The Hive arena in the Prison of Elders is a difficult one to master. It’s a fairly cramped space with not a lot of places to hide from the onslaught of Thrall, Acolytes, Knights, Ogres, and of course everyone’s favorite the Wizard. To get through it all, you’re going to need a combination of skill, teamwork, and of course tips from this guide. Read on for some helpful notes on making it through the Hive Arena in the Prison of Elders.

Stay Close But Not Too Close

If there’s one thing the Hive have quite a bit of it’s explosive attacks that do heavy area of effect damage. Avoid your team getting wiped out by the Ogres beam, the Wizards explosive magic, the Knights Boom cannon, or the Cursed’s explosions by keeping spread apart.

Not too far though, you should still be close enough that if a team member does get caught you’ll be close enough to revive them as soon as their timer expires.

Watch the Blitz

The Hive are an aggressive bunch and if you let them get in among your ranks, they will make quick work of you. Have at least one member of your fire team watching for packs of marauding Thrall and sword wielding Knights. This is especially important if the melee modifier is on, which usually spells instant death from one well placed Thrall swipe.

The tight quarters make grenades the perfect tool for wiping out packs of Thrall in one shot, make good use of them.

Stay Out of The Spawning Pool

If you didn’t know before your first time heading into he Hive arena, you will right after it. The central area of the map is a no go zone for the most part as it opens you up to attacks from all sides, offers very little cover, and is where the majority of the Knights, Ogres, and Wizards spawn in.

For good cover and a decent field of view over the rest of the map, head to the far left of the room from where you enter. Right against the wall you’ll find an area with a ramp leading up to some high ground that also has some cover. This spot is perfect because not only is there only one entrance for any enemies approaching on foot, you get a decent amount of vision over the entire map, perfect for sniping tough to kill enemies that roam the center.

A good setup that works for this area is to have one or two guardians (depending on the difficulty and experience of the group) defending your base of operations from attack while the third guardian snipes and rockets the tougher enemies like ogres and knights in the middle.

Of course if there’s an objective like disarming/ destroying mines, get that done as fast as you can, and then head back to this area to stay safe while you pick off the remaining enemies.

The Gear

Bringing the right weapons is half the battle in any Destiny mode, and especially so in Prison of Elders. For the hive, Solar damage weapons are usually a must have because they do extra damage to them, and will shred the Wizards shields. Icebreaker is a great one to bring along because of its unlimited ammo and high-powered solar attack. Pair it with the Hunger of Crota rocket launcher to take care of business with ease. Of course if you have your Gjhallahorn, it’s hard to beat the number one rocket launchers destructive power, especially when pacing down the tougher, elite level enemies.

Solar Super Abilities should also be enabled if you’ve got them. That means Golden Gun for the Hunter and Sunsinger for the Warlocks. Titans should be set up in Defender mode with Weapons of light to buff that damage up.