Progressing deeper into Destiny 2’ Leviathan raid takes you to the Pleasure Gardens, a dark and murky area full of beasts, enemies, and weird objects. If you want to entertain Emperor Calus and get a chance at more rewards, you’re going to need to know how to complete the Pleasure Gardens. So prepare to hunt those beasts!
If you haven’t gotten to the Pleasure Gardens yet, make sure you check out our guide on how to beat the Royal Pools.
Leviathan Raid – Pleasure Gardens
The main goal of the Pleasure Gardens is to kill all six of the named Royal Beasts around the room. These Royal Beasts have unique names, a lot of health, and patrol certain areas. Luckily, they do not attack you. However, if they see you, they howl into the air, turning it hazy purple and causing a status effect that will wipe your team after roughly 30 seconds – unless you’re in the safe room. So for this fight you must not let the Royal Beasts see you.
There are a few main elements to this fight:
- Royal Beasts: Must all be killed to finish the fight
- Safe Room: Protects you from the Royal Beasts’ howl
- Prisms: Used to zap the Plants to earn empowerment
- Beams of Light: These appear above the Garden on top of rocks and allow the Prisms to shoot a laser
- Pollen: Must be taken to the Plants to enable Empowering Spores
- Plants: Located around the Garden, only glowing plants accept the Pollen
The safe room is opposite where you enter the Pleasure Gardens and can be accessed through a door in the roof. Two prisms spawn on the roof and four Pollen spawn inside, these are the tools you will use to help you take down all the Royal Beasts.
Each of the four Pollens must be taken to the same glowing Plant around the Pleasure Gardens at the same time. Once all four Pollens are at a Plant, the Prisms can be fired at the Plant to extract the empowerment – but only when the Prisms are being held in a Beam of Light. After a glowing Plant’s empowerment is extracted, the Pollen must be taken to another Plant to extract more power.
There is only a limited time to extract the empowerment, and once this time is up, you will have roughly 30 seconds to deal damage to the Royal Beasts before the roof on top of the safe room is sealed. If you do not make it back to the safe room before the Royal Beasts finish howling, you will die. You can only use the safe room three times, meaning you only get four chances at killing all Royal Beasts.
The fight can be broken down into the following steps:
- Collect the Prisms and Pollen
- Take Pollen to the Plants and the Prisms to the Beams of Light
- Shoot the Plants with the Prisms to collect Empowering Spores
- Collect as many Empowering Spores from all the Plants before the Royal Beasts howl
- Attack the Royal Beasts, either killing them or spreading the damage out over each phase
- Retreat to the safe room to avoid dying to the howl
- Repeat the steps until all the Royal Beasts are dead
Prism Users and Pollen Carriers Strategies
Split your team into two sections, Prism users and Pollen carriers. The Prism users have a few primary jobs: collect the Prisms, stand in Beams of Light, defeat Cabal units that spawn, and direct the Pollen carriers to where the glowing Plants are located. The Pollen carriers must navigate the Pleasure Gardens on foot, avoid alerting the Royal Beasts, and stand near the glowing Plant while holding the Pollen.
The two Prism users should pick up their Prisms and immediately split left and right, stand in a Beam of Light, and then call out the location of the glowing Plants. For simplicity, you can label the Plants L1 through 3, R1 through 3, and “Trees” or “Rocks”. Example: “Plants are L1 and R2!” or "Glowing Plants are in Rocks and L3!"
A few seconds after the Prisms are picked up, the roof to the safe room will open and the Pollen can be collected. The four Pollen carriers should pick whether to go left or right, depending on what side they prefer to go to first and where the Royal Beasts are patrolling.
To make it easier for the Pollen carriers to navigate the foggy Garden, the Prism users should let them know where the Royal Beasts are and if they’re moving toward them. Similarly, the Pollen carriers should let the Prism users know when they’re all at the glowing Plant.
The closest Prism user should shoot the Plant with the laser, and if done correctly, you should have a buff called Empowering Spores x12. Repeat this process as many times as possible, as each successful Plant that is shot adds more to the multiplier. If a Pollen carrier is not close enough when the Plant is shot, you will not receive as many Empowering Spore multipliers.
At some point, the Royal Beasts will grow restless and eventually unleash a psionic howl or they will be alerted by a player and release a psionic howl, either way, at this point, everyone will need to jump down into the Garden and deal as much damage to the Beasts as possible. They will each run to one of the Plants and continue howling, so if you know where the Plants are, you can meet them there.
There are two options here:
- Focus down Royal Beasts and kill as many as possible each phase
- Spread the damage out among all six Royal Beasts, killing them all in the last phase
Whatever option you choose, you will need to return to the safe room before their howl finishes else you will die. Once in the safe room, wait for the Pollen and Prisms to respawn, and then everyone should grab their object and prepare for the second phase. Repeat the above steps until all the Royal Beasts are slain. Be aware that as you progress through the phases, the time it takes for the Royal Beasts to become restless and howl decreases, meaning you must act faster each time.
Gear and Player Strategies
While standing on the Beams of Light, the Prism users will need to use the Prism’s laser to kill any Cabal units that spawn, as the Pollen carriers cannot drop the Pollen and pick it back up. Cabal units typcially spawn whenever a Plant releases its Empowering Spores. When the team is ready to attack the Royal Beasts, the Prism users will need to jump down and use weapons or Supers to deal damage. The Prisms do not deal enough damage to the Royal Beasts, and they will disappear once the howling begins.
Pollen carriers should always walk around the Garden, never running, unless the area they're moving through has its Royal Beast killed, because sprinting or jumping alerts the Beasts. Pollen carriers should also look out for the glowing Plants, as sometimes the Prism users might not see them.
Everyone should use whatever Subclass they prefer, however Warlocks should use their Empowering Rift to increase their damage output on the Royal Beasts while Titans can use small walls to instantly reload their weapons. All players should use their Supers to try and burn down the Royal Beasts’ health.
For the first phase, you should be aiming to collect Empowering Spores x60, which equates to six Plants, but you could easily reach x96 if you can track down all eight Plants in time. If you opt to kill the Royal Beasts as opposed to spreading out the damage, you should be able to kill four in the first phase and one Royal Beast in each of the following phases.
Compared to the Royal Pools, the Pleasure Garden is vastly more challenging, requiring excellent communication, stealth, as well as speed. However, if you manage to defeat enough Royal Beasts in the first phase, you can very easily complete the Leviathan raid’s Pleasure Gardens fight in Destiny 2.
