The Fourth Horseman — Cross-Counter Bruiser (Hunter)

Weapon: The Fourth Horseman (Shotgun · Special · Arc) · Subclass: Arcstrider · Role: Point-blank close-range bruiser — melt the target the punch starts Sandbox: 9.7.0 · Created 2026-06-16

A full-auto Arc shotgun that turns into a firehose the longer you hold the trigger, and a melee engine that punches harder the more you punch. Combination Blow ramps the fist, Liar's Handshake adds a heal-on-counterpunch, and the Horseman is the trigger that kills whatever the punch didn't — kills auto-reload from reserves, so you never stop firing. Get in their face, hold the trigger, throw the counter, repeat. Arc Hunter's oldest, dumbest, best loop.

The weapon

Thunderer (intrinsic): "This weapon's rate of fire is increased significantly, and fires full auto. Final blows auto load ammo from reserves. Powerful targets fully reload the weapon."

Catalyst — And Its Name Was Death: "Adds an additional round to the magazine and increases reload speed."

The Horseman is a Special-ammo shotgun that fires full-auto at a wildly inflated RPM — you empty the mag in a heartbeat and it reads more like a close-range minigun than a shotgun. The two intrinsic clauses matter for sustain: final blows auto-load ammo from reserves (so chaining kills never breaks fire), and powerful targets fully reload the weapon (point it at a champion/miniboss and the mag refills mid- fight). The catalyst is pure quality-of-life: +1 round and faster reload, both of which directly extend the full-auto window. Burst-DPS-on-a-trigger; it wants you inside melee range, which is exactly where the rest of this build already lives.

Loadout

Slot	Pick	Why
Subclass	Arcstrider (Arc)	Same element as the Horseman; melee subclass that wants to be in shotgun range.
Super	Gathering Storm	Throw-the-staff Arc Super: jolts on impact, no melee animation needed; jolt feeds Flow State + Spark of Ions. (Arc Staff works if you prefer roaming.)
Class ability	Gambler's Dodge	Near an enemy → full melee energy back. Refunds Combination Blow on demand and arms Lethal Current.
Melee	Combination Blow	Chained melee kills heal, refund dodge, and stack a damage bonus (×3). The build's ramp.
Grenade	Arcbolt Grenade	Chains + jolts; with Spark of Shock it jolts hard, feeding Flow State amplified + Ionic Traces.
Aspect 1	Lethal Current	After dodging, next melee jolts + aftershock + blinds any jolted target on melee — your CC and the jolt source.
Aspect 2	Flow State	Defeating a jolted target → Amplified (faster reload, DR while dodging, faster dodge regen). The whole loop is jolted kills.

Exotic armour — Liar's Handshake (Gauntlets): Cross Counter — "Using your Arc melee ability or being hit by a melee attack will allow you to follow up with an extremely powerful melee counterpunch that will heal you."

Other two weapon slots:

• Primary (Kinetic/Stasis): any add-clear primary to thin the room and build Combination Blow stacks before you commit the Horseman — a 360 Auto or a Sidearm. The Horseman is your Special, so the primary is your green-bar work.
• Heavy: a Machine Gun or a Sword for anything that won't die to fist + shotgun (the Horseman handles the rest). A Sword doubles down on the in-your-face identity and Spark of Feedback.

Why this works (the mechanics)

