The Shadow Thief is a lvl 28 Strike added with the Destiny House of Wolves expansion. In it the player is tasked with hunting down Taniks-Syn, a powerful Fallen mercenary now working for Skolas. To do that you’ll need to fight through a Ketch full of enemy Fallen, including a Fallen walker tank and the occasional appearance of Taniks himself.

For the standard Pug of lvl 32 guardians, the standard 28 variety of the Shadow Thief shouldn’t be too much of a problem, but at higher levels, and especially as a nightfall strike things can get challenging. To help you get through it, here are some tips on defeating the Shadow Thief.

Don’t Rush In

The Shadow Thief Strike takes place on a Fallen Ketch and is therefore very compartmentalized. Pair that with swarming fallen swordsmen and flying grenades and you’ve got a situation you don’t want to dive head first into. Many of the areas have good cover as soon as you enter the room. Make sure of it and pick off as many enemies as you can before moving forward.

You should also be paying special attention to stealth vandals and captains that will often charge your position. Keep them at a safe distance with grenades while you snipe them.

If Arc Burn is enabled you should be especially careful, as one well-placed shot by a vandal sniper will shred your shields to nothing.

Focus Taniks

Periodically throughout the strike Tanik’s will make an appearance. When he does, do as much damage to him as you can. That damage will carry over to the final fight, making it much easier to complete. Not only that, when he does take enough damage in the early fights, it will cause him to retreat, making your progress quicker and easier.

The Fallen Walker

Apart from the final battle with Tanik’s this fight will be the most difficult. Like the other areas, your best bet is to use the cover of the area when you first enter the room. From here you can focus on sniping/ rocketing the walker’s weak spots and then hammering it when it goes down.

What makes this fight so difficult is the constant assault from the stealth vandals, shanks and captains that will bum rush you the entire time. Have at least one person guarding your position while the others focus on the walker.

Taniks Fight

After the fight with the Walker comes the Tanik’s fight. It starts in the narrow hallway that leads out of the walker room. First send one player into the hallway because Tanik’s is going to pop out of nowhere and start firing. If you’re on a high difficulty and everyone enters the hallway at the same time, it could mean a wipe.

Now you’ll want to follow Tanik’s down the hallway doing as much damage as you can, but always keeping at least one player hanging back a bit to avoid a wipe.

Eventually you will enter a large room where the final fight will take place with Tanik’s. The idea here is to burn him down as quickly as possible, which should be easy if you did enough damage to him in the previous engagements. Stay near the cover of the entrance area and poke him down with snipers and rockets, easy stuff.

Note: Enemies do not de-spawn when the strike is over and can still deal damage.