Solar

Merciless — The Long Charge (Solar Hunter)

Sustained boss/miniboss DPS that heals the fireteam between bursts

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 · Special · No intrinsic champion

Centerpiece: Merciless (Fusion Rifle · Special · Solar) · Subclass: Gunslinger · Role: Sustained boss/miniboss DPS that heals the fireteam between bursts Sandbox: 9.7.0 · Updated 2026-07-03

Merciless punishes you for stopping. Every bolt that connects shaves the next charge time, so the gun ramps from sluggish to near-instant the longer you hold the trigger on a single target — exactly the behaviour you want against a boss that never moves. The 9.7.0 catalyst bolts Heal Clip onto it, so the same trigger discipline that maximises damage also sprays Cure on the whole team every time you reload after a kill. Star-Eater turns your Orb flood into an overcharged Solar Super, and Radiant keeps the DPS window lit. Charge, dump, reload-heal, Super, repeat.

The weapon

Conserve Momentum (exotic trait, verbatim): Hits with projectiles decrease this weapon's charge time for a short duration.

Heal Clip (catalyst, verbatim): Reloading shortly after dealing a final blow grants Cure to you and your nearby allies.

What it does: Merciless is a Special-ammo Solar Fusion Rifle. Conserve Momentum is a ramp — landing bolts stacks a temporary charge-time reduction, so sustained fire on a single high-health target speeds the weapon up toward a continuous stream. It is one of the highest sustained-DPS fusion rifles in the game because you stay locked on one target, which is the opposite of how most fusions are used (snap a single full-charge burst, then re-pre-charge). The catalyst (Heal Clip) makes the reload after any kill a fireteam-wide Cure, so the gun is also a soft support tool in a pinch. It carries no bespoke champion stun of its own (see Verify) — champion duty is delegated to the primary.

Loadout

Slot	Pick	Why
Subclass	Gunslinger (Solar)	Solar weapon → Radiant/Restoration/Empyrean loops all key off Merciless's element; Cure from Heal Clip feeds Ember of Benevolence.
Super	Golden Gun: Marksman	Star-Eater overcharges it into a burst-damage opener; Marksman for the precision-Super-energy refund and a clean front-loaded chunk before the fusion's sustained tail.
Class ability	Marksman's Dodge	Instant reload — re-arms Merciless mid-fight without leaving the charge window, and re-triggers Heal Clip's reload-Cure on demand.
Movement	Triple Jump	Extra mid-air correction to hold your firing line on a moving boss without dropping the Conserve Momentum ramp.
Melee	Knife Trick	Solar precision melee → Radiant via Knock 'Em Down's throwing-knife refund loop; ranged so you stay locked on the boss.
Grenade	Healing Grenade	Cure + a Solar ability final-blow source for Empyrean; backup sustain when you're not reloading.
Aspect 1	On Your Mark	Class-ability activation and precision hits grant +Weapons stat (stacks ten times) and reload speed — the Weapons stat adds PvE weapon damage on top of Merciless's ramp, and the reload speed shortens the Heal-Clip cycle.
Aspect 2	Knock 'Em Down	Enhanced Golden Gun (Marksman gets increased duration) pairs with the Star-Eater overcharge opener; while radiant, throwing-knife final blows fully refund melee energy — free Radiant re-ups.
Fragments	Torches, Empyrean, Solace, Benevolence	Radiant = +damage during DPS; Empyrean + Solace keep it alive between bursts; Benevolence turns the team-Cure into ability uptime.
Exotic armour	Star-Eater Scales (Legs)	Orb flood → overcharged Super: a healing, +damage burst opener before you settle into Merciless. The DPS rotation is Super-then-fusion.
Weapons	Primary: a Solar auto/HC with a champion frame · Heavy: rocket / sword / heavy GL	Merciless holds Special; the Solar primary covers champion stun + extends Empyrean, and heavy covers the short burst-damage check the fusion's sustained profile doesn't.

