Best Destiny 2 Builds Today (Episode 1 Meta)

Do you want to take your game to the next level? Destiny 2 is not only about having a good aim or even good positioning. If you want to succeed in PvE, you also have to have the right gear. The right Exotics, weapons, mods, and, more importantly, the right build.

Top Builds per Class

If you’re looking for a much more specific build to match your preferred Subclass (or the weekly Surges), you can find below all of our builds organized by subclass.

Destiny 2 Builds per Subclass

Hunter Strand Builds	Warlock Strand Builds	Titan Strand Builds
Stasis Hunter Builds	Stasis Warlock Builds	Stasis Titan Builds
Hunter Arc Builds	Warlock Arc Builds	Titan Arc Builds
Hunter Solar Builds	Warlock Solar Builds	Titan Solar Builds
Hunter Void Builds	Warlock Void Builds	Titan Void Builds

Updated as of Episode 1: Echoes. See Updates.

Destiny 2 Best Builds per Class

If you’re in a rush and just want the absolute best builds per class right now, below we cover our favorites (and most lethal) builds right now:

Top Hunter PvE Builds

--	Name	Subclass	Rank	Excels in	Gear	Area	Class	Status
	Shrouded Liar	Prismatic	1 🥇	Endgame		PvE	Hunter	Top 3
	Combination Gambler	Arc	2 🥈	Endgame		PvE	Hunter	Top 3
	Radiant Assassin	Solar	3 🥉	Solo Content		PvE	Hunter	Top 3

Top Titan PvE Builds

--	Name	Subclass	Rank	Excels in	Gear	Area	Class	Status
	Berserker of War	Strand	1 🥇	Endgame		PvE	Titan	Top 3
	Undying Flame	Solar	2 🥈	Grandmasters		PvE	Titan	Top 3
	Point-Contact Assassin	Prismatic	3 🥉	Endgame		PvE	Titan	Top 3

Top Warlock PvE Builds

--	Name	Subclass	Rank	Excels in	Gear	Area	Class	Status
	Prismatic Blizzard	Prismatic	1 🥇	Endgame		PvE	Warlock	Top 3
	Radiant Sunbracer	Solar	2 🥈	Endgame		PvE	Warlock	Top 3
	Prismatic Flame	Prismatic	3 🥉	Endgame		PvE	Warlock	Top 3

💠 PS: You can find the top Prismatic Hunter Builds, Prismatic Warlock Builds, and Prismatic Titan Builds here.

Top 3 Destiny 2 Meta Builds: Hunter

Shrouded Liar

Excels In: Endgame (Dungeons, Raids, Legend content)

Goal of the build: Use Combination Blow combined with Gambler’s Dodge, Winter’s Shroud, and Stylish Executioner to delve in and out of Invisibility while dealing high damage.

Mandatory Gear: Liar’s Handshake or Relativism with Spirit of the Liar. The Still Hunt Exotic Sniper is recommended.

Name: Liar's Handshake	Class: Hunter Slot: Arms	Source: Exotic Engrams Requires: Forsaken Pack	Exotic Perk: Using your Arc melee ability or being hit by a melee attack will allow you to follow up with an extremely powerful melee counterpunch that will heal you.
Name: Relativism	Class: Hunter Slot: Class Item	Source: Master Rahool Requires: The Final Shape	Exotic Perk: Can randomly roll with two of the following Relativism Exotic Traits.

Still Hunt

Sniper Rifle

Special

Solar

Exotic Quest

• Aspects: Stylish Executioner and Winter’s Shroud.
• Fragments: Facet of Purpose, Facet of Protection, Facet of Dawn, Facet of Courage, Facet of Ruin.
• Abilities: Golden Gun, Duskfield Grenade, Combination Blow, Gambler’s Dodge.
• Stats: Resilience 🡒 Discipline 🡒 Intellect.
• Mods:
  • Helmet: Hands-On, Dynamo, and Heavy Ammo Finder.
  • Arms: 3x Heavy Handed.
  • Chest: Resist Mods matching your enemies.
  • Legs: Harmonic Scavenger, Innervation, and Absolution.
  • Class Item: Powerful Attraction, Bomber, and Special Finisher.

Gameplay Loop

The overall goal of this build is to utilise the raw melee strength of Combination Blow, combined with Gambler’s Dodge’s refunding capabilities and Winter’s Shroud’s freezing potential to deal increased damage. The classic melee>dodge>melee playstyle is key here, dodging near enemies to ensure your Combination Blow is refunded.

