Alethonym — Self-Feeding Glacier (Hunter)
Weapon: Alethonym (Grenade Launcher · Heavy · Stasis) · Subclass: Revenant (Stasis) · Role: Infinite-ammo Stasis area-denial + boss/champion deleter Sandbox: 9.7.0 · Created 2026-06-16
An exotic Heavy GL that makes its own ammo. Kill anything with it and it drops a Vestige; pick the Vestige up and the gun charges itself back to Special, 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 shift into a stacking Stasis-damage buff that lands right on this gun, and the whole Revenant kit (freeze → shatter → shards → Frost Armor) keeps the Vestige well full. The fantasy: a Heavy weapon 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 kill seeds a Vestige; picking Vestiges up charges the gun. At 50% it can spit out Special ammo bricks at the impact point (for you and allies), at 100% Heavy bricks. Against a boss/champion, the impale spawns a continuous Vestige stream, so the gun perpetually refuels itself mid-DPS — a Heavy GL that never goes dry. Stasis damage + a 1-round mag means it leans hard on raw per-shot impact and the catalyst's three-target damage buff for clear, and on the Vestige stream for sustained single-target.
Loadout
| Slot | Pick | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Subclass | Revenant (Stasis) | Same element as the gun — every freeze/shatter feeds Frost Armor, shards, and Mask's Stasis surge. |
| Super |  Silence and Squall | Stasis Super; the storm freezes packs you then clean up + Vestige-harvest with the GL. |
| Class ability |  Gambler's Dodge (or Marksman's near walls) | Triggers Winter's Shroud slow; with Bakris it's the shift that arms the Stasis damage buff. |
| Melee |  Withering Blade (Shuriken) | Slows on hit → freeze fodder for shatter/shards; cheap and ranged. |
| Grenade |  Glacier Grenade | With Touch of Winter, extra crystals = instant shatter fuel + 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. The DR + shatter layer over the Vestige loop. |
| Fragments |  Whisper of Rime (Frost Armor duration/stacks) ·  Whisper of Fissures (bigger shatter burst) ·  Whisper of Shards (shatter → grenade regen) ·  Whisper of Refraction (slowed/frozen kills → class ability energy → more Bakris shifts) | Frost Armor uptime + shatter clear + recharge the dodge that arms Mask of Bakris. |
| Exotic armour |  Mask of Bakris (Helmet) | Shift cloaks + arms a stacking Stasis-weapon damage bonus; final blows with it refund class ability energy. The buff lands directly on Alethonym. |
| Weapon 2 (Primary) | Stasis Primary w/ Headstone (e.g. a Stasis hand cannon) | Headstone makes Stasis crystals on precision kills → free shatter/shard fuel + Whisper of Rending value, and it's a kill source that seeds Vestiges between Heavy reloads. |
| Weapon 3 (slot) | Alethonym occupies Heavy — run any Special you like in the Energy slot (a Stasis Special keeps the surge theme; an anti-Champion frame covers a gap the GL can't). | Alethonym is your Heavy; the Energy slot is free for champion/coverage. |
Why this works (the mechanics)
- The gun pays for its own Heavy ammo. Harvester Spike drops a Vestige on every kill; Vestigial Alchemy converts picked-up Vestiges into charge, then into Special/Heavy bricks at the impact point. On a boss, the impale stream of Vestiges means you self-refuel during the damage phase — the single biggest reason to build around it rather than just slot it: ammo is no longer 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 (DR) 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. Light Shift arms a stacking damage bonus to your Stasis weapons after each shift — Alethonym is Stasis, so each dodge buffs the next volley, and final blows under the buff refund class ability energy → another shift sooner. Whisper of Refraction (slowed/frozen kills → class energy) keeps the dodge charged, so the buff is close to permanent uptime in a target-rich room.
- 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. That damage buff stacks multiplicatively with the Bakris surge and any Weapons-stat damage.
- Frost Armor is the survivability layer. Whisper of Rime extends it; shattering near you tops it up; it's flat DR that keeps you parked in the Vestige well during 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 100+ → 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.
- Archetypes: prioritise pieces favouring
Weapons + Class (e.g. Grenadier/Specialist-leaning rolls); dump into Health since Frost Armor already covers DR. - Helmet: Mask of Bakris (fixed). Harmonic/Stasis Siphon for orb generation off Stasis kills.
- Arms: Heavy Grenade Launcher Loader/Reserves — but reserves matter less here because the gun self-feeds; prefer Heavy GL Loader +
Melee Font. - Chest: Stasis Resistance ×2–3 (flat DR stacked under Frost Armor).
- Legs: Stasis Weapon Surge ×2 (≈+17% to Alethonym, stacks with the Bakris surge) · Stasis Scavenger is near-redundant (self-feed) so drop it for surge.
- Class item: Bomber/Outreach to keep the dodge online; Powerful Attraction to vacuum Vestiges/shards/orbs on dodge.
- Champion note: Anti-Champion 2.0 ties stun to weapon archetype; this exotic GL carries no bespoke champion stun, so it does not stun champions on its own. Cover champions with the Energy-slot weapon's frame (or the artifact). Freeze does crowd-control the boss-room rabble but is not a champion-stun substitute under 2.0.
Where it shines
- Boss DPS / damage phases: the impale Vestige-stream means a Heavy GL that never reloads from reserves — park in the well, ride One for All + Bakris surge + Stasis Surge mods, fire continuously. Best-in-slot identity.
- Dense PvE clear (GMs, Nightfalls, dungeons): freeze a pack → shatter → harvest the Vestige pile → the gun stays at Heavy charge indefinitely; Special/Heavy bricks at impact point top up the fireteam, making it a team ammo battery.
- Champion coverage (flag): Alethonym does not stun champions. Bring an anti-Barrier/Overload/Unstoppable Energy weapon (per Anti-Champion 2.0 archetypes) or lean on artifact champion mods. Freeze ≠ stun.
- Solo content: Frost Armor + Stasis Resistance + self-feeding Heavy make it durable and ammo-independent — strong for solo lost sectors/dungeons where Heavy bricks are scarce.