Review: Fortuna Secondary Kitguns (Updated 32.0.13)

With Fortuna came the second batch of modular weapons, "Kitgun" secondaries, which can be acquired from and built with Rude Zuud. Like Cetus Zaws, they consist of three parts: a Chamber which determines the projectile type and base stats, a Grip that affects Damage, Recoil, and RoF or Beam Range, and a Loader that affects Crit Chance/Damage, Status Chance, Reload Time and Mag Capacity. I'll be giving a rundown of the Chambers, and what sort of setup I feel works best with each.

Semlar's Kitgun Builder is a fantastic resource for planning and comparing Kitguns, though unfortunately it hasn't been updated in some time.

Note that Kitguns can only be Forma'd and coloured, and only award Mastery (once per Chamber), once Gilded. Gilding can be done at Rude Zuud in Fortuna (requiring Rank 3 Doer with Fortuna, 5000 standing, and 10 Shelter Bonds), or Father in the Necralisk (requiring 5000 standing, and 25 Father Tokens)

Original posted on 24/11/2018, U24.1.1

Updated on 22/10/2022, U32.0.13

Catchmoon

Projectile Type and Base Stats

The Catchmoon is a Semi-Auto chamber, best described as a mini-Arca Plasmor. It fires a wave of plasma similar to the Arca Plasmor's that has innate enemy Punch Through, but will dissipate if the centre of the projectile hits an obstacle. This projectile type naturally excels against large numbers of enemies, dealing great damage to enemies in a line.

In the past, the projectile would dissipate if any part of it hit an obstacle - this was subsequently changed to just the centre of the projectile which was a significant improvement. However, its range was drastically reduced, most easily demonstrated in the Damage Fall-Off stat (previously 20m-40m, now just 8m-16m). This can be partially compensated by the addition of the Weapon Exilus mod slot, which allows you to include Lethal Momentum which will bring it back up to 14.3m-28.6m.

The Catchmoon has moderate base Crit Chance and Status Chance, at 21% each. It has the slowest Fire Rate ranging from 1.17-3.17, with by far the highest base Damage, capable of 460-160 respectively, consisting of Impact and Heat. It also has the smallest Magazine Capacity ranging from 5-13. The CM has a guaranteed Impact proc on enemies at close range, but has a limited range of just 16 metres, and has damage Fall-off beyond 8 metres. It has quite heavy recoil per shot.

Role and Competitors

The Catchmoon is best as a high damage anti-crowd weapon. With such a low Fire Rate and Mag Capacity, it does not stack up large numbers of procs (besides forced Impact) very well. As such, I feel that building it for maximum Crit is most appropriate. I also feel that focusing on damage-per-shot is better than Fire Rate with the CM, since they will provide similar burst DPS, but the former build will have much better ammo efficiency, with much less reloading. Furthermore, with the CM's innate enemy Punch Through and large projectile, Fire Rate is somewhat less important for crowd killing. That said, too low a Fire Rate can make it a pain to use.

Regardless of which build you do, the Catchmoon is not natively effective against armour. A Corrosive or Radiation damage build will do significant damage to the appropriate armour type, but will struggle heavily against the other. However, the introduction of Hemorrhage in U29.10 was a massive boost to the Catchmoon, as I already discussed in this post. It allows the Catchmoon to reliably inflict massive Slash procs, dealing massive armour-bypassing damage and ignoring its limited Status capabilities.

There is no other secondary like the Catchmoon in the game currently, all the other wave-projectile weapons are Primaries (or in the case of the Stropha, a Gunblade Melee). It is a relatively unique and quite powerful weapon, with its main flaws being limited range and low Fire Rate.

Notably for a Kitgun, like the Arca Plasmor, the Catchmoon can land headshots very easily. It doesn't gain the usual Headshot Multiplier, but still gains the extra 2x damage on Crit Headshot, again further incentivising a Crit build. More importantly, it activates the on-headshot arcanes very easily, including Pax Seeker and Bolt.

Range can be an issue for the Catchmoon; even with +Projectile Speed mods its effective range is quite short.

My Build

The build shown above is my Catchmoon + Haymaker + Killstream. It is quite slow firing even with Lethal Torrent, but does massive damage to anything it hits. I went with Haymaker for maximum damage-per-shot, since the Catchmoon's Mag Capacity is so low. I much prefer the Fire Rate of Lovetap, but with Lethal Torrent its Fire Rate hits exactly 2.5, which is suboptimal for Hemorrhage.

