Legend of Acrius — Counterpunch (Hunter)

Weapon: Legend of Acrius (Shotgun · Special · Arc) · Subclass: Arcstrider · Role: Melee-shotgun bruiser — punch to load, blast to delete Sandbox: 9.7.0 · Created 2026-06-16

Acrius is a slug-cannon that overpenetrates a line of bodies for absurd Arc damage, and its catalyst pays you to punch first: Trench Barrel turns a melee hit into a window of +damage/handling/reload for the next three shells. So the build is a fist: Combination Blow to land the punch, Liar's Handshake to make that punch a healing nuke, then drop two-to-three Trench-Barrel-juiced slugs through the whole pack before the window closes. Melee opens it, the gun closes it, and Cross Counter pays your health back every cycle.

The weapon

Shock Blast (intrinsic): "This weapon fires blasts of high-damage Arc energy that overpenetrates enemies." (verbatim)

Acrius Catalyst — Deeper Pockets / Trench Barrel: "Increased ammo reserves. / After a successful melee hit, this weapon gains increased damage, handling, and reload speed for a short duration—or until three shots are fired." (verbatim)

What it does: each shell is a single high-damage Arc slug that punches through the first target into everything behind it — Acrius does line-AoE, not cone-spread, so it murders aligned packs and shielded majors. The catalyst is the whole point: melee → 3 enhanced shots. Combination Blow's stacking melee already wants you punching constantly; every punch re-arms Trench Barrel for free, and the reserves bump means you actually have shells to spend the window on. This is the canonical "punch-shotgun" loop, and Arcstrider is its native home.

Loadout

Slot	Pick	Why
Subclass	Arcstrider (Arc Hunter)	Combination Blow + amplified + jolt = the melee engine Trench Barrel feeds on.
Super	Gathering Storm	Burst pick — embed the staff, jolt the pack, then keep punching. (Arc Staff if you want a roaming bail-out.)
Class ability	Gambler's Dodge	Near an enemy → full melee back. Restarts the punch → Trench Barrel cycle on demand.
Melee	Combination Blow	Chained melee kills heal, refund dodge, and stack melee damage ×3 — the punch that arms the gun.
Grenade	Flux / Arc grenade	Cheap jolt application to feed Flow State amplified; lingering Arc if you take Spark of Magnitude.
Aspect 1	Lethal Current	After dodging, next melee gets bonus lunge + jolts + an aftershock — closes distance to punch and jolts the target you're about to shotgun.
Aspect 2	Flow State	Defeating a jolted target → amplified (DR + reload + handling + dodge regen). Lethal Current jolts → kills → amplified, on loop.

Why this works (the mechanics)

• One punch arms three guns. A single Combination Blow hit triggers Trench Barrel (next 3 shots: +damage/handling/reload) and Cross Counter (Liar's Handshake heal) and Spark of Frequency (more reload). The melee you were already throwing to stack Combination Blow is the same input that loads the shotgun — zero opportunity cost.
• Cross Counter makes the melee free of risk. Liar's Handshake: using your Arc melee (or being hit by a melee) unlocks a massively powerful counterpunch that heals. So the in-your-face range Acrius forces you into is survivable — you heal on the punch that arms the gun.
• The jolt loop self-sustains amplified. Lethal Current jolts your melee target; Spark of Shock jolts grenade targets; Flow State turns any jolted-kill into amplified (DR + handling + faster dodge). Amplified handling + Trench Barrel handling stack into a snappier, harder-hitting Acrius.
• Overpenetration + line packs = Acrius's edge over normal shotguns. Shock Blast pierces, so the enhanced shells from one punch can each kill multiple stacked enemies — Combination Blow then refunds dodge off those kills, and Gambler's Dodge refunds the melee, restarting the whole cycle.
• Ammo economy is the hidden enabler. Deeper Pockets reserves + Spark of Discharge Ionic Traces (Arc kills → melee energy) mean you rarely run dry on either resource. The melee feeds the gun; the gun's Arc kills feed the melee.
• Special ammo, not Heavy — Acrius sits in your Special slot, so this leaves the Heavy free for a boss-DPS or champion tool the punch-loop doesn't cover.

Stats & mods

Melee 200 → Health/Class → Weapons. Melee is the engine (Combination Blow damage, faster melee regen, and you punch every cycle); Class high to keep Gambler's Dodge online for the melee refund; Health/Weapons after. Spark of Resistance (+10 Melee) and Spark of Frequency lean the same way.

Mods (standard armour mods are not in our manifest encyclopedia — see Verify):

• Arms: Shotgun Loader (faster reload to spend the Trench Barrel window) + Melee-energy/Heavy Handed-type mod (orb on powered-melee kill).
• Legs: Arc Weapon Surge ×2 (Acrius is Arc — straight damage onto every slug) + Shotgun Scavenger/Reserves for ammo.
• Chest: Arc Resistance + Concussive Dampener (you fight point-blank).
• Class item: Powerful Attraction (dodge vacuums Ionic Traces/Orbs) + Reaper.
• Helmet: Arc Siphon (Arc kills → Orbs — Acrius makes these) + Heavy Handed.

Where it shines

• Add-dense PvE (Onslaught, Nightfalls, Court-of-Blades): line packs + overpenetration + Combination Blow heal-on-kill = a self-healing blender.
• Majors / Champions: Acrius carries no intrinsic champion stun (Shock Blast is overpenetration, not a bespoke stun — flag this). Cover champions with the subclass and Heavy: Gathering Storm + Lethal Current jolt are your Overload behaviour; bring a Heavy of the right archetype (Aggressive/High-Impact → Unstoppable; Precision/Adaptive → Barrier; Lightweight/Rapid-Fire → Overload) for guaranteed stuns, and lean on the seasonal artifact's anti-champion mods.
• Weak fit: long-range lanes and burst boss-DPS — Acrius is a brawler. Park it for those and let the Heavy slot do the work.

### The other two weapon slots

• Primary (Kinetic/Stasis): an add-clear Primary to thin packs to the punch range and to soften targets before the slug — anything reliable; a jolting Arc Primary doubles your Flow State fuel.
• Heavy: your champion/boss answer — pick the archetype that covers the champions Acrius can't (see above). A Machine Gun or Linear handles everything the punch-loop isn't built for.