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Elemental Mechanics

The Final Shape

Last Updated:September 25, 2024|Change Log

Every Elemental Subclass plays into Buffs and Debuffs which serve an integral role in Destiny 2's moment-to-moment combat. Some mechanics serve as useful tools for defeating enemies, while others form the foundation of entire builds. Understanding how these mechanics work allows you to maximize their potential. This guide provides all the knowledge you need to master Elemental Mechanics and enhance your gameplay.

This guide covers each Elemental Mechanic with as much depth as needed to maximize an average player's understanding. That means PvP specific mechanics and highly obscure interactions are largely ignored, while lists of sources and provided examples aren't exhaustingly comprehensive. Basically, there's just a little bit more to every Elemental Mechanic than what's described here, but you don't need to worry about it.

Arc

Mechs Arc 001 1024 X 539

Strike like lightning, Guardian. Arc is an agile though fragile force of destruction - this is the "glass cannon" Element. You risk death on account of a no built-in healing or damage resistance mechanics, and your reward is speed and the ability to quickly dispatch a horde of any size.

Arc Buffs & Elemental Pickups

Amplified
Ionic Traces

Amplified is Arc's only true buff, it doesn't protect you and it doesn't help you kill things faster - it just makes YOU faster. It lasts 15 seconds and is made up of numerous small bonuses that add up to better feeling movement.

  • While Amplified, you have an additional +50 to your Mobility Stat.
    • This is especially important for Hunters, due to their reliance on the Stat. Mobility influences your non-jump Ability jump height as well as your walking and strafing speed.
  • Being Amplified also gives a passive boost to Weapon Handling and slide distance.
  • Each Arc Subclass has an Aspect dedicated to improving Amplified by adding additional effects to it. To learn more about those, check out our Class and Subclass Overview.

Becoming Amplified

  • Arc and Prismatic Subclasses that use at least one Arc Ability or Aspect have the inherent ability to become Amplified by scoring multiple kills in rapid succession with Arc damage.
  • The aforementioned Aspects on Arc Subclasses each also provide an additional way to become Amplified.

Speed Booster

Amplified uniquely has a secondary buff within it, activate it by sprinting for a brief period of time. It lingers for a few seconds after you stop sprinting or maintaining a minimum required velocity before vanishing completely. Speed Booster can be maintained even once Amplified expires!

  • Sprint speed is maximized in Speed Booster - 12.5% faster than base. If you've noticed that it feels more impactful than that, it's because the buff is raising your field of view which makes you feel faster.
    • This is the sprint speed cap, you can't get it higher through the use of Lightweight Frame Weapons or "Sprint Boots" - which themselves stack to reach this same cap.
  • While maintaining Speed Booster, you have a small damage resistance buff against combatants. This is rarely impactful, do not mistake it for a proper layer of defense.
  • Speed Booster also grants a jump height booster multiplier and an additional slide distance booster, these stack with Amplified's bonuses.

Ionic Traces are Arc's Elemental Pickup, they are highly unique among the rest of them.

  • They generate a solid chunk of Grenade, Melee, AND Class Ability Energy once collected.
  • Unlike all other Elemental Pickups, Traces don't have a cooldown - they can be generated extremely often in specific circumstances.
  • Ionic Traces automatically track their creator, traveling across the ground. No need to go out of your way to actually pick them up.
  • Like most Elemental Pickups, generated Ionic Traces can only be collected and seen by their creator.

Creating Ionic Traces

Warlock's Electrostatic Mind, the Spark of Discharge Fragment, and Coldheart are among the more common ways to create Ionic Traces.

Arc Debuffs

Jolt
Blind

Jolt is one of the most powerful offensive debuffs in the game and nearly single-handedly clears out hordes of any size with emissions of Chain Lightning.

  • Jolted enemies emit damaging Chain Lightning to ALL enemies near them once they pass a small damage threshold or die. This can trigger multiple times over the debuff's duration but with a short cooldown between each Chain Lightning emission from an individual enemy.
    • In PvE, enemies debuffed with Jolt also take Chain Lightning damage whenever it is triggered.
    • Chain Lightning damage meets the Jolt damage threshold and triggers more Chain Lightning. Jolt multiple enemies and watch the chain reaction obliterate hordes of combatants.
  • Jolt's Chain Lightning damage Stuns Overload Champions. You don't need to debuff the Champion, just any combatant near it.
  • Jolt cannot be scaled, every source of it applies the same debuff. Its duration is refreshed upon reapplication.

Blind is Arc's only defensive mechanic, though sources of it are lackluster and it is nearly identical in function to the more common non-elemental Disorienting debuff.

