Best Destiny 2 Hunter Solar 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 Solar builds in Destiny 2 for PvE and PvP. And by the way, as with all the top Hunter builds, we will guide you every step of the way, including essential Exotics, Mods, and more.

Top Solar Hunter builds

--	Name	Class	Area	Subclass	Excels in	Element	Status
	Radiant Assassin	Hunter	PvE	Solar	Mid to Endgame PvE content	Solar
	Tripmine Master	Hunter	PvE	Solar	Casual PvE Content	Solar
	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

Best Hunter Solar builds for PvE

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	Season 1	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 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?	Best of?	Top Perk?
	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	Top-tier
	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	Top-tier
	Osteo Striga	Submachine Gun	Exotic	Exotic	Primary	Kinetic	The Witch Queen	Yes	Primary	Kinetic	Best ❘ S	PvE + PvP	The Witch Queen Campaign		The Witch Queen	Season 16	Kinetic	Craftable	Top-tier

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.

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.

Don’t miss our: Best Destiny 2 Hunter Arc Builds

Hunter Solar PvP build

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 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 all Hunter subclass are viable in their own way, with their own 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.

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."
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."
St0mp-EE5	Hunter	Legs	Free-to-Play	Exotic Engrams	Season 1	Free-to-Play	Exotic Perk: "Increases sprint speed and slide distance. Improves High Jump, Strafe Jump, and Triple Jump."

Due to insufficient 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.

Solar-focused Exotics

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.

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.

Before you go…

You can find all our favorite builds for Titans, Warlocks and Hunters here.