Want to know the best ways to dominate these bosses? Read on!
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General Gear Recommendations
For a Helmet, unless you’re using an Exotic of some kind, I recommend finding one with Innervation, which grants bonus Grenade Energy on Orb pickup. On your Arms, you’ll want the Impact Induction perk to get Grenade energy from Melee hits. I recommend a Raid chestpiece to take advantage of the Mortal Medicine perk which enhances your Recovery for each Grenade kill and stacks for up to 20 seconds. Leg armor doesn’t make much difference, so just look for ammo boosts to support your load-out. Finally, you can try to use an Artifact that generates Orbs of Light for the appropriate Grenade type, but it’s not a big deal – you shouldn’t be using your Super all that often in most cases.
Our weapon recommendations are much less specific, but remember that Assists are a great way to add up tons of extra points. If you aren’t running a class that generates infinite grenades, make sure you’re focused on body-shotting adds to rack up extra points. The best weapons for that purpose are going to be low Impact Hand Cannons, low Impact Scout Rifles, low Rate of Fire Auto Rifles, and Sidearms.
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Dominate with Any Subclass
Titans
| #1 – Sunbreaker | |||
| Grenades | Thermite or Incendiary | ||
| Perks | Simmering Flames, Fleetfire, Melting Point | ||
| Exotics | The Armamentarium | ||
| Stat Ranks | Int 5 | Dis 5 | Str 1 |
Your goal here is to charge up your Super as fast as possible and then never ever use it. Between Simmering Flames and Catapult, you’ll have grenades every 2.5 seconds or so – as fast as you can throw them. Fleetfire boosts your Agility and Reload Speed when enemies are killed by your fire, and Melting Point is very helpful for burning down bosses in a hurry with a roughly 50% damage bonus. Take your pick of Thermite and Incendiary Grenades – the former wrecks spawn points, but the latter’s AoE is better for taking down groups and the burn helps ensure kills, too.
The Armamentarium’s extra grenade slot makes it the obvious choice for all Titan subclasses, hands down. Finally, I recommend maxing your Intellect to get your super up fast and also maxing out Discipline to ensure maximal recharge speed. Getting that super up is the first thing though, so focus on that. Strength is an afterthought here – don’t worry about it.
Sunbreakers are probably tied with Voidwalkers for the strongest solo subclass for this challenge.
| #2 – Defender | |||
| Grenades | Magnetic | ||
| Perks | Blessing of Light and any Orb generation | ||
| Exotics | The Armamentarium | ||
| Stat Ranks | Int 5 | Dis 5 | Str 1 |
UPDATE: We were reminded that popping a bubble recharges your grenade, making the Defender a much stronger contender than it might have been. Not only that, but focusing on Orb generation nets you lots of extra points, as orbs add to your score directly.
A lot of people might be planning to try this, due to the Void Ability kill Bounty. A lot of people should be using their Warlocks, or at least a Hunter. If you insist, though, the Magnetic Grenade does do a lot of damage, and you can certainly help your teammates out with Blessing of Light and extra Orbs. Your main job though, will have to be gathering assists using your weapons – body shot those adds!
Oh, and a gentle reminder: don’t put your bubble where it will block other people’s grenade throws. That’s just rude!
| #3 – Striker | |||
| Grenades | Pulse | ||
| Perks | Aftershocks, Amplify | ||
| Exotics | The Armamentarium | ||
| Stat Ranks | Int 5 | Dis 5 | Str 1 |
The Striker’s Pulse Grenade isn’t great for this, but it does offer decent area control which can be useful for locking down spawn points and stacking damage into bosses. The other options just don’t make sense in Prison of Elders. Aftershocks is required, increasing the duration of your Pulse Grenades, and Amplify is mostly to avoid getting inadvertent melee kills. In between Grenades you should be focusing on getting assists with your primary or Sidearm, or pumping Machine Gun rounds into the boss.
Warlock
| #1 – Voidwalker | |||
| Grenades | Scatter | ||
| Perks | The Hunger, Embrace the Void, Life Steal | ||
| Exotics | Nothing Manacles | ||
| Stat Ranks | Int 1 | Dis 5 | Str 5 |
All you need to know here is to keep throwing Grenades and occasionally punch something without killing it.
