Arc

Heir Apparent — Bulwark (Arc Hunter)

Spun-up suppressing-fire anchor — blind the room, tank the return fire

Your gear best achievable Weapons 161 / 200 target — 39 short

Health 30 · Melee 46 · Grenade 63 · Super 23 · Class 38 · Weapons 161 · armour only; stat mods + fragments add more

✓ Manifest Solar · Heavy · 900 RPM · No intrinsic champion

Centerpiece: Heir Apparent (Machine Gun · Heavy · Arc) · Subclass: Arc / Arcstrider · Role: Spun-up suppressing-fire anchor — blind the room, tank the return fire Sandbox: 9.7.0 · Updated 2026-07-03

Aim down sights, the rotary barrel spins up, and an Arc shield snaps into being in front of you. Now you're a 900-RPM area-denial turret that shrugs off the fire it's drawing. Every kill while amplified triggers a blinding explosion, so suppressing fire also stuns the whole room — behind a shield that partially reloads itself when it pops. The Arc subclass keeps you amplified; the shield lets you stand still long enough to abuse it.

The weapon

Heavy Slug Thrower (intrinsic, verbatim): "[Aim Down Sights] : Spins up this weapon. This weapon can be fired only when fully spun up."

Catalyst — Legion's Bulwark (verbatim): "Increases the Arc shield's durability and partially reloads the magazine if it is destroyed."

What it does: ADS spins the barrel; once fully spun up an Arc shield materialises in front of you and the gun fires at 900 RPM out of a 115-round magazine. The shield soaks incoming fire from the front while you hose down a lane. The catalyst makes that shield tankier and — the part that drives the loop — partially reloads the magazine when the shield is destroyed, so taking fire is rewarded, not punished. This is a stationary-anchor weapon by design: the spin-up tax means you commit to a firing position, and the shield is what makes committing survivable. You pick a doorway, spin up, and turn it into a kill box.

Loadout

Slot	Pick	Why
Subclass	Arcstrider (Arc)	Amplified is the keystone that arms Spark of Beacons; Arc is the weapon's native element in-game.
Super	Gathering Storm	Anchor super — slap the staff into the densest pack for jolt plus roaming lightning while you hold your lane.
Class ability	Marksman's Dodge	Full reload on dodge tops the 115 magazine without leaving the firing line.
Movement	Triple Jump	Reliable repositioning between firing lanes when a lane collapses; no ability cost.
Melee	Disorienting Blow	Jolt plus blind on the melee feeds Flow State (jolt kill → amplified) and stacks more blind on the room.
Grenade	Pulse Grenade	Lingering Arc damage that jolts via Spark of Shock → jolt kills → amplified; duration extended by Spark of Magnitude.
Aspect 1	Flow State	Defeating a jolted target makes you amplified — the amplified-uptime engine that arms Spark of Beacons.
Aspect 2	Lethal Current	After dodging, your next melee jolts and leaves an aftershock — a free jolt source on the dodge you already press to reload.
Fragments	Beacons · Shock · Discharge · Ions · Amplitude	Blind engine, jolt seeding, Ionic Trace economy, and Orb generation — see below.
Exotic armour	Mask of Bakris (Helmet)	Turns the dodge into a stacking Arc-weapon damage buff on Heir Apparent, and refunds class energy on Arc final blows under the buff.
Weapons	Arc primary + Arc special	Keep Discharge/Ions/Beacons fed and surge-matched; the special doubles blind output while you can't spin up the MG.

Fragments

Spark of Beacons amplified + Arc Special/Heavy final blow → blinding explosion — the synergy
Spark of Shock Arc grenades jolt → jolt kills → Flow State amplified
Spark of Discharge Arc weapon final blows → Ionic Traces → ability energy from gunfire
Spark of Ions jolt kills → Ionic Traces
Spark of Amplitude rapid kills while amplified → Orbs of Power — Heir Apparent makes these in bulk

Why it works (the mechanics)