  • Combatants affected by Disorient or Blind that are a weaker Combatant Type than Champions - with limited exceptions - are unable to use their attacks or abilities for a variable duration.
  • Blind synergizes with Arc Subclass Fragments and Stuns Unstoppable Champions.

Solar

Mechs Solar 003 1024 X 539

Burn them down, Guardian. Solar empowers your Weapons and allows you to disintegrate enemies with damage over time and explosive debuffs while staying alive through potent healing buffs. Solar is persistence incarnate. This all comes with the drawback of lacking damage resistance and the inability to influence enemy capabilities beyond killing them.

Solar Buffs & Elemental Pickups

Restoration
Cure
Radiant
Firesprites

Restoration is a healing over time buff with different tiers. Its duration is variable, depending on the source. Certain Fragments improve this - allowing near infinite uptime of this buff in certain circumstances.

  • Restoration's healing over time is based on the buff's tier and isn't interruptible, unlike the Recovery Stat.
    • Restoration x1 heals 35 health and then shields every second, while Restoration x2 heals for 50 every second.
      • For reference, in PvE, a Guardian with 100 Resilience has 200 total health and shields.

Gaining Restoration

  • Restoration's buff tier is dependent on the source, though x2 is almost entirely exclusive to Warlock's Solar Subclass. Outside of that, Healing Grenades as well as certain Fragments and Aspects are the easiest ways to get the basic version of this buff.

The almost-duration-less Cure heals a chunk of lost health and shields over the course of a 1/10th of a second. Like Restoration, this buff has different tiers with different levels of strength.

  • Each stack of Cure restores 60 total lost health and shields.
    • For reference, in PvE, a Guardian with 100 Resilience has 200 total health and shields.
  • Cure has a short cooldown before it can be gained again.

Gaining Cure

  • Cure's buff tier is dependent on the source, though x2 is almost entirely exclusive to Warlock's Solar Subclass and Heal Clip. Outside of that Healing Grenades and certain Fragments are the easiest ways to get the basic version of this buff.

Solar's Radiant buff enhances your Weapons, granting them a 25% global damage boost. Its duration is variable, depending on the source. Certain Fragments modify this - allowing near infinite uptime of this buff in certain circumstances.

  • Global damage boost buffs don't stack, only the most powerful one active is used. For example, Radiant's 25% Weapon-specific global damage boost is overwritten by Lumina's 35% global damage boost.
  • While Radiant, your Weapons without inherent Anti-Champion effects gain the ability to over-penetrate, allowing them to damage and eventually break Barrier Champion's shields, stunning them.
  • Radiant does NOT affect Abilities (with the sole exception of Golden Gun).

Becoming Radiant

  • The most common way to obtain Radiant is through the Solar Ember of Torches Fragment or the Prismatic Facet of Dawn Fragment.

Firesprites are Solar's Elemental Pickup and are relatively simple.

  • Collecting a Firesprite grants a chunk of Grenade Ability energy.
  • The ability to Generate a Firesprite has a short cooldown.
    • Certain Exotics bypass this.
  • Firesprites are only visible to you and cannot be collected by allies.

Generating Firesprites

  • Firesprites are primarily generated by and interact with specific Solar and Prismatic Subclass Fragments.

Solar Debuffs

Scorch
Ignition
Debuff Scaling

Scorched enemies are on fire and take Solar damage over time, based on their Scorch stacks. Once combatants reach 100 stacks of Scorch, the debuff is removed and an Ignition occurs - more on that in the next tab.

  • Scorch stacks gradually decay over time if more stacks haven't been applied recently, causing damage over time to diminish.
  • Most Solar Abilities apply Scorch, and amounts vary between each one. The extremely prominent Solar Ember of Ashes Fragment increases the amount of Scorch stacks applied by all* sources.
    • For the vast majority of cases, Scorch stacks are increased by 50% - 60 stacks becomes 90 - but there are some exceptions where the fragment provides a greater or lesser or even non-existent bonus.
  • Scorch has complex scaling. Generally, the damage over time is considered to be whatever type of damage applied it.
    • For example, enemies initially Scorched by Knife Trick proc Heavy Handed when the debuff kills them.
    • This mechanic also applies to damage scaling in an extremely complex and inconsistent way. See the Debuff Scaling tab for more information.

The Ignition debuff causes enemies to detonate after a short delay, causing a massive explosion that damages all nearby combatants. In PvE, this has no damage falloff and easily annihilates hordes.

