Published , by Rise of Bacon
Published , by Rise of Bacon
Ghosts of the Deep is Destiny 2’s latest dungeon offering and has not disappointed. This Arc Hunter build is simple in setup and flawless in its execution. Combining a powerful melee ability paired with the Assassin’s Cowl Exotic helmet, this build guarantees power and the safest possible passage on the way to a solo clear.
A solo clear is required for the title and for the most skilled, an emblem available for a solo flawless clear. Not only is this dungeon a great experience it is also a source of some great looking armor and powerful loot.
The dungeon itself is split into four areas with three of them containing full encounters to clear before progressing and ultimately clearing the dungeon. We start with the Hive ritual, the underwater section, Ecthar the first boss and Simmumah, the final boss.
The Hunter build to use for a solo Ghosts of the Deep dungeon clear remains consistent throughout the whole activity. The only changes are those to weapons. You may wish to add your chosen weapons as loadouts before diving in to make your clear run smoother.
If you need a helpful guide with tips and in-depth encounter guides to get you through, check out our Ghosts of the Deep guide.
The best Hunter build is set up around the Arcstrider subclass and the only things to change are your weapon loadouts per encounter. You will need the Assassin’s Cowl Exotic Helmet and this will be equipped for the entire run.
The loop here is to use the powerful melee of Combination Blow and class ability Gambler’s Dodge to refresh your melee. Every melee kill grants invisibility with Assassin’s Cowl and Arc kills generate Orbs of Power. This will keep you consistently buffed, safe, and ready to take down whatever challenge the dungeon can throw at you.
The Season of the Deep Artifact has brought some powerful mods to unlock which complement this build perfectly. Unlock Electric Armor, Thunderous Retort, Amped Up, Lighting Strikes Twice, and Shock and Awe. All of these enhance the Arc subclass and give you the best chance for success.
The next stop is a stat and inventory check. There are a few ways to approach the bosses due to the intensity of mobs in these encounters so it's important to be set and ready before we launch the dungeon.
Ensure you go into this dungeon with 100 Resilience, this plays a huge part in keeping you alive. The 30 percent damage reduction it provides is a major difference maker due to the high enemy density during your run. With max Resilience, you can then focus on Recovery to gain your health regeneration faster when damaged and Discipline is also a solid stat to build into to keep grenades coming.
The main focus is on the best weapons to deal with the high mob density and boss health. Both bosses have high health pools so you may be looking at doing over four damage phases per boss to take them down.
Look to use weapons with high ammo economy and a powerful special weapon. Consider weapons with add clearing perks such as Voltshot or Incandescent. Notable Exotic weapons such as Riskrunner, Thunderlord, and Witherhoard all do a strong job here.
This opening encounter has plenty of Major enemies carrying chunkier health bars. An advantage here is that you can keep a good distance with plenty of rocks and trees to use as cover to play it slowly when making your way back to the middle to place the symbols.
You can use your super at any time to help clear these waves as the main focus is staying alive during the opening four phases.
Your build is not a major factor here when traversing the deep. Play smart and use the air bubbles when planning your route forward to keep your pressure gauge up.
This is more about staying alive through the jumping puzzles. Play smart and safe. If you aren’t focused on a flawless run, you can use this to help map a route with some trial and error.
There are some enemies as you get close to the first boss room. Be mindful of a Shrieker which is the only real enemy that should cause problems if you get caught off guard.
Before starting the encounter, ensure you have the right weapons selected to take on the challenge. Some top choices here are Lament, Riskrunner, a Shotgun with the One-Two Punch perk such as Wastelander, and Wendigo with the Explosive Light perk. The Lament is the safest choice for damage when battling this boss as it will help keep you safe while you block and do a good amount of damage each phase.
This Hunter build makes light work of enemies that spawn in the room so the main focus with weaponry is for boss damage. The main part is remembering the loop to dodge near enemies, melee to create orbs and go invisible, and keep moving to stay safe.
Use your super to destroy the boss’ initial shield when starting the damage phase. Gathering Storm is a powerful super and will stay up a long time after taking the shield down.
If you are confident enough, when the damage phase starts there is a shield to destroy surrounding the boss preventing you from doing direct damage. The boss’ shield can be destroyed with one shot of Arbalest but then you will need to quickly switch to another loadout to continue damage. This can be risky so if you want to go this way, try to stay safe as possible when switching loadouts.
Now entering the home stretch, this will require a tweak to your weapon loadout to help with damaging the boss. Recommended weapons here are Leviathan’s Breath, Riptide with Chill Clip, and any powerful mob clearing weapon in the special slot. Leviathan’s Breath catalyst is really strong so bonus if you have that in the bag as this weapon stuns Simmurah, making landing shots much easier. You can switch Leviathan’s Breath with a Rocket Launcher such as Hothead but it can be difficult to land shots as the boss moves almost at random and teleports to a new spot during the damage phase.
At this point you will be well versed on how to get the most out of this Hunter build and that will be tested here with pure endurance due to how high the boss' health is.
One thing to always keep your eye on are the Lucent Moths that spawn from the boss. If all of these moths hit you it will cause a wipe. When invisible and taking down the knights, always check the boss location and take out any moths you see in the arena.
When the damage phase begins, Simmumah will also have the same shield as Ecthar which you’ll need to take down before you can do direct damage. If you can stick Simmumah with your Gathering Storm super, this will cover taking down the initial shield. Once the shield has depleted, then you can start chipping away with your heavy weapon.
With this Hunter build you will have the best chance of clearing Ghosts of the Deep solo or even flawless, I wish you the best of luck, Guardian. For more Season of the Deep guide content, be sure to check out the Shacknews Destiny 2 complete strategy guide.