What is the best Destiny 2 Hunter build? Season of the Wish, for Hunter mains at least, is going to go back to basics because they are now the stars of any DPS strategy thanks to some cracked artifact mods and a rework of one of the most treasured exotics in the game: the Celestial Nighthawk.
Destiny 2’s developer promised fans a revamp of Stasis for Season of the Wish, and to Bungie’s credit there are a couple artifact mods that will make icy Hunters happy. The real star of this season, though, is undoubtedly Solar with five must-have artifact mods that not only give incandescent to every Solar weapon and cause a lot of ignitions but also weaken champions and bosses and multiply super damage.
The best Destiny 2 Hunter mods in Season of the Wish
The first Artifact mod that you’ll have to get your hands on is Flint Striker which will make you Radiant just by getting a Solar weapon kill. The next one is Kindling Trigger, a mod that you’ll use to put even more scorch stacks on targets. Then, thanks to Rays of Precision, all of the final blows you’ll make with a Solar weapon will cause enemies to ignite.
What makes Season of the Wish the most Solar-focused the game has ever been is the fact that all the above explosions and damage don’t need a Solar subclass to happen, just Solar weapons. No matter your favorite loadout, if you’re not using Solar weapons you’re really missing out on a lot of damage.
In the Queensfoil Censer (this season’s artifact) there’s another mod that will heavily influence your loadout: Argent Ordinance. Willingly or unwillingly we all create some armor charge while playing Destiny 2, and this perk uses it to empower rocket launchers and speed up the reloading process. This is the reason why in all of our builds you’ll see at least one rocket launcher in the heavy slot. Also, thanks to our loadouts, you’ll find yourself swimming in armor charge to maximize this effect.
The best Destiny 2 Solar Hunter build
The best Destiny 2 Solar Hunter build is:
- Subclass: Golden Gun – Deadshot
- Primary stat: Intellect
- Secondary stat: Resilience
- Grenade: Tripmine Grenade
- Melee ability: Knife Trick
- Class ability: Acrobat’s Dodge
- Aspects: Knock ‘Em Down, On Your Mark
- Fragments: Ember of Ashes, Ember of Char, Ember of Eruption, Ember of Solace, Ember of Wonder
- Exotic armor: Celestial Nighthawk
- Weapons: Sunshot, Zaouli’s Bane, Vex Mythoclast, Catastrophe, Cartesian Coordinates, Merciless, Apex Predator, Gjallarhorn, Dragon’s Breath
- Artifact Mods: Flint Striker, Kindling Trigger, Heart of the Flame, Revitalizing Blast, Rays of Precision, Argent Ordinance
- Head Mods: Heavy and Special Ammo Finder
- Arms Mods: Firepower, Fastball, Impact Induction
- Chest Mods: Charged Up, Solar Reserves
- Legs Mods: Kinetic Weapon Surge x2
- Class Item Mods: Reaper, Time Dilation
Hunters are the rulers of DPS in Season of the Wish, using their supers to massive effect.
Armor and weapons
The star of this build is the Celestial Nighthawk, the Exotic helmet that turns the Golden Gun super into a boss-deleting monster. There are already packs of Hunters deleting raid bosses in an instance with six Golden Guns and here is how they do it. The main ingredient for all this damage is the new artifact mod Heart of the Flame which, after activating your super, empowers the ones of your teammates. Just by casting their Golden Gun one after the other, Hunter-only fireteams are able to instantly delete enemies.
For weapons, a Solar rocket launcher is mandatory in the heavy slot to get the most out of Argent Ordinance and the Solar weapons-related artifact mods. The Zaouli’s Bane Hand Cannon with Incandescent will make for a perfect primary weapon which will behave almost like a legendary Sunshot. A Stasis special weapon like the Riptide or the new Stasis trace rifle Appetence will give you some crowd control for champions and minibosses.
Aspects, Fragments, and mods
The Celestial Nighthawk doesn’t care about which Golden Gun you choose so both are good since they have the same cooldown. The Aspects we selected are Knock ‘Em Down and On Your Mark to empower our solar abilities and reload speed while the Fragments are more neutral-game oriented to support the scorching and the igniting of enemies thanks to the artifact mods.
The best ones to use for a Solar Hunter are: Ember of Ashes to apply more scorch, Ember of Char to spread even more scorch through ignitions, Ember of Eruption to get bigger ignitions, Ember of Solace to have a longer Radiant effect (which is the key for the ignitions), and Ember of Wonder to generate Orbs of Power for our armor charge.
In the mods department one key aspect of this build is the double kinetic weapons surge. As the Golden Gun is read by the game as a kinetic weapon, it is possible to enhance its damage even more with the Kinetic Surges to delete bosses even faster. The rest of the mods are simple survivability tools and ways to get back our super faster and remove even more threats from the battlefield.
If you are feeling like hot swapping, you can integrate this build with the recently reworked Ophidian Spathe. This Exotic will give you a second Knife Trick and a stackable damage bonus that maxes out when dodging. For all the encounters leading up to the damage phase this Exotic is guaranteed fun.
The best Destiny 2 Void Hunter build
The best Destiny 2 Void Hunter build is:
- Subclass: Shadowshot Deadfall
- Primary stat: Resilience
- Secondary stat: Mobility
- Grenade: Suppressor Grenade
- Melee ability: Snare Bomb
- Class ability: Marksman’s Dodge
- Aspects: Vanishing Step, Stylish Executioner
- Fragments: Echo of Domineering,Echo of Persistence, Echo of Cessation, Echo of Obscurity
- Exotic armor: Gyrfalcon’s Hauberk
- Weapons: Wavesplitter, Rufu’s Fury, Hazen Vengence, Cartesian Coordinates, Gjallarhorn, Code Duello, Commemoration, Retraced Path
- Artifact Mods: Flint Striker, Kindling Trigger, Heart of the Flame, Revitalizing Blast, Rays of Precision, Argent Ordinance
- Head Mods: Heavy and Special Ammo Finder
- Arms Mods: Bolstering Detonation, Grenade Kickstart, Fastball
- Chest Mods: Emergency Reinforcement, Charged Up
- Leg Mods: Better Already, Recuperation, Solar Surge
- Class Item Mods: Utility kickstart, Time Dilation
The Void is a Hunter’s best friend and even in non-meta situations there’s always a lot of value and fun to be found while wearing purple.
Armor and weapons
Our Void Hunter Build is the only one that is allowed a non-Solar energy weapon thanks to the beautiful synergies that can come out of the Wavesplitter and Gyrfalcon’s Hauberk combo. This trace rifle is a Void damage monster thanks to its three power levels and the intrinsic ability to suppress targets.
The Gyrfalcon’s free volatile rounds help pump even more damage into the enemies. A good primary like Rufus’s Fury and a Solar rocket launcher like Hezen Vengeance will close up this build nicely.
Aspects, Fragments, and mods
Since all the Gyrfalcon’s benefits activate when coming out of invisibility, all the aspects and fragments we chose are aimed at having multiple chances of becoming invisible and at getting our class ability back as fast as possible. This is the exact purpose of Vanishing Step, Stylish Executioner, our aspects, and the fragments Echo of Persistance (to stay invisible longer) and Echo of Obscurity.
To inflict a little more damage and stay alive we chose Echo of Cessation and Domineering. Utility Kickstart is where most of our armor charge will be used along with Emergency Reinforcement to stay alive and inevitably go and rescue your W-pressing Titan friend.
The best Destiny 2 Arc Hunter build
The best Destiny 2 Arc Hunter build is:
- Subclass: Gathering Storm
- Primary stat: Resilience
- Secondary stat: Strength
- Grenade: Pulse Grenade
- Melee ability: Combination Blow
- Class ability: Gambler’s Dodge
- Aspects: Flow State, Lethal Current
- Fragments: Spark of Feedback, Spark of Resistance, Spark of Ions, Spark of Shock
- Exotic armor: Liar’s Handshake
- Weapons: Riptide, Zaouli’s Bane, Dragon’s Breath, Certhesian Coordinates, Witherhoard, Legend of Acreus
- Artifact Mods: Flint Striker, Kindling Trigger, Heart of the Flame, Revitalizing Blast, Rays of Precision, Argent Ordinance
- Head Mods: Arc Siphon, Hands On
- Arms Mods: Heavy Handed, Impact Induction,
- Chest Mods: Rainbow Resist
- Leg Mods: Innervation, Recuperation, Solar Surge
- Class Item Mods: Bomber, Powerful Attraction x2
While it may not be the meta right now, slapping your foes with lightning and watching it chain across the battlefield to clear your path is a lot of fun.
