Sturm — Together Forever ammo engine (Hunter)

Centerpiece: Sturm (Hand Cannon · Primary · Kinetic) · Subclass: Gunslinger (Solar) · Role: Self-feeding primary DPS — never reload, never run dry Sandbox: 9.7.0 · Updated 2026-07-03

Two guns that load each other. Kill with the hand cannon and Drang's mag refills from reserves; kill with Drang and Sturm reloads with bonus damage rounds. Stack a few bonus-round kills and you're swapping between a Kinetic hand cannon and a Solar sidearm that never stop firing — a closed primary-ammo loop with hard-hitting overflow rounds on the front of it.

The weapon

Sturm is a 120-RPM Kinetic hand cannon that only becomes an engine when it's paired with its sidearm Drang (the "Together Forever" weapon). Three verbatim lines carry the whole build:

Accomplice (intrinsic) — "Final blows with this weapon fill the magazine of the equipped Energy weapon from reserves."

Storm and Stress (perk) — "Final blows with Together Forever weapons reload this weapon and overflow bonus damage rounds into the magazine. Final blows with bonus damage rounds increase the magazine capacity of Together Forever weapons."

Catalyst — Helping Hands — "Final blows with bonus damage rounds build and store charges which allow you to swap and stow Sturm and Together Forever weapons at a massively increased rate."

Drang carries the matching intrinsic Together Forever — "Fires micro-missiles. Final blows with this weapon reload and overflow Sturm." — and must sit in the Energy slot so Accomplice can refill it. The loop runs one direction then the other: a Sturm kill tops Drang from reserves, a Drang kill reloads Sturm and overflows it with bonus damage rounds, and spending those rounds grows Drang's magazine. Alternate kills and neither gun ever needs a manual reload — the kill that empties one weapon is the kill that loads the other. Helping Hands then erases the swap tax so the Sturm↔Drang handoff goes instant once you're banking charges. The whole playstyle is swap, kill, swap, kill.

Loadout

Slot	Pick	Why
Subclass	Gunslinger (Solar)	Solar surge, Radiant and Restoration economy wrap the gunplay in free damage and healing.
Super	Golden Gun: Marksman	On-element burst for the priority target the primary loop can't melt between chains.
Class ability	Marksman's Dodge	Free full reload on dodge — a manual "reset both guns" button when the kill chain breaks.
Movement	Triple Jump	Extra aerial adjust for staying in a firing lane while swap-spamming.
Melee	Lightweight Knife	Precision-kill throw keeps the Solar economy turning without leaving the gunplay.
Grenade	Healing Grenade	Cure on demand plus the ability final blow that helps sustain Restoration between swaps.
Aspect 1	On Your Mark	Class-ability use or precision hits stack reload speed and Weapons stat ×10; every Sturm/Drang headshot feeds it.
Aspect 2	Gunpowder Gamble	Kills charge a throwable Solar explosive — pure upside on a build that does nothing but get primary kills.
Fragments	Torches · Empyrean · Solace · Singeing	Radiant on melee, Solar-kill Restoration/Radiant refresh, longer buff duration, class-ability regen on scorch.
Exotic armour	Gyrfalcon's Hauberk (Chest)	On a Solar loadout it isn't the anchor — the weapons are; run any Solar-surge chest exotic, or Gyrfalcon if you spec a void off-hand.
Weapons	Drang (Energy · Solar) + Solar Heavy	Drang is the mandatory pair (Energy slot, on-surge); a Solar Machine Gun or GL covers bosses and champions the primaries can't.

Why it works (the mechanics)

• The two intrinsics form a closed ammo loop. Accomplice fills Drang from reserves on a Sturm kill; Together Forever reloads Sturm on a Drang kill. Alternate kills and neither gun ever needs a manual reload — the kill that empties one is the kill that loads the other. This is the build, not a bonus.

• Storm and Stress turns the loop into damage. A Drang kill doesn't just reload Sturm, it overflows it with bonus damage rounds, so Sturm comes back hitting harder. Then spending those bonus rounds increases Drang's magazine capacity — Drang gets a bigger tank the more you feed the loop. The system pays compound interest.

• The catalyst removes the only cost — swap time. The loop lives on constant weapon-swapping, and the natural enemy of swap-spam is the ready/stow animation. Helping Hands banks charges off bonus-round kills and spends them to swap and stow at a massively increased rate, so a few kills in the handoff is effectively instant. The catalyst is non-negotiable here.

