Destiny 2 Root of Nightmares Nezarec, Final Boss of Pain – Fourth Encounter Walkthrough

Destiny 2 Root of Nightmares Nezarec Boss Fight cover

Nezarec is the fourth encounter and the final boss in the newest Root of Nightmares Raid in Destiny 2. Known as the cause of the first Collapse, Nezarec was revived once more when The Traveler’s terraforming beam hit its corpse that has been encased in one of the Black Fleet’s ships. Because of this, Nezarec also gains the power of the Light,

Read ahead as we go through the mechanics and strategies for the Root of Nightmares Nezarec Boss Fight in Destiny 2.

Root of Nightmares: Nezarec Boss Fight Mechanics

There are two mechanics at play during the boss fight against Nezarec, both involving the Light and Darkspheres. The main one is similar to the mechanics in the previous encounter where chains of both Light and Darkspheres have to be activated in order to start a DPS phase against the boss. The second one serves as a safety net in case the boss does a team wipe.

Lightspheres to Darkspheres

Like before, there will be a string of Lightsperes and Darkspheres that will have to be activated in order to initiate a DPS phase against Nezarec. Ideally, at least one member taking care of each sphere chain will be enough. It’s important to note that this particular phase can only be done in less than a minute, otherwise the boss will proceed in doing its team wipe mechanic.

Light and Dark’s Refuge

The other mechanic also involves the use of the spheres and it is quite helpful in case your team could not complete all the sphere chains in time.

During the entire fight, one or two members who are in charge of add clear will also have to manage Nezarec’s aggro. Nezarec has two weak points, one for each shoulder. Shooting both of its shoulders will make the boss emit the aura of either white for Light or orange for Dark. This would give a signal to what type of refuge the sphere members will have to prepare to survive the incoming team wipe.

What the sphere members will have to do is create the matching aura to get the Refuge effect. To do this, one member should get the Field or Flux effect that is the opposite of the aura that Nezarec emitted. Then, while still having the effect, the member should shoot the sphere of the matching attunement.

For example, if Nezarec emits a Light aura, the you will have to get the Flux of Darkness effect by shooting a Darksphere source, then shoot an activated Lightsphere to create an aura that provides the Light’s Refuge effect. It goes opposite if Nezarec emits a Dark aura. Take note that you can only shoot an activated sphere that is not an aura source to make the Refuge aura.

The Refuge effects only last for 15 seconds, so do not stray away so much from the aura so you won’t risk shedding the effect right before the boss does the team wipe.

Root of Nightmares: Nezarec Boss Fight Strategy

For this fight, with a full fireteam of six, you will need two members on sphere duty, two on add clear, and two taking care of Nezarec’s aggro.

For those on sphere duty, the main objective is to complete the chains as fast as possible to prevent a wipe out and get into the DPS phase as soon as possible. It is the add clearers’ job to make it easier for the ones on sphere duty to do so and make sure that the enemies won’t be able to impede their progress. As for the ones handling Nezarec, both members should take turns in getting the boss’ aggro by shooting at its chest weakpoint every 10 seconds or so while helping with the add clear in the interim.

Nezarec will try to do two to three DPS cycles depending on how fast your team is at doing the mechanics. It should be possible for the rest of the fight to last just around 20 minutes as the boss does not have a huge amount of HP.


Check out this video by Datto showing how to defeat Nezarec in the Root of Nightmares raid in Destiny 2: