WARNING: The Final Shape brings a lot of changes to builds, Exotics, classes and subclasses. Therefore, many elements of this guide are subject to change. When the expansion goes live our team will test them extensively and update accordingly. Remember to use the "pin the post" feature to be notified of new updates then refresh your page and check the changelog at the bottom of the guide to learn more!
Welcome to the Lucky Pants Solar Hunter Build Guide! Lucky Pants are one of the best exotics for Hunter, especially Solar Hunter, for almost every situation in Destiny 2. These exotics boost your hand cannon damage up 600% after 10 hits, allowing for massive DPS. This bonus is multiplicative with other weapon buffs like Surges and Radiant, hence building around Solar Hunter. With a proper rotation Lucky Pants puts out fantastic boss damage and easily burst Grandmaster Nightfall Champions.
Lucky Pants work by readying a fully loaded hand cannon, and from there you have a brief period to start landing shots, with each one increasing the damage bonus by 60% per shot to a maximum of 600%. Once the buff expires, you gain the "Out of Luck" debuff for 10 seconds and you cannot repeat this cycle until that timer runs out. This is when you swap back to your main weapon or Heavy weapon during boss damage.
This build excels in any activity you throw it in. It has the single target damage for bossing and champions, the ad clear with Ignition, the survivability with constant Restoration, and to top it off it supports teammates with having Healing Grenades to throw often.
WARNING: Dragon's Breath requires Lightfall DLC to be obtained.
Pros
- Ammo Efficient
- Flexible Loadout
- Great Single Target
- Restoration & Radiant
Cons
- Not for long range
- Finnicky with hand cannon as main weapon
- Must remember to stow fully loaded hand cannon
Gameplay Loop
The always start off with a fully loaded and stowed hand cannon. This is treated as a special weapon, being pulled out for single targets or to wipe a group of tough enemies. Make sure you throw your Lightweight Knife to obtain Radiant, getting a precision kill with them instantly refunds melee charge or getting a kill with them while radiant so focus a weaker enemy if possible. Keep an eye out for Orbs and Firesprite as these are your methods of healing along with the Healing Grenade.
Once there is a strong enemy, such as a champion, pull out the hand cannon and shoot as fast as you can to quickly build stacks. Keep shooting even if you are missing the critical spot, and adjust your aim while continuing to rapid fire. At the end of the buff or magazine, use your Marksman's Dodge to instantly reload the hand cannon, and stow it away until the Out of Luck debuff has expired. From here, you can clear normally with your main weapon until you need to repeat this loop.
Warning: (If you do happen to use another hand cannon as your main weapon) this can be done but can ruin this loop if you are not careful. Accidentally swapping to this can consume the Lucky Pants buff at the wrong time.
Ability Breakdown
Super
- Golden Gun - Marksman - This Super synergizes with the Lucky Pants, as it is a very high damage burst Super that is capable of letting you deal damage at range which is something this build can struggle with at times. It also creates many Orbs for your teammates without you needing to kill the target if you hit your precision shots.
Abilities
- Marksman's Dodge - Reloads equipped weapon on use. Use this at the end of your Lucky Pants buff.
- Triple Jump - Jump of your choice.
- Lightweight Knife - Dual charges, provides Radiant on precision hit.
- Healing Grenade - A grenade that cures allies on impact and creates an Orb of benevolent Solar Light, granting restoration to allies when picked up.
Aspects
- On Your Mark - Precision final blows grant you and nearby allies increased weapon handling and reload speed for a short duration. Stacks 3 times. Activating your class ability immediately grants maximum stacks of On Your Mark.
- Knock 'Em Down - Your Solar Supers are enhanced. Deadshot Golden Gun has damage resistance, Marksman Golden Gun has increased duration, and Blade Barrage launches more projectiles. While radiant, final blows with your equipped Throwing Knife fully refund your melee energy.
Fragments
- Ember of Singeing - Class ability recharges faster when Scorching targets. Provides more instant reloads with Marksman's Dodge.
- Ember of Ashes - Increases Scorch stacks applied to enemies by 50%. Provides more consistent Ignition procs from Incandescent.
- Ember of Searing - Killing Scorched enemies spawns a Firesprite and grants Melee Ability Energy based on enemy rank.
- Ember of Empyrean - Solar weapon or ability final blows extend the duration of Restoration and Radiant effects applied to you.
- Ember of Mercy - Firesprite pickups grant Restoration x1 for 2 seconds. Extends Restoration's duration by the same amount if it's already active.
Gearing
Required Gear and Weapons
Lucky Pants Are required for this build as it is what gives the up to 600% damage bonus to our Hand Cannons. It is the core piece of the Lucky Pants Solar Hunter.
How to acquire:
- Purchase from Xur (his loot rotates weekly).
