The Colony — Spider Farm (Hunter)

Weapon: The Colony (Grenade Launcher · Heavy · Void) · Subclass: Nightstalker (Void) · Role: Hands-free room-clear engine — volatile spiders that reload themselves Sandbox: 9.7.0 · Created 2026-06-16

Fire seven robot spiders into a room, watch them sprint down everything orange, and reload the mag from reserves while the gun is on your back. The Colony is the one Heavy that fights for you — so the build's job is to make its bugs volatile and keep you invisible, so the spiders chain-detonate a whole pack while you're untargetable and topping up Devour. Throw, swap, let the farm run, finish to vanish, repeat.

The weapon

Intrinsic — Insectoid Robot Grenades: "This weapon's grenades are insectoid robots that chase targets and explode close to them. Consumes tougher combatants to create additional robots." Hidden trait — Serve the Colony: "Insectoid robot grenades quickly repopulate the magazine from reserves while the Colony is unequipped." Catalyst — Deeper Pockets: "Increased ammo reserves."

What it does: each shot is a homing spider that walks to a target and pops. Kills on tougher combatants (majors/elites) spawn extra spiders that keep hunting with no ammo spent — so a single mag snowballs across an add-dense room. Serve the Colony auto-reloads the magazine from reserves while it's stowed, so the intended loop is throw-spiders → swap to a primary → the mag is full again by the time you swap back. The catalyst (Deeper Pockets) pads reserves so the farm runs longer between bricks. It is add-clear/major-killer, not boss DPS.

Loadout

Slot	Pick	Why
Subclass	Nightstalker (Void)	Void weapon → Void verbs stack on the spiders; invis is the safety the farm needs.
Super	Shadowshot: Deadfall	Tether weakens + suppresses + groups the pack so the spiders kill into a clump.
Class ability	Gambler's Dodge	Melee energy back near enemies; re-triggers Vanishing Step for fresh Volatile Rounds.
Melee	Snare Bomb (Quickfall)	On-demand weakening smoke + invis; Stylish-debuffed targets become spider fuel.
Grenade	Vortex Grenade	Lingering Void well that weakens (Undermining) — pins the pack for the spiders.
Aspect 1	Vanishing Step	"Dodging makes you invisible." The Gyrfalcon trigger — every dodge re-arms Volatile Rounds.
Aspect 2	Stylish Executioner	"Defeating a target affected by any elemental debuff grants invisibility and Truesight." Spider kills on volatile/weakened targets = free invis.

Exotic — Gyrfalcon's Hauberk (Chest)

See Me, Feel Me: "Your Void weapons gain Volatile Rounds after you emerge from being invisible. When you are invisible and defeat a combatant while using a finisher, all of your weapons gain bonus damage; you and your nearby allies gain a reserve overshield and improved class ability regeneration. These reserve overshields can be deployed by using a class ability."

This is the build. The Colony is a Void weapon, so the moment you emerge from invis (Vanishing Step dodge, Snare Bomb, or Stylish) its spiders fire volatile — every bug now detonates in an AoE that spreads volatile to the next target. One volatile spider into a pack chains into the whole room.

Why this works (the mechanics)

• Volatile turns each spider into an AoE bomb. Base spiders pop on one target; Gyrfalcon's volatile makes that pop a volatile detonation that damages the cluster and spreads volatile onward. The Colony already wants dense rooms (more majors = more bonus spiders), and volatile is what converts "kills the target it walked to" into "deletes the pack it walked into."
• The farm reloads itself — twice over. Serve the Colony refills the mag from reserves while it's stowed; Deeper Pockets deepens those reserves. So you throw seven spiders, swap to your primary to keep killing, and the Heavy is full again when you swap back. You are never out of spiders in normal density.
• The spiders are grenades for fragment purposes. Echo of Instability reads grenade kills → Volatile Rounds, and The Colony's projectiles count as grenade final blows — so even without dodging, the gun self-applies volatile as it farms. Vanishing Step is the guaranteed top-up; Instability is the passive one.
• Invisibility is the only safety a no-aim Heavy needs. Vanishing Step (dodge) and Snare Bomb both vanish you; Stylish Executioner re-vanishes you off any debuffed kill — and the spiders are constantly killing volatile/weakened targets, so invis is nearly permanent. You stand in the open and let the farm run because the room can't see you.
• Weaken is the glue. Echo of Undermining (Vortex/grenade weakens) + Deadfall's tether + Snare smoke all apply weaken → spider kills on weakened targets trigger Echo of Harvest (Orb + Void Breach) → Echo of Starvation turns that pickup into Devour (full heal + grenade on kill). The grenade you get back is another weakening Vortex; the loop pays for itself.
• Stylish + Vanishing Step form an invis flywheel. Dodge → invis → emerge → Volatile Rounds → volatile spider kill on a debuffed target → Stylish re-invis → emerge again for fresh Volatile Rounds. Two aspects, one self-feeding cycle that keeps both the safety (invis) and the damage (volatile) live without input.

Stats & mods

Weapons 200 → Health 100+ → Class. Weapons stat scales the spiders' PvE damage vs minors/majors (a 9.7.0 lever) and makes the catalyst reserves count for more total damage; Class feeds Gambler's refund and reserve-overshield regen from Gyrfalcon. Grenade ~70 keeps Vortex up for the weaken/Instability feed.

Archetypes: Powerhouse (Weapons/Super) or Gunner chest/legs to bank the Weapons stat; a Grenade-leaning piece to hold Vortex uptime.

Mods (standard naming — see Verify notes): Boots — Void Weapon Surge ×2 (≈+17% Void damage straight onto the spiders) + Heavy Ammo Finder. Helmet — Harmonic/Void Siphon (Void kills → Orbs; the spiders make a flood) + Heavy Ammo Scout. Gauntlets — Grenade Font (→ Vortex uptime) + Bomber (dodge → grenade energy). Chest — one of each elemental Resistance under invis/Devour. Class item — Powerful Attraction (dodge vacuums the Orbs you spawn) + Reaper. The orb flood (Siphon + Reaper + spiders) keeps Harvest → Starvation → Devour cycling.

Where it shines

• Add-dense PvE: GM-tier add waves, Onslaught, seasonal horde, Battlegrounds — anywhere a room of majors lets the "consume tougher combatants → more spiders" clause snowball. This is its home.
• Survivability content (−30/−40): near-permanent invis + Devour + reserve overshield (Gyrfalcon) lets you farm from cover the whole encounter.
• Champions: The Colony carries no bespoke champion stun and Grenade Launchers are not an Anti-Champion 2.0 stun archetype, so it does not handle champions itself. Cover them with the seasonal artifact anti-champion mods and your two other weapon slots (pick frames covering Barrier/Unstoppable; Overload behaviour from Deadfall's suppress / Snare). Weaken thins champion HP for the spiders, but the stun is not on this gun — flagged on purpose.
• Not for: sustained single-target boss DPS. The spiders are add/major tools; bring boss damage in another slot.

### The other two weapon slots

• Primary (Kinetic or Void): a Void primary lets Gyrfalcon's emerge-from-invis Volatile Rounds also ride your trash-clear gun, and Echo of Harvest fires off its kills too. Destabilizing Rounds (volatile on kill) is the ideal craftable roll.
• Special: a champion-stunning frame for whatever the artifact doesn't cover, or a second Void weapon to widen the volatile economy. Free slot — pick coverage.