A Beyond Light strike on the ice of Europa, re-taught in modern Grandmaster Vanguard Alert language. Descend through the Rathmore Chaos into the Vex Nexus — fighting House Salvation Fallen, then Vex, to the Glasshouse — manage champion frame coverage instead of old Artifact mods, and finish Belmon, Transcendent Mind and its sister Transcendent Hydra in an open-arena DPS race. Survive the add waves, kill both bosses, complete the strike.
Faction
VexPlus Fallen / House Salvation early
Combat range
MidCanyon descent, then open arenas
Champions
Weekly setTypes follow the weekly modifier set
Boss
Belmon+ Transcendent Hydra · kill both
Wipe risk
Add wavesNot the boss — the Wyverns
00 · Read This First
What this run really is
The Glassway is a linear Europa strike that starts as a Fallen fight and ends as a Vex one — in a Grandmaster Alert its danger isn't the layout, it's the escalating add waves in the final arena and the Wyverns that close on you in the open. Treat the descent as a series of cover-to-cover pushes and the boss room as a survival-and-burst loop, not a tank-and-spank.
The one-sentence identity
Descend the Rathmore Chaos into the Vex Nexus, break two Fallen barrier gates and drain the Glasshouse Radiolaria pool, then finish Belmon, Transcendent Mind and its Transcendent Hydra in an open arena while surviving wave after wave of Vex reinforcements.
Everything you bring serves three jobs: survive the descent, cover the champion types present, and burst the bosses down between add waves. Build for those, not for the trash.
What old guides get wrong
They tell you to slot a seasonal anti-Champion Artifact mod. Stun is frame-intrinsic now — bring the right archetypes (weapon guide).
They quote a fixed champion list. GM champion types and counts follow the weekly modifier set.
They name a specific Adept reward. The chase is the weekly Tier 5 weapon, and it changes every reset.
They call Belmon a defend-the-point fight. There's no conflux to hold — it's an open-arena, multi-phase DPS race where the add waves (ending in Wyverns) end far more runs than either boss's health bar.
01 · Champion Coverage
Cover the frames, not the mods
Anti-Champion is built into weapon frames now — there's no Artifact mod to forget. Bring archetypes that cover the types the week assigns. Champion types follow the weekly modifier set.
Most common here
Barrier
› Pierce / break the shield
Vex Hobgoblins (and Fallen Servitors on some rotations) wear the Barrier tag. Bring a Barrier-intrinsic frame to strip the shield, then finish. Don't waste a Super into an unbroken shield.
Per weekly modifier set
Overload
› Disrupt to stop the heal
Overload Minotaurs (and Fallen Captains some weeks) regenerate and teleport. An Overload frame interrupts them so they stop healing — focus them first or they reset the room.
Per weekly modifier set
Unstoppable
› Stagger before it closes
Unstoppable isn't a fixed feature of this strike, but GM rotations swap types freely. If the week tags Unstoppable, an Unstoppable frame staggers the carrier at range — stun, then delete before it reaches you.
The modifier readout, every time: (1) enemy pressure — which champions, shields, and faction units; (2) weekly modifiers — surge, threat, banes, player stakes; (3) the single modifier most likely to wipe a casual team; (4) one build swap that answers it. Run that readout on the launch screen before every GM Alert. Champion types follow the weekly modifier set. The hub's modifier glossary explains Medusa, Focused Fire, and the rest.
02 · The Route
Europa, surface to Nexus
Five beats: the icy descent into the Nexus, two sub-boss barrier gates, the Radiolaria pool in the Glasshouse, the pit crossing to the gateway, and Belmon's open arena. The strike is a straight line down — the skill is when to push and when to hold cover. Here's the route at a glance; each beat below carries its own notes.
"Get down the canyon without spending your tokens."
The loop
Drop into the Rathmore Chaos and traverse the icy Europan canyon down toward the Vex Nexus, clearing House Salvation Fallen on the way.
Hold the first piece of hard cover and let the team stack before crossing the open snow — sparrow ahead and you'll wake the whole canyon alone.
Thin Dregs and Shanks early — they're the cheap kills that snowball into chip damage if ignored.
