With Destiny 2’s Lightfall expansion less than a month away, launching on Feb. 28, Bungie has finally begun to uncover some of the juicy details surrounding the new Strand subclass coming with it. Strand is the second ‘Darkness’ subclass after Stasis, and will be a power that Guardians uncover throughout their investigation of Neomuna.
For Hunters, Bungie wanted the Strand subclass to represent a re-focusing on agility and speed, which is baked into the name of their subclass: Threadrunner.
“While every Strand Guardian class will have access to the grapple and the array of mobility options it brings, the Hunter takes movement and speed to an entirely new level,” the team explained in a new in-depth blog breaking down the intricacies of Strand.
Hunters achieve this through their unique Aspects and their Super, each one built to enhance both the Grapple ability and a Hunter’s combat prowess in the air. As the Grapple ability functionally takes up your grenade slot though, players will need to choose between the mobility it can provide or the functionality of Strand’s actual grenade options such as Threadling and Shackle Grenades.
All Strand Hunter abilities in Destiny 2 Lightfall
Silkstrike (Super)
Silkstrike represents the “lethal combination of grapple and rope dart” in the eyes of Bungie’s design team. When activated, the Hunter wields a rope dart that comes with both a light and heavy attack similar to the Arc Staff. Both the light and heavy attack can be used in the air as well as on the ground, built to either deal with single targets or groups depending on the situation.
If you hit an enemy with the tip of the rope dart, it not only deals bonus damage but a kill will cause the enemy to explode. Achieving this precision will be easier with the light attacks, as the heavy attack for Silkstrike has the Hunter perform a wide swing in a 360-degree arc that damages all nearby enemies with a bit less finesse.
Threaded Spike (melee ability)
For their melee ability, the hunter throws out their rope dart toward enemies. The rope dart can bounce between enemies, both damaging and debuffing them with Sever before it returns to the Hunter. Every enemy it hits will contribute to additional refunded melee energy once it returns. Players can even catch the rope dart by pressing the melee button at the right time, which will provide them with even more additional melee energy if the timing is perfected.
All Strand Hunter Aspects in Destiny 2 Lightfall
Ensnaring Slam
Similar to Aspects such as Shatterdive, Ensnaring Slam will allow you to slam back down to the ground while you’re in the air using your air-move input button. When you slam down into a group of enemies, every one of them that’s close enough will be suspended in a web of Strand and disabled to make for easy pickings.
Widow’s Silk
Players who want to invest in the Grapple will be happy to see this Aspect, which grants Hunters an additional grenade charge. This means you can have two Grapple charges at any given moment. With this Aspect equipped, Hunters also leave behind a persistent Tangle when using Grapple. When grappled to, this Tangle fully refunds your grenade energy, allowing Hunters to set up a chain of multiple such grapple points for them and their team.
All Strand Hunter Fragments in Destiny 2 Lightfall
Fragments are a universal tool available to all classes that can further enhance the core of their Strand builds. With each class being a master of a specific element of Strand, Fragments can allow them to bump up their abilities in areas that they might be lacking compared to their contemporaries. While Warlocks are masters of summoning Threadlings—small explosive minions—Hunters struggle a lot more without Fragments, for example.
Here are all the Fragments we know of so far.
- Thread of Ascent: Activating your grenade ability reloads your weapon and grants increased weapon handling and airborne effectiveness for a short time.
- Thread of Fury: Damaging targets with a detonated Tangle grants melee energy.
- Thread of Finality: Finishers now generate Threadlings.
- Thread of Warding: Picking up an orb of power grants Woven Mail (damage resistance).
