Alethonym — Self-Feeding Glacier (Stasis Hunter)

Centerpiece: Alethonym (Grenade Launcher · Primary · Stasis) · Subclass: Revenant (Stasis) · Role: Self-refuelling Stasis area-denial + boss/champion deleter Sandbox: 9.7.0 · Updated 2026-07-03

An exotic Grenade Launcher that makes its own ammo. Kill anything with it and it drops a Vestige; pick the Vestige up and the gun charges itself back up, unlocking Special ammo mode, then Heavy. Impale a yellow-bar and it bleeds Vestiges in a stream — so on a boss you stand still, drink your own brass, and never stop firing. Mask of Bakris turns every dodge-shift into a stacking Stasis-damage buff that lands directly on this gun, and the whole Revenant kit (freeze → shatter → shards → Frost Armor) keeps the Vestige well full. The fantasy: a heavy-hitting Stasis GL with no ammo economy at all.

The weapon

Intrinsic — Harvester Spike: "This weapon fires a Harvester Spike projectile. Dealing final blows with this weapon creates a single Vestige at the target's location. Impaling more powerful combatants with the projectile creates a steady stream of Vestiges from the target."

Trait — Vestigial Alchemy: "This weapon gains energy when you pick up Vestiges and allows you to create ammo at the projectile impact point for you and your allies. Special ammo mode unlocks at 50% energy, while Heavy ammo mode unlocks at 100% energy. To transform Vestiges into Special ammo, [Alternate Weapon Action] to activate Special ammo mode. [Alternate Weapon Action] a second time to activate Heavy ammo mode."

Catalyst — One for All: "Hitting three separate targets increases damage for a moderate duration."

What it does: every final blow seeds a Vestige, and picking Vestiges up charges the gun's internal energy meter. At 50% energy it can spit Special ammo bricks at the impact point (for you and allies), at 100% it spits Heavy bricks — the gun manufactures the ammo it fires. Against a boss or champion the impale spawns a continuous Vestige stream, so it perpetually refuels itself mid-DPS: a Stasis GL that never goes dry. With a 1-round magazine it leans hard on raw per-shot impact and on the catalyst's three-target damage buff for clear, and on the Vestige stream for sustained single-target. You are always trading corpses for the next volley.

Loadout

Slot	Pick	Why
Subclass	Revenant (Stasis)	Same element as the gun — every freeze/shatter feeds Frost Armor, shards, and Mask of Bakris' Stasis surge.
Super	Silence and Squall	Stasis roaming Super; the storm freezes packs, then you clean up and Vestige-harvest with the GL.
Class ability	Gambler's Dodge	Refunds melee near a pack for the next Withering Blade; with Bakris the dodge shift is what arms the Stasis-damage buff.
Movement	Triple Jump	Aerial control to reposition into and out of the Vestige well between phases; pick High Jump if you prefer peak height.
Melee	Withering Blade (Shuriken)	Ranged, cheap, slows on hit → freeze fodder for shatter/shards that seed more Vestiges.
Grenade	Glacier Grenade	With Touch of Winter it makes an extra crystal — instant shatter fuel plus Whisper of Shards grenade regen.
Aspect 1	Touch of Winter	Glacier makes an extra crystal; crystals are the shatter/shard economy this build runs on.
Aspect 2	Grim Harvest	Picking up the Stasis shards your kills drop grants Frost Armor; while it's up, Stasis/Kinetic kills may shatter, and taking damage feeds class-ability energy — a DR + shatter layer over the Vestige loop.
Fragments	Whisper of Rime · Whisper of Fissures · Whisper of Shards · Whisper of Refraction	Frost Armor uptime + bigger shatter clear + recharge the dodge that arms Mask of Bakris.
Exotic armour	Mask of Bakris (Helmet)	Light Shift arms a stacking Stasis-weapon damage bonus and, while active, weapon kills refund class-ability energy — the buff lands directly on Alethonym.
Weapons	Stasis Primary w/ Headstone (e.g. a Stasis hand cannon) + an anti-Champion Special in the free slot	Headstone makes crystals on precision kills → free shatter/shard fuel and a Vestige-seeding kill source; the Special slot covers the champion gap the GL can't.

Why it works (the mechanics)