My default build is of course Viral with Hemorrhage. For most targets, this combination is extremely effective; most unarmoured enemies can be brute-forced with direct damage and occasional Viral procs, while heavily armoured enemies are bled out with Slash procs. Some elemental reconfiguration is required for specific targets, but Viral is easily the most general-purpose. Innate Heat is nice for a damage-over-time build, by Slash procs are much more effective against the enemies of actual threat.

Building for higher Fire Rate can make the Catchmoon much more comfortable to use, however any Grip besides Haymaker with Lethal Torrent equipped will exceed the 2.5 Fire Rate threshold and thus lose value from Hemorrhage.

As mentioned before, I favour Crit over Status on the Catchmoon as its projectile output and thus Status output is quite low. Additionally, Hemorrhage does not need any Status Chance, and benefits damage-wise from more Crit. I went with the high Reload Speed/low Mag Capacity Loader, as with the low Fire Rate, I find the fast Reload Speed to be more beneficial.

Gaze

Projectile Type and Base Stats

The Gaze is a Full-Auto beam weapon. Notably, it has innate 1 metre Punch Through and can chain to up to 2 other enemies near the primary target. It has a set Fire Rate of 12, the best base Crit and Status Chances at 25% and a moderate Mag Capacity of 23-51. Its base Damage ranges from a measly 16-20, consisting of Puncture and Radiation, with Beam Range spanning from 40-21m respectively. Unlike the other Kitguns, Grips affect the Gaze's Damage-Range split rather than Damage-Fire Rate.

Role and Competitors

The Gaze is undoubtedly a strong weapon on-paper. Its Crit/Status spread is already strong, and only further amplified with the high-tier Loaders. It also has significant AoE capabilities, with both Punch-Through and chaining. Like with most chain beam weapons, if the Gaze's primary beam strikes multiple enemies thanks to Punch-Through, each of those enemies will spawn chain beams. This not only further increases is anti-crowd capabilities, but also potentially single-target damage if the primary targets are close enough to chain to one another.

Indeed, on the Crit side, the Gaze has little competition. Few of the other Beam Secondaries have strong Crit (Synoid Gammacor and Spectra Vandal have 20%/2x, and Catabolyst 11%/2.9x). The Catabolyst is capable of higher Burst DPS than even a max-Crit Gaze thanks to its colossal base Damage (for a Beam weapon), but does not chain and has an overall worse Reload Ratio. The SGammacor and Spectra Vandal come out significantly weaker than even the lowest base Damage Gaze with any +Crit Loader, and once again neither of those chain.

However, the Status side has the Kuva Nukor and Tenet Cycron to compete with. Even a Status-focused Gaze is outclassed in Status output as well as direct damage, and both of those weapons also chain. A Gaze needs both a high Damage Grip and a +Crit Loader to match or exceed the KNukor and TCycron for direct DPS, thus falling far behind in Status output. The Gaze doesn't even have a better Reload Ratio. Its one notable advantage is the ability to equip Pax Arcanes.

The Ammo Pickup of the Gaze is also extremely low, at just 20 rounds-per-pickup. I found it to run out of ammo disturbingly quickly even in shorter, high level missions.

Simply put, if you want to build a Gaze that isn't immediately outclassed, build for max Crit. The Gaze is certainly a solid weapon, it just happens to directly compete with two of the strongest and most popular Secondaries in the game.

My Build

My build is a Gaze + Lovetap + Killstream, fairly ordinary Viral + Heat Crit build. I went for a higher damage build, though I probably should have gone with a higher Range Grip as the Damage loss is small. As mentioned previously, I generally prefer faster Reload Speed, however the Gaze is one example where I think higher Mag Capacity is beneficial, so I probably should have used a Splat Loader instead. I find the ammo consumption rate with Lethal Torrent installed to be simply too fast, so I leave it off in spite of the significant DPS loss. Even without, I find it to burn through the Killstream's low Mag Capacity frustratingly quickly.

In my opinion, the Ramble and Ulnaris have the best balance of Damage/Range (17/37m and 18/29m respectively) of all the Grips. The introduction of the Weapon Exilus slot which can fit Ruinous Extension (+8m Range) can compensate for the lower Range Grips somewhat.

A Corrosive build combines with the innate Radiation quite effectively, for a combo that deals super-effective damage to all main Armour types. However, it is far less effective against unarmoured enemies.

Rattleguts

Projectile Type and Base Stats

The Rattleguts is the most normal of the original four Kitgun Chambers. It is a simple hitscan Full-Auto. It has the lowest base Crit and Status Chances of 19%, but the largest Mag Capacity of 29-83. It has the highest non-beam RoF, ranging from 3.67-11 but also relatively low base Damage, ranging from 71-22 respectively and consisting of Puncture, Slash and Radiation. I find that the RG also has fairly high, though consistent, recoil.