Spin-up plus shield is a sanctioned turret stance. The intrinsic punishes mobility — you can only fire fully spun up — so the natural play is to anchor. The catalyst shield makes anchoring survivable, and destroying the shield partial-reloads the magazine, so incoming fire literally feeds your ammo. The tax you pay to commit is refunded by the fire you draw.
Spark of Beacons is the build. While amplified, an Arc Special or Heavy ammo final blow creates a blinding explosion. Heir Apparent is a 115-round Arc Heavy at 900 RPM — it generates a near-continuous stream of kills, so as long as you stay amplified the whole room is being blinded. Blind is crowd-control and mitigation: blinded enemies can't shoot back, which compounds the shield's tanking.
Amplified uptime is solved three ways. Flow State (jolt kill → amplified) plus jolt sources everywhere: Pulse Grenade via Spark of Shock, Lethal Current's dodge-melee, and Disorienting Blow. Kill a jolted target → amplified → Beacons arms → Heir Apparent kills blind the room → Spark of Amplitude spawns Orbs → Super comes back. Amplified also grants damage resistance and improved reload/handling, directly improving the gun's feel through the spin-up.
Mask of Bakris is a pure damage-plus-economy multiplier on this exact gun. Light Shift grants a stacking Arc-weapon damage bonus (10/21/33% at x1/x2/x3 per Clarity) from the dodge, and Arc final blows under the buff refund class energy → more dodges → more reloads and buff refreshes. The dodge does triple duty: reload via Marksman's, jolt via Lethal Current, damage via Bakris.
The gun feeds the abilities, the abilities feed the gun. Spark of Discharge plus Spark of Ions turn Arc-weapon and jolt kills into Ionic Traces → grenade/melee energy from gunfire → more jolt sources → more amplified → more Beacons blind. It is a closed loop anchored on standing still and holding the trigger.

Stats & mods

Weapons 200 → Health → Class. Weapons is the priority — it is the 9.7.0 PvE weapon-damage stat and Heir Apparent is the whole build. Health next because this is a stationary anchor that wants to be shot at (shield plus mag refund), and Class feeds Marksman's Dodge frequency (reload and Bakris uptime).

Archetype lean: favour Weapons/Class rolls (Gunner or Powerhouse pieces). Trade Grenade/Super down into Weapons where a roll allows — the grenade only exists to seed jolt, it is not a damage source here.

Mods:

Boots: Arc Weapon Surge ×2 (straight damage onto Heir Apparent) plus Machine Gun Scavenger.
Arms: Machine Gun Loader (reload matters on a 115-round Heavy).
Chest: Arc/Solar/Void resist mods — resistance stacks under the shield in the anchor stance.
Class item: Bomber / Powerful Attraction to pull Orbs into the dodge loop.
Surge: Arc Weapon Surge (subclass and buff-matched).
Anti-Champion: none on this weapon — source Barrier/Unstoppable from the artifact or the other slots (see Champion coverage).

Artifact — NPA Repulsion Regulator

The Arc/amplified artifact for an Arc/amplified build: it deepens the keystone (amplified uptime arms Spark of Beacons), reprints the build's own loop as a mod, and plugs the Overload champion hole Heir Apparent has no intrinsic answer for.

Picks (2/3/2):

Tier 1: Amped Up · Thunderous Retort
Tier 2: Counter Charge · Overload Grenades · Targeting Autoloader
Tier 3: Shock and Awe · Squad Goals

Amped Up extends how long you stay amplified on Arc — directly lengthening the keystone window that arms Spark of Beacons and every amplified-gated bonus.
Thunderous Retort adds bonus Arc Super damage while amplified — cast Gathering Storm inside your amplified window for a burst on the pack you are already suppressing.
Counter Charge grants Armor Charge on Champion stun, feeding the chest-resist and surge economy you run under the shield.
Overload Grenades turns the Pulse Grenade into an Overload stun — coverage for the champion this gun cannot break intrinsically, off an ability you cast anyway to seed jolt.
Targeting Autoloader grants reload and weapon damage on kills while surrounded — the anchor stance is always surrounded, so it is a near-permanent uptime buff on the MG.
Shock and Awe makes Arc final blows while amplified jolt nearby targets — Spark of Beacons' loop as a mod, a free jolt source to re-trigger Flow State.
Squad Goals shares your amplified out to nearby allies on a finisher — turns the anchor into a fireteam buffer while you hold the lane, on top of the Orbs Spark of Amplitude is already pumping out.

Where it shines

Add-dense PvE — Onslaught, defend-the-point, GM chokepoints. Anywhere you can pick a firing lane and hold it: the spin-up tax is free when you weren't moving anyway, and Beacons blind turns a doorway into a kill box. The huge mag plus self-feeding reload make it a sustained area-denial tool other MGs can't match.
Fireteam anchor content. Squad Goals and the constant Orb generation (Spark of Amplitude) keep allies amplified and topped up while you hold the room.
Weak in: anything requiring mobility or single-target boss DPS — the spin-up and the 39-impact 900-RPM profile make it a horde gun, not a damage-phase gun.
Champion coverage: Heir Apparent breaks no champion intrinsically — its perk text is purely the spin-up/shield. Overload is covered by the artifact's Overload Grenades (on the Pulse Grenade). For Barrier and Unstoppable in GM-tier content, bring an Anti-Champion archetype or the matching artifact mod in your other two slots. Jolt (Flow State chain, Spark of Shock, Lethal Current) and blind (Spark of Beacons, Disorienting Blow) soft-stagger elites but do not count as guaranteed stuns. Treat Heir Apparent as the clear tool, not the champion tool.

