Strand

Threadripper — Silkstrike (Strand Hunter)

Grapple brawler / aerial suspend-lock control

Centerpiece: Cyrtarachne's Facade (Helmet) · Subclass: Threadrunner · Role: Grapple brawler / aerial suspend-lock control Sandbox: 9.7.0 · Updated 2026-07-03

Spider-Hunter. You never touch the ground for long — grapple in, air-slam a whole room into suspension, whip a Rope Dart through the stragglers, and grapple back out. Woven Mail is stapled to every one of those verbs, so you brawl at melee range wearing armour that never lapses.

The exotic

Cyrtarachne's Facade (Helmet) — Acrobat's Focus: Activating Grapple grants Woven Mail. While active, Woven Mail provides flinch resistance and health when defeating targets.

The helmet turns Woven Mail from an occasional buff into your default state. Every grapple — and on Widow's Silk you carry two grenade charges, so grapple is constant — refreshes Woven Mail's damage resistance and flinch immunity, and while it is up your kills top your health back off. That last clause is the quiet engine: it lets you fight face-first at melee range instead of poking, because the same aggression that suspends the room also heals you and re-arms the buff. Cyrtarachne is not the only Woven Mail source here (Ensnaring Slam, Thread of Warding, and the Rope Dart all feed it too), but it is the cheapest and most spammable one, so the buff simply never gaps while you are playing the build as intended.

Loadout

Slot	Pick	Why
Subclass	Threadrunner (Strand)	Strand Hunter — grapple, suspend and Woven Mail are all native verbs.
Super	Silkstrike	Roaming Strand whip: light attacks crack, heavy attacks AoE-slam suspended groups.
Class ability	Gambler's Dodge	Refunds melee energy near enemies, keeping the Rope Dart online.
Movement	Triple Jump	Maximum airtime to line up Ensnaring Slam and mid-Super grapples.
Melee	Threaded Spike (Rope Dart)	The Threadrunner melee — a returning whip that sticks and severs through a whole line.
Grenade	Grapple	Grenade-slot mobility that grants Woven Mail on activation via the helmet.
Aspect 1	Widow's Silk	Adds a second grenade charge (two grapples) and drops a Grapple Tangle at the grapple point.
Aspect 2	Ensnaring Slam	Air-slam that consumes class energy to suspend everything nearby and grants Woven Mail.
Fragments	Warding · Generation · Transmutation · Mind	Woven Mail uptime, grenade regen for more grapples, Tangle generation, and dodge refunds.
Exotic armour	Cyrtarachne's Facade	Woven Mail on every grapple + healing on kills while it is active.
Weapons	Quicksilver Storm + Strand special + Strand heavy	Quicksilver feeds Energy Acceleration's Unstoppable coverage; Strand weapons pair with the artifact verbs.

Fragments

Thread of Warding Orb pickup grants Woven Mail
Thread of Generation dealing damage generates grenade energy
Thread of Transmutation weapon final blows create a Tangle while you have Woven Mail
Thread of Mind defeating suspended targets grants class ability energy

Why it works (the mechanics)

Woven Mail from four independent sources means it never gaps. Cyrtarachne grants it on grapple, Ensnaring Slam grants it on suspend, Thread of Warding grants it on any Orb pickup, and the Rope Dart feeds the loop too. Redundant sourcing — not a bigger number — is what makes the defensive layer feel unbroken; whichever verb you use next, the buff is already refreshed before the last one expires.
Ensnaring Slam is a room-wide stun on your class-ability button. Suspended targets cannot move, shoot, or use abilities, so the air-slam is functionally a crowd-control ultimate you get on a cooldown. Because it also grants Woven Mail on the suspend, the same input that locks the room also re-arms your survivability, and Thread of Mind refunds class energy when you clean up the suspended targets.
Grapple is grenade-economy mobility with a Woven Mail rider. Widow's Silk gives you two grapple charges and drops a Grapple Tangle at each grapple point, while Thread of Generation regenerates grenade energy from any damage you deal. The result is a near-permanent supply of grapples, each of which repositions you and refreshes the helmet buff.
Shieldcrush pays out because Woven Mail is always up. The artifact mod boosts melee recharge and damage while you hold Woven Mail, Frost Armor, or a Void Overshield — a condition most builds satisfy only intermittently, but this one holds continuously. So the Rope Dart and grapple melee recharge faster and hit harder as a permanent baseline, not a burst.
Thread of Transmutation converts sustained fire into Tangles. While Woven Mail is up, your weapon final blows create Tangles; those Tangles feed Threaded Blast (bigger explosions) and Tangled Web (Strand-debuff kills that make Tangles suspend nearby targets), closing a second suspend loop on top of Ensnaring Slam.
Champion answers are baked into the kit, not bolted on. Suspend neutralises Unstoppables outright; on top of that, Pack Tactics has Threadlings stun Unstoppables at max stacks and Energy Acceleration turns Quicksilver Storm's micro-missiles into an Unstoppable-breaking shockwave — so the build carries formal Unstoppable stuns without spending a weapon mod on them.

Stats & mods

Grenade 200 → Melee → Class. Demolitionist/Skirmisher lean — Grenade first because the whole loop runs on grapple uptime, Melee second for the Rope Dart and Shieldcrush payoff, Class third because both Ensnaring Slam and Gambler's Dodge draw on class-ability energy.

