Review: Rakta Cernos (U23.10.8)

The Rakta Cernos is Red Veil's signature primary weapon, an MR12 bow. Released in U17.3 with the other Syndicate primaries, it is notably the fastest firing traditional bow currently in the game. This combined with solid base stats makes the Rakta Cernos a favourite bow of many players.

Acquisition

The Rakta Cernos can be acquired directly from Red Veil at max rank, or traded from other players.
Stats

As with just about every other bow, the Rakta Cernos has very good crit with high base damage. Oddly, it actually has significantly lower Crit Chance than the other two conventional bows, Dread and Paris Prime. Also notable for the RCernos are its 0.25sec charge time, and 0.6sec reload time, both of which are the lowest of all bows. The innate 1m Punch Through is helpful against groups.

An uncharged shot has a base damage of 150 with the same IPS distribution as the charged shot.

Mediocre Status Chance for such a slow firing weapon means you won't be proccing a lot of status, and majority Impact damage is not ideal either.

Worth a quick note is that the Rakta Cernos has the equal-highest projectile flight speed of all bows, tied with the Daikyu.

Augments
None.

Builds
0-Forma:

With two V and one - polarities innately, the Rakta Cernos can easily fit a nearly-complete build. The above is a standard Viral + HM build that does solid damage to most enemies, and inflicts decent Slash procs onto anything heavily armoured.

This alternative build drops HM and Status Chance for raw direct Corrosive damage, which with the correct element, is much better against anything unarmoured.
Something like Fast Hands is a solid option in the Vigilante Armaments slot if the Reload Time bothers you.

Recommended Setups: Viral + HM vs Grineer, Corrupted, Radiation + VA/Cold/Toxin vs armoured Corpus, Viral + VA/Electric vs unarmoured Corpus, Corrosive + VA/Heat vs Infested

General Purpose 2-Forma:

Two Forma for two extra V polarities lets you comfortably fill in all of the mod slots. This setup is a Viral + HM build with a bit more raw damage, but lower Status Chance. Personally I prefer the consistency of having a higher Status Chance, so Viral procs more reliably.

A raw damage build also works well, in this case with Bladed Rounds for the last slot. I don't like Heavy Caliber in general, and it is too high drain to fit in this build. Argon Scope is also a good option for consistency of crits, but is of course much harder to acquire than Bladed Rounds (which, though still difficult to acquire, is at least cheap). (Primed) Fast Hands is also a good option, but will require some mod shuffling and/or more Forma to fit.

Recommended Setups: see above.

Primed Cryo Rounds 3-Forma:

An added D polarity allows the use of PCR for a big damage boost, both for a Viral + HM build, but also a raw damage build if you have the polarity in a better spot (e.g. bottom right). Additional Forma may be necessary to make up for this polarity though.

My Builds:

My builds aren't too special, just an extra - polarity from the 3-Forma build for my Riven. The top build is exactly that 3-Forma build, just with Riven instead of VA. This build is what I use for most content, and can deal with most enemies through direct or Slash proc damage surprisingly effectively.
The bottom build is a Corrosive + PFH build intended for use against Infested. More so than the other factions, the Infested rely on sheer numbers, and PFH helps at getting more shots off quickly.

Combat Use and Summary

As a fairly traditional bow, the Rakta Cernos is best against single targets, utilising being innately silent to line up easy critical headshots before being spotted. Its short charge time also makes it easier to use than most bows, though this was even more the case before U22.12, in which most bow Charge Times were reduced. The RCernos is better than most bows against groups thanks to its shorter charge and reload times, but is still poor by overall weapon standards. Likewise, without a high ROF or Slash bias, the RCernos relies on Hunter Munitions to be effective against armoured enemies.

As with all bows, upon kill, a Rakta Cernos arrow will ragdoll the enemy and continue flying. This pseudo-Punch Through effect can be effective if enemies have lined up, but the weapon still struggles against groups. It's always fun to see bodies pinned to walls though.

