Smoke & Mirrors — Gemini Jester (Arc Hunter · PvP)

Anchor: Gemini Jester (Legs) · Subclass: Arcstrider · Role: Radar-denial duel-winner — Crucible & Trials Sandbox: 9.7.0 · Built 2026-06-27 · PvP (6v6 + Trials/Comp)

One button decides every 1v1 before a shot is fired. Dodge near someone and they get disoriented, their audio smears, and their radar goes dark for 5 seconds — they can't aim straight, can't hear you reposition, and can't see your blip. You peek the corner they no longer know you're on, land the duel inside their blind window, and slide out before the trade forms. This is not a damage build; it's an information build that turns every dodge into a free first shot.

Loadout

Slot	Pick	Why
Super	Gathering Storm (alt: Arc Staff)	Trials zone-control — pin a flag/lane or deny a stacked push from range. Arc Staff is the roaming 1vX panic button. Super is the least important slot; the build wins on neutral with the dodge + gun.
Class ability	Marksman's Dodge	The whole build is on this button, so it has to keep your gun in the fight. Marksman's dodges in place, reloads, and never breaks your aim — you disorient + radar-wipe the target while staying scoped on them. Gambler's Dodge is the alt if you'd rather refund melee to feed Lethal Current.
Movement	Triple Jump	Three air-control vectors to break aim-assist tracking and to choose where the disorient/radar-wipe lands on a peek.
Melee	Combination Blow / Disorienting Blow (Arc charged melee)	Not a kill engine — the post-dodge punish that Lethal Current arms (jolt + blind) for when a shotgun-aper pushes into your blind window.
Grenade	Flashbang	A get-off-me that blinds a pushing duo — stacks a second CC on top of the disorient. Spark of Shock makes it jolt too, which is your Flow State trigger.
Aspect 1	Flow State	"Defeating a jolted target makes you amplified. While amplified, your dodge recharges more quickly, you are more resilient while dodging, and your reload speed is greatly increased." This is the dodge-uptime engine — more dodges = more disorients = more blind windows.
Aspect 2	Lethal Current	"After dodging, your next melee has increased lunge, jolts, and creates a damaging aftershock. Damaging any jolted target with melee also blinds them." Turns the dodge into a second CC layer for the ape who walks into your smoke.

Clarity PvP DR/values cited in Notes — Resistance is 10% DR in PvP (not the 25% PvE figure), and Feedback's return-melee is +50% in PvP. Don't carry the PvE numbers into Crucible expectations.

Exotic — Gemini Jester (Legs)

Misdirection: Dodging disorients nearby enemies and temporarily removes their radar. (manifest, verbatim — and yes, it's Leg Armor, not a helmet; see Notes)

Clarity's PvP breakdown of what one dodge actually does, in numbers:

• Disorients + smears their audio + disables their radar for 5 seconds to everyone in range (Clarity, [pvp]). Five seconds is an eternity in a Crucible duel — it covers the entire peek-shoot-reset cycle.
• Application radius ~10 [22] m (Clarity's PvE [PvP] convention reads the PvP application bubble as the larger ~22 m — generous enough that you rarely have to dodge into someone to tag them; verify in-game, see Notes).
• Deals ~0 damage but counts as a Hit — so it can't trade-kill you, but it does register, which matters for any "on hit" interactions you carry.

Two info-war effects off your most-spammable button, and that's the entire pitch:

• The disorient is the offensive half — a brief aim-disruption (the disorienting-grenade family of effect). It's the half-second-plus that lets you win the duel you peeked into, or break a corner clean.
• The radar wipe is the prize. The people you tagged lose their read of you. You don't just win the duel — you delete yourself from their minimap so their teammate can't rotate onto the fight in time. It's a local, timed blackout on exactly the players near your dodge, not team-wide invis.

This exotic adds zero damage, zero overshield, zero ability refund — `synergy.py --item` returns nothing for it because it produces no economy verb. That's correct and honest: it makes you harder to fight and impossible to see, and the subclass + gun do the rest.

Weapons (the loadout)

The exotic doesn't shoot. You win the duel the radar-wipe sets up, so bring a kit that closes inside a 5-second blind window. The project has no legendary roll data — these are archetype calls with example guns flagged as examples.

• Primary — a 120 RPM Hand Cannon (e.g. a Rose / Igneous Hammer-class HC, examples only). The 120 is the canonical duelist frame: it ends a fight in two crisp body-plus-head taps, which is exactly the cadence the disorient buys you. The disorient also slows their return fire, so the slow-but-lethal HC stops being a liability. Roll for range + stability (Eye of the Storm / Keep Away / Moving Target all love the strafe-and-peek game). An Arc HC lets the gun itself jolt → feeds Flow State; a Kinetic one hits cleaner damage breakpoints — pick what you shoot best. - Alt primary: a high-stat Lightweight/Aggressive Pulse if you prefer to win the disorient window at mid-range rather than HC distance.
• Special — an Aggressive or Lightweight Shotgun (e.g. a Matador-class slug or a fast-handling pellet gun, examples only). Marksman's Dodge keeps it loaded; the radar-wipe means you can swing a corner and the holder genuinely doesn't know you're there — the purest expression of this build. A sniper/fusion is the alternative if you'd rather hold the angle the radar-wipe protects and let the dodge be your escape, not your entry.

