Review: Spectra Vandal (U25.3.2)

The Spectra Vandal is an MR10 beam secondary, introduced in U25. It has no notable gimmick or special feature, but sports very strong overall base stats. It is a very capable secondary and can tackle the majority of content without much issue.

Acquisition

The Spectra Vandal is currently exclusive to the now-complete Hostile Mergers Operation. It was automatically awarded for obtaining at least 1000 points in the Endurance mode. I expect it to be made available through Baro or something similar in the future.

Stats

The Spectra Vandal has a very strong set of base stats. Its Crit is quite solid, though its Status capabilities are much more notable. With majority Slash damage, a very high base 28% Status Chance, and high RoF, the Spectra Vandal is exceptionally capable of inflicting powerful and frequent Slash procs.

As a beam weapon, the Spectra Vandal only consumes ammo at half its stated RoF. This gives it an absurdly high Reload Ratio of 11.11 - the highest of any weapon I've reviewed so far. The downside of being a beam weapon is its limited Range of 22 metres, which isn't terrible. It also has a small amount of innate Punch Through, which is helpful though not enough to consistently penetrate enemies.

Augments

The Spectra Vandal has access to the Sequence Burn Augment, available from the Perrin Sequence. Besides adding the Sequence Syndicate effect, it adds 20 metres to the range of the Spectra (Vandal). With a base range of only 22 metres for the Vandal (a measly 18 metres for the regular Spectra!), this Augment almost doubles the weapon's range, which is a significant improvement and makes combat at medium range a lot easier. The regular Secondary Range mod, Ruinous Extension, increases range by a mere 8 metres, making Sequence Burn a vastly superior option.

I've discussed the Sequence Syndicate effect before, it deals Radiation damage and proc, partially restoring as well as slightly increasing Shields. Radiation is a reasonable damage type and a useful proc, but for the majority of Warframes, Shield restoration and increase is pretty poor.

Overall, this Augment is fantastic if you would like more range on the Spectra (Vandal), but does not offer any direct damage improvements.

Builds

General Purpose 0-Forma:

Yet another weapon without native polarities. The Spectra Vandal can fit in a very effective basic build, with both Crit and Status. Nothing special here, the lack of polarities really limits potential builds. I've slotted in Lethal Torrent instead of Barrel Diffusion here because it has a much higher DPS boost, and the RoF increase is fantastic for Status application. Being a beam weapon, the Spectra Vandal simply gets a damage boost from Multishot, rather than additional projectiles.

The Spectra Vandal has two very good builds against armoured enemies. Naturally, as a high Status, high RoF weapon, a Corrosive build for depleting armour is quite effective. With majority Slash base Damage, it is also very capable of a Viral + Slash build, inflicting many armour-bypassing Slash procs. The Corrosive build has better scalability at extremely high levels, and is much better against armoured Corpus robots, while the Viral + Slash build is much more efficient at lower levels.

Against Infested, as always, Corrosive is the best overall option, with both Blast and Viral decent alternatives. Against unarmoured Corpus, there are several options available. Viral is the best for direct damage against heavy organics like Corpus Techs. Toxin bypasses shields entirely, with both its direct damage and proc. This makes it exceptionally effective against single targets with majority Shields and minimal Health like Anti-MOAs. Finally, with such high Status Chance, Gas is a solid option. It has very poor direct damage multipliers, however its Status proc is extremely powerful, inflicting large Toxin procs to all enemies around the affected victim. This makes it exceptionally effective againts groups of enemies, especially Corpus.

Recommended Setups: Corrosive or (Viral + Slash) vs Grineer, Corrupted, armoured Corpus, Corrosive vs Infested, Viral or Toxin or Gas vs unarmoured Corpus

General Purpose 2-Forma:

Two added V polarities lets you comfortably fit in Barrel Diffusion, as well as space to switch one of the 60/60s for a 90%. Nothing else has really changed.

Recommended Setups: see above.

Primed Crit 3-Forma:

One more V polarity and you can comfortably fit in both Primed Crit mods, again with space to switch a 60/60 to a 90%. The Primed Crit mods together are very expensive, but really increase the Spectra Vandal's damage output. With all of the staple mods installed, there are a bunch of options for the last mod slot.

Augur Pact is a simple, uncomplicated damage boost. Magnum Force is more powerful, but also significantly reduces accuracy which can make headshots much more difficult at range. Hydraulic Crosshairs is an option to boost Crit Chance if you can reliably meet its trigger conditions, which is very easy on the high RoF Spectra Vandal.

The Sequence Burn Augment is a useful option for drastically increasing range, and the Syndicate effect is a nice bonus. Seeker adds a significant amount of Punch Through, allowing the Spectra Vandal to penetrate just about any enemy, improving its efficiency against crowds.

Recommended Setups: see above.

My Build

As I've mentioned many times by now, I don't really enjoy beam weapons. As such, I haven't really invested in the Spectra Vandal. In my use, I've generally preferred a Viral build, as I find it to be a little more consistent, especially when used against different factions.

