Excision is the first-ever 12-man mission inDestiny 2. You must have completed the campaign andthe Wild Hunt questto start it, and it is matchmade; so you do not have to worry about having a pre-made fireteam.

It is an epic finale to a decade-old Light and Dark saga, pitting the forces of Light against the Witness. You can either launch the Excision mission directly from the patrol zone in the Pale Heart or via a dedicated node next to the Salvation’s Edge raid.

Forces of Light infiltrating The Witness' Monolith for a final showdown

Before we begin, please be warned that the guide containsspoilers for The Final Shape campaignand the Salvation’s Edge raid.

How To Complete Excision

Once you land, you will see a Darkness barrier in the distance. you may also put down a Rally Flag to give everyone Super, abilities, and ammo. To disable the barrier, you will need tocapture four platesaround the area while fighting a small army of the Witness including Tormentors, Subjugators, Vex, and Taken.

After the barrier is removed, push forward to face the Witness. As soon as you jump in, Saint-14 will join the fray withWard of Dawn. You can jump into it to get a Void Overshield andWeapons of Light, which is a 25 percent damage buff. There is alsoa Heavy Ammo box which periodically appearsnear theWard of Dawn.

Heavy Ammo crate and a Ward of Dawn for Weapons of Light for everyone to use in the 12-man mission, Excision

Work with the others todefeat two Cornerstone bosses— one of each side. Once you have defeated both the bosses, Light will begin to leak out of the ground. You can stand on top of a leak and hold the interact button to ‘Draw from the Traveler’s Light’ and then deposit it at a statue near the back of the area.

As you are collecting Light, you will see the Witness’ arms sprouting up from all over the place. Remember thatyou can shoot the braces on the armsto temporarily disable them.Once you have deposited 16 stacks of Lightas a team, you will open a path into Darkness where you will need to destroy the Veil statues until you are sent back out.

Traveler’s Light that needs to be collected in the Excision mission to start the Witness DPS phase

How To Damage The Witness

To actually do damage to The Witness, jump onto the middle platform (do not forget to get the Weapons of Light buff from theWard of Dawn) anddestroy six glyphs on the chest. This will reveal their weakspot, signaling the beginning of the DPS phase. And while you are free to use anything you are comfortable with, there are a few things which work better than the others, such as:

It is important to note thatyou will not have access to your Supers during the actual DPS phase. This is why you should try to use your Supers to deal with enemies quickly.

Revealing the Witness' weakspot after shooting six Glyphs on its chest to start the DPS phase.

Throughout the DPS phase,the Witness will continue to attack the platformyou are standing on. Whenever you see a section of platform turn golden, move away from it.

Once the DPS phase is over, the Witness will push everyone back, and you will need to repeat the entire process again.

Excision mission node in the Pale Heart for replaying it in The Final Shape

The Witness fight in Excision is a toned-down version of the raid encounter. If you need to practice dodging its attacks, it is a good place to do so.

Rewards

The first time you complete Excision, you will get a random Exotic. Additional completions will reward150 Ghost Reputation, aPale Heart engram, and some random loot. After completing the Salvation’s Edge raid,you will get an item called Memory of the Witness. It is auto-consumed at the end of the mission and awards a random Deepsight Weapon pattern from the raid.

To replay Excision, you’re able to launch it directly from The Pale Heart — it is next to the Salvation’s Edge raid node on the far-right.