Review: Supra Vandal (U27.3.16)

Last updated: U27.3.16

The Supra Vandal is an MR14 rifle originally given away as a reward during the Ambulas Reborn event, in U20.4. Back then, it was a very slight improvement over the thoroughly mediocre base Supra. The Balance Pass in U22.12 buffed the Supra Vandal into a high level, extremely powerful weapon. Thankfully for everyone who didn't complete Ambulas Reborn, almost a year later, it was released in Baro's stock. In my opinion, the Supra Vandal is one of the best Rifles in the game.

Acquisition

The Supra Vandal was originally rewarded for completing the final Ambulas Reborn fight three times. It has since been made occasionally available from Baro Ki'Teer.

Stats

Immediately obvious is the Supra Vandal's fantastic status potential, with a great status chance and high ROF. As a regular rifle, you also don't need to reach 100% status for it to be effective - I find just the augment (see below) or one or two 60/60s already makes it proc a lot of status. It also sports quite a high base damage for a high ROF.

Its Crit is thoroughly mediocre, though from my experience, still worth building for especially if you are good at aiming for heads, as Crit headshots get an additional 2x damage multiplier on top of the regular headshot multiplier.

Also of note is the SupraV's massive 300-round magazine - equal largest in the game. With a ROF of 12.5 and a reload time of just 3 seconds, it has a Reload Ratio of 8, which is one of the highest of any weapons in the game.

Augments

The Supra (Vandal) has one Augment, Entropy Burst. It is available from the Cephalon Suda Syndicate.

Entropy Burst gives an additional 20% Status Chance, added after all other mods. Slapping just this mod on increases the Supra Vandal's already excellent status chance from 30% to 50%. Coupled with its high RoF and some Multishot, this results in an enormous number of Status procs. With the removal of 4x bias to Physical damage types, and the capping of many prominent procs, absolute maximum Status Chance is no longer necessarily the goal. The buff to Hammer Shot is also a very big competitor.

The Entropy Syndicate effect is also decent, with 1000 Magnetic damage in an AoE, restoring 25% base energy and increasing max energy by 25% of base. Magnetic isn't a great overall damage type, but the Syndicate proc can be extremely effective for stripping the shields of nearby Corpus, the only health type Magnetic is good against. The energy restoration from the Syndicate proc is fantastic, and is greatly appreciated by many frames.

In particular, it can be a very good way to restore energy before you've had the chance to rank up Zenurik's Energising Dash, build up some Energy Restores, or build up an Arcane Energize set. This naturally becomes much less significant as you become a more experienced player.

I consider this augment to be solid mainly as a newer player, and worth considering on the Supra Vandal.

Builds
0-Forma:

With two native V polarities and a solid augment, there are quite a few different builds you can try with a 0-Forma Supra Vandal.This first build is a very standard one, all the usual mods and Vigilante Armaments. There is 4 spare mod capacity, to replace one of the 60/60 elemental mods with a 90%. This build is simple, uncomplicated and does good damage-per-shot.

An alternative is to go with Entropy Burst in the seventh slot. It does not add any direct damage, but does give an even higher Status Chance, and also offers semi-periodic energy restoration.

Finally, my beloved Shred is also a great option. The slight increase in Fire Rate minimises spool-up time, and Punch Through is always a great convenience to have.

Besides these above options, there is also the possibility of a three-element build, notably Corrosive/Viral + Heat being extremely strong, or Viral + Electric dealing great damage to Corpus enemies.

Since the U27.2 update, my recommended general purpose element is always Viral. It deals solid damage against many targets, and its proc is universally useful. Corrosive is great for weakening armour, though is much less potent between its 80% armour strip cap, and the overall weakening of armour scaling. It retains its great effectiveness against anything Ferrite armoured, as well as heavy Infested. Radiation is the most effective option against heavy Alloy armoured enemies, particularly Corpus robots and bosses.

If you have the space for it, some extra Heat is a fantastic addition for partial armour strip and its powerful stacking damage-over-time proc. Electric alongside Viral has fantastic multipliers against unarmoured Corpus, once their shields are down. Pure Toxin is also excellent against unarmoured Corpus, bypassing their shields entirely.

Recommended Setups: Viral (+ Heat) vs everything, Corrosive (+ Heat) vs Infested, some bosses, Radiation vs some bosses, (Viral + Electric) or Toxin vs unarmoured Corpus

General Purpose 2-Forma:

Another two added V polarities opens up a number of options to fill out all eight mod slots. Depending on what mods you intend to install, one - polarity may be a good idea instead/as well.

As was mentioned previously, Viral + Heat is a great combo that is effective against most enemies, and work really well together.

This final example build maximises damage-per-shot and hits very hard, though the accuracy penalty from Heavy Caliber can be troublesome at longer ranges. Besides the previously shown Vigilante Armaments/Shred/Heavy Caliber/extra elementals, there are a few other options to consider.

Argon Scope and Bladed Rounds are Crit-boosting options if you can maintain their trigger conditions. Hammer Shot gives higher Status Chance than Entropy Burst, as well as adding some extra Crit Damage, but of course does not have the Syndicate proc.

For the Exilus slot, there are a couple of solid options. Terminal Velocity for increased Projectile Speed can be very helpful at longer ranges. Ammo Mutation can be very helpful for longer missions, as the Supra Vandal goes through quite a lot of ammo. Vigilante Supplies in particular also increases the Vigilante Mod Set bonus, for slightly higher damage output. Stabilizer for recoil reduction can be helpful if you struggle with it.

Recommended Setups: see above.

