Review: Cernos Prime (U25.2.4)

The Cernos Prime is an unusual MR12 bow that fires at base 3 arrows in a spread. Originally released alongside Valkyr and Venka Primes, it has quite good total firepower, but can take a lot of getting used to.

Acquisition

As standard, the Cernos Prime's parts and blueprint drop from specific Void Relics. However, it is currently Vaulted alongside Valkyr and Venka Primes, so its Relics are not currently available.

Stats

The Cernos Prime has quite a good spread of stats. It has very good Crit, as well as quite high Status Chance. 0.5 seconds Charge Time is much more usable than the old 1 second charge, and a Reload Time of 0.7 seconds isn't terrible by bow standards. Like most bows, the Cernos Prime has innate 1 metre Punch Through on charged shots.

Notably, the Cernos Prime has quite high base Damage, however this is split between three arrows - each arrow dealing only 120 base Damage.

Uniquely, the Cernos Prime's innate Multishot has a set spread pattern. By default, the arrows will fire in a horizontal spread, with more Multishot adding more arrows to this spread. Horizontal spread is most useful against groups, allowing you to hit multiple enemies at once.

A more recent change is the addition of a spread toggle on secondary fire, which switches to a vertical spread. This spread makes it much easier to get more arrows on the same target, for much better single target damage.

Augments

None.

Builds

Hunter Munitions 0-Forma:

With two native V polarities, the Cernos Prime can fit in a fairly decent build even without Forma. My preferred go-to build is a Viral + HM build, particularly against armoured enemies. With high Crit Chance, Cernos Prime inflicts quite a lot of Slash procs with HM, much more reliably than single shot bows. On a low volume-of-fire weapon like the Cernos Prime, as I've mentioned many times before, I tend to favour Viral as the elemental combo.

Raw Damage 0-Forma:

This build is focused on direct damage, which is a lot more effective against any unarmoured enemies. Vigilante Armaments is my preferred go-to slot filler, though as I'll discuss further below, there are a fair few other options to consider as well.

As mentioned previously, a Viral + HM build is the most effective setup against most armoured enemies, inflicting numerous armour-bypassing Slash procs, augmented by health-halving Viral procs. Against unarmoured Corpus, I consider Viral to be the most overall effective, though pure Toxin is also quite effective, especially in Augmented Shield Sorties. Against Infested, as always, Corrosive is probably the best overall option. Against armoured Corpus, who almost exclusively use Alloy Armour, Radiation is a strong bet if the Viral + HM build is undesirable.

Recommended Setups: Viral + HM vs Grineer, Corrupted, Viral or Toxin vs unarmoured Corpus, Corrosive vs Infested, Radiation vs armoured Corpus

Hunter Munitions 2-Forma:

Two added V polarities and you can comfortably make use of the eighth slot.

General Purpose 2-Forma:

There are many good options for the last two mod slots. As already mentioned, Vigilante Armaments is my go-to for a spare primary slot, though in the Cernos Prime's case, adds more arrows to the spread so is not ideal for single target damage.

Heavy Caliber has a very strange interaction with the Cernos Prime's spread. It makes the Horizontal Spread behave like a traditional shotgun, firing arrows in a fairly wide cone spread.

Vertical Spread however becomes completely horizontal, with minimal vertical deviation. Depending what sort of spread you prefer, Heavy Caliber might be a really good option, or a rubbish one. As usual for a Crit weapon, Argon Scope and Bladed Rounds can be quite good if you can reliably meet their trigger conditions.

Also worthy of note are Vile Acceleration/Speed Trigger and (Primed) Fast Hands. Any +Fire Rate mod is quite useful on Bows as it greatly reduces their Charge Time. Charging is very important for bows as uncharged shots are drastically weaker than fully charged shots. Bows also must reload after every shot, making any +Reload Speed mod significantly reduce time between shots. +Punch Through can be nice against thicker enemies (e.g. Boilers), but is much less important with the innate 1 metre Punch Through on charged shots.

You can of course slot in additional elements, which can be notably useful against certain enemy types. Just about all Infested are vulnerable to some part of Corrosive + Heat, while Viral + Electric is great against any unarmoured Corpus. Terminal Velocity for the +Flight Speed can be helpful, especially at longer ranges.

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

My Builds:

Nothing all that special about my builds, my default one is a Viral + HM build. It's effective against most targets, notably inflicting a lot of Slash procs against armoured enemies.

My other main build is a Corrosive one, primarily for use against Infested.

