Arc

The Prospector — Danger Zone (Arc Hunter)

Stand-in-the-pile add-clear / blind-lock engine

✓ Manifest Arc · Heavy · 165 RPM · No intrinsic champion

Centerpiece: The Prospector (Grenade Launcher · Heavy · Arc) · Subclass: Arcstrider · Role: Stand-in-the-pile add-clear / blind-lock engine Sandbox: 9.7.0 · Updated 2026-07-03

A full-auto Arc cluster-bomb launcher that pays you for being surrounded. The catalyst widens the blast the more bodies crowd you and stops the splash from killing you, so the correct play is to wade into the pack, not back off it. Pair that suicidal positioning with Gifted Conviction's jolt-DR and Spark of Beacons' blind-on-Arc-Heavy-kill loop, and the thing that should get you killed is the thing that keeps you alive.

The weapon

Excavation (intrinsic): "Grenades spawn cluster bombs upon detonation. Defeating targets creates Arc explosions."

Prospector Catalyst — Danger Zone: "The blast radius of this weapon increases when surrounded by combatants. While active, this weapon deals significantly less damage to the wielder."

What it does: The Prospector is a full-auto, drum-fed 165 RPM Arc Heavy Grenade Launcher that lobs sticky grenades. Each detonation spawns cluster bombs for a second wave of splash, and every kill emits an Arc explosion, so one held trigger seeds a chain of overlapping AoE across a crowd. The catalyst inverts the usual GL safety rule: instead of fearing your own splash you hug enemies for a bigger blast and near-immunity to self-damage. It is a held-trigger area-denial gun, not a single-target DPS gun. Feed it crowds, stand in the middle of them, and let the cluster-plus-Arc-explosion chain do the clearing while the catalyst keeps you standing.

Loadout

Slot	Pick	Why
Subclass	Arcstrider	Native amplified / jolt / Ionic-Trace verbs that the gun's Arc explosions and kills feed directly.
Super	Gathering Storm	Throw-and-jolt area super; it sticks the pack so The Prospector farms a jolted, soon-to-be-blinded crowd.
Class ability	Marksman's Dodge	Reloads the drum on dodge, refilling the small mag mid-fight without leaving the pile.
Movement	High Jump	Extra vertical to reposition into or out of the pack while the cluster chain plays out.
Melee	Combination Blow	Melee kill grants heal + full melee back + a stacking melee-damage buff; in-your-face melee that matches the in-the-pile range.
Grenade	Storm Grenade	With Touch of Thunder it leaves a roaming thundercloud, an extra jolt / Ionic-Trace source layered over the GL splash.
Aspect 1	Flow State	"Defeating a jolted target makes you amplified." The gun's Arc explosions plus grenade jolt keep you amplified for free, which arms Spark of Beacons.
Aspect 2	Touch of Thunder	Gives Storm Grenade the roaming thundercloud, raising jolt uptime and Ionic-Trace generation for more dodge / ability energy.
Fragments	Spark of Beacons · Spark of Ions · Spark of Discharge · Spark of Resistance	Beacons is the keystone blind; Ions and Discharge run the trace economy; Resistance is DR while surrounded.
Exotic armour	Gifted Conviction (Chest)	Jolting nearby targets grants damage resistance, and you jolt constantly, so it converts the gun's output into the DR the positioning demands.
Weapons	Arc auto rifle / SMG (Voltshot or Jolting Feedback) + The Prospector in Heavy	The Arc primary is your jolt primer (feeds Flow State to amplified) and your Overload / champion coverage between drum dumps; the energy slot holds it, The Prospector holds Heavy.