Role and Competitors

The Rattleguts sits in an awkward position. Neither its Crit nor Status are exceptional, even when boosted with Loaders. It faces immense competition in the higher Fire Rate ranges. A high Crit build is outclassed by the Tenet Diplos, and a high Status build by the Kuva Twin Stubbas. Even a neutral, balanced build is beaten by the Prisma Twin Gremlins.

Surprisingly however, while there are many good Full-Auto Dual Secondaries such as the ones mentioned above, there are very few similar good Full-Auto Single Secondaries. The only ones not easily outclassed are the Knell Prime and Hystrix Prime, both of which are special and do not offer direct competition.

Despite my dislike of slow-firing Full-Autos, I believe that it is the best setup for the Rattleguts. Low Fire Rate Grips give it surprisingly high base Damage, resulting in higher Burst DPS (and far higher Sustained DPS) than a high Fire Rate build, as well as facing much less direct competition. Even so, it does little that is truly "special", besides having access to Pax Arcanes. Such low Fire Rate can put it in contention with some of the faster firing Semi-Autos, though the requirement to rapidly click for maximum DPS is a notable usability disadvantage to those weapons. Something like the Magnus Prime may require painfully fast clicking to make the most of, but if used optimally can deal significantly more damage than a low Fire Rate Rattleguts.

My Build

The pictured build is Rattleguts + Lovetap + Splat, for maximum Crit. I've done the usual Viral + Heat build as pictured. This build is slightly lacking in Status output, however can deal good direct damage thanks to its high Crit. I feel that the Status side is more badly outclassed than Crit, thanks partly to extremely strong weapons like the KNukor and KTwin Stubbas, but really it's not amazing on either side.

As mentioned previously, I believe it is not worth using the higher Fire Rate grips, as they are totally outclassed by other weapons. I would recommend using a Haymaker or Lovetap Grip, as they have the highest DPS (Sustained and Burst respectively). Between the two, I favour Lovetap as I cannot stand how slow Haymaker fires, even with Lethal Torrent. Indeed, I consider the Lovetap too slow as well but any of the faster Grips lose more damage than it is worth. Much faster Status output is the primary benefit of building for high Fire Rate.

The Rattleguts is another Chamber where I favour high Mag Capacity over Reload Speed, again because it can eat through ammo quite quickly.

Once again, going Corrosive + Heat is a viable option from a pure anti-armour perspective, as they combine with the innate Radiation to deal super-effective damage to most Armour types. However, the Rattleguts can also inflict Slash procs which much prefer Viral. Installing Carnis Stinger for maximum Slash proc frequency is an option, but I'm not sure it's better than just going for Heat, which is more general-purpose.

Tombfinger

Projectile Type and Base Stats

The Tombfinger is a high power Semi-Auto chamber. It fires a projectile bolt that explodes on impact, dealing damage not only to the main target, but also in a small AoE.

The Tombfinger has good base Crit and Status Chances at 24%, and fairly high base Damage ranging from 36-180, consisting of Impact, Puncture and Radiation. Its Fire Rate is fairly low, ranging from 4.5-2.17 respectively, and its Mag Capacity is also relatively small ranging from 9-29. It has fairly high recoil, though nothing unmanageable given its low Fire Rate.

Notably, direct hits will inflict forced Impact procs, ideal for Hemorrhage.

Role and Competitors

I feel that the Tombfinger is most effective and efficient in a maximum damage-per-shot build. With a relatively slow Fire Rate even with the fastest grip, the Gibber, it isn't going to be a particularly fast Status-stacking weapon. Additionally, its low Mag capacity range disincentivises high Fire Rate.

As such, I feel that going for maximum Crit is the best build direction. The Tombfinger still has a reasonable Status Chance even with the max Crit Loaders, which combined with the AoE damage instances allows it to inflict Status procs with surprising frequency.

There are a number of other strong Semi-Auto Secondaries, and particularly those released after Fortuna offer very strong competition. Something like the Magnus Prime is a lot faster firing, but has no AoE and far worse Reload Ratio (if its special feature does not proc). The (Ak)Vasto Prime are also faster-firing and also naturally inflict Slash procs regularly, but deal much less Damage-Per-Shot, have overall worse Reload Ratio, and no AoE. The Pandero Prime is a strong weapon, with very good per-shot stats and Slash proc capability, however it still loses out in DPS and especially Reload Ratio. Older weapons like the (Ak)Lex Prime are just totally outclassed.