Pairing logic: HC for the duel you start, shotgun for the corner you take while invisible-to-radar, Marksman's Dodge tying them together (reload + reset + disorient on one input). No combo to memorise — it's a gunfight kit with an info-war button welded to the dodge.

Stats (PvP)

Priority: Class → Health → Weapons, with Melee a minor nudge and Grenade/Super dumped.

• Class (push to 200): "Reduces your class ability cooldown. Increases the amount of class ability energy provided by all sources." This is the dodge cooldown, and the dodge is the build — every point shortens the gap between blind windows. Non-negotiable; it's the difference between a radar-wipe every duel vs every other duel.
• Health (moderate–high, ~100): "Increases the health you gain from Orbs of Power. Reduces flinching from incoming fire while aiming a weapon." The flinch line is the PvP-relevant half — it keeps your HC reticle steady when you're trading inside the window. You have no Devour/overshield/Woven-Mail net here, so don't dump it.
• Weapons (whatever's left, value the handling): "Increases weapon reload speed and handling. Increases weapon damage against minor and major combatants." In Crucible only the reload + handling matters — the damage clause is PvE-only (minor/major combatants, not Guardians). Still worth it for snappier ADS/ready on the peek; just don't expect a damage bump.
• Melee / Grenade / Super (dump): abilities are utility get-off-me tools, not a damage loop. Spark of Resistance (+10 Melee) and Spark of Feedback (+10 Health) and Spark of Shock (−10 Grenade) already shape these for you. A little Grenade for a faster Flashbang is the only nudge worth making.

Archetype to chase: any roll favouring Class + Health (or Class + Weapons). Mods: Utility Kickstart ×2 + Bomber (even more dodge), Unflinching + Targeting + Loader for the HC, Recuperation/Better Already to top off after a won duel.

How to duel (the neutral game)

This is the real value — the build is 90% positioning and one perfectly-timed button.

• Pre-load the dodge, don't react with it. The mistake is dodging after you're seen. Dodge a beat before you peek — you arrive on the angle already having wiped the holder's radar and smeared their aim. You get the free first shot against someone who is mechanically worse for 5 seconds.
• Peek-shoot inside the blind window. Triple-jump or strafe the peek so your entry breaks their tracking, land, fire your HC, dip. The disorient means their return fire is also degraded — you're winning the aim duel from two directions (your dodge fed you the shot; their disorient took theirs).
• Use the radar-wipe as map control, not just a duel tool. When you tag a 1v1, the enemy's nearby teammate can't see the fight on radar — so they can't collapse on it in time. You're not just killing one player; you're buying a clean 5-second 1v1 by blinding the rotation. Dodge → win → leave before the radar repopulates.
• Marksman's reset mid-fight. If the first trade goes even, Marksman's Dodge reloads and disorients again without your crosshair leaving them — you get a second free window from a losing position. With Flow State Amplified it comes back faster, so you can chain resets across a life.
• Punish the ape with the smoke. Shotgun rusher pushes into you? Dodge (disorient) → Lethal Current melee (jolt + blind) → Flashbang the doorway behind them (more blind). Three CC verbs stacked on someone who can't aim — that's how you survive the 1vX the radar-wipe occasionally walks you into. Spark of Resistance (DR) + Spark of Feedback (return melee) cover the rest.
• Cash kills into Amplified, never play for it. A jolted kill (Flashbang/Lethal Current/Arc HC) → Flow State Amplified → faster, tankier dodges and movement. Treat it as the reward for already winning, not a buff to babysit. The dodge is the gameplan; Amplified is gravy.

6v6 vs Trials

6v6 (Crucible — artifact IS live). The chaos rewards the radar-wipe most: more bodies near every fight means more rotations you can blind by dodging into a duel. Lean on the Arc artifact column — grab a mod that turns your jolted/blinded kills into Ionic Traces or Bolt Charge so your CC refunds dodge energy, a blind-on-jolt mod so Lethal Current's jolt becomes area crowd control, and an Orb-on-Arc-kill mod to feed Recuperation/Better Already healing between fights. The throughline: pick artifact perks that convert the disorient/jolt you already spread back into more dodge uptime, not damage. Play aggressively — dodge into contested lanes, win the trade, vanish, repeat.

