Destiny Guide: How to Beat the Prison of Elders as a Hunter

Facing The Prison of Elders as the Hunter Class

Now that the House of Wolves DLC has finally arrived, it’s time to gear up for Destiny’snewest PvE challenge: the Prison of Elders. While you may think you’ve got your Hunter class completely mastered, the Prison of Elders presents players with brand new obstacles and objectives that will force people to innovate new combat strategies and tactics.

However, if you haven’t quite found your groove with the Hunter class before downloading this new DLC, you should probably check out our original guide on How to Dominate as the Hunter Class.

The Prison of Elders will push players to their limits. As the objectives shift between fighting enemies and interacting with objectives, it will make sense for players to get comfortable with switching back and forth between the Hunter’s two subclasses, Bladedancer and Gunslinger. Unlike PvP where it is easy to favor a subclass and stick with it, the Prison of Elders will force players to think on their toes in rapidly transitioning high intensity combat.

Along with the unique new combat features that the Prison of Elders has brought toDestiny, there are three new House of Wolves exotic items specifically for Hunters. Acquiring these new exotic items, as well as upgrading older exotic and legendary items is a key strategy element to emerging victorious from the Prison of Elders.

In the Prison of Elders, the player is expected to have mastered all aspects of the Destinyuniverse which have been presented before this moment. It a lot to think about. Luckily, we’ve done some of that thinking for you. Don’t explode your mind with thinking. Explode alien heads in the Prison of Elders.

Gunslinger

Aggressive

Hands down, the solar powered Gunslinger is the subclass you want to choose when you reach the final boss and sub-boss stages of the Prison of Elders, as well as for any straightforward PVE objectives. With the powerful, explosive Golden Gun, you’ll be able to shave minutes off the amount of time it takes you to completely incinerate your foe.

This unmatched raw power that works almost as well when from fired at a distance as it does in close quarters is the primary reason for choosing the Gunslinger subclass. With this, it makes sense to upgrade your stats in a way that optimizes the Golden Gun before you enter the Prison of Elders.

The first perk you’ll want to select is Over the Horizon which will increase the range of your Golden Gun. This will help you deal massive amounts of damage without compromising the comforts of distance and cover between you and your foe.

Next, you’ll want to select Keyhole which will give your Golden gun the ability to overpenetrate and damage multiple targets. Even though you are focusing your efforts on the boss, there will be swarms of other enemies trying to stop you. In the Prison of Elders, this means not just small enemies like Dregs, but also large ones such as Ogres. You’ll want your bullets to pierce through each and every one of them.

Then, you’ll want to select Incendiary Blade which adds solar damage to the Throwing Knives. While Circle of Life is the Golden Gun related perk you might make sense, you likely won’t need the extra time to get off your bullets in the fast paced Prison of Elders.

Lastly, you’ll want to select Combustion, which will cause the enemies you kill to explode. This couples well with the Keyhole perk making it possible to both deal heavy amounts of damage to the boss you are targeting while incinerating the lesser foes around it with grandiose explosions.

As for the rest of the perks, which include choice of grenades, jumping, and training attributes, the choices a player makes are based more around personal preference than significant advantage in the Prison of Elders. But if you’re really stuck, feel free to try the build in the image above and then play around with it from there.

Supportive

While the Gunslinger is more of an aggressive class, it can also be played supportively. For this style, you’re going to follow most of the advice from the aggressive setup but with a few changes.

First you’ll want to select Chain of Woe, which will grant increased reload speed for consecutive precision damage kills. This ability can stack up to three times. If you are supporting your teammates by taking care of the additional enemies, this will help you demolish them rapidly before they have a chance to inflict any real damage upon you or your teammates.

Then, you’ll want to select Scavenger, which will reduce the cooldown of grenades and Throwing Knife when you pick up ammo. For dealing with additional enemies, more grenades and knives is more useful than over penetrating Golden Gun targets. To deal with multiple targets, just keep Combustion on.

Lastly, you’ll want to select Knife Juggler, which will immediately reset Throwing Knife cooldown with precision kills. Once again, as a supporter, the flurry of knives will help to quickly dispose of additional enemies.

Bladedancer

Supportive

With certainty, the graceful, stealth-ninja, arc powered Bladedancer is the subclass you want to use when encountering any critical objective in the Prison of Elders.

The most effective exclusive feature of the Bladedancer subclass is the ability to wield the impressive force of invisibility on command. The Bladedancer is the perfect, unseen assassin as well as an invaluable medic in any player’s time of need. To best accommodate and accentuate those roles, it is best to upgrade your stats in a way that optimizes the Bladedancer’s invisibility before you enter the Prison of Elders.

