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The second biome of Saros is Ancient Depths, featuring a subterranean industrial complex serving as the priority site for Lucenite extraction. What can you expect to find within? This page acts as a comprehensive walkthrough of what you can expect within Ancient Depths; the objectives, enemies, and secrets therein.
Randomized Runs
Everything after the tutorial is completely randomized. Each time you die or reset your game, the entire world shifts around and you will find completely different things on each subsequent "run". We can tell you what you might find, however, we can’t tell you exactly when you’ll find it!Ancient Depths Walkthrough
After successfully making your way through Shattered Rise and defeating Prophet, head through the tunnel behind where Prophet was to find an Integrity Augment and some Lucenite. Beyond it, you’ll drop down into a sealed room where a teleporter will activate, allowing you to return to The Passage.
Once the conversation with Primary is over, interact with Primary and tab over to the World Dial, and select Ancient Depths to kick up the teleporter.
- Ancient Depths Enemies
- Ancient Depths Points of Interest
- Ancient Depths Objectives
- Bastion Boss Fight
| Ancient Depths | ||
|---|---|---|
| Category | Number | Complete? |
| Halcyon | 12 | |
| Audio Logs | 14 | |
| Holo Logs | 1 | |
| Text Logs | 3 | |
| New Enemies | Veils, Wardens, Keepers, Prime Custodians, Devastators, Hollowers, Bastion (Boss) | |
Ancient Depths Enemies
The new enemies you can expect to find in Ancient Depths are as follows:
Combat Tip From Guide Writer Sam
When combating enemies, things can get hectic fast. Luckily for you every weapon, Artefact, Power Weapon, and modifier has universal applications in pretty much every combat scenario. No one strategy is better than any other, but the primary tenants of combat to keep in mind are as follows:
- Always stay on the move
- Avoid enemy projectiles, and in cases where you can’t, deploying your Shield is always preferable to not having it up
- Never stop firing your weapon, and try to execute perfect reloads as much as possible
- Use your Power Weapon and Overdrive (once unlocked) liberally, especially in chaotic situations
Veil
Veil are flying mechanical entities that emit a cone-shaped wave of blue projectiles beneath it as it flies upward. It can also fire out 3 yellow lasers from its three jets, angling them towards one another as it spins through the air in your direction.
Though the majority of its attacks are primarily focused downward, your best bet is to get up close as you’ll then be able to shoot the vulnerable tentacled engine on its underside.
Warden
The Warden is a diamond-shaped mechanical entity that is capable of "jumping" around, ejecting a rain of blue projectiles and a yellow circular shockwave each time it lands. It can also summon a large forcefield that will force you to get up close as your weapons will not be able to breach through.
It can also stand in place and fire out multiple shockwaves in a row, each one gaining an additional circle to the shockwaves height. You’ll want to primarily target the large red glowing tube in its center, and note that destroying its shield will cause it to continually jump around until the shield can be resummoned.
Keeper
Keepers are small drone-like flying entities that spawn in clusters. They will all fire very small bursts of blue projectiles all at once, but are incredibly easy to destroy.
As a result, they serve as more of a nuisance and only present a threat in truly large numbers. Firing a couple of shots of any weapon (or a single Power Weapon shot) will easily dispatch the majority of a group, if not the entirety.
Prime Custodian
Prime Custodians (as you might expect from the name) are an enhanced version of regular Custodians, looking nearly identical with the exception of small jagged spikes covering its armor. Their primary attack is the small blue projectile clusters as Keepers, but rather than a single shot, Prime Custodians will fire off multiple consecutive cluster shots.
Much like regular Custodians, you’ll want to dodge to the left or right of their projectile patterns and target their glowing red "eyes".
Devastator
The Devastator is a large flying mechanical ship that often appears as an alpha hostile in Solar Cages, and can eject upward a large amount of blue arrow-like projectiles that seem like they would home in toward you, but actually just rain down around the vicinity and can be easily absorbed or avoided entirely.
In combination with firing out giant square walls of blue projectiles, it can also deploy a red projectile that, upon contact with the floor, will explode in a dome of blue and red (Nova) projectiles.
It can also fire out several yellow lasers from its "nose" and fly around pursuing you. Stay on the move and strategically time dashes to avoid getting hit.
Defeating Devastators is primarily attrition, but by paying attention to which part of the Devastator is firing at you, you can begin to predict which section will fire next and plan accordingly.
Hollower
The Hollower is another mechanical entity with a raised portion at its front, distinguishing it slightly from Custodians; arguably appearing like a miniaturized Devastator. It is capable of rapidly firing out small ball-shaped clusters of blue projectiles.
It can also fire out a pentagonal cone of blue projectiles in your direction, which you’ll need to absorb with your shield or dodge out of the way of, depending on your circumstances and/or positioning. Your primary target when attacking Hollowers should be the large glowing opening on its front side, which is only exposed while it is firing projectiles.
Ancient Depths Points of Interest
Hidden Vent Loot
Beneath the central platform you’re standing on near the Eclipse trigger (and entrance to the Depths Vault), you can go through a non-active circular vent opening and drop down into a small area that will always have two of the rectangular containers to collect from.
