'Destiny 2' Hunter Guide: One-Shot Throwing Knife Build

Throwing knives in “Destiny 2” may sound like a cool gimmick for some but for others, this can be used as a lethal projectile that can kill most targets in one hit when prepared properly.

The Weighted Throwing Knife in the Hunter’s Gunslinger subclass is often used to deal some quick damage or outright eliminate important targets. What many players don’t know is that these knives can be boosted to ridiculous levels that can compete with the absurdity of even the Titan’s throwing hammers.

In this short build guide, players will be able to one-shot almost any enemy in the game, including other Guardians, with a well-placed throwing knife.

Mandatory Exotics

For this build to work, players will need the Athrys’s Embrace exotic gauntlets and either Ager’s Scepter or Salvation’s Grip.

Athrys’s Embrace grants the Weighted Throwing Knife a massive boost in damage, a second bounce upon hitting a hard surface and the ability to track targets reliably. All players need to do is hit rapid Precision Hits on a target to activate this exotic gauntlets’ perk and throw their knife at an enemy’s head.

The rapid Precision Hit requirement ties in with Ager’s Scepter’s nature as a Trace Rifle. Players can quickly stack the Precision Hits required to activate the throwing knife perk while also freezing their victim, making them very easy to hit with a knife.

Armor Mods

The only armor mod that’s required to make this build work is Focusing Lens from the seasonal artifact. This mod greatly increases the damage dealt by Light-based abilities whenever they hit a target affected by Stasis.

Once an enemy is frozen by Ager’s Scepter, they are opened up to Focusing Lens’ damage buff that can be triggered with throwing knives. This combo alone can deal six-digit damage numbers to a target with just one knife. Players can use this against Strike bosses as long as a Revenant’s Silence and Squall tornado is active since it constantly deals Stasis damage.

This build can be pushed even further by adding a One-Two Punch shotgun to the mix. Fire the shotgun at an enemy before throwing a knife to increase the damage even further.

A Weighted Throwing Knife can kill Guardians in the Crucible with a single hit to the body as long as Athrys’s Embrace is active. Bring an auto rifle or an SMG to quickly empower a knife then throw it at a wall next to an enemy. The knife will seek the enemy Guardian and instantly kill them.