Not only do the revamped 3.0 Light Subclasses allow you to customize your Guardian more than ever, but they are also much more powerful than before. Are you ready to take your game to the next level? These are the best Solar 3.0 builds in Destiny 2, including builds for Titans, Warlocks, and Hunters.
And by the way, as with all the best Destiny 2 builds out there, these builds will guide you every step of the way, including essential Exotics, Mods, and more.
Top Solar builds
-- | Name | Class | Area | Subclass | Excels in | Element | Status |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Radiant Sunbracer | Warlock | PvE | Solar | Endgame | Solar | Top 3 | |
Speaker’s Support | Warlock | PvE | Solar | Casual & Endgame | Solar | ||
Radiant Assassin | Hunter | PvE | Solar | Solo Content | Solar | Top 3 | |
Galanor’s Propellant | Hunter | PvE | Solar | Endgame | Solar | ||
Caliban's Proximity | Hunter | PvE | Solar | Endgame | Solar | ||
Undying Flame | Titan | PvE | Solar | Grandmasters | Solar | Top 3 | |
Consecrated Ground | Titan | PvE | Solar | Endgame | Solar |
Updated as of Season of the Wish (S23).
Hunter Solar builds
Radiant Assassin
Excels in: Solo Content
Goal of the Build: Have infinite survivability through invisibility and a constant source of healing by having access to unlimited throwing knives.
Mandatory Gear:Assassin's Cowl
Shards of Galanor and Dragon’s Breath. A Solar Primary and close-range Special weapon are recommended.
Name: Assassin's Cowl | Class: HunterSlot: Helm | Source: Exotic EngramsRequires: Shadowkeep | Exotic Perk: Powered melee final blows grant invisibility and restore a portion of health and shields. Finishers and final blows against more powerful targets increase the duration of the invisibility and the amount of health and shields. |
CALUS Mini-Tool | Submachine Gun | Primary | Solar | Presage | Incandescent | |
Heritage | Shotgun | Special | Kinetic | Deep Stone Crypt Raid | Reconstruction |
- Aspects: Knock ‘em Dow and On Your Mark (to equip 5 Fragments).
- Fragments: Ember of Torches, Ember of Mercy, Ember of Torches, Ember of Empyrean, Ember of Singeing, and Ember of Searing.
- Abilities: Blade Barrage, Gambler’s Dodge, Knife Trick, and Healing Grenade.
- Stats Priority: Resilience 🡒 Discipline 🡒 Mobility.
- Mods:
- Helmet: Hands-On, Harmonic Siphon, Powerful Friends.
- Arms: Heavy Handed, Focusing Strike, Impact Induction.
- Chest: Concussive Dampener and Resistance Mods based on your enemies.
- Legs: Weapon Surge Mods matching your weapons.
- Class Item: Time Dilation, Reaper, Powerful Attraction.
Gameplay Loop
The gameplay loop is quite simple with Assassin’s Cowl. The goal is to chain Knife Trick kills together to ensure maximum uptime on your invisibility and to have as much healing as possible. If you miss, Gambler’s Dodge is there to pick up the slack and provide you with another melee. Gambler’s Dodge and your melee will also recharge faster by scorching enemies with your Knife Trick.
You also have options like Healing Grenade if you find yourself out of a dodge and a melee ability. This can help fill in the gaps where you may miss your abilities on a target and need some survivability.
You always want to land the final blow with your knives, so if you can’t outright one-shot an enemy, prime them first with your weapon and finish them with the knife. Constantly getting kills with your knives will spam Orbs of Power for yourself and for your team.
Galanor’s Propellant
Excels in: Endgame (Dungeons, Raids, Legend content)
Goal of the Build: Combo your abilities to keep causing Ignitions to fuel Dragon’s Breath.
Mandatory Gear: Shards of Galanor and Dragon’s Breath. A Solar Primary and Kinetic slot Fusion Rifle are recommended.
Name: Shards of Galanor | Class: HunterSlot: Arms | Source: Exotic EngramsRequires: Forsaken Pack | Exotic Perk: Hits and kills with Blade Barrage will return Super energy after the Super ends. |
Dragon's Breath | Rocket Launcher | Heavy | Solar | Season Pass | ||
CALUS Mini-Tool | Submachine Gun | Primary | Solar | Presage | Incandescent | |
Riptide | Fusion Rifle | Special | Stasis | Playlist: Crucible |
- Aspects: Knock 'em Down. Gunpowder Gamble or On Your Mark is up to you.
