The newest subclass forDestiny 2players is here with Lightfall’s arrival, and for Hunters that means the high-mobility and high actions-per-minute subclass Threadrunner. With a new Super, new aspects, and fragments, the Strand Hunter has quickly emerged as one of thebest Strand subclasses inDestiny 2thanks to its immensely high damage output and ability uptime. This guide will go through the basics of Strand Hunter and give players an idea of what to focus on when building their very own Threadrunner.
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Strand Abilities, Aspects & Fragments
TheStrand Hunteris best characterized by two things: immense Super damage and incredible ability recharge rate through its melee. With that in mind, players will want to tailor their Strand Hunter around both of these focus points. Luckily, as with other 3.0 subclassesand Stasis, Strand comes fully customizable with aspects and fragments.
Since the Hunter class abilities didn’t see any changes with Strand, they have been omitted from this guide, though for Strand generally speakingGambler’s Dodgeis better to gain melee ability energy, which is crucial forStrand builds.
Strand Melees
The newStrand Huntermelee isThreaded Spike, which lets players toss a rope dart that travels between enemies. Threaded Spike damages targets and also severs them, and any severed target has a lesser damage output. Melee hits withThreaded Spikereturn melee energy, and if players press their melee key again at the end and catch the spike, the ability refunds the most amount of energy.
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Strand Grenades
Three grenade options are available for all classes, with the first two being the stronger options for Hunters:
Strand Aspects
Strand Hunters have access to twoStrand aspectsfor now, very much focused on mobility, as well as suspending enemies.
Strand Fragments
While players have a bit of leeway with how they wish to build theirStrand Hunter, there are threeStrand fragmentsthat stand out quite strongly:
The fourth fragment slot remains flexible, depending on whetherStrand Hunterswant to focus on suspend or grapple (or a bit of both):
Hunter Strand Super
Silkstrikeis the newStrand Hunter Super, and it is incredibly powerful as of the first week of Strand being available. Players will spawn a rope dart, and pressing primary fire will swing it to deal damage, with the tip of the dart dealing the most damage. Targets killed by the rope dart explode.
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Secondary fire performs a heavy attack in a circle around the player. Players can also grapple duringSilkstriketo quickly propel themselves into a better position, making this one of the best, if not the strongest, roaming Supers in the game. Note that it is unclear whether the damage it produces as of now is its intended damage number.
Mods & Artifact Mods
Season of Defianceintroduces severalStrand-related artifact modsthatThreadrunnersshould unlock for their build.
Outside of seasonal mods,Strand Hunterswill want to focus on mods that favor melee damage, sinceStrand grenadesmostly don’t outright kill enemies and most kills will be earned from melee final blows or weapon final blows (or shooting at Tangles).
Weapons & Gear For Strand
For weapons, players can be pretty flexible with Strand. With Volatile Flow back this season, many might opt for a Void weapon instead, but if players want to keep things Strand-focused, they can go for the selection ofSeason of Defiance Strand weaponsand Neomuna Strand weapons, with a preference for the Perpetualis auto rifle and Synchronic Roulette submachine gun.
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Players who haveQuicksilver Stormunlocked should also upgrade its Catalyst, which changes the auto rifle’s weapon energy to Strand.
The newHunter Strand Exotic introduced is Cyrtarachne’s Facade. This helmet grantsStrand Hunters Woven Mailwhenever they grapple, which can be handy for Grapple builds that want to replace the Thread of Warding fragment with something a bit more niche like Thread of Ascent.
Overall, however, this Exotic isn’t as great as it sounds, especially in PVE whereOrbs of Powerare easy to generate and provide the same bonus as this Exotic without the cost ofan Exotic armorslot.
Instead, there are a few other Exotic armor options to consider forStrand Hunters:
Destiny 2: Lightfallis available on PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X/S.
