Explode Everything with Caliban’s Hand Hunter Solar 3.0 Build in Destiny 2

Caliban’s Hand was introduced in Season of the Haunted, to a very muted response, given it had some bugs. Bungie has fixed that now, and Caliban’s Hand is up there with one of the best Hunter Exotic armour pieces in the game right now, which is effective in all levels of content, and makes running around as a Hunter pretty fun. Today I am going to run through a Hunter Solar 3.0 build with Caliban’s Hand, we’ll look at the aspects, fragments, weapons and mods, so you can ignite everything that gets in your way.

Young Ahamkara’s Spine has been a goto build for many Hunters since Solar 3.0 was released, given how easy it is to chain together multiple knife kills. Now that Caliban’s Hand has been fixed, Star-Eater Scales and Young Ahamkara’s Spine have some tough competition.

In Hotfix 4.1.5 Bungie said

• Fixed an issue where Caliban’s Hand behaviour was different between PvE and PvP.
• Ignition will now proc when defeating enemies by both direct hits and explosions for both PvE and PvP.
• This fix introduced a new issue we are investigating where Caliban’s Hand will only apply scorch to a single target.
• Fixed an issue where Caliban’s Hand wasn’t working as intended with Radiant and the Knock ’em Down aspect.

The key change is this one, “Ignition will now proc when defeating enemies by both direct hits and explosions for both PvE and PvP.” this is going to make it much easier to make things explode with ease.

This build today is going to be focused around ignitions, which is a fancy Solar 3.0 way of saying make things explode. In other builds, we have been using scorch to build up stacks, which culminates in ignitions (or explosions). Here’s we’re going to skip the scorch stacks and jump straight to the explosions. This is going to be achieved through a combination of our Exotic Armour, Caliban’s Hand, plus our Aspects and Fragments.

The main perk of Caliban’s Hand is Roast ‘Em – Your Proximity Knife scorches targets it damages with its explosions, or ignites targets on final blow. After throwing a Proximity Knife, you gain increased melee regeneration until the knife explodes. We’re going to buff these effects with the fragment Ember of Eruption, where Solar ignitions have increased area of effect. Basically, this fragment is going to make our explosions bigger, dealing more damage to more enemies.

Given we’re going to be running around with a throwing knife and constantly throwing it to explode enemies, this is going to be bolstered with both aspects and fragments through Knock ‘Em Down and Ember of Torches. Torches is going to make us (and nearby fireteam members) radiant on a powered melee kill. Knock Em Down Aspect is then going to refund melee energy while radiant. Plus we have Gambler’s Dodge, which has the ability to refund out melee too, so ideally with this build we’re going to be running, throwing knives, exploding enemies and we should be able to repeat that cycle very quickly.

Solar 3.0 Setup

• Super – Blade Barrage
• Class ability – Gambler’s Dodge, dodging near enemies recharges the melee ability.
• Melee – Proximity Knife
• Grenade – Fusion Grenade

Aspects

Knock ‘Em Down – Blade Barrage launches more projectiles. While radiant, final blows with any equipped throwing knife fully refund melee energy.

Gunpowder Gamble – Defeat targets with abilities, Solar debuffs, or Solar weapons to charge up an improvised Solar explosive. Throw a solar explosive that can be shot in mid-air to cause an ignition.

Fragments

• Ember of Torches – Powered melee attacks against combatants make players and nearby allies radiant.
• Ember of Empyrean – Solar weapon or ability final blows extend the duration of restoration and radiant effects applied to you.
• Ember of Eruption – Your Solar ignitions have increased area of effect.

Knock ‘Em Down is an important one here because we want the fully refunded melee energy on a knife kill. This allows us to run around chaining together kills with the throwing knife melee. We’re going to be using Torches to get Radiant, which means an approx 20% increase to weapon damage, then increase that effect with Empyrean. Eruption is good for that increase area of effect for Solar ignitions, which we’re going to focus on because of Caliban’s Hand.

Exotic Armour

Caliban’s Hand are Exotic Hunter Gauntlets

Roast ‘Em – Your Proximity Knife scorches targets it damages with its explosions, or ignites targets on final blow. After throwing a Proximity Knife, you gain increased melee regeneration until the knife explodes.

If you haven’t yet got Caliban’s Hand, then get yourself into a Legend and Master Lost Sector solo with a Hunter on Arms day, and complete the Lost Sector for a chance at the Caliban’s Hand to drop for you.

Weapons

Kinetic – Riptide

Riptide is a Legendary Fusion Rifle dealing Stasis damage with a Rapid-Fire Frame meaning it has deeper ammo reserves. Slightly faster reload when the magazine is empty. Auto-loading Holster, Chill Clip would be a decent roll – Direct hits with the top half of the magazine cause a detonation that slows nearby targets. This gives the build a fire and ice quality.

Energy – Calus Mini Tool

Calus Mini-Tool is a Legendary Energy Submachine Gun meaning it has superb handling. Move faster with this lightweight weapon equipped. I have one with Incandescent which means Defeating a target spreads scorch to those nearby. More powerful combatants and opposing Guardians cause scorch in a larger radius. This is going to help spread scorch even more.

Power – Solar’s Scar

Sola’s Scar is a Legendary Power Solar Sword. It’s a Caster Frame meaning you can launch a heavy projectile attack. Heavy attacks are stronger with full energy. For PVE you’ll want a Chain reaction roll on this sword.

Mods

While players should prioritize high Mobility and Resilience stats for their Hunter, armour mods that create elemental wells, increase damage after picking up an elemental well, regenerate class and melee ability energy, and increase damage resistance is considered to be just as important.

I’m using some basic Elemental Well mods

• Hands-On – Gain bonus Super energy on melee kills.
• Melee Wellmaker (x3) – Powered melee combatant final blows spawn elemental wells matching your subclass energy type.
• Bountiful Wells – Elemental well mods that cause you to spawn elemental wells can now stack, spawning additional wells for each additional copy of the mod you have equipped.
• Font of Might – Picking up an elemental well that matches your subclass energy type grants a temporary bonus to weapon damage
• Classy Restoration – Activating your Solar class abilities grants your restoration

We’re creating elemental wells through our melee kills, given the constant refund of our explosive throwing knife. Bountiful Wells is going to give us more elemental wells for each instance of elemental ordnance we have, so every time we get a grande kill we’re getting two wells. Then we’re using Font of Might to boost our weapon damage, given we’re picking up Solar elemental wells.

Let me know what you think of the build in the comments, and let me know if you have any improvements.

That’s it for this Hunter Solar 3.0 build with Caliban’s Hand in Destiny 2. For more Destiny 2 content like this check out This Week In Video Games on YouTube and subscribe today.