Destiny 2 best Hunter build for PvE and PvP

Looking for the Destiny 2 best hunter build for PvE and PvP? Hunters are the most popular class in Destiny 2 for a reason. They’re often the ones that dish out the most damage in fireteams and they also have the potential to go solo if need be. But even though this class is inherently strong, its potential is wasted if it isn’t being funneled into the right build.

You’ll want to make sure your Hunters are well-suited to tackle all the challenges of Destiny 2 season 23 and beyond. To help your hunter stand out and stack up against the Destiny 2 Best Titan build and Destiny 2 Best Warlock build, here are some of our suggestions for the best PvP and PvE Hunter Builds.

Best PvE Hunter Build in Destiny 2

The best Destiny 2 hunter build for PvE is a void build, empowered with void weapons and the Orpheus Rig exotic.

Subclass and Equipment setup

Here’s how you’ll want to set up your subclass and your weapons and armour to make the most of this build.

• Subclass: Void Nightstalker
• Super Ability: Shadowshot: Deadfall
• Grenade: Vortex Grenade
• Melee: Snare Bomb
• Class Ability: Gambler’s Dodge
• Aspects: Vanishing Step and Stylish Executioner
• Fragments: Echo of Instability, Echo of Cessation, Echo of Starvation, Echo of Harvest
• Exotic Armor: Orpheus Rig
• Weapons: You need to run at least one void weapon for this build, though two are recommended. The Funnleweb SMG and Recurrent Impact machine gun would be our top choices.

Seasonal Artifact mods

To make the most of this build, there are four mods in particular to make sure you include. These are:

Authorised Mods: Void – armor mods affecting void weapons cost less energy.

Unto The Breach – While using void subclass, defeating any target with a void debuff creates a Void Breach.

Protective Breach – Picking up a Void Breach gives an overshield, or refreshes an existing overshield.

Supernova – Picking up a void breach causes your next source of void damage to explode, inflicting Weakness onto nearby foes.

Stats

Keeping all your abilities recharged is important in this build. Should the flow of combat be interrupted and buffs or debuffs disappear, it’s vital to re-establish the rhythm as fast as possible. For this reason, we recommend making Discipline a key focus so that you can regenerate your grenades as quickly as possible for Volatile Rounds. Intellect is a good secondary focus if you want to maximise your super regen, but don’t ignore Resilience and Restoration, as survivability during the super intermission phase is just as important as the super-grenade cycle itself.

How the build works

This build is predominantly centred around one main focus – your super. Once fully setup, utilising the combat cycle this build provides should refresh your super exceptionally quickly, with an additional combat cycle during recharges to account for the instances where you won’t have it available.

First is the Synergy between Deadfall and Orpheus Rig; this is the build’s foundation. When fired, the Anchor from Deadshot will pull enemies in towards it, inflicting Weakness and Suppression at the same time. You’ll want to then throw your vortex grenade into the cluster. As soon as you tether enemies, Orpheus Rig’s perk Uncanny Arrows will generate super energy for you based on the number of targets caught. Upon grenade kills, you’ll generate additional super energy from the kills themselves, and orbs of power thanks to the Echo of Harvest fragment. That same fragment will also generate Void Breaches.

Void Breaches are the second part of this build. Combined with the recommended mods, what we’ve covered so far should see you regenerating your super to full in two minutes or less depending on the density of enemies in a given engagement. While this is fantastic, it’s impossible to have your super active forever, and there will always be some downtime. Void Breaches are your key to staying alive during this part of the cycle.

You’ve got several ways of generating Void Breaches. Echo of Instability gives your void weapons Volatile Rounds on grenade kills, which means you’ll usually have the buff after your initial super-grenade attack. Echo of Cessation provides a backup, inflicting the Volatile debuff onto nearby enemies whenever you perform a finisher. That same fragment aso generates a Void Breach whenever you defeat Volatile targets, which is why this debuff is relevant. Defeats on Weakened enemies thanks to Echo of Harvest is another way to get Breaches, as mentioned. Most prominently of all the Unto The Breach artifact perk grants a Void Breach for defeating an enemy with any form of void debuff. Put together, these three methods make Void Breaches very easy to come by.

Once you pick up a Breach, three things will happen. First, Protective Breach will give you an overshield, enhancing survivability. Second, Supernova will cause your next void damage source to inflict Weakening onto nearby enemies. Third, Echo of Starvation will grant you Devour – you can also get this from orbs of power though. Devour is one of the strongest buffs in the game, and will grant you back health whenever you defeat enemies. It’s like a more effective but more demanding version of Karnstein Armlets. Combined with the overshield, this will make you extremely survivable. The Vanishing Step and Stylish Executioner aspects grant you Invisibility whenever you dodge or kill debuffed enemies, opening an avenue to disengage from firefights or reposition.

