New Malpais — Sticky-Bomb Unravel Engine (Strand Hunter)

Centerpiece: New Malpais (Pulse Rifle · Special · Strand) · Subclass: Threadrunner (Strand) · Role: Embed-and-detonate add-clear that seeds Unravel and self-feeds Tangles into Whirling Maelstrom Sandbox: 9.7.0 · Updated 2026-07-03

Empty a burst into a pack, then hit the alt-fire and every round you parked in their bodies goes off at once — and with the catalyst, that blast unravels everyone caught in it. New Malpais wants a subclass that turns Unravel and dead bodies into more damage, and Strand Hunter does exactly that: the explosions seed Unravel and Strand kills, kills make Tangles, Tangles become Whirling Maelstrom — a screen-clearing Strand chainsaw fed entirely by you popping embedded rounds. Grapple keeps Woven Mail up so the loop never stops.

The weapon

Atomizing Rounds (intrinsic, verbatim): Rounds fired embed themselves in targets. [Alternate Weapon Action] to detonate embedded rounds.

Catalyst — Unraveling Blast (verbatim): This weapon's explosions unravel nearby targets.

You fire normal pulse bursts; each round that lands sticks in the target instead of dealing its full hit up front. Pressing the alt-fire detonates every embedded round simultaneously — front-load a target with a mag, then pop it for a burst of AoE. The catalyst is the build-defining upgrade: the detonation now unravels everything nearby, so a single alt-fire turns a clustered pack into a field of unravelled targets (Unravel is a Strand DoT debuff that chains to nearby enemies on damage). That converts New Malpais from a delayed-damage novelty into an Unravel applicator, and because it burns Special ammo it hits hard enough to actually clear the pack it just debuffed — exactly the fuel Strand Hunter monetises into Tangles.

Loadout

Slot	Pick	Why
Subclass	Threadrunner (Strand)	The only subclass that pays you for Strand kills, Unravel, and Tangles — exactly what the catalyst manufactures.
Super	Silkstrike	Roaming rope-dart; on-theme panic/DPS button. The build's damage is the gun + Maelstrom, not the Super.
Class ability	Gambler's Dodge	Melee energy back near enemies; reload + reposition between detonation volleys.
Movement	Triple Jump	Air control to line up the next embed-and-pop on a fresh pack.
Melee	Threaded Spike	Ricochet melee returns melee energy; powered-melee kills arm Unraveling Rounds via Thread of Propagation.
Grenade	Grapple	The keystone — grapple grants Woven Mail through Cyrtarachne's, and Woven Mail is what lets Thread of Transmutation make Tangles.
Aspect 1	Whirling Maelstrom	Destroying a Tangle weaves a violent Strand mass that seeks targets and emits Unraveling projectiles when it defeats them — the payoff for every Tangle the loop spits out. (+2 Aspect Energy Capacity.)
Aspect 2	Widow's Silk	An additional grenade charge → near-permanent Woven Mail uptime and twice the grapple fuel for Tangles and Maelstrom seeds.
Fragments	Thread of Transmutation · Thread of Propagation · Thread of Generation · Thread of Warding	Make Tangles under Woven Mail, arm Unravel off melee, refund grenade off damage, top up Woven Mail from Orbs.
Exotic armour	Cyrtarachne's Facade (Helmet)	Grapple → Woven Mail with flinch resistance + health-on-kill; the free DR layer and the Thread of Transmutation enabler.
Weapons	Primary (Kinetic slot) + Heavy (Machine Gun / LMG)	New Malpais already holds the Energy/Special slot, so a reliable Primary covers ammo economy between pops and the Heavy handles single-target boss/champion DPS the detonator can't.

Why it works (the mechanics)