Armor and weapons
Arc Hunters are having a tough time at the moment in Destiny 2: they don’t have huge damage output, and they have little survivability options so it’s not feasible to use them in Grandmaster content.
What they lack in efficiency, they make up for in raw fun thanks to our Liar’s Handshake build. This piece of Exotic armor will make Hunters suddenly rely a lot on their fists to make damage and heal themselves. Using Combination Blow again and again will power it up a lot making it able to deal with minibosses in seasonal content and heroic Nightfalls. For guns, as there aren’t a lot of synergies, we recommend Solar weapons all around to get the most out of the Solar artifact mods.
Aspects, Fragments, and mods
To make the most out of our punches we’re equipping the Aspects Flow State to get amplified and Lethal Current to have more lunge range for our melee and jolt targets while simultaneously blinding them.
Our Fragments of choice are the Spark of Feedback to increase our melee damage, Spark of Resistance to absorb more hits while surrounded, Spark of Ions to make Ionic Traces and recharge our melee ability and Spark of Shock to jolt even more people with grenades.
As we’re going to need some Orbs of Power to make everything smoother, we recommend a couple of Powerful Attractions on your Class Item to collect as many as possible.
The best Destiny 2 PvP Hunter build
The best Destiny 2 PvP Hunter build is:
- Subclass: Nightstalker – Shadowshot Deadfall
- Primary stat: Mobility
- Secondary stat: Strength
- Grenade: Suppressor grenade
- Melee ability: Snare Bomb
- Class ability: Marksman’s Dodge
- Aspects: Vanishing Step, Trapper’s Ambush
- Fragments: Echo of Domineering, Echo of Persistence, Echo of Dilation, Echo of leeching
- Exotic armor: Gyrfalcon’s Hauberk
- Weapons: Le Monarque, Imperial Decree
- Head Mods: Targeting x2
- Arms Mods: Dexterity x2
- Chest Mods: Unflinching x2
- Leg Mods: Element surge x2
- Class Item Mods: Time Dilation, Reaper
Le Monarque continues to be an excellent PvP choice for Hunters and with this build the infamous poisonous bow will become even more deadly.
Armor and weapons
For our PvP Hunter build we’re using the same synergy between Gyrfalcon’s Hauberk and a Void weapon we used in the Solar build, only this time the target is other guardians.
Activate invisibility, explore, individuate your target, emerge from invisibility and enjoy a powered up Le Monarque shot to wreak havoc at medium and long distances. For when enemies get too close just take out your well-crafted Imperial Decree and all will be fine.
Aspects, Fragments, and mods
For aspects, along with Vanishing Step to trigger Gyrfalcon’s Exotic perk, we’re using Trapper’s Ambush for the added mobility and the invisibility. Our fragments are Echo of Domineering, Echo of Persistence, Echo of Dilation (mainly for the stats bonuses) and Echo of Leeching.
Don’t forget to put on double targeting, Dexterity (to quick swap to the shotgun), Unflinching and Surge and to also activate Reaper.
The best Destiny 2 Stasis Hunter build
The best Destiny 2 Stasis Hunter build is:
- Subclass: Silence and Squall
- Primary stat: Discipline
- Secondary stat: Resilience
- Grenade: Duskfield Grenade
- Melee ability: Withering Blade
- Class ability: Marksman’s Dodge
- Aspects: Grim Harvest, Touch of Winter
- Fragments: Whisper of Chains, Whisper of Conduction, Whisper of Shards, Whisper of Durance, Whisper of Rime
- Exotic armor: Renewal Grasps
- Weapons: Wicked Implement, Aeger’s Scepter, Appetence, Cartesian Coordinate, Gjallarhorn, Code Duello, Hezen Vengeance, Apex Predator, Explosive Personality
- Artifact Mods: Pillar of Ice, Hail The Storm, Flint Striker, Kindling Trigger, Heart of the Flame, Argent Ordinance
- Head Mods: Heavy and Special Ammo Finder
- Arms Mods: Impact Induction, Grenade Kickstart, Fastball
- Chest Mods: Rainbow resist
- Leg Mods: Innervation, Recuperation, Solar Surge
- Class Item Mods: Reaper, Time Dilation
Stasis Hunters are having a rough time right now, mainly because Warlocks have access to a lot more crowd control resources than them, but these frosty Revenants have an ace up their sleeve.
