Destiny 2 overhauled all Solar subclasses in Season of the Haunted, converting each of them to use the Aspects and Fragments system. Players can pick between two Aspects and a varying amount of Fragments to create their own subclass loadout, letting you fine-tune your build to fit your playstyle.
Solar Fragments are incredibly powerful and offer some of the strongest buffs we've seen in this subclass 3.0 system thus far. Constant damage buffs, frequent ignite explosions, and more are possible if you use the right combination of Fragments. This list will go over every Solar 3.0 Fragment available in Destiny 2 and rank them from worst to best. Rankings take the Fragment's efficacy in PvE and PvP into account.
Updated April 1, 2023, by Charles Burgar: Solar Fragments saw some balance changes and new additions with Lightfall. Two new Fragments, Ember of Resolve and Mercy, were added to give Solar builds some new ways of accessing Restoration and Cure effects. Beyond that, some Fragments can now generate Firesprites to give Solar builds some added grenade sustain. We've updated this list to include both of Lightfall's new Fragments and updated any entries that received balance changes.
16 Ember Of Wonder
Ember of Wonder: Rapidly defeating multiple targets with Solar Ignitions generates an Orb of Power. +10 Resilience.
Defeating two or more enemies with an Ignite will spawn one Orb of Power, granting about as much energy as a siphon mod from your helmet. This Fragment has an eight-second cooldown before it can be triggered again.
Spawning more Orbs is always a good thing in any playlist, yet your other options are so much better. You can use Empyrean to extend your buffs, run Ashes to trigger Ignites more often, or even run Benevolence to reduce your ability cooldowns for supporting your team. And in terms of Orb-generation, you have far better options.
Lightfall's mod overhaul has made spawning Orbs of Power easier than ever, letting your abilities and weapons alike spawn a copious number of orbs. Dedicating an entire Fragment slot for an orb every eight seconds is simply a waste. Only use this for the Resilience stat increase.
15 Ember Of Tempering
Ember of Tempering: Solar weapon final blows grant you and your allies increased Recovery for a short duration. Stacks 3 times. While Ember of Tempering is active, your weapons have increased airborne effectiveness. While EMber of Tempering is active, Solar weapon final blows create a Firesprite -10 Recovery.
Killing an enemy with a Solar weapon will grant a small increase to your Recovery stat and +20 Airborne Effectiveness for the next eight seconds. Defeating multiple targets will cause the Recovery bonus to stack, capping out at three stacks. The Airborne Effectiveness stat does not increase with each Tempering stack. Solar weapons also spawn Firesprites while this buff is active, triggering a five-second cooldown between Firesprite spawns.
A boost to Recovery sounds fantastic on paper, yet the eight-second duration of this buff makes it difficult to maintain in PvP. If you can go on a killing spree that allows you to stack Ember of Tempering, you'd be better off using Ember of Empyrean or swapping to a Void subclass to access Devour. For PvE, it's a quality of life Fragment. Faster health regeneration you don't need to spec for is nice, yet the strength of restoration and Ember of Empyrean make Recovery somewhat obsolete for most Solar 3.0 PvE builds.
Lightfall buffed this Fragment to spawn Firesprites on Solar weapon kills, yet Firesprites themselves only give a small chunk of grenade energy and don't interact with armor mods in any meaningful way (excluding Artifact mods). This makes dedicating an entire Fragment slot to generating them a tough sell, even in PvP.
14 Ember Of Beams
Ember of Beams: Your Solar Super projectiles have stronger target acquisition. +10 Intellect.
Ember of Beams is typically overshadowed by other Fragments, both for PvE and PvP. The stronger tracking is most noticeable on Daybreak's sword projectiles, yet you're giving up an entire Fragment slot to buff a roaming Super that doesn't last very long. It's somewhat useful on Blade Barrage to ensure all projectiles hit, but every other Super is better off with Ember of Combustion or a neutral game Fragment. Skip this Fragment unless you desperately need Intellect.
13 Ember Of Combustion
Ember of Combustion: Final blows with your Solar Super cause targets to Ignite and creates a Firesprite. +10 Strength.
Ignite is an absurdly powerful status effect that is difficult to trigger in normal gameplay. Ember of Combustion allows every Super final blow to trigger an Ignite, causing every enemy you kill to explode and deal massive AoE damage. Once every five seconds, a Super kill can also spawn a Firesprite. It even increases your Strength stat by one tier.
So why is Ember of Combustion so low on the list? Simply put, most Supers don't need to Ignite targets. Blade Barrage, Hammer of Sol, and Burning Maul have good enough add clear in their default state. Both Golden Gun variants are the only Supers that greatly benefit from Ember of Combustion, yet the strength of Blade Barrage makes it tough to recommend using those Supers in PvE, let alone with this Fragment.
12 Ember Of Benevolence
Ember of Benevolence: Applying restoration, cure, or radiant to allies grants increased grenade, melee, and class ability regeneration for a short duration. -10 Discipline.
