Raids are six person, no matchmaking end game activities. They require a greater degree of cooperation and game understanding. They are not possible to solo, though select portions are possible with less than the recommended number of players. You get loot from each encounter (section) once per week per character. Each raid has its own loot pool, and raids are launched from the maps of the planet they are on or near. Shorter raids may be referred to as "raid lairs." Raid banners, purchased for glimmer from Hawthorne, can be used in all raids.

• Year 1 raids: Leviathan, Eater of Worlds, Spire of Stars
  
• Year 2 raids: Last Wish (Forsaken Pack), Scourge of the Past, Crown of Sorrow
  
• Year 3 raids: Garden of Salvation (Shadowkeep)
  
• Year 4 raids: Deep Stone Crypt (Beyond Light), Vault of Glass (free to play)
  
• Year 5 raids: Vow of the Disciple (Witch Queen), King's Fall (free to play)
  
• Year 6 raids: Root of Nightmares (Lightfall) , Crota's End (free to play)

It does not matter which one you do first, as they are all part of separate stories. Vow of the Disciple contains some mechanics recognizable from previous raids (namely the relic from Vault of Glass and taken mode from Last Wish). Generally people consider Vault of Glass, King's Fall, and Root of Nightmares to be easiest, if you wish to start with those.

The current latest raid and dungeon drop a pinnacle from each encounter and can be farmed for their legendary loot. The current latest raid can be farmed for spoils of conquest. Each week, an older raid and dungeon are "in rotation," meaning they drop one pinnacle upon completion and can be farmed for their legendary and exotic loot. There are community run trackers showing which older raid is in rotation and therefore farmable for loot, such as this spreadsheet.[docs.google.com]

Weapon crafting was added in Year 5. To unlock the crafting system, you need to do the free Witch Queen intro mission listed in the upper left of your destinations tab. See my weapon crafting guide here for more information. Most raids have craftable weapons that can drop randomly and are guaranteed at the end. Vault of Glass and Garden of Salvation are the only ones that do not have craftable weapons, but they may be updated sometime in the future.

Vault of Glass can be launched from the Legends node (next to Crucible, above the Tower). The other raids can be launched from the destinations they take place on. You can enter them solo or with less than a full team if you wish to do some exploration, but you cannot get far alone.

Vault of glass is free to play. Last Wish requires Forsaken Pack. Garden of Salvation requires Shadowkeep. Deep Stone Crypt requires Beyond Light. Vow of the Disciple requires Witch Queen.

You can enter raids very soon after beginning, but you will not succeed unless you have a decent understanding of game mechanics and have a variety of legendary (purple) rarity guns to choose from. Power level is only a concern for newer raids. Aim to be above the recommended power level listed on the activity. .

It is highly recommended to either look at a guide beforehand or go with teammates who have done the raid before and are ok with teaching it. This is not strictly necessary, though, it can be great fun to try to puzzle out each encounter on your own, but only if the whole team is on the same page that this is what you will be doing.

While some parts of each raid are possible with less than 6 players, and there are a wide variety of exploits and glitches to bypass parts that require multiple players, it is going to be way easier to do the raid as intended with 6 players until you have a grasp of how it works.

Popular exotic armor choices include lunafaction boots for warlocks, heart of inmost light or helm of saint-14 for titans, celestial nighthawk, star eater scales, or orpheus rigs for hunters. Be sure to see Xur every weekend if you are still missing these! My guide on Xur and where to get exotics from.

As a general rule of thumb, use primary (white) ammo to kill red health bar enemies and special or heavy ammo for major enemies and bosses. You will want to have a variety of guns capable of good DPS and add clear depending on which raid encounter you are currently in.

At a minimum, have a primary ammo gun you like to use that is good at medium ranges, and if possible, masterwork it. Have one special ammo and one heavy ammo weapon that is good for crowd clearing and one that is good for boss killing.

Over the years this game has existed, there have been some major changes to the game that affect which guns are good for each purpose. Take specific item recommendations with a grain of salt, especially if the recommendation is from before the New Light (Oct. 1, 2019) update. It's far more important to understand why someone might be recommending an item than to copy a loadout just because it was in a youtube video. Some of the more major changes:

• Special ammo guns were added in fall 2018. Before this, all guns that currently use special ammo used heavy ammo.
  
• All machine gun boss DPS was nerfed and heavy grenade launchers were buffed during summer 2019.
  
• Whisper of the Worm used to materialize heavy ammo out of nowhere infinitely. It no longer does this.
  
• Lunafaction boots and the titan rally barricade used to fully reload your guns. Now they significantly boost reload speed.
  
• The titan super Ward of Dawn now gives a damage boost called Weapons of Light.
  
• Multiple buffs used to be stackable. Now, only one buff can be applied to players and only one debuff applied to enemies.
  
• Whisper's catalyst and DARCI's exotic perk used to increase damage by 65%. Now they increase damage by 35%. I have personally tested and verified this in February 2020.

If you want to know specifics, both of these resources are continuously updated. A spreadsheet comparing DPS for every weapon type.[docs.google.com]
A spreadsheet comparing damage modifier values[docs.google.com]

Very minor gameplay spoilers follow.

Last Wish

• Kalli: Boss DPS. This boss takes 2x damage to the head.
  