Smoke Hologram Room
Another offshoot of the central chamber, this room features a large central area from which a giant amount of smoke will appear.
This smoke then takes various forms, depicting what your suit describes as transformation due to the eclipse. In this room you’ll also find two rectangular containers.
Grapple Room
There is often an offshoot room somewhere in this biome that on your first pass through will be inaccessible.
There is a large drop with a platform on the far side that has numerous resources and a rectangular container. You can’t get across without utilizing the floating device in the middle of the air, something you can’t do till a little later in your playthrough.
Ancient Depths Objectives
Continue Deeper Into the Depths
After teleporting to Ancient Depths for the first time, begin journeying through the biome and you’ll quickly reach a dead end. Via a cutscene, you’ll universally activate Jump Network pads which allow you to access higher elevations throughout the entire game. Press X while standing on a Jump Network pad to use it; the longer you hold X, the higher the jump will be!
This is where keeping an eye on your minimap can prove increasingly useful, as constantly stopping and looking up and around the environment (while beautiful) can become tedious. Be sure to look out for separate platforms or raised sections on the minimap, and if you spot one, there’ll more than likely be a Jump Network pad nearby that you can use to reach it.
Soltari Shotgun
Shortly into Ancient Depths, you’ll also encounter a sealed gate with a Shotgun resting on the ground in the center of the room. With this new weapon added to your rotation, the gate will open and two Custodians will spawn in for you to test the gun out on.
Locate Depths Vault Devices
After collecting the Shotgun, you’ll emerge into a large central chamber with two main offshoot pathways that you’ll need to explore in order to progress and open the Depths Vault.
You’ll see one door sealed with a yellow shield and a spiralling eclipse - ignore this for now. Instead you’ll need to head to the other side of the room, jumping across the pillars and proceeding through the door. Follow this path and after fighting your way through numerous rooms and various enemies, you’ll drop into a large room with a mining drill hanging overhead. This is a Solar Cage room, in which you’ll have to defeat a Devastator and several other enemies.
Dispiritor
Upon doing so, you can then proceed into the next room where you’ll use the teleporter. Ahead of you after teleporting will be your first instance of the Dispiritor Power Weapon, which fires out several dozen small blue shards that hit enemies and deal DoT (damage over time).
Once you’ve defeated the (randomised) enemies in the following room, melee through the red shield and you’ll reach an enclosed space overlooking the initial central chamber. Interact with the pedestal to deactivate the blue shield ahead, and also activate the Eclipse pedestal in the center of the chamber.
Remove Eclipse Barrier
With the shield now gone, you can drop down in the central chamber and make your way to the center, where the Eclipse pedestal will rise from the now active vortex on the center platform.
Interact with it to summon the Eclipse, which will bring a lot of the environmental machinery throughout the biome to life, namely the pillars that you can platform and jump across shift up and down, platforms rotate, and lasers are abundant - providing a minor additional challenge. More importantly however, summoning the eclipse drops the yellow eclipse shield blocking the other path in the central chamber.
IMPORTANT NOTE
On subsequent runs through this biome, you can activate the Eclipse straight away and therefore maximize your Lucenite gains throughout the entire biome, and take either path for the Vault Devices from the jump.
Activate the Vault Devices 1 / 2
Use the jump pad to progress through the now open pathway and you’ll need to execute more precise platforming as mechanical parts move and rotate, while dozens of lasers fire out in varying angles throughout your path.
Eventually you’ll reach a fork in the path with two different routes to take, both demarcated as the main goal. Which route you take doesn’t matter, and is entirely up to you as ultimately they lead to the same place.
After beating yet another Devastator in a Solar Cage, you’ll want to use the next teleporter and shortly thereafter you can melee through a red shield and find the other Vault Device to activate.
Enter the Depths Vault
With both Vault Devices activated, you can then drop back down into the central chamber and proceed through the now open circular gateway opposite the Eclipse pedestal.
Locate Jerome
When ready, drop down into the next arena to immediately begin the Bastion boss fight, which doesn’t have a cutscene that precedes it.
Bastion Boss Fight
Bastion is the second boss of the game, and has a number of unique attacks to watch out for across its multiple phases, and different environmental and gameplay mechanics that you’ll need to keep in mind.
Tip:
If you fire your Power Weapon at Bastion and hit it whilst it's in the middle of an attack, you can actually disrupt what would be the following attack in the pattern. This will give you a very brief reprieve if you need it to refocus or reposition Arjun to continue.
Bastion - Phase 1
Unlike Prophet, there is no cutscene as you drop into the arena so be prepared to fight right away. The Bastion turret will descend from the machinery connected to all the wiring on the far side of the room.
One of the main attacks Bastion will perform throughout all three phases is when it aims down and fires out two projectiles side by side. As they hit the ground, they’ll each generate a wall of projectiles that then travel across the arena toward you.
