Destiny 2: Nightfall Strike – The Arms Dealer Tips, Tactics and Strategies (January 9th 2017)
How to beat this week's Strike on Nightfall difficulty.
Advanced tips, tactics and strategies for beating the Nightfall version of The Arms Dealer, including details of the timers and modifiers involved.
This week’s Nightfall Strike in Destiny 2 is The Arms Dealer, and you won’t be ready to tackle this one yet unless you’ve been a very busy bee indeed.
Assuming you have the necessary gear and skill levels to set through the door though, you should be prepared for quite the challenge once you’re inside.
There’s a pretty strict timer for one thing, and a modifier which requires you to use the right weapon at the time, while juggling the usual frantic firefights.
It’s not for the faint-hearted, then, but we wanted to put together a quick guide to beating this first Nightfall challenge, drawing on various tips and tricks uncovered by the community so far.
We’ll be covering each Nightfall Strike as it’s released in the coming weeks, so check back on reset day for all the latest.
(If you want to be the best at every area of the game, don’t forget to bookmark our PVP, Strike and Subclass guide pages – they’ve got everything you need if you want to get more out of Destiny 2, and will be continuously updated in the weeks ahead.)
Timers
You have a timer on this particular Nightfall Strike of 11 minutes. If you don’t complete the challenge within that time limit, you’ll be kicked back to orbit again – pretty brutal.
Note also that a general timer affects resurrection of fallen teammates. Once you fall in battle, you cannot be revived for five seconds. Once that timer is up, a buddy can get you back up. If no-one is there to resurrect you though, you can do it yourself a total of 20 seconds after you’ve died.
More Destiny 2 Strike guides
The following links will take you to all of our Strike guides
- 1. Strikes – Destiny 2 Strike guide
- 2. Nightfall Strikes – Destiny 2 Nightfalls Strikes guide
- 3. Exodus Crash – Destiny 2 Exodus Crash guide
- 4. Inverted Spire – Destiny 2 Inverted Spire guide
- 5. Lake of Shadows – Destiny 2 Lake of Shadows guide
- 6. Pyramidion – Destiny 2 Pyramidion guide
- 7. Savathun’s Song – Destiny 2 Savathun’s Song guide
- 8. The Arms Dealer – Destiny 2 The Arms Dealer guide
Modifiers
You have two modifiers to contend with on this particular Nightfall version of The Arms Dealer – Time Warp: Killing Time and Prism. Let’s explains how both of them work:
Killing Time: This one’s pretty simple and incredibly satisfying. Defeating enemies extends the mission timer, with stronger enemies earning you more time back.
Prism: Here’s the official description, “Your attacks matching the focused element deal increased damage. All other elemental damage is reduced. Kinetic and incoming damage is unaffected. The focused element rotates periodically.” So, it’s important you bring a nice balance of energy weapons in the Nightfall with you this week.
Our most popular Destiny 2 guides
The following links will take you to our most important guide hubs:
- 1. Guide – Destiny 2 Guide
- 2. Crucible – Destiny 2 Crucible PVP guide
- 3. Subclasses – Destiny 2 Subclass guide
- 4. Strikes – Destiny 2 Strike guides
- 5. Campaign – Destiny 2 Campaign walkthrough
Nightall Strike: Arms Dealer Tips and Tricks
Here are some initial tips to bear in mind before you get stuck into this Nightfall Strike:
- With the Prism modifier active, it’s essential that you take a nice balance of energy weapons into the Nightfall with you. Ensure that each member of your fireteam has every element covered!
- The key to this Nightfall is to be patient when clearing the area of enemies. It may seem like you’re running out of time at certain points throughout the Strike, but you’ll regain a surprising amount when eliminating baddies.
Opening Area
- Clear the first corridor by shooting the yellow barrels, throwing your grenades and paying attention to the Prism modifier.
- When you’ve opened the gate to head outside, make sure you keep to the left and take on the enemies from a distance.
- Keep throwing grenades and firing off your power weapons into the groups of enemies in the center.
- Once you get the chance to carry the orb, huddle together and escort the carrier over to the receptacle.
- As soon as you’ve planted the orb, retreat back and round the corner, using this area as quick respite to recover.
- Again, pay attention to Prism and unleash on all the hordes of enemies. Explosive power weapons are brilliant at clearing the way here.
Two Tanks
- Sparrow into the base and head around to the right. Hop onto the platform together and interact with the first switch.
- From here you can rain down grenades and explosives onto the tank.
- Make your way towards the next cluster of enemies, but take your time as it’s easy to get swamped. We highly recommend using a Super here to help clear the area.
- As soon as the second tank is descending, pepper it with explosives from a distance – we don’t recommend going close quarters.
- Again, take your time in this section!
Bracus Part 1
- It’s important to take it easy here and work your way methodically towards the end. Stick together and pick off foes from a distance to start with, before moving up and hitting them with grenades and power weapons.
- By all means use a Super to get through this area a little quicker, just be wary of your health bar as enemies hit hard!
Bracus Part 2
- Once you’re on the elevator, pay attention to the Prism modifier and ready the correct weapon. As soon as Bracus pokes his head out, absolutely slam him with shots specific to the Prism modifier.
- As soon as you’re off the elevator – don’t stop hitting him!
- It may sound silly, but the best advice we have for this fight is to absolutely blanket Bracus with grenades or power weapons whenever he’s on the ground. Even as he’s backing away to his pillars, keep hitting him with grenades!
- Coldheart, Sweet Business and Fusion Rifles are perfect for destroying his health bar quickly.
- We don’t recommend using Supers on Bracus. Instead, use them to clear the mobs.
