Review: Battacor (U24.0.9)

The MR10 Battacor is a Corpus rifle with integrated Sentient tech, like the Ocucor, released with Fortuna in U24. It has many special features, including a currently unique "Auto Burst" trigger, and a powerful Opticor-like secondary fire. It has quickly become one of my favourite weapons, and is an overall solid and fun weapon.

Acquisition

The Battacor must be researched at a Dojo's Energy Lab to acquire the blueprint.

Stats

Immediately obvious is the primary fire's fantastic crit, among the best of all Burst fire rifles. Its magazine is also exceptionally large for a Burst rifle, with a low ROF and reasonable Reload Time giving it a fantastic Reload Ratio of 8.40. A Status Chance of 18% is also respectable. The primary fire is, annoyingly, a projectile weapon, making fast moving enemies or enemies at longer range difficult to hit.

The Battacor's base damage is unusual, split into part Puncture but mainly Magnetic damage. Innate combined elements like Magnetic are great to have, as they open up all kinds of build options not normally possible, for instance Corrosive + Magnetic that has very few weaknesses and is not normally possible due to sharing Electric. This also combines well with its Status Chance, since elementals like Magnetic have lower proc weighting than physical damage like Puncture. As such, the Battacor can proc a lot more elements than you'd expect from a weapon of this type.

The Battacor also has a currently unique trigger called "Auto Burst". It fires two shots per burst, and holding down the trigger will simply fire repeated bursts. This is a fantastic feature, eliminating the requirement to rapidly click to fire at full speed. Compared to other Burst rifles, this gives the Battacor an advantage especially against crowds, making rapid fire much easier and more convenient.

Oddly, the secondary fire has no base Damage listed, and this is due to its stack mechanic. For each kill achieved with the primary fire, the secondary fire gains a stack, to a maximum of three stacks. These stacks are shown next to the reticle. The secondary fire requires stacks to fire, and consumes all of them at once. For each stack, it gains 208 Radiation base Damage, to a maximum of 624 for three stacks. The secondary fire does not consume ammo.

The secondary fire is essentially a mini Opticor, charging for a short time (0.4sec at base) then firing a large beam with width and innate Punch Through. On impact, the beam also causes an explosive AoE that does not deal self damage. It has incredible crit stats, with awful Status Chance.

Augments

None.

Builds

0-Forma:

With no innate polarities, you are stuck with a pretty bare-bones no-Forma build. The build I'd recommend is pretty standard, Vigilante Armaments instead of Split Chamber because it's much easier to fit, with space for one 90% elemental and one 60/60. With no Slash damage but a decent Status Chance, I find that the best non-Hunter-Munitions build against armour is a Corrosive Status one. High Voltage is of course a better option than Stormbringer if you have it. The secondary fire is also helpful for brute-forcing through armoured enemies if you have the stacks for it.

Against anything else, it's simple enough to just use the damage type with the biggest bonus. Corpus in particular are hit very hard by the Battacor as its main damage types, Magnetic on primary and Radiation on secondary, are both great against them.

A Gas based status build can also be rather effective. The Battacor's majority Magnetic base damage allows it to proc more elements than usual. With very good crit, the primary fire can inflict powerful Gas procs with surprising regularity, dealing heavy damage to groups of enemies at once. However, this comes at the cost of being significantly weaker against heavier enemies, especially when armoured.

Recommended Setups: Corrosive vs Grineer, Corrupted, Infested, Viral vs unarmoured Corpus, Corrosive or Radiation vs armoured Corpus, Gas vs groups

General Purpose 2-Forma:

Two added V polarities lets you fit Split Chamber in comfortably, as well as a seventh mod. For a Corrosive build, Vigilante Armaments is a great added mod. High Voltage is ideal in Stormbringer's slot for an anti-armour Corrosive status build.

The seventh slot is also great for Hunter Munitions, in a Viral build, thanks to the Battacor's great crit. In my testing, a Viral + HM build works out overall better against organic armoured heavies than a Corrosive status build. Although the Battacor has a decent chance of proccing Corrosive, its fairly slow ROF makes Corrosive armour stripping take much longer than ideal.

HM notably also works very well (if unreliably) with the secondary fire, which is slow firing and has a pathetic Status Chance but fantastic crit.

