Cerberus+1 — Cross Counter (Hunter)

Weapon: Cerberus+1 (Auto Rifle · Primary · Kinetic) · Subclass: Arcstrider (Arc) · Role: In-your-face shotgun-auto bruiser with a self-healing punch loop Sandbox: 9.7.0 · Created 2026-06-16

Cerberus+1 is a four-barrel Auto Rifle that fires a shotgun-wide cone — it melts everything inside ~10 m and does nothing past it. The only way to abuse that is to live at point-blank, so the build is built around staying there: Arc, Liar's Handshake to heal off every counterpunch, and a melee/amplified loop that turns the danger zone into the safe zone. Get in, spray, punch, heal, repeat. The catalyst's Focused-Fire single barrel is your "kill the priority at mid-range" button when the cone won't reach.

The weapon

Four-Headed Dog (intrinsic): "Shoots erratic bullets from all gun barrels at the same time." Verbatim from the manifest.

Catalyst — Focused Fire: "After a final blow with this weapon, [Alternate Weapon Action] to return ammo to the magazine and swap to a tighter spread that deals increased damage." Verbatim.

What it does: the base gun sprays a four-barrel cone — devastating burst DPS inside shotgun range, useless past it. It's a 360 RPM Adaptive-frame Kinetic Primary (Impact 33, mag 31, Recoil Direction 86). The catalyst gives you an on-demand exit from the spread: get a kill, press the AWA, and you refund the mag and switch to a tight, higher-damage spread so you can reach out and finish a straggler or a champion before diving back into the cone. So it's two guns in one: a panic-button shredder up close, and a focused single-pattern auto on command. The whole build exists to keep you in cone range safely and to feed the final blows that arm Focused Fire.

Loadout

Slot	Pick	Why
Subclass	Arcstrider	Amplified = move speed + DR to survive point-blank; Arc melee is what Liar's heals off.
Super	Gathering Storm	Throw-and-strike that jolts a wide area — clears the pack you waded into and resets your space. (Arc Staff if you want a panic spin.)
Class ability	Marksman's Dodge	Reloads Cerberus on dodge — refills the 31-round mag mid-cone without leaving the fight.
Melee	Combination Blow	Chained melee kills heal, refund dodge, and stack melee damage — the core close-range engine Liar's bolts onto.
Grenade	Arcbolt Grenade	Chains jolt through the pack you're standing in; with Spark of Shock it jolts → amplified fuel.
Aspect 1	Flow State	Defeating a jolted target → Amplified; while amplified, faster reload/melee/dodge regen — keeps Cerberus topped and Combination Blow online.
Aspect 2	Lethal Current	Post-dodge melee gets bonus lunge + jolts + an aftershock — Marksman's Dodge → punch closes gaps, jolts (feeds Flow State), and Liar's counterpunch heals.

Exotic armour — Liar's Handshake (Gauntlets)

Cross Counter: "Using your Arc melee ability or being hit by a melee attack will allow you to follow up with an extremely powerful melee counterpunch that will heal you." Verbatim.

This is the Cerberus pairing. The weapon forces you into melee range; Liar's turns that exposure into sustain. Every time an enemy swings at you — or any time you throw your own Arc melee — you get a free, massive counterpunch that heals you to full. Combined with Combination Blow's heal-on-kill, you have two independent "punch → top off health" sources, so you can sit inside the four-barrel cone and tank the chip damage that range demands. The counterpunch also is a melee kill, which chains Combination Blow and (via Lethal Current/Flow State) keeps you amplified.

Why this works (the mechanics)

