Tarrabah — Unleash the Beast (Solar Hunter)
Tarrabah is the one gun that punishes you for weapon-swapping. Ravenous Beast only charges while it's in your hands, drains the instant you holster, and the unleashed Beast reduces incoming Solar damage. So you don't build a rotation around a second gun — you build a Solar Hunter whose abilities do the off-gun work (scorch, ignite, invis, heal) so the trigger never leaves the SMG. Charge it on the trash, unleash on the orange, and the catalyst keeps the mag overflowing.
The weapon
Ravenous Beast (intrinsic): "This weapon stores power when dealing or receiving damage; defeating combatants or dealing damage to Scorched combatants grants increased progress. [Alternate Weapon Action]: Unleashes the beast when full, increasing outgoing damage and reducing incoming Solar damage."
Catalyst — Ambitious Assassin: "Overflows the magazine based on the number of rapid kills before reloading."
What it does in practice: hold the trigger on adds to fill the Beast meter — damage dealt and taken both count, and Scorched targets grant increased progress, so a scorch-heavy kit charges it markedly faster. Hit [Alternate Weapon Action] at full and you open a window where outgoing damage climbs and incoming Solar is reduced (huge in Solar-burn content). Ambitious Assassin overflows the magazine off rapid kills so the unleashed window doesn't die on an empty mag — the overflow plus the damage buff chew through orange bars in one sustained burst. Every design choice below exists to keep the gun equipped, because holstering throws away the charge you paid health to build.
Loadout
| Slot | Pick | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Subclass |  Gunslinger (Solar) | Scorch engine feeds Ravenous Beast's increased progress from Scorched targets; native Solar-weapon synergy. |
| Super |  Golden Gun: Marksman | Off-gun panic/priority delete without dropping the SMG loop; Knock 'Em Down extends its duration. |
| Class ability |  Marksman's Dodge | Reloads Tarrabah on dodge — the one refill that respects "never holster". |
| Movement |  High Jump | Extra air time to line up Gunpowder Gamble's mid-air detonation and reposition after invis. |
| Melee |  Lightweight Knife | Solar throwing knife that scorches on hit and procs the Cowl's melee-kill reset — ability damage so the gun stays up. |
| Grenade |  Tripmine Grenade | Held as backup; Gunpowder Gamble's improvised charge is the primary [Grenade] input in-combat. |
| Aspect 1 |  Gunpowder Gamble | Add kills charge an improvised Solar explosive; shoot it mid-air to ignite a pack into mass scorch, feeding the Beast. |
| Aspect 2 |  On Your Mark | Class-ability use or precision hits grant increased reload speed and Weapons stat, stacking ten times — free weapon uptime while holding the trigger. |
| Fragments | 4 Embers (see below) | Scorch generation, scorch spread off ignitions, and self-sustained Restoration/Radiant on Solar kills. |
| Exotic armour |  Assassin's Cowl (Helmet) | Melee kills grant invisibility + a heal — the missing panic button and health refund for a no-swap gun. |
| Weapons |  Tarrabah + Solar/Void heavy (LMG or GL) | Centerpiece stays in-hand; the heavy is your only genuine off-gun swap, for boss/champion burst. |
Ember of Ashes more scorch stacks per hit → faster Beast charge
Ember of Searing Solar melee kills grant melee energy + a Firesprite → re-arm the knife loop
Ember of Char ignitions spread scorch → one Gunpowder bomb becomes a field of Scorched targets the Beast feeds on
Ember of Empyrean Solar final blows extend Restoration and Radiant — Tarrabah is a Solar weapon, so it self-sustains those buffs without swapping
Why it works (the mechanics)
- The whole kit exists to keep Tarrabah equipped. Ravenous Beast charges only in-hand and drains on holster, so a second damage weapon is anti-synergy. We replace the usual "swap to your DPS gun" reflex with abilities — Gunpowder Gamble, Lightweight Knife, Golden Gun — that deal the off-gun damage without a swap, and Marksman's Dodge reloads without holstering.
- Scorch is a charge multiplier on the intrinsic itself. Ravenous Beast grants increased progress for damaging Scorched combatants, so every piece of the build is a scorch factory: the knife scorches, Gunpowder ignitions scorch, Ember of Ashes stacks scorch, Ember of Char spreads it off ignitions. You fill the Beast meter faster than any non-scorch loadout would.
- Ambitious Assassin pays off the unleashed window. Rapid kills overflow the magazine, so when you unleash the Beast on a pack you don't run dry mid-buff — the overflow plus the increased-outgoing-damage window turn a single trigger-hold into sustained major-clear instead of burst-reload-burst.
- "Receiving damage" charges the Beast — so taking hits is good, and the Cowl pays the bill. The intrinsic literally rewards standing in the fire. Assassin's Cowl's melee-kill heal (67 HP per Clarity) refunds the health you spend charging, and the unleashed Beast's incoming-Solar reduction turns Solar-burn rooms into a charging station rather than a death trap.
- On Your Mark stacks the 9.7.0 Weapons stat while you shoot. Precision hits and class-ability use stack increased Weapons stat up to ten times, layering more weapon damage on top of the Beast's outgoing buff — earned passively just by holding crits on the SMG.
