With the Spectral Blades focus from Destiny 2: Forsaken, the Nightstalker Hunter gained new tactical options. The support-based archer becomes a stealthy space ninja with X-ray vision. Learn how to play this subclass correctly here.
With the Forsaken expansion, the Guardian classes in Destiny 2 received a total of nine new Supers. These enriched the original palette with new, refreshing gameplay opportunities. The accompanying Super abilities were either entirely new or upgraded with small but significant additional mechanics.
Especially the Spectral Blades subclass of the Hunter, which was recently revamped, impresses with its appealing visual design and technical versatility. It offers a wide range of different uses in PvP and PvE.
The abilities of the new Super of the Spectral Blades
This is how you unlock the new Super: The Spectral Blades were introduced as one of the new Forsaken Supers. You unlock the new abilities with a Seed of Light, which you can earn throughout the story and through various activities in Forsaken. We have summarized how to get the Seed of Light for you here.
What makes the Spectral Blades Super so special? Instead of a Void Bow, the Void Hunter summons two Spectral Blades, which transforms the previous one-time Super into a “Roaming Super”. This means your character is in third-person view during the Super and can be played actively for a longer period.
After activating the Super, your Hunter becomes invisible and also gains the ability “True Sight”. This reveals and highlights all enemies behind solid objects or walls. When initiating an attack, the Hunter becomes visible again and the X-ray effect disappears.
How does the Super work? There is a light attack and a heavy attack. The light attack allows the Hunter to lunge forward briefly with his blades. While it is not particularly effective for movement or closing gaps, the effective hit range is very generous.
Additionally, the attack speed increases after rapid consecutive hits. This enables the Nightstalker to focus his entire Super on a single target in PvE and take them down quickly.
The heavy attack deals more damage and returns the Hunter back to stealth mode. This attack is especially valuable in PvP, as a well-aimed strike can eliminate multiple targets. The effective hit range is even larger than that of the light attack.
How to use the Spectral Blades Super in PvE
The Spectral Blades in regular PvE: In the easier part of PvE, this Super is a great method to quickly eliminate many small enemies or groups of enemies. In strikes or story missions, larger enemy waves can be completely wiped out with just a single Super activation. The attacks of the Spectral Blades can hit multiple targets at once.
The Spectral Blades in challenging PvE activities: In harder activities, this Super is less useful. You can still use it to deal damage to powerful enemies or bosses, but doing so risks being crushed by the boss or being shot through by enemy fire.
In Nightfall strikes, the Super can be used to escape difficult situations or as a last resort to revive your teammates.
The Spectral Blades in Gambit mode: In Gambit mode, the Spectral Blades Super performs very well. During invasions, the Spectral Blades are excellent for sneaking through the portal unnoticed and taking out your four human opponents undetected.
Since the Super lasts relatively long, there’s no need to rush and it’s best to initially target an isolated enemy. You can then eliminate the other team members with calculated movements. Or you can take out the entire group at once if the opponents are close enough together.
An experienced Spectral Blades Hunter should be able to wipe out a complete opposing Gambit team within 30 seconds without any issues.
How to use the Spectral Blades Super in PvP
This is how to effectively use the Super in the Crucible: This Super of the Nightstalker should always be activated controlled and preferably outside of a combat situation.
When the Super is ready, check your radar first to get a general sense of the direction of a target. Then activate the Spectral Blades and use X-ray vision to locate the exact position of potential enemies.
If an enemy is within range, they should be eliminated with a single heavy attack to become invisible again immediately after the kill, wasting as little Super energy as possible.
What to do if you get detected: If an enemy notices you while you are lurking, there are basically two ways they might react. Either the enemy runs away in a panic or they engage you head-on.
In either case, you should use the following tactic: First, jump up with a double jump, then fully wind up with the light attack and activate the heavy attack just before the Hunter starts to lose height.
This movement combo is nearly unpredictable, so it can be used as a defensive evasion tactic or to catch an enemy that is trying to escape.
The neutral skills of the Spectral Blades
What are neutral skills? Neutral skills encompass all abilities that can be used outside of the Super. In English, this is referred to as the “Neutral Game” of the subclass.
Caustic Smoke: The melee ability “Caustic Smoke,” where the Hunter throws a small smoke grenade, is best used in PvE to temporarily incapacitate small enemy groups. These enemies are briefly prevented from firing their weapons or taking cover. Meanwhile, the Hunter can take care of higher-priority targets.
In PvP, the smoke bomb is useful for temporarily blocking specific zones or narrow passages. But it can also effectively stop or slow down fleeing enemies.
Flawless Execution: This skill is the essence of the Spectral Blades subclass, offering a variety of advantages and combo possibilities after a successful activation. If the user lands a precise kill while crouched, the ability activates and grants the Hunter the following three buffs for about 10 seconds:
- Invisibility
- True Sight
- Shard Strike
True Sight: With this skill, the Hunter sees the silhouette of any enemies within their field of view. They can even detect them through solid objects or structures, as long as the Flawless Execution effect is active. Combined with the invisibility effect, which is simultaneously active, you can choose your next victim at your leisure.
