Adrenaline — Mechaneer's Tricksleeves + Forerunner (Solar Hunter)
Mechaneer's Tricksleeves rewards living dangerously: get low, swap to a sidearm, and it reloads instantly and hits much harder — and as long as the sidearm keeps killing, the buff keeps renewing. Forerunner is the biggest sidearm in the game, so that spike lands on a weapon already punching well above sidearm weight. Stack Radiant on top and Restoration to climb back out of the red, and a near-death moment becomes a one-magazine rampage. The lower you are, the harder you hit.
The exotic
Spring-Loaded Mounting: Increases Sidearm airborne effectiveness, ready speed, and reload speed. While you're critically wounded, swapping to a Sidearm reloads it and increases its damage. While this effect is active, Sidearm final blows reload the weapon and extend the effect's duration.
Full Stop (Forerunner): Oversized Sidearm with extended-range, heavy-caliber rounds. Fires full auto with increased rate of fire. Deals increased precision damage to unshielded targets.
This is a two-exotic engine: Mechaneer's Tricksleeves is the amplifier, Forerunner is the payload. The gauntlets passively grant sidearms +50 Airborne Effectiveness, +100 Handling and +100 Reload Speed, but the real trick fires at low health — swapping to a sidearm while critically wounded refills its magazine and grants roughly +100% damage in PvE, and while that buff is up, sidearm final blows reload the gun and push the timer back out (capped at 5 seconds past a kill). Forerunner is the sidearm worth the risk: a 200-RPM Kinetic Special sidearm that fires full-auto, reaches like a hand cannon, and does bonus precision damage to unshielded targets — most minors and majors. One crisis swap snowballs into a long, hard-hitting window as long as you keep landing kills.
Loadout
| Slot | Pick | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Subclass | Gunslinger (Solar) | Radiant, Restoration and the Ember fragments are the sustain-and-buff engine that lets a "go low" build survive the dip. |
| Super |  Golden Gun: Deadshot | A precision panic-delete and the "get me out of this" button when the rally is losing. |
| Class ability |  Acrobat's Dodge | Landing after the dodge grants you and nearby allies Radiant for 10 seconds (15 with Ember of Solace) plus a reposition out of danger. |
| Movement |  High Jump | Extra air time to reposition mid-fight; Mechaneer's +50 Sidearm airborne effectiveness keeps Forerunner accurate off the ground. |
| Melee | Lightweight Throwing Knife | A Solar precision-kill tool that feeds the Embers and, with Ember of Torches on the powered melee, taps Radiant. |
| Grenade |  Healing Grenade | Instant Cure + Restoration — the climb out of the red while the Mechaneer's buff keeps renewing off kills. |
| Aspect 1 |  On Your Mark | Class ability or precision hits grant you and allies reload speed and Weapons stat, stacking ten times; final blows at ten stacks cure you. Forerunner is a precision gun, so this is a damage layer and sustain. 3 fragment slots. |
| Aspect 2 |  Gunpowder Gamble | Kills charge a thrown Solar explosive you shoot mid-air to ignite — a free AoE clear/panic button while you reposition. 1 fragment slot. |
| Fragments | Torches · Solace · Searing · Empyrean | Radiant on melee, longer Radiant/Restoration, melee/Firesprite refunds, and Solar-kill buff extension. |
| Exotic armour | Mechaneer's Tricksleeves (Gauntlets) | The centerpiece — the low-health sidearm damage spike that Forerunner cashes in. |
| Weapons |  Forerunner (Kinetic Special sidearm) + a  Solar primary + a boss-DPS Heavy | Forerunner is the spike; a Solar primary keeps surges/Siphon and the Embers live; Heavy handles what a sidearm can't chew. |
Ember of Torches powered-melee hit → Radiant for you and allies — the on-tap buff for the Kinetic gun
Ember of Solace Radiant + Restoration last longer — stretch the buff window
Ember of Searing scorched kills → melee energy + Firesprite — refunds the knife that makes Radiant
Ember of Empyrean Solar final blows extend Radiant/Restoration — knife/ignition kills keep the rally alive
Why it works (the mechanics)
- The crisis is the on-switch, kills are the fuel. Dip to critical health, swap to Forerunner, and Spring-Loaded Mounting instant-reloads it and grants ~+100% damage in PvE. Every sidearm final blow while the buff is active reloads the gun and extends the timer (up to 5 seconds per kill), so one dangerous moment becomes a sustained high-damage window rather than a single burst.
- You climb out while still spiked. Healing Grenade (Cure + Restoration), On Your Mark's ten-stack cure, and Ember of Empyrean (Solar kills extend Restoration) heal you back to safety — and the Mechaneer's buff persists off sidearm kills even after your shield refills, so healing up doesn't switch the damage off.
- Radiant is the Kinetic gun's main multiplier. Forerunner takes no subclass surge, so Radiant (Acrobat's Dodge + Ember of Torches, element-agnostic) is its headline buff, stacking with Mechaneer's spike and On Your Mark's Weapons stat — three layers, none of them dependent on the weapon's element.
- On Your Mark double-dips precision. Forerunner is a precision weapon; every crit builds Weapons-stat stacks (offence) and drives toward the ten-stack cure (sustain), so the same hits that ramp your damage also keep you alive.
- The Embers feed off the Solar side. The throwing knife scorches and, on kill, Ember of Searing refunds melee energy and drops a Firesprite; Empyrean extends your buffs on Solar final blows. Keep the knife and a Solar primary in rotation so Radiant/Restoration uptime never depends on the Kinetic Forerunner.
