Ace of Spades — Funeral Pyre (Hunter)
One hand cannon that does two things every other Ace user picks between: Memento Mori for the damage spike, Firefly for the chain-clear. The catalyst welds them, and Celestial Nighthawk turns the resulting wall of precision kills into a Golden Gun that's almost always charged. Headshot, explosion, headshot, explosion, Super, repeat.
The weapon
Memento Mori (intrinsic, verbatim):
Reloading after a kill loads magazine with a few extra-damage bullets. Grants radar while aiming down sights.
Firefly (weapon perk, verbatim):
Precision kills with this weapon increase reload speed and cause the target to explode, dealing Solar damage to nearby enemies.
Catalyst — Funeral Pyre (verbatim):
Firefly deals more damage while Memento Mori is active.
Ace is a 140 RPM Adaptive hand cannon. Land a kill, reload, and the next several rounds are Memento Mori bullets that hit noticeably harder — and Firefly's reload-speed bonus makes that reload near-instant after a precision kill. While those buffed rounds are loaded, the catalyst also pumps every Firefly explosion. So one precision kill detonates the corpse for Solar AoE, that AoE softens the pack, the next headshot kills and re-triggers Firefly, and the whole time you're firing extra-damage bullets. It's a self-sustaining precision-kill loop where the gun reloads, buffs, and clears for you — you just keep hitting crits.
Loadout
| Slot | Pick | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Subclass |  Gunslinger (Solar) | Everything Ace does is Solar precision-kill flavour — Firefly is Solar, the subclass turns precision kills into Radiant/scorch fuel. |
| Super |  Golden Gun: Marksman | Single-target precision Super; Nighthawk reshapes it into one huge shot that also refunds Super on kill. |
| Class ability |  Marksman's Dodge | Auto-reloads Ace to bank Memento Mori bullets without a kill, and repositions between crits. |
| Movement |  Triple Jump | Best air control for holding precision lines while kiting a pack. |
| Melee |  Lightweight Knife | Throwing-knife precision kill = Radiant (with Ember of Torches), staying on the precision-kill identity. |
| Grenade |  Healing Grenade | Sustain/Cure; the gun is the damage, the grenade keeps you alive while you hunt crits. |
| Aspect 1 |  On Your Mark | Class ability or precision hits grant reload speed + Weapons stat, stacking ×10 — near-permanent on Ace. |
| Aspect 2 |  Knock 'Em Down | Enhances Marksman Golden Gun (increased duration) — more shots per Nighthawk-fed Super. |
| Fragments | Torches / Empyrean / Solace / Searing | Radiant from the knife, extended by Solar kills, plus melee energy + Firesprites on scorched kills. |
| Exotic armour |  Celestial Nighthawk (Helmet) | Hawkeye Hack: precision final blows cut Super cooldown, and Golden Gun becomes one high-damage shot that refunds Super and explodes. |
| Weapons | Solar Special + Heavy (MG/Rocket) | Surge-matched Solar special covers heavy-shield targets; Heavy is the boss DPS Nighthawk-Ace doesn't fill once spent. |
Ember of Torches
Ember of Empyrean
Ember of Solace
Ember of Searing
Why it works (the mechanics)
- The catalyst stitches the two perks that normally fight for the slot. Memento Mori is a damage spike; Firefly is a clear tool. Funeral Pyre makes Firefly better while Memento Mori is up, so the optimal play keeps both active — which Ace does automatically: a kill loads Memento Mori, a precision kill triggers Firefly, and Firefly's reload bonus re-banks Memento Mori on the next kill.
- Celestial Nighthawk is the only correct exotic here. Hawkeye Hack cuts Super cooldown on every precision final blow, and Ace produces those faster than almost any primary (Firefly chains turn one crit into a cleared room of crits). Your Golden Gun is effectively always charging, and fires as the single-shot Nighthawk version that refunds Super on the kill.
- On Your Mark double-dips the 9.7.0 Weapons stat. Its stacks add Weapons stat — PvE weapon damage on top of Memento Mori's flat bullet boost — and Ace landing precision hits is exactly what fuels the stacks. Two damage multipliers and a reload multiplier, all from hitting crits.
