Solar

Trapline — Young Ahamkara's Spine (Solar Hunter)

Tripmine area-denial spam

Your gear best achievable Grenade 137 / 200 target — 63 short — needs better rolls

Health 35 · Melee 25 · Grenade 137 · Super 40 · Class 76 · Weapons 61 · armour only; stat mods + fragments add more

Centerpiece: Young Ahamkara's Spine (Gauntlets) · Subclass: Gunslinger · Role: Tripmine area-denial spam Sandbox: 9.7.0 · Updated 2026-07-03

You do not throw grenades here, you build a floor. Bigger, longer-lived tripmines get pre-laid across a lane, and because every scrap of ability damage refunds tripmine energy — the mines' own blasts included — the traps part-fund their own replacements. Herd the pack down the corridor, watch the chain go off, re-arm, repeat. The corridor is the build.

The exotic

Wish-Dragon Teeth: Increases Tripmine Grenade duration and blast radius. Ability damage grants Tripmine Grenade energy.

Two clauses do all the work. The first turns a reactive grenade into pre-placed area denial: a longer-lived, wider Tripmine can be armed on a doorway or revive plate before the fight and still be live when the pack arrives, which no cooldown-on-demand grenade can do. The second is the engine — any ability damage feeds Tripmine energy, and a Tripmine's own detonation is ability damage, so each mine part-funds the next. Every other damage verb on the kit pours into the same meter: knife throws, Gunpowder Gamble's explosive, and the Blade Barrage super all read as ability damage. The exotic makes the grenade a battery every button recharges.

Loadout

Slot	Pick	Why
Subclass	Gunslinger (Solar)	Radiant, scorch and ignition verbs that turn traps into chains.
Super	Blade Barrage	A flood of ability-damage projectiles that dumps straight into tripmine energy.
Class ability	Gambler's Dodge	Near-melee dodge refunds the Throwing Knife for another ability-damage hit.
Movement	Triple Jump	Extra air control to place and re-place mines around a lane.
Melee	Knife Trick	A fan of knives — three instances of ability damage — feeding grenade energy and Radiant.
Grenade	Tripmine Grenade	The trap the whole build is built around.
Aspect 1	Gunpowder Gamble	A fourth Solar explosive whose damage also refunds tripmines and starts ignitions.
Aspect 2	Knock 'Em Down	Enhances Blade Barrage (more projectiles) and refunds melee on Radiant knife kills.
Fragments	Ashes · Eruption · Torches · Blistering	Turn trap scorch into ignitions and route ignition kills back to grenade energy.
Exotic armour	Young Ahamkara's Spine (Gauntlets)	Bigger, longer tripmines + the ability-damage → tripmine-energy refund loop.
Weapons	Solar primary (Incandescent) · flex special · Rocket Launcher	Incandescent spreads scorch between traps; the rocket feeds the artifact's champion + ammo mods.

Fragments

Ember of Ashes more scorch stacks → faster ignitions
Ember of Eruption larger ignition AoE
Ember of Torches powered melee → Radiant
Ember of Blistering ignition kills → grenade energy — a second refund path

Why it works (the mechanics)

The refund clause is recursive. Tripmine damage is ability damage, and the exotic grants Tripmine energy on ability damage, so each detonation part-funds the next mine. Layer knives, Gunpowder Gamble and Blade Barrage on top and four separate verbs all pour into the same grenade meter — the mines are rarely fully on cooldown.
Duration changes the job. The intrinsic's longer-lived, wider mines aren't reactive grenades, they're pre-placed area denial. You arm a doorway or a revive plate before the pack arrives and it is still live when they walk into it, which a cooldown-on-demand grenade physically cannot do.
Scorch stacking turns traps into chains. A Tripmine applies scorch; Ember of Ashes stacks it faster so survivors tip into an ignition; Ember of Eruption widens the ignition's blast; Ember of Blistering pays a grenade-energy dividend on the ignition kill. Three fragments turn one trap into a cascading Solar explosion — and the last one loops the payoff back into more mines.
Radiant rides the knife you're already throwing. Ember of Torches makes your powered melee grant Radiant, and Knife Trick is thrown constantly for its refund. The buffed gun damage between traps is free — you never spend a slot chasing Radiant, it falls out of the loop.
Knock 'Em Down closes the melee economy. While Radiant, a Throwing Knife final blow refunds melee energy, and the aspect also fattens Blade Barrage. So Radiant (from Torches) feeds knife refunds, knife damage feeds tripmines, and the enhanced super — when you cast it — dumps a huge slug of ability damage back into the grenade meter.
Gunpowder Gamble adds a fourth explosive. Kills charge an improvised Solar explosive you throw and shoot mid-air to ignite. Its damage refunds Tripmine energy like everything else and its ignition slots straight into the scorch-chain, so it is both a burst-clear tool and another grenade-battery pull.

