Solar

Whisper of the Worm — Bottomless Mag (Solar Hunter)

Sustained boss/major DPS — the no-reload precision turret

Your gear best achievable Weapons 161 / 200 target — 39 short

Health 30 · Melee 46 · Grenade 63 · Super 23 · Class 38 · Weapons 161 · armour only; stat mods + fragments add more

✓ Manifest Solar · Heavy · 72 RPM · No intrinsic champion

Centerpiece: Whisper of the Worm (Sniper Rifle · Heavy · Solar) · Subclass: Gunslinger · Role: Sustained boss/major DPS — the no-reload precision turret Sandbox: 9.7.0 · Updated 2026-07-03

Land three precision hits in a heartbeat and the magazine refills out of nowhere — White Nail turns Whisper into a sniper that never reloads as long as you keep hitting the crit box. The whole build is one sentence: stack every multiplier the game lets you stack on top of that uninterrupted fire. Tractor Cannon for the weaken, Radiant for the buff, a one-shot Nighthawk Golden Gun to open the burst, and a subclass that pays you back for every precision hit. Miss nothing, reload nothing, delete the boss.

The weapon

White Nail (exotic intrinsic, verbatim): Higher base precision damage. Rapidly landing three precision hits will refill the magazine.

Whisper Catalyst — Whispered Breathing (verbatim): Aiming this weapon without firing for a brief moment grants bonus range and precision damage while it remains zoomed.

Three fast crits pull a fresh magazine straight from reserves with no reload animation, so against a stationary crit box — every raid and dungeon boss — Whisper fires effectively forever until reserves run dry. The catalyst layers a free precision-damage bump the instant you settle the scope before the shot; it costs nothing to hold ADS for a beat, so you always fire "breathing." It is a slow-firing Heavy Sniper (72 RPM) whose real magazine is its entire reserve pool, and its intrinsic higher-base precision damage means every one of those shots lands harder than a legendary. No champion stun is baked into Whisper (see Verify notes), so the build brings its own champion answers in the other slots and lets Whisper do what it does best — one enormous, repeatable, reload-free precision hit after another.

Loadout

Slot	Pick	Why
Subclass	Gunslinger (Solar)	Radiant + a one-shot Super burst window stack cleanly onto White Nail's sustained fire.
Super	Golden Gun: Marksman	With Celestial Nighthawk → one massive shot to open the DPS phase before Whisper takes over.
Class ability	Marksman's Dodge	Instant reload tops Whisper's mag for free and repositions you to the crit angle.
Movement	Triple Jump	Extra mid-air control to line the scope onto the crit box and peek from cover.
Melee	Weighted Throwing Knife	Precision knife kill → Radiant; refunds melee while Radiant via Knock 'Em Down.
Grenade	Healing Grenade	Sustain so you can plant your feet and hold the scope; the gun is the damage.
Aspect 1	On Your Mark	Precision hits grant stacking reload and Weapons stat, up to ten stacks — and Whisper is nothing but precision hits.
Aspect 2	Knock 'Em Down	Marksman Golden Gun gains increased duration; while Radiant, knife kills refund melee.
Fragments	Torches · Solace · Empyrean · Eruption · Singeing	Light Radiant off the knife, then let Whisper's Solar kills keep it lit for the whole phase.
Exotic armour	Celestial Nighthawk (Helmet)	Turns Marksman Golden Gun into one high-damage opener; precision kills refund Super.
Weapons	Tractor Cannon (Void Heavy Shotgun) + a matching-archetype legendary special	Tractor's ~30% weaken multiplies every Whisper shot and stuns Overload; the legendary covers Barrier/Unstoppable.