• The cone demands point-blank; Liar's makes point-blank survivable. Cerberus does nothing past ~10 m, so the build's whole job is to keep you safe inside that ring. Cross Counter heals on every counterpunch (your melee or an enemy's), Combination Blow heals on every chained kill, and Spark of Resistance gives flat DR for being surrounded. Three sustain layers all triggered by the exact thing the weapon forces you to do.
• Amplified is the close-range safety + uptime engine. Jolt a target (Arcbolt + Spark of Shock, Lethal Current, or Gathering Storm) → kill it → Flow State → Amplified = move speed, DR, and faster reload/melee/dodge regen. That faster reload tops the 31-round mag between cones, and the move speed lets you weave through the pack you're standing in.
• Marksman's Dodge is a mid-fight reload, not a retreat. Cerberus's mag (31) empties fast in the cone. Dodge → instant reload and (Lethal Current) your next punch jolts with bonus lunge → closes onto the next target → Liar's counterpunch heals. The reload and the heal are the same button.
• The catalyst is your champion / mid-range answer. Spread guns can't reach a champion across a room. Get a final blow → Focused Fire AWA → tight, increased-damage spread + a free mag → reach out and stun/finish the priority, then dive back into the cone. It converts the gun's biggest weakness (range) into an on-demand second firing mode.
• Spark of Frequency papers over the stat sheet. Cerberus has middling Stability (25); a melee hit (you throw a lot) boosts reload + stability, so the cone tightens slightly and the next reload is faster — the build's melee spam directly buffs the gun.
• Everything loops off melee kills. Punch → heal (Liar's + Combo) → kill → jolt-kill → Amplified (Flow State) → Ionic Trace (Spark of Ions) → ability energy → more melee. The gun feeds the loop (final blows arm the catalyst, kills stack Combo); the loop keeps you alive inside the gun's only effective range.

Stats & mods

Melee 200 → Health 100+ → Class. Melee is the whole build — Combination Blow damage/heal, counterpunch frequency, Lethal Current lunge all scale or gate on it. Health 100+ because you are deliberately eating point-blank fire. Class for dodge uptime (your reload + jolt-punch setup).

• Helmet: Kinetic Siphon (Cerberus is Kinetic — kills → Orbs) · Heavy Handed (melee kills → melee energy back; Orbs on finisher).
• Gauntlets: Melee Font ×2 (→ 200 Melee) · Impact Induction (grenade energy on melee damage — keeps Arcbolt flowing for jolt).
• Chest: Arc Resistance + two flat Resistance mods — you stand in the fire on purpose; stack incoming-damage reduction under the heal layers.
• Boots: Kinetic Weapon Surge ×2 (≈+17% onto Cerberus — Kinetic has no element surge match, so Kinetic Surge is the only weapon-damage mod that touches it) · Innervation (Orb pickup → grenade energy).
• Class item: Powerful Attraction (dodge vacuums your Orbs) · Bomber (grenade energy on dodge) · Reaper (dodge → next kill spawns an extra Orb).
• Stat tuning: +Melee/−Class or +Melee/−Super to push Melee to 200; the build doesn't lean on Super for sustain, so Super is the cheap dump.

Where it shines

• Add-dense PvE — strikes, GM lost sectors, Nightfalls, Onslaught. Wading into a packed room is normally suicide; here it's the optimal play. The cone deletes the cluster, the punches heal you back, and you never leave melee range.
• Champion coverage — flag it. Cerberus+1 is an Adaptive-frame Auto Rifle. Under Anti-Champion 2.0, Adaptive auto rifles do not carry an intrinsic champion stun, and Four-Headed Dog grants no bespoke stun. This weapon does not stun champions on its own. Cover champions elsewhere: - Jolt = Overload behaviour. Your Arc kit jolts constantly (Lethal Current, Arcbolt + Spark of Shock, Gathering Storm) — jolt staggers/interrupts Overloads in practice, but bring a real Overload source to be safe. - Artifact anti-champion mods (an Overload/Unstoppable auto-rifle mod, when slotted) turn Cerberus itself into a stun tool — the cleanest fix. - Or carry a stun in the other two slots (see below).
• PvP: a lethal panic button in a 1v1 if you're already close, but the range ceiling is brutal — this is a PvE build.

The other two weapon slots (complement the close-range Kinetic Primary):

• Energy Special — a Solar/Arc shotgun or a Fusion with a champion frame (Pellet/Precision shotgun for Barrier, Lightweight/Rapid-Fire fusion for Overload). Shares Cerberus's close range; an Arc one feeds Spark of Ions/Beacons.
• Heavy — a Machine Gun or Rocket for the ranged/boss damage Cerberus structurally can't do, ideally an Aggressive/High-Impact frame for Unstoppable. Between the Special and Heavy you can cover all three champion types the gun can't.