Destiny 2 offers a wealth of customization options, from the cosmetic and fashionable to the form and functional. But few things are quite as impactful in guardians’ repertoire as the Elemental Well mods that now dominate endgame PvE.
When Elemental Wells first emerged as a replacement for the Charged With Light and Warmind Cell mods that had previously been permanently equipped in every PvE loadout, they were lackluster, to say the least. But a series of major buffs and the addition of more interesting mod effects means that Elemental Wells are now an essential tool to master if you want to tackle Grandmaster Nightfalls or raids with ease.
However, Elemental Wells can be daunting at first glance, requiring both mods to spawn them and mods to give those spawned any kind of useful effect. Get a head start with your loadouts by familiarizing yourself here with the basics, and then feel free to experiment and find what works best for you.
Elemental Well mods explained
Elemental Wells function off of a system that relies on matching energy types. Generating Wells tends to require two things: at least one mod equipped that allows you to spawn them, and an equipped weapon or subclass that matches the energy type of the Wells you want to create. Ideally, both your weapons and subclass should take on the same element, as many of the best Elemental Well mods require your subclass to match the energy type of the picked-up Well to trigger.
All Elemental Well mods are Combat Style mods, which means that only one can be slotted on each piece of armor you have equipped. This gives you only five potential mod slots to work with when creating an Elemental Well build. It’s important, then, to first equip the likes of Elemental Armaments or Elemental Ordnance—mods that allow for your weapons or abilities to spawn Elemental Wells—before adding mods that grant those Wells additional benefits.
If you only equip a spawner mod, the Elemental Wells that you generate still have some amount of use. Each that you pick up will grant a small amount of energy to your ability with the current lowest energy. If your subclass matches the energy type of the Well, it will instead grant energy to all of your abilities. But where Elemental Wells shine is when you pair the spawner mods with effect mods.
Elemental Well mods such as Font of Might take the Elemental Wells that you spawn and imbue them with powerful bonus properties if you meet their requirements. Font of Might is a popular pick because it can grant a 25 percent damage boost for 10 seconds—a far more sizeable buff than several other damage boosts available in Destiny 2. This bonus damage only applies in certain conditions, though.
Once again, matching energy types comes back into play here: Font of Might’s damage bonus is only granted to the player if their equipped subclass matches the Elemental Well. It also only grants that damage boost to weapons of that same energy type. If you want Font of Might to work with a Solar weapon, you will need to run a Solar subclass and making sure any spawner Elemental Well mods you have equipped are only going to be spawning Solar Wells too.
An example of a Font Of Might Elemental Well build could be:
- Elemental Armaments: This spawns Elemental Wells from weapon final blows with an energy type matching your subclass.
- Elemental Ordnance: This spawns Elemental Wells from grenade final blows that match your subclass energy type.
- Font of Might: This grants weapons that match your subclass energy type a 25 percent damage boost when picking up Elemental Wells of the same energy type.
- Elemental Time Dilation: This increases the duration of any time-limited effects that Elemental Wells currently grant you, such as Font of Might.
This is only one such configuration, and there’s a lot of freedom as to how and when you spawn Elemental Wells. Different effect mods can do anything from grant health regeneration upon pickup of an Elemental Well to granting a big bonus to grenade energy. It’s all down to what best enhances your personal experience.
Those effect mods—Well of Life and Well of Ordnance, respectively—are part of a subsection of Elemental Well mods that have some important distinctions. Neutral mods like Elemental Armaments or Font of Might are flexible, allowing you to generate and benefit from Elemental Wells of the energy type you choose. However, some mods come with an attached energy type to them, and the Elemental Wells that they spawn or require will be of that energy type exclusively.
Well of Life and Well of Ordnance’s effects are powerful, but they will only trigger if the Elemental Wells that you pick up are Solar. This means an optimal build involving them will require the player to run a Solar subclass and spawner mods that generate Solar Wells exclusively. Mods such as Explosive Wellmaker can be great for this, since it’s another Solar Elemental Well mod that will only generate Solar Wells and is fairly easy to activate.
Here’s an example of an Elemental Well build focused around grenades, utilizing a Solar subclass:
- Elemental Ordnance: This spawns Elemental Wells from grenade final blows that match your subclass energy type.
- Explosive Wellmaker: This spawns a Solar Elemental Well after you rapidly defeat combatants with explosive damage, like grenades.
- Well of Ordnance: This grants additional grenade energy when you pick up a Solar Elemental Well
- Well of Ordnance: This mod can stack, meaning that by equipping a second Well of Ordnance mod on a different piece of armor, you can increase the amount of grenade energy granted by it by a significant amount.
Just like with any mod that has an attached energy type to it, you will need to be wearing armor pieces that also have that energy type in order to be able to equip them. It can be tough to gather enough armor pieces with high-stat rolls to have a diversity of energy types available, but as Elemental Wells are an inherently endgame mechanic, you will most likely have a variety of available armor to work with by the time these mods are needed.
How to get Elemental Well mods in Destiny 2
The one issue facing new players getting into Destiny 2 now is that Elemental Well mods are hard to come by if you missed the season they were first introduced in. Where they were previously available for purchase through seasonal vendors, they are now available exclusively through Ada-1’s rotating store in the Tower. Make sure to keep an eye on her stock since it changes daily and can feature any and all of the most crucial mods needed for an effective Elemental Well build.
With each new Elemental Well mod you purchase, the more possibilities expand out before you as to what loadouts you can bring into endgame content. Powerful options such as Font of Might will be great beginner options, but the more niche Elemental Well mods focused on ability generation or empowered melees can be just as potent in the right hands.
