Prismatic

Microcosm — Paracausal Battery (Kinetic Hunter)

Boss/Champion DPS battery on a self-charging Transcendence loop

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 Kinetic · Heavy · 1000 RPM · No intrinsic champion

Centerpiece: Microcosm (Trace Rifle · Heavy · Kinetic) · Subclass: Prismatic Hunter · Role: Boss/Champion DPS battery on a self-charging Transcendence loop Sandbox: 9.7.0 · Updated 2026-07-03

A Heavy trace rifle that fires a continuous Kinetic beam and deals massive bonus damage to shields. On Prismatic Hunter it stops being a damage stick and becomes a battery: it is Kinetic, so every kill feeds Facet of Grace toward Transcendence; the catalyst's Thresh feeds your Super off the same trigger; Star-Eater Scales overcharges that Super. Hold the beam, fill both bars, then dump them on the boss and delete the phase.

The weapon

Paracausal Beam (intrinsic): "Fires a beam of Kinetic light, dealing massive bonus damage to shields."

Catalyst — Thresh: "Killing combatants with this weapon generates a small amount of Super energy."

Catalyst — Stopping Power: "This weapon's Kinetic ordinance can more easily stagger combatants, and grant increased target acquisition and damage against low-health targets."

What it does: Microcosm is a 1000-RPM Heavy trace rifle that ticks continuous Kinetic damage with a huge bonus versus elemental shields, so shielded majors and shielded Champions evaporate under a held beam. The element matters as much as the damage — Kinetic is the one damage type that pays into Facet of Grace, so every combatant the beam drops charges Transcendence. The catalyst layers two payoffs onto that same trigger: Thresh turns add-clear into raw Super energy, and Stopping Power grants stagger plus a target-acquisition and damage bump against low-health targets. One weapon, feeding three meters — Super, Transcendence, and the boss's health bar — from a single held trigger.

Loadout

Slot	Pick	Why
Subclass	Prismatic Hunter	Transcendence is the engine; Microcosm's Kinetic beam is the spark that lights it.
Super	Golden Gun: Marksman (Solar)	Star-Eater overcharges it into a boss-nuke that alternates with the beam; precision shots plus Thresh keep it spun.
Class ability	Marksman's Dodge	Instant full reload — refills the beam between bursts without breaking the DPS window.
Movement	Triple Jump	Reliable multi-air reposition to reach cover and hold the beam-line during a phase.
Melee	Threaded Spike (Strand)	Ranged, returns on bounce; safe Transcendence/Tangle feed without leaving cover during a phase.
Grenade	Magnetic Grenade (Void)	Sticky single-target detonation for the priority; the Transcendence-grenade payoff is what matters most.
Aspect 1	Gunpowder Gamble	Kills charge a Solar explosive — free add-clear that costs no beam ammo, and the kills still feed Grace plus Thresh.
Aspect 2	Stylish Executioner	Debuffed kill grants invis plus Truesight: free survivability and repositioning during a damage phase.
Fragments	Grace · Honor · Hope · Justice	Kinetic-kill Transcendence, pickup/Tangle Transcendence, faster class-ability regen, and transcendent ability explosions.
Exotic armour	Star-Eater Scales (Legs)	Orb pickups stack Feast of Light; casting Golden Gun at x6 grants up to 70% Super damage plus a 100 HP overshield.
Weapons	Barrier/Overload Special + Orb-making Primary	The Special covers guaranteed Champion stuns the beam can't; the Primary spawns Orbs to keep Star-Eater fed.

