Traveler's Chosen — Gathering Light (Arc Hunter)

Centerpiece: Traveler's Chosen (Sidearm · Primary · Kinetic) · Subclass: Arcstrider · Role: Ability-spam battery — bank kills into all three abilities, then punch with Liar's Sandbox: 9.7.0 · Updated 2026-07-03

The only Primary in the game whose alt-fire is "press to refund melee, grenade, AND class energy at once." Traveler's Chosen turns trash kills into an ability bank, then lets you cash the whole bank in one button. The build is built around the cash-out: an Arc melee that heals on the punch (Liar's), a dodge that resets that melee, and an Arc verb economy (amplified / jolt / Ionic Traces) that every refunded ability tops up. Run the Osmosis catalyst with an Arc grenade and the Kinetic sidearm turns Arc, so the whole loop stays one element. You are never out of an ability for more than a second.

The weapon

Traveler's Chosen (Sidearm) — Final blows with this weapon grant stacks of Gathering Light. [Alternate Weapon Action] : Consume stacks, granting melee, grenade, and class ability energy based on the number of stacks.

Gift of the Traveler — Each stack of Gathering Light improves this weapon's reload, handling, and target acquisition.

Catalyst — Osmosis: Using your grenade ability partially refills the magazine and changes this weapon's damage type to match your grenade until you stow it. / Surplus: Increases handling, reload speed, and stability for each fully charged ability.

What it does: kill minors with the sidearm to bank Gathering Light stacks — and the gun reloads, handles and acquires targets better per stack via Gift of the Traveler. When stacks are high, hit [Alternate Weapon Action] to dump them into all three ability energies at once, not one ability, all of them. You choose when to cash: stack high before a room, then walk in topped off on melee, grenade and class. Osmosis then matches the gun's damage type to your grenade — throw the Arc grenade and this Kinetic frame becomes Arc — so every refilled grenade re-Arcs the weapon and the Spark loop keeps feeding. Surplus rewards the state this build lives in, abilities charged, with flat handling, reload and stability. It is the single best ability-economy Primary for a Hunter who wants to throw abilities constantly.

Loadout

Slot	Pick	Why
Subclass	Arcstrider (Arc)	Amplified, jolt and Ionic Traces are all cast-driven; Traveler's Chosen is an ability-cast machine, and Osmosis keeps the gun on-element.
Super	Gathering Storm	Arc Staff throw that jolts and rains lightning — clears the field and its tick-kills feed Ionic Traces.
Class ability	Gambler's Dodge	Dodging near an enemy fully refunds the melee, re-arming Combination Blow and Cross Counter instantly; scales with the Melee stat (9.7.0).
Movement	High Jump	Extra vertical to reposition into and out of the melee scrum without burning the dodge.
Melee	Combination Blow	Melee kill grants heal + stacking melee damage + dodge energy; Liar's follow-up counterpunch heals on top, and the [AWA] dump keeps it always charged.
Grenade	Flux Grenade	Sticks and detonates for heavy single-target Arc damage; throwing any grenade re-procs Osmosis, re-Arcing and partially reloading the gun.
Aspect 1	Lethal Current	After dodging, the next melee jolts and adds an aftershock and extended lunge — turns the Gambler's-refunded punch into AoE jolt.
Aspect 2	Flow State	A jolted kill makes you amplified (DR plus faster reload/handling/dodge regen), so the survivability layer keys straight off Lethal Current's jolt.
Fragments	Spark of Discharge · Spark of Ions · Spark of Resistance · Spark of Amplitude	Two independent Ionic-Trace sources, +10 Melee and DR while surrounded, plus Orbs while amplified.
Exotic armour	Liar's Handshake (Gauntlets)	Converts the build's absurd melee uptime into both a damage multiplier and a heal-per-swing via the Cross Counter counterpunch.
Weapons	Arc Special + Arc Heavy	Keep both on Arc so surges and Spark effects stay on-element; source your Champion stuns here (the sidearm has none).

