Best Destiny 2 Hunter Builds Right Now (S23 Meta)

Are you a Hunter main and want to take your game to the next level? These are the best Hunter builds in Destiny 2, including builds for PvE and PvP. Whether you’re into Solar 3.0, Void 3.0, or are still into Stasis, these builds have you covered.

And by the way, as any top-tier Destiny 2 build, these builds will guide you every step of the way, including essential Exotics, Mods, and more.

Best Hunter PvE builds

 Updated as of Season of the Wish (S23). See Updates.

--	Name	Subclass	Rank	Excels in	Gear	Area	Class	Status
	Combination Gambler	Arc	1 🥇	Endgame		PvE	Hunter	Top 3
	Stealthed Gyrfalcon	Void	3 🥉	Endgame		PvE	Hunter	Top 3
	Radiant Assassin	Solar	2 🥈	Solo Content		PvE	Hunter	Top 3
	Veiled Anchor	Void	4	Grandmasters		PvE	Hunter
	Galanor’s Propellant	Solar	5	Endgame		PvE	Hunter
	Grasp of Duskfield	Stasis	6	Grandmasters		PvE	Hunter	Best in Class
	Threaded Maelstrom	Strand	7	Endgame		PvE	Hunter	Best in Class
	Caliban's Proximity	Solar	8	Endgame		PvE	Hunter
	Suspending Coyote	Strand	9	Grandmasters		PvE	Hunter
	Frostbringer	Stasis	10	Grandmasters		PvE	Hunter

Best Hunter Builds: Top 3

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.

Stealthed Gyrfalcon

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

Goal of the Build: Chain Invisibility to retain Volatile Rounds and synergize as much as possible with your Void 3.0 kit and weapons.

Mandatory Gear: Gyrfalcon’s Hauberk and a Void weapon. Weapons with Repulsor Brace are recommended (Collective Obligation is also excellent here).

Name: Gyrfalcon's Hauberk

Class: Hunter Slot: Chest

Source: Lost Sectors Requires: The Witch Queen

Exotic Perk: Your weapons gain a bonus to damage briefly after you emerge from being invisible. When you are invisible and defeat a combatant using a finisher, you and your nearby allies gain a reserve overshield and improved class ability regen. These reserve overshields can be deployed by using a class ability.

	Collective Obligation	Pulse Rifle	Primary	Void	Vow of the Disciple Raid
	Unforgiven	Submachine Gun	Primary	Void	Duality Dungeon

• Aspects: Stylish Executioner and Vanishing Step.
• Fragments: Echo of Starvation, Echo of Persistence, Echo of Remnants, and Echo of Obscurity.
• Abilities: Moebius Quiver and Vortex Grenades. Either Dodge works.
• Stats Priority: Max Resilience 🡒 Mobility 🡒 Discipline.
• Mods:
  • Helmet: Void Siphon, Heavy Ammo Finder, and Heavy Ammo Scout.
  • Arms: Firepower, Harmonic Reloader, Bolstering Detonation.
  • Chest: Concussive Dampener and Resistance Mods based on your enemies.
  • Legs: Weapon Surge Mod matching your equipped weapons.
  • Class Item: Reaper, Bomber, Time Dilation.

Gameplay Loop

Gyrfalcon’s Hauberk does practically everything. Essentially, the goal is to go Invisible through your dodge, exit Invisibility, gain Volatile Rounds, kill a Volatile enemy, and thus, re-enter Invisibility through Stylish Executioner and continue the cycle of exiting Invis, getting a kill on a Volatile enemy and repeating.

Adding in Devour grants you both Healing and Invisibility on kill. Then, once you add a Repulsor Brace weapon on top of this (which provides an overshield when defeating a Void-debuffed target), you become practically unkillable, weaving in and out of Invisibility with a tanky overshield and full health on kill.

 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.