- The Solar verb loop keeps Radiant live off the gun. Firefly explosions are Solar kills → Ember of Empyrean extends Radiant/Restoration; Ember of Solace lengthens them. Radiant is +25% weapon damage, so Ace's explosions feed the buff that makes Ace hit harder.
- Marksman's Dodge banks Memento Mori on demand. Auto-reload refreshes the buffed magazine before a priority target without a prior kill, feeds an On Your Mark stack, and repositions you between crit lines.
Stats & mods
Weapons 200 → Super (Nighthawk uptime) → Health 100+ → Class. On Your Mark already pumps Weapons, so reaching 200 turns Ace's primary damage up across the board; Super shortens the Golden Gun cooldown Hawkeye Hack is already chipping at; Class feeds dodge frequency. Archetypes: lean Gunner / Powerhouse (Weapons + Super favoured).
Mods:
- Boots: Hand Cannon Holster (passive reload) + Hand Cannon Scavenger + reserves.
- Arms: Hand Cannon Loader ×2 + Heavy Ammo Finder.
- Chest: resist mods to taste under the Restoration layer.
- Class item: Bomber / Outreach (ability energy on dodge) + Reaper (dodge → Orb).
- Surge: Solar Weapon Surge (matches Firefly + the Solar Special).
- Anti-Champion: intrinsic to the hand-cannon archetype — see Where it shines.
Artifact — Implement of Curiosity
Picks (2/3/2): Fever and Chill + Elemental Benevolence — Energy Acceleration + Elemental Daze + That Fresh Bullets Smell — Radiant Shrapnel + Elemental Overdrive
Fever and Chill — rapid Solar precision hits grant Radiant, seeding the +25% loop straight off the gun.
Elemental Benevolence — granting allies elemental buffs returns class-ability energy, refilling Marksman's Dodge.
Energy Acceleration — Kinetic shockwave damage + Unstoppable coverage, the champion Ace's frame can't break.
Elemental Daze + 
That Fresh Bullets Smell — elemental Champion stuns drop a Solar explosion; ammo-brick pickups buff Ace's Kinetic rounds.
Radiant Shrapnel + 
Elemental Overdrive — pay off Radiant/Scorch and feed the Solar Special off Ember of Searing's Firesprites.
Where it shines
- Match-game / GM ad-clear and lost sectors: Firefly chains are built for dense trash, and the catalyst makes each explosion meaningfully lethal.
- Any content with a single priority target: clear the pack with the gun → Super charges off the precision kills → Nighthawk Golden Gun deletes the priority → kill refunds Super.
- Champion coverage: 140 RPM Adaptive → stuns Barrier intrinsically under Anti-Champion 2.0. Bring an Unstoppable (Aggressive/High-Impact) and Overload (Lightweight/Rapid-Fire) option across the other two slots for full coverage.
Mod selection (masterworked — full allocation)
| Piece | Mod · cost | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Helmet (5/10) | Heavy Ammo Finder 1e | Increases the effect of all contributions towards the Heavy ammo meter. |
| Heavy Ammo Finder 1e | Increases the effect of all contributions towards the Heavy ammo meter. | |
| Solar Siphon 3e fill | Rapid Solar weapon final blows create an Orb of Power. | |
| Arms (6/10) | 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. | |
| Fastball 1e fill | Increases grenade throw distance. | |
| 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 | Your Solar weapons gain a small bonus to damage while you have any Armor Charge. Your Armor Charge now decays over time. |
| Solar Weapon Surge 1e | Your Solar weapons gain a small bonus to damage while you have any Armor Charge. Your Armor Charge now decays over time. | |
| 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. | |
| Class Item (3/10) | Reaper 1e | Shortly after using your class ability, your next weapon final blow spawns an Orb of Power. |
| Reaper 1e | Shortly after using your class ability, your next weapon final blow spawns an Orb of Power. | |
| Outreach 1e | Reduces melee cooldown when using 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).