Best Destiny 2 Hunter Builds for PvE and PvP

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.

Top 10 Hunter builds

--	Name	Class	Area	Subclass	Excels in	Element	Status
	Radiant Assassin	Hunter	PvE	Solar	Mid to Endgame PvE content	Solar
	Veiled Anchor	Hunter	PvE	Void	Grandmaster Nightfalls	Void	Best in Class
	Tripmine Master	Hunter	PvE	Solar	Casual PvE Content	Solar
	Ghost of Lightning	Hunter	PvE	Arc	Mid to Endgame PvE content	Arc	Best in Class
	Silky Feast	Hunter	PvE	Strand	Mid to Endgame PvE content	Strand
	Stealthed Gyrfalcon	Hunter	PvE	Void	Mid to Endgame PvE content	Void	Best in Class
	Touch of Duskfield	Hunter	PvE	Stasis	Mid to Endgame PvE content	Stasis	Best in Class
	Star-Eating Barrage	Hunter	PvE	Solar	Mid to Endgame PvE content	Solar	Best in Class
	Igniting Knifeslinger	Hunter	PvE	Solar	Mid to Endgame PvE content	Solar
	The Woven Widow	Hunter	PvE	Strand	Mid to Endgame PvE content	Strand

More Destiny 2 Builds:

Warlock Builds

Titan Builds

Best Hunter PvE builds

Updated as of Season of Defiance (S20).

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: Given that this build will normally be used in Grandmaster Nightfalls, the weapon requirements are simply whatever weapons can be used to kill the specific Champions in that GM. For the Exotic, you’ll definitely need Omnioculus:

Armor	Class	Type	Requirements	Source	Released	Requires	Exotic Perk
Omnioculus	Hunter	Chest	Beyond Light	Lost Sectors	Season 13	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."

• Aspects: Trapper’s Ambush, 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: Gambler’s Dodge, Vortex Grenade, Trapper’s Ambush Snare Bomb, and Moebius Quiver.
• Stats: Maximum Mobility is strongly recommended to be able to have optimal invisibility rotations. High Resilience and Discipline are also recommended.
• Mods: The mods you’ll need are Surge mods matching your weapons and:

Art	Mod Name	Slot	Cost	Requirements	Effects	Type
	Heavy Ammo Scout	Helmet	1	Rank 5	When one of your ammo finder perks creates a brick of Heavy ammo for you, it also creates bricks of Heavy ammo for your allies.	General
	Heavy Ammo Finder	Helmet	3	Rank 5	Increases the drop chance of Heavy ammo on kill.	General
	Bolstering Detonation	Arms	2	Rank 5	Grants class ability energy when you cause damage with a grenade.	General
	Momentum Transfer	Arms	3	Rank 5	Causing damage with a grenade reduces your melee cooldown.	General
	Distribution	Class Item	3	Rank 5	Reduces all ability cooldowns when using your class ability near targets.	General
	Special Finisher	Class Item	1	Rank 7	Finishers generate Special ammo for the whole fireteam. Consumes 3 stacks of Armor Charge.	Active

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 you to both 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.

The 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: The Gyrfalcon’s Hauberk Exotic is an essential part of this build. Weapons with Repulsor Brace are best, such as Unforgiven, Veles-X, or The Hero’s Burden; however, weapons without Repulsor Brace can work, too, Funnelweb being a fine example. Collective Obligation is also excellent for this build.

Armor	Class	Type	Requirements	Source	Released	Requires	Exotic Perk
Gyrfalcon's Hauberk	Hunter	Chest	The Witch Queen	Lost Sectors	Season 18	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."