Fragments

Ember of Torches · Ember of Empyrean · Ember of Solace · Ember of Benevolence

Why it works (the mechanics)

The gun rewards staying on target — so does the build. Conserve Momentum ramps only while you keep landing bolts on the same target. Marksman's Dodge refills the mag without breaking that window, and On Your Mark's reload speed shortens the gap, so the ramp barely resets between mags. This is a single-target sustained-DPS profile: the longer the boss lives, the faster Merciless shoots.
Heal Clip makes the reload do double duty. After any kill, the reload sprays Cure on the fireteam (catalyst) and — via Marksman's Dodge — happens instantly on demand. In add-dense DPS phases you reload constantly, so the team-heal is effectively free uptime, not a sacrifice of damage.
Radiant is the damage multiplier, and it's self-sustaining. Knife Trick → Radiant (Knock 'Em Down refunds the knife while radiant). Ember of Empyrean then extends Radiant on every Merciless kill, and Ember of Solace lengthens the base duration (Radiant 10s → 15s) — so once it's lit, normal play keeps it lit through the whole burst.
On Your Mark stacks the 9.7.0 Weapons stat. Its ten stacks add Weapons stat, which adds PvE weapon damage against minors/majors on top of Radiant and the Conserve Momentum ramp — three independent damage sources stacked from just landing hits and dodging.
Star-Eater converts your Orb economy into a burst opener. Merciless and Golden Gun make Orbs; Star-Eater's Feast of Light stacks off picked-up Orbs and, at 6 stacks, grants +70% Super damage for 14s, restores 200 HP, and adds a 100 HP overshield. The rotation becomes: open with the overcharged Super for the front-loaded chunk, then sit on Merciless for the long sustained tail — two damage profiles, one build.
Benevolence closes the ability loop. Heal Clip applies Cure to allies, which procs Ember of Benevolence → big grenade/melee/class regen. The support heal you're already throwing out pays you back in ability energy, feeding more dodges (more reloads, more Heal Clip) and more knives (more Radiant).

Stats & mods

Weapons 200 → Health → Class. Weapons is the ceiling — it scales Merciless's per-bolt PvE damage and stacks with On Your Mark. Health keeps you alive on the DPS line; Class feeds Marksman's Dodge frequency (the reload/Heal-Clip engine). The archetype lean is a Weapons-primary piece with a Class secondary; Star-Eater wants Orbs, which the Super and Merciless already flood.

Mods:

Boots: Solar Weapon Surge ×2–3 — straight +Solar weapon damage onto Merciless during the burst.
Arms: Fusion Rifle Loader — trims the reload that gates the Heal-Clip cycle.
Chest: Special Ammo Finisher / resist mods — converts finishers into Special bricks to refill Merciless between phases.
Class item: Orbs of Restoration / Powerful Attraction — the dodge vacuums Orbs to feed Star-Eater's Feast of Light and top abilities.
Surge: Solar Surge — matches the centerpiece's element.
Anti-Champion: carried by the Solar primary's champion frame (Elemental Daze converts its stun into a Solar debuff blast), not the fusion.

Artifact — Implement of Curiosity

Implement of Curiosity is the Solar-aligned pick: it self-feeds Merciless's Radiant loop and then pays it off, while the elemental-pickup chain turns Solar kills into extra Solar weapon damage and the Daze mod lets your Solar primary cover the champions the fusion can't stun.

Picks (2/3/2):

Tier 1: Fever and Chill · Elemental Benevolence
Tier 2: Cauterized Darkness · Elemental Daze · Elemental Coalescence
Tier 3: Radiant Shrapnel · Elemental Overdrive

Fever and Chill grants Radiant on rapid precision Solar hits — feeds the core damage loop straight off Merciless without spending a melee.
Elemental Benevolence returns class-ability energy whenever you grant an ally an elemental buff — Heal Clip's ally-Cure becomes more Marksman's Dodge reloads.
Cauterized Darkness increases Solar damage against Stasis/Strand-debuffed non-boss combatants — a top-up on the DPS bar when a debuff is applied.
Elemental Daze turns your Solar primary's Champion stun into a matching Solar debuff explosion — the champion-coverage bridge for a weapon that has no intrinsic stun.
Elemental Coalescence drops Solar-aligned Elemental pickups on kills (matching your Super element), fuelling Benevolence and the pickup economy.
Radiant Shrapnel releases Solar projectiles on sustained weapon damage while Radiant — exactly Merciless's hold-the-trigger profile, adding scorch on top.
Elemental Overdrive grants +Solar weapon damage on picking up a matching Elemental pickup, chaining off Coalescence onto Merciless.