The Sepulcrum, Tenet Spirex and Kuva Seer are all notable as slow-firing Semi-Autos with an explosive AoE. I'm not a fan of the KSeer, but the Sepulcrum and TSpirex are both very strong weapons that could argue towards being stronger than a Tombfinger. The Sepulcrum packs high DPS with an enormous Mag Capacity and a strange but extremely powerful Secondary Fire. The TSpirex is a bit more normal, with great overall Crit/Status spread and a big base Damage advantage over any Tombfinger.

The last notable competitor is the Laetum, however being an Incarnon weapon it is by design extremely overpowered. Its Evolutions give its base form far higher DPS than the Tombfinger, while also having Slash proc capability, and its Incarnon form outclasses the Tombfinger in just about every way.

In the past, the Tombfinger was a strong contender for best-in-class with minimal competition. Since its release however, a number of weapons have been released that can each claim to be superior to the Tombfinger in their own way. I think the Tombfinger has the best usability of the lot, primarily with its exceptional Reload Ratio, but its once-unquestioned firepower has been eclipsed by others.

My Build

My Tombfinger Kitguns are both Tombfinger-Haymaker-Killstream, with different Forma setups. Haymaker was chosen for maximum damage-per-shot, and I elected for the Killstream Loader for faster reloads. I find its Mag Capacity of 15 already bigger than necessary, so going Splat for the higher Mag Capacity was not at all worth doing. This is especially the case as I really like Pax Charge, and even without it am a compulsive reloader.

There are two main builds worth discussing with the Tombfinger. This first one is a fairly standard Viral + Heat setup, strong against most targets. Hornet Strike stays here in place of Galv Shot as roughly half the Tombfinger's damage is in the AoE. While Galv Shot is a great option for direct hits, it offers no damage for AoE, so its benefit is nowhere near as large as it is for the other Chambers.

This second build takes advantage of the forced Impact procs on direct hit to trigger Hemorrhage. Lethal Torrent is deliberately left out to keep Fire Rate below 2.5 - additionally the Haymaker is the only Grip that will stay below this threshold for maximum effect. Galv Shot has been included here, partly because I didn't know what else to include given the open polarity, and partly because the focus of this build on direct hits makes Galv Shot make more sense. Hemorrhage allows the Tombfinger to reliably inflict Slash procs on direct hits, allowing a Viral build to tear through armoured enemies with frightening consistency. It is much more efficient against armour than a normal Viral + Heat build, however it is less effective against any other targets than a traditional build.

Once again, the innate Radiation can make a Corrosive + Heat build very effective against most armoured enemies.

Conclusion

The Catchmoon offers a projectile type still not available in any other secondary. It is slow, but very powerful and excels at mowing down large groups. With Hemorrhage, it can also be built very effectively against heavily armoured enemies.
The Gaze is a beam weapon with quite high base stats. While decently powerful, it also has the misfortune of competing directly against two of the best Secondaries in the game, the Kuva Nukor and Tenet Cycron.
The Rattleguts is a Full-Auto hitscan weapon, with solid but not exceptional stats. It faces significant competition from the many other Full-Auto Secondaries, and besides access to Pax Arcanes, in my opinion does not offer any noteworthy capabilities.

The Tombfinger is a powerful projectile Semi-Auto, however in recent years its competition has increased drastically. Each of the Sepulcrum, Tenet Spirex, and Laetum can argue as being stronger than the Tombfinger.

In all four cases, I'd recommend focusing on maximum Crit rather than Status. For some of the Chambers it is because their low projectile output keeps a Status build from being very effective, and for others it is because they are so badly outclassed by competitors in that category.

If you are operating on limited time/resources/standing/etc, I would suggest the following hierarchy:

• I strongly recommend building a Catchmoon. It is the only one of the four that does not face strong direct competition, and is a unique and powerful weapon in its own right. Hemorrhage can be installed to mitigate its major disadvantage, its relative inefficiency against heavily armoured enemies.
• The Tombfinger is a strong Semi-Auto Secondary, however faces off against several strong competitors. I consider the Tombfinger the overall most user-friendly of the lot, but each of its competitors is arguably stronger in their own way.
• I would recommend the Gaze primarily if you want a Secondary Beam weapon with good Crit. It is a decently strong weapon, but is somewhat lacking in Mag Capacity, and is mostly outclassed by the KNukor and TCycron even when built for max Crit. 
• I would only specifically recommend the Rattleguts if you want specifically a strong Single Full-Auto Pistol. It is badly outclassed by several other Full-Auto Secondaries, mostly Dual Secondaries.