Destiny 2 Gunslinger: Best Builds, Exotics & Fragments

Gunslinger is one of the four Hunter subclasses available in Destiny 2. As of Season of the Wish (S23), Gunslinger is one of the strongest subclasses in the entire game.

This guide covers the best Gunslinger Hunter builds, Fragments, and Exotics that make Gunslinger such an exceptionally powerful subclass.

What is Gunslinger in Destiny 2?

Gunslinger is the name of the Solar-based subclass available to Hunters in Destiny 2. 

Best Gunslinger Fragments & Exotics

Gunslinger (Solar 3.0)

• Ranking: ❘ S Best

With the change to Celestial Nighthawk and how potent Restoration is, it’s impossible not to rank Gunslinger at S tier. Possessing the highest damage Super in the game and having access to the best DPS rotations outside of a few niche strategies is very impressive.

Solar Hunter does quite a lot and has perhaps some of the best synergies with certain Aspects and Fragments out of all of the classes. The combination of Knock ‘Em Down and Ember of Torches is ridiculously potent, as infinite throwing knives are nothing to scoff at. This, combined with the already powerful Radiant, Restoration, and Cure effects that all Solar Subclasses have, makes Gunslinger quite powerful, even ignoring the Supers and exotic combos.

Gunslingers have been at the top of the Super damage pile for quite some time, and this has only been extended by the Season of the Wish buff to Celestial Nighthawk, turning your Golden Gun into a mini-nuke, capable of one-shotting any Champions, even in Grandmaster level content.

The only arguable downside to Gunslinger is its lack of mass add-clear and Major damage outside of using Gunpowder Gamble, which can be quite risky in harder content due to the self-damage. However, we believe that the positives vastly outweigh the negatives for Gunslinger, making it one of the best subclasses in the entire game.

Preferred Exotic: Celestial Nighthawk for boss damage, Assassin’s Cowl for general play.

Armor	Class	Type	Requirements	Source	Released	Requires	Exotic Perk
Assassin's Cowl	Hunter	Helm	Shadowkeep	Exotic Engrams	Season 8	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."
Celestial Nighthawk	Hunter	Helm	Free-to-Play	Exotic Engrams	Season 1	Free-to-Play	Exotic Perk: "Modifies Golden Gun to fire a single high-damage shot. Enemies eliminated by the shot explode and grant you Super energy."

Preferred Aspects and Fragments:

• Aspects: Knock ‘em Down and On Your Mark
• Fragments: Ember of Torches, Ember of Singeing, Ember of Empyrean, Ember of Ashes

Preferred Abilities and Stats:

• Stats: 100 Mobility and 100 Resilience are highly recommended.
• Abilities: Blade Barrage or Marksman Super, Healing Grenade or Tripmine Grenade, Knife Trick or Proximity Explosive Knifes, and Gambler’s Dodge

Gunslinger Hunter builds for PvE

These are some of the best Destiny 2 Gunslinger builds right now; you can find more excellent Hunter builds here:

 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
	Heritage	Shotgun	Special	Kinetic	Deep Stone Crypt Raid

• 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.

Galanor’s Propellant

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

Goal of the Build: Combo your abilities to keep causing Ignitions to fuel Dragon’s Breath.

Mandatory Gear: Shards of Galanor and Dragon’s Breath. A Solar Primary and Kinetic slot Fusion Rifle are recommended.

Name: Shards of Galanor

Class: Hunter Slot: Arms

Source: Exotic Engrams Requires: Forsaken Pack

Exotic Perk: Hits and kills with Blade Barrage will return Super energy after the Super ends.

	CALUS Mini-Tool	Submachine Gun	Primary	Solar	Presage
	Dragon's Breath	Rocket Launcher	Heavy	Solar	Season Pass
	Riptide	Fusion Rifle	Special	Stasis	Playlist: Crucible

• Aspects: Knock 'em Down. Gunpowder Gamble or On Your Mark is up to you.
• Fragments: Ember of Empyrean, Ember of Torches, Ember of Ashes, and Ember of Singeing.
• Abilities: Blade Barrage, Gambler’s Dodge, Knife Trick, and Healing Grenade.
• Stats Priority: Resilience 🡒 Discipline 🡒 Intellect.
• Mods:
  • Helmet: Hands-On, Solar Siphon, and Heavy Ammo Finder.
  • Arms: Heavy Handed, Impact Induction, and Focusing Strike.
  • Chest: Resistance Mods based on your enemies.
  • Legs: 2x Solar Weapon Surge and 1x Weapon Surge Mod matching your Kinetic weapon.
  • Class Item: Time Dilation, Reaper, and Powerful Attraction.

Gameplay Loop

This build entirely revolves around building your Super as fast as possible. Thanks to Shards of Galanor’s ‘Sharp Edges’ perk, we can refund up to 50% of our Super if we hit all our Blade Barrage Knives. Additionally, killing enemies with our Knife Trick will net us between 2.5-5% Super energy. This, coupled with the Super energy gain from Hands-On, nets us our Super in no time at all.

Dragon’s Breath is one of the main sources of damage we have, and to fuel it (literally), we want to cause as many Ignitions as we can. This is possible thanks to Knife Trick’s high Scorch potential and Ember of Ashes and Focusing Strike refunding our Gambler’s Dodge as often as possible.