Benevolent Dawn from Middle Tree Dawnblade was converted to this Fragment in the Solar 3.0 conversion update. Benevolence got nerfed quite hard, substantially reducing its bonus ability regeneration while sticking a stat penalty to the effect. The end result is a Fragment that's hard to recommend, even for Dawnblade Warlocks.
Applying a Solar buff is quite easy to do thanks to Aspects and Ember of Torches, yet most buff effects have a pitiful radius. You need to practically be standing near someone to give them Ember of Torches' damage buff, for example. This causes Benevolence to feel inconsistent at times, and the reward for playing around this Fragment just isn't worth it. With all of that said, faster ability cooldowns is never a bad thing and has a place in all Solar builds.
11 Ember Of Singeing
Ember of Singeing: Your class ability recharges faster when you Scorch targets.
Upon inflicting Scorch on a target, your class ability will recharge significantly faster for the next three seconds. Abilities with short cooldowns will gain most of their energy back whenever Ember of Singeing activates. Longer cooldown class abilities won't see as much of a benefit from this Fragment.
Hunters get a ton of mileage out of this Fragment, allowing them to use their Dodge significantly more often than normal. Titans can also deploy their Barricades much more often if they spec for Resilience, making this perfect for Heart of Inmost Light builds. Warlocks have fairly lengthy cooldowns, meaning you'll need to trigger this effect multiple times to get much use out of it. It's a solid PvE Fragment for players that want to use their class ability frequently, notably Hunters and Heart of Inmost Light Titans. In PvP, it's tough to recommend since it doesn't come with a stat increase.
10 Ember Of Blistering
Ember of Blistering: Defeating targets with Solar Ignitions grants grenade energy.
Similar to Ember of Combustion, Ember of Blistering is in a strange spot. This is objectively a good Fragment, granting about 10% grenade energy for each target you defeat with an Ignite—a Solar explosion that occurs when you inflict enoughs Scorch stacks on a target. With a well-placed Ignite, you can refund your entire grenade.
The issue is that Ignites are rather difficult to proc for some specs. Grenades are one of the best ways to ignite targets, yet builds that can reliably inflict Ignite already have infinite grenade energy—Starfire Protocol and Sunbracers being notable examples. Melee builds need to spam their ability multiple times to see any results.
Hunters will have the easiest time using this Fragment, yet their two main Ignite sources—Gunpowder Gamble and Caliban's Hand—have issues; Gunpowder Gamble has a set cooldown, and Caliban's Hand is tied to a weak melee that can't one-tap red bars in endgame PvE content. PvP players should skip this Fragment as well, seeing as Ignites are quite difficult to trigger against other players.
9 Ember Of Mercy
Ember of Mercy: When you revive an ally, you and other nearby allies gain Restoration. Picking up a Firesprite grants Restoration. +10 Resilience.
Reviving allies and picking up Firesprites grants two seconds of x1 Restoration, extended to three seconds with Ember of Solace. While this can be extended with Ember of Empyrean, there's a bug that causes your Restoration timer to reset if you grab another Firesprite, effectively making this Fragment useless if you have ways of frequently spawning Firesprites—something you're doing if Ember of Mercy is a consideration.
If this bug ever gets fixed, this will be one of Solar 3.0's strongest Fragments for PvE and a great PvP consideration. As it stands, it's difficult to recommend using Ember of Mercy since its Restoration timer is wildly inconsistent.
8 Ember Of Searing
Ember of Searing: Defeating Scorched targets grants melee energy and spawns a Firesprite. +10 Recovery.
Ember of Searing grants about 20% melee energy upon defeating a Scorched target—enemies that are actively burning. That's fantastic for melee-focused builds, yet every class has some way to get melee energy back without the use of this Fragment:
- Hunters: Knock 'Em Down and Gambler's Dodge fully refund melee energy.
- Titan: You can pick up your Throwing Hammer.
- Warlock: Heat Rises grants 20% melee energy upon landing a kill while in the air.
The only builds that might need this Fragment are Shoulder Charge builds for Titan and Warlock builds that are doubling down on their melee ability. Sunbracer Warlocks can greatly benefit from using this Fragment, but just about every other Solar build will find this Fragment to be overkill. With that said, spawning the occasional Firesprite off Scorched opponents is quite useful for getting more grenade energy.
7 Ember Of Eruption
Ember of Eruption: Your Solar Ignitions have increased area of effect. +10 Strength.
Ember of Eruption increases the area of effect on your Solar Ignites from 8 meters to 12 meters. All sources of ignite are affected by this Fragment excluding Gunpowder Gamble. It also increases your Strength stat by one tier.
Ignites serve as one of the best add-clearing options in Destiny 2 currently, so increasing the AoE of your ignites is a no-brainer for most builds. You can pair this with Ember of Char to cover an entire room in Scorch stacks after the Ignite triggers, leading to many Fragment synergies. Overall, this Fragment is great for making your Ignites stronger and should be used by every Ignite build.
