Fighting Lion — The Only Primary You Need (Hunter)

Weapon: Fighting Lion (Grenade Launcher · Special · Kinetic) · Subclass: Gunslinger (Solar) · Role: Bounce-shot add-clear + scorch/ignition engine, primary-slot GL Sandbox: 9.7.0 · Created 2026-06-16

Fighting Lion isn't a Special weapon you swap to — it is your primary. Hold the trigger, lob a bouncing payload, release to detonate exactly when it kisses the head you want. It draws white-ammo bricks like a primary, so you never run dry, and the catalyst turns every shot into a buff for the gun you actually kill bosses with. Bolt it to Solar Gunslinger and a kill loop feeds you a second grenade launcher — Gunpowder Gamble — that ignites on impact. Two GLs, infinite ammo, scorch everywhere.

The weapon

Delayed Gratification (intrinsic, verbatim): "Grenade projectiles will bounce off surfaces. [Shoot] : Fire; release to detonate."

Chimera (catalyst, verbatim): "After this weapon fires, equipped Kinetic and Power weapons gain a brief period of increased handling and accuracy."

What it does: you hold [Shoot] to keep a live grenade in the chamber and release to detonate — so you control airburst timing and can bank shots around cover and off walls/ceilings into rooms you can't see. Crucially, Fighting Lion regenerates ammo from kills/over time like a primary (it draws on the primary economy, not Special bricks), so it's a no-ammo-anxiety add-clear tool you can fire forever. The catalyst then pays you for firing it: every shot grants a short handling + accuracy window to your other Kinetic and Power guns — i.e. it greases the swap to your real DPS weapon. Fire Lion → swap → snap-shot a major/boss with a buffed weapon → swap back.

Loadout

Slot	Pick	Why
Subclass	Gunslinger (Solar)	Scorch/ignition payoff + Gunpowder Gamble = a second on-demand GL.
Super	Golden Gun: Deadshot (Nighthawk-style burst) or Blade Barrage	Single-target delete for what Lion can't ignite; on-theme, not the build.
Class ability	Marksman's Dodge	Reloads + repositions; clean reset between bounce volleys.
Melee	Knife Trick (or Lightweight Knife)	Scorch on hit → feeds Searing/Singeing; precision-kill Radiant via Torches loop.
Grenade	Tripmine Grenade	Hands-off scorch trap; the built grenade is Gunpowder Gamble anyway.
Aspect 1	Gunpowder Gamble	"Defeat targets to charge up an improvised Solar explosive." Lion's add-clear charges it; throw = a second igniting GL.
Aspect 2	On Your Mark	"Class ability or precision hits grant … reload speed and Weapons stat … Stacks ten times." +Weapons stat = more PvE damage on the swap-to weapon.

Exotic armour — Sealed Ahamkara Grasps (Gauntlets)

Verbatim: "Powered melee and finisher final blows grant Nightmare Fuel, increasing handling and airborne effectiveness. While active, freshly drawn weapons deal additional damage and grant Nightmare Fuel on final blows. Gaining Nightmare Fuel reloads all holstered weapons."

Why it's the pick: this is the swap-build exotic, and Fighting Lion is the ultimate swap build. The catalyst already greases the draw (handling/accuracy); Sealed Ahamkara makes that freshly drawn weapon hit harder, and Nightmare-Fuel kills reload your holstered Lion for free — so you never reload the GL by hand. Knife Trick proc (powered melee) → Nightmare Fuel → draw your special/heavy with bonus damage → kills keep the fuel alive and top off Lion in the holster. Fire-and-swap becomes a damage multiplier instead of a tax.

The other two weapon slots (Lion occupies the Special/Energy slot as a Kinetic GL, so build around it):

• Primary slot: a Solar auto/pulse/HC — keeps Empyrean-style scorch synergy and benefits from the Chimera handling buff and Sealed Ahamkara's fresh-draw bonus. A precision weapon here also stacks On Your Mark. (Strand/Arc primary works too — you lose Solar surge stacking, keep the swap loop.)
• Heavy: Rocket / GL / LMG of your pick. It's a Power weapon, so Chimera buffs it on every Lion shot and Sealed Ahamkara makes the draw a damage spike — fire Lion → draw rocket into a boss with bonus damage + handling → Nightmare-Fuel kill reloads it.

