Fighting Lion — The Only Primary You Need (Solar Hunter)

Centerpiece: Fighting Lion (Grenade Launcher · Primary · Void) · Subclass: Gunslinger (Solar) · Role: Bounce-shot add-clear + scorch/ignition engine that greases every weapon swap Sandbox: 9.7.0 · Updated 2026-07-03

Fighting Lion isn't a 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 guns 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, bottomless ammo, scorch everywhere.

The weapon

Delayed Gratification (intrinsic, verbatim): "Grenade projectiles will bounce off surfaces."

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 and ceilings into rooms you can't see. Fighting Lion is a Void grenade launcher that runs on Primary ammo — it regenerates over time and from kills like an auto rifle, so it's a no-ammo-anxiety add-clear tool you can fire forever, and it sits in the Energy slot rather than eating your Special brick. The catalyst then pays you for firing it: every shot grants a short handling and accuracy window to your Kinetic-slot and Power weapons — the other two guns in your kit. Fire Lion, swap, snap-shot a major or boss with a buffed weapon, swap back.

Loadout

Slot	Pick	Why
Subclass	Gunslinger (Solar)	Scorch/ignition payoff plus Gunpowder Gamble hands you a second on-demand GL.
Super	Golden Gun: Deadshot or Blade Barrage	Single-target delete for what Lion can't ignite; on-theme, and Golden Gun stuns nothing so it's your Super-as-panic-button.
Class ability	Marksman's Dodge	Reloads your weapons and repositions; a clean reset between bounce volleys.
Movement	Triple Jump	Extra mid-air adjusts to line up bank-shots off walls and ceilings.
Melee	Knife Trick	Powered melee: scorches on hit (feeds the Ember fragments) and procs Nightmare Fuel for the swap loop.
Grenade	Tripmine Grenade	Hands-off scorch trap; the built grenade you actually throw is Gunpowder Gamble.
Aspect 1	Gunpowder Gamble	"Defeat targets to charge up an improvised [Solar] Solar explosive." Lion's add-clear charges it; the throw is a second igniting GL.
Aspect 2	On Your Mark	"Activating your class ability or landing precision hits grants you and nearby allies increased reload speed and Weapons stat … Stacks ten times." More Weapons stat = more PvE damage on the swap-to weapon.
Fragments	Torches · Searing · Singeing · Char	Build the scorch → melee-energy → class-regen loop and hand back Class/Grenade stat (see below).
Exotic armour	Sealed Ahamkara Grasps (Gauntlets)	The swap-build exotic: fresh-drawn weapons deal bonus damage and Nightmare-Fuel kills reload every holstered weapon, including Lion.
Weapons	Kinetic primary + Power heavy	The two slots Chimera buffs on every Lion shot; both also get Sealed Ahamkara's fresh-draw damage.

Why it works (the mechanics)

• Lion is a primary that hits like a Special. Because it runs on regenerating Primary ammo, it's a bottomless bounce-shot add-clearer — you airburst packs around corners with no ammo economy to manage, and it never touches your Special brick. That frees both of your real weapon slots to be pure damage.
• The catalyst makes "fire then swap" the optimal habit, and the build pays it. Chimera grants handling and accuracy to your Kinetic and Power weapons on every shot; Sealed Ahamkara makes the freshly drawn weapon deal bonus damage; On Your Mark adds Weapons stat (a 9.7.0 PvE damage scalar) on precision hits or dodge. Three independent buffs all land on the same draw right after a Lion shot.
• Gunpowder Gamble is a second grenade launcher, on demand. Lion's add-clear charges the aspect; the thrown explosive is Solar and ignites on impact. So you alternate two GLs — a bouncing Void detonation and a Solar igniter — without ever spending 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; Ember of Searing turns scorched kills into melee energy and Firesprites; Ember of Singeing dumps class-ability regen back in → faster Marksman's Dodge → more On Your Mark stacks and reloads. The loop feeds itself.
• You rarely reload by hand. Sealed Ahamkara's Nightmare Fuel refills the magazine of all stowed weapons from reserves every time a fresh-drawn weapon scores a kill, on top of Lion's own passive Primary regen and Marksman's Dodge reload. The holster is the reload.
• The melee is the ignition key for the whole loop. Knife Trick is a powered melee: it scorches (feeds the fragments), procs Nightmare Fuel (arming Sealed Ahamkara's fresh-draw damage), and through Ember of Torches makes you and nearby allies Radiant — a flat weapon-damage buff stacked under everything above.

