Who can recover?
A dedicated medic can heal allies. Personal Devour, Cowl invisibility, or Exodus healing does not automatically do that. Every player still needs their own safe recovery option when the medic is unavailable.
Lesson 5 / Team configurations / Tower palette
Better together.
Not six isolated builds.
Combine recovery, control, damage, and reliable weapons. Coordinate what effects do, not just which subclass colors appear on the team screen.
Four questions before picking six Exotics.
Who can control threats?
Freeze, Suspend, Slow, Blind, and suppression have different triggers and target limits. Control helps prevent damage; it is not healing or a guarantee against bosses. Avoid assuming every enemy can be disabled.
Who supplies usable damage?
Distinguish pack clear from durable-target damage. Three melee builds can all struggle when close range is unsafe. Bring weapons that remain useful when abilities, kills, or buffs are missing.
Who covers counters and ammo?
Agree on ready Champion counters and backups rather than trusting a damage-role label. Everyone checks ammo roles; a player using Heavy for utility may not also carry a conventional damage Heavy.
Three-player configurations.
A / Learn with a safety net
Healing + protection + weapon pressure
- Fireteam Medic / Solar Warlock: actual ally healing and support buffs.
- Shelter from the Storm / Stasis Hunter: Duskfield mitigation and control.
- Void Arsenal / Void Titan: weapon-led clear and Void utility.
Why it fits: different recovery/control jobs, with sustained weapon play between abilities.
Check: Renewal does not heal. Choir uses Special ammo. Team protection cannot replace a ready counter or ranged Heavy.
B / Mixed-element pressure
Companions + debuff + slams
- Spectrum Engine / Prismatic Warlock: companion clear and personal Devour.
- Prism Breaker / Prismatic Hunter: Duskfield and Tractor debuff.
- Faultline Engine / Prismatic Titan: Consecration clear and ranged axes.
Why it fits: each has a different weapon/ability contribution and a personal fallback.
Check: no dedicated team healer. Two players want safe melee kills, and companion clear can take those kills. Tractor and Twilight Weaken do not freely add together.
C / Weapon-friendly control
Freeze + grapple control + ranged burst
- Cold Front / Stasis Warlock: freeze chains and personal Rift.
- Silken Shelter / Strand Hunter: Suspend, Sever, and mobile personal protection.
- Thunder Battery / Arc Titan: Arc weapon pressure and Super burst.
Why it fits: multiple ways to reduce incoming pressure while weapons do useful work.
Check: control may be redundant or ineffective against immune targets. There is no guaranteed shared healing; swap one controller for support if recovery is the real problem.
Use a composition as a question, not a rule.
Ask what each teammate adds that the others lack. If all three already survive but damage is unusable at range, another defensive effect may not solve it. If everyone dies before the first kill, more kill-triggered damage is not the first fix.
Build your own configuration from owned items. You can use repeated classes; one-of-each is only an easy teaching example.
Six-player configurations.
Balanced classroom / Two of each class
Start with three-player A, then add:
- Phoenix Engine for another Well-centered support option.
- Radiant Rebound for Solar precision weapon play and burst.
- Thunder Battery for an Arc Super/weapon role.
All six: Fireteam Medic, Shelter from the Storm, Void Arsenal, Phoenix Engine, Radiant Rebound, Thunder Battery.
Trade-off: two Well users may be unnecessary. Discuss whether to stagger availability or replace Phoenix with a damage/control option. Do not assume Phoenix refunds from a lone target without qualifying kills/assists.
Mixed toolkit / All six subclass colors
- Blighted Sunrise / Solar Warlock: Well and weapon/ability pressure.
- Circuit Breaker / Arc Warlock: Trace-driven abilities and beam Super.
- Veil of Ruin / Void Hunter: weapon stealth and tether.
- Shelter from the Storm / Stasis Hunter: protection/control.
- Emerald Lockdown / Strand Titan: Suspend and conditional shared Mail.
- Faultline Engine / Prismatic Titan: melee clear and ranged axes.
