Review: Braton Prime (U24.2.8)

The Braton Prime is an MR8 assault rifle that has been in the game since U9. As one of the "unvaultable" Primes, the BratonP is one of the easiest Prime weapons to acquire, and is a solid, though not exceptional, weapon for its MR bracket.

Acquisition

As standard for a Prime weapon, the Braton Prime's blueprint and components can be found in various Void Relics. As mentioned just previously, the BratonP is an "unvaultable" Prime, meaning that its parts will always be available from some Relics (barring any mistakes on DE's part).

Stats

The Braton Prime has a very solid combination of stats for a status weapon. it has 60% Slash bias, alongside a rather high base Status Chance of 26%, and a solid RoF of 9.58. This is backed up by a decently large Mag Capacity, and reasonable Reload Time, for a very good Reload Ratio of 3.52.

On the other hand, its crit is relatively low at just 12%/2x, making it only situationally worth building for crit.

Augments

None.

Builds

0-Forma:

With no native polarities, the Braton Prime does not have too much space for diversity without Forma. With such good status capabilities, I'd recommend starting simple like with this build: Damage, Multishot, Viral. Vigilante Armaments could be switched for something like Shred for Punch Through.

Alternatively, you could switch Split Chamber for the two crit mods. In these two pictured builds, the crit build does come out slightly ahead for raw DPS, but this pattern doesn't really hold.

As mentioned previously, with 12%/2x crit, the Braton Prime is only situationally worth building for crit. As will be shown later on, a raw damage build will win out for raw, non-weakspot DPS. However, there are a couple of conditions that can make crit worth building for. The first is if you are good at aiming at heads - critical hits get a 4x headshot multiplier where regular hits only get 2x - easily pushing a critical build past a raw damage build for DPS. The second is if you regularly run with crit-enhancing equipment - think Harrow, Adarza Kavats - these again make a critical build absolutely worth running. The third is if you have a decent Riven. Due to the way mods of the same stat add with one another (e.g. Serration and Heavy Caliber add to +330% damage, not multiply to around +600%), as well as how crit mods interact with one another (more +Crit Chance greatly enhances the value of +Crit Damage, and vice versa) a decent Riven can make a Crit build much more powerful.

Against most enemies, I generally defer to Viral as a general purpose combo. Its proc is extremely strong, and in many cases outclasses damage type multipliers. This combines perfectly with the BratonP's high Slash bias. If you care only for one type of armour, then its corresponding damage type is most appropriate (Corrosive vs Ferrite, Radiation vs Alloy). Against Infested, the go-to for direct damage is Corrosive.

Against unarmoured Corpus, there are two main options. Viral is by far the most effective against heavy organic units like Corpus Techs and Combas, as it hits their rather large health pool with maximum effectiveness. Toxin deals damage directly to health, completely ignoring shields, as well as having a small bonus against organics.

Recommended Setups: Viral vs everything, Corrosive vs Infested, Ferrite armour, Viral or Toxin vs unarmoured Corpus, Radiation vs armoured Corpus

Crit 2-Forma:

Two added V polarities lets you comfortably fit in the two crit mods alongside Split Chamber, and of course one of my favourite mods Shred. I always like Shred for the greatly improved crowd killing efficiency, as well as the convenience of being able to shoot through thin obstacles like bodies and walls. If you don't want Shred, Vigilante Armaments or a 90% elemental are good substitutes.

Raw Damage/Elemental 2-Forma:

Alternatively, a non-crit build can end up with very slightly higher DPS, at least when not landing headshots. Notably, this opens up options for 3 elemental mods, of which there are a few noteworthy combinations. Viral + Heat in particular is extremely potent on a Status weapon like the BratonP.

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

Raw Damage 3-Forma:

Another V polarity allows the comfortable use of Heavy Caliber, for a nice bit of extra damage-per-shot. Note that its accuracy penalty is quite noticeable.

These two spreads were shot in Simulacrum with as much Multishot as possible, from the spawn platform to the near left pillar. The left spread is without HC, the right with HC. For reference, from the shooting position, the left spread was about the width of the full reticle. Beyond close range, the spread increase from HC can result in a lot of rounds missing their target - especially if you're aiming for a small target like an enemy's head. In exchange of course, each of those rounds that do hit deal a lot more damage. Whether you like using Heavy Caliber or not is mainly up to personal preference. I personally strongly dislike it and basically never use it, but I cannot deny the significant damage boost it offers.

Recommended Setups: see above.

Crit 4-Forma:

One more V polarity allows you to fill all eight mod slots when doing a crit build. Vigilante Armaments can be swapped for a 90% elemental, again for higher elemental bias. Shred can also be switched for a 90% elemental, which will require a different polarity in that slot. Other alternative mods include of course Heavy Caliber, and if you want to go for a Viral + Slash build, Fanged Fusillade.

Recommended Setups: see above.

Raw Damage/Elemental 5-Forma:

Finally, five total Forma used can let you fill in every mod slot even with a raw damage build. As shown above, the build with Heavy Caliber is by far the most powerful for raw DPS ignoring crit headshot multipliers. If you don't want to use HC, but also don't want to do a crit build, you can instead slot in four elementals, two 60/60s and two 90%s. This allows you to maximise the bias of a given elemental combo (such as the Corrosive setup pictured), or slap on multiple elements (e.g. Corrosive + Heat). However, this build will end up lagging behind the crit build for raw DPS, even without headshots, due to the small Vigilante mod set bonus. Again, if you want to go for Viral + Slash, Fanged Fusillade works well.