Fragments

Facet of Grace Kinetic weapon kills grant Transcendence energy — the Microcosm fragment
Facet of Honor elemental pickups / Tangles grant Transcendence; pairs with Threaded Spike Tangles and Star-Eater Orbs
Facet of Hope elemental buff grants faster class-ability regen — more reloads
Facet of Justice (while transcendent, ability final blows explode — pairs with the Transcendence grenade). Grace's −10 Health is the only stat hit; fine on a hold-cover DPS build**

Why it works (the mechanics)

Microcosm is Kinetic, and only Kinetic kills pay Facet of Grace. Every combatant the beam (or Gunpowder Gamble, or Golden Gun) drops dumps Transcendence energy toward both bars. The weapon literally charges your subclass's damage state while it clears the room.
Thresh and Grace share one trigger. A single Microcosm kill feeds Super energy (Thresh catalyst) and Transcendence (Grace) at once — two meters from one beam. You arrive at the boss with both damage windows already spun up.
Star-Eater turns the Orb economy into a second damage phase. With Super charged, picking up an Orb stacks Feast of Light; casting Golden Gun at x6 grants up to 70% increased Super damage for 14 s and a 100 HP overshield. The rotation is beam-to-refill → overcharged Golden Gun → beam again, weaving a one-shot Super between trace-rifle windows.
Transcendence is free DPS on top. Grace and Honor keep you transcendent through the phase; the Transcendence grenade is a hard-hitting detonation, and Facet of Justice makes that (and any) ability final blow explode for chip across the pack.
Marksman's Dodge is the no-downtime reload. Trace rifles drain fast; dodging reloads the entire beam instantly so the DPS window never pauses, and Facet of Hope speeds the dodge back via the elemental buff you are always holding.
Paracausal Beam handles the shielded wall in front of the boss. The intrinsic's massive anti-shield bonus shreds shielded majors and Champions, and Stopping Power's stagger and low-health damage bonus mean the same trigger that builds your meters also clears the orange-bar layer between you and the boss.

Stats & mods

Weapons 200 → Super → Class. Weapons is the PvE weapon-damage stat and your damage is a weapon; Super accelerates the Star-Eater rotation; Class feeds Marksman's Dodge reloads. Grenade and Melee are secondary — abilities here exist to feed Transcendence, not to carry.

Archetype lean: a Weapons/Super-favouring set (e.g. Powerhouse), tuned +Weapons where the roll allows since Grace already costs Health.

Mods:

Boots: Weapon Surge ×2 matching your damage element · Orbs of Restoration.
Arms: Heavy Loader · Trace Rifle / Heavy targeting as available.
Chest: Elemental Resist ×3 — you stand still and hold a beam, so flat DR matters.
Class item: Powerful Attraction (dodge vacuums Orbs to Star-Eater) · Reaper (dodge grants next-kill Orb).
Surge: Weapon Surge matching your damage element on the beam's window.
Anti-Champion: carried by the paired Special's archetype intrinsic (Barrier/Overload) plus artifact Unstoppable mods — see Artifact and Where it shines.

Artifact — Implement of Curiosity

Implement of Curiosity is the cleanest match for a Kinetic-beam Prismatic Hunter living off elemental pickups and Tangles: it buffs Kinetic weapons directly, turns the Orb/Tangle economy into extra weapon damage (feeding the same Grace/Honor loop), and — critically — supplies the Unstoppable stun the catalyst's bespoke stagger can't guarantee.

Picks (2/3/2):

Tier 1: Refresh Threads · Pack Tactics
Tier 2: Elemental Coalescence · That Fresh Bullets Smell · Energy Acceleration
Tier 3: Elemental Overdrive · Tangled Web

Refresh Threads grants energy to your least-charged ability when you pick up a matching Elemental pickup or a Tangle while running a Strand Super — fuel for the dodge/Transcendence loop off the very pickups this build generates.
Pack Tactics ramps Threadling damage and, at max stacks, lets Threadlings stun Unstoppable Champions — real Unstoppable coverage sourced off the Threaded Spike Tangle feed.
Elemental Coalescence makes defeated targets chance to drop an Elemental pickup matching your Super element — Star-Eater Orb fuel and Facet of Honor Transcendence in one.
That Fresh Bullets Smell gives your Kinetic weapons increased damage on picking up an ammo brick — a straight damage buff on the beam.
Energy Acceleration adds a Kinetic shockwave on sustained damage that is strong against Unstoppable Champions — extra stun support that matches the hold-trigger DPS pattern.
Elemental Overdrive grants matching-element weapon damage when you pick up an Elemental pickup or Tangle — the loop pays off as raw beam DPS.
Tangled Web suspends nearby combatants when a Strand-debuffed kill creates a Tangle — crowd control off the Threaded Spike feed.

