• With less than a month to go, Bungie has revealed more information about Strand.
• Each class has it’s own identity within Strand but there are of course interconnecting threads and keywords.
• The sub-class is set to grant increased mobility through a grapple ability that can replace a grenade ability.

Since the launch of Destiny 2: Beyond Light, Bungie has been toying with the sub-class system that has formed the bedrock of the game since it’s first iteration. Beyond Light of course saw the launch of the first Darkness sub-class Stasis while The Witch Queen kicked off a year of reworks to the Void, Solar and Arc sub-classes.

With the launch of Destiny 2: Lightfall, Strand will be introduced to the game as the second Darkness sub-class. While Bungie had revealed Strand previously, this week it gave us a bit more insight into the concepts that inspired the sub-class as well as what Warlocks, Titans and Hunters will be able to do with Strand.

The team behind Strand’s design wanted to create something more astral to serve the vision of Destiny designer, Kevin Yanes.

The idea of manipulating the fabric of reality evolved over several discussions according to a blog post published by Bungie.

“We had lots of conversations around where [the Strand concept known as] ‘weaves’ came from and trying to reinforce the physical language for how it manifests and how it looks, to make it feel like it was from the same [Darkness] family as Stasis,” Yanes is quoted as saying.

Okay but what about how Strand functions in the game?

When a player creates and object with Strand it is known as weaving. Defeating an enemy with affected by Strand status effects will unravel them and create a Tangle. According to Bungie, players can then either pick up these Tangles and lob them at enemies or shoot them for an area of effect damage burst.

As with all sub-classes there are key words that players will need to know and understand. These keywords are:

• Suspend – In PvE combat, enemies are lifted off the ground and unable to perform actions. In PvP a player is lifted off of the ground and has their movement slowed however they are able to fire their weapon.
• Unravel – When attacking an enemy affected by Unravel threads will burst from the target and attack other enemies spreading Unravel to them.
• Sever – Enemies affected by this effect have reduced damage output.

Swinging when you’re winning

One of the more exciting aspects of Strand is the ability grapple. This ability is tied to your grenade ability so zooming through the air isn’t an additional ability such as Icarus Dash for Warlocks.

As Strand is based on bending the threads of reality, a grapple ability makes sense and from what designer Eric Smith describes, it sounds like a lot of fun. For one, players can execute melee attacks as they land from grappling dealing extra damage, unravelling the target and knocking them back.

“I defeat an enemy with my melee ability and they unwind into a Tangle. I grapple onto the Tangle, which refunds my grapple, and snatch the Tangle out of midair. I then hurl the Tangle at a group of enemies in the distance, grappling onto the Tangle again while it flies and pulls me through the air behind it. As the Tangle nears a group of enemies, I slam downward out of my grapple to suspend a lone enemy who split off from the group while the Tangle slams into the rest of the group and explodes. There’s a lot of these really cool dynamic interactions built into Strand and that makes it feel unique” says Smith.

Each class has been given it’s own unique identity.

Warlocks are known as Broodweavers and are able to control explosive minions known as Threadlings. These minions will remain with the player if there is no enemy for them to attack but will attack enemies the player targers much like Child of the Old Gods does for the Void sub-class.

Hunters are to be called Threadrunners and the sub-class is centred around a rope-dart and mobility. The rope-dart is tied to the Hunter’s melee ability Threaded Spike. When activated this bounces between enemies both damaging and severing them. Melee energy will be refunded based on the number of enemies hit.

Titans are Berserkers with Strand. One of the words Bungie uses to describe the sub-class is “maximum carnage”. This is showcased in the melee ability Frenzied Blade which has a default of three charges players can use to slam into the ground and sever enemies.

There will also be new Fragments to unlock including:

• Thread of Ascent: Activating your grenade ability reloads your equipped weapon and grants increased weapon handling and airborne effectiveness for a short time. 
• Thread of Fury: Damaging targets with a Tangle grants melee energy. 
• Thread of Finality: Finishers generate Threadlings.  
• Thread of Warding: Picking up an orb of power grants Woven Mail. 

Strand will become available when Destiny 2: Lightfall launches on 28th February on PC, Xbox and PlayStation. As a reminder, the Destiny 2 game servers will be offline from 27th February at 19:00 to prepare for the launch of the expansion.