Fragments

Spark of Beacons · Spark of Ions · Spark of Discharge · Spark of Resistance

Why it works (the mechanics)

Danger Zone rewards the exact positioning that should kill you. Blast radius scales up while surrounded and self-damage is cut to near nothing, so the optimal range is inside the group. Every other GL build plays at max range; this one plays at zero, and that inversion is the whole identity.
The amplified-to-blind loop is self-sustaining off the gun. Arc explosions from kills plus Storm Grenade jolt keep targets jolted; Flow State turns each jolted kill into amplified; while amplified, Spark of Beacons makes your Arc Heavy final blows detonate a blinding explosion. The Prospector is Arc Heavy, so its own kills blind the room, and blinded enemies can't shoot back, which is what makes standing in the pile survivable.
Gifted Conviction is the DR you can't otherwise stack. Its chest perk grants damage resistance whenever you jolt nearby targets, and the build jolts nonstop (Arc explosions, Storm Grenade, jolt-primer auto). Layered with Spark of Resistance (DR while surrounded) and blind uptime, you get three independent in-the-pile survival sources off the same offence.
The Ionic-Trace economy reloads everything. Spark of Ions (jolted kills) and Spark of Discharge (Arc weapon kills) both spawn Ionic Traces; the gun manufactures kills in bulk, and traces feed melee / grenade / dodge energy, so more Storm Grenades, more Combination Blow heals, and more Marksman's Dodge reloads all flow from the same crowd.
Marksman's Dodge solves the small magazine. The Prospector's drum is its only real downside; dodging refills it instantly, and you're dodging anyway to reposition inside the pack, so you never leave the fight to reload.
Gathering Storm is the panic and setup button. Thrown into the densest pack it jolts and pins a crowd that The Prospector then farms, a pre-jolted, soon-to-be-blinded group is exactly what the loop wants.

Stats & mods

Health 200 → Grenade → Class. You live in melee range, so Health is the real survival stat under the DR layers; Grenade keeps Storm Grenade (the jolt / trace engine) flowing; Class powers the Marksman's Dodge reload. Melee is a secondary lean for Combination Blow (Spark of Resistance adds +10 there for free). Archetype lean: a bruiser add-clear spread, Health-primary with a Grenade secondary, not a weapons or super build.

Mods:

Boots: Heavy Ammo Scavenger + Heavy Ammo Finder (Heavy reserves are the build's only scarcity) · Innervation for grenade energy on Orb pickup.
Arms: Melee loaders / Heavy Hand for Combination Blow · Grenade Kickstart.
Chest (Gifted Conviction): Arc + Solar + Void Resistance, one each, flat DR stacked under the jolt-DR and blind layers.
Class item: Powerful Attraction (dodge vacuums Orbs and traces) · Bomber (grenade energy on dodge) · Reaper.
Surge: Arc Weapon Surge, matching The Prospector and the Arc primary.
Anti-Champion: none intrinsic to the gun — source it from the Arc primary's archetype (Overload) and the artifact (see below).

Artifact — Tablet of Ruin

The Arc / Bolt Charge artifact, a natural match for Arcstrider plus an Arc Heavy GL. It converts the build's nonstop jolt and blind into Bolt Charge and Orbs, feeds the Flow State amplified loop, and supplies the champion stun the gun itself lacks via Defibrillating Blast.

Picks (2/3/2):

Tier 1: Dielectric · Elemental Siphon
Tier 2: Flashover · Gold From Lead · Harsh Refraction
Tier 3: Defibrillating Blast · Limit Break

Dielectric grants Bolt Charge and spawns Orbs when you defeat Arc-debuffed targets, and the gun jolts and blinds the room nonstop.
Elemental Siphon mints Arc elemental pickups (Ionic Traces) on Arc weapon final blows, feeding the jolt-to-trace-to-ability economy the GL's bulk kills already drive.
Flashover turns max Bolt Charge into amplified, free-arming Spark of Beacons via Flow State.
Gold From Lead gives Special pickups a chance at Heavy ammo, topping the drum, the build's only scarcity.
Harsh Refraction adds bonus damage against elemental-debuffed targets, and you keep the whole pack jolted.
Defibrillating Blast stuns a Champion for max Bolt Charge plus jolt and heals, the champion coverage the GL can't bring.
Limit Break grants bonus Super damage when you cast Gathering Storm while amplified, which Flow State keeps you.