More Destiny 2 Builds:

The Veiled Anchor

Excels in: Grandmaster Content

Goal of the Build: Protect your Fireteam with constant Invisibility and damage resistance, and be the ‘anchor’ of the team.

Mandatory Gear: Omnioculus. Void weapons are recommended.

Name: Omnioculus

Class: Hunter Slot: Chest

Source: Lost Sectors Requires: Beyond Light

Exotic Perk: You gain a second Smoke Bomb charge and have damage resistance while invisible. When you make an ally invisible, they gain damage resistance while invisible and you gain melee energy.

	Hollow Denial	Trace Rifle	Special	Void	Presage
	Unforgiven	Submachine Gun	Primary	Void	Duality Dungeon

• Aspects: Trapper’s Ambush and Vanishing Step (Pro tip: Trapper’s Ambush’s ‘dive’ effect grants you increased invisibility duration and debuffs enemies for a longer period of time compared to the base smoke bomb, so always dive if possible).
• Fragments: Echo of Persistence, Echo of Obscurity, and Echo of Remnants.
• Abilities: Moebius Quiver, Gambler’s Dodge, Snare Bomb, and Vortex Grenade.
• Stats Priority: Max Mobility 🡒 Resilience 🡒 Discipline.
• Mods:
  • Helmet: x2 Heavy Ammo Finder and Heavy Ammo Scout.
  • Arms: x2 Momentum Transfer and Bolstering Detonation.
  • Chest: Concussive Dampener and Resistance Mods based on your enemies.
  • Legs: Weapon Surge Mods matching your weapons.
  • Class Item: Special Finisher, Distribution and Bomber.

Gameplay Loop

The Omnioculus build is one of the most versatile builds in the game. This gives it a plethora of gameplay loops and combat rotations. However, the most important loop to learn is the ‘Dive>Dodge>Repeat’ combo, as Mactics puts it. To be able to repeat the loop, you need to push your invisibility to the absolute limit. To do this, you must alternate between your Trapper's Ambush smoke bomb and your Vanishing Step dodge while only having a second to spare.

Learning this basic combo will allow you to incorporate more advanced skills into your gameplay.

Another gameplay loop that is critical to the ‘support’ nature of Omnioculus is the ‘Rez>Dive’ combo. Mastering this Combo allows you to pick up allies from anywhere on the field, no matter the danger. To pull this off, you should activate your ‘Shadowdive’ when you are around 80% through your teammate's revive. This will grant them invisibility as soon as they spawn, allowing the both of you to retreat to safety.

This build is heavily inspired by Mactic's guide. If you want to learn how to truly master the Omnioculus playstyle with detailed strategies and combat rotations, check out his video.

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.

Grasps of Duskfield

Excels in: Grandmaster Content

Goal of the Build: Keep areas locked down and protect your Fireteam with infinite Duskfield Grenades.

Mandatory Gear: Renewal Grasps. Weapons with Headstone are recommended (Buried Bloodline and Devour can help with Grenade regen).

Name: Renewal Grasps

Class: Hunter Slot: Arms

Source: Lost Sectors Requires: The Witch Queen

Exotic Perk: Your Duskfield grenades have a much larger effect radius. Allies inside the Duskfield take reduced damage and targets inside the area deal reduced damage.

	Buried Bloodline	Sidearm	Special	Void	Warlord's Ruin Dungeon
	Eyasluna	Hand Cannon	Primary	Stasis	Grasp of Avarice Dungeon

• Aspects: Touch of Winter and Grim Harvest.
• Fragments: Whisper of Torment, Whisper of Conduction, Whisper of Rime, Whisper of Chains, and Whisper of Shards.
• Abilities: Gambler’s Dodge and Duskfield Grenades.
• Stats Priority: Max Discipline 🡒 Max Resilience 🡒 Mobility.
• Mods:
  • Helmet: Harmonic Siphon (or Void Siphon if you use Buried Bloodline), Heavy Ammo Finder, and Heavy Ammo Scout.
  • Arms: Impact Induction, Grenade Kickstart, and Harmonic Loader.
  • Chest: Resistance Mods based on your enemies.
  • Legs: Innervation, Recuperation, and a Weapon Surge Mod matching your Exotic weapon.
  • Class Item: Bomber, Reaper, and Powerful Attraction.