By using Winter’s Shroud and a Duskfield Grenade on top of this, you will be able to freeze enemies by throwing a Duskfield and dodging near them, instantly applying more than 100 stacks of Slow, allowing you to shatter them with your melees, dealing massive damage thanks to the Stasis shatter buffs this season. Your Combination Blow damage is also increased by the Facet of Courage when enemies are afflicted with Slow, as Slow is a Stasis debuff.

Stacking Combination Blow to x3 can be quite the chore in high-level content, so priming enemies with a primary weapon or using the high-damage Cross Counter melee from Liar’s Handshake is crucial for getting those early stacks online.

Combination Gambler

Excels in: Endgame (Dungeons, Raids, Legend content)

Goal of the Build: Stack up Combination Blow and slay with your Arc abilities while striking from the shadows.

Mandatory  Gear: Assassin’s Cowl. A One-Two Punch shotgun is recommended.

Name: Assassin's Cowl

Class: Hunter Slot: Helm

Source: Exotic Engrams Requires: Shadowkeep

Exotic Perk: Powered melee final blows grant invisibility and restore a portion of health and shields. Finishers and final blows against more powerful targets increase the duration of the invisibility and the amount of health and shields.

Dead Weight

Shotgun

Special

Arc

Playlist: Gambit

• Aspects: Lethal Current and Flow State.
• Fragments: Spark of Resistance, Spark of Feedback, and Spark of Shock.
• Abilities: Gathering Storm, Gambler’s Dodge, and Combination Blow. Storm Grenades and Pulse Grenades are both strong.
• Stats Priority: Max Resilience 🡒 Discipline.
• Mods:
  • Helmet: Hands-On, Heavy Ammo Finder, Dynamo.
  • Arms: x2 Heavy Handed and Impact Induction.
  • Chest: Resistance Mods based on your enemies.
  • Legs: Weapon Surge Mods matching your equipped weapons.
  • Class Item: Powerful Attraction, Bomber, Distribution.

Gameplay Loop

This gameplay loop is relatively simple on the surface. However, as you weave more techniques and abilities into the Melee>Dodge>Melee combo, it becomes slightly more complex.

Stacking Combination Blow to x3 is your main goal. Once you do this, you will be able to 1-punch all squishy enemies and will be able to 1-2 Punch Shotgun all other enemies besides bosses.

Due to the insane number of Orbs of Power you will be making, equipping the Hands On mod will help you generate your Super very quickly, allowing you to rip through minor and major enemies alike.

This build is quite tricky to use, especially for a less experienced player in higher-level content. However, mastering it will allow you to take on practically all types of content, regardless of the difficulty.

 Radiant Assassin

Excels in: Solo Content

Goal of the Build: Have infinite survivability through invisibility and a constant source of healing by having access to unlimited throwing knives.

Mandatory Gear: Assassin's Cowl

Shards of Galanor and Dragon’s Breath. A Solar Primary and close-range Special weapon are recommended.

Name: Assassin's Cowl

Class: Hunter Slot: Helm

Source: Exotic Engrams Requires: Shadowkeep

Exotic Perk: Powered melee final blows grant invisibility and restore a portion of health and shields. Finishers and final blows against more powerful targets increase the duration of the invisibility and the amount of health and shields.

	CALUS Mini-Tool	Submachine Gun	Primary	Solar	Presage	Incandescent
	Heritage	Shotgun	Special	Kinetic	Deep Stone Crypt Raid	Reconstruction

• Aspects: Knock ‘em Dow and On Your Mark (to equip 5 Fragments).
• Fragments: Ember of Torches, Ember of Mercy, Ember of Torches, Ember of Empyrean, Ember of Singeing, and Ember of Searing.
• Abilities: Blade Barrage, Gambler’s Dodge, Knife Trick, and Healing Grenade.
• Stats Priority: Resilience 🡒 Discipline 🡒 Mobility.
• Mods:
  • Helmet: Hands-On, Harmonic Siphon, Powerful Friends.
  • Arms: Heavy Handed, Focusing Strike, Impact Induction.
  • Chest: Concussive Dampener and Resistance Mods based on your enemies.
  • Legs: Weapon Surge Mods matching your weapons.
  • Class Item: Time Dilation, Reaper, Powerful Attraction.