If you insist on understanding the details though – Nothing Manacles is what makes this Subclass arguably your best option for the Grenades Challenge. You not only get a second Scatter Grenade, but your Grenades also get Tracking, enables them to completely shred your enemies with ease. And thanks to Embrace the Void (bolstered by The Hunger), every kill recharges your Grenades that much faster resulting in something like 2.5 seconds between Grenades – tied with Sunbreakers for fastest Grenade recharge! Life Steal means your melee not only recharges your Grenades, but also heals you on every hit, which gives you unmatched survivability in the sometimes hectic confines of the Prison.
| #2 – Sunsinger | |||
| Grenades | Solar or Fusion | ||
| Perks | Song of Flame, Radiant Will,
Touch of Flame, Solar Wind |
||
| Exotics | Sunbreakers, Starfire Protocol | ||
| Stat Ranks | Int 5 | Dis 5 | Str 1 |
There are two ways to build an awesome team player here. First, you have to decide your role – will you be primarily clearing adds while your fireteam hits the boss and Majors, or are you trying to burn down the boss as quick as you can? Probably you’re killing adds, in which case Solar Grenades are going to litter the landscape. Fusion Grenades work great for hitting Majors and bosses though. Make that decision, and equip the appropriate Exotic, and you’re all set – the perks are the same either way because both Exotics have granting you a second Grenade covered.
Your main strategy here is to burn through adds with Solar Grenades and Touch of Flame, while using Radiance in coordination with teammates to enhance their recharges thanks to Song of Flame. Radiant Will keeps your super running hot longer, and Solar Wind buys you space from aggressive enemies without burning them for accidental melee kills. This is definitely the 3rd best Subclass for this challenge overall, behind Voidwalkers and Sunbreakers.
| #3 – Stormcaller | |||
| Grenades | Pulse or Storm | ||
| Perks | Rising Storm, Feedback, Arc Web or Perpetual Charge | ||
| Exotics | None | ||
| Stat Ranks | Int 1 | Dis 5 | Str 5 |
The second worst subclass for this week. If you’re okay with getting lots of subpar melee kills, Perpetual Charge keeps your grenade full up. If you are going to focus on getting assists with your primary, run Arc Web instead for extra grenade damage instead. Basically, you have to choose between handicapping your score with a lot of Melee kills, or handicapping it with fewer Grenade tosses – not a great trade-off.
Whatever you decide, make sure you’re getting those Assists!
Hunter
| #1 – Gunslinger | |||
| Grenades | Incendiary or Tripmine | ||
| Perks | Knife Juggler, Gambler’s Dagger, Scavenger | ||
| Exotics | Young Ahamkara’s Spine or
Celestial Knighthawk |
||
| Stat Ranks | Int 1 | Dis 5 | Str 5 |
In a fascinating turn of events, Redditor wizkidbrandon discovered this morning that getting a Throwing Knife Headshot kill stacks the melee and precision kill bonuses to generate the same number of points as a Grenade. While getting this is certainly more difficult than just chucking Grenades, you can essentially do it infinitely, which makes this class completely viable. Scavenger also shines for once, so long as you remember to fire your primary every now and then so you can keep picking up ammo, so grab some Assists!
Incendiary Grenades are undoubtedly stronger when it comes to taking down groups of enemies, so those are our first recommendation. Add in Celestial Knighthawk and you can throw your Super at the boss every now and then to help take them down quickly. On the other hand, Tripmines are just good fun, and being able to hang onto two of them at a time sounds great!
| #2 – Nightstalker | |||
| Grenades | Voidwall or Vortex | ||
| Perks | Lockdown, Black Hole, Snare, Predator | ||
| Exotics | None | ||
| Stat Ranks | Int 1 | Dis 5 | Str 5 |
Tether and Smoke are great for slowing down enemies and holding them in place to lay on the exploding doom with your Grenades. Just make sure you’re not using Envenomed on your Smoke – you don’t want accidental Melee kills diluting your score! Lockdown reinforces the slowdown and your AoE grenades, while Black Hole, Snare, and Predator are focused on making sure that your Super and Smoke get used to maximum effect.
| #3 – Bladedancer | |||
| Grenades | Arcbolt | ||
| Perks | Escape Artist | ||
| Exotics | ATS/8 Tarantella or Lucky Raspberry | ||
| Stat Ranks | Int 5 | Dis 5 | Str 1 |
Bladedancers are pretty poor when it comes to PVE Grenades – let’s just get that out of the way up front. Arcbolts are your best bet, with the chaining damage hitting hard enough to net you some kills and probably a lot of Assists as well. You might think you should throw on the Lucky Raspberry to enhance that chaining, but the real key here is probably getting more Grenade throws rather than simply better ones, so I would use the Tarantella’s recharge buff instead. Statwise, minimize Strength and use the Escape Artist perk to avoid getting unintended melee kills.
Your main job as a Bladedancer will be to body-shot enemies for Assist points while your fireteam does the killing. This is probably the worst possible Subclass to choose this week.