• Aspects: Stylish Executioner is necessary. Vanishing Step is best for the additional fragment slot, but Trapper’s Ambush can work.
• Fragments: Echo of Starvation, Echo of Persistence, Echo of Remnants, and Echo of Obscurity.
• Abilities: Moebius Quiver for your Super, Vortex Grenades, and either Dodge can work.
• Stats: Maximum Resilience and high Mobility and Discipline.
• Mods: This build is unique in the way that it functions completely on its own through the exotic and requires practically no mods.
  • Helmet: Void Siphon, Heavy Ammo Finder, and Heavy Ammo Scout
  • Arms: Firepower and Bolstering Detonation
  • Chest: Concussive Dampener and resistance mods matching your enemy’s damage
  • Legs: Surge mods matching your weapons
  • Cloak: Reaper and 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.

By the way, Volatile Rounds also offer a lot of DPS potential. This excellent video by Imagine clearly demonstrates the potential that a god-rolled Retrofit Escapade and Gyrfalcon’s Hauberk have together.

Tricky Tripminer

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

Goal of the Build: Combo your abilities to keep your Tripmine Grenade uptime as high as possible.

Mandatory Gear: Weapons with Incandescent can enhance the build. Typical meta options work well too. For the Exotic, you’ll definitely need Young Ahamkara’s Spine:

Armor	Class	Type	Requirements	Source	Released	Requires	Exotic Perk
Young Ahamkara's Spine	Hunter	Arms	Free-to-Play	Exotic Engrams		Free-to-Play	Exotic Perk: "Increases Tripmine Grenade duration and blast radius. Ability damage grants Tripmine Grenade energy."

• Aspects: Knock ‘em Down is a must. However, you can choose between Gunpowder Gamble and On Your Mark.
• Fragments: Optimal Fragments are Ember of Solace, Ember of Singeing, and Ember of Torches. Other decent options include Ember of Eruption and Ember of Char.
• Abilities: Blade Barrage, Tripmine Grenade, Knife Trick, and Gambler’s Dodge.
• Stats: High Mobility and Discipline should be specced into. Resilience is a good option too.
• Mods:
  • Helmet: Harmonic Siphon and x2 Ashes to Assets
  • Arms: x2 Firepower and Impact Induction
  • Chest: x2 Charged Up and Harmonic Resist
  • Legs: Solar Surges
  • Cloak: Time Dilation, Distribution, and Bomber

Gameplay Loop

The gameplay loop for this build is relatively simple, Tripmine>Knife Trick>Repeat. Throwing your Tripmine Grenade into a cluster of enemies or a beefier target is best for your grenade uptime. Once you have used your Tripmine, getting kills with infinite throwing knives is the way to go. Chaining Throwing Knife kills and Tripmine explosions allows you to clear out waves of enemies without even firing a bullet.

It is also worth noting that with Gunpowder Gamble ready, you effectively have two Tripmine Grenades. This is due to Gunpowder not consuming your base Tripmine Grenade, allowing you to create some massive explosions.

The Ghost of Lightning

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

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

Mandatory Gear: For the Exotic, you’ll definitely need Assassin’s Cowl. There are no “necessary” weapons for this build. However, a 1-2 punch shotgun significantly boosts this build’s effectiveness.

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."

• Aspects: Lethal Current and Flow State are the go-to’s for this build.
• Fragments: Spark of Resistance is the perfect pick for this setup; Spark of Feedback and Spark of Shock are both suitable picks too.
• Abilities: Combination Blow and Gambler’s Dodge are both required. Any Grenade works. However, Storm and Pulse Grenades are both strong picks.
• Stats: Maximum Resilience and Discipline are best.
• Mods:
  • Helmet: x2 Hands-On and Dynamo
  • Arms: x2 Heavy Handed and Impact Induction
  • Chest: Emergency Reinforcement and Concussive Dampener
  • Legs: Surge mods matching your weapons
  • Cloak: x2 Distribution and x1 Bomber

Gameplay Loop

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 immense number of Elemental Wells you generate, you will have your Grenade up very often. Due to Hands-On, you’ll be getting your Super rather quickly, so weaving these into your general gameplay simply takes practice and time with the build.
This build is 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.

If you want to learn more about this playstyle, check out this excellent Arc 3.0 Hunter Playbook video from Mactics.