Where it shines

Boss & miniboss DPS (raids, dungeons, GMs): stationary high-health targets are exactly what Conserve Momentum's ramp wants. Open with the Star-Eater Super, then ride the sped-up fusion for the sustained tail.
Team content: Heal Clip turns your reloads into fireteam Cure — a real perk in a 3-stack or a flawless dungeon run, where the rest of your kit stays full damage.
Champion coverage: Merciless breaks nothing intrinsically (no listed champion stun). Delegate stun to a Solar primary with a champion frame; Elemental Daze then converts that stun into a Solar debuff blast. Radiant + the Star-Eater Super handle the health bars, the primary handles the stun.

Verify notes

Element / ammo / RPM: `data/weapon_facts.json` confirms Merciless as a Solar, Special-ammo Fusion Rifle, RPM null (fusions have no per-minute rate) and champion null — no intrinsic anti-champion. The un-normalised prose's "Solar Special Fusion Rifle" matched; the earlier note hedging that element wasn't re-printed in the exotics grep is resolved — weapon_facts.json states Solar directly.
Exotic trait + catalyst text are verbatim from `docs/encyclopedia/exotics.md` (Conserve Momentum, line 273) and `docs/encyclopedia/catalysts.md` (Merciless Catalyst → Heal Clip, line 101).
Aspects verified against `docs/encyclopedia/aspects.md`: On Your Mark grants "+Weapons stat, stacks ten times" (line 142) and Knock 'Em Down enhances Solar Supers (Marksman gets increased duration) + refunds throwing-knife melee while radiant (line 120). The old file's Aspect-2 note ("Cure on Super cast") is not in the manifest aspect text — corrected to the real Marksman-duration / knife-refund effect.
Star-Eater numbers from `docs/encyclopedia/clarity_build_numbers.md` (line 1147): Feast of Light at 6 stacks = +70% Super damage for 14s, restores 200 HP, 100 HP overshield. Note the same entry flags that Orbs grant only 0.5% Super energy (down from 2%) when Golden Gun: Marksman is selected — Marksman charges the Super slower off Orbs, so lean on Orb volume; the overcharge payoff is unchanged.
Radiant duration from clarity_build_numbers.md: 10s base, 15s with Ember of Solace (Solace = +50% Radiant/Restoration duration). Fragments (Torches/Empyrean/Solace/Benevolence) verified in `docs/encyclopedia/fragments.md`.
Artifact: all seven picks confirmed present in the Implement of Curiosity pool in `docs/encyclopedia/artifacts_structured.md` (Tier 1 lines 185–186; Tier 2 lines 198–201; Tier 3 lines 209–211). Kept the build's exact 2/3/2. Per-hit charge-time reduction %, the Conserve Momentum window length, and Radiant's exact PvE damage % are behaviour-only in the encyclopedia — confirm in-game.

Mod selection (masterworked — full allocation)

Piece	Mod · cost	What it does
Helmet (7/10)	Solar Siphon 3e fill	Rapid Solar 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 (6/10)	Solar Resistance 2e fill	Reduces incoming Solar 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)	Solar Weapon Surge 1e	Your Solar weapons gain a small bonus to damage while you have any Armor Charge. Your Armor Charge now decays over time.
	Solar Weapon Surge 1e	Your Solar weapons gain a small bonus to damage while you have any Armor Charge. Your Armor Charge now decays over time.
	Orbs of Restoration 1e	Picking up an Orb of Power grants a small amount of energy to your ability with the least energy.
Class Item (5/10)	Powerful Attraction 2e	Automatically collects nearby Orbs of Power when you activate your class ability.
	Powerful Attraction 2e	Automatically collects nearby Orbs of Power when you activate your class ability.
	Reaper 1e fill	Shortly after using your class ability, your next weapon final blow spawns an Orb of Power.

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: not the fusion.