  • Enemies can be Ignited by applying 100 stacks of Scorch to them, or directly through specific Weapons and Abilities.
    • Once Ignited, enemies lose all stacks of Scorch and cannot become Scorched or Ignited for a few seconds.
  • Through Solar and Prismatic Subclasses, Ignitions are modifiable to have an increased blast radius or to apply stacks of Scorch to other combatants caught in the blast - potentially causing Ignition chain reactions.
  • Unstoppable Champions damaged by an Ignition are Stunned.
  • Ignitions have complex scaling. If created through stacking 100 stacks of Scorch, the damage is considered to be whatever type of damage applied by the initial source of Scorch. This is also true for certain sources of Scorch-less Ignitions.
    • For example, enemies initially Scorched by Knife Trick that are Ignited through Scorch proc Heavy Handed if the detonation kills them.
  • This mechanic also applies to damage scaling in an extremely complex and inconsistent way. See the Debuff Scaling tab for more information.

The damage dealt by Scorch and Ignitions uniquely takes on the qualities of whatever source applied them, and because of this it means that damage boosters that'd only apply to the source's impact damage also apply to their applied solar debuffs... Most of the time - this is an extremely inconsistent mechanic.

If all that sounded confusing, that's because it is - here's some examples of this.

Functional Debuff Scaling

  • Hunter's Ophidia Spathe stacks to enable a double damage boost to their Solar Melee Abilities. With that buff, throwing Knife Trick at an enemy causes Scorch that deals doubled damage, using the Ability again causes an Ignition that also deals double damage.
  • A similar interaction occurs with Titan's Consecration paired with Synthoceps, Warlock's Incinerator Snap paired with Winter's Guile, and Hunter's Gunpowder Gamble paired with Spirit of Verity.
  • Tommy's Matchbook's Catalyst allows it to rapidly Scorch targets. This debuff and resulting Ignitions are affected by Solar Weapon Surge.

Non-Functional Debuff Scaling

  • Stacking One-Two Punch onto the Knife Trick example above results in increased impact damage without influencing either Debuff's damage.
  • Pairing Solipsism's Spirit of the Star-Eater with Song of Flame raises the impact damage of that Super's Scorching Abilities, but doesn't modify Scorch or Ignition damage.
  • Weighted Throwing Knife's Ignition isn't influenced by Melee Damage Boosters like Ophidia Spathe or Athrys's Embrace, nor is it modified by boosting the initial Scorch source.

If you're wondering why all this is important, it's because some builds are reliant on this mechanic, in spite of its inconsistencies.

Void

Elemental Mechanics

Embrace the nothingness that you send your foes plummeting towards, Guardian. Void deploys more Elemental Mechanics than all other Elements allowing for extreme versatility. The Void Subclasses of Hunters, Warlocks, and Titans each specialize in a particular Buff and have access to a variety of Debuffs. This Element is Destiny's ultimate multi-tool, and has no weaknesses.

Void Buffs & Elemental Pickups

Invisibility
Devour
Void Overshield
Volatile Rounds
Void Breaches

Invisibility is core to Nightstalker Hunters, with each of their Aspects each revolving around it. This Buff's duration is variable depending on the source and your Build, it can also be refreshed in certain circumstances.

  • Invisibility manipulates PvE enemy AI. Combatants immediately lose the ability to directly fire upon you. They may attempt to track you, fire at your last known position, or fire upon your allies instead.
    • Using your Jump Abilities, beginning to Sprint, or using Hunter's Dodge Abilities clue enemies in to where you are, helping them track you.
    • Using other Abilities or your Weapons removes your Invisibility.
      • Becoming Invisible grants a very brief grace period where offensive actions don't remove the buff.
  • While Invisible, your Radar has significantly reduced range - this is for PvP balance.

Becoming Invisible as a Titan or Warlock

  • Your options are very limited. Other than a Hunter making you invisible through Trapper's Ambush, there's Rat King, Heartshadow, The Void Echo of Obscurity Fragment, and the Exotic Class Item's Spirit of the Assassin.

Devour is core to Voidwalker and Prismatic Warlocks, with their Feed the Void Aspect massively improving this already powerful Buff. Its duration uniquely partially refreshes when killing combatants, and is increased with Void's Echo of Persistence Fragment.

  • Obtaining Devour or killing a combatant while it is active instantly restores 10% Grenade Ability Energy (values reduced based on Ability Tier - more on that in the Destiny Data Compendium) and 100 total health or shields - this is half of a 100 Resilience Guardian's total health and shields.
    • With Warlock's Feed the Void Aspect, the Buff's duration is increased while Health and Ability restoration is doubled and decoupled from previously mentioned Ability Tier penalties.

