Cerberus+1 — Cross Counter (Kinetic Hunter)

Centerpiece: Cerberus+1 (Auto Rifle · Primary · Kinetic) · Subclass: Arcstrider (Arc) · Role: In-your-face four-barrel bruiser with a self-healing punch loop Sandbox: 9.7.0 · Updated 2026-07-03

Cerberus+1 is a four-barrel Auto Rifle that fires a shotgun-wide cone — it melts everything inside point-blank range and does nothing past it. The only way to abuse that is to live in the danger zone, so the whole build is built to keep you there: Arc, Liar's Handshake to heal off every counterpunch, and a melee loop that turns the exposure into the safe zone. Get in, spray, punch, heal, repeat.

The weapon

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

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."

The base gun sprays a four-barrel cone — devastating burst DPS inside shotgun range, useless past it. It is a 360 RPM Kinetic Auto Rifle on Primary ammo, so the cost of that punch is zero: no special/heavy economy to manage, just an endless close-range shredder. The catalyst gives you an on-demand exit from the spread. Get a final blow, press the AWA, and you refund the whole magazine and switch to a tighter, higher-damage single pattern so you can reach out and finish a straggler before diving back into the cone. So it is two guns in one — a panic-button shredder up close and a focused auto on command. The entire 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 (Arc)	Amplified = move speed + damage resistance 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.
Class ability	Marksman's Dodge	Reloads Cerberus on dodge — refills the 31-round mag mid-cone without leaving the fight.
Movement	Triple Jump	Extra air control to reposition inside the pack without over-committing off a ledge.
Melee	Combination Blow	Chained melee kills heal, refund dodge, and stack melee damage — the close-range engine Liar's bolts onto.
Grenade	Arcbolt Grenade	Chains jolt through the pack you are standing in; with Spark of Shock the jolt fuels amplified.
Aspect 1	Flow State	"Defeating a jolted target makes you amplified. While you are amplified, your dodge recharges more quickly, you are more resilient while dodging, and your reload speed is greatly increased." Keeps Cerberus topped and dodge online.
Aspect 2	Lethal Current	"After dodging, your next melee attack has increased lunge range, jolts the target, and creates a damaging aftershock." Marksman's Dodge → punch closes gaps, jolts (feeds Flow State), and Liar's counterpunch heals.
Fragments	Resistance · Feedback · Frequency · Ions	Damage resistance while surrounded, melee-damage payoff, reload/stability fix, and Ionic Traces off jolt-kills.
Exotic armour	Liar's Handshake (Gauntlets)	"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." Turns the exposure the weapon forces into sustain.
Weapons	Cerberus+1 + an Arc special (shotgun/fusion) + a heavy MG/rocket	Cerberus owns close range; the special shares that range and the heavy covers the boss/ranged damage the cone structurally can't do.

Why it works (the mechanics)

• The cone demands point-blank; Liar's makes point-blank survivable. Cerberus does nothing past shotgun range, so the build's whole job is to keep you safe inside that ring. Cross Counter heals on every counterpunch (your Arc melee or an enemy's swing), Combination Blow heals on every chained kill, and Spark of Resistance gives flat damage resistance 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, resilience, and greatly increased reload speed. That faster reload tops the 31-round mag between cones, and the move speed lets you weave through the pack you are standing in.
• Marksman's Dodge is a mid-fight reload, not a retreat. The mag 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 mid-range answer. Spread guns can't reach a priority across a room. Get a final blow → Focused Fire AWA → tighter, increased-damage spread + a free mag → reach out and finish the straggler, 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; 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 → Class. Melee is the whole build — Combination Blow damage/heal, counterpunch frequency, and Lethal Current lunge all scale or gate on it. Health next because you are deliberately eating point-blank fire. Class for dodge uptime (your reload + jolt-punch setup). This leans hard into a melee/survivability archetype; Super is the cheap stat dump since the build doesn't rely on it for sustain.

• Boots: Kinetic Weapon Surge ×2 (Cerberus is Kinetic — this is the only weapon-damage mod that touches it) · Innervation (Orb pickup → grenade energy).
• Arms: Melee Font ×2 (drives toward Melee 200) · 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.
• Class item: Powerful Attraction (dodge vacuums your Orbs) · Bomber (grenade energy on dodge) · Reaper (dodge → next kill spawns an extra Orb).
• Surge: Kinetic Weapon Surge ×2 on boots — Kinetic has no elemental surge match, so Kinetic Surge is the only surge that boosts Cerberus.
• Anti-Champion: none intrinsic (see coverage below) — slot an artifact Overload/Unstoppable auto-rifle mod when available, or carry a champion frame in the other two slots.

Artifact — Encrypted Data Disk

The Arc-and-Kinetic disk this build was waiting for: it turns your constant jolts into Bolt Charge and Orbs of Power, feeds the Kinetic Cerberus directly, and bolts a Blind layer onto the cone for extra point-blank survivability. This pool sharpens the Arc loop rather than patching the champion gap — champions lean on jolt-as-Overload plus the other two slots.

Picks (2/3/2):

• Tier 1: Kinetic Synthesis · Fierce Proxemics
• Tier 2: Dielectric · Blinding Jolts · Precision Equity
• Tier 3: Elemental Orbs: Arc · Tazer Tag

• Kinetic Synthesis — sustained Kinetic damage and rapid kills spawn an ammo brick, feeding Cerberus's hungry 31-round mag between cones.
• Fierce Proxemics — finisher final blows refund grenade + melee energy, keeping Arcbolt and Combination Blow online.
• Dielectric — Arc-debuffed kills grant Bolt Charge and rapid kills spawn an Orb + heal — the core jolt → Bolt Charge → Orb payoff.
• Blinding Jolts — kills on jolted targets blind the pack you are standing in, free crowd control inside the cone.
• Precision Equity — precision final blows build toward a large Orb that buffs weapon damage; Focused-Fire kills cash it in.
• Elemental Orbs: Arc — Arc weapon kills spawn Arc Elemental Orbs you can detonate, extra Arc/Orb fuel.
• Tazer Tag — Arc melee hits jolt and add damage, so every counterpunch now jolts, feeding Flow State and Spark of Ions.

Where it shines

• Add-dense PvE — strikes, GM lost sectors, Nightfalls, Onslaught. Wading into a packed room is normally suicide; here it is the optimal play. The cone deletes the cluster, the punches heal you back, and you never leave melee range.
• PvP panic button. Lethal in a 1v1 if you are already close, but the range ceiling is brutal — treat this as a PvE build.
• Champion coverage — flag it. Cerberus+1 has no intrinsic champion stun (weapon_facts.json champion = null; Four-Headed Dog grants none). It does not stun champions on its own. Your Arc kit jolts constantly (Lethal Current, Arcbolt + Spark of Shock, Gathering Storm), which interrupts Overloads in practice, but bring a real source: an artifact anti-champion auto-rifle mod on Cerberus itself, or a champion frame in the special/heavy slot to cover all three types.