Duality is the latest dungeon introduced in the season of Haunted which is located in the derelict Leviathan and actually takes place in Calus’ subconscious.
In this guide, I’ll give you a complete walkthrough of this dungeon and explain its mechanics and secrets. Also check this guide to see which weapon to look out for in this dungeon and its god rolls.
Basic mechanic: This dungeon introduced a never before seen mechanic, a bell that lets you travel into the nightmare realm and back. The catch is to go to the nightmare realm you can shoot the bell from anywhere but when returning to reality, you need to stand inside the ring surrounding the bell or you will die as soon as the bell rings or anyone else outside it. Also whenever you step into the nightmare realm, you will see a timer on the left, if the timer hits 0 then you will wipe if all your fireteam was in the nightmare realm, so make sure at least one of you gets out and can revive the rest from reality.
Now with this given info, you can try to beat the dungeon yourself, if you face any difficulty, we have a complete walkthrough below.
Onto the First encounter
When you start the game first you will see Calus’ golden statue which is the tribute hall from the season of opulence before it was vaulted, stand near it until you drop down a hole. After landing, it will seem like a jumping puzzle, but it’s a bit more than that. As you progress, you will notice that your path ahead is blocked, whenever you notice that your path is blocked, there’s always a bell around you. Which in this case is behind a grate, shoot the bell to teleport you to the nightmare realm. Now you will see that the path is open and you can progress further.
In the nightmare realm, you can spot the bell immediately, stand in the ring and shoot the bell to close it to take you back to reality. Now using this same strategy progress through the next few rooms, in some you need to climb up and some may need you to descent, use the bell accordingly until you reach an opulent room with a bunch of statues. Kill the adds and drop down the pit that opens afterward. This is the first encounter.
Nightmare of Gahlran, Sorrow Bearer
This is the first boss fight you will face in the dungeon. The bell mechanic is crucial here, and the symbols you see near the door. You may have seen these symbols back in the leviathan which are Chalice, War beast, Axe, and Sun.
First, when you drop down you will spot two doors, a bell, and two cabal bell keepers guarding this door, also there will be some adds that you can clear easily. But in fact, there are two more doors and two bell keepers on the other side. Also, you will notice that the bell is immune, this is because of the bell keepers, eliminating them will let you use the bell just like earlier, this is an additional mechanic and will be present in all the future encounters
If you shoot the bell in front of you, again it will take you to the nightmare realm but you will notice that the boss is immune and trying to fight means certain death and that’s where these symbols come. Now if you look to either side of the bell you will notice that the doors are no longer closed, and some have cabal guard dogs inside. So now split your fireteam into two, one will eliminate all the bell keepers and prepare for teleport (note : you will have a limited timer like I previously mentioned) near the bell on the other side, and the 2nd team will focus on the symbols, with trial and error, go inside each door, if you see the guard dogs, you have found the correct door, eliminating all the enemies inside will spawn a standard in front of you with the symbol depending on which door you chose.
Now return to reality and plant them on the correct symbol after killing the bell keepers, now the door in front of you will open, again kill all the enemies inside, and once done do not go outside, instead ask one of your fireteam to shoot the bell or you can do it yourself.
It will take you and your fireteam to the nightmare realm but you will be inside the room with a locked door and you will see a few nightmare replicas of the boss, which may look overwhelming, but they have low hp and you can defeat them easily by yourself. Once all the nightmares are dead, a door opens for you and the Boss that was previously was immune can be damaged. This is the DPS phase, do as much damage as possible, if you are unable to defeat it in a single encounter, you will have to do the same thing once again till you finally defeat him. So rinse and repeat. Also, don’t forget the timer during the DPS phase and make sure at least one of you goes back to reality, or else it will be a wipe.
Once the encounter is over, collect the rewards and drop down the opened pit.
The Crypt and Statue puzzle
Now, this is run of the mill jumping puzzle if you played raids, you should know exactly what I am talking about. You will find a switch behind the pillar which brings out the coffins which you can jump on. Using a sword makes this much easier, Follow the path down the slide and drop down the pit, make sure you jump at the last moment or you will die from fall damage. You will see a huge hall with four gladiator statues facing randomly. So your objective is to align all the statues to face towards the center of the hall.
But before that don’t forget your secret chest. Jump on the bell platform and you should see an opening in front, jump to it and you will see the first secret chest in this dungeon.
To align the statues, you need to use the bell. First, memorize the alignment of the statues and head over to the nightmare realm, and use the switch behind them, every time you use the switch, the statue will rotate 90 degrees, so accordingly align the others.
Once aligned the door opens and dropping into the pit starts the second encounter.
Vault Encounter
This encounter has a similar mechanic, but instead of doors, we have four walls with symbols on their back. A bell will be located on the platform near the stairs.
Once the encounter begins, an immune boss will spawn along with bell keepers that spawn under the bridge. Similar to the previous encounter, two will handle symbols while one will take care of the bell keepers.
Check the symbols and stand in front of the particular wall and shoot the bell to teleport to the nightmare realm. The players in charge of symbols will see stairs in front of them, use the stairs and eliminate all the adds including the ranked cabal at the end of the room, which will spawn another ranked Cabal, defeating it will spawn the symbol standard and head towards the bell and return to reality with your team.
Plant the standards near the symbols and the boss will be vulnerable, You can eliminate the boss pretty easily, although it’s not the end of the encounter, as another nightmare boss will spawn. In total, you need to defeat three nightmare bosses to complete this encounter, and after every boss, you need to do the exact same mechanic over and over again. Once the encounter is over, drop down and collect your rewards.
Now it would seem like another jumping puzzle, use the same bell mechanic to reach higher platforms and follow the path. This is also where the second secret chest is located. You will see a huge white hall with pillars, drop down and you will notice a small opening, inside you will find the chest
After collecting the chest follow the path ahead until you see another pit. Drop down and this is where the final boss fight occurs
Calus’ Greatest Shame. Caiatl Final Boss
This boss fight will have the exact same strategy, one for bellkeepers and two for symbols. Once the encounter starts, you will see 4 platforms on all 4 sides of the room. Two small bells, and one huge bell at the back of the room.
Your objective here is to ring that huge bell, but you cannot simply shoot it, instead, you require the symbols to make the mechanism on top hit the bell.
Once the encounter begins, Nightmare of Caiatl will spawn along with six bellkeepers and lots of adds. There will be two symbols on either side of the hall. Memorize the symbol and look toward the four platforms. Above the platforms, you will see the same symbols attached. Stand on the corresponding platform and head over to the nightmare realm by shooting the bell.
Once you are teleported, you will see a psion in front of you on the very same platform. Killing the psion will spawn the symbol standards. Note: Killing the wrong psion will decrease the timer by a lot and you will wipe.
Get the correct standards and head over to reality and plant them besides the symbol, you need four of these symbols to start the DPS phase. Once all four are planted you will see the chains move down on the pillar, shooting the gem will make the mechanism hit the bell and start the DPS phase which takes place in the nightmare realm.
Your first priority is to clear the bellkeepers, then head over to one of the bells, Caiatl will chase you. Once Caiatl is close to the bell, shoot it and stand beside it to damage the boss with a damage buff. You can damage Caiatl even without ringing the bells but that will do really less damage and if Caiatl interacts with a bell, it will take you back to reality and instantly end the DPS phase, and you will have to do the same thing once again. So rinse and repeat till the boss is dead.
You will be brought back to the tribute hall to collect the rewards.