Solar

High Noon — Lucky Pants (Solar Hunter)

Hand cannon champion and major deleter

Centerpiece: Lucky Pants (Legs) · Subclass: Gunslinger · Role: Hand cannon champion and major deleter Sandbox: 9.7.0 · Updated 2026-07-03

Draw a hand cannon, and for a few seconds every hit ramps its damage higher and higher. This is not a boss-DPS build any more — 9.7.0 pushed Lucky Pants out of that lane and squarely into this one: champions, minibosses, and anything orange that needs to stop existing inside a single magazine. The fantasy is discipline — holster, draw, delete, holster again.

The exotic

Lucky Pants (Leg Armor) — Illegally Modded Holster: Improves sprint, slide, and airborne effectiveness while a Hand Cannon is equipped. For a short time after being drawn, Hand Cannons ready faster, are more accurate, and each hit against a combatant increases Hand Cannon damage.

The whole build lives inside that "for a short time after being drawn" window. Readying a hand cannon grants Illegally Modded Holster, and in PvE every direct hit adds a stack — up to ten — each worth 45% increased impact damage, so a full stack is +450% on most hand cannons. Crucially the buff is paid out on the draw, not on kills: you work with another weapon, swap to the hand cannon for a priority target, and let the ramp climb. There is a catch the perk text hides — swapping away above seven stacks, or letting the window lapse, inflicts Out of Luck, a ten-second lockout before you can re-arm the holster. That single downside is what makes this a discipline build rather than a spam build.

Loadout

Slot	Pick	Why
Subclass	Gunslinger (Solar)	Radiant and Restoration verbs keep the hand cannon lethal and you alive between draws.
Super	Golden Gun: Marksman	Stays on-theme as a precision execute; Knock 'Em Down extends its duration.
Class ability	Marksman's Dodge	Instantly reloads the drawn hand cannon and repositions between priority targets.
Movement	Triple Jump	Maximum air control to reposition for the next clean draw.
Melee	Lightweight Knife	Precision knife kills feed the Radiant loop via Ember of Torches.
Grenade	Healing Grenade	Sustain so the gun stays the damage source, not your health bar.
Aspect 1	On Your Mark	Precision hits stack reload and Weapons stat ×10, curing you at max stacks.
Aspect 2	Knock 'Em Down	Enhances Marksman Golden Gun duration; refunds knife melee on Radiant final blows.
Fragments	Torches · Empyrean · Solace · Singeing	Radiant on demand, extended and refreshed by Solar kills, plus class-ability regen.
Exotic armour	Lucky Pants (Legs)	The centerpiece — turns every hand-cannon draw into a stacking damage ramp.
Weapons	Eriana's Vow · a Heavy Burst / Spread Shot HC · Rocket Launcher	Special HC for Barrier + the ramp, a second HC for the other champion, Rocket Launcher for cleanup (fed by the artifact's Nosecone + Perpetual Destruction).

Fragments

Ember of Torches powered melee makes you and allies radiant
Ember of Empyrean Solar final blows extend radiant and restoration
Ember of Solace radiant and restoration last longer
Ember of Singeing class ability recharges faster on scorch

Why it works (the mechanics)

The buff is on the draw, not the shot. Illegally Modded Holster pays you for weapon-swap discipline: the optimal rotation is work-with-another-weapon → draw the hand cannon at the priority target → land hits → holster. That is the opposite habit of most builds, which is exactly why the loop feels distinct — you are rewarded for putting the exotic weapon away and pulling it back out on demand.
Eriana's Vow is the champion answer in one draw. It is a Special-ammo Solar hand cannon that is intrinsically Anti-Barrier, so drawing it both stuns a Barrier champion and starts the Lucky Pants ramp. Even at its reduced per-stack rate the ramped magazine ends the champion before the stun wears off — a one-draw kill in GM-tier content.
Anti-Champion 2.0 turns your second hand cannon into coverage. Hand-cannon frames now carry intrinsic champion breaks — Heavy Burst stuns Unstoppable, Spread Shot stuns Overload — so your archetype choice within one weapon class sets which champion the off-hand covers. Two hand cannons plus Eriana's can technically address all three champion types.
On Your Mark double-dips the ramp. Landing precision hits stacks On Your Mark up to ten, each adding Weapons stat and reload speed. The Weapons stat lifts your baseline PvE damage against minors and majors on top of the Lucky Pants per-hit ramp — two independent multiplier sources from the same precision hits, and at ten stacks a final blow cures you.
The Solar loop keeps Radiant and Restoration rolling. Ember of Torches makes a knife hit grant Radiant; Empyrean means every Solar hand-cannon kill extends both Radiant and Restoration; Solace stretches those durations further. A Solar hand cannon that is always drawing and killing therefore keeps a 25% weapon-damage buff and passive healing live with almost no downtime.
Marksman's Dodge is a free reload mid-ramp. Because the ramp expires on time, not on empty, dodging to instant-reload lets you keep firing ramped shots without a manual reload eating the window — and it repositions you toward the next priority target in the same button press.

Stats & mods

Weapons 200 → Health → Class. Lean Powerhouse (Weapons/Super) with Gunner-primary pieces; Weapons is the whole point, Health keeps you upright between draws, Class feeds Marksman's Dodge reloads.

