind realm should also make sure to avoid any of the “ramps”, as jumping will cause you to fly into Calus’ mouth. This becomes more difficult as the phases progress, as parts of the floor disappear, giving you less options to move.
The two players in the throne room should be the players who are most proficient at killing enemies, as a lot will spawn while trying to kill Sol Councilors. It can be a good idea to use Supers to clear out the Centurions, as well as the smaller minions.
When it comes to damaging Calus, using a Warlock’s Empowering Rift can help you deal more damage, especially if the Warlock is wearing the Exotic Boots, Lunafaction Boots, as these immediately reload ally’s weapons when they step inside the Rift. Similarly, a Titan’s small wall can help you avoid the lengthy reload times.
Pulse Grenades and Coldheart make short work of Calus, especially when you can land all the critical hits. However, if you don’t have either of these, you can use whatever weapons offer the most Power.
The Emperor Calus fight requires a lot of communication, so make sure you don’t fill up the voice comms with useless information! If you’re still struggling to defeat Emperor Calus in the Destiny 2 Leviathan raid, consider learning how to unlock the MIDA Multi-Tool, as it’s an extremely powerful Kinetic weapon.