- Panic buttons everywhere. Gunpowder Gamble (thrown ignition), Golden Gun (delete), and Acrobat's Dodge (reposition + Radiant) are all designed to turn a losing fight around rather than avoid it — the build wants you in the danger zone.
Stats & mods
Weapons 200 → Health → Class. This is a weapon-damage build that happens to flirt with death: the Weapons stat scales Forerunner under the Mechaneer's spike + Radiant + On Your Mark stack, Health is the buffer that lets you survive the critical-health dip and the climb back, and Class feeds Acrobat's Dodge for Radiant uptime. Archetype lean: Gunner/Powerhouse (Weapons) with a 
Bulwark (Health) secondary, 
Specialist for Class.
Mods:
- Boots: Recuperation + Better Already — Orb pickups immediately start health regen, the fast climb-out after the dip.
- Arms: Sidearm Loader — faster reloads reinforce the instant-swap tempo (Special Ammo Finder if reserves run thin).
- Chest: resist mods (Concussive Dampener / elemental resist) — cheap damage reduction to make the "go low" gamble survivable.
- Class item: Sidearm Scavenger + Special Ammo Scavenger — Forerunner eats Special ammo fast, so keep it topped.
- Surge: Solar Weapon Surge for the Solar primary that feeds the Embers (Forerunner leans on Radiant + the Mechaneer's spike, not a surge).
- Anti-Champion: Kinetic Rupture (artifact) staggers Unstoppable; Gunpowder Gamble ignitions stagger; bring archetype frames on primary/Heavy for Barrier/Overload.
Artifact — Encrypted Data Disk
Picks (2/3/2): 
Kinetic Synthesis + 
Press the Advantage — 
Precision Equity + 
Counter Energy + 
Armorsmith — 
Kinetic Rupture + 
Sticker Shock
The Kinetic artifact — it feeds, arms and sustains the Forerunner gunplay:
- Kinetic Synthesis — sustained Kinetic damage and rapid kills have a chance to drop an ammo brick that refills equipped Kinetic weapons and grants Special/Heavy progress. Forerunner is Kinetic and Special-hungry, so this keeps the trigger weapon fed.
- Precision Equity — precision final blows build toward a large Orb of Power that also grants bonus weapon damage on pickup. Forerunner is all precision kills, so this is free Orbs plus a damage ramp.
- Kinetic Rupture — Kinetic damage on a powerful combatant can create a Rupture you shoot for a staggering explosion, strong against Unstoppable — the anti-champion Forerunner lacks, on the right element.
- Counter Energy + Armorsmith — stunning a champion returns energy to your least-charged ability, and breaking a shield grants damage resistance and increased melee damage: sustain and survivability for a brawl build.
- Press the Advantage — breaking a shield grants weapon stability, handling and reload speed, smoothing the Forerunner swap.
- Sticker Shock — the T3 filler; it wants an Arc grenade to shine, so re-fit via `artifact_parser.py --recommend` if you ever change the grenade (see Verify).
Where it shines
- Solo and low-team survival content — Nightfalls, Lost Sectors, harder patrol: the loop is explicitly built to rally out of a near-death moment rather than avoid one, and the Mechaneer's spike is repeatable every time you're willing to dip.
- Add-dense rooms — full-auto Forerunner with a ~+100% damage spike shreds minors/majors (bonus precision damage to unshielded targets), and Gunpowder Gamble ignitions clear the overflow.
- Champion coverage: Forerunner has no intrinsic stun. Unstoppable is covered by Kinetic Rupture (artifact) and ignition stagger; bring archetype anti-Barrier/anti-Overload frames on your primary/Heavy for the other two.
Mod selection (masterworked — full allocation)
| Piece | Mod · cost | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Helmet (9/10) | Special Ammo Finder 3e | Increases the effect of all contributions towards the Special ammo meter. |
| Solar Siphon 3e fill | Rapid Solar weapon final blows create an Orb of Power. | |
| Ashes to Assets 3e fill | Gain bonus Super energy on grenade kills. | |
| Arms (6/10) | Utility Kickstart 3e fill | When your class ability energy is fully expended, your Armor Charge is consumed and you gain class ability energy for each Armor Charge used. |
| Momentum Transfer 2e fill | Causing damage with a grenade reduces your melee cooldown. | |
| Fastball 1e fill | Increases grenade throw distance. | |
| Chest (6/10) | Concussive Dampener 3e | Reduces incoming area-of-effect damage from combatants. |
| Solar Resistance 2e fill | Reduces incoming Solar damage from combatants. | |
| Sniper Damage Resistance 1e fill | Reduces incoming damage from combatants that are at long range. | |
| Legs (3/10) | Better Already 1e | Your health begins to regenerate immediately after picking up an Orb of Power. |
| Recuperation 1e | Replenishes health each time you pick up an Orb of Power. | |
| Solar Weapon Surge 1e | Your Solar weapons gain a small bonus to damage while you have any Armor Charge. Your Armor Charge now decays over time. | |
| Class Item (4/10) | Reaper 1e fill | Shortly after using your class ability, your next weapon final blow spawns an Orb of Power. |
| Bomber 1e fill | Reduces grenade cooldown when using your class ability. | |
| Powerful Attraction 2e fill | Automatically collects nearby Orbs of Power when you activate your class ability. |
All 15 sockets used, 10 energy per masterworked piece; costs from the manifest. Core mods are the build's engine; fill mods are strong defaults — swap freely (chest resists should match the activity's damage types).