PaceThis beat is forgiving on Normal and lethal on GM only if you sprint blind. Move as a group, cover-to-cover; a hero rush here burns a revive token you'll want at Belmon.
ThreatMatch the weekly threat element with a resist mod before the first real fight — GM chip damage adds up fastest in the open canyon.
2
Beat · Two Barrier Gates
The Sub-boss Gates
"Two locked rooms, two Fallen leaders, no radar to save you."
The loop
Reach the first arena room. It's gated by a Fallen barrier — kill the Warrior's Enforcer sub-boss and its Servitor to bring it down, clearing frame-covered enemies as you go.
Push to the second room and repeat against the Technocrat's Assistant — this Servitor casts Stasis freeze, so don't bunch up where it can lock the whole team.
Use the room geometry as cover. Peek one angle at a time; clear the sub-boss before chasing trash, then advance through the dropped barrier.
ChampionThese gate rooms are a likely Barrier / Overload spawn zone (Servitors and Captains). Call the type out, strip or interrupt with the right frame, then collapse on it together.
StasisThe second Servitor's freeze is a death sentence in GM. Spread out, shatter teammates fast, and never stand still in its line while a barrier is still up.
ScoreIf a scoring modifier is up, these rooms bank easy points safely — but a wipe costs more than a fast clear. Clean beats quick.
3
Beat · The Glasshouse
The Radiolaria Pool
"Drain the milk while the Fallen keep coming."
The loop
Cross the Vex-milk waterfall area into the Glasshouse, then start the drain the Radiolaria pool objective to open the path forward.
Defend the room while it drains — Fallen Shanks and Vandals spawn in waves. Funnel them into a kill lane rather than chasing.
Hold the drain together; don't let a flanking Vandal pick off a stray player while everyone watches the pool.
RadiolariaThe glowing Vex fluid is set dressing here, not a damage floor — the threat is the add pressure during the drain. Keep moving and don't tunnel on the objective.
AmmoThis is a calmer stretch before the gateway. Top up Special and Heavy, agree who grabs bricks, and don't dump Heavy on Shanks here.
4
Beat · Pit Crossing
The Pit to the Gateway
"Clear it all or the barrier stays up."
The loop
Push across the lower pit / bridge under fire toward the Vex gateway arena. Use the broken geometry for cover as you advance.
Clear every enemy in the area — the final barrier only drops when the room is empty, so a single straggler stalls the whole team.
Stage at the lip of the gateway and reset cooldowns and ammo before stepping in. The boss fight starts the moment you cross.
ExposureThe pit is open ground with fire from above. Peek and reposition; don't park in the bowl where multiple angles can hit you at once.
StageThis is your last quiet moment. Heavy up, Supers charged, tokens counted — once you enter the gateway both bosses and the first wave drop together.
5
Boss · The Vex Gateway Arena
Belmon & the Hydra, in the open
"Two bosses, a wave clock, and Beyond Light's standout Wyverns."
The loop
The fight opens with both bosses at once — Belmon, Transcendent Mind and the smaller Transcendent Hydra — dropping in with a wave of Vex reinforcements. Find cover and a clear angle before committing.
Damage a boss to roughly one-third and it phases out / retreats(it leaves; you can't finish it yet). Hydras periodically raise their rotating shields — reposition to find an open damage angle, don't dump into the shield.
Once the bosses are gone, clear the spawned adds. The next phase only begins after the room is clean — early waves are Goblins and Minotaurs, later waves bring Harpies, Hobgoblins, and Wyverns.
The middle is asymmetric: the Transcendent Hydra returns alone with a wave, then Belmon returns separately with another. Treat the Wyverns as the real threat — their charge and swoop can delete you in the open.
In the final phase both bosses reappear together and can be killed. Both must die to complete the strike — coordinate burst so neither phases out again before it dies.
WyvernsWyverns are a Beyond Light-era Vex unit, and this strike makes them one of the standout threats. Their charge and AoE swoop are the #1 cause of death here — bait the lunge, dodge or counter it, and never let one corner you in a side room.
