[OBSOLETE] Game Mechanics: Status Chance and Shotgun Status (U24.2.5)

IMPORTANT NOTE: As of U27.2, this post is completely obsolete. Shotgun status behaves like every other weapon, and physical procs have equal bias as elements.

Deciding if a weapon is worth building for status is generally pretty simple. You usually want a base Status Chance of at least 15%, ideally alongside desirable status types like Slash or Corrosive. For most weapons, the difference between 95% Status Chance and 100% Status Chance is pretty much negligible. For shotguns, it can mean the difference between being a status monster, and being essentially status unviable.

Determining Status Proc

I covered this previously in my Damage Types article, but it's worth mentioning again for completeness. When a weapon inflicts a status proc, the proc that is inflicted is chosen at random from the weapon's damage types, weighted according to their relative magnitudes. Physical damage types get a quadrupal weighting. In the above example of my Prisma Grakata, a given status proc has a:

• (49.6 x 4) / ([49.6 + 41.3 + 33.1] x 4 + 148.8) = 30.8% chance of being Impact
• (41.3 x 4) / ([49.6 + 41.3 + 33.1] x 4 + 148.8) = 25.6% chance of being Puncture
• 148.8 / ([49.6 + 41.3 + 33.1] x 4 + 148.8) = 23.1% chance of being Corrosive
• (33.1 x 4) / ([49.6 + 41.3 + 33.1] x 4 + 148.8) = 20.5% chance of being Slash

Arsenal Status Chance

The majority of weapons fire a single pellet at base. Thus, the displayed Status Chance is the chance that the pellet will inflict a status effect. This is simple and intuitive.

The Arsenal Status Chance stat takes into account Multishot mods, as it displays the chance for a given shot to proc at least one status effect. Firing more pellets with the same base Status Chance naturally increases this chance. The value that the Arsenal displays is thus:

where:

• sc is the Arsenal displayed Status Chance
• bsc is the Status Chance for a single pellet
• np is the number of pellets

Note that this expression is an approximation, as it does not correctly take into account the effects of partial Multishot. For our purposes however, it is accurate enough, and more importantly, is fairly simple.
This formula can be rearranged to give the single pellet Status Chance given the Arsenal's Status Chance and the number of pellets:

For single pellet weapons, naturally the Arsenal Status Chance is equal to the per-pellet Status Chance.

For the majority of weapons, with no innate Multishot, it is simple enough to obtain the base Status Chance - simply ensure all Multishot mods have been removed. With only one pellet (np = 1), the Arsenal Status Chance will simply be the single pellet Status Chance.
Unfortunately, this is not the case for shotguns, and leads to some weird behaviour.

Shotgun Status Chance

As most shotguns have innate Multishot, typically firing at least 5 pellets per shot, the Arsenal Status Chance will not display the true Status Chance per pellet, even with all Multishot mods removed. It instead displays the total chance that shot will inflict at least one status effect. As such, the per-pellet Status Chance behaves as follows:

Of note is that the per-pellet Status Chance is only 60.2% when Arsenal Status Chance is 99%. This disparity is exarcerbated the more pellets a weapon has. For instance, for the base 12-pellet Kohm with Hells Chamber installed (26.4 pellets total), the graph looks like:

Where an Arsenal Status Chance of 99% corresponds to just 16% per-pellet Status Chance. This behaviour is the cause of the 100%-or-nothing status rule for shotguns - if it does not reach true 100% Status Chance, its actual per-pellet Status Chance is fairly low, and usually not worth building for.

This is particularly frustrating in Warframe's Arsenal, which rounds values, thus potentially showing 100% Status Chance on a weapon that is not quite there. An example of this is to install something with 25% base Status Chance like the Hek with all four 60/60 mods, Shotgun Savvy, and some Multishot mods. It only has 88.75% Status Chance before Multishot mods, but the Multishot increase and rounding causes it to display as 100%.

Notably, because of how Status Chance is calculated, if the Arsenal Status Chance is true 100%, the per-pellet Status Chance is guaranteed to be 100%. This allows shotguns with high enough base Status Chance to inflict a proc with every pellet, which can be absolutely devastating. The 100% status capable shotguns have the highest procs-per-second rates of any weapon in the game. Since Multishot screws with these calculations, it is often a good idea to perform the Status Chance calculation yourself to confirm.


This Status Chance behaviour is why 30% is the often cited "target" base Status Chance. With four 60/60 mods, the lowest base Status Chance that can reach 100% with mods is 29.4%. Thus, something like the (Sancti) Tigris at 28% base Status Chance is not status viable without Riven or Nano-Applicator help, while the Tigris Prime at 30% base Status Chance is a status monster.

Of the shotguns currently in game, the ones that can reach 100% Status Chance with four or fewer 60/60 mods are:

• Boar Prime
• Exergis
• Strun Wraith
• Tigris Prime
• Convectrix (only fires two beams, so 100% Status is less important)
• Phage
• Phantasma
• (Ak)Bronco Prime
• (Mara) Detron
• Euphona Prime (secondary fire)
• Twin Rogga

While the following shotguns do not:

• Boar
• Kohm
• Sobek
• Corinth
• (Vaykor) Hek
• (MK1) Strun
• (Sancti) Tigris
• Drakgoon
• Brakk
• (Ak)Bronco
• (Twin) Kohmak
• Pyrana (Prime)
• Ballistica Prime 
• Redeemer (Prime)

Astilla and Arca Plasmor have been excluded as they are single-pellet weapons, thus are not subject to the 100% or nothing status rule. Notably, Sobek can reach 100% Status Chance with the four 60/60s and its Augment, Shattering Justice. Redeemer Prime can reach it with the four 60/60s and Drifting Contact. Rivens can also help many of these weapons with a +Status Chance roll - Kohm being the most notable one.

Though not technically considered a shotgun, the Ballistica Prime's status is calculated like one, as it fires four pellets at once. This was also an issue for the Quartakk and Akjagara, which have both been changed to calculate status like Burst-Fire weapons. The same change for the Ballistica Prime would be a significant buff to a currently underwhelming weapon.