Gameplay Loop

The gameplay loop for the Renewal Grasp build can be altered and changed depending on your needs and playstyle. But, despite the versatility, the core ‘needs’ of the build remain the same.

Whisper of Shards is the engine that keeps the train going, granting Grenade energy upon shattering a Stasis crystal. Forming crystals is easy with Headstone weapons or through Touch of Winter Grenades. Making sure you destroy every Stasis crystal you see is paramount to keeping the Duskfield spam going.

Despite saying this, Whisper of Chains also provides damage resistance when near a Stasis crystal, so timing is essential. Try to destroy Stasis crystals when you have gotten good use out of them as they can not only provide damage resistance but also deal solid AoE damage.

Overall, the aim is to lock down large groups of enemies and make them deal less damage while spamming Duskfields. This will help protect you and your Fireteam, regardless of difficulty.

The Threaded Maelstrom

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

Goal of the Build:  Utilise your Strand Weapons and Abilities to generate Tangles and weaponize the Maelstroms to add to your DPS or help in ad-clear.

Mandatory Gear: Cyrtarachne's Facade. Strand weapons are recommended (a One-Two Punch Shotgun can also work).

Name: Cyrtarachne's Facade

Class: Hunter Slot: Helm

Source: Lost Sectors Requires: Lightfall

Exotic Perk: Gain Woven Mail when activating grapple. Increased flinch resistance while Woven Mail is active.

	Dead Weight	Shotgun	Special	Arc	Playlist: Gambit
	Quicksilver Storm	Auto Rifle	Primary	Strand	Exotic Kiosk

• Aspects: Widow’s Silk and Whirling Maelstrom.
• Fragments: Thread of Ascent, Thread of Generation, Thread of Transmutation, and either Thread of Isolation or Thread of Binding.
• Abilities: Gambler’s Dodge and Shackle Grenade or Grapple Grenade. Shackle is better in higher-level content, but Grapple is more fun.
• Stats Priority: Resilience 🡒 Mobility 🡒 Discipline.
• Mods:
  • Helmet: Harmonic Siphon, Heavy Ammo Scout, and Heavy Ammo Finder.
  • Arms: Impact Induction, Focusing Strike, and Harmonic Loader.
  • Chest: Resistance Mods based on your enemies.
  • Legs: Recuperation, 2x Strand Weapon Surge.
  • Class Item:  Powerful Attraction, Bomber, and Proximity Ward.

Gameplay Loop

The loop for this build revolves around Woven Mail. Keeping Woven Mail active is necessary for your survivability, as well as generating Tangles as Thread of Transmutation is one of your primary sources of Tangle generation.

Grappling from place to place, keeping your Woven Mail active will allow you to stay on the move while also continuously spawning the Threaded Maelstrom Tangles. These maelstroms, on top of the damage from Quicksilver Storm or a Grapple Melee, allow you to wipe any non-boss enemy off the map with ridiculous speed.

Overall, look to keep Woven Mail active through your Grapple, generate as many Tangles as possible, and let your Threaded Maelstroms roam the battlefield while you pummel enemies with your weapon of choice and Grapple melees.

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.

Suspending Coyote

Excels in: Grandmaster Content

Goal of the Build: Utilise the Strand keywords, especially Suspend, to take down groups of enemies and crowd-control everything.

Mandatory Gear:  The Sixth Coyote. Strand weapons are recommended.

Name: The Sixth Coyote

Class: Hunter Slot: Chest

Source: Exotic Engrams Requires: Forsaken Pack

Exotic Perk: Gain a second dodge charge.