Gaining Devour

  • Void's extremely popular Echo of Starvation Fragment is the best way to get the Buff outside of Feed the Void's built-in trigger. It also comes with the appreciated side effect of effectively giving you Innervation and an improved Recuperation.
  • There's also Buried Bloodline if you'd like Devour on Subclasses normally not intended to have it.

Void Overshields are core to Sentinel Titans, with their Aspects granting and improving them. This Buff's duration is increased with Void's Echo of Persistence Fragment.

  • Void Overshields have up to 45 health with 70% damage resistance in PvE. Basically, they protect you by giving you an additional 150 max health. That's increasing a 100 Resilience Guardian's total health and shields by 75%.
    • Only sources that generate Void Overshields restore them, the shield doesn't repair itself nor does it come back once depleted.
    • All forms of Overshield protect your normal health pool and prevent damage from interrupting your natural Recovery.
    • Not all sources of Void Overshield grant one with the full 45 health.

Gaining Void Overshields

  • Beyond Titan's myriad of Void Abilities, Aspects, and Exotics, Void Subclasses have access to the Echo of Vigilance Fragment.
  • There's also the ever-popular Destabilizing Rounds Repulsor Brace combo available on many Void Weapons, as well as the Exotic Vexcalibur.

The Volatile Rounds Buff causes your Void Elemental Weapons to instantly apply Volatile on hit. Learn more about Volatile in the Void Debuffs section below.

  • Volatile triggers upon meeting a damage threshold and damage dealt by the hit that applies the Debuff doesn't count towards that. Because of this, Volatile Rounds is most effective on Weapons with a high fire rate or multi-hit capabilities.
  • While Volatile Rounds is active, your Void Weapons without inherent Anti-Champion effects gain the ability to over-penetrate, allowing them to damage and eventually break Barrier Champion's shields, stunning them.

Getting Volatile Rounds

  • This Buff exclusively comes from Void's Echo of Instability Fragment, Prismatic's Facet of Bravery Fragment, and Hunter Exotic Armor via Gyrfalcon's Hauberk and Spirit of the Gyrfalcon.

Void Breaches are Void's Elemental Pickup and are relatively simple.

  • Collecting a Void Breach grants a chunk of Class Ability energy.
  • The ability to Generate a Void Breach has a short cooldown.
  • Void Breaches are only visible to you and cannot be collected by allies.

Generating Void Breaches

  • Void Breaches are primarily generated by and interact with specific Void and Prismatic Subclass Fragments.

Void Debuffs

Weaken
Volatile
Suppression

Void's Weaken Debuff causes enemies to take more damage from all sources based on which of the Debuff's two tiers was applied. Afflicted PvE combatants additionally have reduced movement speed and decreased accuracy.

  • Weaken effects are global Debuffs, meaning only the strongest one is applied.
    • Most Weaken effects cause enemies to take 15% additional damage. Tethering Anchors from either of Hunter's Shadowshot Supers, Tractor Cannon, and Felwinter's Helm cause enemies to take 30% additional damage.
    • Divinity has a unique non-Void Weaken effect, its 15% global Debuff doesn't work with Void-specific interactions like the Repulsor Brace Weapon Perk and the Echo of Harvest Fragment.
  • Various Void Abilities, Aspects, and Fragments allow you to Weaken enemies.

Void's Volatile Debuff makes enemies... volatile. Afflicted enemies violently explode after taking damage, damaging the Debuffed target as well as enemies in very close proximity.

  • Afflicted targets that detonate lose the Volatile Debuff, it must be reapplied before another detonation can occur.
    • Volatile has a cooldown, it can't be applied to enemies who've detonated until 1 second has passed.
  • Volatile targets only detonate after passing a threshold of damage taken, or dying.
    • The damage of the hit that applies the Debuff does NOT count towards the damage threshold.
    • When applying Volatile to a group of enemies, note that a single detonation's damage isn't enough to trigger additional detonations from nearby Volatile enemies. Though, in practice Volatile chain reactions occur very often.

Various Void Abilities, Aspects, and Fragments allow you to make enemies Volatile.

Void's uncommon Suppression Debuff is nearly identical in function to the more common non-elemental Disorienting Debuff. It has some added bonuses against Hive Guardians or other combatants with active abilities that you should remember for when Dread Tormentors suppress YOU.