Where it shines

Raid/dungeon boss DPS — the headline use. The two-phase rotation (overcharged Golden Gun plus sustained beam) stacks burst and sustained on one ammo pool, with Transcendence padding the total.
Shielded majors / Champion lanes — Paracausal Beam's anti-shield bonus melts Barrier-shielded and elemental-shielded orange bars, and Stopping Power adds the stagger and low-health damage bump.
GM / −30 to −40 content — Stylish invis and Truesight plus the elemental-resist chest keep a stationary beam-holder alive, and the loop self-sustains Super and Transcendence so you always have a damage button.
Champion coverage: Microcosm has no intrinsic Champion stun (weapon_facts: champion = none) — Stopping Power's "more easily stagger" is bespoke soft stagger, not a clean archetype stun. Unstoppable is covered by artifact Pack Tactics/Energy Acceleration; bring a Barrier or Overload archetype Special for guaranteed GM coverage of the rest.

Verify notes

Element/ammo/RPM confirmed by manifest (`data/weapon_facts.json`): Microcosm is a Trace Rifle · Kinetic · Heavy · 1000 RPM · champion: none. It is flavoured paracausal but reads as Kinetic for surge and Facet-of-Grace purposes — that Kinetic typing is the entire reason this build works. RPM (1000) was absent from the old prose and is added here.
Intrinsic + catalyst quoted verbatim from `docs/encyclopedia/exotics.md` (Paracausal Beam) and `docs/encyclopedia/catalysts.md` (the catalyst is two perks — Thresh + Stopping Power).
Champion handling is bespoke, not archetype-clean. Anti-Champion 2.0 ties stuns to weapon archetypes; trace rifles are not a standard stun archetype and weapon_facts lists no champion. Treat Stopping Power as soft stagger; rely on artifact Unstoppable mods plus a Barrier/Overload Special. Flagged per prompt.
Star-Eater numbers from `clarity_build_numbers.md`: Feast of Light grants 18.2/36.4/54.6/59.7/64.8/70% increased Super damage at x1–6 (plus a 100 HP overshield cast at x6); note its Orb-to-Super energy is reduced to 0.5% specifically when Golden Gun: Marksman is the Super, so its value here is the damage overcharge, not Super regen.
Facet of Grace (`clarity_build_numbers.md`): Kinetic weapon kills grant additional Transcendence energy; the exact per-kill percentage is not published (shown as `[?%]`) — interaction confirmed, number flagged manifest/tuning.
Artifact picks are all real Implement of Curiosity mods in the correct tiers, validated against `docs/encyclopedia/artifacts_structured.md` (2/3/2, audit-legal). Aspects/fragments/melee/grenade cross-checked in `docs/knowledge/subclasses_and_aspects.md` and `fragments.md`.

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)	Orbs of Restoration 1e	Picking up an Orb of Power grants a small amount of energy to your ability with the least energy.
	Orbs of Restoration 1e	Picking up an Orb of Power grants a small amount of energy to your ability with the least energy.
	Solar Weapon Surge 1e fill	Your Solar weapons gain a small bonus to damage while you have any Armor Charge. Your Armor Charge now decays over time.
Class Item (4/10)	Reaper 1e	Shortly after using your class ability, your next weapon final blow spawns an Orb of Power.
	Powerful Attraction 2e	Automatically collects nearby Orbs of Power when you activate your class ability.
	Bomber 1e fill	Reduces grenade cooldown when using 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: hold a beam; Where it shines.