Shard Strike: The Shard Strike significantly increases the melee range of the Hunter. This allows the user to quickly strike enemies nearby. The Hunter can cover large distances to hit fleeing or jumping Guardians.
Another feature of the Shard Strike: upon a successful hit, the target is weakened and becomes 50% more vulnerable to any incoming damage for a short time.
This is the only direct alternative to the “Hammer Strike” of the Solar Titan. In group activities like Gambit or Raids, it can apply a debuff to stronger enemies or bosses, making them more susceptible to any damage.
How to use the skills of the Spectral Blades in PvE
The Spectral Blades Ninja performs surprisingly well alone in PvE. However, in challenging group activities, it is a poorer choice compared to the alternative talent trees of the Nightstalker. The focus of the Way of the Wraith is clearly on PvP. Consequently, its effectiveness in other activities is limited.
What are the pros and cons? The abilities of the Spectral Blades allow for extended invisibility and other advantages that can be quite useful in PvE. However, the buffs from Flawless Execution are typically rarely necessary. In challenging activities, they serve more as a survival aid instead of an effective killing method.
The only exception is the Shard Strike. With it, you can significantly weaken high-priority targets for you and your team, proving to be a powerful tool against annoying blockers, high-ranking targets, or the boss in Gambit.
Especially since Gambit bosses are constantly surrounded by multiple small enemy groups, the Flawless Execution skill provides a good opportunity to eliminate pesky enemies unnoticed and continuously weaken the Ahamkara with the Shard Strike.
How to use the skills of the Spectral Blades in PvP
Therefore, gameplay is important: A well-played Spectral Blades Hunter is a feared opponent in PvP, as you often don’t notice them at all.
Many Guardians, however, do not utilize all their options, blindly jumping into an enemy group to slash with the light attack. In this subclass of the Nightstalker, sneaking is particularly important. Only with invisibility does it unleash its full potential.
What makes this class so good in PvP? With the ability to see through walls, you gain a significant advantage over other players. Early detection of an enemy and their position often decides victory or defeat in PvP during a direct confrontation – especially against multiple opponents.
However, there is also a disadvantage. You basically have to play crouched all the time. This is not suitable for every Guardian. Moreover, you are less able to evade enemy attacks while crouched because your running speed is significantly reduced.
Tips to consider as a Spectral Blades Hunter
For optimal use of the Spectral Blades, factors beyond just the Super and respective skills are also important. To be particularly effective as a Spectral Blades Hunter, you should keep an eye on your stats.
Correct distribution of stats
Focus on these stats: As a Spectral Blades Hunter, the following two stats are particularly important: Resilience and Mobility. Recovery can be neglected because, when played correctly, you are predominantly in an invisible state. As long as enough small enemies run into your blades, you have nothing to fear from being hit occasionally.
Why are these stats important? High resilience is required to absorb as much damage as possible until you can land the next crouched precision kill. High mobility allows for faster running and sneaking. Additionally, it increases the Hunter’s jump height. However, keep in mind that sprint speed remains unaffected.
The right weapon choice
Things to keep in mind regarding weapon choice as a Spectral Blades Hunter: To maximize the effectiveness of the Spectral Blades, you should consider weapons that make it easy to land consistent precision shots, especially while crouched.
Weapon perks like “As a Rock in Stormy Seas” are perfectly combinable with this subclass, opening various gameplay possibilities – in PvE and PvP. Weapon perks that are usually considered poor or situational gain entirely new significance with the Way of the Wraith.
Weapons to avoid: Weapon types with high spread (most shotguns, fusion rifles) or a projectile (grenade launchers, rocket launchers) are unable to achieve a precision kill, thus activating True Sight. These are therefore rather unsuitable for Spectral Blades.
Also, weapons that have too much recoil, like many auto rifles or submachine guns, make effective sneaking difficult. Options like hand cannons, sniper rifles, or the recently adjusted scout rifles are much better suited for this task.
Build Suggestions & Loadouts for the Spectral Blades Focus
In the following section, we will combine various weapon types and exotic armor pieces to promote the effectiveness of certain playstyles while creating the greatest possible synergies.
However, the suggested builds are personal recommendations and do not necessarily reflect the best possible composition.
PvP Build of the Spectral Blades Hunter
The Equipment:
- Kinetic weapon: The Chaperon
- Energy weapon: Black Scorpion-4SR
- Power weapon: Hammerhead
- Exotic armor piece: Weak Head Radar
This is what the build is about: This build consists of the combination of the exotic precision shotgun “The Chaperon,” the scout rifle Black Scorpion-4SR, and the exotic helmet “Weak Head Radar”.
The Chaperon fires a single precision round with very high range. The helmet keeps the radar displayed while aiming and also provides a higher radar resolution while crouched.
With this setup in conjunction with the Way of the Wraith, an attentive player can absolutely dominate the battlefield without dying even once.