• Shuro Chi: Crowd clearing, close range boss DPS. This boss takes 2x damage to the head.
  
• Morgeth: A mix of boss DPS and crowd clearing. Be sure you know where your team plans to deal boss DPS from. Some stand at end of the bridge, some stand in front of the door behind him.
  
• Riven: Boss DPS. This boss takes 2x damage to the mouth-orb (it will make sense when you see it, I swear). This boss also takes 2x explosive splash damage there. Other bosses that take 2x damage to a weak spot do not take extra explosive damage.

Garden of Salvation

• First Encounter: A fast way to kill Cyclopes and Hydras. Items that increase your movement are a good idea, but not strictly necessary.
  
• Second Encounter: The whole team will be split up. Use what you need to survive on your own, and kill Hydras fast. There are some champions at the start of the encounter only.
  
• The Consecrated Mind: Boss damage, close range add clear. Warlocks, do not use slowva bomb on the boss! Unlike most other bosses, there isn't a good way to throw it here without blocking your teammates' shots.
  
• The Sanctified Mind: Boss damage. Fast crowd clearing is also very useful. One strategy is 5 people having their best boss DPS loadouts, and one person bringing Divinity + heavy machine gun.

Deep Stone Crypt

• Vault Security: Short range weapons work well here. There are Overload champions.
  
• Second Encounter: Longish range weapons for killing the ads. High burst damage is very important here. You will have an incredibly short window of time to damage the boss in. There's a few different strategies here, so be sure you are on the same page with your team for who goes where and how exactly everyone will be split up.
  
• Third Encounter: Specific items aren't particularly important here. There are Overload champions.
  
• Fourth Encounter: Bring boss DPS loadouts.

Vault of Glass

• Entrance: Add clear
  
• Templar:
  
• Gatekeepers:
  
• Atheon:

Vow of the Disciple

• Entrance: There's a long, scenic boat ride and a hidden chest here. Once inside, there's a room showing examples of all the symbols. This raid has a lot of symbols you should familiarize yourself with, similar to Last Wish.
  
• First encounter: Add clear. Has Unstoppable champions.
  
• Caretaker: Boss DPS.
  
• Third encounter: Add clear. Has Overload champions.
  
• Rhulk: Boss DPS, but you must remain mobile so things like Well of Radiance aren't the most helpful.

King's Fall

• Entrance: Followed by some killing, there is a jumping section, so be sure you are comfortable with your class's jumps.
  
• First encounter: Bring add clear and some means of healing. There is an Unstoppable champion.
  
• Warpriest: Boss DPS, but be sure everyone is on the same page of where you are dealing damage from. Some teams DPS from the boss's feet using swords, some from farther away
  
• Golgoroth: There are 2 different roles here. Most of the team will be on DPS. If you are not, you should bring something for add clear and something ranged to get Golgoroth's attention.
  
• Daughters: Lots of arc shields, so arc damage will help.
  
• Oryx: Long range DPS weapons are good here.

Root of Nightmares

• First encounter: Bring an add clear loadout and be prepared to move around a lot. There are Tormentors and Barrier champions.
  
• Scission: Bring an add clear loadout. Some people like to use Eager Edge for some quicker travel.
  
• Macrocosm/Planets: Don't use anything that could push enemies off the platforms. Bring boss DPS weapons, but there are also adds to clear.
  
• Nezarec: Bring a boss DPS loadout, but be warned that there will be a lot of adds.

Crota's End

• Abyss: I have had the best results with groups that went slow and carefully, without trying to use swords or Strand to skip ahead. It's in everyone's best interest for the party to travel as a group. You will need add clear, and there are Unstoppable champions at the end.
  
• Bridge: There are Barrier champions. You will need add clear, and depending on what strategy your team uses and where you are, having long range weapons may be important.
  
• Ir Yut: You will need both boss DPS and good add clear. Anything to help with survivability for you and your team is great here.
  
• Crota: You will need boss DPS. This is the only scenario where a sword with Surrounded is useful. Enemies underneath the circular balcony where you damage Crota will proc Surrounded, and you won't kill them by swinging the sword.

• Destiny 2 PC LFG discord server[discordapp.com] (must have link previews enabled in discord settings to use this server)
  
  
• the Destiny Sherpa subreddit (Sherpa = guide)
  
  
• /r/DestinytheGame subreddit discord sever [discordapp.com]
  
  
• /r/Destiny2 subreddit discord server [discordapp.com]
  
  
• The official Destiny 2 phone app
  
  I do not recommend using the in-game Guided Games "feature." There is a low enough population willing to use this mode that you may wait for hours in the queue without matching to a group.

• Raid Report[raid.report] to view which characters you have done each raid on this week, and raid stats for you and other players.
  
  
• Super damage comparison spreadsheet[docs.google.com]
  
  
• This youtuber has the best guides for Last Wish and Garden of Salvation. This user no longer makes Destiny 2 videos, and his loadout recommendations are now obsolete, but all the mechanics are the same.
  
  
• The youtuber Datto has a video guides for each raid's mechanics. He has a video guide just for add clear in Root of Nightmares, as a lot of players will do this as their first raid.
  
  
• Weapon DPS spreadsheet.[docs.google.com]
  
  
• Damage modifier spreadsheet.[docs.google.com]