Trade-off: color variety is not a performance bonus by itself. Control overlaps; tether and axe Weaken can duplicate jobs. Shift roles if the actual need is ammo, recovery, or ranged damage.
When good builds get in each other's way.
| Friction | Why it happens | Friendly adjustment |
|---|---|---|
| Two players need the finishing melee hit. | Personal kill-based healing/energy cannot both be assumed from one target. | Keep a weapon fallback and alternate opportunities naturally. Do not reserve every enemy for one player. |
| Fast clear removes every setup target. | Summons or ranged explosions finish enemies before melee/ability triggers land. | Test the loop with friends and favor hit/pickup-based support when consistent personal kills are scarce. |
| Control or displacement changes the target. | Targets move, become frozen, or die to secondary damage; attribution and range change. | Check the resulting damage trigger. Avoid pushing enemies out of a teammate's damage field. |
| Crystal walls block weapons. | A protective wall can also obstruct friendly sight lines and explosive shots. | Place cover thoughtfully and communicate before firing explosives. No intentional obstructive play. |
| A Tangle disappears before another player uses it. | Several players want its grapple, throw, destroy, or pickup effect. | Agree on the intended use where important; keep a backup rather than treating every Tangle as exclusively yours. |
| Support procs disappear while solo. | Granting an ally a buff/heal is different from self-only benefits. | Use the guide's solo-friendly choice or swap to a self-sufficient build. Do not claim Benevolence from self-only Radiant. |
Coordinate effects and resources.
Buffs are not a pile of free multipliers.
Track source, duration, recipients, and damage category. Radiant, weapon perks, armor bonuses, and Surges have different stacking rules; not all empowering effects add together.
Shieldcrush's melee side needs a defensive elemental buff; Radiant/Amplified grants its grenade side. Do not infer the wrong bonus from the word “buffed.”
Debuff ownership matters.
Choose a dependable Weaken source and a backup. Tractor, tether, axes, and other sources differ in strength, range, cost, and uptime; overlapping them does not simply add their percentages.
A Tractor player spends their Exotic/Heavy slot on utility. Compare the team's total contribution, not just that player's damage number.
Ammo support is a configuration job.
Where available and affordable, a matching ammo Scout mod can help teammates under its finder conditions. Finder support is not a guaranteed brick per kill; read both mods' current text before budgeting energy.
Talk about who uses Heavy for utility and who depends on Special. A temporary shortage should trigger sensible Primary play, not an assumed infinite-ammo interaction.
Share what actually shares.
Friendly buffs, generated Orbs, or specific aspect effects can help the team. Personal armor bonuses, Devour, Cowl recovery, and most self-buffs do not become shared merely because friends stand nearby.
Check effect definitions and the source's recipient/range conditions. Keep a counter backup if its owner is unavailable.
Turn a solo setup into a group setup.
- Keep personal recovery. A medic does not remove your need for cover, resistance, or safe pickups.
- Recheck kill access. Test whether your energy/healing still starts when teammates clear quickly.
- Remove dead conditions. Solo-only artifact effects are not a group plan; replace them within the seven-slot rules.
- Add a real contribution. Helpful control, a shared buff, usable damage, or ammo support is better than copying another player's role without a reason.
- Verify actual loadouts together. Count ready counters, range, ammo roles, and lost effects after substitutions.
No need to rebuild everything. Change the failed condition, then test. Use the team drill.
A short pre-launch conversation.
Make it your group's plan: open the Fireteam Ready Board, choose a three-player dungeon or six-player raid roster, add player names and loadout contributions, then use the clean screenshot view or print/PDF. Details are temporary and clear on reload; no account connection or encounter solutions.
Ticks last only while this page is open. Configurations are teaching examples, not activity-specific recommendations.
Sources and limits.
Prepared 24 October 2026 from the linked build guides and their dated item/aspect/fragment sources. Bungie's build primer provides the underlying configuration approach. Team examples have not been benchmarked or represented as clan-tested results. Verify current effects, recipients, counter conditions, and mod costs; no encounter solutions are included.