• The catalyst makes New Malpais a Strand-verb dispenser. Embed a mag → pop → the blast unravels the pack. Unravel spreads on damage and is a debuff-bucket multiplier, so every gun in the fireteam hits the unravelled pack harder — and the Special-ammo detonation is strong enough to convert most of that pack into Strand kills, which is what the rest of the kit eats.
• Woven Mail → Tangles → Whirling Maelstrom is the engine, and it's self-fed. Grapple gives Woven Mail (Cyrtarachne's). Thread of Transmutation = "while you have Woven Mail, weapon final blows create a Tangle," so every New Malpais kill drops a Tangle (subject to the ~12s global Tangle cooldown). Whirling Maelstrom turns each destroyed Tangle into a roaming Strand mass that itself emits more Unraveling projectiles when it defeats targets. One alt-fire can cascade Tangle → Maelstrom → Unravel → more kills → more Tangles without another input.
• Unraveling Rounds double up the embedded blast. Thread of Propagation (powered-melee final blows) grants your Strand weapons Unraveling Rounds, so New Malpais's normal bursts unravel before you even detonate. With the catalyst on the blast too, you apply Unravel coming and going.
• Woven Mail never lapses. Two grenade charges (Widow's Silk) + Thread of Warding (Orb pickup → Woven Mail) + Cyrtarachne's on every grapple keep the Transmutation precondition always satisfied, so Tangle generation is continuous rather than bursty.
• Grapple is free to spam. Thread of Generation (dealing damage → grenade energy) refunds grapple off New Malpais fire, so you grapple for Woven Mail far more often than the base cooldown allows — closing the loop back to point 2.
• DR is built in, not bolted on. Woven Mail is up nearly always, and Cyrtarachne's adds flinch resistance + 10 HP on each kill while it's active — a Special-primary-style engine that survives because the same grapple that fuels Tangles also tanks you.

Stats & mods

Weapons 200 → Class → Grenade. Weapons stat scales New Malpais's PvE damage (the whole build flows through the gun); Class feeds Gambler's Dodge for melee/Propagation upkeep; Grenade matters least because Thread of Generation + Widow's Silk already flood grapple. Archetype lean: a Weapons-primary armour set with a Class secondary.

Mods:

• Boots: Strand Weapon Surge ×2 (Strand damage straight onto New Malpais) · Orbs of Restoration.
• Arms: Melee Font (props up Threaded Spike / Propagation) · Heavy Handed.
• Chest: stacked elemental Resist mods (flat DR layered under Woven Mail).
• Class item: Powerful Attraction (dodge vacuums Orbs → Thread of Warding Woven Mail) · Bomber.
• Surge: Strand — surge-match the Heavy to Strand where possible so both it and New Malpais ride the same surge.
• Anti-Champion: none intrinsic on New Malpais — covered by the artifact (Pack Tactics → Unstoppable) plus Champion frames on the Primary/Heavy.

Artifact — Implement of Curiosity

The Strand-native artifact, and the one that closes this build's loop end to end: it rewards Tangles, Unravel and Woven Mail — exactly what the embed-and-pop engine manufactures — and it plugs the flagged Unstoppable gap without touching the Primary/Heavy slots.

Picks (2/3/2):

• Tier 1: Refresh Threads · Pack Tactics
• Tier 2: Threaded Blast · Elemental Daze · Cauterized Darkness
• Tier 3: Shieldcrush · Tangled Web

• Refresh Threads grants energy to your least-charged ability when you grab a subclass-matching Elemental pickup or a Tangle with a Strand Super equipped — the loop's constant Tangles feed ability energy straight back.
• Pack Tactics grows Threadling damage and, at max stacks, makes Threadlings stun Unstoppable Champions — the build's Unstoppable answer, sourced from the Maelstrom/loop rather than a weapon frame.
• Threaded Blast increases the radius and damage of Tangles destroyed by Strand damage — and Whirling Maelstrom destroys Tangles with Strand damage constantly, so every blast is bigger.
• Elemental Daze turns a Champion stun with an elemental weapon into a matching-element debuff explosion on it and nearby targets — layering a Strand debuff onto the pack once a Champion is locked down.
• Cauterized Darkness makes Stasis- or Strand-debuffed non-boss combatants take increased Solar damage from all sources — an extra multiplier on top of everything the Unravel field already amps.
• Shieldcrush recharges and buffs your melee faster while you have Woven Mail — with near-permanent Woven Mail that means a faster, harder Threaded Spike, feeding Propagation's Unraveling Rounds.
• Tangled Web suspends nearby combatants whenever a Tangle is created by defeating a Strand-debuffed target — free Suspend straight out of the core detonate-and-kill loop.

Where it shines

• Add-dense PvE — Onslaught, GMs, Legend/Master, Nether: embed-and-pop into a pack is a one-button room clear once Maelstrom is rolling, and Unravel keeps spreading through reinforcements. This is the build's home.
• Champion coverage: New Malpais has no intrinsic champion stun (manifest-confirmed). The build supplies Unstoppable through the artifact (Pack Tactics Threadlings), and leans on Suspend (Tangled Web / Silkstrike) to lock elites; bring Barrier + Overload on the Primary and Heavy frames to cover the rest.
• Weaker in single-target boss DPS: it's a Special-ammo detonator, not a boss gun — the Heavy MG/LMG is your boss answer while New Malpais handles the room around it.

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).