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Prismatic

Golden Eye — Prismatic Hunter (Golden Gun: Marksman)

Precision boss DPS

Centerpiece: Celestial Nighthawk (Helmet) · Subclass: Prismatic · Role: Precision boss DPS Sandbox: 9.7.0 · Updated 2026-07-03

Two Golden Guns per damage phase — one cast from your Super, one loaded into your sniper — both concentrated into a single overcharged shot by Celestial Nighthawk. Prismatic layers Transcendence on top as a third damage window, so every boss phase opens with a heal, a damage buff, and two one-shot cannons. This is the deadliest single-target Hunter setup in the game, explained from the mechanics up.

The exotic

Hawkeye Hack: Precision final blows reduce the cooldown of your Super. Modifies Golden Gun to fire a single, high-damage shot. Targets defeated by that shot give you Super energy and explode.

Celestial Nighthawk collapses the three-round Marksman Golden Gun into one shot carrying the whole Super's damage — Clarity measures it at roughly 650% increased damage with an immediate Ignition on hit, and a kill refunds 33% Super energy plus a corpse explosion. The build-defining wrinkle is that the same intrinsic also overcharges Still Hunt's weapon-mode Golden Gun (Cayde's Retribution), turning your sniper into a second Nighthawk cannon that charges off precision hits rather than Super energy. That decoupling is why this pairing has anchored Hunter boss DPS since The Final Shape: you fire two full-strength Golden Guns per phase without ever needing two Supers' worth of energy.

Loadout

Slot	Pick	Why
Subclass	Prismatic	Runs a Solar Super and melee for the Light half while banking Stasis slow for the Dark half → Transcendence.
Super	Golden Gun: Marksman	The Nighthawk vehicle — one overcharged precision shot per cast.
Class ability	Marksman's Dodge	Reloads the stowed sniper mid-rotation, keeping Still Hunt topped up.
Movement	Triple Jump	Flexible aerial reposition for peeking a boss from cover; swap to taste.
Melee	Knife Trick (Solar)	Fan of scorching knives — fills the Light gauge and triggers Radiant via Facet of Dawn.
Grenade	Duskfield (Stasis)	Dark-gauge engine; its slow tags targets as Darkness-debuffed for Facet of Courage.
Aspect 1	Gunpowder Gamble	Defeats charge a throwable Solar explosive you shoot mid-air for an ignition — Solar burst between Supers.
Aspect 2	Winter's Shroud	Dodging slows nearby targets (a Dark verb) and speeds class-ability regen.
Fragments	Dawn · Courage · Purpose · Hope	Radiant on demand, damage vs slowed targets, Orb-to-Restoration, and faster dodges while buffed.
Exotic armour	Celestial Nighthawk (Helmet)	Concentrates Golden Gun into one shot and overcharges Still Hunt's Golden Gun mode.
Weapons	Still Hunt · Solar primary · Heavy	Still Hunt is the second Golden Gun; primary feeds Light energy; heavy covers non-precision phases.

Why it works (the mechanics)

• Damage stacks multiplicatively across buckets. Radiant (a weapon buff), a Surge mod (armour), and Transcendence's weapon-damage bonus each occupy a different multiplier bucket, so they all compound into the Nighthawk shot and the Still Hunt shot rather than overwriting each other. The build therefore hoards buff sources, not raw stat points, because each new bucket is a fresh multiplier on an already-huge single-shot number.
• Two Golden Guns without double Super energy. Still Hunt charges its Golden Gun mode from precision hits — weapon economy, not Super economy. That means the 9.7.0 super-energy-from-bosses reduction barely touches this build even while it guts super-spam setups: you get your second cannon from landing sniper crits, and Hawkeye Hack's precision-kill cooldown reduction plus the 33% refund keep the actual Super cycling too.
• The Dark gauge is free profit. Duskfield costs nothing in the DPS rotation — throw it at adds between phases. It applies Slow (a Darkness debuff), which makes your Solar abilities hit those targets harder through Facet of Courage, and it fills the Stasis/Dark half of the Transcendence meter as a by-product of ordinary add-clear. Nothing in the loop is spent solely to reach Transcendence.
• Transcendence is the third damage window. Filling both gauges grants a timed state with a heal on activation and increased weapon and ability damage. Banked for a damage phase, it means each phase opens with: pop Transcendence (heal + damage buff), fire the Still Hunt Golden Gun, swap and cast Marksman Golden Gun for the Nighthawk shot — three overlapping burst sources in one window.
• Survivability is passive, not pieced-in. Facet of Purpose converts the Orbs your multikills and Nighthawk explosions generate into Restoration (keyed to the Solar Super); Facet of Hope turns that elemental buff into faster class-ability regen; Winter's Shroud makes the dodge itself a defensive slow. Each fragment feeds the next, so healing and uptime fall out of the DPS loop instead of stealing slots from it.

