Arc

Riskrunner — Conductor (Hunter)

Self-sustaining Arc add-clear that *wants* to get shocked

✓ Manifest Arc · Primary · 900 RPM · No intrinsic champion

Weapon: Riskrunner (Submachine Gun · Primary · Arc) · Subclass: Arc (Arcstrider) · Role: Self-sustaining Arc add-clear that wants to get shocked Sandbox: 9.7.0 · Created 2026-06-16

Riskrunner is the only gun in the game that gets better when the enemy electrocutes you. Take Arc damage → Arc Conductor → chain lightning off every shot + Arc damage resist, and kills extend it forever. The whole build is one sentence: stand in the Arc, stay overcharged, never stop firing. Arcstrider bolts amplified, jolt and Bolt Charge on top 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."

What it does in practice: 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 thing that overcharges you can't easily kill you). Kills refresh the timer, so against a pack the state is effectively permanent. The catalyst layers Chain Reaction on top: each final blow adds an Arc explosion, so a single overcharged SMG fires three damage instances at once — the burst, the lightning chain, and the kill-explosion. It is a Primary, so ammo is never the constraint; the constraint is staying overcharged, which this build engineers 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	Refills the Arc melee (Liar's counterpunch) near enemies; resets the Lethal Current window.
Melee	Combination Blow / Arc melee	Liar's Handshake counterpunch — heal + huge damage; jolts via 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, next melee jolts + aftershock; damaging any jolted target with melee also blinds — free crowd control + Arc-damage source.
Aspect 2	Flow State	Defeating a jolted target makes you amplified; while amplified, dodge recharges faster, you're more resilient dodging, and reload speed is greatly increased (huge for an SMG).

Fragments

Spark of Discharge Arc weapon final blows → Ionic Trace; collecting one grants a stack of Bolt Charge — directly off Riskrunner kills
Spark of Ions defeating a jolted target or a Bolt-Charge target → Ionic Trace
Spark of Amplitude rapidly defeating targets while amplified → Orb of Power
Spark of Shock (Arc grenades jolt — turns Pulse Grenade into a jolt applicator). Drop Discharge's −10 Melee and Shock's −10 Grenade against the stat plan below; add Spark of Resistance (+10 Melee, DR while surrounded) if you want the melee back**

Exotic armour: Liar's Handshake (Gauntlets) — Cross Counter: using your Arc melee ability or being hit by a melee attack lets you follow up with an extremely powerful melee counterpunch that heals you.

Other two weapon slots:

Special: an Arc Special with Voltshot (jolt on reload-after-kill) or any Arc shotgun/glaive — jolting a pack with the Special pre-loads Flow State (amplified) and Lethal Current's blind for when you swap back to Riskrunner. A Stasis/Solar Special (e.g. a freeze or ignite Special) also works purely as a "delete the thing Riskrunner can't" tool.
Heavy: any Arc Heavy (LMG/Sword) to keep surges single-element, or a Heavy GL for boss burst. The build is add-clear first; Heavy covers the bosses Riskrunner chips slowly.

Why this 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, Gathering Storm's pylon, jolt arcs and being in the middle of a shocked pack all flip Conductor on. The built-in Arc damage resist while overcharged means self-sourcing Arc is nearly free.
Jolt is the keystone, and it's everywhere. Lethal Current (dodge → melee jolt), Spark of Shock (grenade jolts), Voltshot Special and Gathering Storm all apply jolt. Jolt = chain lightning between targets = more Arc damage flying around = Conductor stays lit, and jolted-target kills are the trigger for Flow State and Spark of Ions.
Flow State pays the SMG's biggest weakness. SMGs live and die on reload; "greatly increased reload speed while amplified" plus Conductor's chain means you rarely stop dealing damage. Defeating a jolted target → amplified is a loop the build proc's every few seconds.
The catalyst triple-stacks every kill. Overcharged burst + jolt chain + Chain Reaction explosion on the final blow. In a dense room each Riskrunner kill cascades into the next, and Conductor's kill-extends-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 → instant counterpunch → big damage + heal; or eat a melee from a charging enemy and counter it. With Lethal Current the same punch jolts and blinds. It's the one thing that makes "stand in the middle of the Arc damage" survivable without a healing subclass.

Stats & mods

Weapons 100+ → Health 100 → Class. Weapons stat scales Riskrunner's PvE damage; Health for standing in the pack; Class so Gambler's Dodge (Liar's melee + Lethal Current reset) is up often. Melee/Grenade can sit mid since traces and dodge refund them.