Where it shines

Add-dense PvE: Battlegrounds, Onslaught, Nightfall lead-ups, Legend / Master lost sectors. Anywhere a crowd forms, Danger Zone maxes its blast and the blind loop locks the room. This is its home.
GM trash-clear: as a room-resetter (blind + jolt + AoE) while your auto and super handle priority targets. Not a boss-DPS pick.
Champion coverage: The Prospector has no intrinsic champion stun (manifest champion field is null; no "Strong against" tag in its perk text). Bring stun from (a) the Arc primary's archetype — an Overload auto / SMG, or swap to a Barrier / Unstoppable frame per activity; and (b) the artifact — Defibrillating Blast stuns Champions off Bolt Charge, and constant jolted-kill blinds crowd-control the rest. Treat champion stun as a secondary-weapon + artifact job, not the GL's.

Verify notes

Manifest-confirmed weapon facts (`data/weapon_facts.json`): The Prospector is Arc · Heavy · Grenade Launcher · 165 RPM · champion = null (no intrinsic Anti-Champion stun). Prior prose omitted the RPM; now stated.
Excavation intrinsic text is verbatim from `docs/encyclopedia/exotics.md` (line 330). Danger Zone catalyst text is verbatim from `docs/encyclopedia/catalysts.md` (line 115).
Aspects verbatim from `docs/encyclopedia/aspects.md`: Flow State (line 73), Touch of Thunder (line 200). Fragments verbatim from `docs/encyclopedia/fragments.md`: Spark of Beacons (line 70, +1 cost), Spark of Discharge (line 72), Spark of Ions (line 82, +1 cost), Spark of Resistance (line 86, +1 cost / +10 Melee).
Manifest note (corrected): the manifest also stores a near-identical Solar-flavoured blurb on the base Danger Zone perk ("More powerful combatants… cause scorch in a larger radius"). That reads as legacy text — The Prospector is Arc, not Solar — so the Arc catalyst blast-radius / self-damage line quoted above is the one that governs play. Confirm in-game which sentence is live.
Numbers flagged manifest/tuning: exact Danger Zone blast-radius scaling, self-damage reduction %, Gifted Conviction DR %, and blind / amplified durations are behaviour-confirmed but not numerically in `clarity_build_numbers.md`; treat as manifest/tuning. Built on Tier 4+ gear, no set bonus (garnish only).
Artifact + exact 2/3/2 unchanged from the prior build (Tablet of Ruin); only reformatted. Spark of Beacons fires on Arc Special or Heavy final blows and The Prospector qualifies (Arc Heavy); confirm the blind procs on cluster-bomb / Arc-explosion kills, not only direct impacts — encyclopedia guarantees the behaviour, not the exact proc trigger.

Mod selection (masterworked — full allocation)

Piece	Mod · cost	What it does
Helmet (7/10)	Heavy Ammo Finder 1e	Increases the effect of all contributions towards the Heavy ammo meter.
	Arc Siphon 3e fill	Rapid Arc weapon final blows create an Orb of Power.
	Ashes to Assets 3e fill	Gain bonus Super energy on grenade kills.
Arms (8/10)	Grenade Kickstart 3e	When your grenade energy is fully expended, your Armor Charge is consumed and you gain grenade energy for each Armor Charge used.
	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 (5/10)	Void Resistance 1e	Reduces incoming Void damage from combatants.
	Arc Resistance 1e fill	Reduces incoming Arc damage from combatants.
	Concussive Dampener 3e fill	Reduces incoming area-of-effect damage from combatants.
Legs (3/10)	Innervation 1e	Reduces grenade cooldown each time you pick up an Orb of Power.
	Arc Weapon Surge 1e	Your Arc weapons gain a small bonus to damage while you have any Armor Charge. Your Armor Charge now decays over time.
	Arc Weapon Surge 1e fill	Your Arc weapons gain a small bonus to damage while you have any Armor Charge. Your Armor Charge now decays over time.
Class Item (4/10)	Powerful Attraction 2e	Automatically collects nearby Orbs of Power when you activate your class ability.
	Reaper 1e	Shortly after using your class ability, your next weapon final blow spawns an Orb of Power.
	Bomber 1e	Reduces grenade cooldown when using your class ability.

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: one each; flat DR stacked under the jolt-DR; matching The Prospector; the Arc primary. - **Anti-Champion:** none intrinsic to the gun — source it from the Arc primary's archetype (Overload); the artifact (see below).