The main focus is on the Chaperon, so in this loadout, armor pieces with the perks “Shotgun Reserves” and “Shotgun Finder” are advantageous.
What role does Black Scorpion play? This fully automatic scout rifle has been the new “Underdog” since the last major update. The high rate of fire offers an impressive time-to-kill in the Crucible – almost on par with Luna’s Howl or Not Forgotten.
As this weapon is a bit harder to control, it is all the more important to land the first shot. The improved radar proves to be a highly beneficial factor.
If you want to know which perks are best suited for this weapon, check out Aztecross’ video on it:
This is how you play this build: With the Black Scorpion, you should try to land a crouched precision kill as quickly as possible to activate Flawless Execution and secure the three buffs. After that, move into close combat unnoticed and try to achieve another crouched precision kill with the Chaperon.
If successful, this cycle starts over. Correctly executed, you move invisibly and with X-ray vision from one target to the next. Depending on distance, you can either defeat opposing players with the scout rifle from afar or with the exotic shotgun up close.
The Weak Head Radar supports defensive players, who are just waiting for an unsuspecting enemy to run across the battlefield. With the combination of the extended radar and True Sight, you will be well-informed about everything that happens. With this setup, you should hardly be surprised.
The legendary machine gun “Hammerhead” is best suited for this Spectral Blades build, as it has an impressive range. This allows quick elimination of multiple targets with precision shots to become invisible again.
PvE Build of the Spectral Blades
The Equipment:
- Kinetic weapon: Threat Level/Just Imagine
- Energy weapon: Right Side of Wrong/IKELOS_SF_v1.0.1
- Power weapon: Whisper of the Worm
- Exotic armor piece: Graviton Forfeit
This build is particularly suitable for solo players who want to tackle harder PvE content, such as Nightfalls or the Shattered Throne. It’s all about defensive and careful gameplay along with high survivability.
The loadout consists of a pulse rifle and a shotgun. Which of the two options you choose depends on personal preference and the availability of the respective weapons. The shotgun should definitely have the perk “Rifled Barrel”.
Why is the perk “Rifled Barrel” so important? Rifled Barrel provides a short-term damage increase for up to three consecutive shots if an enemy is previously hit with a melee attack.
This perk pairs perfectly with the Shard Strike of the Void Hunter. By hitting a target with a melee attack, you not only activate the shotgun’s perk but also the weakening effect of Shard Strike simultaneously. Combining these two damage bonuses means that almost any enemy can be easily eliminated by a single Nightstalker.
This is how you play this build: The core of this build consists of the primary pulse rifle, which should have the weapon perk “As a Rock in Stormy Seas”. This perk provides the weapon with enormous stability, improved handling, and slightly more aim assist while the user is crouched.
This makes the weapon as precise as a laser, allowing the user to quickly and accurately take down distant targets. Flawless Execution is then triggered, and you become invisible with each kill. The exotic helmet Graviton Forfeit extends the invisibility effect and keeps the wearer alive longer.
The Graviton Forfeit increases the duration of invisibility from about 10 seconds to nearly 13 seconds. The other benefits of Flawless Execution, True Sight, and Shard Strike are also extended by three seconds. This gives the user a bit more time between kills to relocate safely before turning their attention to the next target.
Against powerful enemies or mini-bosses, the shotgun with Rifled Barrel or the infamous sniper rifle Whisper of the Worm is deployed depending on the situation. Here, too, the combination of Flawless Execution and Graviton Forfeit works perfectly for quickly disappearing after a kill.
A hybrid build for the Spectral Blades focus
The Equipment:
- Kinetic weapon: Hand Cannon/SMG
- Energy weapon: Le Monarque
- Power weapon: Grenade Launcher/MG/Rocket Launcher
- Exotic armor piece: Oathkeeper
This build is not strongly specialized and can be effectively used in both PvE and PvP. The main feature of this setup is the synergy between the exotic bow Le Monarque and the exotic Hunter gauntlets Oathkeeper.
The exotic bow fires a poisonous arrow on a perfect draw that can poison multiple enemies. To achieve a perfect draw, the player must release the arrow immediately after a full pull, also landing a precision hit. If you pull the bow for too long, the poison arrow becomes a regular arrow.
This is what the Oathkeeper does: The exotic perk allows you to draw bows indefinitely. The real crux is that the gauntlets fire the drawn arrow as a perfect shot each time; hence, every shot fired is considered to be a poison arrow. This is advantageous in both PvE and PvP.
This is how you play this build: As a bow is rather disadvantageous at short range, a hand cannon or submachine gun is used as the kinetic weapon, allowing you to easily take down enemies with precision kills or, if necessary, even from the hip in close quarters. The bow then comes into play at medium to long range.
For larger enemies and bosses, you use machine guns or a rocket launcher. Additionally, you can weaken the boss first with Shard Strike to deal even greater damage afterward. In the Crucible, you can generally achieve more kills with MGs and grenade launchers.