Gameplay Loop

The gameplay loop is quite simple with Assassin’s Cowl. The goal is to chain Knife Trick kills together to ensure maximum uptime on your invisibility and to have as much healing as possible. If you miss, Gambler’s Dodge is there to pick up the slack and provide you with another melee. Gambler’s Dodge and your melee will also recharge faster by scorching enemies with your Knife Trick.

You also have options like Healing Grenade if you find yourself out of a dodge and a melee ability. This can help fill in the gaps where you may miss your abilities on a target and need some survivability.

You always want to land the final blow with your knives, so if you can’t outright one-shot an enemy, prime them first with your weapon and finish them with the knife. Constantly getting kills with your knives will spam Orbs of Power for yourself and for your team.

Top 3 Warlock Builds

Prismatic Blizzard

Excels In: Endgame (Dungeons & Raids)

Goal of the Build: Utilize both Bleak Watcher and Getaway Artist turrets to dominate the battlefield while also having access to Devour and Transcendence.

Mandatory Gear: Getaway Artist and Khvostov 7G–0X.

Name: Getaway Artist

Class: Warlock Slot: Arms

Source: Exotic Engrams Requires: Forsaken Pack

Exotic Perk: Convert your Arc Grenade into a supercharged Arc Soul. The Arc Soul functions as an autonomous turret.

Khvostov 7G-0X

Auto Rifle

Primary

Kinetic

The Pale Heart

• Aspects: Feed the Void and Bleak Watcher.
• Fragments: Facet of Grace, Facet of Devotion, Facet of Dawn, Facet of Purpose, and Facet of Protection.
• Abilities: Song of Flame, Phoenix Dive, Arcane Needle, Storm Grenade.
• Stats: Resilience → Discipline.
• Mods:
  • Helmet: Kinetic Siphon, Heavy Ammo Finder.
  • Arms: Impact Induction, Focusing Strike.
  • Chest: Relevant reserve/resist mods.
  • Legs: Relevant ammo scavenger/surge mods.
  • Class Item: Distribution, Time Dilation.

Gameplay Loop

Swallowing your grenade not only provides an Arc Soul and Amplified from Getaway Artist but also places a Bleak Watcher turret at your feet. This (potentially bugged) interaction is the centerpiece of the build, allowing you to double-dip on things whenever your grenade is charged.

Feed the Void grants Devour on ability kills (including your Arc Soul!), increasing survivability. Beyond that, the majority of our fragment choices are focused primarily on building Transcendence quickly, which is assisted by the use of Khvostov since it lacks an elemental affinity.

Radiant Sunbracer

Excels In: Endgame (Dungeons, Raids, Legend content)

Goal of the Build: Rain terror from above by throwing an infinite amount of Solar Grenades. It provides excellent ad clear and can give you a seemingly infinite damage buff via surge mods.

Mandatory Gear: Sunbracers. A Solar weapon with Incandescent is recommended.

Name: Sunbracers

Class: Warlock Slot: Arms

Source: Exotic Engrams Requires: Free-to-Play

Exotic Perk: Increases the duration of Solar Grenades. Solar melee kills grant unlimited Solar Grenade energy for a brief time.

CALUS Mini-Tool

Submachine Gun

Primary

Solar

Presage

Incandescent

• Aspects: Touch of Flame and Heat Rises.
• Fragments: Ember of Ashes, Ember of Searing, Ember of Empyrean, and Ember of Resolve
• Abilities & Stats: Well of Radiance, Solar Grenade, Phoenix Dive, and Incinerator Snap.
• Stats: Max Resilience 🡒 Max Recovery.
• Mods:
  • Helmet: x2 Ashes to Assets, Harmonic Siphon.
  • Arms: Firepower, Bolstering Detonation, Momentum Transfer
  • Chest: Relevant Resistance and Reserve Mods.
  • Legs: x2 Solar Weapon Surge
  • Class Item: -

Gameplay Loop

Get a kill with your charged melee ability to start the gameplay loop. If you’re struggling with this step, try binding your charged melee to a unique button so you can send it off at a more specific time.

Getting that powered melee kill will proc Sunbracers, granting you five seconds of ‘infinite’ Solar Grenades. Realistically, you can only fire a maximum of five during this time due to the time it takes to execute the animation. Swallow your first grenade to get Heat Rises, then take to the skies and watch everything below burn via your other Solar Grenades. Any kills in the air (including those from the grenades) will give you 30% of your melee energy, allowing you to repeat this loop infinitely.

