How to complete the Precarious Balance (Bridge) in Crota’s End in Destiny 2

Welcome to arguably the longest challenge in Crota’s End. Despite being one of our favorite encounters in the Destiny 2 raid thematically, the Bridge part can be relatively time-consuming, and it gets even longer if you’re gunning for the Precarious Balance challenge.

The challenge doesn’t interfere much with how guardians would normally run the encounter. We’re super fond of the tried-and-true strategy of enlightening five guardians, but that may not help at all in Master (and if you are doing this on the higher difficulty level, be sure to put on Unstoppable mods for the Ogres that spawn at the end of the encounter).

Here’s how you can finish the Bridge challenge in Crota’s End. Completing it will spawn an extra chest with loot from that encounter, and on Master, you’ll get an Adept weapon as a reward.

Precarious Balance (Bridge) challenge guide in Crota’s End

To complete the Precarious Balance challenge, you need to cross the bridge while it’s not fully built. Generally, this means you’ll destroy the bridge before someone crosses it, then rebuild it for the next traversal. You could also do the Strand Tangle cheese, where a Warlock throws a Tangle far across the gap and a few guardians grapple to it until it reaches the other side.

The easiest way to do this challenge is to have whoever is building the bridge step away from the middle plate as the swordbearers are crossing it. This should give them enough time to make it across, especially with the arcane Hive magic of sword flying. (You could also have the guardians with the sword being the only ones on the middle plate as they go to ensure your success.)

Whoever is holding the middle plate should get back to it after the guardian makes it to the other side. Stepping back in before the swordbearer is completely across may fail the challenge.

Strategies with the Enlightened buff

We’ve had the most success doing this encounter by having five guardians with the Enlightened buff. The sixth one will take the Chalice of Light to the other side of the bridge, preferably alongside the guardian with a sword—but don’t forget to deconstruct the bridge as they go. Enlightening twice can save you some time here, which is particularly helpful on Master.

Having a runner to deliver the buffs can help make this encounter more seamless. Whoever is holding the Chalice last can transport it around the area, bringing the Enlightened buff to people. They won’t get Enlightened if a guardian snatches the Chalice out of their hands before it’s full, so use that to your advantage. If that’s the case, the guardian taking the Chalice across should pick it up from the middle plate to give them as much time as possible to make it to the other side.

Day-one strategies may apply here: You can always use Blinding Grenades or send the Chalice holder alongside the first sword to offer them support, preferably with Well of Radiance and Phoenix Protocol or Strand Suspend. Banner of War is always welcome, too.

The downside of doing five Enlightened guardians is that a death can throw off the whole rhythm and potentially lead to the challenge failing. This shouldn’t be much of an issue in the normal difficulty, but the Master version is far more lethal.

If you don’t want to have five Enlightened guardians at once, you could always enlighten and send guardians out individually. The Chalice holder can go whenever needed as long as everyone on the “home” side is enlightened, but they usually go last in these strategies. We’re more familiar with Enlightening five guardians, but that other strategy makes it easier to recover from a potential death.

Equipment and loadout suggestions

Barrier Knights will swarm the plates on both sides, so having a weapon with anti-Barrier is generally essential. Seasonal artifacts will provide a variety of options each season, but if you’re not running anything on your Exotic slot, the ever-reliable Arbalest continues to be an amazing choice. We’re Wish-Ender enthusiasts, but if you have better options within your artifact, make use of them. On normal, we run a machine gun for extra add clear, but we rarely resort to it.

Survivability is the play for this encounter, particularly on Master. The Bridge can get hectic depending on where and when you are, so bring anything that can keep you alive. We prefer using Solar Warlock with Well of Radiance or Void Warlock with Contraverse Hold (though Strand can also help). Solar or Strand with Heart of Inmost Light is our go-to for Titans, and we play Arc Hunter with Liar’s Handshake or Void Hunter with Gyrfalcon’s Hauberk/Sixth Coyote/Graviton Forfeit when needed. On normal, we run Solar Hunter with Caliban’s Hand or Young Ahamkara’s Spine.

Tractor Cannon and Blinding Grenades are also extremely useful in this encounter, especially on Master. You can debuff and/or stun the Gatekeepers on the far side of the bridge, making it easier for the swordbearer to take them out.

As usual, the Bridge encounter is a bit of a war of attrition. You can complete Ir Yût or Crota more quickly through knowledge of the mechanics and sheer damage output, and you can speed up Abyss with faster movement (such as Eager Edge and Strand). There is little to do when it comes to accelerating progress in the Bridge encounter, however.