- Decrypting exotic engrams at Rahool (it is a random exotic drop, but prioritizes exotics you currently do not have, known as the knockout system).
- Farm the expert lost sector on Leg Armor days.
- Note: this exotic is not locked behind a DLC.
Recommended Weapons
- Kinetic Weapon: Warden's Law (Adept) - This weapon with Fourth Time's the Charm and Vorpal Weapon provides the largest damage output from a Lucky Pants damage window, provided you hit criticals to maintain ammo with Fourth Time's the Charm.
- Energy Weapon: BxR-55 Battler - This weapon with Demolitionist and Incandescent provides excellent ad clear while also increasing survivability with more Healing Grenade uptime.
- Power Weapon: Dragon's Breath - Dragon's Breath pairs extremely well with its auto-reloading functionality. Shoot this first before starting a round of Lucky Pants, as it is reloaded by the time the Lucky Pants damage window is over.
Stat Priorities
- Resilience > Discipline > Mobility.
- Resilience is the amount of damage you can take before dying, as well as your shield capacity.
- Discipline is what reduces your grenade cooldown.
- Mobility gives you more movement speed and jump height, also lowers dodge cooldown.
Learn more about the Stats available to you in Destiny 2 with our dedicated guide.
Armor Mods
- Helmet
- Harmonic Siphon - Rapid final blows create Orbs of Power.
- Heavy Ammo Finder - Increases drop chance of Heavy Ammo when defeating a target.
- Font of Wisdom - Provides a bonus of 30 Intellect while Armor Charge is active. Increases uptime of Golden Gun - Marksman.
- Gauntlets
- Harmonic Loader - Increases your Solar weapon reload speed.
- Impact Induction - Causing damage with a Powered Melee attack reduces your grenade cooldown.
- Focusing Strike - Grants Class Ability Energy upon dealing Powered Melee Damage. 7 second cooldown between activations.
- Chest
- Resist mods, your choice - choose for the activity you are going into!
- Leg
- Kinetic Weapon Surge x2 - Your Kinetic weapons gain a small bonus to damage while you have any Armor Charge. Your Armor Charge now decays over time. Collection of an Orb of Power causes you to gain 1 temporary Armor Charge.
- 2 surges adds a 17% bonus to Kinetic weapon damage. Multiplicative with our 600% Lucky Pants and 25% Radiant buffs.
- Recuperation - Replenishes health each time you pick up an Orb of Power.
- Kinetic Weapon Surge x2 - Your Kinetic weapons gain a small bonus to damage while you have any Armor Charge. Your Armor Charge now decays over time. Collection of an Orb of Power causes you to gain 1 temporary Armor Charge.
- Mark
- Time Dilation - Your decaying Armor Charge has a longer duration.
- Powerful Attraction - Use class ability to collect orbs around you automatically
- Bomber - Reduces grenade cooldown when using your class ability.
Armor Mods are unlocked by progressing your Guardian Rank. Check out the Guardian Ranks Guide for more information.
Artifact Mods
- Elemental Siphon - Create Firesprites on rapid Solar weapon kills. This creates the option to drop Ember of Searing for Ember of Char for more ad clear.
- Radiant Orbs - Another source of Radiant without needing to hit a precision hit with a powered melee.
- Shieldcrush - Faster recharge times for Healing Grenade.
Variants
- Weapons can be shifted depending on your preference.
- Malfeasance - This weapon provides a very consistent damage profile when used with Lucky Pants, while also having intrinsic Unstoppable Champion capabilities. Use this weapon if you are playing in activities full of Taken enemies, as it has a built in damage bonus versus this enemy type. The Malfeasance Catalyst provides the weapon with Vorpal Weapon.
- Zaouli's Bane or any Incandescent weapon - Zaouli's Bane is one of the best hand cannons currently and works great if you can manage not accidentally wasting your Lucky Pants buff by swapping to it while Lucky Pants are ready to be procced. Otherwise use any Incandescent weapon of your choice.
- Gjallarhorn and Edge Transit - These are two great options for heavies. Gjallarhorn is great for ad clear while maintaining solid boss damage and buffing teammate's legendary rockets. Edge Transit with Envious Assassin and Bait and Switch is one of the best DPS options with Destiny 2. Make sure to periodically swap to this weapon after kills with your other weapons to refill its magazine.
Summary
Lucky Pants Solar Hunter is one of the most versatile builds in all of Destiny 2. It can be taken into any piece of content with little to no changes needing to be made. It excels in super high burst damage while also being ammo conscious for longer damage periods and activities.
This is easily one of the strongest builds in Destiny 2 right now, if you want a build to throw together and never have to worry about changing, Lucky Pants Solar Hunter is the build for you.
Credits
Written by: Chadly
Reviewed by: Shield Maiden, Snail