Why it works (the mechanics)

• The [AWA] dump refunds all three abilities at once. Most ability builds refund one verb per kill. Traveler's Chosen banks kills as Gathering Light, then pays melee, grenade and class in a single button. You decide when to cash — stack it high before a pull, then walk in topped off on everything.
• Liar's + Combination Blow + Gambler's is a closed melee loop. Punch (Combo Blow) → Cross Counter heals and lands a second punch → both punches stack Combo Blow damage and both spit out dodge energy → dodge near an enemy refunds the whole melee → punch again. The gun only has to start the loop; the [AWA] dump carries the melee through dry spells.
• Lethal Current into Flow State is the survivability spine. Dodge, then punch = jolt (Lethal Current). A jolted kill makes you amplified (Flow State) = damage resistance plus faster reload, handling and dodge regen. You generate your own DR off the exact melee loop you already run.
• Osmosis makes the whole thing mono-Arc. The gun's base element is Kinetic, but throwing the Arc grenade turns it Arc and partially reloads it. Now the sidearm's kills proc Spark of Discharge for Ionic Traces, its damage benefits from Arc surges, and the element never desyncs from the subclass — one element, one verb economy.
• Ionic Traces are the redundant refund layer. Discharge (weapon kills) and Ions (jolted kills) both spawn traces; traces snap to you and refill melee and grenade. Even without the [AWA] dump, the abilities are trickling back from gunfire and jolt kills — the dump is the burst, the traces are the drip.
• Gift of the Traveler + Surplus make the gun feel exotic to hold. Every banked stack improves reload, handling and target acquisition (Gift), and the charged-ability state this build never leaves grants flat handling, reload and stability (Surplus). The sidearm is snappiest exactly when you are playing it right.

Stats & mods

Melee 200 → Health → Class. Melee is the whole build — it drives Combo Blow damage, Cross Counter, Gambler's refund scaling and Lethal Current. Health next as the survivability floor (amplified, Combo Blow heals and Liar's heals already cover most sustain); Class for dodge uptime, the melee reset itself. Archetype lean: Brawler / Specialist pieces (Melee primary, Health/Class secondary).

Mods:

• Boots: Arc Weapon Surge ×2 (surge onto the now-Arc Traveler's Chosen) · Orbs of Restoration (orb pickup tops the least-charged ability).
• Arms: Melee Font ×2 (drives Melee toward 200) · Heavy-Handed (melee kills restore melee energy — another loop feed).
• Chest: Arc Resistance ×2 (flat DR that stacks under amplified).
• Class item: Powerful Attraction (dodge vacuums Orbs and traces) · Bomber (grenade energy on dodge — re-arms Osmosis).
• Surge: Arc Weapon Surge — one element across the whole kit.
• Anti-Champion: none native to the sidearm — carry the stun on the other two Arc slots (see below).

Artifact — Encrypted Data Disk

The Arc artifact for an Arc build: every pick here feeds the jolt → Orb → ability economy this loop already runs, and Counter Energy turns the Champion stuns from your other two slots into more ability energy for the [AWA] dump.

Picks (2/3/2):

• Tier 1: Fierce Proxemics · Rapid Remedy
• Tier 2: Dielectric · Blinding Jolts · Counter Energy
• Tier 3: Elemental Orbs: Arc · Tazer Tag

• Fierce Proxemics — finisher final blows refund grenade and melee energy, feeding straight into the ability-spam economy the [AWA] dump lives on.
• Rapid Remedy — Machine Gun rapid final blows heal you, a sustain layer keyed to this build's Arc MG heavy.
• Dielectric — Arc-debuffed kills grant Bolt Charge, then spawn an Orb and heal — the loop's core payoff, on-element.
• Blinding Jolts — jolted final blows blind nearby combatants, cashing the jolt Lethal Current already applies into crowd control.
• Counter Energy — stunning a Champion refunds your least-charged ability, pairing the Unstoppable/Overload answers in your other slots with more ability energy.
• Elemental Orbs: Arc — Arc final blows spawn an Arc Orb, keeping Orb generation on-element for the amplified/Orb fragments.
• Tazer Tag — Arc-powered melee hits jolt, feeding the Combination Blow + Lethal Current jolt-melee loop directly.

Where it shines

• Add-dense PvE (Onslaught, Nightfalls, GMs, patrols): trash feeds Gathering Light, the [AWA] dump funds the next pull, and Combo Blow + Liar's deletes elites in melee while amplified soaks the chip — an endless self-sustaining loop.
• Sustained melee brawling: any content where you can stay in the scrum rewards the closed punch-dodge-punch loop and the constant self-heal.
• Champion coverage: Traveler's Chosen has no bespoke Champion stun in its perk text and the sidearm frame carries no anti-Champion intrinsic (manifest champion field is empty). Jolt from Lethal Current/Blinding Jolts pressures Overloads behaviourally, but for reliable stuns bring an Arc Special for Unstoppable and an Arc Machine Gun for Overload in the other two slots.

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).