Excision, Destiny 2: The Final Shape's final mission was released after the first clear of the Salvation's Edge raid. Salvation's Edge saw a brave fireteam of six Guardians infiltrate the Witness' stronghold in the Pale Heart, confronting it and loosening its hold on the Light of the Traveler. Their bravery gave the Vanguard the shot they needed to finally confront the Light's greatest threat.

Now that Salvation's Edge has been officially cleared, you can launch Excision from the Pale Heart location map. Scroll to the right and select the mission to launch it. This is a matchmade activity for up to 12 Guardians to take on, and it is also the franchise's only 12-player co-op activity. It starts out with a cutscene of Zavala rallying humanity and its allies, and then the fight begins.

How To Defeat The Witness In Destiny 2's Excision

Beat The Final Mission

Your first task in the Excision mission is to approach the Witness. Before taking on the Witness, you'll have to fight through the first line of its defense, maybe using your brand-new Khvostov rifle in Destiny 2. When you load in, you'll need to defeat all the enemies in the area to move forward.

In particular, watch out for yellow-bar boss enemies defending capture zones. Defeat these bosses, then capture each zone that appears until the darkness shield goes down.

Once the shield is down, you'll enter a small arena where the Witness waits. Here, you'll need to interact with rifts of Light in various places. After drawing from the light, run back to the small resonant bank, where you can dunk the Light. Between yourself and the other Guardians in the Activity, you'll need to do this 15 times. After the last one, you should interact with the veiled statues next to the bank to "Commune With the Darkness."

Next, you'll be transported back to where you broke the statues with Destiny 2's Ergo Sum in the "Ionoclasm" mission. You'll be gifted a sword from the Traveler, which you should use to break as many statues as possible. After you break as many statues as it'll allow you to, you'll be teleported back to the arena for DPS.

Best DPS Strategy To Defeat The Witness

Best Tips & Tricks

All that's left is the lauded DPS phase. This is a precision boss, meaning you'll want something with good ammo economy and a long-range capability. If you've got good projectile aim, you can use a Bait and Switch Apex Predator, but if you either don't have one or don't like rockets, Still Hunt is even better. While you're whaling on the Witness' crit spot, keep an eye out for its resonance attacks.

It will shoot beams of resonance from the left and right sides of the platform you stand on for DPS. Though there's no wipe mechanic, these beams will kill you, so dying isn't the end of the world. If you can dodge them all, you should only need two or three DPS phases to defeat the Witness once and for all. Strap in for an emotional ending to Destiny 2's "Light and Dark" saga (that no one wants to part with), and congratulate yourself on a job well done.