The 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: A solid ad clear primary weapon is helpful (Osteo Striga and Huckleberry are among my favorites), and a high-damage Solar Heavy weapon is also valuable (Cataclysmic, Gjallarhorn, and Lament are all excellent options).

Art	Weapon	Type	Archetype	Rarity	Ammo	Element	Requirements	In loot pool?	Ammo?	Element?	Tier	Excels	Source	Craftable?	Requires	Released	Slot	Can be Crafted?
	Osteo Striga	Submachine Gun	Exotic	Exotic	Primary	Kinetic	The Witch Queen	Yes	Primary	Kinetic	Best ❘ S	PvE + PvP	Deluxe Edition		The Witch Queen	Season 16	Kinetic	Craftable
	Cataclysmic	Linear Fusion Rifle	Precision	Legendary	Heavy	Solar	The Witch Queen	Yes	Heavy	Solar	Best ❘ S	PvE	Vow of the Disciple Raid		The Witch Queen	Season 16	Heavy	Craftable
	Gjallarhorn	Rocket Launcher	Exotic	Exotic	Heavy	Solar	30th Anniversary	Yes	Heavy	Solar	Best ❘ S	PvE + PvP	Grasp of Avarice Dungeon		30th Anniversary	30th Anniversary event	Heavy	No

For the Exotic, you’ll definitely need Assassin’s Cowl:

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."

• Aspects: Knock ‘em Down is necessary. The other Aspect is up to you. However, we do recommend On Your Mark for the ability to equip 5 Fragments.
• Fragments: Ember of Torches is mandatory too. For the rest, Ember of Solace, Ember of Empyrean, Ember of Singeing, and Ember of Searing are all suitable.
• Abilities: Gambler’s Dodge, Blade Barrage, Healing Grenade, and Knife Trick.
• Stats: High Mobility and Resilience are recommended for optimal uptime on your Gambler’s Dodge and heightened levels of damage resistance.
• Mods:
  • Helmet: Hands-On, Harmonic Siphon, and Powerful Friends
  • Arms: x2 Heavy Handed and Focusing Strike
  • Chest: Concussive Dampener and Resist mods depending on enemy damage
  • Legs: Surge mods matching your weapons
  • Cloak: Time Dilation and x2 Outreach

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.

To maximize DPS, you will want the mods mentioned earlier. Simply get a throwing knife kill, grab the Solar Elemental Well that drops and deal as much damage as possible with your Solar Heavy Weapon of choice. At the same time, you have the Font of Might buff and High Energy Fire. You will also have Radiant from Ember of Torches, which can serve as a backup buff should you lose High Energy Fire or Font of Might.

Touch of Duskfield

Excels in: Grandmaster Content

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

Mandatory Gear: Headstone weapons such as the Syncopation-53 or Eyasluna are solid options for even more synergy and increased uptime on your Duskfield Grenades. Demolitionist weapons are also an excellent choice. Options like the Ogma PR6 with Demolitionist and Wellspring can be highly useful.

Art	Weapon	Type	Archetype	Rarity	Ammo	Element	Requirements	In loot pool?	Ammo?	Element?	Tier	Excels	Source	Craftable?	Requires	Released	Slot	Can be Crafted?
	Syncopation-53	Pulse Rifle	Adaptive	Legendary	Primary	Stasis	Free-to-Play	Yes	Primary	Stasis	Average ❘ B	PvP	World loot pool		Free-to-Play	Season 16	Kinetic	Craftable
	Ogma PR6	Pulse Rifle	Lightweight	Legendary	Primary	Solar	Free-to-Play	Yes	Primary	Solar	Average ❘ B	PvE	World loot pool		Free-to-Play	Season 16	Energy	No
	Eyasluna	Hand Cannon	Adaptive	Legendary	Primary	Stasis	30th Anniversary	Yes	Primary	Stasis	Best ❘ S	PvE + PvP	Grasp of Avarice Dungeon		30th Anniversary	30th Anniversary event	Kinetic	No

For the Exotic armor piece, you’ll definitely need Renewal Grasps:

Armor	Class	Type	Requirements	Source	Released	Requires	Exotic Perk
Renewal Grasps	Hunter	Arms	The Witch Queen	Lost Sectors	Season 16	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."

