The Huckleberry — Ride the Bull (Hunter)

Weapon: The Huckleberry (Submachine Gun · Primary · Kinetic) · Subclass: Arcstrider (Arc) · Role: Trigger-down add-clear engine that pays for a one-punch melee chain Sandbox: 9.7.0 · Created 2026-06-16

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 Kinetic Tremor shockwaves that gut whole packs. It's a Kinetic primary, so it costs you 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 (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 is a punishment for 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 and walk the recoil. Every final blow refills the mag, so against a packed room you functionally never reload — kills are your reload, and the escalating RoF 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 infinite practical mag, not a precision DPS gun.

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 jolts feed Flow State.
Class ability	Gambler's Dodge	Near enemies, refunds melee energy → another Combination Blow punch; also resets the SMG-kill rhythm.
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 (or Pulse)	Sticky burst for a guaranteed kill to start a Combination Blow chain; Pulse if you want lingering jolt-bait with Spark of Shock.
Aspect 1	Flow State	Defeating a jolted target → Amplified; while Amplified, faster reload/melee/dodge regen and you're harder to flinch — perfect for trigger-down recoil control. 2 Fragment slots.
Aspect 2	Lethal Current	After dodging, next melee jolts + aftershock; melee hits jolt — so every Combination Blow punch creates the jolted target Flow State needs. 1 Fragment slot.

Exotic armour — Liar's Handshake (Gauntlets)

Cross Counter (verbatim): 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.

This is the multiplier the build is built around. Liar's gives your Arc melee a massively buffed, big-heal counterpunch. Stack it under Combination Blow's own ×3 damage buff and a single punch one-shots majors in GM-tier content while topping your health — and Combination Blow refunds the dodge, while Gambler's Dodge near enemies refunds the melee, so the punch loop self-sustains. The Huckleberry's only job in the melee economy is to soften the target to the one-punch threshold and hand you the kill that resets the chain; its catalyst shockwaves do the softening across the whole pack at once.

Why this works (the mechanics)

• The Huckleberry's "kills reload" + Arc "kills = abilities" stack into one loop. Ride the Bull refills the mag on every final blow; Spark of Ions / Discharge turn jolted-kills into Ionic Traces that refund melee, grenade and class energy. So a stream of SMG 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 RoF and recoil; Amplified (from Flow State) tightens handling and reload and reduces 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 Combination Blow punches jolt → 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 to 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/major delete in it. Cross Counter + Combination Blow ×3 is that delete, and it heals on contact, so the build's survivability and its single-target answer are the same button. 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/utility weapon (below). Most exotic-primary builds fight over the energy slot; this one doesn't.

Stats & mods

Weapons 200 → Melee 100+ → Health/Class split. Weapons stat (9.7.0) adds PvE weapon damage vs minors/majors — straight value on a primary you fire constantly, and it juices the Kinetic Tremor chip. Melee ~100 for Combination Blow / Liar's uptime; Class to taste for Gambler's Dodge regen.

Archetypes: Gunner (Weapons/Melee) pieces wherever possible; Brawler for the Melee tilt. Mods by piece:

• Helmet: Heavy Handed (melee kills → melee energy — chains Combination Blow) · Harmonic/Arc Siphon (ability kills → Orbs).
• Gauntlets (Liar's): Heavy Handed ×2 if you want the punch back faster · Melee Font (→ ~100 Melee).
• Chest: Arc/Void/Solar Resistance ×3 — flat DR layered under Combination Blow's heal and Spark of Resistance.
• Boots: Kinetic Weapon Surge ×2 (≈+17% to the Huckleberry's damage — it's Kinetic, so Kinetic Surge is the correct surge, not Arc) · Innervation (grenade energy on Orb pickup).
• Class item: Powerful Attraction (dodge vacuums Orbs) · Bomber/Outreach for ability regen on dodge.

Note the surge: the Huckleberry is Kinetic, so your damage surge is Kinetic Weapon Surge even though the subclass is Arc. Don't reflexively slot Arc Surge.

Where it shines

• Add-dense PvE — GMs, Onslaught, Legend/Master content. The infinite practical mag + 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.
• Champion coverage — flag it. The Huckleberry carries no intrinsic champion stun. Under Anti-Champion 2.0, SMG stun depends on archetype (Lightweight/ Rapid-Fire → Overload), and this exotic has a bespoke perk, not a standard frame stun — treat its champion stun as unconfirmed (Verify notes). Cover champions from the free Arc energy slot and the artifact instead: an Overload/Unstoppable energy weapon, plus jolt (Lethal Current / Gathering Storm) handles Overload behaviourally, and blind (Gathering Storm staff / Arc artifact mods) stuns Overload + interrupts. The Super staggers Unstoppable-class elites on the throw.
• The other two slots (complement the primary): - Energy: a champion weapon — an Overload or Unstoppable frame (or a jolting Arc weapon) to cover what the Huckleberry can't. This is the slot the Kinetic primary frees up. - Heavy: a Machine Gun or Rocket for the boss/Champion the punch can't reach — the Huckleberry has no long-range or boss damage, so the Heavy is your single-target ceiling.