Dead Man's Tale — Ghost Walk (Hunter)

Weapon: Dead Man's Tale (Scout Rifle · Primary/Kinetic · Kinetic) · Subclass: Nightstalker (Void) · Role: Permanent-invis ranged precision sniper — hipfire-chains majors and champions from the shadows Sandbox: 9.7.0 · Created 2026-06-16

The most lethal scout in the game is a hip-fired one. Catalysed Dead Man's Tale turns aim-down-sights into a liability: chain precision hits, ramp Cranial Spike to max, and hipfire from the hip with no accuracy penalty, faster RPM, and bonus damage. Pair that with a Void Hunter that is invisible almost continuously, and the fantasy is exact: you are a ghost that headshots majors across the room and is gone before anything turns to look. The subclass keeps you unseen and topped on ability energy; the gun does the killing.

The weapon

Cranial Spike (exotic perk): "Chaining precision hits grants bonus target acquisition, range, rounds reloaded, and damage against combatants."

Dark-Forged Trigger (catalyst): "Removes hipfire accuracy penalties while increasing rate of fire. At maximum stacks of Cranial Spike, hipfiring deals increased damage."

Cranial Spike stacks on consecutive precision hits — each stack widens aim assist, extends range, reloads rounds back into the mag, and ramps damage vs combatants. At max stacks the gun is a different weapon: a long-range precision machine that also reloads itself for free as long as you keep landing heads. The catalyst is mandatory and changes the grip — once equipped you stop aiming down sights entirely. Hipfire becomes pinpoint-accurate, the RPM climbs, and at max Cranial Spike your hipfire shots hit harder than ADS would. The whole build is built to keep Cranial Spike pinned at max and keep you alive to do it.

Loadout

Slot	Pick	Why
Subclass	Nightstalker (Void)	Invis + Devour is the survivability that lets a primary-only ranged playstyle work in hard content.
Super	Shadowshot: Deadfall	35% team weaken + suppress + groups the pack — softens the targets DMT then headshots, and weakened kills feed the economy.
Class ability	Gambler's Dodge	Reloads DMT on demand and (with Vanishing Step) is your invis button; melee energy back near enemies.
Melee	Snare Bomb (Quickfall)	Smoke for invis + weaken on demand; lets you re-enter stealth without a kill.
Grenade	Magnetic Grenade	Attaches + double-detonates; with Undermining it's a precise weaken delivery for a champion or priority.
Aspect 1	Stylish Executioner	Any elemental-debuffed kill → invis + Truesight; next melee while invis weakens. DMT kills on weakened targets = free re-invis.
Aspect 2	Vanishing Step	Dodge → invisible. Turns your reload/reposition button into the stealth button — the core of "always a ghost."
Fragments	Echo of Persistence (invis/Devour/overshield last longer), Echo of Starvation (Breach/Orb → Devour), Echo of Harvest (weakened kills → Orb + Void Breach), Echo of Undermining (Void grenades weaken — arms Magnetic + Stylish)	Persistence stretches the invis windows; Harvest+Starvation make Devour self-sustaining off weakened kills; Undermining is the weaken source that lets Stylish/DMT trigger.
Exotic armour	Graviton Forfeit (Helmet)	Vanishing Shadow — extends every invis effect and refunds grenade/melee/class faster while invisible; at max stacks grants a Void Overshield. The pure-invis engine.
Energy / 2nd weapon	Void wave-frame GL or Void Special with Destabilizing Rounds	AoE clear + a second weaken/volatile source; complements DMT's single-target ranged role.
Heavy	Machine Gun or Rocket	The boss/heavy-DPS DMT's primary mag can't deliver.

