Earlier this week we published a discussion piece talking about Destiny’s Hunter class, and how Bungie took it from bottom of the pecking order to the top with new content like the Crota’s End raid, Trials of Osiris, and Prison of Elders. However, that change was only with regards to PvE; for PvP, the Hunter class in Destiny has always been a force to be reckoned with, no matter if players are using the Gunslinger or Bladedancer subclass.

However, while Destiny’s Hunters have always been strong in PvP, a recent exploit has given an already-formidable class yet another advantage. The key difference with this advantage, though, is that it is an exploit. More importantly, the exploit is drastically affecting some Destiny players’ Trials of Osiris experience, meaning Bungie will need to address it as soon as possible.

Essentially, the exploit uses two pieces of Hunter armor with the same perk – ‘Ashes to Asset’ – and doubles the impact of that perk to inordinate levels. So, while the basic Ashes to Asset perk is supposed to give Destiny Hunters some ‘Super’ energy with every grenade kill, this exploit can fill 50-75% of the Super meter with just one kill thanks to the ‘Gunslinger’ subclass’ Swarm grenade.

It’s unclear how exactly the exploit delivers such a Super boost, but it appears to have something to do with the Destiny’s damage registration, specifically on dead bodies. Normally, a Swarm grenade’s individual explosives hit a player to kill and then keep hitting the dead body to ensure they don’t spread to new targets. However, the double Ashes to Asset perk somehow tracks those dead body hits as additional grenade damage and keeps giving the player Super energy. So, if all explosives of a Swarm grenade hit a target, the player should get a sizeable boost to their Super.

Check the Hunter Ashes to Asset exploit out in action below:

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By and large, the exploit is fairly innocuous, but in Trials of Osiris it could prove extremely problematic. We’ve yet to see too many players using the exploit, but when they are, it’s possible to see an opponent pop their ‘Golden Gun’ Super several times during a match. And with three shots in the Golden Gun, there could be instances where a team full of Hunters win multiple rounds simply with their Super. Hence, why the exploit is so deadly.

So far, Bungie has yet to address the exploit, but they are no doubt aware of it. While the developer is likely finalizing their first post-House of Wolves PvP patch – i.e. the one that impacts Trials of Osiris – the hope is that they add a fix for this to the list. It’s actually strange that this exploit didn’t pop up sooner, as the ‘Ashes to Asset’ perk has been on Destiny armor since the game launched in September. Perhaps any who had discovered it didn’t realize how useful the exploit would be until now.

Have you encountered this Hunter exploit? Has it impacted your Destiny experience?