Destiny 2 King's Fall Raid Guide and Touch of Malice
King's Fall is a free raid that ends with Oryx. Here is how the encounters work and how the Touch of Malice drop functions
King’s Fall is the Taken raid that returned to Destiny 2. It is free to play, it runs through the Dreadnaught, and it ends with Oryx, the Taken King. The raid drops six craftable legendary weapons and the Touch of Malice exotic scout rifle.
King’s Fall encounter breakdown
The raid opens with the Totems, a moving fight where your team splits between two platforms. Golgoroth is the gaze-management boss where you drop pools and shoot the boss’s stomach. The Daughters are the two-ogre fight with strict branding. The Warpriest is a hidden-room DPS race. Oryx closes the raid with the brand and detonation cycle that made the fight famous. The Totems fight moves constantly, so teams that stand still lose their plates. Golgoroth punishes groups that forget to drop their pools before the gaze lands.
Farming Touch of Malice
The exotic is a random drop from Oryx, with no quest involved. You get one looted chance per character per week, so run the raid on all three characters. Most players see it within 10 to 20 clears, but the drop rate is low. Farm during King’s Fall featured weeks, when encounters can be repeated without a lockout.
The three wipes that actually happen
Most failed runs are one of these, and each has a specific cause rather than a vague “bad damage” explanation.
Totems. The plates are held by presence, not by damage. A player who leaves a plate to chase a kill hands the room to the adds, and the wipe follows within seconds. The fight is a positioning test that punishes greed specifically.
Golgoroth. Ordering, not DPS. Pools have to be down before the gaze lands. A group that drops them after has already spent the damage window on setup, which is why the same team can have great numbers and still time out.
Oryx. Detonation circles resolve on a cycle tied to the brand. Stepping in early fires a partial detonation, and a partial detonation is the wipe — not the ogres, not the adds.
Gaze duty is the whole fight
Golgoroth is decided by the gaze rotation, not by damage. Whoever takes gaze calls it the moment it lands and drops their pool before the timer bites, and that has to happen while the rest of the group is already moving into position. A group that treats gaze as an extra job rather than the job will spend the night in that room with good damage and no clear. Assign two gaze-takers and have them swap each cycle, so neither becomes the single point of failure. Everything else in the raid is easier to learn — see the raid hub for the sequence, and farm Oryx during a featured raid week.
FAQ
Is King’s Fall free? Yes. No expansion is required.
Are the weapons craftable? Yes, all six legendaries support crafting with Deepsight copies.
What power level do I need? Around 1330 or higher for a smooth run.
Related guides
Sources & References
This guide is verified against the game's own data and official communications. For patch notes, current balance, and authoritative specifics, consult the references below. Where a precise number cannot be verified, we explain the mechanic rather than invent a figure.
- Destiny 2 on Bungie.net — patch notes, current season, and authoritative game data.
- Destiny 2 Wiki — community-maintained mechanics, maps, and item data.