How to complete the Cataclysm portion of Root of Nightmares, with Field of Light and Sweeping Terror.

The Cataclysm encounter of Root of Nightmares explained

Cataclysm, the first encounter of Root of Nightmares, takes place in a long, roughly rectangular section of the Pyramid ship. A series of structures in the middle makes the area resemble a city. The side of the buildings near your start is considered the right side, the side on the other end of the buildings is considered left. A timer called Sweeping Terror will countdown from 30. This wipes out your entire party if the timer reaches 0. It can be extended by spawning and killing special Tormentors called Cavum of Nezarec.

There is a glowing white Orb on a circular plate near the rally banner, with a visible aura. Standing in that aura and shooting the orb grants everyone within the aura a buff called Field of Light.

This allows you to shoot a node on a different circular plate to spawn another Orb.

Your objective is to create orbs on all of the plates before Sweeping Terror reaches zero and wipes out your team. There are four different sections of Cataclysm, you will need to do this in each, one section at a time.

The Season of the Deep is here alongside the Into the Depths quest. You can know go fishing too! Don't forget to keep an eye on the Lost Sector and King's Fall challenge rotation schedule!

Detailed strategy to clear Cataclysm

To complete Cataclysm, start by dividing your group into two teams. Four Guardians will be in charge of clearing enemies and extending the timer, two will be creating orbs.

The add clear team’s first priority is to extend the Sweeping Terror timer. To do this they must first locate two Psions inside of transparent bubbles that spawn nearby. When they die, a Tormenter and a Barrier Champion will appear, with one randomly on the right, the other on the left of the arena. Call out whichever side has the Tormentor, and focus on eliminating it quickly. Once the Tormentor falls, time is added to Sweeping Terror. Now, concentrate on the Barrier Champion, and wipe out the additional enemies until two more Psions appear, then repeat the process.

The Orb team will focus almost exclusively on the plates. Only one member of the pair should get the Field of Light buff at a time. Once they collect Field of Light a small shaft of light will point towards one of the other plates. This is where the small floating Node will be located. The person with Field of Light will go stand next to the Node and shoot it, creating the Orb. Now the other teammate enters the aura, which will be a previous Orb, and shoot to collect the buff. They then follow the shaft of light from the most recently activated Orb, and turn the next Node into an Orb.

Each person on this team should wait to see or hear confirmation that a Node has been activated before taking the Field of Light buff. If one person takes the buff before the other has finished with it, then both will lose it, and the aura will disappear for a short duration.

Once all of the Orbs are created, a message will flash on the screen that says 'His Hatred Halts.' The section will be cleared and the Sweeping Terror timer will end. Everyone should kill adds while moving forward to the next area. The timer will return, and the cycle repeats. Once all four sections are complete, the encounter will be cleared.

Keep reading for our guide on overcoming the Scission section of Root of Nightmares. You can also head back to the first page for the rest of our Root of Nightmares raid guide.