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The newest subclass for Destiny 2 players 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 the best Strand subclasses in Destiny 2 thanks 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

The Strand Hunter is 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 subclasses and 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 speaking Gambler's Dodge is better to gain melee ability energy, which is crucial for Strand builds.

Strand Melees

Destiny 2 Strand Hunter Threaded Spike Melee

The new Strand Hunter melee is Threaded 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 with Threaded Spike return 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

Destiny 2 Strand Grapple

Three grenade options are available for all classes, with the first two being the stronger options for Hunters:

  • Grapple: A fantastic choice for Hunters who like to go the path of mobility and focus their builds on creating Tangles (and grappling to these Tangles instantly refunds grenade energy). Meleeing at the end of grappling deals damage and unravels any enemies nearby.
  • Shackle Grenade: For Hunters who want to go the utilitarian path, the Shackle grenade detonates and suspends when hitting enemies. When it hits enemies, it creates more projectiles that seek out and suspend further targets. Shackle grenade is powerful when players want to stun and immobilize enemies. Suspended kills spawn Tangles.
  • Threadling Grenade: Easily the weakest option for Hunters, it spawns a small swarm of Threadlings that seek out enemies and deal damage to them.

Strand Aspects

Destiny 2 Strand Hunter Ensnaring Slam Aspect

Strand Hunters have access to two Strand aspects for now, very much focused on mobility, as well as suspending enemies.

  • Widow's Silk: Gain an additional grenade charge. The player's grapples now spawn grapple tangles.
  • Ensnaring Slam: Akin to Shatterdive, while in the air players can trigger this ability while their class ability is full to lunge to the ground and suspend any enemies affected by the impact.

Strand Fragments

Destiny 2 Strand Hunter Thread Of Mind Fragment

While players have a bit of leeway with how they wish to build their Strand Hunter, there are three Strand fragments that stand out quite strongly:

  • Thread of Mind: Killing suspended enemies grants class ability energy.
  • Thread of Warding: Gain Woven Mail by picking up Orbs of Power. Woven Mail reduces the amount of non-precision damage that players take.
  • Thread of Continuity: Increases the duration of various Strand effects, like suspend, unravel, and sever.

The fourth fragment slot remains flexible, depending on whether Strand Hunters want to focus on suspend or grapple (or a bit of both):

  • Thread of Generation: Gain grenade energy by dealing damage.
  • Thread of Ascent: When players activate their grenade, all weapons are reloaded and receive improved airborne effectiveness, as well as handling. A bit more niche, but great for the ultra-mobile Strand Hunter.
  • Thread of Propagation: Powered melee final blows grant Unraveling Rounds to Strand weapons. This is great regardless of class, provided players use a Strand weapon.

Hunter Strand Super

Destiny 2 Strand Hunter Silkstrike Super

Silkstrike is the new Strand 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 during Silkstrike to 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

Destiny 2 Threaded Blast

Season of Defiance introduces several Strand-related artifact mods that Threadrunners should unlock for their build.

  • Untangler: Shooting a Tangle using a Strand weapon creates an explosion, suspending nearby enemies. A must-have for most Strand builds where players use a Strand weapon.
  • Allied Unraveling: To get access to Unraveling Rounds more reliably, this mod is a must-pick. Quick Strand weapon final blows grant players Unraveling Rounds, which last longer if allies are nearby.
  • Threaded Blast: Buffs the explosion from shooting a Tangle with a Strand weapon. A fantastic addition to ad-clearing and controlling, which Strand Hunters are great at.
  • Counterweave: Only useful for Strand Hunters who plan on playing a lot of endgame PVE content with champions, Counterweave replenishes the lowest charged Strand ability of the player when a member of the fireteam kills or stuns a champion.

Outside of seasonal mods, Strand Hunters will want to focus on mods that favor melee damage, since Strand grenades mostly don't outright kill enemies and most kills will be earned from melee final blows or weapon final blows (or shooting at Tangles).

  • Heavy Handed: Powered melee final blows spawn Orbs of Power. This is vital as Orbs of Power now grant Armor Charge and make the foundation of all builds.
  • Impact Induction: Causing damage with a melee reduces the cooldown of grenade abilities. This allows Strand Hunters to cycle their cooldowns in a more fluid way, where each ability recharges the others.
  • Focusing Strike: Causing damage with melee grants class ability energy. Again, perfect for charging other abilities, especially given how easily Strand Hunters gain melee energy back by grabbing their Threaded Spike back at the end of its flight.

Weapons & Gear For Strand

Destiny-2-lightfall-exotic-bugged-quicksilver-storm-gamerant

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 of Season of Defiance Strand weapons and Neomuna Strand weapons, with a preference for the Perpetualis auto rifle and Synchronic Roulette submachine gun.

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Players who have Quicksilver Storm unlocked should also upgrade its Catalyst, which changes the auto rifle's weapon energy to Strand.

Destiny 2 Crystarachnes Facade Hunter Exotic Helmet

The new Hunter Strand Exotic introduced is Cyrtarachne's Facade. This helmet grants Strand Hunters Woven Mail whenever 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 where Orbs of Power are easy to generate and provide the same bonus as this Exotic without the cost of an Exotic armor slot.

Destiny 2 Sixth Coyote Exotic Chest Piece For Hunters

Instead, there are a few other Exotic armor options to consider for Strand Hunters:

  • Sixth Coyote: Grants two dodge charges. This is absolutely fantastic when paired with Gambler's Dodge, to quickly get that melee energy back, which will help Hunters cycle their grenade and class ability as well. It's a safe option that Threadrunners can't go wrong with.
  • Radiant Dance Machines: Another dodge-focused Exotic, players can perform a dodge multiple times in a row to gain their melee energy back.
  • Star-Eater Scales: A more niche pick, but which has been greatly buffed with Orbs of Power having returned to the forefront of the meta. Orbs will charge up the player's Super, which lets Strand Hunters deal even more damage on top of Silkstrike's currently incredible damage output.

Destiny 2: Lightfall is available on PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X/S.

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