Destiny 2 Castellum - Standard Bearers, Standard Liberators and Councellors explained

The Destiny 2Castellum is the first place in the Leviathan that you'll encounter proper enemies, of course containing it's own awkward puzzle - it wouldn't be a Raid without them!

Here on this page, we'll tackle the Castellum Puzzle and how to get Standards from Standard Bearers, as well as explaining just what exactly is going on in the general area.

If you want to read more about the Raid, our Destiny 2 Leviathan guide and walkthrough can be help with every main encounter, including the Castellum, Royal Pools, Pleasure Gardens, Gauntlet and final boss, as well as how to access and explore the Labyrinth underbelly.

Castellum first area - how to solve the Castellum puzzle using the Standards, Standard Bearers, Standard Liberators and Councillors

A summary of the steps to progress fromt the first encounter, the Castellum, are:

• The Castellum is a hub, with doors to other areas all unlocked in the same way
• You have to get three Standards, from killing mini-boss Standard Bearers.
• Putting three Standards in the same set of sockets opens the nearby door.
• Two players go Standard hunting, and four defend the socket by your chosen door, until three Standards are planted by a door.
• You need to repeat the process to access each area from the Castellum hub.

The Castellum explained:

Once you've entered the first key area of the Leviathan Raid, past the external rows of guards and through the first few corridors, you'll find a fairly wide open, courtyard-like space, featuring a giant golden statue of the Emperor.

This is the Castellum, which is one of the most important areas in the Leviathan, because the Castellum in fact acts like a central 'hub' for the rest of your activities.

You'll notice, on exporing the area, that there are several places on the ground that feature a kind of hologram in the shape of a staff - or standard and some markings on the ground - one features a dog-like creature, one a pair of guards with spears, one a sun, and one a pair of crossed cleavers or axes.

Each of those areas is an entrance to another part of the Leviathan Raid, and each one has a socket for three Standards (the Standards themselves have the same markings on them, which correleate to a socket).

The long and short of it is that, if you want to progress, you need to bring three Standards to a single point. So how do you get the Standards?

Well, you might have guessed from the swarms of enemies coming your way that it'll involve fighting. After a short while, a special, high-powered enemy called a Standard Bearer will appear from the spot underneath the giant golden statue of the Emperor. Defeat one of them to pick up a standard.

Once you pick that up, waves of Standard Liberators - other orange-barred mini-bosses - will start spawning and making a run for the Standard, even after you've planted it. If they retreive it from the slot, you'll need to go and get that one again.

And there's one more complication, too - as well as the Liberators, special enemies called Councillors will start spawning, too. They're super-squishy enemies that appear inside a bubble shield, that you can walk into but not shoot through. Whilst they're alive, the Liberators will have invulnerable shields, so they need to be killed as quickly as possible. They tend to spawn close to the point where you're putting the Standards - either directly in front or just to either side.

Either way, you need to rinse and repeat this until all three Standards are in the slot. When you do that, a door will open behind you to a chest, and a route beyond that to the next area - which will be Royal Pools, Pleasure Gardens or Gauntlet first, depending on the order that week. But don't worry, you'll get to them all eventually.

For an exact, step by step guide on what to do, how, and when, read on just below!

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!

How to progress from the Castellum, step by step:

1. Get to the Castellum - it's from the top level of the external part of the Leviathan, through a simple linear passage of corridors. You'll know it when you see it - think giant golden space alien statue in a big courtyard.
2. Choose a door to progress through - As you enter, the left-hand side, which is also the nearest point for dropping standards, is the 'first' door, which takes you to the Royal Baths, the next section which we cover just below. We suggest you start there!
3. Fight off the first few waves of enemies - Kill a bit of time by killing the mobs that run at you, as the first Standard Bearer doesn't spawn instantly.
4. Split up into 'home' and 'away' teams - 2 in the away team, 4 in the home team.
5. Home team defends the point - The home team is on defence duty, guarding the chosen door and Standard sockets. Stay put, right on top of the socket, and use the Warlock healing Rifts and Titan barriers to keep yourselves topped up.
6. Away team gets the Standard and brings it back - The away team has to kill the Standard Bearer, which spawns under the giant statue (round the back of it, from the dirction of that first point), grab the Standard, and bring it back safely. One is on bodyguard duty while the other carries it.
7. Kill Councillors as soon as you see them - each Councillor that spawns has to go down within seconds, because otherwise invincible Liberators will easily grab the Standards back out of the sockets. Call them out in chat and whoever's nearest has the job! They will spawn in 3 locations: directly in front of the door socket, to the left of it as you look out from the door, and to the right. They may be just out of your line of sight, but look for the bubbles and quickly double-jump up high to get a better view if you need to.
8. Use power weapons and supers at all times - with the amount of Orbs of Light and Power Ammo that drops, you should be able to get a near constant chain of power weapon and super going. Area of effect weapons like Rocket Launchers are by far the best, especially some of the Exotics.
9. Rinse and repeate three times, then escape! - When three Standards are in the sockets at the same point, the door opens and a chest appears. Grab the loot and leg it to the next area. Best of luck!

Additional reporting by Chris Tapsell.