Solar

Whisper of the Worm — Bottomless Mag (Hunter)

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

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

Weapon: Whisper of the Worm (Sniper Rifle · Heavy · Solar) · Subclass: Gunslinger · Role: Sustained boss/champion DPS — the no-reload precision turret Sandbox: 9.7.0 · Created 2026-06-16

Land three precision hits in a heartbeat and the mag refills from nowhere — White Nail turns Whisper into a sniper that never reloads as long as you keep hitting the crit. The whole build is one sentence: stack every multiplier the game lets you stack on top of that uninterrupted fire. Tractor Cannon for the 30% weaken, Radiant for the buff, a one-shot Nighthawk Golden Gun to open the burst, and a subclass that makes precision hits pay you back. 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.

What it does: three fast crits pull a fresh mag straight from reserves with no reload animation, so against a stationary crit box (every raid/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's a 3-round-mag Aggressive sniper whose real magazine is its entire reserve pool. No champion stun is listed for Whisper (Verify notes), so the build brings its own champion answers in the other slots.

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) + reposition to the crit angle.
Melee	Weighted Throwing Knife	Precision knife kill → Radiant; refunds melee while Radiant (Knock 'Em Down).
Grenade	Healing Grenade	Sustain so you can hold the scope; the gun is the damage.
Aspect 1	On Your Mark	Precision hits grant stacking reload + Weapons stat ×10 — 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 (On Your Mark gives 3 slots + Knock 'Em Down 2 = 5)

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 weapon kills extend Radiant — Whisper kills self-sustain the buff
Ember of Eruption +10 Melee, bigger ignitions for the knife/Gamble clears
Ember of Singeing class-ability regen on scorch → faster Marksman's Dodge reloads

Exotic armour: Celestial Nighthawk (Helmet) — Hawkeye Hack: Precision final blows reduce the cooldown of your Super. Modifies Golden Gun to fire a single, high-damage shot. Targets defeated by that shot give you Super energy and explode.

Other two weapon slots:

Kinetic/Energy: Tractor Cannon (Exotic Shotgun) — Repulsor Force: …suppressing their abilities and dramatically weakening them. The ~30% weaken is a flat damage-bucket multiplier on every Whisper shot, and it stuns Overload champions. One trigger pull before you scope in.
Heavy: Whisper occupies Heavy. (See Verify notes — both Whisper and Tractor are exotic, so the legendary slot is the energy/kinetic one. Run a Barrier/Unstoppable-archetype legendary sniper or special there for champion coverage Whisper and Tractor don't carry, e.g. a Precision-frame for Barrier or an Aggressive-frame special for Unstoppable.)

Why this 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're never out of mag; the only limiter is reserves, which Special/Heavy Finisher and scavenger mods top back up.
Stack independent multipliers, not redundant ones. Whisper's per-shot damage rides on three separate buckets that all multiply together: White Nail's "higher base precision damage," Radiant (~+25% weapon buff), and Tractor Cannon's ~30% weaken debuff. Buff and debuff are different buckets, so they multiply — this is the highest-ceiling pairing in the game for a precision weapon.
On Your Mark double-dips off the exact thing Whisper does. Every precision hit stacks reload and Weapons stat ×10. The Weapons stat is the 9.7.0 PvE weapon-damage stat, so simply landing Whisper crits ramps your own damage further — a fourth 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; that precision kill (and Whisper's precision kills after) refund Super energy via Hawkeye Hack, 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. Knife → Radiant (Ember of Torches); Whisper 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 +25% bucket is live for the entire mag-less DPS 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 100+ → 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.

Archetypes: Powerhouse (Weapons/Super) and Gunner pieces; Brawler if you want Melee for the knife loop. Mods: Sniper Loader + Sniper Scavenger + Heavy Ammo Finder/Finisher (reserves are the real ammo cap), Solar Surge ×2–3 on boots (≈+22% Solar weapon damage straight onto Whisper), Font of Wisdom/Focusing Strike to feed Super, and a Special/Heavy Finisher to recover reserves mid-phase. Stat tuning: +Weapons / −Mobility-equivalent dump where available.

Where it shines

Raid & dungeon bosses: Whisper's home turf. A stationary crit box + White Nail = a no-reload damage turret; Tractor weaken + Radiant + Nighthawk opener is a top-tier single-target rotation. S-tier sustained boss DPS.
Grandmaster Nightfalls / −30/−40 content: Tractor Cannon stuns Overload and weakens the room for the team; the legendary energy/kinetic slot should cover Barrier/Unstoppable by archetype (Anti-Champion 2.0 — stun is intrinsic to weapon archetypes). Whisper itself carries no listed champion stun, so it's the damage, not the stun.
Champion coverage summary: Overload → Tractor Cannon (Repulsor Force, listed). Barrier/Unstoppable → bring a matching-archetype legendary in the open slot. Whisper → boss/major damage only.

Verify notes

Whisper's element (Solar) and ammo (Heavy) are NOT stated in the manifest exotics dump (`docs/encyclopedia/exotics.md:355` gives only the perk text). Solar/Heavy is the long-standing in-game truth and the basis for the Gunslinger + Solar-surge pairing, but treat the element/ammo line in the header as designer knowledge, not manifest-confirmed. The knowledge doc (`docs/knowledge/exotics_and_catalysts.md:124`) lists it as a "Sniper / boss DPS" exotic without restating element.
White Nail verbatim from `docs/encyclopedia/exotics.md:355` and `docs/encyclopedia/perks.md:3459` (match exactly).
Whisper Catalyst (Whispered Breathing) verbatim from `docs/encyclopedia/catalysts.md:164`. Note the catalyst is named "Whisper Catalyst," not "Whisper of the Worm" — the literal weapon name returns no catalyst hit, which is why the first grep missed it.
Celestial Nighthawk, Star-Eater Scales, Tractor Cannon, Divinity all verbatim from `docs/encyclopedia/exotics.md` (lines 18, 62, 340, 232). Aspects On Your Mark / Knock 'Em Down / Gunpowder Gamble verbatim from `docs/encyclopedia/aspects.md` (124, 102, 75). Ember fragments verbatim from `docs/encyclopedia/fragments.md` (25–44).
Radiant ~+25% and Tractor weaken ~30% are the standard sandbox values from `docs/knowledge/` (`subclasses_and_aspects.md:56`, `:70`); exact post-9.7.0 percentages — confirm in-game, the encyclopedia gives behaviour not every number.
Star-Eater Scales is the alternative helmet→legs swap if you'd rather run a roaming Solar Super for add-clear instead of the Nighthawk one-shot; Nighthawk is the better Whisper pairing because both are single-target burst.
Solar fragment penalty stats (e.g. Ember of Empyrean −10 Health) are flagged possibly-stale for non-Void fragments per `docs/knowledge/fragments.md:235`; effects are current, the 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)	Focusing Strike 1e	Grants class ability energy when you cause damage with a powered melee attack.
	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 (8/10)	Ammo Reserves 3e
	Solar Resistance 2e fill	Reduces incoming Solar damage from combatants.
	Concussive Dampener 3e fill	Reduces incoming area-of-effect damage from combatants.
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 fill	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).