- Invisibility is the panic button a one-gun build otherwise lacks. No special swap means no emergency reset; Vanishing Execution's invis is the escape valve. Kill a wounded add with the knife → vanish → the Beast meter keeps its charge → re-engage from a better angle.
Stats & mods
Weapons 200 → Health → Class. Weapons maxes Tarrabah's PvE damage and stacks with On Your Mark; Health because the build invites incoming damage to charge the Beast; Class for Marksman's Dodge uptime — the only no-holster reload.
Archetype lean: Gunner / Bulwark pieces (Weapons + Class/Health), tuning toward Weapons over the tertiaries.
Mods:
- Boots: Solar Weapon Surge ×2 (straight damage onto Tarrabah), SMG Scavenger.
- Arms: SMG Loader, Melee font for knife cadence.
- Chest: resist mods (Solar/arc resist to survive the "take damage to charge" loop) + Concussive Dampener.
- Class item: Bomber / Utility Kickstart to speed Marksman's Dodge back.
- Surge: Solar Weapon Surge (element-matched to Tarrabah).
- Anti-Champion: Tarrabah has no intrinsic breaker — slot the artifact's Solar anti-champion mods (see below) to cover Unstoppable; lean on Golden Gun / ignitions for the rest.
Artifact — Implement of Curiosity
The Solar-Radiant artifact — Tarrabah's whole kit runs on Radiant → Scorch → Beast progress, and Implement amplifies that exact loop while patching the build's one champion hole (Unstoppable) that the gun can't stun.
Picks (2/3/2):
- Tier 1: Fever and Chill · Elemental Benevolence
- Tier 2: Cauterized Darkness · Energy Acceleration · Elemental Coalescence
- Tier 3: Radiant Shrapnel · Elemental Overdrive
Fever and Chill grants Radiant on rapid Solar precision hits — Tarrabah self-sustains its own Radiant window while holding the trigger, no ability spend required.
Elemental Benevolence returns class-ability energy when you grant allies an elemental buff — faster Marksman's Dodge, the only no-holster reload.
Cauterized Darkness makes debuffed non-boss combatants take more Solar damage — a straight uptick on both Tarrabah rounds and ignitions.
Energy Acceleration covers Unstoppable, the gun's flagged champion gap, without leaving the SMG.
Elemental Coalescence spawns Solar elemental pickups on kills, matching the Golden Gun subclass — fuel for the pickup payoffs below.
Radiant Shrapnel releases bursts on sustained damage while Radiant or on Scorched-combatant kills — it pays off both of the build's core verbs at once.
Elemental Overdrive boosts Solar weapon damage on picking up a Solar elemental pickup — pairs with Coalescence to keep Tarrabah hitting harder between unleashes.
Where it shines
- Solo / sustained add-dense content (Lost Sectors, Nightfalls, Onslaught, GM trash phases): Tarrabah wants a continuous stream of bodies to keep the Beast fed and Ambitious Assassin overflowing — exactly what horde content provides.
- Solar-burn / Solar-singe modifiers: the unleashed Beast's incoming-Solar reduction plus Restoration/Radiant sustain turn a burn room into a net positive.
- Champion coverage: Tarrabah has no intrinsic anti-champion breaker (manifest champion field is empty). It stuns nothing on its own. Cover Unstoppable with the artifact's Energy Acceleration; delete or stagger the rest with Golden Gun and Gunpowder ignitions. Bring artifact Overload/Barrier SMG mods if the activity demands those — the gun does not supply them for free.
Mod selection (masterworked — full allocation)
| Piece | Mod · cost | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Helmet (7/10) | Solar Siphon 3e fill | Rapid Solar weapon final blows create an Orb of Power. |
| Ashes to Assets 3e fill | Gain bonus Super energy on grenade kills. | |
| Heavy Ammo Finder 1e fill | Increases the effect of all contributions towards the Heavy ammo meter. | |
| Arms (6/10) | Melee Font 1e | You gain a bonus to your melee stat while you have any Armor Charge. Your Armor Charge decays over time. |
| 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. | |
| Chest (6/10) | Concussive Dampener 3e | Reduces incoming area-of-effect damage from combatants. |
| Solar Resistance 2e fill | Reduces incoming Solar damage from combatants. | |
| Sniper Damage Resistance 1e fill | Reduces incoming damage from combatants that are at long range. | |
| Legs (3/10) | Solar Weapon Surge 1e | Your Solar weapons gain a small bonus to damage while you have any Armor Charge. Your Armor Charge now decays over time. |
| Solar Weapon Surge 1e | Your Solar weapons gain a small bonus to damage while you have any Armor Charge. Your Armor Charge now decays over time. | |
| Solar Scavenger 1e | Solar weapons get bonus reserves when picking up ammo used by that weapon. | |
| Class Item (5/10) | Utility Kickstart 3e | When your class ability energy is fully expended, your Armor Charge is consumed and you gain class ability energy for each Armor Charge used. |
| Bomber 1e | Reduces grenade cooldown when using your class ability. | |
| 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).