Recommended Setups: Viral + HM vs Grineer, Corrupted, Viral vs unarmoured Corpus, Radiation or Corrosive status vs armoured Corpus, Corrosive vs Infested, Gas vs groups

General Purpose 4-Forma:

Another two V polarities lets you use all of the mod slots, provided your elements are both 60/60s. I of course slot in (Primed) Shred by default. Punch Through is great against crowds, and the ROF boost makes the primary fire much nicer to use. It also reduces the secondary fire charge time, though 0.4 seconds at base is already fairly good. Something like Bladed Rounds or Argon Scope is good if you want more damage per shot. Infected Clip/Stormbringer is also a decent eighth slot mod for the extra damage and Corrosive bias, though that fourth polarity will need to be - instead.

A Viral + HM build is still good of course. Argon Scope if you have it is especially good for HM, as with Point Strike, the Battacor only reaches 80% Crit Chance on its primary fire. AS will push that past 100%, increasing not only overall damage output, but also the chance of a HM Slash proc.

Recommended Setups: see above. Also consider: Viral + Electric vs unarmoured Corpus, Radiation + Cold/Toxin vs armoured Corpus, Corrosive + Heat vs Infested

Primed Cryo Rounds 5-Forma:

A D polarity allows the use of Primed Cryo Rounds, which is a big damage boost perfect for Viral + HM builds. However it does restrict builds not using PCR, and should only be done if either you will be slotting PCR into every build, or if you can compensate for it with additional polarities.

My Builds:

My Riven replaces Vital Sense, offering roughly the same +Crit Damage as well as a bunch of extra Multishot. A Viral + HM build is my go to, as for the levels I play at, it is the most effective build against most armoured enemies. Viral + HM tears through most enemies fantastically well, with Magnetic obliterating shields. The Radiation secondary fire offers extra punch against heavier enemies like Bursas.

These two builds are standard Corrosive/Radiation builds for Infested and armoured Corpus robots respectively. The latter build is also designated for pure Electric, which is intended for use against the Vallis Raknoids, and is still quite effective against the majority of Corpus enemies encountered in the Vallis.

Combat Use and Summary

With a precise and reasonably powerful two-shot burst, the Battacor is fairly well suited to a marksman rifle role. This unfortunately conflicts with the primary fire's projectile nature, resulting in significant travel time. At longer ranges, this can make fast moving targets much harder to hit. Thanks to its unique Auto Burst trigger, the Battacor also fares somewhat better than other Burst rifles against crowds, especially in closer range. Although its ROF is still quite low, the Auto Burst trigger makes it much easier to rapidly fire multiple bursts into multiple enemies. With that said, it is still much less efficient against groups than weapons that actually fire fast or have AoE.

With pretty good crit, the primary fire does fairly well against unarmoured high health enemies. Though not exceptional by rifle standards, it can kill most such heavies within a reasonable time, provided it has the correct elements. Its solid Status Chance also allows the Battacor to deal surprisingly well with armoured enemies, for a slow firing weapon with no Slash damage. A Corrosive status build is actually alright at stripping armour, though naturally doesn't compare to a faster firing weapon. A Viral + Hunter Munitions build naturally does very well against armoured enemies, thanks to the Battacor's very good crit.

A Gas build can add some much appreciated anti-crowd abilities, proccing with surprising frequency thanks to the Battacor's majority base Magnetic damage. This however comes at the cost of being much less effective against high health, and especially armoured, heavy enemies. Such enemies will be much less affected by the AoE effects of the Gas procs, and Gas is a bad direct damage type.

Base Magnetic damage makes the Battacor brutally effective against Corpus, tearing through their shields with ease. An added elemental combo to target the appropriate health type (e.g. Viral for organics, Radiation for armoured robots), and most Corpus units drop incredibly fast.

The secondary fire is also quite strong and useful. Though it is a similar kill-to-activate mechanic as the Ocucor, unlike the Ocucor, the Battacor does not lose stacks on reloading. Given the Battacor's power, it is also quite quick to build up.

Pressing the secondary fire button will begin charging, and the beam will fire as soon as charging is done. The inability to hold a full charge shot is not a big problem with the Battacor, as its charge time is only 0.4 seconds at base. The beam it fires has innate 2m Punch Through, and will cause a small explosion on the first enemy or surface it impacts with. With fantastic crit and very high base damage with full stacks, the Battacor's secondary fire is extremely effective at obliterating tightly packed groups of enemies, or dealing heavy damage to a single target. Hunter Munitions also makes it capable of inflicting very large Slash procs, though this is unreliable.

