The Hema is an MR7 Infested Burst-Fire rifle with notoriously high Dojo research requirements. It has many rare and unique features, including pure Viral base Damage, lifesteal and health draining. Though not the easiest weapon to acquire or the most powerful by any means, I find it to be a very different and fun rifle.
Acquisition
The Hema must be researched in a Dojo's Infested Lab to acquire its blueprint. It has notoriously high research requirements, notably requiring 5000 Mutagen Samples for the smallest Clan size. Thankfully its build requirements are more reasonable.
Stats
The Hema has pure Viral base Damage, shared only by the shotgun Phage. It also has excellent base Status Chance, which allows for some brutal status builds, including Viral + Corrosive and Viral + Gas. Its crit is significantly less impressive, and for the most part is not really worth building for. It is a Burst-Fire rifle, firing 3 rounds per burst with a RoF of 6. With reasonably high Mag Capacity of 60 and decent 2 second Reload Time, the Hema has a very good Reload Ratio of 5. It is also a projectile weapon.
Uniquely, the Hema does not draw from a spare ammo reserve, nor does it reload over time. Instead, on reload, the Hema drains a small portion of the player's health, depending on how much ammo is restored - up to 3% of max health for a full mag. This maximum health drain does not increase with +Mag Capacity mods.
If the player has insufficient health to supply the Hema, on the first such reload, the Hema will not drain any health. On the second such reload however, the Hema will drain health covering both the current and previous reloads, regardless of the player's current health - if you are at very low health, the reload may kill you.
To compensate, on headshots, the Hema has a 10% lifesteal. With a reasonable build, just a few headshots is more than enough to fully heal most Warframes.
Augments
None.Builds
0-Forma:
A single V polarity allows the Hema to fit a simple, basic build without Forma. Pretty standard status build for Corrosive, which is great against anything armoured. High Voltage is prefered over Stormbringer for the extra Status Chance if you have it. I personally strongly recommend Shred. I find the Hema's base RoF to be uncomfortably slow, especially as a Burst-Fire weapon. The Punch Through is also very valuable against groups. Against unarmoured Corpus, a Gas status build can be brutally effective. The Hema's high Status Chance and pure Viral base Damage results in Gas proccing quite frequently, which rapidly eats away at enemy health, bypassing shields entirely. Against Infested, I'd again recommend Corrosive to deal majorly boosted damage against heavies.
Recommended Setups: Corrosive vs Grineer, Corrupted, armoured Corpus, Infested, Gas vs unarmoured Corpus
General Purpose 1-Forma:
An extra V polarity let you fit in two 60/60 mods alongside a 90% elemental. This offers a nice amount more damage as well as a massive boost in elemental bias. This results in far more Corrosive/Gas procs, which even without the added damage is a boost in overall effectiveness. Alternatively against Infested, slotting in Heat covers all of the Infested health types quite effectively.
There are a couple of options for that last mod slot. Another 90% elemental can give even more damage to one damage type, or adding another element to the setup. Heavy Caliber adds a large amount of damage, but the accuracy drop can hurt headshot consistency, which is especially detrimental for the Hema's headshot lifesteal ability. Primed Cryo Rounds adds a lot of damage, but also drastically reduces the number of "better" elemental procs inflicted. A (Primed) Bane mod also offers a significant damage boost. It is especially effective with a Gas build, since Gas procs gain the damage boost three times - an overall ~3.72x damage boost. If you can be bothered switching the mod for different factions, it's absolutely worth a slot.
Recommended Setups: see above. Also consider Corrosive + Heat vs Infested
Crit Build 3-Forma:
If you are skilled at landing headshots, or run equipment with significant crit boosts (e.g. Arcane Avenger, Harrow), a crit build will result in more overall damage output. If not however, it falls behind raw damage build.
Recommended Setups: see above.
My Builds:
Combat Use and Summary
As a status rifle with reasonable RoF, but notably pure elemental base Damage, the Hema excels against armoured enemies. A Corrosive build can rapidly eat through an enemy's armour, while Viral is super-effective against most organic enemies, and its proc is universally useful. In contrast however, with low crit and rather low DPS, the Hema does struggle against unarmoured enemies with high health.
Similarly, with low DPS and no innate AoE, the Hema is not exceptional against groups, though its great Reload Ratio does help. Notably however, the Hema can pull off a highly effective Gas build, thanks to pure Viral base Damage and high Status Chance. Gas will proc frequently, stacking up major damage against groups. Such a build is also notably brutally effective against unarmoured Corpus, bypassing their shields with Gas procs hitting at Viral-reduced health.