Fragments

Ember of Torches powered-melee hits → Radiant for you and allies) · Ember of Solace (Radiant/restoration last longer — keep the weapon buff up across the whole burst) · Ember of Empyrean (Solar kills extend Radiant — Whisper's own kills self-sustain the buff) · Ember of Eruption (+10 Melee, bigger ignitions for the knife) · Ember of Singeing (class-ability regen on scorch → faster Marksman's Dodge reloads

Why it works (the mechanics)

White Nail removes the reload, the build removes everything between shots. A boss DPS phase is just "land crits." Marksman's Dodge and Whisper's own refill mean you are never out of magazine; the only limiter is reserves, which scavenger and Finisher mods top back up mid-phase.
Stack independent multipliers, not redundant ones. Whisper's per-shot damage rides on separate buckets that all multiply together: White Nail's higher base precision damage, Radiant (an empowering buff), and Tractor Cannon's weaken (a debuff). Buff and debuff are different buckets, so they multiply — the highest-ceiling pairing in the game for a precision weapon.
On Your Mark double-dips off the exact thing Whisper does. Activating your class ability or landing precision hits grants stacking reload and Weapons stat, up to ten stacks. Weapons is the 9.7.0 PvE weapon-damage stat, so simply landing Whisper crits ramps your own damage further — a bonus multiplier sourced for free from the act of firing.
Celestial Nighthawk front-loads the burst. Marksman Golden Gun becomes one high-damage shot to open the phase; Hawkeye Hack refunds Super energy off that precision kill (and Whisper's precision kills after), so the Nighthawk shot comes back faster between phases. Knock 'Em Down extends the Golden Gun window so the opening shot lines up cleanly.
Radiant is self-sustaining for the whole phase. The knife lights Radiant (Ember of Torches); Whisper's Solar kills extend it (Ember of Empyrean); Ember of Solace stretches the timer. You light Radiant once and the gun keeps it lit, so the empowering bucket stays live for the entire mag-less window.
The catalyst is free uptime. Whispered Breathing pays bonus precision damage just for settling the scope a beat before firing — which is exactly how you fire a Sniper at a crit box anyway. Zero opportunity cost.

Stats & mods

Weapons 200 → Health → Class. Weapons is the PvE weapon-damage stat and this build's entire output is weapon damage; Health for survivability while you stand still on the crit; Class for faster Marksman's Dodge reloads.

Archetype lean: Powerhouse (Weapons/Super) and Gunner pieces; a Brawler piece if you want extra Melee for the knife loop.

Mods:

Boots: Solar Surge ×2–3 — bonus Solar weapon damage applied straight onto Whisper while you hold Armor Charge.
Arms: Sniper Loader — faster ready/reload so Marksman's Dodge and White Nail feel instant.
Chest: Unflinching Sniper Aim + a resist mod — steady the scope while you plant your feet on the crit box.
Class item: Sniper Scavenger + Heavy Ammo Finder — reserves are the real ammo cap, so top them constantly.
Surge: Solar Weapon Surge (the empowering armour-charge bucket for Whisper).
Anti-Champion: none native to Whisper — covered by Tractor Cannon (Overload) and the legendary special's archetype (Barrier/Unstoppable).

Artifact — Implement of Curiosity

The Solar artifact that feeds Whisper's exact loop: precision hits light Radiant and ramp a Sniper-only Armor Charge engine, weakened/scorched majors eat bonus Solar damage, and it carries the Unstoppable stun Whisper itself lacks.

Picks (2/3/2):

Tier 1: Fever and Chill · Semi-Auto Striker
Tier 2: Cauterized Darkness · Energy Acceleration · Elemental Daze
Tier 3: Radiant Shrapnel · Elemental Overdrive

Fever and Chill turns Solar precision hits into Radiant — Whisper is nothing but precision hits, so this opens and keeps the empowering bucket live without spending the knife.
Semi-Auto Striker makes rapid Sniper precision shots generate Armor Charge, fuelling the Solar Surge ×2–3 that rides on every Whisper crit.
Cauterized Darkness makes Tractor-weakened majors take increased Solar damage — a bonus multiplier layered onto every Whisper shot into the boss.
Energy Acceleration supplies Unstoppable coverage that neither Whisper nor Tractor Cannon carries.
Elemental Daze applies a matching debuff and detonation when you stun a champion with a Solar weapon — more debuff bucket on the target.
Radiant Shrapnel and Elemental Overdrive keep Radiant fed and grant Solar weapon damage off Solar elemental pickups — both direct Whisper multipliers that stay live across the phase.