Trials / Comp 3v3 (artifact DISABLED). No artifact economy, fewer bodies, and every death is a round — so tighten everything. Push Class to a true 200 (you've lost any artifact dodge-refund, so the stat is your only cooldown lever) and don't dump Health (no artifact heal mods to lean on). Play methodical, not aggressive: use the radar-wipe to deny information and escape far more than to entry — dodge to break a lurking 1v1, reset the angle, and let your team's crossfire close it. With only one enemy near most fights, the radar-wipe isn't blinding a rotation, it's blinding the duel itself — so prioritise escape over trade when a fight goes even, because a clean disengage that costs them the round-timer beats a coin-flip trade that costs you the round.

Notes

• SLOT CORRECTION (premise adapted): the brief called Gemini Jester a helmet. It is Leg Armor — confirmed by the manifest (`encyclopedia/exotics.md`: "Gemini Jester (Leg Armor)"), the exotic-intrinsics catalogue, and the existing `hunter_gemini_jester.md` (Trickster) build. Header + anchor corrected to (Legs). The premise's mechanics (dodge → disorient + radar removal → win the 1v1 by controlling info) are otherwise exactly right.
• Exotic text verbatim (manifest): "Misdirection: Dodging disorients nearby enemies and temporarily removes their radar."
• Clarity PvP numbers ([pvp] values used): Misdirection — "Class Ability usage applies Misdirection to enemies within 10 [22] meters. PVP: briefly distorts audio, Disorients, and disables Radar for 5 seconds. Deals ~0 damage but counts as a Hit." (`clarity_lookup.py "Gemini Jester"`). Verify-flag: the 22 m radius reads off Clarity's PvE [PvP] bracket convention and is unusually large for a PvP application radius — confirm the real bubble in-game before trusting the "you rarely have to dodge into them" framing. The 5 s duration and the radar-disable/disorient effects are explicitly PvP-tagged and solid.
• Fragment PvP numbers (Clarity, [pvp]): Spark of Resistance = 25% [10%] DR within 15 m of 3+ enemies, lingers 2 s. Spark of Feedback = +100% [+50%] of base melee damage on your next melee within 5 s. Spark of Frequency = +15 Stability / +50 Reload Speed / 0.8× reload for 5.25 s (no PvP split; stronger while Amplified). Spark of Ions = jolted/Bolt-Charge kill → Ionic Trace, 10 s cooldown. Spark of Shock = Arc grenades jolt (no number). Stat deltas (manifest `fragments.md`): Resistance +10 Melee, Feedback +10 Health, Shock −10 Grenade, Haste no stat delta.
• Aspects verbatim (manifest `aspects.md`): Flow State — "Defeating a jolted target makes you amplified. While you are amplified, your dodge recharges more quickly, you are more resilient while dodging, and your reload speed is greatly increased." Lethal Current — "After dodging, your next melee attack has increased lunge range, jolts the target, and creates a damaging aftershock. Damaging any jolted target with melee attacks also blinds them." Both +2 Aspect Energy. Verify-flag: neither aspect has a Clarity entry (aspects/supers/buff-verbs aren't covered) — Amplified's exact dodge-recharge % and resilience values are unmeasured here; treat Amplified as a meaningful-but-uncounted bonus.
• Stat text verbatim (manifest `stats.md`): Class, Health, Weapons quoted in the Stats section. Note the Weapons damage clause is "against minor and major combatants" — PvE only, irrelevant vs Guardians.
• `synergy.py --item "Gemini Jester"` returns no match — the exotic produces no economy verb (Weaken/Jolt/Orbs/etc.). That's expected for a pure neutral-game/info exotic and is the honest frame for the whole build.
• Melee tile name: the Arc charged melee is referenced as Combination Blow / Disorienting Blow; the manifest dump lists Arc melees under generic verb entries, so confirm the exact tile in your subclass screen. Any Arc charged melee feeds Lethal Current's post-dodge proc.
• Subclass choice — Arcstrider over Prismatic (justified): Misdirection triggers on any Hunter dodge, so it's class-agnostic. Arc wins because Flow State keys the dodge's own cooldown (more dodges = more radar-wipes — the build's defining loop) and Lethal Current keys the post-dodge melee. Prismatic was considered: Stylish Executioner / Stylish Executioner-style invis on a dodge offers a reposition instead of a reset, but it trades away Flow State's dodge-recharge engine — and for a build whose entire value is dodge uptime, losing the recharge aspect is losing the build. Take Prismatic only if you want hit-and-fade invis over stand-and-win-the-duel; this card is built to win the 1v1, not vanish from it.
• Distinct from `hunter_gemini_jester.md` (Trickster): same exotic and Arc aspect spine, different role. Trickster is a CC/flank-support card framed for Crucible + PvE add-disorient (Gambler's-first, Arcbolt chains, Spacewalk set, PvE damage lines). Smoke & Mirrors is a pure 1v1 duel-winner — Marksman's-first to keep the gun on target through the wipe, Flashbang as a get-off-me, Health-stat survivability, and a neutral-game/Trials focus with zero PvE content. Run Trickster to disrupt a pack for your team; run this to delete yourself from radar and win the duel nobody else can see.

Mod selection (masterworked — full allocation)

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).