Tommy's Matchbook — Burn Notice (Hunter)

Weapon: Tommy's Matchbook (Auto Rifle · Primary · Solar) · Subclass: Solar Gunslinger · Role: Self-scorching add-clear ignition engine Sandbox: 9.7.0 · Created 2026-06-16

Hold the trigger until the gun catches fire. Tommy's punishes you with a self-burn for sustained fire — so build the entire kit to want that burn: the catalyst turns the overheat into a cure-on-kill, sustained fire stacks scorch on the target, and Solar Gunslinger converts that scorch into ignitions that heal, refund melee, and make Orbs. The downside becomes the ammo economy. You never stop holding the trigger.

The weapon

Ignition Trigger (exotic perk, verbatim): "Sustained fire with this weapon overheats it, increasing damage but burning the user."

Heat of the Moment (catalyst, verbatim): "While Ignition Trigger is active, final blows with this weapon cure you and sustained fire scorches your target."

What it does: the longer you hold the trigger, the more the gun heats — past the overheat threshold it deals more damage but chips your own health. The catalyst flips that liability into the build's core loop: once overheated, final blows cure you (offsetting the self-burn) and sustained fire applies scorch to whatever you're shooting. A 360-RPM Solar auto dumping scorch stacks into a target is exactly the input the Gunslinger ignition economy is built to consume. Without the catalyst this is a damage gun with a health tax; with it, the gun heals you and seeds ignitions on its own.

Loadout

Slot	Pick	Why
Subclass	Solar Gunslinger	The only subclass whose entire verb set (scorch → ignite) consumes Tommy's catalyst output.
Super	Golden Gun: Marksman	On-theme priority delete; Knock 'Em Down extends its duration. Swap to Blade Barrage for more ignition spam if you prefer.
Class ability	Marksman's Dodge	Instant Tommy reload between overheats — keeps the heat/scorch loop unbroken.
Melee	Lightweight Knife	Precision-kill → On Your Mark stacks + Firesprite fuel; cheap, fast, on-Solar.
Grenade	Healing Grenade	Extra cure layer on top of the catalyst; Ember of Benevolence fuel.
Aspect 1	On Your Mark	Class-ability/precision hits → reload + Weapons stat ×10 (9.7.0) — Tommy lands a hose of precision hits, so this is near-permanent.
Aspect 2	Gunpowder Gamble	Defeating targets charges a Solar explosive → a free ignition you throw on demand; pure synergy with a scorch-spamming primary.

Exotic armour — Caliban's Hand (Gauntlets)

Roast 'Em (verbatim): "Your Proximity Knife scorches targets it damages with its explosions, or ignites targets on final blow." Plus: "After throwing a Proximity Knife, you gain increased melee regeneration until the knife explodes. Gain a small amount of melee energy when your Scorch damages a target, and Ignition final blows fully refund melee energy and can overflow into an additional knife charge."

Why this is the weapon-centric pick, not the obvious "Lucky Pants for autos": there is no auto-rifle damage exotic, so the best armour is the one that closes Tommy's scorch loop. Caliban's grants melee energy whenever your scorch damages a target — and Tommy, post-catalyst, is a scorch firehose. So just holding the trigger drip-feeds melee charge, Ignition final blows fully refund the melee, and the refund can overflow an extra knife charge. (Use Proximity Knife as the equipped melee to claim the full Caliban's package; Lightweight Knife is the swap if you'd rather feed On Your Mark with precision throws.) The result: Tommy scorches → free melee → knife ignites → ignition refunds the melee → repeat.

