“The Lightblade” GM SOLO, with all-BOWS and NO HUD ~ All Barriers Alive & No Cheese ~ Season 21

Описание: This is the full run of my solo “The Lightblade" Grandmaster Nightfall with ALL-BOWS, NO HUD, without killing any Barrier Champions, and not using cheeses (such as kiting the boss). I completed it on only my 19th attempt this season (Season 21), but overall died a total of 245 deaths across 3 different Seasons (16, 18, 21), over the course of 13 months.
Soloing Lightblade was one of the most difficult challenges I set for myself, and one of the most fulfilling and incredible victories I have achieved in my 9 years playing Destiny. I have a million more things to say about my Lightblade journey, but I’ll leave that for another time. Now I can breathe. I can say it’s finally done. I finally defeated Alak-Hul and caught my white whale. I have no idea what to chase next.

No Barrier Kills & No Platinum
I did not kill any of the Barrier Champions because I reasonably couldn’t with my loadout. There isn’t an anti-Barrier bow Artifact perk this season, I couldn’t use Wish-Ender because Leviathan’s Breath is Exotic, and getting Volatile Rounds is too unreliable without Gyrfalcon’s Hauberk as it requires enemy kills to proc. In this particular strike, there are not enough enemies to kill for Volatile rounds at an optimal time for damaging the Barriers and then piercing their shields, all before the buff runs out.
Thankfully, The Lightblade is one of the few strikes you do not have to kill Barrier Champs to progress. That does mean, however, that I have to defeat the boss with all 6 insta-kill Barrier knights in the boss room. (That sucked, a lot.) That also means I was unable to achieve Platinum because I couldn’t kill all the Champions.

Grandmaster Pokémon
I name all of my solo GM attempts after Pokémon according to their National Pokédex number. After I complete a GM, I "catch" the Pokémon and add it to my Seasonal "Pokémon Party”. ~ I completed “The Lightblade” on Attempt Number Rattata, whose National Pokédex number is 19. I caught a Rattata!

This run was done fully on stream in one sitting. This recording was taken during stream without any edits.

---------------------------------------
Timestamps:
01:22 - First Room
08:30 - Ferry (Before Locked Door)
14:12 - Ferry (Canal)
16:57 - Swamp
25:27 - Boss (Alak-Hul)
48:46 - Final Damage and Defeat

---------------------------------------
Weapon Loadout
• Kinetic: Fel Taradiddle (Enhanced Shoot to Loot & Explosive Head, Elastic String, Natural Fletching) w/ Major Spec
• Energy: Under Your Skin (Enhanced Archer's Tempo & Dragonfly, Elastic String, Carbon Arrow Shaft) w/ Minor Spec
Heavy: Leviathan's Breath w/ catalyst

General Build
Void Hunter: Moebius Quiver / Gambler’s Dodge / Vortex Grenade
Aspects: Trappers Ambush / Vanishing Step
Fragments: Echo of Obscurity/Persistence/Dilation/Cessation
Exotic: Graviton Forfeit
General Focus: Invisibility
Stat Tiers: 10 / 9 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 8
Notable Artifact Perks: Authorized Mods: Void & Melee; Unto the Breach; Protective Breach
DIM LINK: https://dim.gg/a5hralq/SamiKat-Lightb...

Build Notes
▶︎ Armor Charge: I did not use any armor charge mods because they are not conducive to my playstyle in this particular strike at this difficulty. The only mods I would find beneficial cause charge decay, and by the time I would be able to use them, they would have run out. I could not afford the energy cost to make the decay slower or increase my ability to gain charges.

---------------------------------------
Fun Fact
I was fortunate to have a Bungie Community Focus on 3/31/23, in which I was asked if there was a goal I couldn’t wait to crush. I responded…
“My next personal goal is simple: I want to solo The Lightblade GM with all Bows, no HUD, and no artifact mods. It’s my be-all and end-all of D2 endgame. I’ve made it to the final immune phase at the boss, and I’m so, so close I can almost taste the win. Some say it’s torture, I say hey, hey, hey, hey, Alak-Hul’s my guy.”
Well, I’ve finally tasted the win and it is delicious.

You can find my Community Focus at https://www.bungie.net/7/en/News/arti...

---------------------------------------
SamiKat’s Links:
Twitch:   / samikat  
Twitter:   / samikatplays  
TikTok:   / samikatplays