If you ever fail to kill something with your melee, just get kills in the air with your weapons—you’ll get it back soon after due to Heat Rises. As a nice bonus, casting Phoenix Dive while Heat Rises is active grants Restoration, which you can extend with Solar kills via Ember of Empyrean.

Prismatic Flame

Excels In: Endgame (Dungeons & Raids)

Goal of the Build: Control the battlefield with both Hellion and Getaway Artist turrets, while also taking advantage of Prismatic Warlock’s kit and inherently potent weapon options.

Mandatory Gear: Getaway Artist. We highly recommend The Call with Strategist coupled with a potent Energy-slot Primary such as Sunshot, Trinity Ghoul, etc.

Name: Getaway Artist

Class: Warlock Slot: Arms

Source: Exotic Engrams Requires: Forsaken Pack

Exotic Perk: Convert your Arc Grenade into a supercharged Arc Soul. The Arc Soul functions as an autonomous turret.

	Sunshot	Hand Cannon	Primary	Solar	Exotic Engram
	The Call	Sidearm	Special	Strand	The Pale Heart

• Aspects: Feed the Void and Hellion.
• Fragments: Facet of Hope, Facet of Sacrifice, Facet of Balance, Facet of Dawn, Facet of Purpose.
• Abilities: Song of Flame, Healing Rift, Arcane Needle, Storm Grenade.
• Stats: Resilience → Recovery.
• Mods:
  • Helmet: Heavy Ammo Finder and a Siphon matching your primary weapon.
  • Arms: Impact Induction, Focusing Strike.
  • Chest: Relevant reserve/resist mods.
  • Legs: Relevant ammo scavenger/surge mods.
  • Class Item: Time Dilation.

Gameplay Loop

Swallowing your grenade offers an Arc Soul and Amplified through Getaway Artist while casting your rift summons Hellion. The former regenerates easily with Devour through Feed the Void, while your class ability can be quickly regenerated through Facet of Hope and your Strategist weapon.

Beyond this, there isn’t much of a “loop” for this build. Rotate your grenade and class abilities as frequently as you can while also attempting to build Transcendence through weapon kills and Arcane Needle hits.

Top 3 Titan Builds

Berserker of War

Excels In: Endgame (Dungeons, Raids, Legend content)

Goal of the Build: Utilise the Banner of War Aspect to continuously grant healing bursts to yourself and allies while also dealing outrageous melee damage.

Mandatory Gear: Synthoceps or Wormgod Caress Exotics. A One-Two Punch Shotgun is recommended. The Navigator or Tractor Cannon can also help.

Name: Synthoceps	Class: Titan Slot: Arms	Source: Exotic Engrams Requires: Free-to-Play	Exotic Perk: Increased melee lunge range. Improved melee and Super damage when you're surrounded.
Name: Wormgod Caress	Class: Titan Slot: Arms	Source: Exotic Engrams Requires: Free-to-Play	Exotic Perk: Melee kills increase melee damage for a period of time. Additional kills extend duration and increase effects.

CALUS Mini-Tool

Submachine Gun

Primary

Solar

Presage

Incandescent

• Aspects: Into the Fray and Banner of War.
• Fragments: Thread of Fury, Thread of Warding, Thread of Generation, and Thread of Transmutation.
• Abilities: Grapple, Frenzied Blade, and either Barricade works.
• Stats: Resilience 🡒 Strength 🡒 Discipline🡒 Recovery.
• Mods:
  • Helmet: Hands-On and a Siphon Mod matching your weapon.
  • Arms: Heavy Handed, Momentum Transfer, and Firepower.
  • Chest: Relevant Resistance and Reserve Mods.
  • Legs: Invigoration, Absolution, and Innervation.
  • Class Item: Distribution, Bomber, and Outreach.

Gameplay Loop

The gameplay loop for this build is quite simple but has slight alterations based on the exotic being used. In general, you’ll want to leverage your Grapple Melees to engage in fights, killing a minor enemy, and then use your Banner of War buffed Frenzied Blades melee attacks to deal outrageous damage.

If using Wormgod’s Caress, it's important to remember that both melee kills (charged or uncharged) and finishers fill up the meter. This can be used to build up the charge before a larger fight, where enemies might be sparse, and Synthoceps might not activate.

