How to heal in The Nether in Destiny 2

Healing in The Nether activity in Destiny 2 is greatly reduced due to the mode’s roguelite inspiration. The goal is for you to seek out alternative forms of healing aside from passive restoration, such as the Healing Grenades ability or the support frame auto rifle introduced in The Final Shape expansion.

In this Destiny 2 guide, we’ll walk you through how to heal in The Nether so you and your fireteam can escape with your lives.

Update (Feb. 14): We’ve updated this guide to reflect that a recent patch has improved the healing system.

How healing works in The Nether

When in The Nether — whether in the explore, normal, or expert modes — you have drastically increased health, but will not heal passively. Additionally, all of your healing Aspects, weapons, and items aren’t nearly as effective at healing you, meaning you’ll have to be a bit creative if you want to succeed.

Below, we’ll go into some of the best tools you have in your arsenal for healing in The Nether, but first, there are a few non-loadout ways to heal as well.

As you explore The Nether, you’ll come across urns that you can shoot and destroy. These pots drop special light orbs that will instantly restore your health. You can make these more powerful (or cause them to offer additional benefits, like recharging your abilities) by interacting with your Runes on the Shaping Slab in Eris’ apartment.

There are also several Major Boons that you can pick up in The Nether that will give you healing when using your class abilities or performing a finisher.

Best Destiny 2 healing items in The Nether (for now)

At the launch of of Destiny 2’s Heresy episode, most healing effects were bugged inside The Nether, and were healing drastically less than they were supposed to, while others were doing much more. So if you play now and notice a difference compared to launch, that’s why.

Even after the patch, however, weapons and Aspects that use keywords like Cure, Restoration, and Devour still aren’t healing for their full amounts. This is intended. With that in mind, there are a few things we recommend when it comes to healing in The Nether:

• Support frame auto rifles (Adamantite and No Hesitation)
• Warlock’s Speaker’s Sight Exotic helmet
• Healing Grenades
• The Edge of Intent Warlock Exotic glaive
• Le Monarch with the Unrelenting Catalyst
• Any weapon with Heal Clip
• The Red Death Exotic pulse rifle

While all healing items in the game will provide some value for you, the above items really stand out.

Really, you’re looking for anything that’s free to use and has little to no risk. Warlock Rift, for example, doesn’t provide much healing at all, but it’s very simple to just pop a Warlock Rift and stand in it for a while between encounters. Knockout for Titans, on the other hand, is quite a bit riskier to rely on, as you have to be close to an enemy and get a kill to get it to proc.

If you’re running The Nether with a group of friends, consider having someone (preferably your Warlock, given all their healing options) act as a dedicated healer by equipping Healing Grenades, Red Death, a support frame auto rifle, etc. This frees up the other two members of the fireteam to run whatever high-damage builds they want. This is especially helpful in the expert difficulty version of The Nether, which is far more lethal.