Altars of Sorrow

Overview

Altars of Sorrow is a player-started public event in Sorrow's Harbor on The Moon, introduced in Shadowkeep. Teams fight waves of Hive and Nightmares across five escalating tiers, then face a final Nightmare boss. Each Nightmare that reaches an altar removes 10 seconds from the timer, and each Hive killed adds one second. Each tier has a one-minute timer.

Tiers

• Tier I: 4 Nightmares.
• Tier II: 5 Nightmares.
• Tier III: 6 Nightmares, with 2 Wizards.
• Tier IV: 7 Nightmares, with 4 Wizards.
• Tier V: 8 Nightmares, with 6 Wizards.

From Tier III on, shielded Wizards halt the Nightmare waves. The Wizards float by the start altar behind immunity shields. Cleavers, dropped by Swordbearer enemies, break those shields, and each Wizard killed adds five seconds to the timer. Tiers IV and V each activate a further altar with its own guarding Wizards.

Boss tier

The final tier is a boss fight against one of three Greater Nightmares that rotate daily: Taniks, the Scarred, Zydron, Gate Lord or Phogoth, the Untamed. At each third of its health the boss becomes immune while Nightmares spawn from side altars and attempt to sacrifice. Once they are dead or sacrificed, it becomes vulnerable again. If time runs out, the event returns to Tier V.

Rewards

The rotating weapons are Apostate (Legendary Arc Sniper Rifle), Heretic (Legendary Arc Rocket Launcher) and Blasphemer (Legendary Kinetic Shotgun). Each is tied to one of the Final Nightmares and obtainable only on that day. A rare Bane of Crota Shell can also drop from any boss's reward chest.