Solar

Red Death Reformed — Field Medic (Hunter)

Self-healing primary engine + Barrier champion stun, no grenade/heal slot spent on sustain

✓ Manifest Solar · Primary · 340 RPM · No intrinsic champion

Weapon: Red Death Reformed (Pulse Rifle · Primary · Solar) · Subclass: Gunslinger · Role: Self-healing primary engine + Barrier champion stun, no grenade/heal slot spent on sustain Sandbox: 9.7.0 · Created 2026-06-16

Kill anything with the gun and you're already healed — that's the whole pitch. Red Death Reformed cures you on every final blow and the catalyst leaves a restoration puddle for the team. Build a Solar Gunslinger that only spends its kit on damage and radiant, because the weapon has already paid your medical bill. Every fragment that would normally buy sustain gets re-spent on offence, and the weapon's cure stacks on top of restoration for a survivability floor that doesn't ask the build for anything.

The weapon

Intrinsic — Redemption: "Final blows with this weapon cure you and increase reload speed; reloading after final blows cures nearby allies."

Catalyst — Helping Hand: "Final blows charge this weapon. When the weapon is charged, the next final blow creates a healing burst at your location and leaves a remnant behind that provides restoration to allies."

A 340-RPM Adaptive Frame Solar pulse. Redemption means every kill applies cure to you and ramps reload; a kill followed by a reload sprays cure to allies. The catalyst layers a periodic restoration burst + a persistent remnant puddle on top of the per-kill cure. So the gun self-sustains on minors (steady stream of cures) and drops a fireteam heal-station on the charged kill — all from a primary-ammo weapon you'd be firing anyway. The cost: it's a primary pulse, so its raw DPS is unremarkable; the value is that it removes "stay alive" from the rest of the loadout entirely.

Loadout

Slot	Pick	Why
Subclass	Gunslinger (Solar)	Radiant + restoration verbs stack with the gun's cure; Solar surge feeds Red Death's damage.
Super	Golden Gun: Marksman	Burst priority-target deletion the primary pulse can't do alone; Knock 'em Down extends it.
Class ability	Marksman's Dodge	Reloads on dodge → triggers Redemption's ally cure (reload after a kill) on demand.
Melee	Lightweight Knife	Precision kill → Radiant via Ember of Torches isn't needed; the knife is the precision-kill radiant + Weapons stacking trigger.
Grenade	Healing Grenade	Free — but mostly a radiant/cure topper; the gun does the sustaining. (Swap to Tripmine if you want a champion finisher.)
Aspect 1	On Your Mark	"Activating your class ability or landing precision hits grants you and nearby allies increased reload speed and Weapons stat… Stacks ten times." Red Death is a precision weapon → stacks Weapons stat ×10 just by shooting.
Aspect 2	Knock 'Em Down	"While radiant, final blows with your equipped Throwing Knife fully refund your melee energy." + enhanced Marksman Golden Gun duration.

Fragments (4)

Ember of Tempering Solar weapon final blows → +health for you and allies, stacks 3 — Red Death procs this every kill
Ember of Empyrean Solar weapon/ability final blows extend restoration and radiant — the gun keeps the catalyst's restoration and your radiant alive indefinitely
Ember of Solace restoration/radiant on you have increased duration
Ember of Torches powered melee → radiant for you and allies; the knife arms the whole loop

Exotic armour — Caliban's Hand is not the pick here; see "Why this works." The exotic is Star-Eater Scales (Legs) — see below.

Other two weapon slots:

Special: A Solar Special weapon (e.g. a Solar shotgun/fusion) to keep the surge element consistent and double-dip Ember of Tempering/Empyrean off its kills — every Solar final blow extends restoration/radiant, not just Red Death's.
Heavy: Machine Gun or rocket for the damage the primary pulse can't output on bosses; element-flexible since the sustain engine is all on the primary.

Why this works (the mechanics)