Wish-Keeper

Combat Bow

Primary

Strand

Exotic Quest

• Aspects: Widow’s Silk and Ensnaring Slam.
• Fragments: Thread of Continuity, Thread of Generation, and Thread of Warding. The last Fragment is up to you (Thread of Isolation is solid for general survivability, but Thread of Wisdom increases your Orb of Power generation).
• Abilities: Marksman’s Dodge, Threaded Spike, and Shackle Grenade.
• Stats Priority: Max Resilience 🡒 Discipline 🡒 Mobility.
• Mods:
  • Helmet: Harmonic Siphon, Heavy Ammo Finder, Heavy Ammo Scout.
  • Arms: Impact Induction, Grenade Kickstart, Fastball.
  • Chest: Charged Up and Resistance Mods based on your enemies.
  • Legs: Weapon Surge Mods matching your weapons.
  • Class Item: Time Dilation and 2x Bomber.

Gameplay Loop

The gameplay loop of this build is focused on rotating your Grenade and Dodge cooldowns to always have a method of Suspending a target available. Using your Armor Charge stacks with Grenade Kickstart, alongside Thread of Generation, will allow you to have your Shackle Grenade on a low cooldown.

Orbs of Power are also vital as they are your source of Woven Mail, granting 58% damage resistance to all attacks. Players can use this build to crowd-control a large group of weaker enemies or constantly Suspend a tankier enemy, like a Champion in a Nightfall. Having four different avenues to Suspend a target allows for incredible flexibility in your abilities.

Overall, you must keep track of your cooldowns and abuse the duration of Suspend to ensure that your cooldown rotation can fully complete.

The Frostbringer

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

Goal of the Build: Utilise the Fr0st-EE5’s to maintain high ability uptime, freezing all enemies on the battlefield from safety.

Mandatory Gear: FR0ST-EE5 and Dragon’s Breath. High-damage weapons are recommended.

Name: Fr0st-EE5

Class: Hunter Slot: Legs

Source: Exotic Engrams Requires: Free-to-Play

Exotic Perk: Increased grenade, melee, and dodge regeneration while sprinting. Dodging increases your sprint speed.

	Wish-Ender	Combat Bow	Primary	Kinetic	Exotic Quest
	Forbearance (Brave)	Grenade Launcher	Special	Arc	Onslaught Activity

• Aspects: Touch of Winter and Grim Harvest.
• Fragments: Whisper of Conduction, Whisper of Rime, Whisper of Shards, Whisper of Durance, and Whisper of Chains.
• Abilities: Gambler’s Dodge, Duskfield Grenade.
• Stats Priority: Max Resilience 🡒 Discipline 🡒 Mobility.
• Mods:
  • Helmet: Siphon Mod matching your weapon and Heavy Ammo Finder.
  • Arms: Impact Induction, Focusing Strike, and Grenade Kickstart.
  • Chest: Resistance Mods based on your enemies.
  • Legs: Recuperation, Innervation, and Invigoration.
  • Class Item: Powerful Attraction, Bomber, and Distribution.

Gameplay Loop

The overall goal of this build is to have a Duskfield Grenade available as often as possible. This is easy through our Grenade-regenerating Fragments, Exotic, and Mod choices.

Using your Grenade and Melee together is often unnecessary, as your Duskfield alone will freeze a target. Instead, save your melees for either an emergency where you do not have your Grenade, or use the cooldown to regenerate your Grenade through Impact Induction.

Using the Rapid Cooldown Exotic Trait on Frostees is also important. The perk will double your base Grenade and Melee ability regeneration rate, making them come back much faster.

Overall, utilize the Grenade-regenerating parts of your kit to ensure you always have a Duskfield ready for any group of adds.

Best Hunter PvP builds

PvP Essentials

Step one to playing Hunter in PvP is understanding that your Dodge is the strongest ability in your kit. Because of this, maximizing Mobility is a very standard choice for the shortest cooldown on your Dodge. Making sure that you have maximum Recovery is also recommended.