A Fusion Rifle like Scatter Signal or Riptide allows us to get our Super back even faster as these weapons generate Super energy incredibly fast. Super energy is generated through ‘instances of damage’, not the damage value itself, meaning that every single bolt from the Fusion Rifle will grant a small bit of Super energy.

Overall, look to spam your Knife Trick to build Super energy, make sure that you are getting the full 50% refund on Blade Barrage, and look to cause as many Ignitions as you can when damaging a boss, granting your Dragon’s Breath as much power as possible.

Caliban's Proximity

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

Goal of the Build: Chain Proximity Knives back to back with constant Radiant while causing Ignitions to clear waves of enemies.

Mandatory Gear: Caliban's Hand. A weapon with Swashbuckler is recommended (Dragon’s Breath can also help).

Name: Caliban's Hand

Class: Hunter Slot: Arms

Source: Lost Sectors Requires: The Witch Queen

Exotic Perk: Your Proximity Knife scorches targets it damages with its explosions, or ignites targets on a direct hit. After throwing a Proximity Knife, you gain increased melee regeneration until the knife explodes.

Dragon's Breath

Rocket Launcher

Heavy

Solar

Season Pass

• Aspects: Knock ‘em Down and Gunpowder Gamble for ad clear (or On Your Mark for an extra Fragment slot).
• Fragments: Ember of Torches, Ember of Empyrean, Ember of Eruption. The other Fragment is up to you.
• Abilities: Blade Barrage, Proximity Knife, and Healing Grenade for constant Restoration.
• Stats Priority: Max Mobility 🡒 Max Resilience 🡒 Discipline.
• Mods:
  • Helmet: Hands-On, Heavy Ammo Finder, Heavy Ammo Scout.
  • Arms: Heavy Handed, Impact Induction, and Focusing Strike.
  • Chest: Concussive Dampener and Resistance Mods based on your enemies.
  • Legs: Weapon Surge Mods matching your weapons.
  • Class Item: Time Dilation and x2 Outreach.

Gameplay Loop

The gameplay loop for this build is very simple. The only condition that you must always meet to keep the engine running is a kill with your Proximity Knife. That is it. The build is entirely dependent on your knives, which is why you are going to want to have your Gambler’s Dodge always ready as a backup option.

With your Fragment choices, you will be able to create constant orbs through Ember of Wonder, and with Ember of Blistering, you can have high uptime on your Grenades, allowing for either more survivability with Healing Grenade or even more burning with Solar Grenade.

Getting the final blow with the knife is key. The additional Scorch damage from the Proximity Knife does not count as a knife kill, thus not causing the Ignition.

Gunslinger Subclass in PvP (Solar 3.0)

Gunslinger (Solar 3.0)

• Ranking: ❘ S Best

Gunslinger in PvP is in an excellent spot right now as it boasts some of the strongest abilities and ability-altering exotics that can be used right now. Weighted Knife is still quite an easy skill shot to hit, letting you 1-shot anyone if you get a precision hit, and overall, the subclass simply feels very easy and fluid to play thanks to the On Your Mark Aspect and the burst of health from Healing Grenade.

Athrys’s Embrace is also another cheesy yet powerful option. Being able to make your Weighted Knife even deadlier is not something to ignore, especially when the activation condition is so simple.

Overall, Gunslinger is just solid across the board. Strong Supers, good abilities, and generally fluid gameplay.

Preferred Exotic: Young Ahamkara’s Spine with Tripmine Grenades, Athrys’s Embrace with Weighted Knives, or St0mp-EE5 for overall gameplay

Armor	Class	Type	Requirements	Source	Released	Requires	Exotic Perk
Athrys's Embrace	Hunter	Arms	Beyond Light	Lost Sectors	Season 12	Beyond Light	Exotic Perk: "Weighted Knife gains a second bounce. Rapid precision hits with your weapons grant Weighted Knife a significant damage bonus, bonus strength, and the ability to stun unshielded combatants for a short time. Empowered Weighted Knife is strong against Unstoppable Champions."
Caliban's Hand	Hunter	Arms	The Witch Queen	Lost Sectors	Season 17	The Witch Queen	Exotic Perk: "Your Proximity Knife scorches targets it damages with its explosions, or ignites targets on a direct hit. After throwing a Proximity Knife, you gain increased melee regeneration until the knife explodes."
St0mp-EE5	Hunter	Legs	Free-to-Play	Exotic Engrams	Season 1	Free-to-Play	Exotic Perk: "Increases sprint speed and slide distance while your dodge energy is full and improves High Jump, Strafe Jump, and Triple Jump."

Preferred Aspects and Fragments:

• Aspects: Knock ‘em Down and On Your Mark.
• Fragments: Ember of Torches, Ember of Combustion with Deadshot, Ember of Solace, Ember of Beams.

Preferred Abilities and Stats:

• Stats: 100 Mobility and 100 Recovery is best.
• Abilities: Deadshot Super, Healing Grenade/Tripmine Grenade/Solar Grenade, Weighted Knife/Proximity Explosive Knife, Gambler’s Dodge.

Before you go…

We cover all the best Solar builds here. If you’re interested in exploring other Hunter Subclasses, don’t miss our Destiny 2 Threadrunner Subclass guide.