6 Ember Of Solace
Ember of Solace: Radiant and Restoration effects applied to you have increased duration.
Ember of Solace extends the duration of Radiant and Restoration effects by 50%. The increased duration does not affect Ember of Empyrean and actually gets overridden if Ember of Empyrean procs. All sources of Radiant and Restoration are affected by this Fragment, even if its source didn't originate from you.
Empyrean is a far stronger Fragment for PvE, yet Solace has some use inside the Crucible. Being able to extend the effects of your Healing Grenade or Radiant buff can be incredibly useful in 3v3 playlists, notably Trials of Osiris. Ember of Empyrean might be slightly better in PvP if you're playing a 6v6 mode, although we find the stat reduction from that Fragment makes Solace slightly more appealing in the Crucible. For PvE, use Empyrean instead.
5 Ember Of Char
Ember of Char: Your Solar Ignitions spread Scorch to affected targets. +10 Discipline.
Whenever you ignite a target, all enemies caught in the blast radius of the explosion will gain 40 scorch stacks, including the target that was Ignited. This effect can be boosted by Ember of Ashes, increasing the scorch stacks applied to 60 stacks.
Ember of Char is one of the best ways to kickstart an Ignite chain reaction in the game. Ignite a target, cause all nearby enemies to be heavily scorched, then inflict one more source of Scorch to cause all of those enemies to explode. If you can get multiple enemies to Ignite at once, all the better. In PvE, Ember of Char is incredibly strong if you build into it. For PvP, Ignites are much less common and reduce the overall strength of this Fragment, although the Discipline boost might be enough of a reason to use this in your build.
4 Ember Of Resolve
Ember of Resolve: Grenade final blows Cure you.
Defeating an enemy with a Solar grenade grants x1 Cure, granting a small chunk of HP immediately. This effect is absurdly powerful on grenade-oriented builds such as Sunbracer Warlocks, Young Ahamkara's Spine Hunters, and Ashen Wake Titans. If your build has limited access to Restoration but needs a boost in survivability, Ember of Resolve is a great pick. Builds that already have access to Restoration don't need this Fragment since it's overkill, but PvP builds and grenade-focused PvE builds can definitely benefit from using Ember of Resolve in their build.
3 Ember Of Ashes
Ember of Ashes: You apply more Scorch stacks to targets.
Ember of Ashes increases the amount of Scorch stacks applied to targets, both PvE enemies and Guardians, by 50%. This makes it far easier to Ignite enemies with your grenade, melee, or any other source of Scorch. Weapons and Fragments that inflict Scorch are also buffed by Ember of Ashes.
Just about every Solar build in Destiny 2 will want this Fragment. It makes it far easier to ignite targets and utilize any Ignite-based Fragments you're using in your build. Pair this with Ember of Char to spread an immense amount of Scorch with ease. It's also useful in PvP since it will make your Scorch DoT deal slightly more damage to enemy Guardians.
2 Ember Of Empyrean
Ember of Empyrean: Solar weapon or ability final blows extend the duration of your Restoration and Radiant effects applied to you. -10 Resilience.
Defeating a target with a Solar weapon or ability will extend the duration of any active Restoration or Radiant effects by around three seconds. When both buffs have a timer of 12 seconds, additional kills will not grant any additional time. Empyrean does not grant Radiant and Restoration on its own.
With how easy it is to defeat a group of enemies in PvE activities, you can hypothetically keep your Radiant and Restoration buffs active for minutes at a time with this Fragment, making it much stronger than Ember of Solace for most PvE builds. Pair this Fragment with x2 Restoration, and you'll become virtually unkillable for most activities.
Empyrean can be used in 6v6 playlists inside the Crucible to great effect, acting as a sort of Devour buff. For 3v3 modes, Ember of Solace is more consistent and recommended for those types of playlists.
1 Ember Of Torches
Ember of Torches: Powered melee attacks against combatants make you and nearby allies Radiant. -10 Discipline.
Have you ever wanted to give your entire team Weapons of Light by using your melee ability? If so, Ember of Torches is for you. This is one of the strongest Fragments in Destiny 2, not just for Solar specifically. Whenever you land a powered melee hit on an enemy, you and allies near you gain the Radiant buff, increasing your damage by 25% in PvE (10% in PvP) for the next ten seconds.
This should go without saying, but giving a damage buff on-par with a Super for the cost of your melee is S-tier in PvE. Every PvE Solar build should be running this Fragment. Hunters get extra use out of this Fragment since they can trigger Knock 'Em Down with every melee kill.
Despite the use of "combatant" in the description, Ember of Torches works in PvP. A 10% damage buff is enough to make Ace of Spades two-tap with Memento Mori, Fighting Lion one-tap on a direct impact, and it makes most weapon's optimal TTK much easier to hit. Just about every player can benefit from this Fragment in PvP.