1. Intro

This is a quick guide to the FO76 Raids, specifically Gleaming Depths, but if Beth ever gets aroud to releasing another, I'll bang up another section here. While the Gleaming raid has been out for almost a year now, there are still players who can't find their ass in the dark - this guide hopes to help screw those heads back on. Here comes the airplane.

2. Gleaming Depths

Unlike regular gameplay in '76, to play the raids, you WILL have to rub at least two braincells together - mind, this is still piss easy compared to any other ARPG/Shooter. You will probably need either the Travelling Pharmacy perk or Thruhikers on your armor - the raid shits out chems, which will absolutely tarpit you otherwise. Melee is verboten in this raid - while you can use it in stages 2-4, you'll be standing around with your dick in your hand for the guardian and the snake.

Right now (Oct '25), farming Guardian is mostly for Vulcan PA plans and the rare 4 star mod box - the 4 star mod rate rises significantly the further you are into the raid.

Guardian

First boss, currently (as of the Camp update patch - Oct '25) a tasty farm, but Beth has expressed their butthurt about people just farming it repeatedly, and are going to nerf the rewards in the future. There are three ways to clear this.

First, the intended way to play it. With at least two players, activate the boss and stand at opposite sides of the room. When the boss turns towards you, duck behind one of the concrete columns (these can break, so you will have to move around if you take too long.) When the boss turns to attack your teammate, pop out and dump into the fusion cores on its butt.

When the shield HP bar is zero, target the main body of the boss and DPS it down - if you can't kill it in ~20 seconds, you'll have to run to one of the three equidistant shelters in the walls - only one of the doors will open (make sure to ping the door if you're the one who finds it.) Repeat until dead. You have three overheat cycles to kill the boss, the 4th cycle will instakill you. When playing like this, if one of the two players dies, you're fucked, and you have to die and restart.

Second, the easy way to play. You will need the following:

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1x Player (you - no teammate needed)
1x Full suit Power Armor with 1* Troubleshooters legendary, all 5 pieces (Mix/match, you don't need an identical set)
1x Heavy weapon with 1* Vampires (Minigun/Flamer/Gat Laser anything with a chunky mag)
1x DPS weapon (1* Furious heavy weapon is the usual choice here)
7x Survival Perks (Bullet Shield 4, First Aid, Field Surgeon, Ricochet - stir in Refractor/Lifegiver/Ironclad/Junkshield/etc. as needed)
30-100x Hotkeyed Stimpacks (relative to how much dee pee essu you can shit out during the damage phase)

Optional (this is also usable later in the raid):
1x Laser Gun with automatic reciever, beam splitter, +fire rate capacitor (1* quad optional / can use combat shotgun per preference)

General way to play is to activate the guardian, stand in front of the console in your Troubleshooters power armor and tap-fire your Vampire weapon at the Guardian while spamming 2-3 stimpacks when the guardian shoots. The goal is to proc ricochet by way of Bullet Shield, and have the ricochets kill the guardian's invuln field. Once the shield breaks, switch and dps, running to shelter if needed.

Optionally, you can take your scattergat and run around the base of the guardian at the start of the round - there are four automatic doors in the pedestal, each with a light over it. Stand in front and break the chip under the light - splitter laser shatters it in a second or two of fire. Breaking all four knicks the main HP bar.

Example build:
https://nukesdragons.com/fallout-76/character?cd=0k0000001010&s=8b54e95&p=sd3sz2sa2sw2st2ig2pi1pp2li1ph1p51ee1ej1eh3s84ce1cm3cu1c61i11ck1im1ip1s12id3a81af1ai1ak1ad3an3lg1lu30j1ls3lc1ic2&lp=xm2x84x53x44x64xa4&v=2&n=Guardian%20Solo

This is for a ghoul - with Speed Demon and Egg Head mutation, and a DPS Holy Fire flamer reworked to 1star Furious / 4 star Pyromaniacs this can one cycle the bot. Remember to crouch when the shield breaks to get the sneak attack bonus. This is net positive fuel/stimpack/fusion core wise. Manual aim only.

The third way to clear is solo stealth, you need a high AGL, Evasive, Escape Artist, Sneak 3, and the Chinese Stealth Suit. General idea is to activate, run to the opposite side of the room, stealth, then move around the periphery of the room, taking shots into the back of the guardian. This takes a fair amount of time compared to the PA cheese strat, and you have to watch out for the guided missiles pasting you, but it does work. Add more limb damage to speed up the process (perks and/or a 2 star crippling weapon.)

Drill

Ragequit central, this is the real filter stage. You need AT LEAST 3x players (2x if you both have your shit together, but 3x to be safe,) if not a full team. General goal is for the entire team to run into the tunnels, grabbing fuel cans, dodging the three glowing mole miners in the tunnels, and returning them to the drill hopper.

Within the first minute or two, your team can get away with just sweeping the drill room when returning cans, but once you get the message that the enemies have enraged, you will need to leave a dedicated DPS in there to keep the mobs off the drill (prioritize the molerats and the melee moleminers.) If your team has their heads on square, you should clear just as the mobs enrage a second time. If you can't, a second dps will have to help in the drill room while whoever is left runs cans (if you leave the "A" cans from the following map, you can grab them at this point and most likely clear.)

Once you get a feel for the tunnel layout, and learn not to take risks with the stalker moleminers (Beth netcode being what it is,) this is actually a rather relaxing stage.