Combat Use and Summary

The Cernos Prime is the most effective draw-back bow (besides the Lenz of course) against groups, due to its spreads. It can effectively strike and heavily damage multiple light enemies at once, though of course still suffers from the usual bow problem of very slow overall RoF. Hunter Munitions also gives it quite good effectiveness against armoured enemies, as its high Crit Chance and arrow count allows it to frequently inflict Slash procs.

Naturally, the Cernos Prime is worst against single targets. Horizontal Spread struggles to put more than a few arrows on the same target, and almost never more than one arrow into a weakspot. Vertical Spread can put more arrows into the same target, but again can't put multiple arrows into a weakspot consistently.

Like with all other bows, the Cernos Prime has projectile travel time and drop, which makes long range combat more difficult. This is exacerbated by the wide spread of the Cernos Prime's multiple arrows, which often results in a lot of wasted arrows.

Overall, the Cernos Prime is a very unusual bow, and will definitely not appeal to everyone. It is difficult to get used to, with a different projectile spread to most other weapons in the game. The arrow spread often ends up being quite wasteful, since it is very difficult to line up enemies with every arrow trajectory. It is more effective against groups than conventional bows, but pales in comparison to the Lenz. The Cernos Prime is relatively less effective against single targets than most bows, as it cannot precisely hit weakspots with its multiple arrows. If you're looking for a different, somewhat wacky bow, the Cernos Prime is one of the wackiest bows in the game. It is by no means the best bow at any one role, but it is fun in its own way.

Scores

Vs Trash Mobs: 2/5 - The wide spread of arrows makes it quite easy to hit multiple targets at once, and the Cernos Prime deals enough damage in a single arrow to handle weak enemies fairly easily. It still suffers from being a Bow, requiring re-drawing for every single shot.
Vs Unarmoured Heavies: 2/5 - Though the Cernos Prime deals quite high total damage, it is very difficult to get many arrows onto the same target unless you are at point-blank range. Additionally, since the arrows forcibly spread, it is nearly impossible to have more than one arrow hit an enemy's weakspot. These factors severly limit the Cernos Prime's performance against single targets.
Vs Armoured Heavies without Hunter Munitions: 1.5/5 - With innate Multishot and high Status Chance, the Cernos Prime fares better than most other bows at inflicting Corrosive procs on armoured enemies. It is still very slow however, and its DPS is too low to effectively brute-force through higher level enemies.
Vs Armoured Heavies with Hunter Munitions: 3.5/5 - High Crit Chance and innate Multishot allow the Cernos Prime to inflict Slash procs more frequently and consistently than the single arrow bows.

Vs Variants

Though the Cernos Prime belongs to a family of three bows (Cernos, Rakta Cernos, Cernos Prime), it is not directly comparable to either of the others because of its innate Multishot and spread. The other two Cernos' fire a single arrow with precision, rather than a bunch of arrows in a spread.

Competitors

There isn't any other bow like the Cernos Prime currently in the game. No other bow has innate Multishot, or such a wide, specific spread pattern. The only comparable weapon is Ivara's Artemis Bow, an Exalted weapon. The Artemis Bow also fires a lot of arrows in a line spread, with high Crit and good Status Chance, but has far higher base Damage and more innate Multishot.

The main competitor the Cernos Prime has is the Lenz. The Lenz is more of a grenade launcher than a bow, causing a large explosion moments after arrow impact. However, the Lenz also deals absurdly high damage to anything caught in the blast, and can also make use of Hunter Munitions (albeit somewhat inconsistently) against armoured enemies. Overall, the Lenz deals much more damage to any target, and is far more consistent against groups. The main drawbacks to the Lenz are its miniscule spare ammo pool, and self-damage on explosions.

Rivens

The Cernos family has a slightly above average 3/5 (1.1) Riven Disposition, which I think is a bit unnecessary. Neither the Cernos Prime nor Rakta Cernos (which share Rivens) are notably weak, rather bows in general are not particularly strong. I feel that bows deserve significant buffs as a whole.

As always, +Damage/Multishot/Crit Chance/Crit Damage are all great stats to have. +Elemental Damage can be helpful for saving a mod slot or two. +Fire Rate can be helpful to significantly shorten Charge Time, though is less necessary on the Rakta Cernos as it is already quite fast. +Flight Speed can be quite helpful for longer ranged combat. +Reload Speed shortens the time between ready arrows, which is also quite helpful on bows.

-Puncture/Slash are great negatives as the Cernos family is Impact focused. -Impact greatly reduces your direct damage, but allows you to inflict a lot more useful procs (ie Slash and elements). -Faction Damage to a weaker damage can be a good negative. -Mag Capacity has no effect. -Ammo Max is quite good as draw-back bows are quite ammo efficient in general. +Recoil has no effect. -Zoom is great if you focus primarily on close range combat.