Stats & mods

Super 200 → Weapons → Health. Lean into a Super/Weapons archetype (Colossus for Super/Health, Powerhouse for Weapons/Super) so the Golden Gun comes back fast and the sniper phases hit their damage ceiling; Health rides third as survivability floor.

Mods:

• Boots: two Weapon Surge (heavy) to feed the multiplicative damage stack on your DPS weapon.
• Arms: Hands-On for Super energy on melee kills, plus a loader for Still Hunt's sniper reloads.
• Chest: resist mods for the boss encounter, or Special Finisher to keep sniper ammo flowing.
• Class item: Reaper / Orbs-focused mod so multikills feed Facet of Purpose's Restoration.
• Surge: ×3 matching your heavy weapon's element.
• Anti-Champion: Barrier via the Solar primary; cover Overload/Unstoppable through the artifact and a Rapid-Fire frame.

Artifact — Queensfoil Censer

The Solar-Radiant-precision artifact this DPS loop is built for: it turns the sniper's own precision hits into Radiant, ignites on the kill, and ramps weapon damage while solo — while the Stasis tier pays off the Duskfield/Winter's Shroud slow as defensive Frost Armor.

Picks (2/3/2):

• Tier 1: Fever And Chill · Wished into Being
• Tier 2: Creeping Chill · Revitalizing Blast · Anti-Champion Nosecone
• Tier 3: Rays of Precision · Solo Operative

• Fever And Chill grants Radiant from rapid Solar weapon hits — your sniper is this trigger, so Radiant is up for the Nighthawk and Still Hunt shots without spending the melee.
• Wished into Being spawns Orbs of Power from ability final blows while your Super is nearly full, feeding Facet of Purpose's Restoration between phases.
• Creeping Chill turns your constant slow (Duskfield + Winter's Shroud) into Frost Armor on Stasis final blows — the Dark half made defensive, and it fires on slowed targets, not just frozen ones.
• Revitalizing Blast makes a stunned Champion ignite and clears your own shield stun — extra burst plus a get-out-of-stun, though the actual Unstoppable break still comes from a weapon mod.
• Anti-Champion Nosecone hands the heavy Rocket Launcher increased Champion damage for the non-precision phases.
• Rays of Precision ignites on Radiant Solar precision final blows, closing the Radiant → ignition loop your sniper already sustains.
• Solo Operative ramps weapon damage on precision kills while solo — a clean multiplier into the Nighthawk shot in solo/duo content.

Where it shines

• Raid and dungeon boss DPS — the whole kit exists to dump two Golden Guns plus Transcendence into a single-target damage phase.
• Solo and duo endgame — Solo Operative and the self-contained heal/Radiant loop reward running short-handed.
• Champion coverage: breaks nothing intrinsically through the subclass, so bring anti-Champion weapon mods for the phase. Barrier comes from the Solar primary's anti-barrier mod; Anti-Champion Nosecone piles extra damage onto Champions with the heavy Rocket Launcher; Revitalizing Blast ignites a stunned Champion and clears your own stun.

Mod selection (masterworked — full allocation)

Piece	Mod · cost	What it does
Helmet (9/10)	Hands-On 3e	Gain bonus Super energy on melee kills.
	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 (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)	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.
	Better Already 1e fill	Your health begins to regenerate immediately after picking up an Orb of Power.
Class Item (3/10)	Special Finisher 1e	Finishers generate Special ammo for the whole fireteam.
	Special Finisher 1e	Finishers generate Special ammo for the whole fireteam.
	Special Finisher 1e	Finishers generate Special ammo for the whole fireteam.

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: a Rapid-Fire frame.