• On Your Mark keeps both guns pegged. Its ×10 stack of increased reload speed and Weapons stat comes from precision hits — and two guns that headshot constantly keep it maxed. The Weapons stat adds PvE damage on top of the bonus-damage rounds, and the reload speed papers over any moment the ammo loop stalls.

• Solar surge keeps both halves on-element. Drang and the Heavy are Solar, so Solar Weapon Surge mods buff two-thirds of the loadout. Ember of Empyrean means every Solar (Drang) final blow extends Restoration and Radiant — the gunplay loop is the survivability loop, no babysitting required.

• The melee-to-Radiant sub-loop feeds itself. Ember of Torches makes Lightweight Knife kills Radiant; Ember of Solace stretches that Radiant; Radiant boosts the weapon damage that fuels the ammo loop. One melee reset keeps the surge economy lit hands-free.

Stats & mods

Weapons 200 → Health → Class. Weapons is the obvious anchor — the whole build is primary gunplay plus bonus-damage rounds plus On Your Mark's Weapons stacks; Health for floor survivability under Restoration; Class to keep Marksman's Dodge (the manual reset) coming back fast. Archetype lean: Gunner / Powerhouse (Weapons + Class/Super favoured), Tier 4+ reachable without a perfect roll.

Mods:

• Boots: Innervation (orb pickup → grenade energy) · Absolution.
• Arms: Hand Cannon Loader · Heavy Handed (melee energy on powered-melee kills — feeds Lightweight Knife → Radiant).
• Chest: Solar + Kinetic Resist — flat DR under Restoration.
• Class item: Reaper (dodge → next kill spawns an Orb) · Bomber.
• Surge: Solar Weapon Surge ×2 (buffs Drang + the Solar Heavy).
• Anti-Champion: none intrinsic on Sturm — bring the artifact's Unstoppable/Overload options and a Solar Heavy for the champion types the primaries miss.

Artifact — Implement of Curiosity

The Solar-leaning artifact that turns the Drang half into the engine: it grants Radiant straight off Solar precision hits, pays Radiant back as ignitions, and plugs the one champion gap (Unstoppable) the primary loop can't cover on its own — while still feeding the Armor Charge economy the loadout already runs.

Picks (2/3/2):

• Tier 1: Fever and Chill · Semi-Auto Striker
• Tier 2: Energy Acceleration · That Fresh Bullets Smell · Elemental Daze
• Tier 3: Radiant Shrapnel · Shieldcrush

• Fever and Chill grants Radiant on Solar precision hits — Drang headshots keep the surge and Restoration loop lit hands-free.
• Semi-Auto Striker tops up Armor Charge while you're below two stacks, feeding the Reaper/siphon orb economy.
• Energy Acceleration turns Drang's micro-missiles into a Kinetic shockwave that stuns Unstoppable — the champion Sturm's archetype can't cover.
• That Fresh Bullets Smell buffs Kinetic damage off ammo-brick pickups — straight uptime for Sturm.
• Elemental Daze spreads a matching Solar debuff explosion when Drang stuns a Champion, for extra clear.
• Radiant Shrapnel releases shrapnel from sustained Radiant fire / scorched kills — direct payoff of the Radiant and Scorch the build already generates.
• Shieldcrush lets Radiant uptime speed and buff Lightweight Knife, keeping the melee → Radiant economy turning.

Where it shines

• Sustained add-clear and majors in any content where you can keep a kill chain alive — the loop needs kills to feed itself, so it snowballs in target-rich rooms and goes quiet against a lone boss (that's what the Heavy and Golden Gun are for).
• Ammo-starved content and long lockouts — two primaries that reload each other means you basically never touch a brick of primary ammo and never stand exposed reloading. Great for grind activities and onslaught-style waves.
• Solo and low-stress play — Ember of Empyrean Restoration off Drang kills gives passive healing entirely from the gunplay you're already doing.
• Champion coverage: Sturm has no intrinsic champion breaker (weapon_facts.json champion = null). Cover champions through the artifact — Energy Acceleration (Unstoppable via Drang) — and a Solar Heavy for Overload/Barrier as the activity demands.

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: a Solar Heavy for the champion types the primaries miss.