The Huckleberry — Ride the Bull (Hunter)

Centerpiece: The Huckleberry (Submachine Gun · Primary · Kinetic) · Subclass: Arcstrider (Arc) · Role: Trigger-down add-clear engine that sets up a healing one-punch melee chain Sandbox: 9.7.0 · Updated 2026-07-03

Hold the trigger and never let go. The Huckleberry ramps its own rate of fire the longer you fire, reloads itself on every kill, and — with the catalyst — turns sustained fire into shockwaves that gut whole packs. It's a Kinetic primary, so it costs no energy slot and asks for no element synergy; it just wants a subclass that rewards killing fast and never reloading. Arc Arcstrider is that subclass: the SMG thins the room, Combination Blow punches the survivor for a healing one-shot, and Flow State keeps you Amplified so the trigger-down loop reloads, regens, and jolts forever.

The weapon

Ride the Bull (intrinsic, verbatim):

Increases rate of fire and recoil while you're holding down the trigger. Final blows dealt with this weapon reload the magazine.

Catalyst — Kinetic Tremors (verbatim):

Sustained kinetic damage to a target emits a shockwave that damages any nearby targets.

What it does: the gun punishes good trigger discipline in reverse — the longer you hold fire, the faster (and looser) it shoots, so the optimal habit is to keep the trigger down off its 750 RPM base and walk the recoil up. Every final blow refills the mag, so against a packed room you functionally never reload — kills are your reload, and the escalating rate of fire means kills come faster the longer the stream lasts. The catalyst converts that sustained stream into an AoE: land enough hits on one target and a Kinetic Tremor shockwave ripples to everything nearby, so single-target fire becomes pack damage. It's a horde-clear primary with an infinite practical magazine, not a precision DPS gun — its job is to soften a whole pack to the melee threshold at once.

Loadout

Slot	Pick	Why
Subclass	Arcstrider (Arc)	Amplified = faster reload/melee/dodge regen; jolt + Combination Blow turn SMG add-clear into a healing melee loop.
Super	Gathering Storm	Throw-and-jolt staff embeds and lightning-strikes a wide area — clears the room the Huckleberry was already thinning, and its jolts feed Flow State.
Class ability	Gambler's Dodge	Near enemies it refunds melee energy → another Combination Blow punch, and resets the SMG-kill rhythm.
Movement	Strafe Jump	Best directional air control for repositioning inside a pack while holding the trigger down.
Melee	Combination Blow	Melee kill heals, refunds dodge, and stacks a damage buff (×3); the SMG sets up the kill, the punch chain sustains you.
Grenade	Flux Grenade	Sticky burst for a guaranteed kill to start a Combination Blow chain (swap Pulse for lingering jolt-bait with Spark of Shock).
Aspect 1	Flow State	Defeating a jolted target grants Amplified; while Amplified, faster reload/melee/dodge regen and reduced flinch — perfect for trigger-down recoil control. Opens 2 Fragment slots.
Aspect 2	Lethal Current	After dodging, the next melee jolts with an aftershock, and melee hits jolt — so every Combination Blow punch creates the jolted target Flow State needs. 1 Fragment slot.
Fragments	Ions / Discharge / Resistance	Jolted kills → Ionic Traces (ability energy), Arc-ability kills → chance Traces, and DR while surrounded — and you are always surrounded.
Exotic armour	Liar's Handshake (Gauntlets)	Cross Counter: your Arc melee follows up with an extremely powerful, big-heal counterpunch — the burst delete the Huckleberry can't provide.
Weapons	Arc/energy champion weapon + Heavy (MG/Rocket)	The free energy slot covers champions the SMG can't; Heavy is the single-target ceiling for bosses the punch can't reach.

Why it works (the mechanics)