Verify notes

Element — manifest quirk corrected to Arc. `data/weapon_facts.json` and the manifest (`inspect_item.py 2084878005`) both tag Heir Apparent's Damage as Solar — a known Heir Apparent data quirk. In-game it is Arc: the catalyst reads "Increases the Arc shield's durability" (catalysts.md L83), Mask of Bakris' Light Shift buffs "Arc weapons" (Clarity L374), and Spark of Beacons requires an "Arc Special or Heavy ammo weapon final blow" — the entire build loop only closes if the gun is Arc. The build treats it as Arc (its true in-game element) and slots Arc surge/Bakris accordingly. Flagged: do not trust the manifest Solar tag; confirm Arc surge buffs it in-game before committing surge slots.
Ammo / RPM confirmed: Heavy ammo, 900 RPM, 39 Impact, 115-round magazine — pulled live from the manifest (`inspect_item.py 2084878005`), matching `weapon_facts.json` (Heavy · 900).
Champion: none intrinsic. No anti-champion keyword in the exotic perk text (exotics.md L257); `weapon_facts.json` champion field is null. All stun coverage in this build is off-weapon (Overload via the artifact's Overload Grenades; jolt/blind soft-stagger; Barrier/Unstoppable from other slots).
The Arc shield is not in the intrinsic text. The verbatim intrinsic (Heavy Slug Thrower, exotics.md L257) only describes the ADS spin-up. Shield deploy-on-spin-up is established in-game behaviour; the durability/reload-on-destroy behaviour is described only via the catalyst (Legion's Bulwark, catalysts.md L83). Treat exact shield durability and reload-percent as catalyst-gated and confirm in-game.
Verbatim sources: intrinsic + Mask of Bakris (exotics.md L257, L39); catalyst (catalysts.md L83); Flow State + Lethal Current (aspects.md L73, L126); Spark of Beacons/Shock/Discharge/Ions/Amplitude/Magnitude (fragments.md L70, L87, L72, L82, L69, L83).
Number flagged: Mask of Bakris Light Shift = 10/21/33% Arc weapon damage at x1/x2/x3 (Clarity, clarity_build_numbers.md L374). Shield durability/reload percentages and Amped Up's exact amplified extension are not in Clarity — flagged as manifest/tuning, confirm in-game.

Mod selection (masterworked — full allocation)

Piece	Mod · cost	What it does
Helmet (7/10)	Arc Siphon 3e fill	Rapid Arc weapon final blows create an Orb of Power.
	Ashes to Assets 3e fill	Gain bonus Super energy on grenade kills.
	Heavy Ammo Finder 1e fill	Increases the effect of all contributions towards the Heavy ammo meter.
Arms (6/10)	Utility Kickstart 3e fill	When your class ability energy is fully expended, your Armor Charge is consumed and you gain class ability energy for each Armor Charge used.
	Momentum Transfer 2e fill	Causing damage with a grenade reduces your melee cooldown.
	Fastball 1e fill	Increases grenade throw distance.
Chest (5/10)	Arc Resistance 1e fill	Reduces incoming Arc damage from combatants.
	Concussive Dampener 3e fill	Reduces incoming area-of-effect damage from combatants.
	Sniper Damage Resistance 1e fill	Reduces incoming damage from combatants that are at long range.
Legs (3/10)	Arc Weapon Surge 1e	Your Arc weapons gain a small bonus to damage while you have any Armor Charge. Your Armor Charge now decays over time.
	Arc Weapon Surge 1e	Your Arc weapons gain a small bonus to damage while you have any Armor Charge. Your Armor Charge now decays over time.
	Arc Weapon Surge 1e fill	Your Arc weapons gain a small bonus to damage while you have any Armor Charge. Your Armor Charge now decays over time.
Class Item (4/10)	Bomber 1e	Reduces grenade cooldown when using your class ability.
	Bomber 1e	Reduces grenade cooldown when using your class ability.
	Powerful Attraction 2e	Automatically collects nearby Orbs of Power when you activate your class ability.

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: buff-matched). - **Anti-Champion:** none on this weapon — source Barrier/Unstoppable from the artifact or the other slots (see Champion coverage).