You may also have noticed that the seasonal artifact mods provide an additional benefit. Once you’ve Weakened a target or made them Volatile, killing them will activate Unto The Breach, as well as either Echo of Cessation or Echo of Harvest, generating Void Breaches. Picking these up will activate all the benefits it provides, like Protective Breach, and also prime Supernova to inflict Weaken. You can then defeat these targets again, activating Unto the Breach and Echo of Cessation, and so on, until your super is recharged.

When working perfectly, this build will give you a powerful super that inflicts arrays of debuffs to enemies, followed by a range of buffs to yourself depending on how you defeat them. These buffs, prolific Invisibility and the seasonal artifact mods can keep you alive while you recharge what little of your tether, kills, and orbs of power haven’t already replenished.

As a last note, you can run Moebius Quiver instead of Deadfall for this build if you like – we simply chose the latter for its superior range and duration.

Armor mods

Here are the mods we recommend running on each piece of armour to make the most out of this build:

• Helmet – Ashes to Assets, times two. These will give you bonus super energy on grenade kills. Two mods provide grenade energy equal to a 600% super regen rate. This massively increases the effectiveness of the build, so they are must-have mods.
• Arms – Firepower, Momentum Transfer, Impact Induction. Firepower will create orbs of power from grenade kills, getting that super refresh time down even further. While we haven’t touched much on it, your Snare Bomb melee is another way to inflict Weaken onto targets. Momentum transfer will help melee ability regeneration by granting energy on grenade damage, and the small melee damage it causes will provide grenade energy thanks to Impact Induction. This ties it into the build quite nicely.
• Chest – You can use whatever mods you like for your chest armour in this build. We recommend a Void Reserves mod to keep your void weapons at capacity – cheaper thanks to Authorised Mods: Void anyway. Damage Resistance mods are also a good idea for further improving your survivability.
• Legs – Recuperation, Innervation, Invigoration. All three of these provide bonuses when picking up orbs of power. Recuperation will give you a small amount of instant health, Innervation will give grenade energy, and Invigoration will give melee energy. These will help you to stay on top of ability recharges more easily.
• Cloak – Bomber, Powerful Attraction, Reaper. Bomber will reduce your grenade cooldown when you dodge. Powerful Attraction will make it faster and easier to pick up orbs of power, improving efficiency for super regen. Reaper will guarantee an orb on your next kill after dodging, increasing orb generation yet further.

Best PvP Hunter Build in Destiny 2

The best Destiny 2 hunter build for PvP is currently a solar build, centering around Tripmine Grenades and the Young Ahamkara’s Spine exotic.

Subclass and Equipment setup

Here’s how you’ll want to set up your subclass and your weapons and armour to make the most of this build.

• Subclass: Solar Gunslinger
• Super Ability: Blade Barrage
• Grenade: Tripmine Grenade
• Melee: Proximity Explosive Knife
• Class Ability: Marksman’s Dodge
• Aspects: Knock ‘Em Down and On Your Mark
• Fragments: Ember of Ashes, Ember of Singing, Ember of Beams, Ember of Searing, Ember of Mercy
• Exotic Armor: Young Ahamkara’s Spine
• Weapons: There are no specific weapons that you need to run for this build. We’d recommend choosing whatever weapons you’re most comfortable with for PvP engagements.

Seasonal artifact mods

There are no specific seasonal artifact mods you need to equip for this build. We would still recommend a focus on the Authorization Mods, as these will make armor mods affecting certain weapon types cheaper, allowing you to fit more into your build.

Stats

For this build to reach its best potential, it’s important to focus on three stats in particular. Discipline should be your first focus, to ensure your grenades come back as fast as possible and to avoid long cooldowns if you aren’t able to perform the action chain to completion. Your next highest focus should be Mobility, to ensure your dodge is ready as often as it can be. Lastly, focus on Recovery, as faster health regen is highly applicable in PvP.

How the build works

This build centres around the Tripmine Grenade, as well as prolific use of dodging. It’s also got a lot of smaller features aimed at optimising your playstyle in Player versus Player engagements.

