Best PvE Loadout for Solo Players — Destiny 2: Beyond Light — Season of the Lost

As a primarily solo player in Destiny 2 PvE, I have spent a lot of time searching for a build/loadout that would be able to handle as much endgame content as possible during solo runs. The information below is a reflection of my opinion based on my personal experience as well as trial and error.

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My Class & Armor Loadout

My personal preference generic loadout is a bottom tree (Striker) or middle tree (Thundercrash) Arc Titan with armor based around One-Eyed Mask for a little extra survivability when facing multiple opponents and stat focus of close to 100 Recovery, 40–50 Resilience, and as much Intellect as possible to recharge the Super that much faster.

Thundercrash Striker Titan

Middle Tree Striker (Thundercrash) Titan

And now on to the part you are probably here for — the weapons!

Kinetic Slot

The exotic grenade launcher Witherhoard is, without question, the most useful exotic weapon in the game for solo players. It is easy to acquire and when equipped with its catalyst is devastating against all types of enemies from mobs of red bars to bosses!

Witherhoard (Masterwork)

Witherhoard Catalyst

As with other Masterwork weapons, unlocking the catalyst will cause Witherhoard to generate Orbs of Power after rapidly defeating targets. The most important thing to pay attention to in the description of what the Witherhoard catalyst unlocks is

Holstering this weapon automatically reloads it after a short period of time.

What this means is the unlocked catalyst applies the Auto-Loading Holster perk to Witherhoard which synergizes extremely well with an Energy primary weapon also sporting Auto-Loading Holster as described below.

Energy Slot

The weapon synergy that I found works best with Witherhoard in the Kinetic slot is to use a primary weapon in the energy slot. The most effective combination that I prefer is using an Energy auto rifle (like Gnawing Hunger) which has the Auto-Loading Holster perk. Because Witherhoard with its catalyst still takes more than 1 second to load another round, I can swap to my auto rifle and get off a few shots while Witherhoard reloads while holstered (thanks to one of its catalyst benefits) then when I hear the sound indicating Witherhoard is reloaded I can swap back to it and repeat to maximize possible DPS which is critical to successful solo runs.

Power Slot

With the recent changes Bungie has made to the Explosive Light perk in Beyond Light, my go-to power weapon for this build is the Season of the Lost ritual weapon, Ascendancy which can be obtained from maximizing the Vanguard, Crucible, or Gambit rank this season.

Mods

The mods which I have found to be most useful for solo runs are the Spec mods. This includes Minor Spec, Major Spec, and Boss Spec.

Minor Spec — Deals extra damage against rank and file enemies (red health bar)

Major Spec — Deals extra damage against powerful enemies (yellow health bar)

Boss Spec — Increases damage against bosses and vehicles (yellow bar with skull icon)

Although it costs 500 Glimmer each time to swap weapon mods, I find it a useful investment since it’s easy to pick up usually thousands of glimmer going through a quest. If I know what type of enemy I will be facing next I will quickly swap my energy and power slot weapons to the appropriate mod.

I hope the build I provided here helps you on your PvE quests and in your PvP games too (because Witherhoard is just as deadly against other players as PvE opponents)!

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