- Fragments: Ember of Empyrean, Ember of Torches, Ember of Ashes, and Ember of Singeing.
- Abilities: Blade Barrage, Gambler’s Dodge, Knife Trick, and Healing Grenade.
- Stats Priority: Resilience 🡒 Discipline 🡒 Intellect.
- Mods:
- Helmet: Hands-On, Solar Siphon, and Heavy Ammo Finder.
- Arms: Heavy Handed, Impact Induction, and Focusing Strike.
- Chest: Resistance Mods based on your enemies.
- Legs: 2x Solar Weapon Surge and 1x Weapon Surge Mod matching your Kinetic weapon.
- Class Item: Time Dilation, Reaper, and Powerful Attraction.
Gameplay Loop
This build entirely revolves around building your Super as fast as possible. Thanks to Shards of Galanor’s ‘Sharp Edges’ perk, we can refund up to 50% of our Super if we hit all our Blade Barrage Knives. Additionally, killing enemies with our Knife Trick will net us between 2.5-5% Super energy. This, coupled with the Super energy gain from Hands-On, nets us our Super in no time at all.
Dragon’s Breath is one of the main sources of damage we have, and to fuel it (literally), we want to cause as many Ignitions as we can. This is possible thanks to Knife Trick’s high Scorch potential and Ember of Ashes and Focusing Strike refunding our Gambler’s Dodge as often as possible.
A Fusion Rifle like Scatter Signal or Riptide allows us to get our Super back even faster as these weapons generate Super energy incredibly fast. Super energy is generated through ‘instances of damage’, not the damage value itself, meaning that every single bolt from the Fusion Rifle will grant a small bit of Super energy.
Overall, look to spam your Knife Trick to build Super energy, make sure that you are getting the full 50% refund on Blade Barrage, and look to cause as many Ignitions as you can when damaging a boss, granting your Dragon’s Breath as much power as possible.
Caliban's Proximity
Excels in: Endgame (Dungeons, Raids, Legend content)
Goal of the Build: Chain Proximity Knives back to back with constant Radiant while causing Ignitions to clear waves of enemies.
Mandatory Gear: Caliban's Hand. A weapon with Swashbuckler is recommended (Dragon’s Breath can also help).
Name: Caliban's Hand | Class: HunterSlot: Arms | Source: Lost SectorsRequires: The Witch Queen | Exotic Perk: Your Proximity Knife scorches targets it damages with its explosions, or ignites targets on a direct hit. After throwing a Proximity Knife, you gain increased melee regeneration until the knife explodes. |
Dragon's Breath | Rocket Launcher | Heavy | Solar | Season Pass |
- Aspects: Knock ‘em Down and Gunpowder Gamble for ad clear (or On Your Mark for an extra Fragment slot).
- Fragments: Ember of Torches, Ember of Empyrean, Ember of Eruption. The other Fragment is up to you.
- Abilities: Blade Barrage, Proximity Knife, and Healing Grenade for constant Restoration.
- Stats Priority: Max Mobility 🡒 Max Resilience 🡒 Discipline.
- Mods:
- Helmet: Hands-On, Heavy Ammo Finder, Heavy Ammo Scout.
- Arms: Heavy Handed, Impact Induction, and Focusing Strike.
- Chest: Concussive Dampener and Resistance Mods based on your enemies.
- Legs: Weapon Surge Mods matching your weapons.
- Class Item: Time Dilation and x2 Outreach.
Gameplay Loop
The gameplay loop for this build is very simple. The only condition that you must always meet to keep the engine running is a kill with your Proximity Knife. That is it. The build is entirely dependent on your knives, which is why you are going to want to have your Gambler’s Dodge always ready as a backup option.
With your Fragment choices, you will be able to create constant orbs through Ember of Wonder, and with Ember of Blistering, you can have high uptime on your Grenades, allowing for either more survivability with Healing Grenade or even more burning with Solar Grenade.
Getting the final blow with the knife is key. The additional Scorch damage from the Proximity Knife does not count as a knife kill, thus not causing the Ignition.