• "Kills reload" and "Arc kills = abilities" stack into one loop. Ride the Bull refills the mag on every final blow; Spark of Ions / Spark of Discharge turn jolted and Arc-ability kills into Ionic Traces that refund melee, grenade and class energy. A stream of kills simultaneously reloads the gun and recharges the punch — the gun never stops and the melee is always up.
• Flow State makes trigger-down the correct playstyle. Holding the trigger ramps rate of fire and recoil; Amplified (from Flow State) tightens handling and reload and cuts flinch, exactly cancelling the recoil drawback. The gun wants you Amplified, and the subclass keeps you Amplified off jolted kills.
• Lethal Current manufactures the jolt that powers everything. Flow State needs jolted kills to grant Amplified; Lethal Current makes every melee hit jolt. So a Combination Blow punch jolts → the SMG (or the punch) kills the jolted target → Amplified → faster everything → back to the trigger. Self-igniting.
• The catalyst converts a single-target gun into AoE that feeds the melee. Kinetic Tremors shockwaves spread the Huckleberry's damage across the pack, dropping multiple adds to the one-punch threshold at once, so Combination Blow always has a fresh kill to chain — and chained melee kills are what keep the ×3 buff and the heal alive.
• Liar's Handshake is the burst the SMG can't provide. The Huckleberry is a primary — it has no boss or major delete. Cross Counter stacked under Combination Blow's ×3 is that delete, and it heals on contact, so the build's survivability and its single-target answer are the same punch. The gun's role is strictly setup.
• No energy-slot tax. Because the Huckleberry sits in the Kinetic slot, the entire Arc energy slot is free for a champion or utility weapon. Most exotic-primary builds fight over the energy slot; this one doesn't.

Stats & mods

Weapons 200 → Melee → Health. The 9.7.0 Weapons stat adds PvE weapon damage vs minors/majors — straight value on a primary you fire constantly, and it juices the Kinetic Tremor chip. Melee toward ~100 for Combination Blow / Liar's uptime; Health for survivability in the brawl. Archetype lean: Gunner (Weapons/Melee) pieces wherever possible, Brawler for the Melee tilt.

Mods:

• Boots: Kinetic Weapon Surge ×2 (the correct surge — the Huckleberry is Kinetic, not Arc) · Innervation (grenade energy on Orb pickup).
• Arms: Heavy Handed ×2 (melee kills refund melee energy — chains Combination Blow) · Melee Font toward ~100 Melee.
• Chest: Arc/Void/Solar Resistance ×3 — flat DR layered under Combination Blow's heal and Spark of Resistance.
• Class item: Powerful Attraction (dodge vacuums Orbs) · Bomber / Outreach (ability regen on dodge).
• Surge: Kinetic Weapon Surge — matches the Kinetic Huckleberry, not the Arc subclass.
• Anti-Champion: none intrinsic to the Huckleberry — cover from the free energy slot + jolt/blind (see Where it shines).

Artifact — Encrypted Data Disk

The Arc disk amplifies the build's jolt economy and turns it into champion coverage: every Combination Blow / Lethal Current jolt becomes a blind (Overload stun), while Arc-debuffed kills spit out Orbs and Bolt Charge — and it still feeds the Kinetic Huckleberry directly.

Picks (2/3/2):

• Tier 1: Kinetic Synthesis · Fierce Proxemics
• Tier 2: Dielectric · Blinding Jolts · Counter Energy
• Tier 3: Tazer Tag · Kinetic Rupture

• Kinetic Synthesis — sustained Kinetic damage spawns ammo bricks; the Huckleberry is Kinetic, so the trigger-down stream refuels itself.
• Fierce Proxemics — finisher kills refund grenade and melee energy, topping up the Combination Blow punch.
• Dielectric — Arc-debuffed kills grant Bolt Charge, and rapid ones spawn Orbs and heal, paying off the jolt loop.
• Blinding Jolts — jolted final blows blind nearby targets, turning your constant jolts into Overload stun.
• Counter Energy — stunning a champion returns ability energy, tying champion play back into the punch/dodge loop.
• Tazer Tag — Arc melee jolts, so every punch jolts the target Flow State needs for Amplified.
• Kinetic Rupture — Kinetic damage on powerful targets makes a Rupture AoE, stacking with the Kinetic Tremors catalyst for pack softening.

Where it shines

• Add-dense PvE — GMs, Onslaught, Legend/Master content. The infinite practical magazine + Kinetic Tremors + a healing one-punch chain is a horde-clear specialist. This is its lane: rooms full of reds and oranges, not boss DPS.
• Content with a single priority target. Clear the pack with the gun, soften the priority to threshold with Tremors, then Cross Counter + Combination Blow ×3 deletes it and heals you on contact.
• Champion coverage — flag it. The Huckleberry carries no intrinsic champion stun (weapon_facts.json champion = null). Cover champions from the free Arc energy slot — an Overload/Unstoppable frame — while jolt (Lethal Current / Gathering Storm) handles Overload behaviourally and blind (Blinding Jolts / Gathering Storm staff) stuns Overload and interrupts. The Super staggers Unstoppable-class elites on the throw.

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: not the Arc subclass. - **Anti-Champion:** none intrinsic to the Huckleberry — cover from the free energy slot + jolt/blind (see Where it shines).