Mods:

Boots: Hand Cannon Scavenger / Innervation for ammo and ability economy.
Arms: Hand Cannon Loader for faster reloads inside the ramp window.
Chest: resist mods matched to the activity's incoming damage.
Class item: Special Ammo Finisher to keep Eriana's Vow fed, plus Bomber.
Surge: Solar Surge to match Eriana's Vow and the Golden Gun.
Anti-Champion: intrinsic — Eriana's Vow (Barrier) plus your second hand cannon's frame (Unstoppable or Overload).

Artifact — Queensfoil Censer

The Solar precision half of Queensfoil's pool is a clean fit for a build that is nothing but precision hits: Radiant on tap, precision kills that ignite, and a solo damage ramp on top of the Lucky Pants ramp. Champion coverage rides the hand-cannon archetypes plus a champion-ignite stun.

Picks (2/3/2):

Tier 1: Fever And Chill · Kindling Trigger
Tier 2: Revitalizing Blast · Anti-Champion Nosecone · Perpetual Destruction
Tier 3: Rays of Precision · Solo Operative

Fever And Chill grants Radiant on rapid Solar-weapon hits, giving the loop a weapon-based Radiant source that does not depend on landing a knife.
Kindling Trigger makes your Solar hand cannon apply Scorch while Radiant, so the ramped magazine also stacks Scorch toward ignitions.
Revitalizing Blast ignites a stunned champion and clears your shield stun — extra burst and safety the instant you break a champion.
Anti-Champion Nosecone gives the Heavy slot champion damage for the targets the hand cannons do not personally execute.
Perpetual Destruction keeps that Heavy Rocket Launcher slot in ammo and reload economy so it is always available for cleanup.
Rays of Precision turns every Radiant Solar precision final blow into an ignition — each hand-cannon kill becomes AoE.
Solo Operative ramps precision-final-blow damage while solo, a straight multiplier on a build that only ever lands precision kills.

Where it shines

GMs and endgame champions: the one-draw ramp deletes minibosses and champions faster than sustained-DPS builds, which is the lane 9.7.0 tuned it into.
Match-game and shielded rooms: Eriana's shield-pierce plus the ignition payoff punches through modifiers a normal primary stalls on.
Solo and small-team content: Solo Operative and the self-sustain Solar loop reward playing without a supporting fireteam.
Champion coverage: breaks Barrier intrinsically via Eriana's Vow; bring a Heavy Burst hand cannon for Unstoppable or a Spread Shot frame for Overload as the second slot, and Revitalizing Blast adds a champion-ignite stun on top.

Verify notes

Eriana's Vow manifest-confirmed as Solar, Special ammo, 90 RPM, intrinsic Barrier champion (`data/weapon_facts.json`); its Looks Can Kill frame deals 67% increased damage to Barrier champions (`clarity_build_numbers.md`).
Lucky Pants intrinsic quoted verbatim from `docs/encyclopedia/exotics.md`. Clarity (`clarity_build_numbers.md`) gives the real numbers: +45% impact per stack to 450% for most hand cannons, but Eriana's Vow is capped at 30% per stack (300%) — an earlier draft's "4.5× on Eriana's" was wrong; the 4.5× cap is the general-HC value.
Ramp window is 6 seconds base per draw (Clarity), not ten; above x7, swapping away or letting it lapse triggers the 10-second Out of Luck lockout. Any "−33% vs bosses / Uncivil Discourse 3×" figures are 9.7.0 patch-notes tuning — flagged as tuning, not manifest-sourced here.
Aspects On Your Mark and Knock 'Em Down quoted from `docs/encyclopedia/aspects.md`; fragments from `docs/encyclopedia/fragments.md`.
Artifact picks validated against the real Queensfoil Censer pool in `docs/encyclopedia/artifacts_structured.md` — exactly 2/3/2, all seven mods present in-pool.

Mod selection (masterworked — full allocation)

Piece	Mod · cost	What it does
Helmet (7/10)	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.
	Heavy Ammo Finder 1e fill	Increases the effect of all contributions towards the Heavy ammo meter.
Arms (8/10)	Weapon Loader (faster reload) 3e
	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.
Chest (6/10)	Solar Resistance 2e fill	Reduces incoming Solar damage from combatants.
	Concussive Dampener 3e fill	Reduces incoming area-of-effect damage from combatants.
	Sniper Damage Resistance 1e fill	Reduces incoming damage from combatants that are at long range.
Legs (3/10)	Innervation 1e	Reduces grenade cooldown each time you pick up an Orb of Power.
	Solar Weapon Surge 1e fill	Your Solar weapons gain a small bonus to damage while you have any Armor Charge. Your Armor Charge now decays over time.
	Recuperation 1e fill	Replenishes health each time you pick up an Orb of Power.
Class Item (4/10)	Bomber 1e	Reduces grenade cooldown when using your class ability.
	Reaper 1e fill	Shortly after using your class ability, your next weapon final blow spawns an Orb of Power.
	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). Flex/loadout-dependent: the Golden Gun. - **Anti-Champion:** intrinsic — Eriana's Vow (Barrier) plus your second hand cannon's frame (Unstoppable or Overload).