Why this works (the mechanics)

• The catalyst inverts the downside. Ignition Trigger taxes your health for sustained fire; Heat of the Moment makes final blows cure and sustained fire scorch. You're now paid (heal + scorch) for doing the one thing the gun penalises. The "drawback" exotic becomes a healing add-clear primary.
• Scorch is the currency, and Tommy mints it for free. Every other ignition build has to spend an ability to apply scorch; Tommy applies it just by being held on a target. That frees the whole ability kit to be pure payoff — Caliban's melee, Gunpowder Gamble, and every Ember fragment fire off scorch that cost you nothing but trigger time.
• Ember of Char chains the ignitions. One ignition spreads scorch to everything nearby (Char) → those targets ignite → Ember of Wonder turns rapid ignition kills into Orbs → Searing turns scorched-target kills into melee + Firesprites. A single held burst on a pack cascades into an AoE ignition chain plus a pile of orbs.
• Caliban's makes the melee self-funding. Scorch (from Tommy) → passive melee energy; ignition final blow → full melee refund + possible overflow knife. The melee that causes ignitions is paid for by ignitions — a closed loop with no real cooldown, identical in spirit to the Khepri's/Phantom-Surge engine but driven by gunfire instead of a verb.
• On Your Mark double-dips the 9.7.0 Weapons stat. Tommy lands continuous precision hits → On Your Mark stacks ×10 → reload (keeps the overheat loop fed) plus Weapons stat, which adds PvE weapon damage on top of the overheat damage bonus. Two damage multipliers from just holding the trigger on a head.
• Gunpowder Gamble is a free, on-demand ignition. Add-clear charges it; you throw it at the next dense pack or a champion to manufacture an ignition Tommy would otherwise need a kill to start. It's the manual igniter when the passive scorch hasn't tipped a target over yet.
• The heal stack is absurd. Catalyst cure-on-kill + Healing Grenade + Empyrean extending restoration + Ember of Benevolence ability regen on cure. The self-burn never matters because three independent sources out-heal it.

Stats & mods

Weapons 200 → Health 100+ → Class → Melee. On Your Mark already adds Weapons stat on top, so a 200 base turns Tommy into a wrecking ball during the overheat window; Health 100+ to comfortably eat the self-burn before the cure lands; Class to keep Marksman's Dodge reloads frequent; Melee rounds out the Caliban's loop.

Archetypes: Gunner / Powerhouse pieces (Weapons + Super-leaning). Mods:

• Helmet: Solar Siphon (Solar kills → Orbs — Tommy makes these nonstop) · Ashes to Assets (Super on ability kills).
• Gauntlets: Melee Font · Firepower or Heavy Handed for extra economy.
• Chest: Solar/Arc/Void Resistance trio under the catalyst heal layer.
• Boots: Solar Weapon Surge ×2 (≈+17% Solar weapon damage — straight onto Tommy) · Innervation/Recuperation off the orb flood.
• Class item: Bomber + Powerful Attraction (dodge vacuums the Orbs you flood).
• Stat tuning: +Weapons/−Health where you can afford it; the heal stack covers the Health you trade away.

Set bonuses are garnish, never the driver. If your rolls already carry the stats, a Solar-scorch-flavoured 4pc is fine — slot it last.

Where it shines

• Add-clear / horde content (Battlegrounds, Nightfall trash waves, Onslaught): a self-healing Solar primary that ignites packs and never runs dry on abilities is exactly what this loadout is. Held trigger → scorch → ignition chain (Char) → orbs (Wonder) → repeat.
• Sustained-uptime survival: the catalyst cure + Healing Grenade + Empyrean restoration make it a comfortable solo/contest-clear primary.

Champion coverage — flag this: Tommy's Matchbook is a 360-RPM auto rifle. Under Anti-Champion 2.0, the Rapid-Fire / 360-RPM auto archetype does not carry an intrinsic champion stun, and Ignition Trigger grants no bespoke stun. Tommy handles no champion type by itself. Cover champions elsewhere:

• Anti-Barrier / Overload via the seasonal artifact (auto-rifle anti-champion mods are a recurring artifact column) — slot them onto Tommy directly when available.
• Or carry the stun on your other two slots (below). Ignitions also stagger many Unstoppables on contact, but don't rely on it as your only answer.

Other two weapon slots (complement + cover champions):

• Special: a Solar weapon to extend the surge/Empyrean theme and double down on the heal — e.g. an Ember-Solar Fusion or Glaive. Pick a frame/perk carrying a champion stun if the artifact isn't covering one.
• Heavy: a Machine Gun or Rocket for the bosses/heavies Tommy can't chew through; this is where your guaranteed boss DPS and a champion-stun archetype live (e.g. an Overload-frame heavy or Unstoppable via mods).

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).