Stats & mods

Grenade 200 → Melee → Class. Lean Demolitionist (Grenade/Class) with a Siegebreaker (Health/Grenade) secondary — the whole build is grenade uptime, with melee close behind for the Knife Trick refunds and Class for dodge cadence.

Mods:

Boots: Grenade Kickstart ×2 — spend Armor Charge to claw back grenade energy on cast.
Arms: Firepower — grenade final blows spawn Orbs of Power to fuel the Armor Charge economy.
Chest: resist mods to the incoming damage type (the build fights up close in the lane).
Class item: Bomber — reduce grenade cooldown every time you dodge.
Surge: Solar Surge — buff the Incandescent primary and the rocket that anchor the kit.
Anti-Champion: artifact-sourced — Revitalizing Blast ignites on stun and Anti-Champion Nosecone hardens the rocket vs Champions.

Artifact — Queensfoil Censer

The Wish artifact's Solar rows amplify the exact loop: Radiant rides your knives, turns gun damage into Scorch, and tips survivors into the ignition chains the traps set up — plus a champion-ignite line and a rocket package for the heavy slot.

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 hits — the loop's free buff, sourced off the guns you fire between traps instead of relying on melee alone.
Kindling Trigger makes Radiant Solar weapons apply Scorch to unscorched targets, so your gunplay seeds the same ignition chain the tripmines set up.
Revitalizing Blast ignites a Champion on stun and clears your shield stun — Unstoppable coverage that also tops off the ignition loop.
Anti-Champion Nosecone hardens Rocket Launcher damage against Champions, giving the heavy slot a job beyond raw DPS.
Perpetual Destruction refunds rocket ammo and boosts reload on rapid final blows, sustaining the heavy between trap waves.
Rays of Precision ignites on Radiant Solar precision final blows — the knife and gun damage between traps becomes ignitions, and Solo Operative buffs precision weapon damage when you are running solo.

Where it shines

Corridor and choke-point content — Legend/Master Lost Sectors, GM strike hallways, seasonal-activity lanes where you can pre-lay mines and funnel a pack through them.
Add-dense survival and defence rooms — long-lived, wide tripmines lock revive plates and doorways, and the scorch/ignition chains clear the trash the traps soften.
Solo and low-team play — the loop is self-sustaining (four verbs feed one grenade meter) and Solo Operative rewards running alone.
Champion coverage: ignitions/scorch pressure Unstoppables, and the artifact's Revitalizing Blast ignites a Champion on stun; the Rocket Launcher with Anti-Champion Nosecone covers the burst-damage side. Bring anti-Barrier / anti-Overload from your weapon perks or the wider artifact rows, as the subclass does not break those intrinsically.

Verify notes

Exotic intrinsic name Wish-Dragon Teeth and text ("Increases Tripmine Grenade duration and blast radius. Ability damage grants Tripmine Grenade energy.") quoted verbatim from `docs/encyclopedia/exotics.md` (Gauntlets) and cross-listed in `exotic_intrinsics.md`.
Aspects Gunpowder Gamble and Knock 'Em Down (Radiant → Throwing Knife melee refund; Blade Barrage launches more projectiles) sourced from `docs/encyclopedia/aspects.md`.
Fragments Ember of Ashes / Eruption / Torches / Blistering effects sourced from `docs/encyclopedia/fragments.md`; Blistering = "Defeating targets with Solar ignitions grants grenade energy" confirms the second refund path.
Artifact Queensfoil Censer 2/3/2 picks all verified present in the real tier pools in `docs/encyclopedia/artifacts_structured.md`; note Revitalizing Blast's manifest text is "Stunning a Champion causes it to ignite and clears your shield stun" (it ignites after a stun, it is not itself the stun source).
Unconfirmed / tuning: the Tripmine self-refund rate from its own damage is not published in `clarity_build_numbers.md` — the interaction (ability damage → Tripmine energy) is manifest-confirmed but the exact per-hit energy % is manifest/tuning. Ignition stagger of Unstoppable and the precise scorch-stack thresholds are game-behaviour, not sourced to a number here.
Movement (Triple Jump) and the exact secondary/rocket choice are player-flex slots not pinned by the original build; the Rocket Launcher heavy is chosen to feed the artifact's rocket rows (Anti-Champion Nosecone, Perpetual Destruction).

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 (9/10)	Firepower 3e	Your grenade final blows create Orbs of Power.
	Firepower 3e	Your grenade 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)	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)	Bomber 1e	Reduces grenade cooldown when using your class ability.
	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.

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 rocket that anchor the kit. - **Anti-Champion:** artifact-sourced — Revitalizing Blast ignites on stun; Anti-Champion Nosecone hardens the rocket vs Champions.