• Aspects: Touch of Winter and Grim Harvest are the best Aspect choices. Touch of Winter provides improved Duskfield Grenades, and Grim Harvest synergizes with certain Fragments.
• Fragments: Whisper of Torment, Whisper of Conduction, Whisper of Rime, Whisper of Chains, and Whisper of Shards. These will also allow for more survivability and even more Duskfield Grenades.
• Abilities: Duskfield Grenades and Gambler’s Dodge are the best options for maximum freezing potential.
• Stats: Maximum Discipline and Resilience are highly recommended. High Mobility is also good.
• Mods:
  • Helmet: Harmonic Siphon, Heavy Ammo Finder and Heavy Ammo Scout
  • Arms: x2 Grenade Kickstart
  • Chest: Charged Up and matching Resist mods to enemy damage
  • Legs: Stacks on Stacks and x2 Innervation
  • Cloak: x2 Bomber and Time Dilation

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 Igniting Knifeslinger

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: No specific weapons are required. However, guns that roll with Swashbuckler can synergize well with the constant melee kills you will be getting. For the Exotic, you’ll definitely need Caliban’s Hand:

Armor	Class	Type	Requirements	Source	Released	Requires	Exotic Perk
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."

• Aspects: Knock ‘em Down is necessary. The second aspect is up to you. However, we recommend On Your Mark for those extra Fragment slots.
• Fragments: Ember of Torches is a must. The remaining aspects are up to you. However, strong options include Ember of Eruption, Ember of Wonder, Ember of Empyrean, and Ember of Blistering.
• Abilities: Proximity Knife is required. Healing Grenade, Solar Grenade, or Thermite Grenade are all solid options.
• Stats: Maximum Mobility and Resilience are recommended, and high Discipline is also helpful.
• Mods:
  • Helmet: x2 Hands-On and Harmonic Siphon
  • Arms: x2 Heavy Handed
  • Chest: Concussive Dampener and resistance mods matching your enemy’s damage
  • Legs: Surge Mods matching your weapons
  • Cloak: 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.

The Woven Widow

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

Goal of the Build: Constantly swing to your refunding Grapple point and rain death from above while keeping yourself safe with Woven Mail.

Any weapon that has a single shot in the magazine, options like Blinding Breech Grenade Launchers or Witherhoard are great. Demolitionist weapons are also good picks. For the Exotic, you’ll definitely need Cyrtarachne’s Facade:

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."

• Aspects: Widow’s Silk and Ensaring Slam are the only two options currently.
• Fragments: Thread of Ascent, Thread of Generation, Thread of Transmutation, and Thread of Continuity.
• Abilities: Grapple is necessary; either dodge is fine.
• Stats: Maximum Resilience and Discipline are best.
• Mods:
  • Helmet: 2x Siphon mods matching your weapons
  • Arms: 3x Grenade Kickstart
  • Chest: Charged Up and one damage resistance mod
  • Legs: Surge matching your weapons
  • Cloak: 2x Bomber and 1x Distribution

Gameplay Loop

This build is focused on fun more than anything else. There may be niche areas of viability, but the loop is simply finding a good spot to ‘center’ your grappling around and constantly swing around using the grapple point you placed. Through Thread of Ascent, you will constantly be reloading with every single grapple, allowing you to spam shots from above with a Blinding Grenade Launcher, for example, allowing your teammates to clear up for you.

You will also be constantly gaining Woven Mail which will give you a 60% damage resistance by simply grappling. Keeping track of your grapple points and finding angles to stay away from enemies but still providing utility to your team is paramount to finding success with this build.

If you see an opportunity, you can dive into the enemies and suspend them, use your melee, get out as fast as possible, and go back to grappling.
Pro tip: You can effectively fly with triple Grenade Kickstart, simply swing around your grapple point a few times until your grenade is fully refunded and keep moving forward.

