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

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.

Guardians make their own fate.Congratulations to team Parabellum on the world's first clear of Salvation's Edge!💠 Astro💠 bravo💠 DrakathShadow💠 Ham💠 Jake💠 Tyraxe pic.twitter.com/hl5N6fVqJxJune 8, 2024

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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.

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