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You can intentionally run with a man down for the full duration of the Calus "skull" phase to maximize the damage multiplier - just pick them up after you drop Calus's shield.

Huh?

The rate at which the damage multiplier increases as you shoot skulls increases as the ratio of shooters to folks in the throne room increases - so if you were set up with 3/3, killing someone in the throne room just before the skull shooting phase starts increases the rate at which that damage multiplier grows.

You can intentionally run with a man down for the full duration of the Calus "skull" phase to maximize the damage multiplier - just pick them up after you drop Calus's shield.

Huh?

Long story short is that the spawn rate of the skulls in the shadow realm can be manipulated. It's based on how many are in the shadow realm vs. how total living fireteam size. So you can run four people in shadow realm and only two in throne room to get more skulls to spawn, so you can get a larger multiplier.

However, for many players, it's easy to get overwhelming in the throne room with only two people. So you can use the typical 3 and 3 method to keep things manageable. When you get to where skulls are going to spawn, one person in the throne room can commit suicide, which will increase the skull spawn rate, even though there are still only three in the shadow realm. Previously, the 30 second timer could potentially make this a tricky operation. The death had to be timed well to really get a good benefit. Now, with a much longer revive timer, it will be much easier.

You can intentionally run with a man down for the full duration of the Calus "skull" phase to maximize the damage multiplier - just pick them up after you drop Calus's shield.

Huh?

This is (was?) a lesser known strategy to make sure that you get 90 to 100+ skulls for the damage phase to maximize your damage multiplier. The number of skulls that appear is tied to the ratio of players in shadow realm versus players in the throne room. Presumably Bungie built the encounter that way to allow 4 people in Shadow and two in Throne (hence 4 teleport orbs at the end). If the ratio favors shadow team (even if it's just 3 guys alive in shadow and 2 alive in throne), they get more skulls to shoot.

So the strategy calls for the shadow team to call out when the skulls start to appear. One person in the Throne room (not the warlock with healing rift, and ideally not someone with a res token) kills themselves - jumping into a brazier works. For the next ~20 seconds, more skulls appear in shadow. The trick was that the revive had to be picked up within 30 seconds, while the other two folks in throne may be focused on dropping Calus's shield and/or ad control. If you do it right, you end up with max multiplier and an easier single-phase clear.

This new mechanic takes the pressure off the two guys in the throne room - they can leave their dead partner alone and just worry about the shield and ad cleanup. They can get the res (or someone returning from shadow can get the res) before hopping on the plates for DPS.