Destiny 2: The Final Shape's raid race is finally over after 19 hours, making it the MMO's longest first clear ever and finally breaking a record held for 6 years

Key art for Destiny 2: The Final Shape's Salvation's Edge raid.
(Image credit: Bungie)

It finally happened. After 19 long, grueling hours, a team has become the first to complete Destiny 2: The Final Shape's big Salvation's Edge raid, in what became the longest raid race in the MMO's almost seven-year history. 

Destiny 2's latest expansion, The Final Shape, released earlier this week on June 4, a few days after it briefly became playable early, causing leaks to flood the internet. Anyway, its long-awaited raid, titled Salvation's Edge, finally went live yesterday at 10am PT / 1pm ET / 6pm BST, officially kicking off a tradition for the fanbase – a race to see which team is able to clear it first. However, as the hours passed, it became clear that this was less of a regular race and more of a marathon. 

As the race passed the 12-hour mark, Catarina Macedo, the project lead for Destiny 2's expansions, weighed in on the matter: "The Witness is the biggest threat the universe has ever seen. We warned you."

We may have been warned, but none of the determined teams were willing to give up, and in the end, it took a whopping 19 hours for the winning team, Parabellum, to get the first clear. The win was verified by Destiny developer Bungie on Twitter at 5:25am PT / 8:25am ET / 1:25pm BST today, 15 minutes after the studio acknowledged that someone had apparently done it.

While many had been streaming their efforts, the noble team of six – Astro, Bravo, DrakathShadow, Ham, Jake, and Tyraxe – seemingly hadn't been, but as you'd expect, they're very excited about their victory. "I'M THE FUCKING BEST I PLAYED SO GOOD," Tyraxe writes in a victory post on Twitter. 

Previously, the longest raid race was in September 2018 for the Last Wish, which took 18 hours and 49 minutes for the first team to clear. So, this latest effort wasn't massively slower, but the fact that it's taken almost six years to beat the old record goes to show how rare it is for the races to go on as long as this. Chances are, though, this has just made Team Parabellum's victory all the more sweet.

For more games like Destiny 2, be sure to check out our roundup of the 25 best FPS games.

Catherine Lewis
News Writer

I'm one of GamesRadar+'s news writers, who works alongside the rest of the news team to deliver cool gaming stories that we love. After spending more hours than I can count filling The University of Sheffield's student newspaper with Pokemon and indie game content, and picking up a degree in Journalism Studies, I started my career at GAMINGbible where I worked as a journalist for over a year and a half. I then became TechRadar Gaming's news writer, where I sourced stories and wrote about all sorts of intriguing topics. In my spare time, you're sure to find me on my Nintendo Switch or PS5 playing through story-driven RPGs like Xenoblade Chronicles and Persona 5 Royal, nuzlocking old Pokemon games, or going for a Victory Royale in Fortnite.

Read more
Team Liquid clears Chrome King Gallywix
World of Warcraft's latest raid race ends in disappointment after 12 days with a final boss so lackluster the team who won was visibly confused to have beaten it
Final Fantasy 14: Dawntrail cinematic screenshot showing Alphinaud Leveilleur, an Elezen boy with short white hair
Final Fantasy 14's funniest speedrunning beef continues as runner who lost a world record to its original champ in just 1 day returns, beats record, is promptly dethroned again
Final Fantasy 14 Dawntrail Futures Unwritten Ultimate raid
As Final Fantasy 14 raiders tear through the MMO's hardest duty with no healers and then no tanks, the community can only see this going one way: "Now it's time to clear without DPS"
Destiny 2 Kell's Fall art
"If your cake is trash, nobody wants to eat it": At a tough time for Destiny 2, Bungie drops an Exotic mission promising vampire vibes, a cool shotgun, and a finale with bite
Halo 3
Halo 3 streamers claim a world record by beating the game's near-impossible LASO challenge in only 4 hours without dying once
Destiny 2 Episode 3 Heresy screenshot of Eris Morn
Destiny 2's new Episode suggested the upcoming Apollo expansion will launch on July 15, but that date has mysteriously been scrubbed from the game
Latest in Destiny
Destiny 2 Lightfall
When Destiny 2 "weekly active users dropped lower and faster than we'd seen since 2018," Bungie assembled an A-Team to put out some fires: "We needed to do something"
Key art for Destiny 2's Heresy Episode.
"A fun example of a bug becoming a feature": Destiny 2 accidentally made Exotic Glaives free to all classes, and Bungie says "we're going to let this ride"
Destiny 2 Episode 3 Heresy screenshot of Eris Morn
Destiny 2's new Episode suggested the upcoming Apollo expansion will launch on July 15, but that date has mysteriously been scrubbed from the game
Destiny 2 Guardian in Taken energy
Bungie yanked Destiny 2 servers offline for emergency maintenance as Episode 3: Heresy got off to a rocky start, but it looks like we're back in business
Destiny 2 Star Wars armor sets
"Oryx is back": Destiny 2's final Episode takes the MMO to the site of the iconic Taken King expansion for a Coil-inspired roguelite mode, and also Star Wars armor
Destiny 2 guardian in scorn armor
How to get Destiny 2 Twitch Drops and link your accounts
Latest in News
Hogwarts Legacy how many spells
Unannounced Hogwarts Legacy DLC reportedly canceled, partly because the studio wasn't sure it'd be worth players' money
Ultimate X-Men #14
Ultimate X-Men #14 pays homage to a classic Wolverine moment as the Shadow King returns
Assassin's Creed Shadows screenshot showing Yasuke kneeling and praying while wearing a traditional purple robe
Ubisoft reaches deal with Tencent to create $4.3 billion mini-Ubisoft subsidiary to "spearhead development" on new Assassin's Creed, Far Cry, and Rainbow Six games
Kaitlyn Dever as Abby in The Last Of Us season 2
The Last of Us showrunner says he isn't worried about fan reaction to season 2: "The best way we could respect our fans and honor them is to not worry about them"
Black Myth: Wukong
English is no longer the biggest language on Steam as Chinese gamers embrace PC gaming even harder after Black Myth: Wukong
Skyrim
Ex-Bethesda dev says his new studio isn't making a "little Skyrim," but does channel a key part of the iconic RPG: "Stuff got built because somebody cared about building it"