Armor and weapons
The Renewal Grasps completely broke PvP when they came out, but since then they have received a substantial nerf to the damage resistance capabilities of the Duskfield Grenade. These Exotic gauntlets, however, are still a viable option in PvE where they generate a large freezing area or a large protective field for you and your allies. Pairing these gloves with the Wicked Implement will make you a freezing and shattering machine that, thanks in part to the new artifact mod Hail The Storm, will dispatch a lot of enemies with a single grenade and a few scout rifle rounds.
Aspects, Fragments and mods
The best Aspects for this build are Touch of Winter to have an even larger Duskfield Grenade and Grim Harvest to make a lot of Stasis Shards to have more freezing melees.
The Fragments we chose are Whisper of Chains to get even more damage resistance inside our Duskfield, Whisper of Conduction for the stats bonuses, Whisper of Shards to increase the damage of the shatter effect, Whisper of Durance to have a longer-lasting slow effect, and Whisper of Rime for some always useful overshield.
Since grenades are the main focus of this build most of our resources are invested there but you can also spec your Revenant Hunter to make the most out of Withering Blade and freeze a lot of enemies that way.
The best Destiny 2 Strand Hunter build
The best Destiny 2 Strand Hunter build is:
- Subclass: Silkstrike
- Primary stat: Mobility
- Secondary stat: Resilience
- Grenade: Shackle Grenade
- Melee ability: Threaded Spike
- Class ability: Marksman Dodge
- Aspects: Ensnaring Slam, Whirling Maelstrom
- Fragments: Thread of Ascent, Thread of Fury, Thread of Thread of Transmutation, Thread of Warding
- Exotic armor: The Sixth Coyote
- Weapons: Quicksilver Storm, Rufus’s Fury, Explosive Personality, Cartesian Coordinates, Gjallarhorn, Code Duello, Hezen Vengeance, Apex Predator
- Artifact Mods: Unravelling Orbs, Horde Shuttle, Flint Striker, Kindling Trigger, Heart of the Flame, Argent Ordinance
- Head Mods: Heavy and Special Ammo Finder
- Arms Mods: Impact Induction, Grenade Kickstart, Fastball
- Chest Mods: Rainbow Resist
- Leg Mods: Innervation, Recuperation, Solar Surge
- Class Item Mods: Utility Kickstart, Time Dilation
The Strand Hunter remains a menace in PvE thanks to a lot of suspend capabilities and the relatively new Whirling Maelstrom aspect to power up Tangles.
Armor and weapons
Along the aforementioned Sixth Coyote, this build synergizes with a Strand primary to ensure Tangle generation. We highly recommend the Quicksilver Storm but if you want to use a solar exotic, the Rufus’s Fury auto rifle will do just fine. For the rest of the kit simply add in a Solar special and a heavy to wreak havoc amidst your suspended enemies. In the mods department, every single Armor Charge will be spent into Utility Kickstart to get our dodge back so everything else is up to your playstyle.
Aspects, Fragments, and mods
One of the strongest aspects in the Strand Hunter kit is the Ensnaring Slam, a special activation that consumes the class ability energy to create a suspending blast. Thanks to the Sixth Coyote, you’ll have double the suspending power. While you’re suspending, use your Strand primary to make some Tangles and turn them into a Whirling Maelstrom that unravels the enemies that it defeats. These two aspects pair nicely with this season’s Strand-focused Artifact mods, especially with Horde Shuttle which will add Threadlings to your arsenal.
There you have it – the best Destiny 2 Hunter builds for any scenario you’ll face in Bungie’s epic. If the Hunter isn’t your class this season, you’ll want to check out our guides on the best Titan build and the best Warlock build – each has six options to dominate throughout.