The Star-Eating Barrage

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

Goal of the Build: Optimise DPS by stacking up ‘Feast of Light’ to unleash the highest burst damage Super in the game- Blade Barrage.

Mandatory Gear: A Solar Heavy Weapon is best for optimal damage. You can use options like Bad Juju for improved super regeneration, but it is not needed and arguably not worth it.

Art	Weapon	Type	Archetype	Rarity	Ammo	Element	Requirements	In loot pool?	Ammo?	Element?	Tier	Excels	Source	Craftable?	Requires	Released	Slot	Can be Crafted?
	Gjallarhorn	Rocket Launcher	Exotic	Exotic	Heavy	Solar	30th Anniversary	Yes	Heavy	Solar	Best ❘ S	PvE + PvP	Grasp of Avarice Dungeon		30th Anniversary	30th Anniversary event	Heavy	No
	The Lament	Sword	Exotic	Exotic	Heavy	Solar	Beyond Light	Yes	Heavy	Solar	Best ❘ S	PvE	Exotic Quest		Beyond Light	Season 12	Heavy	No
	Bad Juju	Pulse Rifle	Exotic	Exotic	Primary	Kinetic	Forsaken Pack	Yes	Primary	Kinetic	Strong ❘ A	PvE	Exotic Kiosk		Forsaken Pack	Season 7	Kinetic	No

For the Exotic, you’ll definitely need Star-Eater Scales:

Armor	Class	Type	Requirements	Source	Released	Requires	Exotic Perk
Star-Eater Scales	Hunter	Legs	Beyond Light	Lost Sectors	Season 14	Beyond Light	Exotic Perk: "You gain additional Super energy from Orbs of Power you pick up. While your Super energy is full, picking up an Orb of Power overcharges your Super, causing you to gain a burst of healing when cast and a bonus to your Super damage. At maximum overcharge, you also gain an overshield."

• Aspects: Optimal Aspect combination is Knock ‘em Down and On Your Mark. Knock ‘em Down is required for optimal damage.
• Fragments: Ember of Solace, Ember of Torches, Ember of Beams, Ember of Benevolence, and Ember of Empyrean. These are the best five ‘neutral game’ Fragments for Gunslinger as they provide a plethora of benefits without requiring much input.
• Abilities: Marksman’s or Gambler’s Dodge are both viable options, Knife Trick and Healing Grenade/Solar Grenade are the best options for your Melee and Grenade, respectively.
• Stats: Maximum Resilience is recommended for improved survivability, and aiming for high Mobility and Discipline is also recommended.
• Mods:
  • Helmet: x2 Hands On, Harmonic Siphon and Font of Wisdom
  • Arms: x2 Heavy Handed
  • Chest: Charged Up and Concussive Dampener
  • Legs: Surge Mods matching your weapons
  • Cloak: Time Dilation and Distribution

Gameplay Loop

This build has a remarkably short gameplay loop, almost completed by passively gathering Orbs of Power. Prioritizing collecting Orbs is the key, so playing safe with a weapon that will generate Orbs is the way to go. Once it is time to deal damage, get a powered melee kill with your Knife Trick. This will create an Elemental Well. Super the boss, collect the Elemental Well, and start dealing damage with your Solar Heavy weapon of choice.

Once DPS has ended or you have killed the target, collect Orbs to get your Super back and have a Solar Elemental Well ready for DPS.

(Pro tip: hold Backwards while casting Blade Barrage so you move away from the target while casting. This gives the knives much better tracking, resulting in more consistent damage).

Silky Feast

Excels in: Casual Content (Seasonal Activities, Strikes, etc.)

Goal of the Build: Build your Super and utilize your abilities to unleash Silkstrike and take down bosses in a single Super.