The gun removes sustain from the build budget. Redemption cures you on every final blow and the catalyst adds a restoration burst + remnant. That's two healing verbs (cure + restoration) running off normal trigger-pulls, so the Solar kit's fragments and grenade — which would usually buy survivability — are all re-spent on offence and radiant. The build's survivability floor is "did I kill something," and a primary kills constantly.
Cure and restoration stack, not overlap. Cure is a one-shot heal; the catalyst's restoration is heal-over-time. Running both off the same weapon means you take a hit, eat the cure on the next kill, and stand in the restoration remnant — a survivability floor that needs no ability cooldown.
Ember of Empyrean makes the heals self-perpetuating. Solar weapon final blows extend restoration and radiant. Red Death is a Solar weapon that kills continuously, so the catalyst's restoration and your radiant never time out while you're shooting. The gun feeds its own healing window.
On Your Mark double-dips the 9.7.0 Weapons stat. Precision hits (which Red Death lands by design) stack Weapons stat ×10 → flat PvE weapon-damage increase on top of Solar surge mods. The pulse's biggest weakness — mediocre primary damage — is partly bought back just by landing the precision hits you're already landing.
Adaptive Frame stuns Barrier (Anti-Champion 2.0). Champion stun is intrinsic to weapon archetype now: Precision/Adaptive → Barrier. Red Death is an Adaptive-frame pulse, so it handles Barrier champions intrinsically — and it heals you through the unstoppable-pierce window. Cover Unstoppable/Overload with the Special/Heavy frames or Golden Gun.
Knock 'em Down + Lightweight Knife is a free melee loop. A precision knife kill grants radiant (and Solace/Empyrean extend it); while radiant, knife final blows fully refund melee energy. The knife is effectively free, keeps you radiant (25% weapon-damage buff that stacks with everything above), and Empyrean keeps that radiant alive off gun kills.
Star-Eater Scales turns the orb flood into Super uptime + a heal. This build makes orbs constantly (Solar kills, finishers, Super). Star-Eater overcharges a full Super from orbs → cast gives a burst of healing + bonus Super damage, and at max overcharge an overshield. So the one damage gap a primary build has — boss/priority burst — is filled by an overcharged Marksman Golden Gun that also heals on cast, on-theme with the whole medic identity.

Stats & mods

Weapons 200 → Health 100+ → Class. Weapons is the dump-everything-into stat: it raises PvE weapon damage and stacks with On Your Mark's ×10 and radiant to claw the primary pulse up to relevance. Health 100+ because, despite all the healing, a primary build wants the larger health pool to survive long enough for the next kill's cure. Class feeds Marksman's Dodge uptime (the on-demand ally-cure reload).

Archetypes: Powerhouse / Gunner-primary pieces (Weapons-favoured), anything pushing Weapons + Class. Mods: Pulse Rifle Loader / Scavenger, Solar Weapon Surge ×2+ on boots (straight onto Red Death and the Solar Special), Orbs of Restoration, Heavy/Special Finisher, and font mods (Class) to backfill Marksman's Dodge.

Set bonuses are garnish, not a driver. If your rolls already carry Weapons/Health, a Solar-flavoured 4pc is fine; never chase one over the stat spread above.

Where it shines

Solo / GM-tier survivability content: the gun is a portable medkit. You can push into rooms a normal primary build can't because every kill heals you and the catalyst leaves a heal-station for the team — ideal for solo flawless and GM ad-clear where dying to chip damage is the failure mode.
Fireteam support: reloading after kills cures allies, and the catalyst remnant is a fireteam restoration puddle — you're the medic without spending a Super or grenade slot on it.
Champion coverage: Barrier intrinsically (Adaptive frame). Pair a Special/Heavy frame for Unstoppable/Overload, or stun-melee/Golden-Gun the rest. The healing keeps you alive through the Barrier shield-down window.
Weak spot: raw boss DPS. Red Death is a primary pulse; lean on the Heavy and an overcharged Marksman Golden Gun (Star-Eater + Knock 'em Down) for burst.

Verify notes

Element/ammo confirmed from the manifest (`inspect_item.py`): Red Death Reformed is Solar, Primary ammo, 340 RPM → Adaptive Frame (intrinsic perk "Adaptive Frame" present), not Void. Build is designed around Solar/Adaptive.
Intrinsic (Redemption) and catalyst (Helping Hand) text quoted verbatim from `docs/encyclopedia/exotics.md` (line 292) and `docs/encyclopedia/catalysts.md` (line 118).
All armour/aspect/fragment text verified against `docs/encyclopedia/`: Star-Eater Scales (exotics.md), On Your Mark + Knock 'Em Down + Gunpowder Gamble (aspects.md), Ember of Tempering/Empyrean/Solace/Torches (fragments.md).
Cure vs restoration distinction: "cure" is the instant-heal keyword Redemption applies; "restoration" is the HoT the catalyst's remnant grants. Confirmed they are separate Solar verbs (encyclopedia lists both as distinct effects); they stack.
Champion intrinsic: Anti-Champion 2.0 maps Adaptive → Barrier per sandbox rule; the encyclopedia gives the archetype ("Adaptive Frame") but not an explicit champion tag on this weapon — Barrier is inferred from the archetype rule, confirm in-game.
Exact cure amount, catalyst restoration tier (x1/x2) and remnant duration, and the per-kill reload-ramp magnitude are not in the encyclopedia text — confirm in-game; effects are recorded as Bungie's verbatim description states, without invented numbers.

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 Scavenger 1e	Solar weapons get bonus reserves when picking up ammo used by that weapon.
	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.
Class Item (3/10)	Special Finisher 1e	Finishers generate Special ammo for the whole fireteam.
	Reaper 1e fill	Shortly after using your class ability, your next weapon final blow spawns an Orb of Power.
	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: the Solar Special); font mods (Class) to backfill Marksman's Dodge.