Mods:

Boots: Grenade Kickstart ×2 — refunds grenade energy on cast for faster grapple returns.
Arms: Heavy Handed — melee final blows return melee energy and spawn an Orb (feeds Thread of Warding).
Chest: Resistance mods (Concussive Dampener / elemental resist) — cheap layered DR under Woven Mail.
Class item: Recuperation + Bomber — health on Orb pickup and a little grenade energy on class-ability use.
Surge: Strand Surge — matches the primary weapon verbs and Silkstrike's element.
Anti-Champion: Intrinsic — suspend (Ensnaring Slam / Tangled Web) plus Pack Tactics and Energy Acceleration cover Unstoppable; bring anti-Barrier / anti-Overload on your weapons for the rest.

Artifact — Implement of Curiosity

The Strand artifact and the natural home for this build's entire verb loop — Suspend, Tangle, Threadling and Sever all live in its pools, and its Threadling line adds a formal stun to the Unstoppables suspend already neuters.

Picks (2/3/2):

Tier 1: Horde Shuttle · Pack Tactics
Tier 2: Threaded Blast · Energy Acceleration · Elemental Coalescence
Tier 3: Shieldcrush · Tangled Web

Horde Shuttle spawns sever-Threadlings when you damage unravelled targets, feeding both Tangled-Web Tangle generation and Thread of Mind's suspend-kill economy.
Pack Tactics ramps Threadling damage and, at maximum stacks, has those Threadlings stun Unstoppable Champions — the formal stun that backs up your suspend.
Threaded Blast enlarges Tangle explosions, so the Tangles Thread of Transmutation and Widow's Silk keep producing hit as area damage.
Energy Acceleration turns Quicksilver Storm's micro-missiles into Kinetic shockwaves that break Unstoppable Champions — a second, weapon-based Unstoppable answer.
Elemental Coalescence makes kills drop Elemental pickups matching your Super element, feeding the ability economy that grapple and Ensnaring Slam run on.
Shieldcrush is the identity pick: with Woven Mail permanently up, your melee recharges faster and hits harder as a constant, not a window.

Where it shines

Add-dense PvE — Vanguard Ops, Nightfalls, dungeon and raid clear rooms — where a room-wide suspend plus permanent Woven Mail turns a mob into a stationary, safe cleanup.
Survival-focused content — the never-gapping DR and kill-healing let you hold aggressive positions instead of retreating between cooldowns.
Not a boss-DPS build — grapple-melee boss damage was made additive and reduced in 9.7.0; this is a control/clear build, so bring a separate heavy for bosses.
Champion coverage: Suspend disables Unstoppables functionally; Pack Tactics (Threadlings at max) and Energy Acceleration (Quicksilver micro-missiles) add formal Unstoppable stuns. Bring anti-Barrier and anti-Overload weapons/mods for the other two.

Verify notes

Cyrtarachne's Facade intrinsic quoted verbatim from `docs/encyclopedia/exotics.md` (Acrobat's Focus); `clarity_build_numbers.md` confirms Woven Mail lasts 10 s and restores 10 HP on grapple but lists the flinch-resistance/DR value as unknown (`%?`) — the commonly-cited ~45% Woven Mail DR is community lore, flagged as unconfirmed.
Aspects: Ensnaring Slam (suspends all nearby targets on impact; suspending combatants with it grants Woven Mail) is verbatim from `docs/encyclopedia/aspects.md`. Widow's Silk's additional grenade charge is from aspects.md; its Grapple Tangle at the anchor point is from `docs/knowledge/subclasses_and_aspects.md`, which also gives both aspects 2 Fragment slots (so four fragments here). Any Ensnaring-Slam damage scaling with the Class stat is NOT in the manifest text — flagged as tuning/unconfirmed.
Fragments verbatim from `docs/encyclopedia/fragments.md`: Warding (Orb → Woven Mail), Generation (damage → grenade energy), Transmutation (Woven Mail → weapon kills make Tangles), Mind (suspended kills → class energy).
Artifact mods all confirmed present in the Implement of Curiosity pools in `docs/encyclopedia/artifacts_structured.md`; Shieldcrush text quoted from there; Pack Tactics + Energy Acceleration are the Unstoppable sources.
Quicksilver Storm from `data/weapon_facts.json`: Kinetic Auto Rifle, Primary ammo, 720 RPM, no intrinsic champion breaker — its micro-missiles are what Energy Acceleration keys off.
Silkstrike super passives (the +11% regen / +13% DR "Renegades" figures from the prior version) are not in the encyclopedia dumps — flagged as manifest/tuning, unconfirmed; the qualitative roaming-whip behaviour is retained.

Mod selection (masterworked — full allocation)

Piece	Mod · cost	What it does
Helmet (5/10)	Strand Siphon 1e fill	Rapid Strand weapon final blows create Orbs 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 (9/10)	Heavy Handed 3e	Your powered melee final blows create Orbs of Power.
	Heavy Handed 3e	Your powered melee final blows create Orbs of Power.
	Grenade Kickstart 3e	When your grenade energy is fully expended, your Armor Charge is consumed and you gain grenade energy for each Armor Charge used.
Chest (6/10)	Concussive Dampener 3e	Reduces incoming area-of-effect damage from combatants.
	Strand Resistance 2e fill	Reduces incoming Strand damage from combatants.
	Sniper Damage Resistance 1e fill	Reduces incoming damage from combatants that are at long range.
Legs (7/10)	Recuperation 1e	Replenishes health each time you pick up an Orb of Power.
	Strand Weapon Surge 3e	Your Strand weapons gain a small bonus to damage while you have any Armor Charge. Your Armor Charge now decays over time.
	Strand Weapon Surge 3e fill	Your Strand weapons gain a small bonus to damage while you have any Armor Charge. Your Armor Charge now decays over time.
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: Silkstrike's element. - **Anti-Champion:** Intrinsic — suspend (Ensnaring Slam / Tangled Web) plus Pack Tactics; Energy Acceleration cover Unstoppable; bring anti-Barrier / anti-Overload on your weapons for the rest.