Best Harpoon Gun Build in Abyssus
Harpoon Gun: unlock and weapon basics
Unlock: Defeat The Golemancer for a second time. Before using the exit portal, take the passage revealed by the crumbling wall and collect the gun beside the fallen Brinehunter.
Default primary — Piercing Harpoons: Piercing Harpoons with high knockback on Weakspot hits. Generates Combo Points on hit.
Default secondary — Barbed Harpoons: Consume Combo Points to deal damage over a short duration.
Recommended build ↓ · All modes and effects ↓ · Weapon and mode unlock requirements →
Best Harpoon Gun build at a glance
The Harpoon Gun is a deliberate combo weapon: primary fire builds combo points and secondary fire spends them. Flares fits the burst cadence, while reload speed keeps missed or interrupted cycles from becoming fatal.
- Primary fire
- Piercing Harpoons
- Secondary fire
- Brine-Powered Harpoons
- Aspect
- Flares (Fire)
- Weapon Forge
- Rapid Harpoons · Increased Combo · Plentiful Combo
- Ability
- Smiting Spear
Deals massive single-shot damage but suffers a long reload; a slow, heavy hitter that demands precise timing and positioning.
Best for: Precise single-shot burst & burn setups
Recommended Harpoon Gun build
Primary fire builds combo points and secondary fire spends them. Improve reload reliability, then add raw damage, critical support, and Flares around a deliberate cash-out window.
Primary and secondary fire
Piercing Harpoons (Primary) — Piercing Harpoons with high knockback on Weakspot hits. Generates Combo Points on hit.
Brine-Powered Harpoons (Secondary) — A large piercing harpoon that deals increased damage and knockback per Combo Point consumed.
Best Aspect and Blessings
Alternatives: Shadows (Night)
Exact weapon Forge picks
- Rapid Harpoons — Increases fire rate by 50%.
- Increased Combo — Increases maximum Combo Points by 1.
- Plentiful Combo — For each consumed Combo Point, refill 1 ammo.
Ability and Charm slots
Smiting Spear — Throws a spear that sticks to enemies or scenery and pulses. Shooting a planted spear can trigger pulses.
One equipped Charm by default. Charm Power unlocks a second slot. The following choices are conditional priorities to find during a run.
- One-slot priority
- Giant Slayer
- After Charm Power
- Giant Slayer + Hawkeye
Giant Slayer supports deliberate elite/boss cash-outs. Add Hawkeye when you can keep a long firing line.
When to swap: Piercing Rounds replaces Hawkeye for lines of enemies when penetration adds useful contacts. It does not solve reload downtime; use the weapon’s reload and combo upgrades for that.
Compare the guide’s candidates: Giant Slayer · Hawkeye · Piercing Rounds.
Editorial priorities
These are planning goals, not Ancient Forge item names.
Combo Point generationAmmo recoveryStable pierce lines
Before you can use this setup
- Piercing Harpoons: Available when this weapon is unlocked.
- Brine-Powered Harpoons: Hook, Line and Skewer — Gain a weakspot hit on 3 enemies by piercing them with a single harpoon.
- Smiting Spear: Defeat General Kri’su a second time. Climb the platforms that rise from the water and interact with the altar. Ability unlock details →
- Unlock Ancient Forge to find upgrades during expeditions. The listed upgrades are priorities, not guaranteed drops; Artificer permits a weapon and ability choice at the same Forge.
If a recommended mode is still locked, start with this weapon’s default modes (Piercing Harpoons / Barbed Harpoons). Treat that as a temporary setup and pursue the listed challenges before expecting the full route.
Charm names link to their effects and challenge unlocks. Unlocking an item adds availability; it does not guarantee it will appear in your next run.
How to make the build work
- Improve reload reliability first so the combo loop survives a miss or forced dodge.
- Build points with primary fire and spend them only when the target or pierce line is stable.
- Add Flares and critical damage after the basic cycle is consistent, then use Giant Slayer for bosses.
Solo, co-op and boss adjustments
Solo route
Use cover and long lanes to finish the combo without being surrounded. Piercing shots are most valuable when you first align the smaller enemies behind a priority target.
Co-op role
Focus the elite your team has pinned down. Teammates can create the stable line that lets a charged secondary hit the intended target instead of a stray body.
Boss plan
Build the combo during safe movement, then cash it out on an exposed weakpoint. Smiting Spear can maintain damage when a reload or phase change interrupts the weapon cycle.
Common mistakes
- Spending combo points as soon as they appear
- Stacking burst damage before solving the long reload
- Forcing a pierce line while an attack telegraph demands movement
Deep Water 30 variant
At Deep Water 30, use Rapid Harpoons and combo generation to reduce reload interruptions; the listed Charms do not increase reload speed.
Harpoon Gun fire modes
Choose one Primary and one Secondary fire mode at the Workbench. “Recommended” marks this guide’s editorial selection.
Primary fire
- Piercing HarpoonsRecommended — Piercing Harpoons with high knockback on Weakspot hits. Generates Combo Points on hit.
- Ricocheting Harpoons — Harpoons that ricochet to a new target on Weakspot hits. Generates Combo Points on hit.
- Pinning Harpoons — Harpoons that attach to enemies, dealing damage over time. Generates Combo Points while attached.
Secondary fire
- Barbed Harpoons — Consume Combo Points to deal damage over a short duration.
- Binding Harpoons — Pull enemies toward the harpoon when it hits. Deals more damage and targets more enemies per Combo Point consumed.
- Brine-Powered HarpoonsRecommended — A large piercing harpoon that deals increased damage and knockback per Combo Point consumed.
Harpoon Gun Ancient Forge upgrades
These are weapon-specific Ancient Forge upgrades, not generic stat priorities. “Recommended” is an editorial pick for this route.
- Charged Harpoons — Primary and Secondary can be charged, causing up to 6 harpoons to be fired in quick succession.
- Rapid HarpoonsRecommended — Increases fire rate by 50%.
- Splitting Harpoons — Weakspots create an additional harpoon that seeks out a new target.
- Blessed Harpoons — Primary and Secondary deals 10% more damage for every Minor and Major Blessing.
- Charmed Harpoons — Gain buffs based on your Charms. Common: +20% fire rate and +20% damage. Rare: +30% reload speed and +20% Blessing trigger chance. Legendary: Shoot an extra harpoon.
- Increased ComboRecommended — Increases maximum Combo Points by 1.
- Precise Combo — Marks a random Combo Point. Spending that amount of Combo Points increases the effect as if it consumed the maximum amount +1.
- Plentiful ComboRecommended — For each consumed Combo Point, refill 1 ammo.
How to unlock the Harpoon Gun
Defeat The Golemancer for a second time. Before using the exit portal, take the passage revealed by the crumbling wall and collect the gun beside the fallen Brinehunter.
Patch and source notes
Official baseline: Abyssus 1.3.62817, released. This page was impact-reviewed on. Read the official hotfix feed.
Reviewed against the hotfix notes; no documented balance-value change alters this recommendation.
Fire mode, ability and weapon Forge names are reference facts; the selected combination is an editorial recommendation.All 72 names and effect descriptions were checked against game-tooltip images and official patch notes. Source-checked, not independently measured in gameplay. Check the in-game Logbook for a live numeric value, browse the Forge catalogue, and see our methodology for the review policy.
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Choose the alternative that best addresses this build’s trade-off.