Hello Guardians and welcome to Onslaught guide!
This guide is meant to provide you with all the information and tip you can use to easily beat Onslaught on Normal and Legend.
Gameplay
The goal of Onslaught is to protect the ADU while clearing waves of enemies.
These enemies grow in difficulty every 10th wave by reducing the Guardians’ light level by a set amount.
Enemies
Players face either Fallen or Hive enemies.
Batteries
Every wave will spawn with a set of yellow bars that drop a Battery upon death. These batteries can be used to repair your defenses and the ADU by throwing the battery at them.
Batteries grant Scrap when thrown towards the ADU expire after a timer so make sure you use them whenever you can.
Wave Structure
Waves follow a certain pattern:
- Waves ending with 1 have a buy phase before them and cannot be Augmented or Bonus Rounds
- Waves ending with 2 can be Bonus Rounds
- Waves ending with 3 can be Augmented
- Waves ending with 4 have a buy phase before them and cannot be Augmented or Bonus Rounds
- Waves ending with 5 can be Bonus Rounds
- Waves ending with 6 are Spark-Runner waves
- Waves ending with 7 have a buy phase before them and cannot be Augmented or Bonus Rounds
- Waves ending with 8 can be Bonus Rounds
- Waves ending with 9 can be Augmented
- Waves ending with 0 are Boss waves
Maps
Currently, there are three different maps for Onslaught.
These maps are all from the Crucible.
Vostok
Located on Earth, this map has decent cover but remains open enough to clear waves from afar – this is our suggested map.
Midtown
Located in the Last City, this map has a lot of cover and distinct spawns, a great option!
Mothyards
Located in the Cosmodrome, this map has almost no cover and should be avoided if possible.
Differences between Normal and Legend
- There are several differences between normal mode Onslaught and Legend.
- Legend Onslaught has a fixed final boss on a weekly rotator
- Extinguish is activated on wave 31 on Normal and on by default on Legend
- Players start out at 0 light level and decrease by 4 every 10 waves on Normal, players start at -10 light level and decrease by 5 every 10 waves on Legend
- Legend has a light level requirement of 1810, Normal mode has no requirement
- Legend spawns an additional chest upon defeating Boss waves
Preparation
Before starting Onslaught, take note of the Surges – these are easily overlooked but increase your damage output so it’s worth noting!
Since Onslaught is a horde-inspired activity, builds and loadouts that quickly cleave through enemies are recommended. E.g. Ignitions from Sunshot or Poison explosions from Osteo Striga,
but don’t forget surviving gets harder every 10th wave, so fragile builds tend to ramp up score quickly on lower levels but die on later levels.
Our recommendation is to have atleast one Warlock with Well of Radiance and Phoenix Protocol and one Hunter with Deadfall Tether and Orpheus Rig to make sure you have a Well of Radiance and Tether every round – this groups up and weakens enemies while granting your Fireteam additional protection and damage.
Another good habit is to quickly check what enemy type you are facing upon starting the mission and equipping the proper Resist mods, 3x Arc Resist for Fallen and 3x Void Resist for Hive.
Defenses
Turrets
Costs: 2000 – 4000 – 6000
Turrets shoot at enemies, helping you clear waves.
They are pretty limited in their range, damage and coverage though.
We recommend buying some after you’ve purchased all Target Dummies and upgraded them to Shaxx.
Target Dummies
Costs: 2000 – 3500 – 5000
Target Dummies cause enemies to group up around them and melee them, making them a great way to bait Tormentors, Cursed Thralls and Exploder Shanks.
We recommend getting one at wave 1, then atleast one every 10 waves after wave 30 and fully upgrading them as soon as possible.
Tripwires
Costs: 1000 – 1500 – 2000
Tripwires provide several Tripwire Mines that replenish every wave.
They deal decent damage but can easily get triggered by one stray enemy.
We recommend not getting them unless you’ve purchased and upgraded all Target Dummies and Turrets.
Augments
Augmented rounds have a chance to appear on waves ending with 3 and 9.
They provide extra challenges to your Fireteam and require you to respond correctly to the situation.
Tormentor
A Tormentor appears near the ADU.
This one causes many Fireteams to wipe as his attacks deal heavy damage to Guardians and the ADU, and dealing damage to it proves difficult.