Where it shines

Raid & dungeon bosses: Whisper's home turf — a stationary crit box plus White Nail is a no-reload damage turret, and Tractor weaken + Radiant + the Nighthawk opener is a top-tier single-target rotation.
Grandmaster Nightfalls / -pinnacle content: Tractor Cannon weakens the room and the legendary special covers the champions Whisper can't; hold Whisper for boss and major damage.
Champion coverage: Whisper breaks nothing intrinsically (no listed champion mod). Overload → Tractor Cannon (Repulsor Force) and Implement's Elemental Daze/Energy Acceleration line; Barrier/Unstoppable → bring a matching-archetype legendary special in the open slot.

Verify notes

Manifest-confirmed weapon facts (`data/weapon_facts.json`): Whisper of the Worm = Sniper Rifle · Heavy · Solar · 72 RPM · intrinsic champion none. The build's header and prose now match these exactly.
White Nail intrinsic verbatim from `docs/encyclopedia/exotics.md:355` and `docs/encyclopedia/perks.md:3459`. Whispered Breathing (Whisper Catalyst) verbatim from `docs/encyclopedia/catalysts.md:164` / `perks.md:3458` — note the catalyst is filed as "Whisper Catalyst," not the literal weapon name.
On Your Mark verbatim from `docs/encyclopedia/aspects.md:142` ("...increased reload speed and Weapons stat... Stacks ten times"); Knock 'Em Down from `aspects.md:120`; Celestial Nighthawk / Hawkeye Hack from `exotics.md:18`; Tractor Cannon is Void · Heavy · Overload per `data/weapon_facts.json`.
Radiant empowering % and Tractor Cannon ~30% weaken are standard sandbox values not pinned in `clarity_build_numbers.md` (Radiant entries confirm the buff and Ember of Solace duration bump but not the damage figure); treat both percentages as manifest/tuning — confirm in-game.
Solar Weapon Surge damage per stack is described but not numerically listed in the encyclopedia (`clarity_build_numbers.md` gives surge behaviour, not the exact % curve) — flagged manifest/tuning.
Corrected from the un-normalised file: the previous H1 read "(Hunter)" with no element and the header omitted RPM; both are now grounded to Solar / 72 RPM from `weapon_facts.json`. Ember fragment stat penalties for non-Void fragments are flagged possibly-stale per `docs/knowledge/fragments.md` (effects current, stat deltas may have shifted).

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.
	Solar Siphon 3e fill	Rapid Solar weapon final blows create an Orb of Power.
	Ashes to Assets 3e fill	Gain bonus Super energy on grenade kills.
Arms (6/10)	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.
	Fastball 1e fill	Increases grenade throw distance.
Chest (6/10)	Solar Resistance 2e fill	Reduces incoming Solar damage from combatants.
	Concussive Dampener 3e fill	Reduces incoming area-of-effect damage from combatants.
	Sniper Damage Resistance 1e fill	Reduces incoming damage from combatants that are at long range.
Legs (3/10)	Solar Weapon Surge 1e	Your Solar weapons gain a small bonus to damage while you have any Armor Charge. Your Armor Charge now decays over time.
	Solar Weapon Surge 1e	Your Solar weapons gain a small bonus to damage while you have any Armor Charge. Your Armor Charge now decays over time.
	Solar Weapon Surge 1e	Your Solar weapons gain a small bonus to damage while you have any Armor Charge. Your Armor Charge now decays over time.
Class Item (4/10)	Reaper 1e fill	Shortly after using your class ability, your next weapon final blow spawns an Orb of Power.
	Bomber 1e fill	Reduces grenade cooldown when using your class ability.
	Powerful Attraction 2e fill	Automatically collects nearby Orbs of Power when you activate 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: the legendary special's archetype (Barrier/Unstoppable).