My Builds:

As is tradition since U27.2, Viral is my go-to build. It maxes out Viral stacks in a split second, weakening most enemies enough to be quickly killed. Entropy Burst gives periodic boosts of energy, which are always nice. Realistically, it is probably better replaced by Vital Sense or Hammer Shot, as I have many energy restoration methods.

This Corrosive build is...pretty much just a legacy build from the previous state of Status, from when Corrosive was by far the best element for the Supra Vandal.

This Toxin build is mainly intended for Augmented Shield Sorties, but I often just run Saryn for Toxic Lash and breeze through those anyway.

Combat Use and Summary

The Supra Vandal functions essentially as a machine gun, putting out an absurd volume of fire for an extremely long time before needing to reload. Due to being a projectile weapon rather than hitscan, it is a little difficult to use at longer ranges, but at the typical engagement ranges of Warframe, you shouldn't have much issue.

Naturally with a high ROF and insane capacity, the Supra Vandal does very well against crowds. Even without Punch Through, it can easily and quickly kill large groups without needing to reload. Backed up with an incredibly high spare ammo of 1600, you can hold down the trigger for an incredibly long time before running out. Despite this high ammo, due to its high ROF, if you intend to stay in mission for a long time, I'd recommend at least one of Ammo Case/Rifle Scavenger/Ammo Mutation.

With mediocre crit, the Supra Vandal is a little lacking for Burst DPS, compared to a lot of other rifles. It is a little slower to kill high health unarmoured enemies, but can still kill them relatively easily. The greatly enhanced Viral procs help significantly in this area, but are still outclassed by higher direct damage weapons.

With a very high Status Chance, the Supra Vandal excels at stacking Status procs on enemies. This is especially important for armoured enemies, who otherwise shrug off direct damage damage much more easily. Both Viral and Corrosive are highly effective, especially when complemented by Heat.


The Supra Vandal has a very short spool-up time of 3 shots, the fastest of all spool-up weapons. The short first shot delay makes it a lot easier to fire off single shots. It recoils very predictably, kicking directly upwards. I find it very easy to compensate for personally, but it's something to watch out for if you're not used to it.


Overall, the Supra Vandal performs excellently against the majority of content in Warframe. It mows down large crowds with ease, especially with Punch Through, deals with high health enemies without too much trouble, and excels at weakening heavily armoured enemies. Its augment is solid and provides free energy, which is always appreciated. If you're looking for an LMG-type weapon, a status-focused rifle, or even just an overall solid primary, I'd strongly recommend seeking out the Supra Vandal, at least when Baro has it in stock.

Scores
Vs Trash Mobs: 4.5/5 - Solid DPS and a fantastic Reload Ratio means the Supra Vandal can blast through massive groups of enemies without breaking a sweat, or needing to reload.
Vs Unarmoured Heavies: 3.5/5 - Respectable but not exceptional burst DPS puts it behind a number of other rifles, though it's by no means slow. Viral procs help massively against Status-vulnerable enemies.
Vs Armoured Heavies without Hunter Munitions: 4.5/5 - Among the best Rifles for stacking up, and has sufficient raw damage to kill them quite quickly.
Vs Armoured Heavies with Hunter Munitions: NA/5 - HM is not worth using with such a low Crit Chance.

Vs Variants

The MR14 Supra Vandal compares favourably to the MR12 base Supra. Notably, the Vandal has superior crit stats (16%/2x vs 12%/1.8x), a larger magazine (300 vs 180), and much higher spare ammo (1600 vs 1080). Nonetheless, the base Supra is already a very solid status rifle, and as a Clan-tech weapon, is much more reliably acquirable than the Baro-only Vandal. If you enjoy the Supra, you'll enjoy the strictly superior Vandal.

Competitors

There are many Full-Auto Rifles in Warframe, and the Supra Vandal maintains a solid niche among all of them. It is the most Status-leaning of all the spool-up Rifles, while still having enough Crit and base Damage to deal solid direct damage. It deals very good damage among Status Rifles, and can keep firing long after most others have stopped to reload. Those few that have comparable Status output as well as superior Burst DPS typically have significantly lower Reload Ratios.

Rivens

Image taken when the Supra Vandal had a 4/5 Riven Disposition

The Supra Vandal currently retains a slightly low 3/5 (0.9) Riven Disposition, while the regular Supra currently has a neutral 3/5 (1) Disposition.

Damage and Multishot are of course perfect stats to have. Crit Chance and Crit Damage are decent, but nowhere near as powerful given the SupraV's only just usable Crit. +Elemental damage can be useful for extra damage, saving mod slots, or adjusting damage type biases. +Projectile Flight Speed, though it adds no damage, can make the SupraV easier to use at longer ranges. +Punch Through is a solid convenience stat for making crowd clearing even easier. -Recoil can be helpful if you struggle with it.

As a weapon significantly better at close ranges, - Zoom is an appropriate and rather nice negative to have. With Carrier/Ammo Mutation/Rifle Scavenger or in shorter missions, - Ammo Max can be quite reasonable as well. - Impact/Slash are both solid, since neither is a significant damage type of the SupraV. - Puncture can leave you with almost entirely Corrosive/Viral/etc, but cuts out a fair bit of damage. -Status Chance can be easily compensated by Entropy Burst or some 60/60s, but it's not optimal. With such a high Reload Ratio, -Mag Capacity/Reload Speed are both very manageable. - Infested/Corpus Damage is pretty tolerable, with a decent roll the SupraV can easily tear through just about any unit in those factions regardless. +Recoil can be a good negative if you handle recoil well.