In the long history of Destiny as a franchise, there’s always been one feature of the game that brings players together from across the world. Raid races.
Ever since The Vault of Glass back in 2014, gamers have raced or tuned in to watch streams of players attempting to become the first-ever to clear the hardcore endgame activity, and Destiny 2’s The Edge of Fate expansion continues the trend with the new raid, The Desert Perpetual.
One team of six Guardians will “become legend” and earn bragging rights and exclusive loot as the only team to become first in the world to finish The Desert Perpetual. Top streamers and Destiny 2 players will be logging on and taking part, but you, too, can do so by playing when the raid goes live on July 19 at 12pm CT.
If you can’t watch or play, but want to stay in the loop on who’s winning, keep it locked right here for our live blog down below. Buckle up and get ready for what should be an exciting day of Destiny 2 raiding.
Who’s winning Destiny 2 ‘The Desert Perpetual’ Raid Race?
The Desert Perpetual Raid Race Live blog
- 1:15pm CT: If you’re just joining the race, welcome! We have only just now seen our first damage phase by mariomonk and their team against Iatros, Inward-Turned, a Wyvern enemy. MrFruit has also reached damage, as has All_The_Players, so we are finally seeing progress. One part of the battle has been cracked. Now it’s all about doing that again, surviving, and dealing enough damage to clear the fight.
- 1:10pm CT: Over one hour into this raid race, and everyone is still struggling to figure out the DPS mechanic on every boss. If the teams have scouts looking at other bosses to try and figure out mechanics, they could eventually relay it to them to make subsequent battles easier. But for now, we’re in the very early phases of the raid.
- 12:55pm CT: For Epoptes, we’re dealing with flashing symbols on a wall that seem to correspond to symbols that are on the shield of a major Vex enemy. There’s also several different buffs popping up, enemies called Magistrates, and a whole lot of confusion as teams continue to sort out the mechanics nearly one hour into the raid.
- 12:45pm CT: One thing I know for sure so far? This boss fight music is yet another OST banger. Destiny 2 never misses when it comes to the soundtrack.
- 12:40pm CT: Here’s my perspective, watching along with multiple squads as they struggle to figure out boss mechanics while also trying to stay alive as the enemies are at a higher base power.
- 12:35pm CT: Reports are coming in that the starting areas of the raid have separate directions to go into, potentially four, so it seems as though the fourth may be unlocked after the three bosses we’ve seen are defeated.
- 12:30pm CT: We’re 30 minutes in to this race and with three totally different boss fights, teams are all figuring out how to enter DPS phase on their encounters. Feels like we’ll be in for a long one today.
- 12:24pm CT: Even the official raid watch-along stream hosted by evanf1997 is having a hard time keeping up with the three totally different fights. We are in uncharted territory so far.
- 12:17pm CT: Well, this is going to be difficult to track. Three different first boss encounters, three different sets of mechanics to learn. This will make it harder to track who’s in the lead, at least until bosses are felled. Seems like there’s Iatros, Apoptes, and Agraios for the three totally different fights.
- 12:13pm CT: It appears that the three different bosses are in different areas, so it’s possible that this raid is similar to D2’s first raid, Leviathan, which had different encounters depending on which direction you go. This is wild already.
- 12:10pm CT: What is going on? Gigz has reached the first encounter and it’s a boss named Epoptes, Lord of Quanta, while Saltagreppo is at an encounter with a different boss named Agraios, Inherent. And now All_The_Players has a different boss, too, named Iatros, Inward-Turned. Ohh, we’ve got some big Bungie nonsense already.
- 12:05pm CT: To no one’s surprise, The Desert Perpetual has an aesthetic purely inspired by The Nine and its familiar locales from several other activities in Destiny 2’s past, such as Trials of The Nine. Sounds and looks like Maya Sundaresh is up to no good as well, so expect the Vex to feature heavily.
- 12:00pm CT: The race has begun! May the best team win.
- 11:50am CT: 10 minutes to go until we begin. Another concern I have is…just how much will Kepler mechanics like Matterspark, Relocator, and Mattermorph be used in this raid, if at all. Matterspark is near-universally disliked, so if it’s a big necessity in The Desert Perpetual, the reactions will be fun to witness.
- 11:40am CT: Destiny legend Datto has a Guardian-themed V-Tuber model?! How cool is that?
- 11:30am CT: As the streamers and their teams all make last-minute preparations and jump around the Tower, sound off: where are you watching from? Will you be participating? Hit up the comments section below, Guardians.
- 11:14am CT: Speaking of Salvation’s Edge, that raid race’s winner Team Parabellum will be looking to repeat today, while Saltagreppo and Clan Elysium will look to extend their record and win their fifth race.
- 11:01am CT: One thing to keep an eye on today as we get started is server stability. Players have been having issues with servers and the game itself soft-locking in specific encounters and activities, so let’s hope the raid is clean. Also, how long will we go? Last year’s Salvation’s Edge raid that came with The Final Shape had a race that went well into the morning hours of the following day. For my sake, I hope this is a quick one!
- July 19, 2025, 10:50am CT: Good morning, gamers, Guardians, and dear readers. It’s the most wonderful day of each year in Destiny 2. It’s time for a new raid. Get ready to lock in and watch as teams across the world attempt to win the title of world first
What is Contest Mode in Destiny 2?
In Contest Mode for The Desert Perpetual, Guardians are capped at 100 Power. This means that anything higher than 100 Power will default to the cap number, thus ensuring vast difficulty as enemies will progressively become higher Power levels throughout each encounter.
Every player that completes the raid during Contest Mode will be granted the raid’s exotic weapon. Once Contest Mode ends on July 21, Power advantages will be enabled once again.
Disabled items
To ensure competitive integrity, several items are disabled for the duration of Contest Mode.
- Weapons
- Outbreak Perfected
- Third Iteration
- Choir of One
- Icebreaker
- Barrow Dyad
- Hierarchy of Needs
- Grand Overture
- Armor and Mods
- Temporal Tracker Weapon Mod
- Temporal Blast Seasonal Weapon Mod
- Temporal Armaments Seasonal Weapon Mod
- Temporal Adapter Seasonal Weapon Mod
- Temporal Loader Seasonal Weapon Mod
- Miscellaneous
- Bounty and Weapon Leveling Progression for Combatant Kills
Raid Race rewards
Anyone who completes the raid during Contest Mode (ends on July 21 at 12pm CT, 48 hours after it begins), will earn the exclusive emblem Timeline’s Blade. Anyone who completes the raid at any point will receive the emblem Third Unknown, pictured above.
The winners will receive special rewards including a world first raid race championship belt. Bungie will also sell a special jacket, bag, and pin for anyone who links their Bungie account to the Bungie Store and completes the raid, as part of the Bungie Rewards system.
The Desert Perpetual loot pool
Data mines reveal that the raid’s exotic will be a Strand rocket launcher, but there is also an auto rifle, combat bow (new crossbow weapon archetype), fusion rifle, rocket launcher, sniper rifle, and submachine gun when it comes to legendary weapons, along with exclusive armor sets for each class.
More about which encounters drop which piece of gear will be revealed as players progress through the raid.
Raid race streams to watch
Bungie is partnering with several streamers across different languages and regions who will be hosting watch parties for the race, along with the developer hosting a pre-show beginning at 11:45am CT.
Individual player perspectives will also be found in the Destiny 2 Twitch directory, featuring top streamers and raid racers looking to win their first race. Others will be looking to become two-time, three-time, or even four-time winners.
Here are some top streamers to watch (more will be added throughout the day):
