Come now, minions
With the release of Destiny 2: Lightfall came the addition of a new Darkness subclass in the form of Strand. Strand allows Guardians to wield threads and use them for incredible mobility as well as the production of some small minion-like creatures called Threadlings, which seek out enemies and deal huge damage to them. This Warlock build for Season 20 of Destiny 2 is focused on creating as many threadlings as possible, so you always have some available to call for help in defeating enemies.
You’ll want to focus on the recovery and discipline statistics in your armor. To get the build working, you’ll first need to collect Orbs of Power which gives Armor Charge. Consume your grenade energy to get five Threadlings and half of your grenade energy right back. Shooting enemies will send out the Threadlings to defeat enemies which spawns Tangles.
Using these Tangles to destroy enemies will produce more Threadlings. As long as you don’t have an active Tangle cooldown debuff you can always spawn more Tangles. Using your melee will spawn more Tangles, and using your Rift will spawn more Threadlings. There’s an almost infinite loop of destruction ongoing via the Tangles and Threadlings, but how do you get this build set up?
A new power
We’ll be using the new Strand subclass to set up this Warlock build. Firstly, you’ll want to select the Threadling Grenade which is a woven projectile that reweaves itself into Threadlings while in flight. We’ll also be using the Strand aspect of Mindspun Invocation. This gives your Threadling Grenade enhanced functionality as consuming your Threadling Grenade immediately generates five perched Threadlings. Perched Threadlings are ones that hover around you until there are enemies to damage. You can just throw the Threadling Grenade but it will only spawn three Threadlings. Consuming the grenade gives five.
The other aspect we’re using is Weaver’s Call, because this will spawn three Threadlings when you cast your rift, as well as deploy any Threadlings that are already perched. We’ve been using the healing rift to get out of sticky situations if you’re close to death, the rift will heal you and also spawn Threadlings to deal with any nearby enemies.
New Exotic boots and fragments
The new Exotic boots, Swarmers, could be earned at the end of the Lightfall campaign. These Swarmers mean that destroying a Tangle spawns a Threadling, as well as giving the Threadlings unraveling capabilities when they damage enemies. These boots are vital to the build’s looping functionality. Alongside this, equip the Strand fragment Thread of Finality which creates Threadlings when you use your finisher.
We’re also using Thread of Mind which gives class ability energy when defeating suspended targets and also unwinds them into Tangles, the Thread of Warding which grants Woven Mail when picking up an Orb of Power, and the Thread of Fury which gives melee energy when damaging targets with Tangles. Setting your melee to the arcane needle will unravel targets meaning they will unwind into a Tangle when defeated.
The Armor Charge system will come into play here as we’re going to triple-stack Grenade Kickstart on our gauntlets. This means that when our grenade energy is fully expended we will gain more grenade energy but consume Armor Charge. We’ll get Armor Charge by using the Stacks on Stacks mod on our Swarmers. We’ll spawn Orbs of Power by using Siphon mods on the helmet. Choose the ones that best match the weapon types you’re using.
On our leg armor, we will be using Insulation, to reduce class ability cooldown and Innervation, to reduce grenade energy cooldown when picking up Orbs of Power. Finally, on your class item equip three Bomber mods. These reduce grenade cooldown when using your class ability, which is your rift.
Artifact perks
Use the Volatile Flow perk on the artifact which gives all Void weapons Volatile rounds when you pick up an Orb of Power. Using a powerful Void weapon such as Funnelweb will bring this build to life, as the Volatile rounds will make defeating low-level foes a breeze as well as being able to stun Barrier Champions due to the new champion system. You’ll also want to equip the mod which gives cheaper grenade mod costs as well as Shatter Orbs.
This build is fantastic for clearing hordes of enemies such as in the new seasonal battleground activity and clears rooms quickly. Make sure that when you consume your grenade you have Armor Charge available to get the grenade energy back quickly.
Destiny 2: Lightfall is out now for PC, Xbox, and PlayStation.
