History of Altars of Sorrow: Waves upon Waves

Triumph: "Complete waves of Altars of Sorrow." Each tier or wave you finish in Altars of Sorrow should count.

How to complete

• Start or join events in Sorrow's Harbor on the Moon and clear tiers; chaining events is the quickest route.
• Keep the Nightmares from sacrificing so the timer lasts through the tiers.

Altars of Sorrow is a player-started horde-style public event in Sorrow's Harbor, introduced with Shadowkeep. Teams defend altars against waves of Hive and Nightmare enemies (tiers I-V) before a boss tier. The event described here is the Shadowkeep-era version.

The event in brief

• Tiers I-II: 4-5 Nightmares. Tier III adds shielded Wizards that need cleaver drops from Accursed Swordbearer Knights. Tiers IV-V have 7-8 Nightmares and more Wizards.
• The timer starts at 60 seconds. Killing regular Hive adds 1 second, and a Nightmare that reaches an altar and sacrifices itself costs 10 seconds. Sources disagree on whether killing a Nightmare also adds time (one says 10 seconds).
• The final tier is a boss rotating daily: Nightmare of Phogoth (drops Blasphemer), Nightmare of Taniks (drops Apostate) or Nightmare of Zydron (drops Heretic). The boss becomes immune periodically and spawns Nightmares that must be cleared or they sacrifice at the altar.