I personally find that the health drain on reload is a non-issue. 3% is a small amount, on most Warframes easily patched by any of the healing methods available, including Life Strike/Healing Return, Medi-Ray, health orbs, and of course the Hema's innate headshot lifesteal. Speaking of, the lifesteal on headshot is quite useful. With how our weapon scaling is currently in Warframe, a couple of headshots is enough to fully heal just about any Frame besides perhaps Inaros. Also worth noting is that any Reload While Holstered effects (e.g. Tactical Reload) will not drain health.
The Hema has fairly low recoil and spread, however its projectile nature makes longer ranged engagements a lot more difficult.
Overall, the Hema is a solid status rifle with some unique mechanics. It tears through armour rapidly with a Corrosive build, and can pull off a shield-bypassing Gas build quite effectively as well. Its lifesteal on headshots is a useful healing mechanic that easily offsets its health drain on reload. Health drain on reload also means no ammo concerns in long missions.
However, the sheer resource requirement for research is a substantial hurdle, and the Hema is not an especially powerful weapon, notably lacking in raw DPS due to its poor crit. There are a number of other rifles that can match or exceed its overall lethality. If you have yet to research it, I wouldn't recommend focusing on it specifically until you've researched and built just about everything else. Even then, Burst-Fire weapons are already a relatively niche weapon type that not everyone enjoys. If you like status or Burst-Fire weapons, the Hema can be worth looking at. I personally really enjoy it with my Riven, it's a fun and novel, if not super powerful weapon.
Scores
Vs Trash Mobs: 2.5/5 - Decent RoF and excellent Reload Ratio, but fairly low DPS makes the Hema relatively mediocre against crowds. A Gas build can proc quite frequently thanks to pure Viral base Damage, which enhances its anti-crowd abilities, but has even worse direct-damage.Vs Unarmoured Heavies: 1.5/5 - Rather low DPS means that the Hema does not perform very well against unarmoured, high health enemies.
Vs Armoured Heavies without Hunter Munitions: 4.5/5 - Pure Viral base Damage, with decent RoF and high Status Chance allows for a brutally effective Viral + Corrosive build. This build tears through armour rapidly, with Viral being super effective against the base health of most armoured enemies. It falls behind other weapons only in raw DPS needed to finish off such enemies.
Vs Armoured Heavies with Hunter Munitions: NA/5 - The Hema has unimpressive crit, making HM fairly poor. A Corrosive build is brutal against armour anyway, so HM isn't needed in the first place.
Vs Variants
None.Competitors
There are a number of other fast-firing status rifles, including things like Braton Prime, Burston Prime and Paracyst. There are a number that are capable of more direct damage than the Hema, particularly those that are hybrid-viable. However, with its base Viral damage, the Hema is the only one that can have a Corrosive + Viral setup, which is absolutely brutal against Grineer and armoured Corrupted. It can uniquely pull off a Gas + Viral setup, fantastic against Corpus. It also has its unique health-drain-on-reload and lifesteal-on-headshot mechanics, which set it apart from every other weapon. Overall, while there are many other status rifle options, there are none that can do the same things that the Hema can.Rivens
The Hema has an above average 3/5 (1.1) Disposition. This seems alright given its significant status capabilities thanks to Viral base Damage, but I also wouldn't mind or object to another small increase. Its lack of usage can be attributed more to insane research costs than being a bad weapon.
Damage and Multishot are obviously the top stats to have. Rivens also give crit builds more viability since Damage/Multishot rolls reduce the relative effect of Heavy Caliber/Vigilante Armaments, and with Crit Chance/Damage rolls enhance the value of crit builds. An added element like Toxin is great for damage and elemental bias, or for saving a slot. +Punch Through is a great help against crowds if you don't slot in (Primed) Shred. I personally also really like +Fire Rate alongside Primed Shred, as the RoF feels much better to me - this isn't for everyone though. +Mag Capacity reduces the health-per-shot drained, and can be a nice utility stat. +Projectile Flight Speed can also be a nice utility stat for longer ranged engagements.
-Max Ammo has no effect on the Hema, since it has no spare ammo. -Zoom is perfectly fine if you only engage in close quarters. -Crit Chance/Damage is tolerable if you're not doing a crit build, though -Crit Chance is much less detrimental and -Crit Damage.-Impact/Puncture/Slash, if they are possible rolls, have no effect so are perfect. +Recoil can be quite tolerable.
mid
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