🔷 Pro tip: You can find more builds on our dedicated Hunter Builds hub.
Warlock Solar builds
Radiant Sunbracer
Excels In: Endgame (Dungeons, Raids, Legend content)
Goal of the Build: Rain terror from above by throwing an infinite amount of Solar Grenades. It provides excellent ad clear and can give you a seemingly infinite damage buff via surge mods.
Mandatory Gear: Sunbracers. A Solar weapon with Incandescent is recommended.
Name: Sunbracers | Class: WarlockSlot: Arms | Source: Exotic EngramsRequires: Free-to-Play | Exotic Perk: Increases the duration of Solar Grenades. Solar melee kills grant unlimited Solar Grenade energy for a brief time. |
CALUS Mini-Tool | Submachine Gun | Primary | Solar | Presage | Incandescent |
- Aspects:Touch of Flame and Heat Rises.
- Fragments: Ember of Ashes, Ember of Searing, Ember of Empyrean, and Ember of Resolve
- Abilities & Stats: Well of Radiance, Solar Grenade, Phoenix Dive, and Incinerator Snap.
- Stats: Max Resilience 🡒 Max Recovery.
- Mods:
- Helmet: x2 Ashes to Assets, Harmonic Siphon.
- Arms: Firepower, Bolstering Detonation, Momentum Transfer
- Chest: Relevant Resistance and Reserve Mods.
- Legs: x2 Solar Weapon Surge
- Class Item: -
Gameplay Loop
Get a kill with your charged melee ability to start the gameplay loop. If you’re struggling with this step, try binding your charged melee to a unique button so you can send it off at a more specific time.
Getting that powered melee kill will proc Sunbracers, granting you five seconds of ‘infinite’ Solar Grenades. Realistically, you can only fire a maximum of five during this time due to the time it takes to execute the animation. Swallow your first grenade to get Heat Rises, then take to the skies and watch everything below burn via your other Solar Grenades. Any kills in the air (including those from the grenades) will give you 30% of your melee energy, allowing you to repeat this loop infinitely.
If you ever fail to kill something with your melee, just get kills in the air with your weapons—you’ll get it back soon after due to Heat Rises. As a nice bonus, casting Phoenix Dive while Heat Rises is active grants Restoration, which you can extend with Solar kills via Ember of Empyrean.
Noble Assembler
Excels In: Casual & Endgame (Dungeons, Raids, Legend content)
Goal of the Build: Empower yourself and allies using support exotics and abilities such as Healing Grenade and Lumina.
Mandatory Gear: Boots of the Assembler and Lumina.
Name: Boots of the Assembler | Class: WarlockSlot: Legs | Source: Lost SectorsRequires: Beyond Light | Exotic Perk: Standing in a healing rift creates Noble Seekers that seek out allies that are not in a rift and heal them. Noble Seekers from Empowering rift grant both you and your ally a damage bonus. Each time a Noble Seeker finds one of your allies, the duration of your rift is briefly extended. |
Lumina | Hand Cannon | Primary | Kinetic | Exotic Kiosk |
- Aspects: Heat Rises and Touch of Flame.
- Fragments: Ember of Benevolence, Ember of Torches, and Ember of Solace (final Fragment is up to you).
- Abilities: Well of Radiance, Celestial Fire, Healing Grenade, and Healing Rift.
- Stats: Discipline 🡒 Resilience 🡒 Recovery.
- Mods:
- Helmet: Kinetic Siphon.
- Arms: Impact Induction, Focusing Strike.
- Chest: Resistance Mods based on your enemies.
- Legs: Innervation, Insulation.
- Class Item: Bomber.
Gameplay Loop
While there isn’t a specific gameplay ‘loop’ for this build, everything works in conjunction, and understanding all the moving parts is vital to your success.
Kills with Lumina will drop Noble Rounds, which you can shoot at allies to give both you and them a damage buff. This will also proc Ember of Benevolence, giving you more ability energy. This ability energy will give you your melee back, which, when used, will provide you and your nearby allies Radiant (which, once again, procs Benevolence). Throwing or swallowing your grenade will also grant Restoration, giving you even more ability energy.