Stats & mods

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

Archetype lean: Gunner/Powerhouse pieces (Weapons-forward) with a Brawler or Specialist secondary for the Class/Grenade trickle.

Mods:

• Boots: Weapon Surge ×2 matching your heavy's element (the catalyst's main beneficiary).
• Arms: Loader mod for the heavy so the manual reloads that slip past the holster loop are fast.
• Chest: resist mods for the content (Concussive Dampener / elemental resist in endgame).
• Class item: Bomber + Time Dilation as filler; Reaper if you want Orbs on the swap.
• Surge: heavy-element Weapon Surge, since that's the draw Chimera and Sealed Ahamkara reward.
• Anti-Champion: none from the mod slot — see coverage below; lean on the artifact and your paired weapon archetypes.

Artifact — Implement of Curiosity

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

Picks (2/3/2):

• Tier 1: Fever and Chill · Pack Tactics
• Tier 2: Cauterized Darkness · That Fresh Bullets Smell · Energy Acceleration
• Tier 3: Radiant Shrapnel · Elemental Overdrive

• Fever and Chill grants Radiant on rapid Solar precision hits, keeping the Radiant loop lit from a Solar primary or Golden Gun without leaning solely on Knife Trick.
• Pack Tactics lets max-stack Threadlings stun Unstoppable Champions — the primary answer to Lion having no bespoke stun.
• Cauterized Darkness makes debuffed non-boss combatants take increased Solar damage, stacking under your scorch and ignitions for faster add-clear.
• That Fresh Bullets Smell buffs your Kinetic weapons on ammo-brick pickup — and because Lion constantly draws Primary bricks, the buff on your paired Kinetic-slot gun stays near-constant.
• Energy Acceleration turns sustained micro-missile damage into a Kinetic shockwave that is strong against Unstoppable Champions — a second Unstoppable source alongside Pack Tactics.
• Radiant Shrapnel releases scorching Solar projectiles while Radiant or on scorched-combatant kills, paying off Radiant and feeding scorch, the build's connective tissue.
• Elemental Overdrive grants matching-element damage from Elemental pickups — Ember of Searing's Firesprites become a live Solar damage buff.

Where it shines

• Add-clear in any content — bounce-shots clear rooms you can't see into, and regenerating Primary ammo means it never stops. Ideal for endless-add encounters, GM chokepoints and bank-shot-around-cover situations.
• Boss and major windows via the swap loop — Lion isn't the DPS, it's the buff button for the heavy or Kinetic weapon you swap to. Bounce a shot, draw your rocket into a triple-buffed spike, Nightmare-Fuel kill reloads it, repeat.
• Solar-verb encounters — scorch, ignition and Radiant chain through Gunpowder Gamble, Knife Trick and the Ember fragments, so the whole kit stays lit in add-dense rooms.
• Champion coverage — FLAG: Fighting Lion has no bespoke champion stun and, as a grenade launcher, no archetype-intrinsic stun under Anti-Champion 2.0 — it does not stun champions. The artifact carries Unstoppable twice (Pack Tactics + Energy Acceleration); bring Overload/Barrier on your paired Kinetic primary and Power heavy archetypes, and lean on Golden Gun for single-target breaks.

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). Flex/loadout-dependent: since that's the draw Chimera; Sealed Ahamkara reward. - **Anti-Champion:** none from the mod slot — see coverage below; lean on the artifact; your paired weapon archetypes.