  • Combatants affected by Disorient or Suppression that are a weaker Combatant Type than Champions - with limited exceptions - are unable to use their attacks or abilities for a variable duration.
  • Suppression synergizes with Void Subclass Fragments, Stuns Overload Champions, and prevents Guardians (that includes you!) from using ALL of their Abilities for the Debuff's duration, it even forces them out of their Super Abilities!
  • The aptly named Suppressor Grenade is the easiest way to Suppress enemies.

Stasis

Elemental Mechanics

Reality is chaotic and unruly; bind it and force order upon your foes, Guardian. Stasis is a highly versatile Element that revolves around crowd control and the ability to place explosively-destructible objects onto the battlefield. What Stasis lacks in single target damage output it makes up for in reliability.

Stasis Buffs, Stasis Crystals, & Elemental Pickups

Frost Armor
Stasis Crystals & Shatter
Stasis Shards

The stackable Frost Armor Buff grants increasing levels of damage resistance for a prolonged duration. Gaining more stacks refreshes its duration, and all stacks are lost when the Buff expires.

  • By default, Frost Armor stacks up to 5 times, granting 4.5% damage resistance per stack in PvE. The Stasis Whisper of Rime Fragment raises the max stack count to 8, while also increasing the Buff's duration.

Gaining Frost Armor

  • The best way to get Frost Armor is to use Harvest Aspects, each Stasis Subclass has one. They grant a stack Frost Armor and recover a small amount of health or shields every time you collect a Stasis Shard while allowing them to be easily generated.
    • Outside of this, certain Stasis and Prismatic Fragments enable Frost Armor generation for each Class.

Stasis Crystals are extremely unique physical objects that Guardians can place onto the battlefield. They can Freeze combatants, Shatter to deal damage, work as makeshift barricades, and are handy as deployable platforms.

  • Stasis Crystals have a health pool, emptying it causes them to Shatter, dealing damage to nearby combatants - this has damage falloff.
    • You deal full damage to your own Stasis Crystals. Your allies deal slightly less damage and your enemies deal significantly less. Shattering Abilities instantly destroy them, while damage towards Stasis Crystals is modifiable through certain buildcrafting elements.
    • Stasis's Whisper of Fissures and Prismatic's Facet of Ruin Fragments add a secondary weaker instance of damage to all Shatter effects.
  • When Stasis Crystals form, combatants close to them are instantly Frozen. Afterwards, their presence physically blocks gunfire and movement until they are Shattered or naturally expire after 15 seconds.

Creating Stasis Crystals

  • Stasis Crystals are easily created with Glacier Grenades and the Headstone Perk available on many Stasis Weapons.
    • Beyond these, there are certain Subclass options and Exotic Weapons that get the job done.

Shatter Damage Scaling

  • Stasis Crystal Shatter damage is scalable, since the damage has the same typing of whatever created the Crystal.
    • For example, Spirit of Verity allows the Stasis Crystals spawned by Prismatic Titan's Glacier Grenades to deal doubled Shatter damage.
    • More commonly, Stasis Crystals made through Headstone scale with Stasis Weapon Surge while potentially proccing Stasis Siphon and other perks on the Weapon once Shattered.

WARNING: Stasis Crystal Shatter damage scaling has not been explored as thoroughly as other Elemental Mechanics. The above interactions have been tested, but you may run into inconsistencies. If you do, join our Discord and report them by pinging the author in Destiny-2-Maxroll-Feedback.

Stasis Shards are Stasis's Elemental Pickup and are highly involved. There are two tiers of Stasis Shard, with larger Shards having extremely limited generation sources. All Stasis Subclasses have access to Harvest Aspects, granting a means to generate this Elemental Pickup while granting them additional effects.

  • Stasis Shards are uniquely shared to your whole fireteam, everyone can collect them.
  • Collecting a Stasis Shard grants a chunk of Melee Ability energy.
    • Large Stasis Shards grant massively increased energy.
    • Stasis's Whisper of Hunger Fragment massively increases this effect, though it is not shared with allies.
  • When using a Harvest Aspect, collecting Stasis Shards grants stacks of Frost Armor and heals a small amount of health. This effect is not shared with allies.
  • The ability to generate Stasis Shards goes on cooldown after multiple are quickly generated across your whole Fireteam.
    • Having multiple Guardians on Stasis Subclasses is made disadvantageous due to this.
  • Using the Whisper of Conduction Fragment, Stasis Shards gain the ability to automatically home in on you if you are nearby. This effect is not shared with allies.

Generating Stasis Shards

  • Outside of Harvest Aspects which each have a unique way of generating Stasis Shards, certain Stasis and Prismatic Subclass Fragments allow you to create them.