Mods: SMG Loader + SMG Reserves; Arc Weapon Surge ×2–3 on boots (Riskrunner is Arc — straight damage); Heavy/Special Finisher for ammo economy; Harmonic Siphon on helmet (Arc kills → Orbs, which Amplitude already floods) and Orbs of Restoration. One Resilience-style resist mod per the chest if you find yourself dying to non-Arc damage (Conductor only resists Arc).

Where it shines

Add-dense PvE — Strikes, Nightfalls, Onslaught, GM clear phases. This is a horde-clear build: the chain + Chain Reaction + jolt turn a corridor of adds into a single dissolving wall, and Conductor never drops while bodies keep dropping.
Champions: Riskrunner is a Lightweight-frame SMG → Overload under Anti-Champion 2.0 (Lightweight/Rapid-Fire archetypes carry intrinsic Overload), so it stuns Overload champions on its own. Verify the archetype below. Blind (Lethal Current) and jolt also interrupt Overload behaviour, and the Special slot should carry Barrier/Unstoppable coverage (the build's one gap). Boss DPS is the weak spot — that's what the Heavy is for.

Verify notes

Exotic perk text (Arc Conductor) and catalyst (Chain Reaction) quoted verbatim from `docs/encyclopedia/exotics.md` (line 294) and `docs/encyclopedia/catalysts.md` (line 120).
Element/ammo: `docs/knowledge/exotics_and_catalysts.md` lists Riskrunner as an Arc SMG; SMGs are Primary ammo. Manifest's exotics dump confirms the perk but does not print element/ammo inline — treated as Arc/Primary per the knowledge doc and SMG class convention. Confirm the frame/archetype (Lightweight vs Adaptive) in-game for the Overload-champion claim; the encyclopedia text doesn't state Riskrunner's intrinsic champion stun, so the Overload coverage is inferred from Anti-Champion 2.0's archetype rule, not from a bespoke stun on the gun. If it isn't Lightweight/Rapid-Fire, lean on jolt/ blind + the Special slot for champions.
Aspects (Lethal Current, Flow State), the Spark fragments and their stat deltas, and Ascension/Gathering Storm/Electrostatic Mind verbs all verified in `docs/encyclopedia/aspects.md` and `fragments.md`.
Exotic armour (Liar's Handshake, Assassin's Cowl, Gifted Conviction, Raiden Flux) verified in `docs/encyclopedia/exotics.md` (lines 36, 9, 28, 53).
Combination Blow / the Arcstrider Arc melee name is not present in the encyclopedia dump (no match for "Combination Blow"/"Disorienting Blow") — the melee is referenced by behaviour; confirm the exact in-game melee name. Liar's Handshake keys off "your Arc melee ability," which any Arcstrider Arc melee satisfies.
Alternative exotics if you don't want melee-tanking: Gifted Conviction (jolt → DR, fits the jolt theme) or Assassin's Cowl (Arc-melee kill → invis + heal) — both verified, both keep the loop Arc.

Mod selection (masterworked — full allocation)

Piece	Mod · cost	What it does
Helmet (5/10)	Harmonic Siphon 1e	Rapid Arc weapon final blows create an Orb of Power. Rapid Solar weapon final blows create an Orb of Power. Rapid Stasis weapon final blows create an Orb of Power. Rapid Void weapon final blows create an Orb of Power. Rapid Strand weapon final blows create Orbs of Power.
	Harmonic Siphon 1e	Rapid Arc weapon final blows create an Orb of Power. Rapid Solar weapon final blows create an Orb of Power. Rapid Stasis weapon final blows create an Orb of Power. Rapid Void weapon final blows create an Orb of Power. Rapid Strand weapon final blows create Orbs of Power.
	Arc Siphon 3e fill	Rapid Arc weapon final blows create an Orb of Power.
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 (5/10)	Arc Resistance 1e fill	Reduces incoming Arc 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)	Arc Weapon Surge 1e	Your Arc weapons gain a small bonus to damage while you have any Armor Charge. Your Armor Charge now decays over time.
	Arc Weapon Surge 1e	Your Arc weapons gain a small bonus to damage while you have any Armor Charge. Your Armor Charge now decays over time.
	Orbs of Restoration 1e	Picking up an Orb of Power grants a small amount of energy to your ability with the least energy.
Class Item (3/10)	Special Finisher 1e	Finishers generate Special ammo for the whole fireteam.
	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.

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: which Amplitude already floods).