The most important thing is to have a competent fireteam who have experience running the Vault of Glass as the difficulty and process to summon Xylar requires far greater teamwork than a regular hard mode run. Although I personally discourage barring people from raiding due to being under leveled or under geared, I would recommend only running with 400 damage weapons with a light level of 400, this isn't to be an elitist but many mechanics of the Xylar fight disadvantage anyone lower than this level greatly. Weapon choices are pretty open as long as you have the appropriate elemental damage for the Xylar fight, I recommend two elemental weapons of each (2X void, 2x Solar, 2x arc) as dealing with different elemental shields can become a real problem. We found having two Vex Mythoclasts, two exotic Fatebringers, and two ((STEEL MEDULLA~)) worked pretty well with ad control. During the Xylar fight, I highly recommend a helmet with (picking up an orb replenishes health). Classes is a tough one, although I feel having two defender titans makes this fight drastically easier. There will be situations where you will have nowhere to hide from countless enemies during the later phases of the Xylar fight, so what better thing to have than constant access to a big old bubble of safety? Having two Sunsinger Warlocks can be extremely useful as well for the fact they can create a lot of orbs and have a safety net, in regards to hunters, Nightstalker helps. Entering the Vault of Glass During the entry phase of the Vault it is required to summon the spire without letting any Vex seize control of the sync plates, this normally isn't too bad since the level scaling for hard mode doesn't apply until you are inside the Vault. Trials of Kabr - Conflux pillars Don't allow ANY vex sacrifice to either of the pillars, pretty straight forward. If one happens to sacrifice then don't worry, simply wipe and start the checkpoint again as dying won't make a difference at this point. Destroy the Oracles The one and ONLY thing that you have to worry about is if you are marked by an oracle wipe immediately, being killed by an oracle will instantly remove Xylars' appearance after Atheon. It sounds very extreme but if your fireteam is marked at all either blow yourselves up with a rocket or fall to your death BEFORE the mark kills you. everything else is basically the same, once again being killed by any other source will not matter, only the oracles mark. The Templar Two things need to be accomplished here. 1) Don't die to oracles mark, wipe before it triggers. 2) Do not allow the Templar to teleport. You can still pretty much cheese this fight by having everybody sit up top while one person runs Aegis and drops his shield, so just keep doing that if it's easier. If you decide to do it legitimately then I don't need to say much as you probably already have a system that works! Gorgon maze A few misconceptions here, you CAN loot the bonus chest rewarded for cancelling the Templar teleports and you CAN loot the left exotic chest. the only catch is you cannot be killed by Gorgons gaze, so you have to navigate the entire area without getting caught which is why I recommend leaving the right chest since it's not worth the trouble. If you do get caught then do the same strategy as the Oracles, wipe instantly so that the Gaze doesn't trigger. (make sure you've always got a rocket ready to drop at your feet). Jumping Puzzle -Pretty straight forward, if the same person fails this more than once I recommend violently teabagging their orb. The Gatekeepers -Nobody can die while inside the Mars or Venus portals. If somebody does simply wipe and try again, completing this section after a death inside the portals will stop Xylar appearing. Your only other responsibility is not allowing ANY sacrifices to the middle pillar once it appears. Atheon -Two things here, nobody can die and Atheon must not enrage. Everything else is pretty simple, wipe and restart the checkpoint if either things occur. if you have done everything as mentioned above then strap on your big boy panties because shit is about to get real as soon as Atheon drops. Xylar, the Timeless First head (arc) About 30 seconds or so after Atheon dies you will notice both the Venus and Mars portal will open automatically even though nobody is on the Sync plates. This is a bad thing, ads will start pouring out prior to Xylar's appearance so immediate crowd control is recommended. Split into two groups of three with at least one titan in each group and position a titan bubble next to both portals, doing this will make the hobgoblins near the sync plate less of a worry and allow you to instantly drop shotgun rounds into the Praetorians that enter through the portals, try to shoot them from the side as you don't want to push them back into the portal. Once both portals close after about 40 seconds use any remaining hobgoblins to generate orbs as they usually group together near the Sync plates below the portals on each side, two more usually spawn at the far back near the stairs leading to Xylar/Atheons position also. After this phase Xylar will appear after your screen flashes white, immediately gather together by the mars sync plate (left side). You want to ignore Xylar completely for the first minute since he's immune to damage so take care of as many ads as you can, they won't feed in from the mars portal anymore as long as somebody is standing on the sync plate which I recommend you try to as much as possible, the Venus portal will stay deactivated until the second head enrages so you can ignore that for now. Try to stay out of Xylar's line of sight to start with as his Arc barrage attack can be a pain to dodge (basically like a faster moving shock pistol with splash damage) The second he activates his Enigma countdown you will notice the mars portal has turned red, send 3-4 people inside and have at least one titan hold the sync plate, the timer will reach zero and all fireteam members inside will be granted with the Mark of the Creator, those on the outside holding the sync plate will be marked for extermination which causes death after a 45 second countdown. The goal here is for those inside to quickly destroy the Xylar spawn and have one member pick up the Forgotten Aegis that drops, normally pretty easy with the increased damage and reload speed so make a dash for the exit portal on the far side and meet up with your team mates so they can be cleansed. This is where you want to jump up next to the mars portal and wait for the last ten seconds of the extermination countdown, during this phase Xylar's left head will have its mouth open and remain immobile, quickly have the shield bearer use their super on the left head(you only get one shot per shield) this will remove the extermination buff and allow those with Mark of the creator to dish out some huge damage on the first head as it remains stunned, Arc weapons help a lot since his arc shield is unaffected by other elements, once that drops throw as much as you can at him, for those not using rockets the crit spot is the large green orb in the center of its forehead, you'll have roughly 15 seconds to cause some pain and should have the first head about 1/3. Repeat this process one more time and you should be able to finish off the first phase of the fight. Second head (void) Basically repeat the same process as the first head, this time you want to rotate to the Venus portal and follow the same steps. You will notice a slight increase in yellow health bar goblins so use them to generate orbs when possible, use any ammo synths you need to while you can but ultimately try to be safe about it. The second head will generally spam void energy balls which travel slowly to a guardians location, although they are easily dodged they have a huge AoE and leave behind a pool that does DoT for about 5 seconds. Xylar will also cast an unavoidable shockwave every 30 seconds that removes every fireteam members shield temporarily. Once you completely deal with the Spawn and inflict your 15 seconds of damage on the second head he will cast Mark of Affliction on all fireteam members, this basically prevents your shields and supers from recharging naturally so you should be thankful for all those orbs scattered everywhere. Play it safe and finish off the second head using the same method. this is where the real challenge starts. The third head (solar) This time both portals need to be entered, oracles will also spawn, send two in each and one person hold each sync plate. it'll take two Aegis supers to remove his immunity but once this happens spam Sleeper rounds and he'll die in about 6 seconds like any other boss, you're welcome. Grab your fake d*ck and jerk it off for the best loot. GLHF Guardians. Credits to sumfish for making Y1 and Y2 versions, I decided to make a few edits here and there to match Y3 but all in all 98.989898% of this post is his. This is for those spicy guardians who want duct tape as an exotic chestpiece.