Why this works (the mechanics)

• Lion is a primary that hits like a Special. Because it regenerates ammo, it's a bottomless bounce-shot add-clearer — you airburst packs around corners with no ammo economy to manage. That frees both real weapon slots to be pure damage.
• The catalyst makes "fire then swap" the optimal habit, and the build pays it. Chimera buffs Kinetic + Power on every shot; Sealed Ahamkara makes the freshly drawn weapon deal bonus damage; On Your Mark adds Weapons stat (9.7.0 PvE damage scalar) on precision/dodge. Three independent buffs all land on the same draw after a Lion shot.
• Gunpowder Gamble = a second grenade launcher, on demand. Lion's add-clear charges the aspect; the thrown explosive ignites on impact (Solar). So you alternate two GLs — bouncing Kinetic detonation + a Solar igniter — without ever touching a real grenade cooldown.
• Scorch is the connective tissue. Lion detonations, Knife Trick, Tripmine and Gunpowder Gamble all stack scorch; Ember of Char spreads it on ignition; Searing turns scorched kills into melee energy + Firesprites; Singeing dumps that into class-ability regen → faster Marksman's Dodge → more On Your Mark stacks + reloads. Self-feeding.
• You never reload Fighting Lion by hand. Sealed Ahamkara's "Nightmare Fuel reloads all holstered weapons" tops off Lion every time a fresh-draw weapon gets a kill, on top of Lion's own passive regen. The holster is the reload.
• The melee is the ignition key for the whole loop. Knife Trick is a powered melee: it scorches (feeds fragments), procs Nightmare Fuel (Sealed Ahamkara on), and via Ember of Torches makes you + allies Radiant — a flat weapon-damage buff stacked under everything above.

Stats & mods

Weapons 200 → Class 100+ → Grenade. Weapons is king: it scales the PvE damage of the swap-to weapons that Chimera/Sealed Ahamkara/On Your Mark all empower. Class ~100 keeps Marksman's Dodge near-constant (the scorch fragments + Singeing already accelerate it), which re-arms On Your Mark and reloads on demand. Grenade is the dump stat — the built Gunpowder Gamble grenade comes from kills, not the grenade cooldown.

Archetypes: Powerhouse / Gunner-primary pieces (Weapons-forward), Brawler or Specialist for the Class/Grenade trickle. Mods: Heavy/Special Weapon Surge ×2 matching your heavy's element on boots (the catalyst's beneficiary), Loader mods for the heavy, Firepower (grenade kills → Orbs) since Gunpowder Gamble counts as a grenade, Harmonic/Solar Siphon for orbs, Time Dilation / Bomber as filler. Stat tuning: +Weapons/−Grenade where available.

Where it shines

• Add-clear in any content — bounce-shots clear rooms you can't see into; infinite ammo means it never stops. Ideal for endless-add encounters, GM rooms with chokepoints, and bank-shot-around-cover situations.
• Boss/major windows via the swap loop — Lion isn't the DPS; it's the buff button for the heavy/special you swap to. Bounce a shot, draw your rocket into a triple-buffed damage spike, Nightmare-Fuel kill reloads it. Repeat.
• Champion coverage — FLAG: Fighting Lion has no bespoke champion stun and, as a GL, no archetype-intrinsic stun under Anti-Champion 2.0. It does not stun champions. Carry your stun on the heavy and primary archetypes (e.g. an Unstoppable Aggressive / Barrier Adaptive / Overload Rapid-Fire frame), or lean on Solar scorch/ignition and the Super (Golden Gun) to break champions. Build the two real weapon slots to cover the champion mix; Lion handles the trash between them.

Artifact - Implement of Curiosity (current)

The Solar-leaning artifact for this Lion: it amplifies the scorch/ignition/Radiant core loop, buffs the Kinetic Lion itself, and patches the build's missing champion stun (Pack Tactics covers Unstoppable, since Lion breaks nothing).

• Tier 1: Fever and Chill (Solar precision hits grant Radiant — your Solar primary keeps the Radiant loop lit) - Pack Tactics (Threadlings stun Unstoppable Champions; Lion has no bespoke stun)
• Tier 2: Cauterized Darkness (debuffed non-boss combatants take more Solar damage — stacks under scorch/ignition) - That Fresh Bullets Smell (ammo-brick pickup buffs Kinetic weapons — Lion draws bricks like a primary, so this is near-constant) - Energy Acceleration (Kinetic shockwave from sustained micro-missile damage — Lion-friendly add-clear)
• Tier 3: Radiant Shrapnel (sustained damage while Radiant or scorched-combatant kills release shrapnel — pays off Radiant and feeds Scorch, your connective tissue) - Elemental Overdrive (Elemental pickups grant matching-element damage — Searing's Firesprites become a Solar damage buff)

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).