The first perk you’ll want to select is Stalker which allows the player to gain invisibility after crouching for a short time. The best part of this ability is that unlike most others, it does need to recharge before being used again. That way, as soon as the objectives become announced or a friend is downed, a Bladedancer can disappear almost instantly.

Next, you’ll probably want to select Shadowjack which will increase the duration of invisibility effects. However, depending on which you are more comfortable with, Fleet Footed which increases maximum sprint speed and extends slide distance is also a good choice. While it is useful to have more time being invisible, some players feel it is easier to use the time they do have to the fullest by being quicker. Plus, sliding around a corner at the last second to avoid a bullet or splash damage does come in handy.

Then, you’ll want to select Escape Artist which grants the player invisibility when hitting an enemy with Blink Strike. As the perk’s name implies, it will be useful for evading enemies in a risky situation. Quicker than waiting for the crouch invisibility, the Hunter can use a Blink Strike to disappear instantaneously.

Lastly, you’ll want to select Vanish, which gives the player yet another opportunity to use invisibility. This time by activating it during Arc Blade.

As for the rest of the perks, which include choice of grenades, jumping, and training attributes, the choices a player makes are based more around personal preference than significant advantage in the Prison of Elders. But if you’re really stuck, feel free to try the build in the image above and then play around with it from there.

Aggressive

While the Bladedancer is more of a supportive class, it can also be played aggresively. For this style, you’re going to follow most of the advice from the supportive setup but with a few changes.

First you’ll want to select Hungering Blade, which will restore health for kills with Blink Strike and Arc Blade. If you’re charging headfirst into battle, you’re going to need to stay alive. For that, a steady stream of replenishing health is essential. Also, keep Escape Artist on in case the enemies get in too close.

Then, you’ll want to select Quickdraw, which will make it so that you can switch between weapons immediately. When taking on hordes of foes with different shields, you will need to quickly change weapons to inflict different types of elemental damage. Plus, certain rounds in the Prison of Elders include the juggler modifier which prevents the player from picking up ammo for the equipped weapon. Being able to quickly switch between all of your weapons will be a boon to the juggler modifier challenge as well.

Lastly, you’ll want to select Razor’s Edge, which will unleash a destructive wave of energy that travels along the ground. This is the perfect power move to completely clear out the path in front of you, making it possible to charge ahead. If you are facing a boss or larger enemy, this ability will also give you the chance to provide heavy damage from more of a distance than usual. 

Gearing Up

Once your Hunter’s skill tree has been properly activated, the last factor to consider before entering the Prison of Elders is what gear to bring. For any Prison of Elders battle, players will need to be mindful of coordinating the three weapon damage effects, solar, void, and arc, with the corresponding effects on enemy shields.

That being said, each class has access to its own class specific exotic armor items with unique buffs, perks, and abilities. While there is no way to just go out and buy the exotics that you want, we can tell you which ones are worth buying and/or leveling up if you have the patience to stay on the lookout for them.

As most players quickly realize, you can only pick one exotic at a time. Therefore, you must choose wisely. Similar to many of the elements in the game, it comes down to preference in the end. But we are happy to make some suggestions.

If you’re lucky enough to acquire the Celestial Nighthawk helmet which is a recent House of Wolves addition to Destiny, you’ll have access to the most powerful bullet in Destiny.The Celestial Nighthawk provides increased super energy from minions of the darkness which means more Golden Guns. Additionally, it converts all of the power of the Golden Gun into one bullet with 6x the power. It also grants the Keyhole perk meaning that when wearing this helmet, the player can take advantage of a different perk on the skill tree.

The Don’t Touch Me’s are another useful exotic for Hunters. These provide another chance for the player to become invisible as well as providing more super energy for killing minions of the darkness. If you have been maximizing your invisibility up until now as Bladedancer and then put these gloves on, you’ll probably be spending more of your play time being invisible than visible, which is exactly what you want.

Lastly, another Hunter exotic worth trying out in the Prison of Elders is the Crest of Alpha Lupi. The benefit of this weapon enhances the medic aspect of the Hunter character by granting the player the ability to revive teammates faster. Additionally, Supers will spawn additional orbs for your teammates. They can then use their supers to produce orbs that you will pick up so that you can fill and use your super. You get the point.

But don’t limit yourself to only trying what we recommend. There are a cornucopia of Hunter exotics and you should feel free to try them all out for yourself. This is just a guide to get you started on the right path. For more guides to steer you along the right path, check out our House of Wolves Destiny Wiki Page and as always, share your thoughts in the comments.