Stasis Debuffs

Slow
Freeze & Shatter

The stackable Slow Debuff causes enemies to have reduced movement speed and accuracy, though having more Slow stacks doesn't actually modify the Debuff's penalties. Instead, combatants who reach 100 stacks of Slow are instantly Frozen, causing all stacks to be removed. More on Freezing in the next tab.

  • In PvE, Slow stacks are removed all at once when the Debuff expires, instead of gradually.
    • Stasis's highly impactful Whisper of Durance raises Slow's duration while making most duration based Stasis Abilities last longer.
  • Stasis Abilities which don't outright Freeze combatants instead Slow them. Duskfield Grenades, Shurikens, and Bleak Watcher Turrets easily Slow enemies.
  • Overload Champions are Stunned upon receiving any amount of Slow stacks.

Freeze is an extremely complex Debuff, with varying effects for Boss and non-Boss combatants. What they have in common is that Frozen enemies can be Shattered, dealing damage to them and nearby enemies and unfreezing them. Enemies can be Frozen through the accumulation of Slow, being near Stasis Crystals as they form, and through a variety of Abilities and Weapons.

Freeze Mechanics Common for all Combatants

  • Frozen targets are immune to Slow, it's impossible to keep an enemy permanently Frozen.
  • In PvE, Frozen targets take 10% increased damage from Special and Heavy Ammo Weapons, 5% reduced damage from Primary Ammo Weapons, and 5% increased damage from Arc Solar and Void Abilities.
    • Stasis's Whisper of Rending Fragment changes the Primary Ammo Weapon penalty into a potent increase.
  • Dealing significant damage to or defeating any Frozen enemy causes them to Shatter.

Freeze Mechanics for non-Boss Combatants

These mechanics do NOT apply to Boss combatants. Champions are not Boss combatants.

  • Frozen enemies are unable to move, attack, or do much of anything really - they are literally encased in Ice. Combatants are freed when the Debuff expires, leaving them unharmed.
    • This effect is handy for nullifying the threat of non-boss Wyverns, Hive Guardians, Tormentors, Subjugators, and all Champions.
  • Frozen enemies take significantly more Melee damage. This effect is similar to One-Two Punch meaning that many Melee Abilities are incompatible. These two effects do not stack, the most potent buff overrides the other and in most cases that is Freeze.
    • Refer to Destiny Data Compendium's Weapon Perk entry for One-Two Punch for more information about compatible Melee Abilities.
    • Yes, Conditional Finality is effectively a One-Two Punch shotgun.

Freeze Mechanics for Boss Combatants

These mechanics ONLY apply to Boss combatants.

  • Frozen Bosses are not at all hindered, despite being encased in Ice. The Debuff has a reduced duration here, and if they are not manually Shattered, an Auto-Shatter occurs when the Debuff expires. While Auto-Shatter damage is scalable, damage-triggered Shatters are not.
    • Thanks to this mechanic, there are some circumstances where you'd deal more damage to a Boss by NOT damaging it.
  • Auto-Shatter damage is scalable, and the damage has the same typing of whatever Instantly-Froze or initially Slowed the target.
    • All Weapons capable of Slow and Freezing as well as specific Abilities inherently have greatly increased Auto-Shatter damage, even without further buffs.
    • Auto-Shatter is further scaled through damage boosting effects like Stasis Weapon Surge, Spirit of Verity for Grenades, and Spirit of Synthoceps for Melee Abilities.

WARNING: Auto-Shatter damage scaling has not been explored as thoroughly as other Elemental Mechanics, following a rework to Shatter damage. The above interactions have been tested, but you may run into inconsistencies. If you do, join our Discord and report them by pinging the author in Destiny-2-Maxroll-Feedback.

Strand

Elemental Mechanics

Fashion reality itself into your desires, Guardian. Strand lends itself to an extremely fast paced playstyle, utilizing multiple extremely unique mechanics to force your foes out of the Weave of reality. This Darkness Element offers you a blend of survivability, crowd control, speed, and damage overtime.

The Strand subclass requires access to the Lightfall DLC to unlock.

Strand Buffs & Elemental Pickups

Woven Mail
Tangles
Unraveling Rounds

Outside of PvP, Woven Mail is an extremely simple and yet highly impactful Buff to help keep you alive while in the fray. Most sources of the Buff last 10 seconds, but the popular Thread of Warding and Facet of Purpose Fragments grant it for only 5 seconds.

  • In PvE, Woven Mail grants an unconditional and massive 45% damage resistance.
    • That's it. There's nothing else to this.