Hunters come with the benefit of being able to completely ignore the Strength stat, as using Gambler’s Dodge allows you to completely refund your melee ability when dodging near an enemy. This lets you dump the rest of your stat points into Discipline and Resilience. Personally, I choose to run 100 Mobility, Recovery, and Discipline; however, feel free to adapt some stats to your own preference.

Hunter Subclasses: Ranked

There will always be a ‘meta’ option for PvP, but every Hunter subclass is viable in its own way, with its own set of pros and cons.

Gunslinger

Gunslinger can be set up in numerous ways. You can focus on making your allies Radiant with Acrobat’s Dodge, you can go for maximum explosions with Proximity Knives and Tripmine Grenades, or you can play more passively and utilize your agility to survive combined with Healing Grenades. The choice is entirely yours.

Pros:

• Wide variety of melee options
• Has excellent teamplay with On Your Mark and Acrobat’s Dodge
• Powerful Supers in Golden Gun and Blade Barrage

Cons:

• Only has two truly viable aspects. Gunpowder Gamble is too niche for consistent use.
• Aspects don’t overly alter gameplay in an incredibly potent manner compared to Invisibility on Nightstalker.
• Lack of map control/area control capabilities that Smoke Bomb and Stasis both bring.

Arcstrider

Arcstrider has quite a few unique parts of its kit, built-in damage resistance, blink, and some blinding potential with Disorienting Blow; it makes Arcstrider quite the all-rounder.

Pros:

• Excellent super. Lasts long and can outduel any other melee supers with skill and timing.
• High Jolt potential with Disorienting Blow.
• Solid neutral game with high mobility.

Cons:

• No game-changing qualities that the other 3 subclasses have (Freezing, Invisibility, Radiant, or Restoration)
• Super can be outmaneuvered by ranged supers such as Golden Gun, Dawnblade, or Hammer of Sol.
• The All-rounder kit makes it a bit of a ‘jack of all trades master of none.’

Nightstalker

Nightstalker remains one of the most powerful kits in the game, even despite the nerfs that it has received. Invisibility is still incredible, and the map control and radar manipulation possible is not something to ignore.

Pros:

• Invisibility and Smoke Bombs allow you to fool your opponents and catch them off guard completely.
• It synergizes incredibly well with certain meta-picks such as Omnioculus or Wormhusk Crown.
• Invisibility makes you incredibly hard to see with the changes to Invisibility’s ‘visibility’ that came with Void 3.0.

Cons:

• Weak super choices. Spectral Blades is often outclassed and takes incredibly long to charge, and Tether is too inconsistent to warrant use.
• The kit relies heavily on Invisibility as much of the kit’s strength is placed on Invisibility.
• One-dimensional fragment choices. All grant Invisibility and provide little else, perhaps making the subclass slightly boring to play.

Revenant

Despite falling off in use, Revenant is still an excellent option for all hunters, as it can have such an influence on the game by merely throwing your abilities in the general direction of your opponent.

Pros:

• High utility. It can be used to help win gunfights solo or pick targets off with your teammates.
• Slowing enemies can massively help you win a fight, but freezing enemies gives your opponent a free kill.
• Strong Aspects across the board and even stronger Fragments that allow for some potent builds.

Cons:

• Poor super. Cast time is incredibly long, and there are better options if you are looking for a ‘shutdown’ super.
• Very limited kit, with only one Melee option and 3 Grenade options.
• Lack of potent freeze potential when compared to Shadebinder Warlock and lack of high movement compared with Behemoth Titan.

Strand

The brand-new subclass released with Lightfall, Strand provides unprecedented mobility, which can wreak havoc when used right. You can single-handedly initiate plays with your Grapple-Dive combo like no other class can and lead from the front in all game modes.

