‘Destiny 2’ Root Of Nightmares Raid Race Times, Power Level, Banned Exotics

Today marks the launch of yet another raid in Destiny 2. This time it’s Root of Nightmares, which is attached to the Lightfall expansion, and as ever, there’s going to be a race to see who can compete it first.

Bungie has just laid out the rules for the race this time around, which are a bit different than normal, as they’re giving players an extra day to get the “day one” contest emblem and achievement. Plus, there are a bunch of broken exotics you’re not going to be able to use. So, let’s go through the info:

Root of Nightmares Raid Race Start Time: 9 AM PST, 12 PM EST, Friday, March 10, 2023

End Time: 10 AM PST, 1 PM EST, Sunday, March 12

Power Level: Minimum 1780 (hard power cap is 1800, pinnacle is 1810). The raid is in contest mode for 48 hours, which means you will be kept -20 under power at any level 1780 or above. Artifact Power can count toward getting you to 1780.

World’s First Rules: Loot the final chest, have your full fireteam return to orbit, get your clear confirmed by Bungie. Everyone gets a raid belt.

Banned Exotic List, where each of these have some sort of current damage/ammo/ability problem. You can equip them, but the exotic perks won’t work and they will tank your power:

• Grand Overture Exotic Machine Gun
• Fighting Lion Exotic Grenade Launcher
• Winterbite Exotic Glaive
• Jötunn Exotic Fusion Rifle
• Hierarchy of Needs Exotic Bow

Banned Armor and Mods:

• Citan’s Ramparts Titan Exotic Gauntlets
• Thread of Ascent Strand Fragment (also disabled across the entire game)
• Empowered Finish Armor Mod

That should be everything you need to know to get started. You can watch the raid race on Twitch where they’re doing a Twitch Rivals event that will be giving out some emblems to viewers. If you want to participate, you have two days to beat it in contest mode, and then post-reset on Sunday, contest mode will be gone and you can overlevel for the raid like normal, so it’s going to get way easier. A Master version will launch later on, and that will essentially be permanent contest mode at -20 power, which is a change from past seasons.

So, this should be an exciting day. Curious to see who wins this time around, and you can follow my takes on Twitter as I watch the race unfold starting at noon.

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