Prometheus Lens — Bonfire (Hunter)

Weapon: Prometheus Lens (Trace Rifle · Special · Solar) · Subclass: Gunslinger · Role: Add-clearing scorch-spreader + ignition engine Sandbox: 9.7.0 · Created 2026-06-16

Hold the trigger and the beam grows into a heat field that paints scorch on everything it touches; the catalyst spreads that scorch on every kill so one sweep across a pack lights the whole room. Dawn Chorus makes each scorch stack hit harder, pushes ignitions to detonate sooner and bigger, and refunds melee off all of it. The gun is a flamethrower with a sniper's range, and the subclass is built to turn its scorch into chained ignitions.

The weapon

Prismatic Inferno (exotic perk, verbatim): "Fires a Solar trace beam that creates a field of heat energy that grows as the weapon is fired. Sustained damage applies scorch to the target."

Catalyst — Incandescent (verbatim): "Defeating a target spreads scorch to those nearby. More powerful combatants and opposing Guardians cause scorch in a larger radius."

What it does: a continuous Solar beam (Special ammo) that applies scorch by sustained fire, not by a per-shot proc — hold it on a target and the stacks climb on their own; the heat field widens the longer you fire, so it bleeds onto adjacent enemies. Scorch stacks tick damage and, at 100 stacks, ignite (an AoE Solar detonation). The catalyst closes the loop: every kill sprays scorch to neighbours, so a single beam-sweep daisy-chains scorch → ignition → catalyst spread → more scorch across a whole group. This is an add-density weapon — its output scales with how many bodies are packed in the beam's field.

Loadout

Slot	Pick	Why
Subclass	Gunslinger (Solar Hunter)	The scorch/ignition subclass; every verb the gun makes has a Solar payoff.
Super	Golden Gun: Marksman	On-theme single-target delete; Knock 'Em Down extends it. (Blade Barrage if you want a second ignition source.)
Class ability	Gambler's Dodge	Melee energy back near enemies — refills the throwing knife the build leans on.
Melee	Lightweight Knife	Precision kill → Radiant; Radiant ramps the beam and Golden Gun.
Grenade	Healing Grenade	Sustain; the gun is the damage.
Aspect 1	Gunpowder Gamble	Add kills (the beam farms these) charge a Solar explosive you shoot mid-air for a second on-demand ignition — stacks on Prometheus' own ignitions.
Aspect 2	On Your Mark	Precision hits / class cast → reload + Weapons stat ×10 for the whole field — trace rifles want reload, and Weapons stat adds PvE damage on top.

Exotic armour — Dawn Chorus (Helmet)

Rites of Ember (verbatim): "Your Daybreak projectiles ignite targets on impact. Your Scorch deals additional damage, and builds to more powerful Ignitions. Dealing damage with Scorch or Ignitions grants melee energy."

This is the build, not garnish. Two of its three clauses are pure Prometheus-Lens amplifiers: Scorch deals additional damage multiplies the beam's per-tick output (the beam is mostly scorch damage), and builds to more powerful Ignitions makes the chained detonations bigger and hit the ignition threshold faster. The third clause — melee energy from Scorch/Ignition damage — means the gun's own field is constantly refunding the throwing knife, on top of Searing and Gambler's Dodge. The Daybreak clause is dead weight under Marksman Golden Gun; that's the only cost, and it's cheap.

Why this works (the mechanics)

• Scorch is the whole economy, and the beam is a scorch fire-hose. Most Solar guns apply scorch per shot; Prometheus applies it by sustained fire and widens its field as it goes. So it stacks scorch faster and on more targets than any other weapon — which is exactly the input every Solar Hunter verb wants.
• Dawn Chorus double-dips the two things the gun produces. It buffs scorch damage (the beam's main output) and ignition power/threshold (the beam's payoff). One exotic multiplies both halves of the weapon's loop. Nothing else pairs this tightly.
• Incandescent + Ember of Char make the chain self-propagating. Catalyst spreads scorch on kill; Char spreads scorch on ignition. So one ignition re-seeds scorch on the survivors, the beam tops them to threshold, they ignite, and the spread repeats. In a dense room it cascades.
• The melee loop never goes cold. Scorch/ignition damage → melee energy (Dawn Chorus) · defeating scorched targets → melee energy + Firesprite (Ember of Searing) · Gambler's Dodge near enemies → melee. Three independent feeds for the Lightweight Knife, whose precision kill makes you Radiant — which ramps both the beam and Golden Gun.
• Gunpowder Gamble is a second, aimed ignition. The beam farms the add kills that charge it; you throw it into the densest cluster and shoot it for an ignition that the rest of the kit then chains off. Two ignition sources from one gun's kill-feed.
• On Your Mark and Weapons stat compound the beam. Class-cast or precision hits stack reload (trace rifles burn Special fast) and Weapons stat ×10 — and the 9.7.0 Weapons stat adds flat PvE weapon damage, so the beam ticks harder purely from playing the loop.

Stats & mods

Weapons 200 → Melee 100+ → Class 100. Weapons maxes the beam's tick damage and stacks with On Your Mark; Melee ~100 keeps the knife (Radiant source) on a short fuse; Class ~100 keeps Gambler's Dodge live for the knife refund and Singeing regen. Health is the dump stat — Restoration (Empyrean/Healing nade) + Radiant cover survivability.

Archetypes: Powerhouse / Gunner pieces favouring Weapons + Melee. Mods, by piece:

• Helmet: Solar Siphon (Solar kills → Orbs — the beam makes these in bulk) · Ashes to Assets / Heavy Handed.
• Gauntlets: Melee Font (→ ~100 Melee) · Heavy Handed (melee kill → melee energy).
• Chest: Solar Resistance ×, plus an elemental resist of choice.
• Boots: Solar Weapon Surge ×2 (≈+17% Solar weapon damage straight onto the beam) · Orbs of Restoration (orb pickup → energy to least-charged ability).
• Class item: Class Font (→ ~100 Class) · Powerful Attraction (Dodge vacuums orbs) · Bomber.
• Special Ammo Finder / Finisher — the beam is hungry; keep Special topped.

Where it shines

• Add-dense PvE — Vanguard Ops, Battlegrounds, Lost Sectors, the trash waves of GMs and dungeons: the beam + catalyst spread + chained ignitions clear packs faster than its Special-ammo cost can drain. This is the build's home.
• Boss/champion DPS is not its job. Single-target damage is mediocre; use Golden Gun, Gunpowder Gamble, and your Heavy for priority targets.
• Champions (Anti-Champion 2.0): Trace rifles are the Overload archetype — confirm in-game which champion Prometheus' frame intrinsically stuns (see Verify). Ignitions stagger and the kit's volume covers ability-spam elites, but do not rely on the Lens alone for Barrier/Unstoppable — bring coverage in the other slots (an Unstoppable / Barrier frame, or Eriana's Vow for Barrier).

The other two weapon slots

• Primary: a Solar primary (auto/pulse/SMG) to chip scorch and proc Empyrean when Special runs dry — keeps Radiant/Resto and the Solar surge relevant. A champion-stunning frame here covers what the Lens doesn't.
• Heavy: anything single-target — Machine Gun for sustained, or a boss-DPS Rocket / Linear for the priority targets the beam can't burn fast enough.