Suspend ALL the enemies
The best thing about the new subclass Strand in Destiny 2: Lightfall is that you can earn Strand Meditations just by using Strand. Gone are the days of going on fetch quests for the Exo Stranger or throwing Glimmer at Ikora Rey in the Tower to unlock Aspects, Fragments, and alternative grenades. Simply use Strand anywhere in the system and Strand Meditations will drop. After grinding out some activities and killing enemies around Neomuna, we’ve discovered the best Hunter build for Strand in Lightfall Season 20.
Using the Exotic chest piece The Sixth Coyote means that we can be able to suspend enemies almost infinitely. Your dodge and jump can be any you like, as we’ll be using the dive feature to suspend enemies and won’t be using the dodge at all. You can check our full guide to Strand to discover what all of the vocabulary means in this article.
Shackle grenade
Using the new Shackle grenade is our choice here. This throws weighted Strand matter which detonates on impact, suspends targets, and creates additional suspending projectiles. Suspending enemies immobilizes them in a web of Strand matter and lifts them into the air. When suspending Guardians they cannot move freely whilst combatants cannot fire their weapons. This also stuns Unstoppable Champions. When defeated, suspended targets unwind into a Tangle.
Aspects and Fragments
We only have two Aspects at the moment so we’ll be running both of those. The first of which is Widow’s Wilk which gives an additional grenade charge and allows grapples to create a grapple Tangle at the grappling point. This gives us two fragment slots. The second Aspect is Ensnaring Slam which gives us the dive capability we discussed earlier. Activating your air move consumes your class ability energy and causes you to dive to the ground, suspending all nearby targets on impact. Using this ability will extend class ability cooldown time, unfortunately. This ability gives two fragment slots.
In terms of fragments, we can choose four. The first is Thread of Ascent which is given as soon as the Lightfall campaign is complete and you’ve done your first meditation at the Pouka Pond. This means that activating your grenade ability will reload your equipped weapon and grant increased airborne effectiveness and handling. It also grants a helpful +10 to the mobility statistic. Secondly, we’ll choose the Thread of Mind which grants class ability energy when defeating suspended targets. Next, select the Thread of Finality which creates Threadlings from Finisher final blows and grants +10 to recovery. Lastly, we’ll go with Thread of Wisdom which creates an Orb of Power when defeating suspended targets with precision final blows.
Armor and mods
We’ll be focusing on mobility, discipline, and resilience for this build’s strongest statistics. This gives us survivability as well as allows us to spam grenades regularly. On the seasonal artifact, you’ll want to select the Authorized Mods: Grenades perk which reduces the cost of any armor mods that affect grenades. Multi-siphon Mods should also be selected as it grants access to armor mods that combine the effects of the Strand, Solar, and Void Siphon mods.
On the mods selection screen choose Dynamo in the helmet slot which reduces Super cooldown when using your class ability near targets as well as some sort of Siphon mod. These Siphon mods create Orbs of Power when you do rapid final blows with that weapon subclass type. Finally, on the helmet choose Ashes to Assets which gives bonus Super energy on grenade kills.
On the arms, stack three lots of the Grenade Kickstart mod which gives grenade energy when yours is fully expended. On the Sixth Coyote chest piece add two Charged Up mods which increases the maximum number of stacks of Armor Charge you can carry by one.
For the legs, use Stacks on Stacks which gives an additional Armor Charge every time you pick up an Orb of Power. If you have the space, Insulation which reduces class ability cooldown, and Innervation which reduces grenade cooldown every time you pick up an Orb of Power will be useful here. Finally, on your class item use double Distribution mods which reduces all ability cooldowns when using your class ability near targets. This is perhaps the most important as we’ll be using our class ability when we dive to suspend enemies. If you have the grenade mod from the artifact also add on Bomber which reduces the grenade cooldown when using your class ability.
What does it do?
This combination of mods with the Sixth Coyote chest piece allows you to have a lot of ability uptime to suspend enemies. Two come from the dodge thanks to the Sixth Coyote exotic and two from grenades thanks to the Widow’s Silk aspect. This in turn means that almost every enemy you encounter can be suspended. The after-effects of this can create Tangles, Threadlings, and further suspension making this a lethal Hunter build for Strand in Lightfall and Season 20 of Destiny 2.
As Strand’s true capabilities won’t be unlocked until after the World’s First Raid race is complete on or shortly after March 10, this article is subject to updates when all fragments are unlocked.