• One element, one range band. Horseman, melee, Super and every fragment are Arc, and all of it wants point-blank range. There's no mode-switching: the gun you shoot is the element your abilities run on, and the distance you punch at is the distance the shotgun is best at. Arc surge mods buff the Horseman directly.
• Combination Blow is the ramp; Liar's is the panic button + the opener. Chained melee kills stack Combination Blow's damage (×3) and heal you; Cross Counter lets using your Arc melee trigger an extra healing counterpunch, so one melee input becomes two hits and a heal. The counter also lands kills that keep the Combination Blow chain — and the dodge — alive.
• The Horseman is the finisher the fist can't reach. Combination Blow falls off against anything tanky; you punch to start the chain and hold the Horseman's trigger to delete the target the punch chunked. Its full-blows-auto-reload intrinsic means the kill that ends one fight loads the mag for the next, so the melee→shotgun→melee rhythm never stalls for a reload.
• Jolt is the keystone, and it makes the gun blind the room. Lethal Current (post-dodge melee), Arcbolt + Spark of Shock (grenade), and Gathering Storm all jolt. Killing a jolted target = Flow State → Amplified. While Amplified, Spark of Beacons makes Horseman (Arc Special) final blows detonate a blinding explosion — so your shotgun kills now stun-lock the pack. Lethal Current independently blinds any jolted target you melee. Two blind sources = strong room CC, and blind is the Arcstrider's built-in survival layer.
• Amplified closes the gun loop. Flow State's Amplified greatly increases reload speed and dodge regen — faster Horseman reloads + faster Gambler's Dodge → faster melee refund → faster next jolt → next Amplified. The shotgun and the fist are reloading each other.
• The economy self-funds. Spark of Ions + Spark of Discharge spit Ionic Traces off jolted/Arc-weapon kills; traces top your least-charged ability, which is usually the melee or dodge you just spent. Gambler's Dodge near an enemy refunds the whole melee. You almost never wait on a cooldown.

Stats & mods

Weapons 200 → Melee 100+ → Health 100 → Class. Weapons is the headline: it scales the Horseman's PvE damage and is the slot your kills lean on. Melee ~100 keeps Combination Blow / Cross Counter charged for the ramp; Health 100 backs the in-your-face range; Class feeds Gambler's Dodge regen (Lethal Current depends on dodging often).

Mods, by piece:

• Helmet: Harmonic Siphon (Arc kills → Orbs) · Heavy Ammo Finder · Hands-On (melee kills → Super, you melee constantly).
• Gauntlets: Melee Font (→ ~100 Melee) · Heavy Handed (melee kills → melee energy + Special ammo, refills the Horseman) · Impact Induction (melee damage → grenade energy).
• Chest: Arc + Kinetic + Heavy Resistance (flat DR under blind/amplified) — you take damage at point-blank, so stack incoming DR here.
• Boots: Arc Weapon Surge ×2 (≈+17% Arc weapon damage straight onto the Horseman) · Innervation (orb pickup → grenade) · Recuperation (orb pickup → heal).
• Class item: Powerful Attraction (dodge vacuums orbs) · Bomber (dodge → grenade) · Outreach (melee kill → class energy).
• Stat tuning: +Weapons/−Class and +Melee/−Class to push Weapons and Melee; you refund the dodge with Gambler's-near-enemy and Ionic Traces, so the Class stat is the cheapest trade.

Anti-Champion 2.0: the Horseman carries no bespoke champion stun in its perk text, and shotguns aren't a stun archetype — so jolt + blind is your champion answer, not the gun. Blind (Lethal Current melee, Spark of Beacons explosion) stuns Overload behaviour; jolt (everything) handles add-density and chains. Bring Barrier/Unstoppable coverage on the primary or Heavy (intrinsic archetype stun) — the Horseman build covers Overload via blind and leans on teammates/seasonal artifact for the other two.

Where it shines

• Close-quarters add-dense PvE — Onslaught, Nightfalls, dungeon trash rooms, Lost Sectors. Full-auto Arc shotgun + Combination Blow ramp + blind = you walk into a pack and it stops existing.
• Minibosses / Champions: point the Horseman at a powerful target and it fully reloads mid-fight (intrinsic) — sustained close burst; jolt + blind do the stun work shotguns can't.
• Champion coverage: Overload via blind (Lethal Current + Spark of Beacons). Barrier/Unstoppable must come from your primary/Heavy archetype or the seasonal artifact — the shotgun does not stun them.
• Weak spot: anything that out-ranges a shotgun. The primary covers mid-range; don't try to bridge a long lane with the Horseman.