Note that a raw damage build will end up with a better elemental bias than a comparable crit build, due to crit requiring an additional mandatory mod.

The most notable mod for the Exilus slot is an Ammo Mutation mod. The Braton Prime eats through ammo relatively quickly, especially with +Fire Rate, so can run out of ammo in longer missions. Vigilante Supplies adds Ammo Mutation while also increasing the Vigilante Mod set bonus.

Recommended Setups: see above.

My Builds:

Nothing special about my builds, just two standard Corrosive and Viral builds with crit. Honestly, I have not changed these builds since before U27.2, and would likely alter both of them to include Heat. I just never actually use the Braton Prime.

Combat Use and Summary

Naturally, with high RoF and great status capabilities, the Braton Prime is at its best against armoured enemies. Both Corrosive and Viral builds with optional Heat deal with armour quite effectively, Corrosive reducing it and Viral + Slash simply bypassing it. A high RoF and decent Reload Ratio also lends well to handling groups, though the relative lack of raw damage does hinder it in this regard. With relatively poor raw damage output, the BratonP fares worst against high health, unarmoured enemies.

The Braton Prime is relatively accurate and very little vertical kick, though has some unpredictable horizontal recoil. It's definitely usable at longer range if you don't equip Heavy Caliber, though the seemingly random horizontal recoil makes precise shooting a lot harder.

With a base RoF of 9.58 and relatively low damage output, the Braton Prime can sometimes require a lot of bullets to kill enemies. It runs through ammo fairly fast, and even with a spare ammo of 600, can definitely run out of ammo in longer missions. In such cases, I would recommend running one of Ammo Case/Mutation/etc.

The Braton Prime handles quite like a generic, FPS assault rifle. It fires fast, has a little recoil and reasonable accuracy, a decent reload speed and a large magazine. If you've come from playing more traditional FPS games and are struggling to find a standard rifle that feels right, the Braton Prime is a good place to start. It is reasonably effective and can handle itself in most of the game's content, and is quite easy to acquire as an Unvaultable Prime with no Rare parts. You will find weapons that are a lot more powerful and probably more fun, but the Braton Prime is decent example of simple-but-effective. Personally I find the Braton Prime to be really boring, but I usually don't like the conventional rifles in shooter games anyway.

Scores

Vs Trash Mobs: 3.5/5 - Very good Reload Ratio and good RoF, the Braton Prime can easily engage multiple targets. It falls behind in raw damage however, with many alternatives being capable of killing the same sorts of crowds much faster.
Vs Unarmoured Heavies: 2/5 - Rather low DPS means that the Braton Prime falls quite far behind for killing unarmoured enemies with high health.
Vs Armoured Heavies without Hunter Munitions: 4/5 - Excellent Status Chance, high RoF and decent Slash bias allow the Braton Prime to use both Corrosive and Viralbuilds to decent effect against armoured enemies. It procs quickly and frequently, and generally fares well against armour. However, its rather low raw damage output slows the BratonP's killing time significantly compared to other, more powerful options.
Vs Armoured Heavies with Hunter Munitions: NA/5 - Relatively low crit makes Hunter Munitions quite inefficient. Fanged Fusillade is much more effective for the same purpose.

Vs Variants

There are several Braton variants, one of them being available from the very start of the game in Vor's Prize (MK1). Neither the MK1-Braton nor Braton are even worth looking at, both being very weak MR0 starter weapons. The MR4 Braton Vandal is the only one even remotely worth comparison, trading some status for slightly better crit, though also losing RoF and Mag Capacity. To be honest, the Braton Vandal isn't worth much of a look either, it's far too mediocre and badly outclassed by many weapons.

Competitors

There are a number of other fast firing status rifles in the game, with their own features and advantages. In particular, there are a number with superior raw damage output, whether through base Damage, higher crit, or both. Weapons like the Kuva Karak, Kuva Hind, Boltor Prime, Prisma Grakata, Supra Vandal, Burston Prime, Amprex, Ignis Wraith, Quanta Vandal, the list continues. The Braton Prime is one of the most generic feeling rifles in the game, but when it comes to combat performance, lags behind many other weapons.

Rivens

Image taken from when Disposition was roughly 3/5 (1)

The Braton family has a high Riven Disposition of 4/5 (1.25). This feels relatively reasonable, as it is distinctly a lower-tier Rifle, but far from the worst in the game.

Naturally, Damage and Multishot are the top stats to go for. If you want to do a crit build, Crit Chance/Crit Damage are of course good as well. An element can help to save a slot or increase elemental bias, for instance +Toxin/Electric can increase Corrosive bias for faster armour stripping. +Slash is also good if you want to do a Viral + Slash build. +Punch Through can be very helpful against crowds.

-Impact/Puncture are both great, minimally reducing overall damage while increasing Slash/elemental bias, as well as boosting the Riven's positives. -Crit Chance/Crit Damage are alright if you're not going for a crit build, though -CC is much less harmful than -CD. -Max Ammo can be alright for shorter missions, or if you run Ammo Case/Mutation/etc. -Flight Speed has no effect. -Mag Capacity or Reload Speed can be tolerable, since the Braton Prime has a pretty good Reload Ratio. -Fire Rate can be alright if you struggle with ammo conservation, but hurts damage and status output a lot. +Recoil can be alright if you handle recoil well. -Zoom is great if you only engage in close quarters.