Pros:

• Super high level of mobility.
• High skill ceiling.
• Grappling into an Ensnaring Slam dive is a combo that, when mastered, is hard to deal with.

Cons:

• Long cooldowns.
• High-skill floor (hard to use effectively and easy to die with).
• Woefully poor super.

Best PvP Hunter Exotics

General Exotics

Armor	Class	Type	Requirements	Source	Released	Requires	Exotic Perk
Fr0st-EE5	Hunter	Legs	Free-to-Play	Exotic Engrams	Season 3	Free-to-Play	Exotic Perk: "Increased grenade, melee, and dodge regeneration while sprinting. Dodging increases your sprint speed."
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."
Wormhusk Crown	Hunter	Helm	Free-to-Play	Exotic Engrams	Season 3	Free-to-Play	Exotic Perk: "We strive to know infinity, and sharpen our minds on the whetstone of the impossible."

Due to a lack of prerequisites, neutral and more passive Exotics are often favored in PvP. Therefore, Stompees, Wormhusk, and Frostees always find a place in the meta for Hunters as they provide benefits while requiring nothing/very little to receive benefits from.

Stompees are still one of the most enjoyable Hunter exotics for PvP. The nerfs it received have affected viability quite a lot; however, they are still my pick if I’m playing PvP as they are just so fun to use.

Wormhusk Crown has been in the meta since it was released back in the Warmind DLC. Wormhusk provides unmatched instant value as it gives around a third of your health back for simply dodging. This allows you to take riskier engagements and get out with ease. Dodging is already a ‘get out of jail free card’, and Wormhusk takes this to another level.

Frostees are the pick for players who want high-ability uptime but don’t want to commit to a full-on build. By merely sprinting, you can increase your ability recharge rate by 100% and increase your Sprint Speed by 6.25% by simply dodging. Frostees will always serve players well when they want to maybe switch it up from the Stompees, but want to retain some movement speed and have high ability uptime.

Subclass-specific Exotics

Armor	Class	Type	Requirements	Source	Released	Requires	Exotic Perk
Cyrtarachne's Facade	Hunter	Helm	Lightfall	Lost Sectors	Season 20	Lightfall	Exotic Perk: "Gain Woven Mail when activating grapple. Increased flinch resistance while Woven Mail is active."
Mask of Bakris	Hunter	Helm	Beyond Light	Lost Sectors	Season 12	Beyond Light	Exotic Perk: "Replaces your Stasis subclass Dodge ability with a longer range, faster moving shift that partially cloaks you during use. After shifting, your Stasis and Arc weapons deal increased damage for a short time."

Subclass-specific Exotics normally see less use overall as they have more requirements to satisfy to reach their full potential. However, their raw strength often makes up for it.

Cyrtarachne’s Facade is a powerful option for Threadrunners. Woven Mail is solid damage resistance. Mastering the Threadrunner playstyle with Cyrtarachne’s can make you hyper-mobile and tanky.

Mask of Bakris may be one of the most fun exotics in the game. Replacing your Dodge with an extended ‘Shift’ allows you to get the drop on your opponents and completely break their ankles. Mastering this exotic can help you see incredible success as you can weave in and out of dangerous situations like nobody’s business.

Young Ahamkara’s Spine is very simple on paper. However, this simplicity shouldn’t be seen as a weakness. Ahamkara’s Spine increases Tripmine Grenade damage massively to the point where it will leave your opponent at death’s door, requiring a single shot from any weapon in the game to finish them off. Furthermore, Ahamkara’s Spine also grants Tripmine energy on Ability damage, allowing you to further abuse your explosive power.

There are plenty of other exotics that can find success, such as Athrys’s Embrace or Gemini Jester, and I recommend you experiment and find what build clicks with your playstyle the most.

Before you go…

The new Hunter Exotic is definitely worth chasing this season. We cover how to get the Mothkeeper’s Wraps in Destiny 2 here.