With a relatively fast projectile flight speed, the Rakta Cernos is better suited to long-range combat than most bows. With that said, flight time and projectile drop are still both a concern, and with that in mind, I wouldn't recommend the Rakta Cernos for long range combat over a traditional hitscan rifle.

Something the Rakta Cernos has over other standard bows is its Syndicate proc. As a Red Veil weapon, it innately has the Blight Syndicate proc. Upon gaining sufficient affinity, it deals 1000 Viral damage with proc to nearby enemies. It also restores some energy, and temporarily increases movement speed. Personally, I consider the Blight proc to be the best of the Syndicate procs. Viral damage + proc is very useful against most enemies, energy restore is fantastic, and the increased movement speed is also pretty nice. This proc is great on frames who appreciate the extra energy, and is also a great help for a weapon that otherwise struggles with crowds a lot. Personally, I use the Rakta Cernos on my Ivara Spy loadout, and it is especially useful in Energy Reduction sorties.

Overall, the Rakta Cernos is mainly just a fast bow. It fires a fair bit faster than most other traditional bows, though loses out in crit and status compared to most of the others. With that said, besides the awesome Syndicate proc, it still falls way short of most primaries for general Warframe content. The Rakta Cernos is my favourite standard bow, and I especially love it on Ivara, but as I mentioned in my Dread review, I don't consider bows to be well suited to Warframe's content. If you're looking for a bow with some extra utility, I'd certainly recommend getting your hands on one, but as primaries go, it's not to special.

Scores
Vs Trash Mobs: 0.5/5 - very poor ROF, despite being the fastest of all bows, relying mainly on Punch Through. Gets ahead of most traditional bows with its faster Charge and Reload times, and its radial Syndicate proc.
Vs Unarmoured Heavies: 2.5/5 - fast draw speed makes it one of the higher DPS bows, though still lags badly behind most primaries.
Vs Armoured Heavies without Hunter Munitions: 1/5 - has no reliable anti-armour capabilities without HM, with mediocre Status Chance and DPS, and very slow ROF.
Vs Armoured Heavies with Hunter Munitions: 3/5 - HM allows it to proc Slash fairly frequently, but it lacks the natural slash procs and >100% Crit Chance of Dread.

Vs Variants

The Rakta Cernos is a variant of the MR6 Cernos, trading minor crit and status losses for a minor base damage boost, and substantial charge time improvement. These combined with the Syndicate proc make the Rakta overall better.

Although there are two other Cernos variants, Cernos Prime and Mutalist Cernos, they function sufficiently differently from the (Rakta) Cernos that I feel a direct comparison is not useful.

Competitors

The Rakta Cernos has a few competitors, though consistently has the advantages of very fast draw time, and Rakta Syndicate effect. The Dread is the closest conventional competitor, being slower but dealing more damage-per-shot. Notably, the Dread can also inflict Slash procs more frequently and reliably. The Cernos Prime may also be worth a look as a semi-conventional bow that is much more effective against groups thanks to its innate Multishot, however this is very much a personal preference thing.

Rivens

The (Rakta) Cernos has a fairly low 2/5 (0.86) disposition, which given the relative weakness of standard bows compared to most primaries, I think could be reasonably increased to 3/5 (~1). Cernos Rivens work on the Cernos, Rakta Cernos and Cernos Prime. The Mutalist Cernos gets its own Rivens.

As always, Damage/Multishot/Crit Chance/Crit Damage are the top stats to have. Personally, I prefer MS + CC for the improved consistency, especially with Hunter Munitions. An appropriate element (e.g. Toxin) can help to save a mod slot. +Reload Speed can also be a big boon to usability, especially against crowds. +Projectile Flight Speed can help for longer ranged combat.

-Max Ammo can be reasonable if you have no issues with ammo, and -Zoom is generally appreciated if you don't engage at longer ranges. -Mag Capacity and +Recoil both have no detriment, and are perfect to have. -Puncture/Slash have almost no effect on the mainly-Impact Cernos family either.