SUROS Regime — Bottomless Mag (Kinetic Hunter)

Centerpiece: SUROS Regime (Auto Rifle · Primary · Kinetic) · Subclass: Gunslinger (Solar) · Role: Self-sustaining red-bar shredder + add-clear engine Sandbox: 9.7.0 · Updated 2026-07-03

SUROS pays you twice for emptying the mag: the bottom half hits harder, and kills in it can return health. So the whole build is a machine for keeping the mag bottomed-out and refilling on command. Speedloader Slacks turns every dodge into an instant full reload, On Your Mark ramps your Weapons stat off the precision hits you are already landing, and Solar's heal verbs cover the gaps SUROS's own health-on-kill can't. Hold the trigger, dodge to top up, never stop firing.

The weapon

SUROS Legacy (intrinsic): "The bottom half of each magazine deals bonus damage and has a chance to return health on kill."

SUROS Ascendance (catalyst): "Increased chance for kills to regen health."

SUROS Regime is a Kinetic-slot 600 RPM Auto Rifle firing Primary ammo, so it is ammo-unconstrained — you can spray it forever. The exotic splits every magazine: the bottom half is the payload, dealing bonus damage and rolling for a health proc on each kill. The catalyst raises that proc chance, turning the bottom half into a self-healing sustain window. The implication for the whole build: you want to sit in the bottom half as often as possible, and you want a way to refill the top half instantly so you can re-enter that window on demand instead of waiting out a normal reload. That instant refill is the build's entire reason for pairing SUROS with a dodge that reloads.

Loadout

Slot	Pick	Why
Subclass	Gunslinger (Solar)	On Your Mark ramps Weapons stat off SUROS's precision hits; Solar heal verbs backstop SUROS's own health-on-kill.
Super	Golden Gun: Marksman	On-theme single-target delete for anything SUROS can't chew; precision kills make Orbs that feed Speedloader and On Your Mark uptime.
Class ability	Marksman's Dodge	Instantly reloads all weapons on dodge — the manual reload that re-arms the bottom-half window and stacks with Speedloader.
Movement	Triple Jump	Standard Hunter air control; keeps you mobile while holding the spray.
Melee	Lightweight Knife	Powered-melee kill kickstarts Radiant via Ember of Torches; cheap and keeps you shooting.
Grenade	Healing Grenade	Restoration on demand — the heal SUROS's RNG proc can't guarantee in a pinch.
Aspect 1	On Your Mark	Precision hits or class-ability activation grant increased reload speed and Weapons stat to you and nearby allies, stacking ten times. SUROS feeds the stacks for free.
Aspect 2	Knock 'Em Down	Marksman Golden Gun gets increased duration; enhances the Super you lean on for champions and bosses.
Fragments	Ember of Torches, Ember of Empyrean, Ember of Solace, Ember of Singeing	Radiant from melee (Torches) → Solar final blows extend Radiant/restoration (Empyrean) → longer duration (Solace) → class-ability regen on scorch (Singeing) feeds the dodge.
Exotic armour	Speedloader Slacks (Legs)	Dodge instantly reloads all weapons and grants reload/handling (×5 stacks); sustained damage grants class-ability energy — SUROS's constant fire refunds the dodge that refills SUROS.
Weapons	A Solar Special (e.g. Solar sniper/shotgun) + a Heavy of choice (Machine Gun / boss frame)	The Solar Special keeps Empyrean's Radiant/restoration extension rolling and matches your Surge; the Heavy handles the boss/major DPS SUROS isn't built for.

Why it works (the mechanics)

