Ruinous Effigy — Sphere Warden (Void Hunter)

Centerpiece: Ruinous Effigy (Trace Rifle · Special · Void) · Subclass: Nightstalker · Role: Add-clear engine — turn the room into Void spheres, debuff everything, stay invisible Sandbox: 9.7.0 · Updated 2026-07-03

Ruinous Effigy is a beam that turns corpses into bombs. Every final blow drops a Void Transmutation sphere you pick up and swing as a melee object — its slam volatiles a whole pack, its heavy suppresses, and the spheres are the build. A Void Hunter wraps invisibility and Volatile Rounds around the beam so the first kill snowballs: kill → sphere → slam → debuffed kills → invis → Volatile Rounds reload the loop → kill. Nothing in the room stays upright for long, and you're rarely visible while it happens.

The weapon

Transmutation (intrinsic): "Collapses targets into spheres of Void energy."

Exotic perk: "Final blows with this weapon collapse victims into Void Transmutation spheres."

Evolution (held sphere): "Transmutation spheres you create can be picked up and wielded as weapons by you or your allies. • [Light Attack]: Light attack • [Heavy Attack]: Suppressing heavy attack • [Block]: Guard/drain nearby targets."

Catalyst — Deconstruction: "This weapon gains increased damage after using a Transmutation sphere to damage powerful combatants or deal final blows."

What it does: the beam itself is a modest-DPS 1000-RPM Void Special trace rifle. The value is the sphere economy. Kill anything with the beam → a sphere spawns → interact to hold it → it replaces your weapon with a Void melee object. Light attacks fire a tracking Void blast; the heavy attack is a ground slam that deals AoE Void damage and suppresses; holding block drains nearby targets. Slamming into a pack chunks the whole group, and with the build's Volatile Rounds active on the beam, the kills you rack up keep making more spheres. The catalyst then ramps the beam's damage every time a sphere hits or kills a powerful target — so the more you commit to the sphere loop, the harder the beam hits when you swap back.

Loadout

Why it works (the mechanics)

• The sphere loop is self-feeding and that's the whole build. Beam kill → sphere → slam suppresses and chunks a pack → those kills make more spheres → you never run out of spheres while the room has bodies. Ruinous Effigy is one of the few weapons whose ammo economy is "kill things," so it sustains itself in any add-dense activity.
• Volatile Rounds keep the beam fed without aiming for ammo. Gyrfalcon's grants Volatile Rounds for 9s every time you leave invis, and Echo of Instability grants them off grenade kills. Volatile makes Void weapon hits explode in AoE, so the beam now kills clusters → more spheres, faster. Two Volatile sources means it's basically always on.
• Invisibility is free and constant. Stylish Executioner gives invis on any suppressed/weakened/volatile kill — and this build applies all three (Volatile from Gyrfalcon, Weaken from Undermining grenades + Deadfall + Snare Bomb, Suppress from the sphere slam). Vanishing Step is the manual backup. You re-enter invis constantly → which re-grants Volatile Rounds → which makes the kills that re-grant invis. Closed loop.
• Weaken is a debuff-bucket multiplier for the fireteam. Undermining grenades, Deadfall's tether, and Snare Bomb all weaken. Weaken multiplies on top of every weapon perk for everyone shooting the target — so even though the beam is low base DPS, the room's effective damage (yours + allies') is inflated, and the spheres' suppress shuts down elite abilities.
• Devour is the survivability layer. Weakened kills make Void Breaches and Orbs (Echo of Harvest); picking either up grants Devour (Echo of Starvation), which heals to full on every kill and extends grenade energy. You're invisible, healing on kill, and suppressing whatever you can't out-DPS.
• The catalyst rewards committing to spheres. Deconstruction ramps the beam's damage after a sphere damages or kills a powerful combatant — so the correct play (slam spheres into majors) directly buffs the beam you swap back to.

Stats & mods

Weapons 200 → Class → Health. Weapons boosts the beam's PvE damage vs minors/majors (stacks on Volatile + Weaken); Class feeds Gambler's Dodge / Vanishing Step uptime (your invis → Volatile engine); Health for GM survivability under Devour.

Archetype lean: Brawler / Specialist pieces (Weapons + Class), Grenadier on the gauntlets if you lean harder on grenade-Volatile.

Mods:

• Boots: Void Weapon Surge ×2 (beam damage) · Orbs of Restoration (orb pickup → ability energy).
• Arms: Grenade Kickstart · Heavy Handed (melee energy on melee kills — keeps Snare Bomb up for the manual debuff).
• Chest: Void Resistance + one other elemental Resist under the Devour/invis layers.
• Class item: Powerful Attraction (dodge vacuums your orbs/Breaches → instant Devour) · Reaper.
• Surge: Void Weapon Surge (matches the beam's element).
• Anti-Champion: Overload Grenades from the artifact (Vortex Grenade stuns Overloads) + your Kinetic primary's archetype for the rest — the beam carries no intrinsic stun.

Artifact — NPA Repulsion Regulator

The all-Void artifact for an all-Void build: it turns the orbs and Void Breaches the kit already floods out into more Volatile uptime, overshields, and a weakening pulse, while Overload Grenades plugs the one gap the beam can't — Overload stun on your Vortex Grenade.

Picks (2/3/2):

• Tier 1: Volatile Flow · Unto The Breach
• Tier 2: Protective Breach · Counter Charge · Overload Grenades
• Tier 3: Supernova · Void Weapon Channeling

• Volatile Flow grants the beam Volatile Rounds on orb pickup — a third Volatile source on top of Gyrfalcon's and Echo of Instability, so Volatile is effectively permanent.
• Unto The Breach makes Void-debuffed kills spawn Void Breaches, feeding the Harvest → Starvation Devour chain.
• Protective Breach turns a Void Breach pickup into an overshield, layered under Devour and invis for GM durability.
• Counter Charge banks Armor Charge when you stun a Champion — fuel for the Surge boots.
• Overload Grenades makes Vortex Grenade stun Overloads — the champion coverage the trace rifle lacks.
• Supernova turns a Void Breach pickup into a large weakening pulse — more debuff buckets for the fireteam.
• Void Weapon Channeling temporarily buffs the beam on Void weapon kills, stacking with the Deconstruction catalyst.

Where it shines

• Add-dense PvE: GM Nightfalls, Legend/Master content, Onslaught, seasonal add-clear. This is its home — dense rooms mean endless spheres, endless invis, Volatile and Devour. The more enemies, the stronger the loop.
• Team utility: spheres can be picked up by allies, and the slam's suppress plus the build's weaken make you the fireteam's debuff/crowd-control anchor. Deadfall groups and weakens for everyone.
• Champion coverage: the manifest lists no intrinsic champion stun for Ruinous Effigy — treat the beam as carrying no stun. Overload Grenades (artifact) on your Vortex Grenade handles Overloads; bring a Kinetic primary of the right archetype (Barrier/Unstoppable) for the rest, and lean on Deadfall suppress + weaken to shave and lock down champions the kit can't stun.

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).