Fuel Can map and potential spawn locations:
https://www.theduchessflame.com/post/gleaming-depths-fuel-container-locations

  • Three instagib moleminers will spawn in the tunnels (starting locations E4/D5/B2 on dutchess' map) - they can't be killed, and sneak DOES NOT WORK - in theory you can stagger them with an autoaxe/shredder minigun, or run through them with Pain Train 3 (netcode can lead to getting 180 noscoped, though)
  • Run either in regular armor for speed or in Power Armor with the Reboot legendary perk - no amount of armor will save you from being gibbed, but reboot can pick you up once if you are.
  • Sound on, PipBoy light off. The asthmatic fatasses will let you know generally where they are by the grunting and wheezing, and they glow against walls and corners.
  • The more players in the team, the easier it is. If you each concentrate on one of the three zones in the tunnels (B+C/C+D/D+E) the miners will divide their attention, and you won't generally have to deal with being boxed in and gibbed.
  • Marathoner 3 under agility for standard armor and hotkeyed coffee will keep you from running out of AP and getting slapped.
  • After the first enrage, the instagib miners in the tunnel can start to stall around the following areas: B1-B2/C2-C3 Corridor/D1-D2/E2-E3. Generally expect them there and have an alternate route if so.
  • DO NOT BACKTRACK A RUNNER BEATING FEET TO THE DRILL. Odds are they're being chased, and you'll run smack into their pursuer.
  • If you can do it without being onetapped, ping the instagib miners. Highlighting them lets the rest of your team avoid easier.

Squad

Significantly easier than the previous stage, but you can still fuck this up if you don't pay attention. Two players minimum to clear, but three is better. When the stage is started, team splits up and goes to the three generator rooms A/B/C and breaks the generators (a splitter laser gun shreds it quickly). After doing this, return to the main room and dump damage into the PA troopers that activate.

They activate in this order with a short delay between: Bloodhound (laser chainsaw - kite around and don't get too close,) Lynx (cryo grenade launcher, saps AP points, either manual aim, slam coffee, or powerfist melee to death), and Vulture (gauss rifle - very dangerous if out of power armor, can one hit you, so keep cover between.)

Once Vulture activates, two of the generators will probably be repaired (the door lights will turn from red to blue.) Someone will have to drop everything, clean the repair bots off the generator, and break it again. Repeat breaking the generators and damaging the squad until dead.

  • Only two of the three generators will be repaired. Once these two are repaired, they will ALWAYS be targeted by the repair bots for the rest of the round.
  • When the generators are repaired, the squad is invulnerable
  • If you can tank the damage (Overeaters / Assassins PA + Blocker + Fireproof) you can lure the enemies to one of the two generators being repaired, and do both at the same time.
  • Be careful with using explosive weapons to clear active repair bots off the generators - the double damage calc can glitch and the generator can get stuck as repairing - only way is to die and retry at this point.

Horde

Comfy, but can still be fucked up by tards shattering all the crystals too soon. When the button is pushed, an instagib moleminer is spawned to the right of the large crystal you see when entering the stage.

Your only goal at this point is to move with your team and kite the moleminer towards the smaller crystals, blowing them up when it is nearby. Ignore all other enemies, focus on killing the moleminer first. Once its dead, either gather up a mob pack and kite them into the smaller crystals, or move to one of the large crystals and wait until the Deathclaws spawn, then blow and kite into the smaller crystals to clean up.

If you get dropped at this stage, it can be easily done solo.

  • Since the mobs are all melee, you NEED Blocker 3 in this stage.
  • DO NOT BREAK THE THREE LARGE CRYSTALS UNTIL THE END
  • DO NOT SIT ON THE LARGE CRYSTALS AND WANK OFF THE ENTIRE ROUND - it glitches the pathing, and can fuck up the entire run.
  • You can run this in standard armor with a jetpack, but be quick on the stims - the frogs and crickets can two shot you.
  • Kiting packs (4-5+) into the smaller crystals after killing the moleminer works best - sometimes if you leave the mobs too long, their pathing fucks up and they get lost/frozen.
  • You may have to split up to find a straggler at the end - remember to ping it if you find it (check the spawn tunnels on the periphery of the arena, and the back halls on the top and bottom floors.)
  • The Laser Gun from the first boss works well here - the auto splitter shots break the crystals near instantly.

Snake

Another straightforward stage, you need some form of poison resist (75-100) for this, either 2 star Poisoners on 2-3 armor pieces (Iron Clad multiplies this, btw,) Natural Resistance perk if running a human character, Funky Duds (Legendary Perk), a full suit of Union Power Armor, or 4 star Aegis PA pieces. Without resists, the snake's spit will melt you instantly.

Primary goal is either to VATS the snake's eyes or manual aim into the snake's head. Snake will occasionally breathe in and scream, pushing you off the stage into the lava - drop out of VATS asap and bunnyhop to avoid the push. Snake will also stick up it's tail occasionally - drop everything and target this when the second health bar shows up. If you ignore it, it will destroy a big chunk of the arena, making it more likely that the scream will throw you into the lava.

  • PA is the name of the game here, you really want the animation-less stims
  • Having and sharing the Team Medic perk (any level) goes a long way for team survival
  • Ping the tail when it comes up, all the crap on the screen gets in the way of seeing it, and you might need a second player to kill it before it slams
  • When you reach ~1/6 HP left, the snake will fall to the stage floor and start sucking wind - this is a DPS race. Ignore everything else and dump into the head - if you can't kill it in time, it wipes the team.
Edit

Pub: 15 Oct 2025 10:11 UTC

Edit: 16 Oct 2025 12:11 UTC

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