Generating Woven Mail

  • Outside of the aforementioned Fragments, Berserker Titans have the easiest access to this powerful Buff, with the Into the Fray Aspect and the Abeyant Leap Exotic Armor.

Of all the Elemental Pickups, Tangles are the only ones you actually pick up. Whether you shoot them, throw them, or Grapple to them, they're always appreciated.

  • Tangles can be held as a relic and have a small health pool, destroying them or throwing them causes them to detonate, dealing damage to nearby combatants.
    • Tangles dissipate after a long duration if not collected, destroyed, or thrown.
    • Your allies can also interact with your Tangles, potentially to your detriment.
  • Using Grapple on a Tangle fully refunds the Grenade's Ability Charge, allowing you to swing yourself around very quickly for little investment.
    • Made a Tangle that's some distance away? You can Grapple to it and pick it up, then throw it into the air to Grapple onto it again as it flies to cover absurd distances very quickly, all without putting an Ability on cooldown!
    • Grapple-Tangles are a special form of Tangle spawned from Widow's Silk and Navigator's Catalyst. These can be freely Grappled to, but can't be picked up or detonated.
  • Each Strand Subclass has Aspects that add additional effects to Tangle detonations. For more information, check out our Class and Subclasses Guide!

Generating Tangles

Tangles cannot be generated without having a Strand Ability or Aspect equipped - not a concern for Strand Subclasses, but you do need to go out of your way a bit to get them on Prismatic.

  • Killing any enemy afflicted with Unravel, Sever, or Suspend creates a Tangle at their point of death.
    • Creating Tangles has a long cooldown that cannot be reduced.

The Unraveling Rounds Buff causes your Strand Elemental Weapons to instantly apply Unravel on hit. Learn more about Unravel in the Strand Debuffs section below.

  • While Unraveling Rounds is active, your Strand Weapons without inherent Anti-Champion effects gain the ability to over-penetrate, allowing them to damage and eventually break Barrier Champion's shields, stunning them.

Getting Unraveling Rounds

  • This Buff exclusively comes from Strand's Thread of Propagation Fragment and Prismatic's Facet of Bravery Fragment.

Strand Debuffs & Threadlings

Unravel
Sever
Suspend
Threadlings

Strand's Unravel spreads like a plague, afflicted enemies release numerous Unraveling Threads when taking small amounts of damage with a short cooldown. These Threads home in on enemies to deal a small amount of damage while applying or reapplying the Unravel Debuff.

  • Unraveling Threads often attack the enemy they spawned from, refreshing the duration of Unravel.
    • In practice, once an enemy is Unraveled, they are doomed to be Unraveled for the rest of their life. This adds up to a sizable amount of additional damage dealt to them over time.
  • Strand and Prismatic Warlocks are very good at applying Unravel, with their high-uptime Arcane Needle Melee Ability. Otherwise, Grapple's Melee Attack also applies the Debuff, though its usage is more restrictive.

Sever is an extremely simple yet highly impactful Debuff to help keep you alive while in the fray.

  • In PvE, Severed combatants deal 40% less damage for a long duration, further extended by Strand's Thread of Continuity Fragment.
    • That's it. There's nothing else to this.
  • Hunter and Titan's Strand Melee Abilities apply Sever.
    • There's also the extremely useful Fragments from Strand and Prismatic Subclasses that allow your Weapons to Sever by hitting rapid precision hits.

Suspend is Strand's dedicated crowd control Debuff, with varying effects for Boss and non-Boss combatants.

  • Using Strand's Shackle Grenade is the easiest way to Suspend enemies, though there are also some Aspects available to each Strand Subclass if you'd like to use another grenade.

Suspend Mechanics for non-Boss Combatants

These mechanics do NOT apply to Boss combatants. Champions are not Boss combatants.

  • Targets affected by Suspend are... suspended in the air and are unable to move, attack, or do much of anything really. Miniboss and Champion combatants break free of this effect faster than other enemies.
    • This effect is handy for nullifying the threat of non-Boss Wyverns, Hive Guardians, Tormentors, Subjugators, and all Champions.
    • Raising Suspend's duration through Strand's Thread of Continuity Fragment massively increases its effectiveness.

Suspend Mechanics for Boss Combatants

  • Suspended Bosses are not at all hindered, the Debuff's Suspending Threads instead snap after a few seconds, dealing notable single-target damage to the Boss.
  • Suspend-Snap damage is scalable, and the damage has the same typing of whatever Suspended the target.
    • Suspend-Snap scales through damage boosting effects applicable to Suspend's source. For example, Strand Weapon Surge applies to Wish-Keeper's Snare, while Warlock's Verity's Brow enhances Shackle Grenade.