• The gun pays for its own ammo. Harvester Spike drops a Vestige on every final blow; Vestigial Alchemy converts picked-up Vestiges into energy, then into Special (50%) or Heavy (100%) bricks at the impact point. On a boss the impale stream of Vestiges means you self-refuel through the entire damage phase — the single biggest reason to build around it rather than just slot it. Ammo stops being a constraint, so the whole loadout can chase damage and uptime instead of brick scavenging.
• Revenant manufactures the kills that seed Vestiges. Glacier (Touch of Winter, +crystal) → shatter (Whisper of Fissures, bigger burst) → frozen/slowed kills → Grim Harvest shards that grant Frost Armor and a shatter-on-kill chance. Every shattered pack is a pile of Vestiges for the GL to drink, and Gambler's Dodge near the pack hands back the melee for the next Withering Blade.
• Mask of Bakris stacks a Stasis-damage buff straight onto Alethonym. Casting Shift grants Light Shift, which gives 10%/21%/33% increased Arc/Stasis weapon damage at 1/2/3 stacks — Alethonym is Stasis, so each dodge buffs the next volley. While Light Shift is up, passive class-ability regen is disabled but weapon kills refund class energy, and Whisper of Refraction (slowed/frozen kills → class energy) tops it up — so in a target-rich room the buff is close to permanent uptime.
• The catalyst rewards the crowd you already froze. One for All wants three separate targets hit — trivial when you're firing into a frozen, crystal-studded pack. Its damage buff stacks multiplicatively with the Bakris surge and any Weapons-stat damage, so clear volleys hit far above the GL's base.
• Frost Armor is the survivability layer. Whisper of Rime pushes it to 8 stacks and 13 s; shattering near you tops it up; it is flat DR that keeps you parked in the Vestige well through a boss phase instead of repositioning for ammo.
• Shards close the ability economy. Grim Harvest shards → Frost Armor (DR) + shatter chance, and Gambler's Dodge near the frozen pack refunds melee → Withering Blade → more slow → more frozen kills → more shards. Whisper of Shards turns shatter into grenade regen → more Glacier → more crystals. The loop is self-funding; the GL just harvests the corpses it produces.

Stats & mods

Weapons 200 → Class → Health. Weapons is the multiplier on Alethonym's per-shot damage and the Primary; Class feeds the Bakris-shift / Refraction loop (more shifts = more Stasis surge uptime) and Winter's Shroud; Health is the dump since Frost Armor already covers DR.

Archetype lean: prioritise pieces favouring Weapons + Class (Grenadier/Specialist-leaning rolls); dump the remainder into Health.

Mods:

• Boots: Stasis Weapon Surge ×2 (adds to Alethonym, stacks with the Bakris surge) — Stasis Scavenger is near-redundant here because the gun self-feeds, so drop it for surge.
• Arms: Heavy Grenade Launcher Loader + Melee Font (reserves matter less because the gun self-feeds, so favour handling and ability uptime).
• Chest: Stasis Resistance ×2–3 (flat DR stacked under Frost Armor).
• Class item: Bomber/Outreach to keep the dodge online; Powerful Attraction to vacuum Vestiges/shards/orbs on dodge.
• Surge: Stasis Weapon Surge (matches the exotic and the Primary).
• Anti-Champion: none from the GL — see coverage bullet; source it from the Special weapon or the artifact.

Artifact — Slayer Baron Apothecary Satchel

The all-Stasis artifact for an all-Stasis build: it pumps Frost Armor and Stasis Shards straight into the Revenant freeze → shatter → shard loop, amplifies the shatter that clears your packs, and — critically — hands Alethonym the Unstoppable stun its perk text can't provide.

Picks (2/3/2):

• Tier 1: Wind Chill · Crystalline Converter
• Tier 2: Weakened Clear · Hail The Storm · Frost Renewal
• Tier 3: Kinetic Impacts · Brain Freeze

• Wind Chill makes Stasis weapon hits grant Frost Armor and spawn Stasis Shards off slowed/frozen targets — it feeds the exact Grim Harvest loop the build runs on.
• Crystalline Converter turns each class ability into a next-Stasis-kill Shard spawn, riding the Gambler's Dodge cycle for extra shard income.
• Weakened Clear makes GL hits on a boss, Champion, or broken shield weaken the target and reload your stowed weapons — free debuff on the exact yellow-bars you park the Vestige stream on.
• Hail The Storm boosts shatter and crystal-break damage — the build's primary clear engine when you fire into a frozen pack.
• Frost Renewal gives Frost Armor a critical-damage burst that freezes nearby foes and refreshes DR while you're parked in the Vestige well.
• Kinetic Impacts makes sustained Grenade Launcher damage trigger a Kinetic blast that stuns Unstoppable — covering the champion gap on the GL itself.
• Brain Freeze has frozen combatants emit chilling fog that slows the rest, extending the freeze/slow crowd control that seeds Vestiges.

Where it shines

• Boss DPS / damage phases: the impale Vestige-stream means a GL that never reloads from reserves — park in the well, ride One for All + the Bakris surge + Stasis Surge mods, and fire continuously. This is its best-in-slot identity.
• Dense PvE clear (GMs, Nightfalls, dungeons): freeze a pack → shatter → harvest the Vestige pile → the gun stays at max charge indefinitely; Special/Heavy bricks at the impact point also top up the fireteam, making it a team ammo battery.
• Solo content: Frost Armor + Stasis Resistance + self-feeding ammo make it durable and ammo-independent — strong for solo lost sectors and dungeons where power bricks are scarce.
• Champion coverage: Alethonym has no intrinsic champion stun (weapon_facts: champion = none). It breaks nothing on its own. The artifact's Kinetic Impacts grants Unstoppable via sustained GL fire; bring an anti-Barrier/Overload Special (or artifact mods) for the rest. Freeze crowd-controls the rabble but is not an Anti-Champion 2.0 stun substitute.

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). Flex/loadout-dependent: so favour handling; the Primary). - **Anti-Champion:** none from the GL — see coverage bullet; source it from the Special weapon or the artifact.