Contraverse Hold may not be as overpowered as it once was, but it can still be used to create insanely lethal builds. With all of the easy ways to get bonus damage and extra effects added to your grenade, Contraverse Hold is one of the best PvE Exotics for Warlocks out right now.
Today, we cover the Contraverse Hold in-depth: How it works, where to get it, and the best builds and fashion around it.
Contraverse Hold: How to master it
The gameplay loop to get Contraverse Hold going is straightforward.
Armor | Class | Type | Requirements | Source | Released | Requires | Exotic Perk |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
![]() Contraverse Hold | Warlock | Arms | Forsaken Pack | Exotic Engrams | Season 4 | ![]() Forsaken Pack | Exotic Perk: "Resist incoming damage while charging your Void grenade with Chaos Accelerant, Feed the Void, or Handheld Supernova. Charged Void grenades return an amount of grenade energy on a hit." |
Just throw a charged Vortex Grenade using Chaos Accelerant, and the build will do the rest for you. When that grenade damages something, Contraverse Hold will trigger, giving you just under 50% of your grenade energy back. This can proc twice with one Vortex Grenade when using Echo of Remnants, potentially giving you your full grenade back with no added work.
How it works: The numbers
From Light.gg’s community research:
- While Charging a Grenade, Chaotic Exchanger grants 20% Damage Resist.
- Grenade Hits grant Chaotic Exchange, granting 2000% [PVP: 1000%] additional base grenade regeneration for 1.75 seconds. 4-second cooldown.
- Charged Vortex Grenade can proc twice if enemies get hit by the initial explosion and the last few ticks.
Best Contraverse Hold Void 3.0 Builds
There are a couple of synergies and builds that can take this exotic to the next level. Our favorite Contraverse Hold Warlock build is the following:
Commander of Chaos
Excels In: Grandmaster Nightfalls
Goal of the Build: Be able to throw debuffing Vortex Grenades while maintaining Devour for survivability.
Mandatory Gear: A primary weapon with Demolitionist will significantly help. Contraverse Hold is at the center of this build, so running it is mandatory.
- Aspects: Chaos Accelerant and Feed the Void.
- Fragments: Echo of Undermining, Echo of Remnants, and Echo of Persistence or Instability.
- Abilities: Vortex Grenades are mandatory for this build.
- Stats: Discipline and Recovery.
- Mods: Elemental Ordnance is the one clear pick here since you’ll be getting tons of grenade kills. Beyond that, however, it’s up to you! Some recommendations
Art | Mod Name | Slot | Cost | Requirements | Effects | Type |
Gameplay Loop
The gameplay loop here is simple. Just throw a charged Vortex Grenade using Chaos Accelerant, and the build will do the rest for you. When that grenade damages something, Contraverse Hold will trigger, giving you just under 50% of your grenade energy back. This can proc twice with one Vortex Grenade when using Echo of Remnants, potentially giving you your full grenade back with no added work.
Any kills with that grenade will also grant you Devour to help you stay alive, and they’ll spawn Elemental Wells. Picking up these wells will grant you energy for all of your abilities. As previously stated, you can add more mods here to do anything from giving you damage resistance to buffing void weapon damage.
Like the Harnesser of Flame build shown earlier, this is strong on its own but can be expanded upon in numerous ways to fit the activity you’re playing.
PS: If you’re looking for other worthy Warlock Exotics, check out Starfire Protocol!
Contraverse Hold Fashion
Contraverse Hold is not the worst-looking piece of armor out there, but it certainly isn’t the best, either. These Exotic arms do have a weakness: They have a section that doesn’t take shaders, and will always be purple, which means you’ll have to play around with that color if you want a cohesive look.
This is a solid example of Contraverse Hold fashion done right, in case you’re looking for inspiration (from Youtuber Fixedtony):
Contraverse Hold ornament: Grasp of the Void

Grasp of the Void Ornament for Contraverse Hold
How to get Contraverse Hold
Contraverse Hold can be obtained either from Exotic engrams or by completing Legend or Master Lost Sectors solo on days that Arms armor is dropping. Note that the Season pass offers several Exotic engrams. Xur also sells a single Exotic engram per weekend.
There isn’t much more to say about Exotic engrams, only that they have a higher chance to drop from end-game activities. If collecting exotics is your priority, Nightfall: The Ordeals are for you. And the higher the difficulty, the higher the chance of getting one.
Alternatively, you can farm Legend and Master Lost Sectors solo on Arms days (Lost Sector rewards are on a daily rotation, one day will reward Legs pieces, the next day only Arms pieces, etc). You can find the Lost Sectors daily rotation here.
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