BurstEach boss only takes ~one-third before phasing, so burst windows beat sustained DPS. Stack debuffs and a heavy-hitting Super to shove a boss past its threshold fast, then pivot to adds.
ShieldsWhen a Hydra raises its rotating shield, your damage stops landing. Reposition for a clear arc instead of forcing it — and don't waste a Super while the shield is up.
A GM team is happiest when each player owns a job. Full build cards live in the classguides and the Prismatic deep dive — these are the jobs to fill and the archetypes that fill them. Names rotate with the meta; the jobs don't.
Anchor / Control
Room control + self-sustain
Hold space and keep the team topped through the escalating add waves.
Warlock — Void Devour or the Prismatic Getaway loop.
Titan — Strand Banner of War for team woven mail.
A reliable add-clear Primary that respects the surge.
Champion Lock
Frame coverage
Carry the intrinsic stuns the week assigns.
Barrier + Overload frames as the baseline here.
Add an Unstoppable frame on weeks it appears.
See the weapon guide for which archetypes carry each stun.
Boss Burst
Damage between phases
Burst windows beat sustained DPS — each boss phases at ~⅓.
Hunter — Nighthawk Golden Gun for a clean single-shot nuke.
Titan — Thundercrash as a burst swap.
A heavy you can fire-and-reposition (rocket / LFR).
Emergency Support
Safe revive / reset
The insurance that saves a token.
Hunter — Void invis (Gyrfalcon / Omnioculus) for safe rezzes.
A healing or overshield tool for the boss room.
A debuff (Tractor / Div) to speed the boss phases.
Loadout note: these are the mid-2026 (Monument-era) jobs and archetypes — match the weekly surge when you pick your elements. For full, current builds, the class pages go deeper than any single route guide.
04 · Modifier Adjustment
What changes when the modifiers do
The route is evergreen, but the week's modifiers decide how you play it. The most common GM swings and the one adjustment each one asks for:
Medusa
Looking at affected enemies stacks Stasis slow toward a freeze. Shorten your sightlines in the Nexus gate rooms, peek-and-cover, and never hard-scope a lane you can't disengage from — especially with the Hydras' long arena angles.
No Radar / Blackout
You lose your spawn warnings and melees hit harder. Clear corners before committing, hold the gateway side rooms carefully, and call Wyvern and Minotaur positions by voice.
Focused Fire
Heightened incoming damage. Tighten cover discipline everywhere and shorten your exposure windows — peek, fire, drop back. Wyvern swoops and boss fire are twice as punishing under it.
Harsh threat / surge
Slot the matching resist mod for the threat element and match your DPS element to the surge on the bosses. A mismatched surge can add an extra phase to each boss.
Champion types follow the weekly modifier set: the exact champions, banes, surge, threat, and player stakes come from the week's GM Alert modifier list, shown on the launch screen.
05 · Common Wipes
Why teams actually lose this
Almost none of it is the bosses' health bars. The Glassway wipes groups in four predictable ways — kill these habits and the run is yours.
1
Getting overwhelmed in the open arena
When multiple Overload Minotaurs and Wyverns rush at once, the open gateway gets lethal fast — especially in the cramped left/right backrooms players use as escape routes. Don't let a side room become a trap; keep an exit and stay mobile.
2
Eating a Wyvern charge
Wyvern charge and swoop attacks (and their AoE) deal lethal damage if you don't counter or dodge them. Watch for the lunge, bait it, and dodge or stun — never tank one in the open.
3
Standing still
Failing to keep moving between the side rooms lets adds and boss fire pile up on a static fireteam. Rotate: shoot, reposition, shoot. A planted team is a dead team in this arena.
4
Champion mismanagement
No anti-Barrier or anti-Overload ready when those enemies spawn — combined with GM surges and Match Game — snowballs a clean run into a wipe. Champion types follow the weekly modifier set; bring matching frames.
Weekly reward: when the Glassway is the active Grandmaster Alert, a Grade B or better clear awards the week's featured weapon at Tier 5 (first clear pre-masterworked with its origin trait). The specific weapon changes weekly — this route is evergreen, the reward is not. See the hub reward ladder.
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