These projectiles can be different colors, or the same color - dictating which side of the arena you’re going to be incentivized to rush toward. In this first phase, the projectiles can either be blue or yellow (or both as a 50/50 split). These will be deployed multiple times in a row, so be sure to not let your guard down after getting past the first projectile wall.
Bastion can also fire a laser beam straight down into the ground that will rhythmically pulse out circular yellow shockwaves that you’ll need to avoid.
Each successive wave increases in height, so you’ll want to utilise the several jump pads dotted around the arena to safely vault over the shockwaves that are at least three or more circles high.
It can also summon a giant star-shaped cluster of yellow projectiles that will fire towards you as one large cluster, but as they aren’t homing projectiles you can just rush to one side to avoid the attack entirely.
Another attack that will be replicated (with variants) across subsequent phases is a large spiral of projectiles that will again be a mix of blue and yellow projectiles. In this Phase, the center of the spiral will be blue and the outer strands will be yellow; as such, summon your Shield and be sure to stand in the path of the central section to safely absorb the projectiles.
One of the more devastating attacks is where Bastion will track you as it points a faint (non-damaging) laser in your direction. As the sparks of energy finish absorbing inward, the laser will very rapidly turn to a solid beam that *can* damage you, and will track you as you move. In addition, a vortex of blue projectiles will surround the beam for the remainder of its duration, so keep in mind you may need to use your Shield if it gets too close.
How to Consistently Avoid the Laser Beam Attack
A somewhat risky (but highly effective) method to get away from this attack every time is to wait for the laser to become solid while standing in the center of the arena, dashing to one side as it solidifies.
Very quickly, you'll want to get to either of the far sides of the arena and use the lone jump pad amongst the flaming panels to bounce up to the thin upper platforms. You'll then want to quickly dash from there back towards the center of the arena and as you drop down, the beam will dissipate behind you.
Bastion - Phase 2
After depleting Bastion’s first health bar, it will retreat back into the ceiling and two yellow lasers will appear on each side of the arena. These will persist for the entirety of the fight, and essentially just act to close off part of the arena to restrict your movement.
In order to get Bastion to come back down and begin the second phase in earnest, you’ll have to contend with and destroy several of the Guardian turret enemies that pop up around the arena. These can be on the floor of the arena, or on the top or bottom of the suspended upper platforms.
Once Bastion does come back down, the same attacks from Phase One return with slight augments. The first of which is the two projectiles fired down that create subsequent projectile walls. These can be a mix of blue and yellow projectiles as before, but you can now also encounter red projectile walls - so use the jump pads to spring over the top of them!
The projectile spiral also returns, but in this Phase the colors are inverted; the center is yellow and the outer perimeter is blue. But Bastion likes to keep you on your toes, and it will actually alternate between this version and the original Phase One version.
The new attack appears scary but in fact requires no countering at all if you play correctly. Bastion can also fire out hundreds of small blue projectiles that’ll spread out and then freeze in place in the air throughout the arena. It’ll then fire the beam into the ground to create shockwaves (forcing you to jump into the hanging projectiles).
The caveat is that if you hang back away from Bastion, the blue projectiles will actually all dissipate before the first shockwave reaches you, meaning that you can then jump to avoid the shockwaves without the concern of hitting anything.
Another new attack sees Bastion aim to the left and then to the right, firing out a small cluster of yellow homing projectiles in each direction that’ll arc out before beelining to your position. Keep moving and dash left/right just as they reach you to ensure they miss you.
Bastion - Phase 3
After depleting Bastion’s second health bar, it will retreat back into the ceiling and you’ll need to defeat several Guardian turrets once again. Some of these turrets will now be shielded as well, requiring for you to get up close and melee them.
Once Bastion does come back down, the same attacks from Phase One and Phase Two return with yet more slight augments. The projectile spirals return, but the center of the spiral can sometimes now be red (Nova) projectiles.
Additionally attacks like the laser beam shockwaves will come much faster and the higher waves will occur more frequently, demanding you to be increasingly agile and/or take precarious refuge on the upper platforms while avoiding being burnt by the panels there. Attacks in general during this Phase come much more rapidly.
After defeating Bastion, you can expect to earn (and rush around to retrieve) somewhere around 850-1000 Lucenite. Go up the small slope behind Bastion and use the jump pad there to bounce up into the passage ahead, and as you drop down you’ll trigger a cutscene in which a disembodied woman's voice calls out, distracting Arjun, before he is shot in the back by a strange alien creature.
This will automatically send Arjun not back to The Passage, but to a nearby shelter in the Ancient Depths where he will meet Lina - a member of Echelon III, who’s been presumed dead.
Return to Depths Vault
After optionally speaking with Lina, you’ll need to follow the path back out into the central chamber and go through the (now empty) Bastion arena once more as Arjun acknowledges that Jerome is gone.
Return to Surface
As you grab the resources through the passage behind Bastion's previous location, you’ll drop into a chamber filled with destroyed machines, and an Audio Log from Jerome.
Use the jump pads nearby to bounce all the way up through the next couple of rooms until you jump up and out onto the surface of the next biome - Shattered Descent.