A tip to follow is ensuring that you actually hit the enemy with your Grapple attack to proc the melee generation from Momentum Transfer. Killing an enemy with the Grapple Melee will create two Orbs of Power thanks to Heavy Handed and Firepower, and Orbs you grab will grant plenty of melee energy, allowing you to slay out with your Frenzied Blades, practically one-shotting any enemy that isn’t a multi-million health boss.

Finally, when entering a damage phase, remember that your melee charges are refunded after your super ends, so a proper damage loop would be: melee → super → melee. This will get the most use out of both melee-enhancing buffs.

Undying Flame

Excels In: Solo, Endgame, Grandmasters.

Goal of the Build: This build aims to create an unkillable Titan by harnessing the power of Solar 3.0 and the Loreley Splendor exotic helm.

Mandatory gear: Loreley Splendor Helm. Solar weapons are recommended.

Name: Loreley Splendor Helm

Class: Titan Slot: Helm

Source: Lost Sectors Requires: The Witch Queen

Exotic Perk: When you have Sun Warrior, your Sunspots heal you. When you are critically wounded, create a Sunspot at your location.

• Aspects: Sol Invictus and Roaring Flames (for endgame content) or Consecration (fun and solid too).
• Fragments: Ember of Solace, Ember of Singeing, Ember of Empyrean, and Ember of Torches.
• Abilities: Healing Grenade for extra survivability or Solar Grenade for ad clear. Throwing Hammer, Rally Barricade.
• Stats: Max Resilience.
• Mods:
  • Helmet: Siphon matching your subclass.
  • Arms: Heavy Handed.
  • Chest: Resistance Mods based on your enemies.
  • Legs: -
  • Class Item: -

Gameplay Loop

This is one of the easiest and most straightforward builds for Titan. It requires little to no setup and functions extremely well in all levels of content.

This build revolves around the Loreley Splendor exotic helmet. Its exotic perk, “Cauterizing Flame,” creates a sunspot upon barricade cast or when you are critically wounded. This allows you to get the Restoration buff which regenerates your health and shields over time. This cannot be stopped by damage and only runs out when the buff itself runs out. Ember of Solace increases this duration.

Ember of the Empyrean allows you to maintain this restoration buff by chaining solar weapon kills to refresh the duration. Opting for Synthoceps instead of Loreley Splendor removes your barricade from the loop, but the whole idea of throwing your hammer over and over at enemies stays the same.

Point-Contact Assassin

Excels In: Endgame (Dungeons, Raids, Legend content)

Goal of the Build: Breeze through solo content through invis and massive AoE damage thanks to Prismatic and Stoicism

Mandatory Gear: Stoicism with Spirit of the Assassin and Contact. Buried Bloodline or Khvostov are recommended.

Name: Stoicism

Class: Titan Slot: Class Item

Source: Master Rahool Requires: The Final Shape

Exotic Perk: Can randomly roll with two of the following Stoicism Exotic Traits.

	Buried Bloodline	Sidearm	Special	Void	Warlord's Ruin Dungeon
	Khvostov 7G-0X	Auto Rifle	Primary	Kinetic	The Pale Heart

• Aspects: Consecration and Drengr's Lash.
• Fragments: Facet of Dawn, Facet of Hope, Facet of Balance, Facet of Protection, Facet of Blessing, Facet of Purpose.
• Abilities: Thruster, Frenzied Blade, Shackle Grenade, Bladefury.
• Stats: Resilience 🡒 Strength 🡒 Recovery.
• Mods:
  • Helmet: Siphon Mod matching your weapon, Hands-On.
  • Arms: Heavy Handed.
  • Chest: Relevant Resistance and Reserve Mods.
  • Legs: Better Already, Recuperation, Invigoration.
  • Class Item: Outreach, Powerful Attraction.

Gameplay Loop

The loop is quite simple: use Consecration on a group of enemies to ignite and jolt them, granting yourself healing, invis, amplified, and radiant. Activate Thruster when you approach the next group to proc Drengr’s Lash and pick up orbs, which activates Woven Mail through Facet of Purpose. Kill the suspended enemies, and start from the top. Using this in tandem with Episode 1’s artifact perk “Galvanic Armor'' will enhance your survivability even more!

Once you have Transcendence, activate it to make the loop go even faster. While Transcendent, you’ll be nigh unkillable thanks to its intrinsic damage resistance on top of Facet of Protection, Galvanic Armor, and Woven Mail.

Before you go…

If you want to go deeper down the rabbit hole that is build crafting in Destiny 2, you should also check our Subclass tier lists for Hunter, Warlock, and Titan.