Strand

Quicksilver Storm — Tangle Storm (Hunter)

Self-feeding Tangle/Threadling add-clear engine

✓ Manifest Kinetic · Primary · 720 RPM · No intrinsic champion

Weapon: Quicksilver Storm (Auto Rifle · Primary · Strand-via-catalyst) · Subclass: Strand (Threadrunner) · Role: Self-feeding Tangle/Threadling add-clear engine Sandbox: 9.7.0 · Created 2026-06-16

The catalyst is the whole point: it flips Quicksilver to Strand and makes its grenade-missiles spawn Tangles on kills. A Strand Hunter turns every one of those Tangles into a violent Whirling Maelstrom mass — so the gun's built-in missile launcher becomes a Tangle printer, and the subclass converts the printout into Unraveling damage and Woven Mail. The gun isn't a sidegrade here; it's an ability the subclass is built around.

The weapon

Missile Tracers (intrinsic): "Landing multiple hits turns your next shot into a homing micro-missile."

Catalyst — Nano-entanglement: "This weapon's damage type becomes Strand. Final blows with grenades from this weapon create Tangles."

Sustained fire periodically loads a homing micro-missile (a small grenade projectile) into the next trigger pull. With the catalyst equipped the weapon reads as Strand for all surge/synergy purposes, and any kill with one of those missiles drops a Tangle — the throwable Strand object that the entire Strand kit is built to detonate. You are generating Tangles purely by shooting, with no ability cost.

Loadout

Slot	Pick	Why
Subclass	Strand (Threadrunner)	Only subclass that turns the catalyst's free Tangles into a damage engine.
Super	Silkstrike (rope dart)	On-element roaming Super for when the room is too thick; or Needlestorm if you want a Tangle/Threadling burst (both Strand).
Class ability	Marksman's Dodge	Reloads Quicksilver on demand between missile windows.
Melee	Threaded Spike (rope-dart)	Bounces, returns melee energy, and can detonate Tangles for you.
Grenade	Grapple	Pairs with Widow's Silk + Cyrtarachne's: each grapple = a Grapple Tangle and Woven Mail.
Aspect 1	Widow's Silk	Extra grenade charge + Grapple makes a Grapple Tangle — more Tangles to feed the engine, and double grapple uptime.
Aspect 2	Whirling Maelstrom	Destroying a Tangle weaves a seeking Strand mass that damages and emits Unraveling projectiles on kills — this is what makes the missile-Tangles matter.

Fragments (4):

Thread of Ascent (+10 Weapons) — grenade cast reloads your weapon + airborne handling. With Grapple as your grenade you reload Quicksilver and buff the missile spam every grapple; the +10 Weapons is straight onto the gun.
Thread of Generation (−10 Grenade) — dealing weapon damage generates grenade energy, so the Quicksilver fire that makes missiles also rebuilds your Grapple → more Tangles.
Thread of Warding (−10 Health) — Orb pickup → Woven Mail, stacking your survivability with Cyrtarachne's.
Thread of Transmutation (+10 Melee) — while you have Woven Mail (which you always will), weapon final blows create a Tangle — a second Tangle source on top of the missiles.

Exotic armour — Cyrtarachne's Facade (Helmet): Acrobat's Focus — Activating Grapple grants Woven Mail; while active, Woven Mail provides flinch resistance and health when defeating targets.

Other two weapon slots:

Special: a Strand weapon to match the surge — a Slice/Hatchling Strand Shotgun or Glaive, or a Special you trust for orange bars. Same element keeps one surge mod feeding both primaries.
Heavy: Machine Gun or Rocket for bosses/champions Quicksilver can't chew. Strand if you want to keep the single-surge discipline; otherwise pick the best DPS tool — the build's damage identity is adds, not boss.

Why this works (the mechanics)

The catalyst makes the gun an ability. Every missile kill = a Tangle, at zero ability cost. Most Tangle builds ration Tangles off a grapple cooldown; here you mint them by holding the trigger in a crowd.
Whirling Maelstrom is the payoff for those Tangles. Destroy a Tangle and it becomes a roaming Strand mass that seeks, damages, and sprays Unraveling on kills. Threaded Spike (or just shooting the Tangle) pops it → free DPS mob you didn't aim. Missiles make Tangles; Maelstrom eats Tangles; you only steered the crosshair.
Widow's Silk + Grapple is a Tangle multiplier and the survivability switch. Extra grenade charge means near-constant Grapple; every grapple drops a Grapple Tangle (more Maelstrom fuel) and procs Cyrtarachne's Woven Mail.
Cyrtarachne's closes the defensive loop for free. Grapple → Woven Mail → (Thread of Warding tops it from orbs) → kills under Woven Mail heal you. The exotic costs you nothing you weren't already doing to make Tangles.
The ability economy is self-priming. Thread of Generation rebuilds Grapple off weapon damage; Thread of Ascent reloads the gun and buffs it on every Grapple; Thread of Transmutation adds a Woven-Mail-gated Tangle source. Shoot → missiles → Tangles → Maelstrom + grenade energy back → grapple → Woven Mail + reload + another Tangle. One trigger finger drives all of it.
+10 Weapons (Ascent) + Transmutation/Propagation-style upkeep keep the gun itself relevant, not just the spawns — the missiles still need to kill to make Tangles, so weapon damage is load-bearing, not incidental.

