If you’ve just wrapped up the Lightfall campaign in Destiny 2, the power of Strand is finally freely yours to control and customize to your liking. Strand is an even more potent tool in PvE on its release than Stasis was in Beyond Light, blending crowd control and damage output together for a devastating impact on the battlefield. After Bungie opted to release all the Strand Fragments early, Destiny 2 players can already begin constructing the perfect build.
The perfect build will vary from player to player, but there are a few basics that all the good Strand builds can cover. For all of its strengths, Strand does still have flaws after all. Compared to other options such as Solar, Void, and Stasis, Strand lacks when it comes to sustain and health regeneration. This means that all good Strand builds also need to factor in armor mods that can make up for this vulnerability.
Related: How to get Strand Meditations in Destiny 2 Lightfall
For Hunters specifically, focusing your choice in Fragments and abilities on the Strand keywords most enhanced by your Aspects is also important. Every class has a different element of Strand that they excel at, and the Hunter Aspect Widow’s Silk—which grants a free additional grenade charge—can hold even greater utility than just a second Grapple should you choose to experiment.
If you want a good recommendation on where to start, here are some strong foundational Strand builds for Hunters in Lightfall that can kick off your buildcrafting adventures.
Best Strand builds for Hunters in Destiny 2 Lightfall
Suspending Strand build
Despite how tantalizing a grappling hook may be, Strand’s grenade options are just too good to pass up in favor of the extra mobility. With Widow’s Silk providing a second grenade charge as well, the Shackle Grenade gives the Hunter class some of its most potent crowd control utility in Destiny 2. Combined with the additional chance to afflict targets with Suspend via the Ensnaring Slam Aspect, you can build Strand into a CC beast not entirely different in its strength from Stasis.
Abilities
- Class ability: Gambler’s Dodge
- Grenade: Shackle Grenade
Fragments
- Thread of Generation
- Thread of Warding
- Thread of Mind
- Thread of Finality or Thread of Ascent
Mods
- Helmet: Siphon (Harmonic, Kinetic or otherwise based on your weapon loadout)
- Arms: Firepower, Heavy Handed
- Chest: Emergency Reinforcement, Font of Endurance
- Legs: Recuperation, Better Already, Strand Weapon Surge
- Class item: Time Dilation, Distribution, Bomber
As with most builds in the new mod system, building around Orb of Power creation is crucial. Recuperation and Better Already mean that every Orb picked up is providing the health and restoration benefits that Strand otherwise lacks. Plus, since Thread of Warding grants Woven Mail for every Orb obtained, that health boost is immediately backed up by a drastic buff to your damage reduction.
Thread of Mind is something of a natural fit with the Shackle Grenade and Ensnaring Slam, allowing Hunters to generate a lot of class ability energy through defeating the enemies they manage to Suspend. They can then dodge far more consistently, regenerating their charged melee ability enough to give it an impressive uptime in every encounter.
Damage-dealing Strand build
If you’ve been on social media at all since Lightfall released, you’ve probably noticed that the Hunter Strand Super—Silkstrike—is doing kind of massive damage numbers on bosses at the moment. Fortunately, there are a lot of ways to tweak your Strand build to maximize the subclass for a boss encounter even if the Silkstrike alone isn’t enough to put the finishing blow on the boss in question.
Thread of Ascent is a particularly deadly Fragment for Hunters to use. With Widow’s Silk allowing you to create a semi-permanent Grapple Tangle at the location with which you initially tether your Grapple, you can consistently connect your Grapple to the Tangle to activate the Fragment without consuming your Grenade energy. Being able to constantly reload your weapons instantly, your damage output uptime in a boss damage phase is almost unmatched.
Otherwise, much of what makes the other Strand build great applies here as well.
Abilities
- Class ability: Gambler’s Dodge or Marksman’s Dodge
- Grenade: Grapple
Fragments
- Thread of Generation
- Thread of Warding
- Thread of Ascent
- Thread of Mind or Thread of Continuity
Exotic
- Star-Eater Scales
Mods
- Helmet: Siphon (Harmonic, Kinetic or otherwise based on your equipped loadout)
- Arms: Heavy Handed, Loader (Choose the energy type of your damage phase weapons)
- Chest: Emergency Reinforcement or Font of Endurance
- Legs: Better Already, Recuperation, Weapon Surge (Choose the energy type of your damage phase weapons)
- Class item: Time Dilation, Distribution, Bomber