Tripmine Grenade excels in a PvP context due to its mine-like nature. It’s easy for enemies to trigger, deals severe damage, and has a good radius. Crucially, it helps you to control the flow of combat, cutting off paths of attack for enemies, pushing them back, or cornering them. This type of crowd control places the initiative in your court, making it that much easier to win.

The key to this build lies in Young Ahamkara’s Spine, an arm exotic for hunters, as well as utilising mods and certain fragments to establish a casual relationship between grenade and dodge abilities.

Young Ahamkara’s Spine provides a massive range of benefits to Tripmine Grenades. It enhances their damage, massively boosts their range, makes them faster to throw, and stops them from damaging you if you’re in proximity. It also gives the mines themselves extra health, making them more difficult and time consuming for enemies to destroy. It also provides grenade energy for any solar ability damage dealt. Combined with Ember of Ashes, which applies more scorch damage to targets, this results in an instant 66% grenade energy regen on a direct hit with a Tripmine Grenade. Ember of Searing creates a Firesprite for defeating Scorched targets, rewarding aggressive plays after you land even a partial grenade hit.

Firesprites are the first of several ways to add additional grenade recharge. Picking one up gives grenade energy, and thanks to Ember of Mercy they also give Restoration, healing you. The second way to boost grenade recharge is through using your dodge. With multiple Bomber mods and a Reaper mod equipped, each dodge will generate grenade energy, and a kill afterwards will create an orb of power. Running Innervation mods will mean that picking up that orb grants even more grenade energy. Thanks to Ember of Singing, inflicting Scorch will grant dodge energy. We’re also running Marksman’s Dodge as it has the shortest cooldown of all the hunter solar dodges.

These features should combine into a viable combat chain, even under pressure. Throw a grenade, dodge, kill your wounded opponent, and pick up the orb they drop. If everything igoes right, this should result in enough grenade energy to regain your grenade after the chain is complete.

To round out this build, Ember of Mercy grants Restoration upon ally revives, making it a lifesaver in competitive PvP modes. Ember of Beams and Knock ‘Em Down meanwhile will enhance your Blade Barrage, giving it better tracking and more damage for maximum destructive potential. The On Your Mark aspect meanwhile will improve your weapon handling for precision shots, making it even easier to score kills. Lastly, your Proximity Explosive Knife melee ability will act as a mini Tripmine Grenade, providing some of the same benefits in those moments when your grenade might not be available.

Armor mods

Here are the mods we recommend running on each piece of armour to make the most out of this build:

• Helmet – While there are no specific mods to run in your helmet, we recommend running Targeting Mods that match the energy damage type of your weapons, to improve their target acquisition.
• Arms – Grenade Kickstart, relevant Dexterity mods. Grenade Kickstart will give you grenade energy immediately after throwing one, alongside extra grenade energy by consuming Armor Charge after you pick up orbs of power. Dexterity mods matching your weapon energy damage type will improve the ready and stow speed for all your guns, giving you an edge in spontaneous encounters.
• Chest – We recommend running Unflinching mods that match your weapon energy damage types, to reduce flinching while aiming down sights for more accurate fire during engagements.
• Legs – Absolution, two times Innervation. When picking up an orb of power, Absolution will reduce all ability cooldowns, and Innervation will give grenade energy.
• Cloak – Reaper, two times Bomber. We’ve discussed these ones at length. Running these mods is the lynchpin to getting grenades back as quickly and efficiently as possible.

What are Hunters good at in Destiny 2?

Hunters are excellent survivalists. This survivability comes from their versatility. Hunters have the potential for exceptional solo damage, but they can just as easily inflict debuffs on enemies to setup their teammates for the killing blow. Their focus on speed and precision make them good damage dealers.

That covers everything we’ve got for the best hunter build in Destiny 2, for both PvE and PvP. We’ll be sure to keep this updated as the meta continues to change throughout the game. Be sure to check back in with us before Destiny Season 22 begins so you can go into the next step of the journey as ready as possible.

Is Hunter good for solo in Destiny 2?

The Hunter is the class with the greatest solo potential is Destiny 2, performing better without the aid of a fireteam than the Titan or Warlock.

Are Hunters the best PvP class in Destiny 2?

It’s wrong to say that Hunters are categorically the best PvP class in Destiny 2, but they do have superior mobility, agility and versatility that serves to help them survive engagements and outflank opponents.

What are the best Hunter exotics in Destiny 2?

There is no definitive best exotic for Hunters in Destiny 2. Our picks for some of the top ones would be Wormhusk Crown, Assassin’s Cowl, The Dragon’s Shadow, and Orpheus Rig.