• The dodge is the bottom-half button. SUROS rewards being in the bottom half of the mag. Normally you would have to burn the whole mag and eat a full reload to get back there. Speedloader Slacks reloads the entire weapon instantly on dodge, so you fire into the bottom half, dodge to refill the top, and immediately spray back down into the bonus-damage window — the bottom half becomes effectively most of your trigger time.
• The loop self-sustains with no cooldown to babysit. Speedloader's "dealing sustained damage grants class ability energy" is fed by SUROS doing exactly one thing — holding the trigger. Spraying refunds the dodge, the dodge refills SUROS and re-arms the bottom-half window, and the reload/handling buff stacks ×5 on repeat dodges. Marksman's Dodge and On Your Mark both add more reload on top, but the engine runs off gunfire alone.
• On Your Mark double-dips with the Weapons stat. Landing precision hits — which SUROS does by the dozen — stacks On Your Mark up to ten times, each stack granting a Weapons-stat bonus that lands on top of the bottom-half bonus damage. One trigger pull ramps two stacking multipliers, and On Your Mark also refreshes reload speed, tightening the whole loop further.
• Three-layer sustain makes a Primary feel like a tank. SUROS's health-on-kill (catalyst-boosted), Healing Grenade's restoration, and Ember of Empyrean overlap so that emptying the bottom half into a pack keeps you topped. Empyrean extends restoration/Radiant every time a Solar final blow lands, and Ember of Solace lengthens both. The gun that needs you to stand and spray gives you the survivability to do it.
• Radiant is a free damage layer the loop already produces. Lightweight Knife powered-melee kill → Ember of Torches Radiant (a weapon-damage buff) → SUROS's Solar allies extend it via Empyrean. Radiant stacks with the bottom-half bonus and On Your Mark, so the spray window is buffed by multiple independent sources at once.
• Scorch closes the ability economy. Ember of Singeing regenerates the class ability faster when you scorch (Golden Gun and the Solar Special scorch), a second feed for the dodge beyond Speedloader — so the bottom-half window is never gated on a cooldown.

Stats & mods

Weapons 200 → Health → Class. Weapons is the priority: it scales SUROS's per-shot PvE damage and is exactly what On Your Mark piles onto. Health keeps you alive between heal procs; Class fuels the dodge that runs the whole loop (Speedloader + Marksman's Dodge + reload stacks). Archetype lean: Gunner/Powerhouse-style rolls favouring Weapons, with Class secondary for the dodge.

Mods:

• Boots: Auto Rifle Reserves / Scavenger — deeper reserves mean more uninterrupted spray.
• Arms: Auto Rifle Loader — faster reloads compound with Speedloader and On Your Mark.
• Chest: resist mods matched to the activity (Solar/Void/Arc resist) to hold the bottom-half window.
• Class item: Reaper / Bomber for Orb and grenade uptime, or Powerful Attraction to vacuum Orbs into the loop.
• Surge: Kinetic Weapon Surge ×2–3 on legs for flat SUROS damage.
• Anti-Champion: Anti-Barrier Auto Rifle from the artifact (stuns Barrier and overcharges Autos, making SUROS your Barrier answer).

Artifact — Implement of Curiosity

This is the Solar-Radiant plus Kinetic-weapon artifact — the exact two axes SUROS and Gunslinger live on. It amplifies the Radiant loop the build already produces, hands flat Kinetic damage to SUROS itself, and covers the Unstoppable SUROS can't stun (Barrier comes from the Anti-Barrier Auto Rifle weapon overcharge).

Picks (2/3/2):

• Tier 1: Fever and Chill · Pack Tactics
• Tier 2: Energy Acceleration · Cauterized Darkness · That Fresh Bullets Smell
• Tier 3: Radiant Shrapnel · Shieldcrush

• Fever and Chill grants Radiant on rapid Solar-weapon precision hits — a second free Radiant source beside Ember of Torches, off the Solar Special.
• Pack Tactics lets Threadling damage stun Unstoppable Champions at max stacks — the champion type the core loop otherwise can't break.
• Energy Acceleration turns sustained fire into Kinetic shockwaves that damage nearby combatants and is strong against Unstoppable — pure SUROS-slot add-clear plus a second Unstoppable lever.
• Cauterized Darkness makes debuffed non-boss combatants take increased Solar damage, boosting the Solar Special's contribution.
• That Fresh Bullets Smell buffs your Kinetic weapons on ammo-brick pickup — direct SUROS damage the spray loop keeps feeding.
• Radiant Shrapnel releases scorching Solar projectiles on sustained weapon damage while Radiant — SUROS's hold-the-trigger fire under Radiant is exactly this trigger.
• Shieldcrush speeds and hardens melee while radiant, feeding the Lightweight-Knife Radiant kickstart faster.

Where it shines

• Add-clear and red-bar density — sustained Primary spray with built-in heal is tailor-made for endless waves: Onslaught, Nightfall add phases, GM lost-sector trash, seasonal horde activities. You out-sustain the room.
• Survivable mid-tier endgame — Legend/Master content where you can stand in the bottom-half window and let the heal layers carry you. For raw boss DPS, swap to the Heavy or Golden Gun; SUROS is the engine, not the burst.
• Champion coverage: SUROS has no intrinsic champion stun (manifest: champion `null`). Run the artifact's Anti-Barrier Auto Rifle to make SUROS your Barrier answer; Pack Tactics and Energy Acceleration cover Unstoppable; bring a secondary frame or Golden Gun for Overload.

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: grenade uptime; overcharges Autos; making SUROS your Barrier answer).