Riskrunner — Conductor (Hunter)

Centerpiece: Riskrunner (Submachine Gun · Primary · Arc) · Subclass: Arc (Arcstrider) · Role: Self-sustaining Arc add-clear that wants to get shocked Sandbox: 9.7.0 · Updated 2026-07-03

Riskrunner is the only gun in the game that gets better when the enemy electrocutes you. Take Arc damage, flip into Arc Conductor, and every shot chains lightning while you shrug off the Arc that lit you up — and kills keep the state alive forever. The whole build is one sentence: stand in the Arc, stay overcharged, never stop firing. Arcstrider stacks jolt and Bolt Charge so the gun's own engine never idles, and Liar's Handshake turns the melee you'd throw between sprays into a heal-on-demand panic button.

The weapon

Arc Conductor (intrinsic): "When taking Arc Damage, this weapon becomes more powerful and resists incoming Arc Damage. Kills extend the time in this overcharged state."

Catalyst — Chain Reaction: "Each final blow with this weapon creates an elemental damage explosion."

Any Arc damage you take — an Arc-ranged enemy, a Shank's bolt, a jolt tick, even your own subclass Arc effects — flips the gun into Arc Conductor. Overcharged, every burst chains lightning between targets and you take reduced Arc damage, so the very thing that overcharges you can't easily kill you. Kills refresh the timer, so against a pack the overcharged state is effectively permanent. The catalyst layers Chain Reaction on top: each final blow adds an elemental explosion, so one overcharged SMG throws three damage instances at once — the burst, the lightning chain, and the kill-explosion. Riskrunner is a Primary, so ammo is never the constraint; the only constraint is staying overcharged, and this build engineers that as the default state rather than an accident.

Loadout

Slot	Pick	Why
Subclass	Arcstrider (Arc Hunter)	Same element as the gun — jolt, blind and amplified all feed Arc Conductor and Bolt Charge.
Super	Gathering Storm	Slams the Arc Staff down as a jolting, lingering pylon — area denial that re-procs Arc Conductor on you while you keep shooting.
Class ability	Gambler's Dodge	Near enemies it refills the Arc melee (the Liar's counterpunch) and resets the Lethal Current window.
Movement	Triple Jump	Extra mid-air correction to reposition inside the pack without leaving the Arc damage that keeps Conductor lit.
Melee	Arc melee (Combination Blow)	The Liar's Handshake counterpunch — heal plus huge damage; jolts through Lethal Current.
Grenade	Pulse Grenade	Lingering Arc tick — with Spark of Shock it jolts, and the tick is a clean way to self-apply Arc damage and keep Conductor lit.
Aspect 1	Lethal Current	After dodging, the next melee has increased lunge, jolts, and creates a damaging aftershock — free crowd control and an Arc-damage source.
Aspect 2	Flow State	Defeating a jolted target makes you amplified; while amplified, dodge recharges faster, you're more resilient, and reload speed is greatly increased (huge for an SMG).
Fragments	Spark of Discharge · Spark of Ions · Spark of Amplitude · Spark of Shock	Turn Riskrunner kills into Ionic Traces, traces into Bolt Charge, jolted/amplified kills into Orbs, and grenades into jolt applicators.
Exotic armour	Liar's Handshake (Gauntlets)	"Using your Arc melee ability or being hit by a melee attack will allow you to follow up with an extremely powerful melee counterpunch that will heal you." — the survivability valve for standing in the Arc.
Weapons	Arc Special (Voltshot) + Arc Heavy (LMG/Sword or Heavy GL)	Voltshot pre-loads jolt/blind for the swap back; the Heavy covers the bosses Riskrunner chips slowly.

Why it works (the mechanics)

