Dead Man's Tale — Ghost Walk (Void Hunter)

Centerpiece: Dead Man's Tale (Scout Rifle · Primary · Kinetic) · Subclass: Nightstalker (Void) · Role: Permanent-invis ranged precision — hipfire-chains majors from the shadows and is gone before anything turns to look Sandbox: 9.7.0 · Updated 2026-07-03

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 fire from the hip with no accuracy penalty, faster rate of fire, 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. The subclass keeps you unseen and topped on ability energy; the gun does the killing.

The weapon

Cranial Spike (intrinsic): "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 against combatants. At max stacks the gun is a different weapon: a long-range precision machine that reloads itself for free so 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 rate of fire climbs, and at max Cranial Spike your hipfire shots hit harder than ADS would. The whole build exists to keep Cranial Spike pinned at max and keep you alive while you do it — invis for cover, Devour for sustain, weaken to keep every target one chain away from dead.

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	Team weaken + suppress + groups the pack — softens the targets DMT then headshots, and weakened kills feed the Void economy.
Class ability	Gambler's Dodge	Reloads DMT on demand and (with Vanishing Step) is your invis button; refunds melee energy near enemies.
Movement	High Jump	Extra vertical to hold the elevated sightlines a ranged invis playstyle wants; any jump is fine.
Melee	Snare Bomb	Smoke on demand — weakens and re-cloaks without needing a kill; lets you reset stealth mid-fight.
Grenade	Magnetic Grenade	Attaches and double-detonates; with Undermining it becomes a precise weaken delivery for a champion or priority target.
Aspect 1	Stylish Executioner	Any elemental-debuffed kill → invis + Truesight; the next melee while invis weakens. DMT kills on weakened targets = free re-invis.
Aspect 2	Vanishing Step	Dodging makes you invisible — turns your reload/reposition button into the stealth button, the core of "always a ghost."
Fragments	Persistence · Starvation · Harvest · Undermining	Stretch the invis/Devour windows, make Devour self-sustaining off weakened kills, and arm the weaken that triggers Stylish and DMT.
Exotic armour	Graviton Forfeit (Helmet)	Vanishing Shadow — extends every invis effect, refunds abilities faster while invisible, and grants a Void Overshield at max stacks. The pure-invis engine.
Weapons	Void wave-frame GL (energy) + Machine Gun / Rocket (heavy)	The GL adds AoE clear and a second weaken/volatile source; the heavy delivers the boss/heavy DPS DMT's primary mag can't.

Why it works (the mechanics)

• Hipfire is the build, and the catalyst makes it correct. Dark-Forged Trigger removes the hipfire accuracy penalty and raises the rate of fire; 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 with no reload animation — so you keep firing from stealth instead of breaking cadence (and breaking invis) to reload. The build's whole job is to keep that chain unbroken: Deadfall weaken and 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 returns sooner. Echo of Persistence stretches every window further, and at max Graviton stacks you also carry a Void Overshield. You are unseen, healing, and re-arming at once.
• Weaken is the keystone that links gun and class. Magnetic Grenade (via Echo of Undermining), Deadfall's tether, and Stylish's post-execution melee all weaken. Weakened targets die to DMT faster, 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 and Void Breaches; Echo of Starvation turns either pickup 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.
• The loop is self-priming once one weaken lands. A single Magnetic or Snare Bomb weakens; the first weakened kill spawns a Breach + Orb (Harvest), which becomes Devour (Starvation) and re-cloaks you (Stylish). From there DMT's chain sustains the whole economy — no ability needs to be spent again until you want to reset.

Stats & mods

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

Mods:

• Boots: Kinetic Weapon Surge ×2 (straight onto DMT) · Orbs of Restoration.
• Arms: Kinetic Loader · Fastball (land the Magnetic weaken precisely).
• Chest: Arc + Solar + Void Resistance (flat DR under the overshield).
• Class item: Powerful Attraction (dodge vacuums orbs) · Reaper (dodge → next kill makes an extra Orb).
• Surge: Kinetic Weapon Surge ×2 on boots — the surge that matches DMT's damage type.
• Anti-Champion: none intrinsic to DMT — source stuns from the subclass (suppress) + artifact anti-champion mods (see Artifact).

Artifact — Slayer Baron Apothecary Satchel

This Void-leaning artifact mirrors the build's own engine: weakened kills become Devour and Void Breaches, and every Breach pickup turns DMT's next shots into weakening damage — closing the Weaken → Breach → Devour loop the Echoes already run. This is economy, not a champion stun pool.

Picks (2/3/2):

• Tier 1: Power From Pain · The Thick Of It
• Tier 2: Void Renewal · Curative Orbs · Debilitating Wave
• Tier 3: Supernova · Old God's Rite

• Power From Pain makes weakened final blows grant Devour and create a Void Breach — the build's core loop in a single mod.
• The Thick Of It turns surrounded final blows into the Armor Charge the mod loadout pays off.
• Void Renewal feeds more Void Breaches from Void kills while Devour is up, thickening the economy DMT already runs.
• Curative Orbs spawns Orbs on shield breaks — the Orbs that Harvest and Starvation convert into Devour.
• Debilitating Wave adds an on-demand Void finisher wave that weakens the pack, priming Stylish and DMT.
• Supernova makes each Breach pickup arm your next Void damage as a large weakening pulse — free Deadfall-tier weaken off the loop.
• Old God's Rite rains seeking projectiles from Void weapon damage after a Breach — a direct payoff on DMT's trigger.

Where it shines

• GMs / −30 to −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.
• Dungeons / solo content: the survivability stack and the primary's effectively 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), so Devour stays pinned.
• Weaker fit: raid boss DPS — DMT is a precision/control primary, not a burst weapon; lean on the heavy slot.
• Champion coverage: DMT breaks no champion intrinsically (manifest `champion: null`). Overload is covered by Deadfall/Void suppression; source Barrier and Unstoppable stuns from the seasonal artifact anti-champion mods and your energy/heavy slot, not from the gun.

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).