Stats & mods

Weapons 200 → Class 100+ → Grenade. Weapons maxes the missile/gun damage that gates every Tangle; Class feeds Marksman's Dodge reloads; Grenade speeds Grapple (and thus Tangle + Woven Mail uptime). Health is the dump stat — Woven Mail is up near-permanently between Cyrtarachne's and Thread of Warding.

Archetypes: Weapons/Grenade-favoured pieces (e.g. Grenadier/Gunner lines). Mods: Strand Weapon Surge ×2 (boots — straight onto Quicksilver and your Special), Auto Rifle Loader, Auto Rifle Scavenger, Harmonic/Strand Siphon (helmet — orbs for Thread of Warding), Grenade Kickstart, Bomber on the class item.

Where it shines

Add-dense PvE — Nightfalls, Onslaught, dungeons, the open patrol grind. A primary that prints seeking Strand masses scales beautifully with crowd count: more bodies = more missile kills = more Tangles = more Maelstroms.
Champions: Quicksilver Storm is a Rapid-Fire frame Auto Rifle, so under Anti-Champion 2.0 it carries Overload intrinsically (Lightweight/Rapid-Fire → Overload). Barrier/Unstoppable are not covered by this gun — slot the Special/Heavy archetypes (or an artifact mod) for those, and lean on Strand Suspend (Threaded Spike / Ensnaring-style bursts) to lock down anything the gun can't stun. Flag: confirm the Overload intrinsic in-game — see Verify.
Weakest at: single-target boss DPS. Quicksilver is an add engine; bring the Heavy for the boss and let the gun own the room around it.

Verify notes

Exotic perk + catalyst text are verbatim from `docs/encyclopedia/exotics.md` (line 290, "Missile Tracers") and `docs/encyclopedia/catalysts.md` (line 116, "Nano-entanglement"). Element/ammo: the catalyst explicitly states Strand; base element pre-catalyst is Kinetic/Strand-less — design assumes catalyst equipped. Ammo = Primary (Auto Rifle). Confirmed by item type only; the encyclopedia gives perk behaviour, not RPM/frame or champion intrinsics.
Rapid-Fire frame → Overload is inferred from Quicksilver being a 720-RPM auto under Anti-Champion 2.0 archetype rules (Lightweight/Rapid-Fire → Overload). The manifest snapshot here does not confirm the exact frame or a bespoke champion stun — verify the archetype/intrinsic in-game before relying on it for GM champion coverage.
All armour/aspects/fragments verified against `docs/encyclopedia/`: Cyrtarachne's Facade (exotics.md line 19), Whirling Maelstrom (aspects.md line 202), Widow's Silk (aspects.md line 203–205), Threads of Ascent/Generation/ Warding/Transmutation (fragments.md lines 89/95/101/100). No fallback to `docs/knowledge/` was needed.
Missile-kill → Tangle rate, Whirling Maelstrom mass damage/duration, and Woven Mail's exact DR are behaviour-confirmed but not numerically specified in the encyclopedia — confirm magnitudes in-game.
Super choice (Silkstrike vs Needlestorm) and Special element are preference; both Strand options keep the single-surge discipline. Set bonuses deliberately omitted — garnish, not a driver; slot one only if your rolls already hit the stat targets above.

Mod selection (masterworked — full allocation)

Piece	Mod · cost	What it does
Helmet (5/10)	Strand Siphon 1e	Rapid Strand weapon final blows create Orbs 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 (9/10)	Weapon Loader (faster reload) 3e
	Grenade Kickstart 3e	When your grenade energy is fully expended, your Armor Charge is consumed and you gain grenade energy for each Armor Charge used.
	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.
Chest (6/10)	Strand Resistance 2e fill	Reduces incoming Strand 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 (9/10)	Strand Weapon Surge 3e	Your Strand weapons gain a small bonus to damage while you have any Armor Charge. Your Armor Charge now decays over time.
	Strand Weapon Surge 3e	Your Strand weapons gain a small bonus to damage while you have any Armor Charge. Your Armor Charge now decays over time.
	Strand Scavenger 3e	Strand weapons get bonus reserves when picking up ammo used by that weapon.
Class Item (4/10)	Bomber 1e	Reduces grenade cooldown when using your class ability.
	Reaper 1e fill	Shortly after using your class ability, your next weapon final blow spawns an Orb of Power.
	Powerful Attraction 2e fill	Automatically collects nearby Orbs of Power when you activate 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: your Special).