• The gun's drawback is the build's thesis. Arc Conductor needs you to take Arc damage. Instead of relying on enemies, this loadout manufactures Arc damage on yourself constantly — Pulse Grenade ticks, the Gathering Storm pylon, jolt arcs, and standing in a shocked pack all flip Conductor on. The built-in Arc damage resist while overcharged makes self-sourcing Arc nearly free.
• Jolt is the keystone, and it's everywhere. Lethal Current (dodge then melee jolt), Spark of Shock (grenade jolts), a Voltshot Special and Gathering Storm all apply jolt. Jolt is chain lightning between targets — more Arc damage flying around keeps Conductor lit, and jolted-target kills are the exact trigger for Flow State and Spark of Ions.
• Flow State pays the SMG's biggest weakness. SMGs live and die on reload; "reload speed is greatly increased while amplified" plus Conductor's chain means you rarely stop dealing damage. Defeating a jolted target grants amplified, a loop the build re-procs every few seconds.
• The catalyst triple-stacks every kill. Overcharged burst plus jolt chain plus a Chain Reaction explosion on the final blow. In a dense room each Riskrunner kill cascades into the next, and Conductor's kills-extend-the-timer clause means the state never drops while the room is alive.
• Bolt Charge feeds itself off gunfire. Spark of Discharge turns Arc weapon kills into Ionic Traces that grant Bolt Charge; Spark of Ions converts jolted- and Bolt-Charge-target kills into more traces. Collecting traces also keeps abilities (and via Flow State, amplified) topped up — pure weapon kills power the whole subclass economy.
• Liar's Handshake is the survivability valve. Between sprays you throw the Arc melee for an instant counterpunch — big damage plus a heal — or eat a melee from a charging enemy and counter it. With Lethal Current the same punch jolts. It is the one thing that makes "stand in the middle of the Arc damage" survivable without a healing subclass.

Stats & mods

Weapons 200 → Health → Class. Weapons scales Riskrunner's PvE damage; Health for standing in the pack; Class so Gambler's Dodge (the Liar's melee and Lethal Current reset) is up often. Arcstrider add-clear archetype — Melee and Grenade can sit mid since traces and dodge refund them.

Mods:

• Boots: Arc Weapon Surge ×2–3 — straight damage on Riskrunner.
• Arms: SMG Loader — reload backstop for when you're not amplified.
• Chest: a resist mod (e.g. Concussive Dampener / Arc Resistance) if you die to non-Arc damage — Conductor only resists Arc.
• Class item: Orbs of Restoration + Bomber for ability uptime.
• Surge: Arc Weapon Surge (single-element with Riskrunner and the Arc Special/Heavy).
• Anti-Champion: run the artifact's Anti-Barrier / Overload weapon perks, since Riskrunner carries no intrinsic champion stun.

Artifact — Encrypted Data Disk

The all-Arc disk mirrors Riskrunner's loop end to end: Arc-debuff kills become Bolt Charge and Orbs, jolted kills turn into blind, and Arc final blows spit Arc Orbs back into the amplified economy.

Picks (2/3/2):

• Tier 1: Power from Pain · Fierce Proxemics
• Tier 2: Dielectric · Blinding Jolts · Precision Equity
• Tier 3: Elemental Orbs: Arc · Tazer Tag

• Power from Pain grants Devour on rapid final blows against weakened combatants — a free heal on top of the Liar's counterpunch.
• Fierce Proxemics returns grenade and melee energy on finisher final blows, refunding the Pulse Grenade and the counterpunch.
• Dielectric is this build's exact jolt-to-Bolt-Charge-to-Orb chain — Arc-debuffed kills grant Bolt Charge, and rapid ones spawn an Orb and heal.
• Blinding Jolts blinds nearby combatants on jolted-target final blows, doubling Lethal Current's crowd control.
• Precision Equity builds a large Orb of Power from precision final blows that also boosts weapon damage on pickup.
• Elemental Orbs: Arc spawns Arc Elemental Orbs from Arc weapon kills that jolt on detonation — more self-applied Arc to keep Conductor lit.
• Tazer Tag makes Arc-melee hits jolt, turning the Liar's punch into a jolt applicator.

Where it shines

• Add-dense PvE — Strikes, Nightfalls, Onslaught, GM clear phases. A horde-clear build: chain lightning plus Chain Reaction plus jolt turn a corridor of adds into a single dissolving wall, and Conductor never drops while bodies keep dropping.
• Sustained rooms over burst. The loop rewards a live pack — it stays overcharged and amplified as long as things keep dying; it does not want an empty arena.
• Champion coverage: Riskrunner has no intrinsic champion stun (manifest champion field is null), so it breaks nothing on its own. Blind (Blinding Jolts / Lethal Current) interrupts champion behaviour, but you must bring the artifact's Anti-Barrier / Overload weapon perks — or an Arc Special carrying that coverage — for Barrier and Unstoppable. Boss DPS is the weak spot; that's what the Heavy is for.

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). Flex/loadout-dependent: the Arc Special/Heavy). - **Anti-Champion:** run the artifact's Anti-Barrier / Overload weapon perks; since Riskrunner carries no intrinsic champion stun.