The Crucibible: Supers (Chapter 4)Supers completely set Destiny’s PvP apart from other shooters. Where other games reward you with airstrikes or giant mech robots, the Crucible gives you a gun infused with solar light and a void bomb.

In this chapter of the Crucibible, we’ll be talking about Supers and the meta-game they present in every PvP match. You’ll learn the pros and cons of each Super, when to use them, how to avoid/counter them, and how kills and Intellect affect their cooldown.

Filling the bar

Your Super recharges on its own during the course of the game. With 0 Intellect it takes a little over 5 minutes to fully recharge your Super. At 100% Intellect, the cooldown time is decreased to just 4 minutes.

It’s important to note that the max for each armor attribute is 278. Any number past 278 gives you no increased cooldown, despite the tooltip in-game telling you otherwise. Keep this in mind when setting up your armor. Anything past 278 is wasted and you get no extra reduction. The only things that can get you past 100% cooldown time are class perks, such as the Gunslinger’s Gunfighter perk.

Every kill reduces your Super cooldown time by 37 seconds, taking a total of 9 kills to fill the bar at 0 intellect, and 7 kills at the maximum Intellect. The higher your Intellect, the less kills you’ll need, as the bar will fill quicker on its own.

Typically, you want to get your Super up as fast and as often as possible, as they are essentially free kills when used correctly. However, the benefits of Supers go much further than simple K/D boosts, because they can turn the tide of a game in one fell swoop.

Two common ways Supers can be used more strategically is to deny the enemy team Heavy ammo and flag captures. A good rule to follow is to have your Super ready within 30 seconds of a Heavy ammo spawn and save it to deny the enemy team.Even if you die shortly afterwords, you’ve potentially saved your team a dozen deaths.

Pros and Cons

Supers behave very differently; some are instant-use while others allow you to roam the map. In essence, all Supers are meant to give you kills quickly and easily, but their uses go much deeper than that.

Again, these first chapters are outlining the “basics,” but we’ll be going into more detail about this information in the future, diving into advanced techniques and class setups.

If you’d like to know more about a class, check out our class guides.

Gunslinger

• The Golden Gun is hands down the best Super for straight up slaying. There’s a reason that most of the top Crucible players are Gunslingers. They are quick, nimble, and their GG is a one-shot kill at nearly any distance.

• Achlyophage Symbiote and Combustion make the GG much more lethal. A single GG shot with Combustion is enough to take out 3+ Guardians if it chains between kills & is a must-have perk for any Gunslinger. Deadeye is near useless as GG is pretty accurate by default and Gunfighter’s reduced GG cooldown isn’t significant enough to warrant running it.

• Golden Gun is great for clearing flags and Heavy ammo crowds since anyone around those objectives tend to be pretty tightly crowded together. Again, one shot can completely clear the objective. The other 2/3 are for defense. GG can also one-shot all other Supers except a Fist of Havoc and Nova Bomb in mid-animation.

• A significant con of Golden Gun is that it grants no extra shields or health while it is active. Taking out a GG Gunslinger is pretty easy if you flank or are at a distance.

• If you hear a Golden Gun pop then run away and flank around it. He’ll be so busy hunting for kills that he won’t notice anything that isn’t directly in front of him.

Bladedancer

• Probably the most feared Super of them all, Arc Blade causes enemies to scatter like no other. They are ridiculously difficult to take down, even being able to survive a rocket. They are lightning fast, making it difficult to get a steady shot, and even if you do manage to damage them, a Bladedancer with Hungering Blade will get health back after every kill so it’ll all be for naught.

• Couple Arc Blade with Mask of the Third Man and Encore and it is undoubtedly one of the strongest Supers in the game.

• Arc Blade does not work so well with taking objectives or Heavy ammo. More likely than not, one person will have a Fist of Havoc or Nova Bomb ready to take you down before you can even get a kill.

Voidwalker

• A very destructive Super, Nova Bomb offers great flexibility in how you want to use it. Shatter and Lance along with Angry Magic work best for kill-oriented gametypes like Clash since homing Nova Bombs and tri-Nova Bombs essentially guarantee a few kills.

• Vortex plus Annihilate and Vortex Mastery work best with Control and Salvage as you can not only obliterate anyone on an objective (flag, relic, revive) but also deny the enemy team from moving back on that objective for quite a long time.

• Experiment with class setups and Exotic armor. Along with the Sunsinger, the Voidwalker has great flexibility in how you want to use your Super.

• Much like the Striker, Voidwalkers will usually run towards where they want to drop their Super and ignore what’s around them, making it easier to predict when a Super is about to be used. Watch for this to try and avoid getting hit.

Sunsinger

• Radiance is the most malleable of them all. The Sunsinger tree can be outfitted to play many different roles in the Crucible. The biggest strength of Radiance is that is allows you to kill multiple guardians or guard a specific chokepoint for a long time, much longer than instant-use Nova Bombs and Fists of Havoc.

• With the powerful selection of grenades, Radiance is undeniably the most flexible Super in the game. Want to deny the enemy team a flag? Use Solar grenades. Want to go Super Saiyan and destroy everything around you? Fusion grenades + melee. Want to fake your death and set up a heavy ammo ambush? Fireborn is calling your name.

Striker

• The Fist of Havoc has been lovingly nicknamed the Fist of Panic for good reason; it works extremely well when your back is against the wall. Its near-instant deployment and massive area of effect guarantee that you’ll completely destroy anything around you in the blink of an eye.

• The Fist of Havoc is the best counter-Super. Bladedancers loathe it, Gunslingers fear it, and Sunsingers despise it. Titans themselves have good reason to be wary of FoH as it can easily destroy a Ward of Dawn along with everyone inside.

• The FoH’s greatest strength is also its biggest weakness. If you use FoH and you kill nothing, it’s obviously wasted. You can’t roam the map like Hunters or Sunsingers or change your Super’s trajectory last-minute like Voidwalkers.

• How can you counter a FoH? You can’t. If you’re caught in the blast radius you are guaranteed a quick death, though you can try jumping/Blinking out of it early.

Defender

• The various buffs available inside the Defender’s bubble are a great way to either give your team an offensive boost while simultaneously providing cover.

• The diversity of the Bubble buffs is a great strength. Weapons of Light grants a good amount of bonus damage and Blessing of Light grants a nice overshield that can be the difference between life and death in a 1v1 gunfight.

• Unfortunately the Ward of Dawn is very difficult to ignore and opposing Supers will be drawn to it, hoping to take it down quickly along with anyone inside. Be wary of any fast approaching enemy Guardians.
• If you can’t take it down with your Super, don’t waste ammo trying to pop it. If anything, wait for it to burst and use your Heavy to kill enemies as they scatter.

What’s Your Favorite?

Supers can make or break a match. Much like the movement aspects of Destiny, Supers set this shooter apart from all others. Don’t think about Super as nothing but a way to get free kills; instead think about the repercussions of when and how you plan to use your Super ability. You’ll find that just a tiny bit of pre-planning and strategy developing will go a long way to improving your PvP performance.

What are some of your tips and tricks to Supers? Which ones do you love and hate the most?

Chapter 5 of the “Crucibible” will be the last of the basics, then we’ll focus on some tips and tricks that the pros use!