WARNING: Suspend-Snap damage scaling has not been explored as thoroughly as other Elemental Mechanics. The above interactions have been tested, but you may run into inconsistencies. If you do, join our Discord and report them by pinging the author in Destiny-2-Maxroll-Feedback.

Strand's Threadlings are summoned isopod-like creatures made entirely out of Strand-Matter explosives. They have no quarrels with the task of hunting down your enemies to achieve mutually assured destruction.

  • Broodweaver and Prismatic Warlocks with at least one Strand Aspect or Ability have exclusive access to the Threadling Perch mechanic.
    • With this, Threadlings that fail to reach an enemy return to you and Perch onto you instead of exploding for nought. Perched threadlings are redeployed when you deal damage to an enemy, and aren't shy to return again if they miss their mark.
  • Summoned Threadling's explosive damage is scalable and inherits the properties of whatever spawned it. Strand's Thread of Evolution Fragment also improves their damage and makes them faster.
    • For example, a Weapon with Hatchling and Demolitionist is able to spawn Threadlings that grant bonus Grenade Ability Energy when they kill combatants. If Strand Weapon Surges were active, those would increase the spawned Threadling's damage as well.
    • WARNING: Perched Threadlings lose their inherited properties and their ability to scale.
  • Beyond Hatchling, the aptly named Threadling Grenade is a great way to summon green isopods. Broodweaver Warlocks have numerous Aspects dedicated to Threadling generation, learn more in our Class and Subclasses Guide!

Prismatic

Elemental Mechanics

Transcend the divisions and limitations of Light and Darkness, they need not apply to you, Guardian. Prismatic Subclasses have access to every previously discussed Elemental Mechanic, no matter if it originates from Light or Darkness. Their combined amalgamation is enhanced through Prismatic's exclusive Elemental Mechanic: Transcendence.

The Prismatic subclass requires The Final Shape DLC to unlock.

Working Towards Transcendence

  • Transcendence more closely resembles a Super than any other Ability or Elemental Mechanic. It has to be worked towards, building up Light and Darkness Energy.
    • Light Energy is generated through killing or dealing Arc Solar or Void Elemental damage, and applying associated Debuffs or Buffs.
    • Dark Energy is generated through killing or dealing Strand or Stasis Elemental damage, and applying associated Debuffs or Buffs.
    • Dealing or killing with Kinetic damage generates equal amounts of Light and Dark Energy at a reduced rate.
    • Various Prismatic Fragments grant Light or Darkness Transcendence Energy after meeting certain conditions.

Using Transcendence

Filling Light and Darkness Energy meters allows you to Transcend, immediately restoring Grenade and Melee Ability Charges while giving a variety of passive bonuses for the Buff's duration. Killing enemies while Transcendent adds more time to it.

  • While Transcendent, your Grenade Ability is replaced with a unique Prismatic Grenade that deals Light and Darkness damage.
  • In PvE, being Transcendent grants a globally-stacking 5% increased Weapon damage boost, 20% damage resistance, and 10% Grenade and Melee Ability regeneration per second.
    • Dealing Melee Ability damage increases Grenade Ability regeneration speed to 35% per second for 2 seconds, and the opposite is true as well.
    • Use your Abilities, you have plenty more from where they came from!
  • When Transcendence expires, your Grenade Ability is refunded. That means there's no penalty for throwing your Prismatic Grenade - use it or lose it!

Check out our Prismatic Fragment Guide to unlock the whole of the subclass and utilize all of the elemental mechanics available to it.

Summary

There is a wide variety of Elemental Mechanics in Destiny 2, some of them are far more complex than others. Knowing how they work is critical for knowing how to fight Humanity's enemies. This article goes to great lengths to explain them all.

  • Arc revolves around Amplified, Jolted, Blind, and Ionic Traces.
  • Solar revolves around Cure, Restoration, Scorch, Ignition, Radiant, and Firesprites.
  • Void revolves around Suppression, Weaken, Volatile, Devour, Invisibility, Void Overshield, and Void Breaches.
  • Stasis revolves around Slow, Freeze, Shatter, Stasis Crystals, Frost Armor, and Stasis Shards.
  • Strand revolves around Unravel, Sever, Suspend, Threadlings, Woven Mail, and Tangles.
  • Prismatic pools mechanics from all of the other Elements and utilizes the unique Transcendence mechanic, greatly improving Guardian prowess in battle.

Credits

Written by: Xtra37

Reviewed by: AbbyHour, Tenkiei

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