Early on in the Forsaken campaign, you’ll set foot in the grimy lair of The Spider. He and you share a special connection: the desire to see Prince Uldren dead. His reasons aren’t quite as noble as yours. You’re here to avenge Cayde; he simply isn’t a fan of the chaos Uldren’s unleashed. It’s bad for business, and frankly, having homicidal killers roaming about was never good for tourism to begin with.
Once the story concludes, The Spider’s problems remain ongoing. In their hurry out of the Prison of Elders, Uldren and his barons left the door open. The prison’s worst residents are now loose, leaving mayhem in their wake.
Visit his vendor location on The Tangled Shore and check his inventory. He’s got a variety of bounties on these violent offenders. Trade in some Ghost Fragments (which can be acquired from Patrols and Public Events in The Tangled Shore) and he’ll give you a job. Not all jobs are created equal, though, because some criminals are considered more heinous than others.
The most odious of these creatures is The Bloody Cleaver. Pick up his bounty from The Spider and you’ll find a new Adventure marked on your map on Io. It’s a fairly straight forward mission and rewards a Prime Engram. Get your Power Level up and rid the solar system of a criminal, all in one fell swoop.
Okay, I lied. It’s not straightforward.
How to Kill the Bloody Cleaver.
You’ll enter a Lost Sector and clear out some enemies. It’s typical Lost Sector fare, nothing too challenging. Press forward, and things get real wonky. The tunnel to the next room is shielded, and within the shield, your powers and weapons no longer work. Cabal war-dogs will appear, and you’ll have to melee them. Exit the shield, and you’ll find The Bloody Cleaver. He’s sitting in the cache room, almost alone. There are a few dogs and a couple turrets. Easy, right?
Wrong.
Upon spotting you, The Bloody Cleaver will activate a large bubble shield. Like the previous shield, you can’t use weapons or powers while inside it. Outside the shield, you’ll fight dogs and turrets that spawn at regular intervals. The Bloody Cleaver will not leave the shield, and you can’t do damage to him when you’re in the shield. You could melee him, but he’d melee about 400x harder. Not a great situation for you, and an excellent situation for him.
The shield is powered by a generator at its center. It shares this space with The Cleaver, making its destruction a bit tricky. There are two methods I’ve discovered, one for solo players, and another if you’ve got a buddy.
If you’re solo, circle around the bubble and clear the turrets and dogs. When the yellow-bar dog spawns, use a shotgun to take it down. Periodically, enter the bubble and melee the generator as long as you can before The Cleaver aggros you. The second you sense him eyes on you, scram. It’s a Darkness Zone and if you die, the encounter resets. Kill a dog, punch the generator, jump out and kill another dog. Rinse and repeat until the ATF sends you a recruitment letter and the generator goes down.
If you've got a buddy, this can be made a bit easier. Position yourselves at opposite ends of the bubble and clear the dogs and turrets. When the coast is clear (outside the bubble at least), have one player get the Cleaver's aggro and attract him to the edge of the bubble. The second player will sneak into the bubble and melee the generator until the first player loses aggro, calls it out, and lets the second player know it's time to evacuate. This is far faster than having to dip in and out, and is far more reliable, since you don't need to worry about The Cleaver.
When the generator is down, unleash hell on The Bloody Cleaver. If you’ve got a super charged, a sniper and a good heavy weapon, you might be able to kill him then and there. If you can’t, the bubble will reappear, and you’ll start the process at the top. Do this until he’s dead.
Once he’s dead, you’ll receive a legendary item at the soft-cap and the bounty will be complete. Turn it in and you’ll get a piece of Powerful gear. With your power level higher and the solar system safer, you can rest easy. Unless you plan on raiding on Day 1, in which case this is just another bump in your grind.
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