Radiation is also a great base Damage to have on the secondary fire. It innately deals heavy damage particularly to anything with Alloy Armour, like Bombards, and elements can be added to prioritise other targets as well. Corrosive in particular lets the secondary fire do massive raw damage to both Alloy and Ferrite armour, as well as Fossilized, perfect against Grineer, Corrupted and Infested. Viral does major damage to any Grineer, Corrupted or Corpus organic with low/no armour, and synergises well with Hunter Munitions for the primary fire.

Annoyingly, after using the secondary fire, there is a short delay of around half a second before you can start firing again.

Personally, I find the Battacor incredibly fun to use. Its primary fire is powerful and accurate, and the Auto Burst trigger makes it much easier to fire off multiple bursts quickly. It's not the most powerful marksman-type rifle, nor is it very fast firing, but the Auto Burst trigger makes it one of the most comfortable to use. A great Reload Ratio also helps keep reloading to a minimum. The secondary fire is easy to charge, and is brutally effective when unleashed on a priority target, or a group of enemies you want deleted. The one thing I would have liked is for the primary fire to be hitscan rather than projectile, to make especially longer ranged combat much easier. Nonetheless, the Battacor is a fairly powerful and surprisingly versatile rifle, and in my opinion is absolutely worth building if the craft requirements are at all reasonable for you. It's instantly become one of my favourite weapons in the game, and may well replace the Tiberon Prime as my go-to rifle.

Scores

Vs Trash Mobs: 3/5 - Auto Burst makes the Battacor more convenient to use against groups than other Burst weapons, and the great Reload Ratio helps here as well. The secondary fire is a great one-off against crowds as well. However both of the firing modes are still fairly slow. A Gas build does help a fair bit, but sacrifices power against heavies.
Vs Unarmoured Heavies: 4/5 - Primary fire has fairly solid but not exceptional single target DPS. The secondary fire, once ready, does massive damage in a single shot, but requires primary fire kills to activate.
Vs Armoured Heavies without Hunter Munitions: 3.5/5 - Partial Magnetic base damage with solid Status Chance means that the Battacor's primary fire can proc Corrosive surprisingly often. This combined with its high power Radiation secondary fire allows the Battacor to strip and then punch through armoured enemies quite well for a relatively slow firing weapon.
Vs Armoured Heavies with Hunter Munitions: 4.5/5 - Great crit stats in both firing modes allows the Battacor to inflict rather large Slash procs quite frequently with HM.

Vs Variants

None.

Competitors

The Battacor is best compared to other Burst-Fire rifles. Its Burst-Auto mechanic makes it behave very different to Semi-Auto rifles, even of similar RoF. The most comparable weapons are probably the Sybaris Prime and Tiberon (Prime), all of which are hybrid weapons like the Battacor. The Battacor is a little weaker than all of them, but its exceptionally large magazine gives it an edge for sustained fire. Its base Magnetic damage and powerful secondary fire also give it unique behaviours that the others cannot match.

Rivens

As is standard for a new weapon, the Battacor has a moderate 3/5 (1) Riven Disposition. I think that's a fairly reasonable level, given that it is fairly powerful but still has significant drawbacks and disadvantages to other weapons.

As usual, Damage/Multishot/Crit Chance/Crit Damage are the top stats to have. As always, I personally favour MS+CC for consistency and improved HM proc chance. A useful element like +Toxin can save a mod slot for something else. +Punch Through is very useful for the primary fire against groups. Personally, I find +Fire Rate to help with both fire modes a lot as well, which is why I especially love (Primed) Shred on the Battacor. +Projectile Flight Speed can be a great help for the primary fire, especially at longer ranges.

As the Battacor is quite ammo efficient and has a lot of spare ammo, -Max Ammo is a pretty tolerable negative. -Zoom is usable if you only intend to use it in close quarters. -Impact/Slash have no effect on the weapon. -Puncture does not cause a major damage loss, and allows the Battacor to proc elements even more frequently. -Mag Capacity or Reload Speed could be pretty tolerable as well since the Battacor has such a good Reload Ratio. +Recoil can be a solid negative as well since the Battacor doesn't kick much.