Should your team have a Target Dummy in place, lead the Tormentor towards it by causing it to follow you and running towards the Dummy, this will keep the Tormentor occupied while you clear the regular wave mobs; if your team does not have a Target Dummy in place – the player that has the Tormentor’s attention can simply run around and keep it following him/her while the rest of the team deals with the regular wave mobs.
Skybombers
Several Skybombers appear in the arena that ‘hide’ and periodically call down a bombardment on the ADU.
These bombardments ramp up if all of the Skybombers get to stay alive long enough.
Our tip is to have one player quickly kill the Skybombers while the rest of the team clears the regular wave mobs.
Shielded Skybomber
One big Skybomber appears in the arena and a Darkness Well next to it.
Although daunting at first, batteries dropped in this round can usually keep the ADU alive while you clear the regular wave mobs.
Our tip is to clear the regular wave mobs first then gathering on the Darkness Well to kill the Skybomber.
Demolitionists
Two big Demolitionists appear near the ADU.
Where the Tormentor round can be cleared by ignoring the Augment, these rounds make the Demolitionists your top priority.
Our tip is to play close to the ADU and spend all heavy ammo you have, taking too long to kill the Demolitionists often causes your Fireteam to get overrun by the regular wave mobs.
Shielded Demolitionists
Several Shielded Demolitionists appear and a Darkness Well that grants players a buff that allows them to break their shields.
These Demolitionists tend to rush the ADU, making them an easy target to cleave down – left unattended they become a menace.
Our tip is to dip into the Darkness Well and spend heavy ammo to quickly deal with these Demolitionists.
Spike Mines
Two capture zones appear, guarded by a strong foe.
Failing to capture the zones before they expire causes your team to wipe – giving this your highest priority.
This can easily be done by e.g. a Hunter with invisibility or a Strand Titan with Banner of War.
Remember that killing the enemy is not required to capture the zones, making them less important.
Our tip is to send one player to capture the zones while the rest of the Fireteam clears the regular wave, finishing the wave by killing the bigger foes together to finish the round.
Bonus Rounds
Bonus Rounds have a chance to appear on waves ending with 2, 5 and 8.
These waves will have a bonus objective players can complete which will spawn a heavy crate at the ADU.
Make sure you complete the bonus objective before finishing the wave or it will simply despawn.
Speed Wave
Clear the round within the set time.
Signal Disruption
A pyramid switch appears in the sky, shooting it will reveal the next one in the link – shoot all three.
Simply shoot them when you see them, they start near the ADU.
Capture Pyramid Zone
A capture zone appears in the arena.
We recommend having one player capture it while the rest takes care of the regular wave mobs.
Relic Collection
Collect gambit-like motes dropped by enemies.
Spark-Runner Waves
Every 6th wave, a portal to the pyramid ship is opened. As you make your way through the initial room and enemies, you’ll find a closed door and several marked enemies.
Upon defeating those enemies a Spark will appear near the door, causing the door to open when a player picks up the Spark.
The Spark runner has to make his way to the Shielded boss at the end of the corridor to deposit it and killing all enemies.
This will spawn a portal back to the ADU.
Boss Waves
Every 10th wave, a portal to the pyramid ship is opened and you face one of three bosses.
These bosses themselves are standard but the encounter has one of three bonus events:
Spark
This event periodically spawns a enemy that creates a Spark in the arena upon death. Depositing this spark inflicts heavy damage to the boss.
This gets easily overlooked but can speed up boss waves upon reaching higher levels.
Reinforcements
Two capture zones will appear in the arena.
Capturing these zones will cause several turrets to spawn to aid you.
One capture zone will always appear in the back of the room, where most players deal damage, making it easily captured.
The other ones spawns in the center of the room, making it much harder to capture – ignore it unless you are a Hunter with Invisibility.
Darkness Well
Two Shielded enemies spawn near the Boss and a Darkness Well appears near the back of the room. Dip into the Darkness Well to get the buff and quickly kill the Shielded enemies.
Upon killing them, players are granted a bonus to boss damage.
Final Boss
The final boss wave plays the same as previous boss waves but has three different bosses.
On Normal mode, you’ll randomly face one of the three – on Legend, the bosses are on a weekly rotator.
We hope that our guide to Onslaught has been useful!
Questions or comments? Join the discussion below or our Discord!
Not sure what weapons to get and what rolls you need? Check out our list of Onslaught god rolls.
Join the discussion