Mandatory Gear: For weapons, Bad Juju is an option for improved super regeneration but is not needed/not worth it. For the Exotic, you’ll definitely need Star-Eater Scales:

Armor	Class	Type	Requirements	Source	Released	Requires	Exotic Perk
Star-Eater Scales	Hunter	Legs	Beyond Light	Lost Sectors	Season 14	Beyond Light	Exotic Perk: "You gain additional Super energy from Orbs of Power you pick up. While your Super energy is full, picking up an Orb of Power overcharges your Super, causing you to gain a burst of healing when cast and a bonus to your Super damage. At maximum overcharge, you also gain an overshield."

• Aspects: Widow’s Silk and Ensaring Slam are the only two options currently.
• Fragments: Thread of Wisdom, Thread of Warding, Thread of Propagation and Thread of Mind. Thread of Continuity also works.
• Abilities: When unlocked, Shackle Grenade will be best. Threaded Spike is the only melee option. Gambler’s Dodge is best for your dodge.
• Stats: Maximum Resilience and intellect are best. High Mobility is also good.
• Mods: The mods you’ll need are Siphon and Surge mods matching your weapons, plus:

Art	Mod Name	Slot	Cost	Requirements	Effects	Type
	Font of Wisdom	Helmet	3	Rank 7	You gain a bonus to intellect while you have any Armor Charge. Armor Charges decay over time.	Passive
	Melee Kickstart	Arms	4	Rank 7	When your melee energy is fully expended, you gain melee energy. Additionally, your Armor Charge is consumed and you gain additional melee energy for each stack.	Passive
	Heavy Handed	Arms	1	Rank 5	Your powered melee final blows create Orbs of Power.	General
	Charged Up	Chest	3	Rank 7	Increases the maximum number of stacks of Armor Charge you can carry by 1.	Generator
	Time Dilation	Class Item	3	Rank 7	Your decaying Armor Charge has a longer duration.	Generator
	Reaper	Class Item	3	Rank 6	After using your class ability, your next weapon final blow spawns an Orb of Power.	General

Gameplay Loop

The gameplay loop for this build is similar to that of the Star-Eating Barrage. Simply aim to build your super as fast as possible by collecting as many orbs as possible and utilizing your melee and dodge to maximize Super uptime.

During your super, you will be able to spam the light attack to deal considerable damage, taking down certain bosses with complete ease at maximum stacks, as Feast of Light x4 is a 70% Super damage bonus, making it viable for dealing with high health targets in endgame content. In a single attempt, I managed to get 80% of Phalanx Echo’s health down from the Prophecy Dungeon, and that’s without hitting all max damage shots with the super, as hitting enemies with the tip of the dart will guarantee the most damage.

The downside of this build is the lackluster neutral game; however, if you can play around that and passively build your super, you can do some big damage while looking stylish doing it.

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.

Subclasses

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.
• Low-skill floor (hard to use effectively and easy to die with).
• It can be countered by players focusing on you.

Best PvP Hunter Exotics

General Exotics

Armor	Class	Type	Requirements	Source	Released	Requires	Exotic Perk
Fr0st-EE5	Hunter	Legs	Free-to-Play	Exotic Engrams		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		Free-to-Play	Exotic Perk: "Increases sprint speed and slide distance. Improves High Jump, Strafe Jump, and Triple Jump."
Wormhusk Crown	Hunter	Helm	Free-to-Play	Exotic Engrams		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. 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, despite the nerfs, is still an excellent pick. It allows you to rotate around the map quicker and also feels brilliant to use, which is always a bonus. People like moving fast regardless of the downside, and Stompees provides this in abundance.

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
Omnioculus	Hunter	Chest	Beyond Light	Lost Sectors	Season 13	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."
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 Arc weapons deal increased damage to combatants for a short time, and you deal increased damage to all slowed or frozen combatants."

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 this increased demand, as seen with Omnioculus, Mask of Bakris, and Young Ahamkara’s Spine.

Omnioculus is arguably the single strongest exotic in the game right now for PvP. Being able to grant damage resistance to yourself and your allies is incredibly strong, and gaining another Smoke Bomb charge on top of this just tops this exotic off.

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.