Destiny 2 Season 23 Builds (DTG)

Each season, new and powerful builds are created by members of the community. Whether it be due to new weapons, exotic weapon and armor tuning, or new perks, armor, and abilities, updates that influence buildcrafting have become increasingly consistent.

Today, we’ll cover a couple of the Best Destiny 2 builds that have risen in popularity in Season of the Wish. From fully explaining loadout choices to diving into how each gameplay loop works, this is your one-stop shop for new and powerful builds this season.

Top Season 23 Builds

One of the most popular Destiny 2 Hunter builds, Shards of Galanor takes full advantage of Solar 3.0’s raw power this season.

Shards of Galanor Build (Hunter)

• Excels in: Endgame (Raids, dungeons, nightfalls, etc.)
• Goal of the Build: Provide an equal balance between ad clear and DPS through high ability, Super, and buff uptime.
• Loadout:

• Shards of Galanor Exotic Gauntlets
• Weapons:

• Kinetic: Legendary fusion rifle (Riptide, Scatter Signal, etc.)
• Energy: Sunshot or Zaouli’s Bane
• Power: Apex Predator or Dragon’s Breath

• Aspects:

• Knock ‘Em Down
• On Your Mark

• Fragments:

• Ember of Torches
• Ember of Searing
• Ember of Empyrean
• Ember of Singeing
• Ember of Mercy

• Abilities:

• Super: Blade Barrage
• Grenade: Healing or Fusion
• Melee: Knife Trick
• Class: Gambler’s Dodge

• Stats:

• Resilience
• Discipline

• Mods:

• Helmet: Hands-On, Heavy Ammo Finder, Heavy Ammo Scout
• Arms: Heavy Handed, Impact Induction, Harmonic Dexterity
• Chest: Melee Damage Resistance, x2 Any Resistance (Situational)
• Legs: x3 Solar Weapon Surge
• Cloak: Time Dilation, Powerful Attraction, Bomber

• Artifact Perks:

• Column 2: Kindling Trigger
• Column 3: Flint Striker, Torch, Heart of the Flame
• Column 4: Revitalizing Blast
• Column 5: Rays of Precision, Argent Ordnance

Gameplay Loop

Through Ember of Torches and Knock ‘Em Down, you’ll have infinite melee abilities—assuming you kill a combatant with each one. Each of these kills also grants Super ability energy via Shards of Galanor.

After getting your Blade Barrage Super, it will not only be enhanced through Knock ‘Em Down but will also automatically return a percentage of Super energy after use via Shards of Galanor.

These two loops working in tandem create constant Super abilities (and Orbs of Power for your allies), which is the core loop of this build. However, this build has a wide variety of adjacent loops, buffs, and fail-safes that should help your gameplay experience run smoothly. These include:

• Extra weapon damage (Argent Ordnance, Solar Weapon Surge)
• Weaken debuffs to priority targets (Revitalizing Blast)
• Enhanced handling and reload speed (On Your Mark)
• Healing for both you and allies (Healing Grenade, Ember of Mercy, Heart of the Flame)
• Fail-safe if you fail to get a melee ability kill (Gambler’s Dodge)

Because of how diverse this build is, it’s viable in nearly all endgame PvE encounters (both for boss damage and ad clear). While portions of it do rely on artifact perks that are only available in Season of the Wish, the core of this loop will live on through The Final Shape, especially if you take the time to master it.

Banner of War Build (Titan)

A mainstay since the release of Banner of War a few months ago, this is arguably one of the strongest Destiny 2 Titan builds right now.

• Excels in: Endgame (Raids, dungeons, nightfalls, etc.)
• Goal of the Build: Allow for high melee damage for both ad clear and DPS.
• Loadout:

• Wormgod Caress Exotic Gauntlets
• Weapons:

• Kinetic: Swordbreaker (Demolitionist/Pugilist + One-Two Punch)
• Energy: Zaouli’s Bane (Explosive Payload + Incandescent) or Epochal Integration
• Power: Tractor Cannon

• Aspects:

• Banner of War
• Into the Fray

• Fragments:

• Thread of Fury
• Thread of Generation
• Thread of Warding
• Thread of Transmutation

• Abilities:

• Super: Bladefury
• Grenade: Grapple
• Melee: Frenzied Blade
• Class: Towering Barricade

• Stats:

• Resilience
• Discipline
• Strength

• Mods:

• Helmet: Hands-On, Heavy Ammo Finder, Special Ammo Finder
• Arms: Heavy Handed, Impact Induction
• Chest: x3 Any Resistance (Situational)
• Legs: Invigoration, Innervation, Strand or Void Holster
• Cloak: Powerful Attraction, Bomber, Outreach

• Artifact Perks:

• Column 2: Kindling Trigger
• Column 3: Flint Striker, Torch, Wished Into Being
• Column 4: Unraveling Orbs
• Column 5: Rays of Precision, Horde Shuttle

Gameplay Loop

Through Thread of Transmutation and your abilities, you should be able to get relatively consistent Tangles to spawn. Grappling to these allows you to perform infinite grapple melees, which can be enhanced through several sources (Wormgod Caress, One-Two Punch, Banner of War).

Beyond using Tangles for grapple melees, this build is extremely similar to most other melee-focused ones—build up stacks of melee buffs (Wormgod Caress), debuff your enemies (Tractor Cannon), and use a One-Two Punch shotgun (Swordbreaker) to buff melee damage further.

Similar to our Hunter build above, this one has multiple tangental loops and buffs you can utilize. Some of these are:

• Buffs to your primary weapon (Kindling Trigger, Flint Striker, Rays of Precision)
• Damage resistance and healing for you and your allies (Banner of War, Into the Fray, Thread of Warding)
• Various additional Strand debuffs (Unravelling Orbs, Horde Shuttle)

While getting this close to enemies can be risky in some situations, the raw power of your melee through this build (and the healing/DR you receive simultaneously) is more than enough to make it worth running in nearly any PvE activity.

Solar Apotheosis Veil Build (Warlock)

Finally, for those of you rocking a Warlock, you can’t go wrong with this Apotheosis build, one of the best Destiny 2 Warlock builds today.

• Excels in: Endgame (Raids, dungeons, nightfalls, etc.)
• Goal of the Build: Relive Starfire Protocol’s glory days through Apotheosis Veil to gain extremely high burst damage.
• Loadout:

• Apotheosis Veil Exotic Helmet
• Weapons:

• Kinetic: Fusion Rifle (Riptide, Scatter Signal) or Witherhoard
• Energy: Sunshot (if no other exotic is equipped), or Zaouli’s Bane (Explosive Payload + Incandescent)
• Power: Rocket Launcher w/ Demolitionist (Apex Predator)

• Aspects:

• Touch of Flame
• Icarus Dash

• Fragments:

• Ember of Ashes
• Ember of Empyrean
• Ember of Solace
• Ember of Torches

• Abilities:

• Super: Well of Radiance
• Grenade: Fusion Grenade
• Melee: Celestial Fire
• Class: Healing Rift

• Stats:

• Resilience
• Recovery
• Discipline

• Mods:

• Helmet: Heavy Ammo Finder, Heavy Ammo Scout, Ashes to Assets
• Arms: Firepower, Harmonic Loader
• Chest: x3 Any Resistance (Situational)
• Legs: x3 Solar Surge
• Cloak: Bomber, Powerful Attraction, Reaper

• Artifact Perks:

• Column 2: Kindling Trigger
• Column 3: Flint Striker, Torch, Wished Into Being
• Column 4: Overload Rocket Launcher
• Column 5: Rays of Precision

Gameplay Loop

While other options out there are objectively more effective at burst and total DPS (such as those involving Broodweaver instead of Dawnblade with Apotheosis Veil), this one provides an outstanding balance between raw damage and fun factor.

When it comes down to it, this build begins only when your Well of Radiance Super is fully charged (the process of which can be quickened through Wished Into Being and Ashes to Assets). From here, popping your Super will grant seven seconds of infinite ability spam. This is your prime burst damage segment: alternate between spamming rockets and grenades (the latter of which will reload the former via Demolitionist).

Beyond this short DPS window, this build brings much of the potency found in other recent Solar builds through artifact perks. With the combination of Kindling Trigger, Flint Striker, Rays of Precision, and a potent Solar hand cannon, you’ll be able to demolish ads as if that were this build’s highlight.

The Final Word

Looking for more Destiny 2 builds? Follow @destinytrack, @TheBuildHubGG, and @Blueberriesgg on Twitter/X. They all share top-tier builds and infographics throughout the season!