Lastly, placing down your rift will activate Boots of the Assembler’s perk, spawning Noble Seekers and empowering allies while giving you the Ember of Benevolence buff. As you can see, everything has a place in this build, allowing you to chain support ability after support ability. Even better, you’ll receive buffs from most of these sources, making you more potent while also helping allies.
🔷 Pro tip: You can find more builds on our dedicated Warlock Builds hub.
Titan Solar builds
Undying Flame
Excels In: Solo, Endgame, Grandmasters.
Goal of the Build: This build aims to create an unkillable Titan by harnessing the power of Solar 3.0 and the Loreley Splendor exotic helm.
Mandatory gear: Loreley Splendor Helm. Solar weapons are recommended.
Name: Loreley Splendor Helm | Class: TitanSlot: Helm | Source: Lost SectorsRequires: The Witch Queen | Exotic Perk: When you have Sun Warrior, your Sunspots heal you. When you are critically wounded, create a Sunspot at your location. |
- Aspects: Sol Invictus and Roaring Flames (for endgame content) or Consecration (fun and solid too).
- Fragments: Ember of Solace, Ember of Singeing, Ember of Empyrean, and Ember of Torches.
- Abilities: Healing Grenade for extra survivability or Solar Grenade for ad clear. Throwing Hammer, Rally Barricade.
- Stats: Max Resilience.
- Mods:
- Helmet: Siphon matching your subclass.
- Arms: Heavy Handed.
- Chest: Resistance Mods based on your enemies.
- Legs: -
- Class Item: -
Gameplay Loop
This is one of the easiest and most straightforward builds for Titan. It requires little to no setup and functions extremely well in all levels of content.
This build revolves around the Loreley Splendor exotic helmet. Its exotic perk, “Cauterizing Flame,” creates a sunspot upon barricade cast or when you are critically wounded. This allows you to get the Restoration buff which regenerates your health and shields over time. This cannot be stopped by damage and only runs out when the buff itself runs out. Ember of Solace increases this duration.
Ember of the Empyrean allows you to maintain this restoration buff by chaining solar weapon kills to refresh the duration. Opting for Synthoceps instead of Loreley Splendor removes your barricade from the loop, but the whole idea of throwing your hammer over and over at enemies stays the same.
Consecrated Ground
Excels In: Endgame (Dungeons, Raids, Legend content)
Goal of the Build: Set the battlefield ablaze as your Solar cyclones lay waste to all that stand before you, and use the scorch to start the cycle again.
Mandatory gear: Pyrogale Gauntlets. A weapon with Incandescent is recommended, as the scorch will help refund melee energy.
Name: Pyrogale Gauntlets | Class: TitanSlot: Arms | Source: Lost SectorsRequires: Season 22 | Exotic Perk: Modifies Burning Maul into a single high-damage slam of your hammer that creates five cyclones of flame. Consecration's second slam creates a cyclone of flame. |
- Aspects: Sol Invictus and Consecration.
- Fragments: Ember of Ashes, Ember of Searing, Ember of Empyrean, and Ember of Torches.
- Abilities: Solar grenade, Throwing Hammer, Burning Maul.
- Stats: Resilience 🡒 Recovery 🡒 Strength.
- Mods:
- Helmet: Melee Kickstart, Heavy Handed.
- Chest: Relevant Resistance Mods, Charged Up.
- Legs: Solar Surge OR Invigoration.
- Class Item: Outreach, Reaper.
Gameplay Loop
Pyrogale Gauntlets’ perk “Percussive Flames” not only transforms Burning Maul into a one-slam Super with massive damage, but also makes your Consecration melee a mini version of this. Using the right kit, you can litter the battlefield with flames.
Simply slide into a group of enemies and use your melee ability to start the Consecration melee, and then melee again to slam back down. Scorched targets will ignite if hit by the second attack, which means anything hit by both waves will ignite. Defeat any remaining scorched targets and grab Orbs to refund the rest of your melee. Be sure to use the Sunspots from Sol Invictus to boost your ability regen further.
When using Burning Maul, it is important to note that you can cast it from a safe distance and then close the gap before slamming due to it being a one-off Super with Pyrogale’s.
🔷 Pro tip: You can find more builds on our dedicated Titan Builds hub.
Before you go…
While most of these builds are geared toward endgame content, most will be extremely lethal in casual and seasonal content. Did we miss an Solar build you think should definitely be added? Let us know in the comments below!