Why this works (the mechanics)

• Hipfire is the build, and the catalyst makes it correct. Dark-Forged Trigger removes the hipfire accuracy penalty and raises RPM; at max Cranial Spike hipfire deals bonus damage over ADS. You hold the gun at the hip, keep your peripheral vision and movement, and still land precision hits — the exact opposite of a normal scout, and ideal for a mobile invis Hunter who never wants to be locked into a scope.
• Cranial Spike self-reloads the mag. "Rounds reloaded" per precision-hit stack means a clean headshot chain tops the magazine without a reload animation — so you keep firing from stealth instead of breaking cadence (and breaking invis) to reload. The build's job is to keep that chain unbroken: Deadfall weaken + Stylish make targets one-tap-able, so chains rarely drop.
• Vanishing Step + Graviton Forfeit = near-permanent invisibility. Dodge (also your DMT reload) makes you invisible; Graviton extends that invis and, while invisible, dumps grenade/melee/class energy back faster — so the dodge that re-stealths you is also the dodge that comes back sooner. Echo of Persistence stretches every window further. At max Graviton stacks you also carry a Void Overshield. You are unseen, healing, and re-arming, all at once.
• Weaken is the keystone that links gun and class. Magnetic Grenade (Echo of Undermining), Deadfall's tether, and Stylish's post-execution melee all weaken. Weakened targets die to DMT faster (weaken is a damage-bucket multiplier on top of Cranial Spike), and any elemental-debuffed kill — which every weakened kill is — triggers Stylish → invis + Truesight. So DMT kills literally re-cloak you.
• Devour makes a primary-only loadout survivable. Echo of Harvest turns weakened kills into Orbs + Void Breaches; Echo of Starvation turns those into Devour (full heal on kill + grenade refund); Echo of Persistence keeps Devour up longer. You stay at full health while standing in the open headshotting things, because everything you kill heals you.
• Champion coverage comes from the archetype, not the exotic text. Cranial Spike has no "Strong against" line — DMT carries no bespoke stun. But it is a 140 RPM Precision-frame scout, and under Anti-Champion 2.0 the Precision/Adaptive archetype stuns Barrier champions intrinsically. So DMT is your Barrier answer; Deadfall's suppress handles Overload behaviour and ability-spam elites. Unstoppable is the gap — cover it with the energy/heavy slot (see Where it shines).

Stats & mods

Weapons 200 → Class 100+ → Health. Weapons is the priority: it's a flat PvE damage multiplier vs minors/majors that stacks on top of Cranial Spike and weaken, and it's free value for a gun-centric build. Class 100+ feeds dodge uptime (your invis + reload button) and the small overshield. Health is the dump stat — Devour + Persistence-extended invis + the Graviton overshield are four defensive layers, so raw Health is the cheapest thing to trade.

Archetypes: Gunner/Specialist pieces favouring Weapons + Class. Mods:

• Helmet: Harmonic Siphon (Kinetic kills → Orbs) · Heavy Ammo Finder.
• Gauntlets: Kinetic Loader · Fastball (land the Magnetic weaken precisely).
• Chest: Arc + Solar + Void Resistance (flat DR under the overshield).
• Boots: Kinetic Weapon Surge ×2 (straight onto DMT) · Orbs of Restoration.
• Class item: Powerful Attraction (dodge vacuums orbs) · Reaper (dodge → next kill makes an extra Orb) · Class Font (→ Class 100+).

Stat tuning: +Weapons/−Health and +Class/−Health to push Weapons toward 200 and Class over 100 while dumping Health.

Where it shines

• GMs / −30/−40 endgame: the ideal home. Invis + Devour + ranged precision is the safest way to fight from cover, and DMT's self-reloading max-stack mag out-ranges most threats. Champions: DMT stuns Barrier (Precision frame); Deadfall suppress covers Overload; bring an Unstoppable option in the energy/heavy slot (e.g. an Unstoppable-frame GL/HC or an Unstoppable mod weapon) to close the triangle.
• Dungeons / solo content: the survivability stack and the primary's infinite ammo make this a clean solo-flawless tool; weaken + Deadfall handle minibosses.
• Add-dense PvE: chain headshots across a pack, each weakened kill re-cloaks you (Stylish) and floods Orbs/Breaches (Harvest) → Devour stays pinned.
• Weaker fit: raid boss DPS. DMT is a precision/control primary, not a damage super-weapon; lean on the heavy slot for burst.

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).