Combat Use and Summary

The Spectra Vandal is a fairly powerful and well rounded secondary. It is most effective against armoured heavies, capable of both Corrosive or Viral + Slash builds. Each of the builds has their own strengths and weaknesses, but both are highly effective against armoured enemies.

The Spectra Vandal is solid against large groups. With high RoF, fantastic Reload Ratio and a little innate Punch Through, it is quite capable of quickly killing many weak enemies. However, it does suffer a little from beam damage ramp-up, which slightly delays its full damage output if not fired for some time. With solid, but not exceptional DPS, the Spectra Vandal fares worst against single unarmoured enemies with a lot of health, though is still quite respectable in this regard.

A limited Range of 22 metres holds the Spectra Vandal back a little, especially in larger maps like the open worlds. Warframe's incredibly fast movement system does alleviate this, as it is quite easy to close distance, but it remains a noticeable flaw in combat.

Overall, the Spectra Vandal is a very well rounded, and quite powerful beam Secondary. It comfortably holds its own in most of Warframe's current content, and is quite versatile. If you're after an all-round good beam Secondary, I'd definitely recommend investing in the Spectra Vandal...when it eventually becomes available once more.

Scores

Vs Trash Mobs: 4/5 - The Spectra Vandal has an exceptional Reload Ratio, and a high RoF allows it to switch targets rapidly. It's innate Punch Through, though relatively low, is still capable of penetrating some thin enemies, which can be a great help. In terms of pure efficiency however, it still lags behind other Secondaries with better AoE capabilities.
Vs Unarmoured Heavies: 2/5 - The Spectra Vandal has solid Crit, but by secondary standards, is rather unexceptional in terms of Burst DPS. It can handle unarmoured heavies without too much trouble, but is less efficient than many other Crit-heavy secondaries.
Vs Armoured Heavies: 5/5 - With both Corrosive and Viral + Slash Status builds available to it, and extremely effective, the Spectra Vandal handles armoured enemies very well. It has a fantastic combination of Status Chance for inflicting many procs, as well as Crit to deal respectable direct damage and inflict powerful Slash procs.

Vs Variants

The MR10 Spectra Vandal is a universally superior to the MR4 Spectra. Notable improvements include higher Crit Chance and Status Chance, slightly higher Range, and vastly superior Reload Ratio.

Competitors

There are several other beam Secondaries in the game, including the Gaze Kitgun. Many of them are fairly comparable to the Spectra Vandal, or have their own useful features.

The Atomos and Ocucor are both Status-focused beam secondaries that are much weaker against single targets than the Spectra Vandal. However, both have multi-targeting abilities that make them much easier to use against groups.

The Synoid Gammacor is extremely similar to the Spectra Vandal. It has the same Crit, Status Chance and Mag Capacity, and only slightly lower base Damage. It does not have innate Punch Through, and has a significantly slower Reload. The Synoid Gammacor does however have much more base Range, at 40 metres, as well as built-in Entropy effect. Because of its pure base Magnetic damage, the Synoid Gammacor is much more capable of inflicting elemental procs, while the Spectra Vandal is capable of Slash procs.

The Gaze Kitgun is extremely versatile, with quite high overall base stats and lots of customisability. It can be set up to have far better Crit, giving it much more raw DPS but reducing its Status capabilities, or it can be made even more Status-capable, at the cost of Crit and DPS. The Gaze has a bonus feature in that it has a weaker version of the Atomos' chaining effect, making it far more effective against groups than the Spectra Vandal.

The most comparable Gaze build to the Spectra Vandal uses Gaze + Haymaker + Swiftfire/Thunderdrum. This gives the Gaze 21%/1.9x Crit, which is almost identical to the Spectra Vandal, with a higher Status Chance of 32%. It has comparable Range at 21m, and similar base Damage at 20. Notably, where the Spectra Vandal has Slash and Puncture as base Damage, the Gaze has Radiation and Puncture instead, making it more elemental-Status capable, but not Slash-proc capable. Additionally, the Gaze cannot get anywhere near the Spectra Vandal's Reload Ratio, with either a measly 31 Mag Capacity with 1.3 second Reload, up to just 51 Mag Capacity with 2.1 second Reload.

Overall, while there are several other good beam secondaries, none are strictly superior to the Spectra Vandal, which holds its own powerful niche of being Slash-proc capable.

Rivens

The Spectra (Vandal) currently has an incredibly high 5/5 (1.49) Riven Disposition. Given how powerful the Vandal is, I definitely think this should be dropped significantly, to around 3/5 (~1).

+Damage/Multishot are always fantastic stats to have. +Crit Chance/Damage are also very good for the very Crit-capable Vandal. +Elemental Damage can be good for elemental bias or saving a mod slot. +Slash is decent for a Slash status build. +Punch Through can be quite helpful against crowds and larger enemies, as the Spectra (Vandal)'s innate 0.5 metres does not penetrate all enemies.

-Impact has no effect as the Spectra (Vandal) has no Impact damage. -Puncture is solid, as although it reduces base Damage, it is by far the weaker and less useful damage type. -Faction Damage is perfectly fine against all other factions. -Mag Capacity/Reload Speed are quite tolerable given the Vandal has an incredibly good Reload Ratio. Similarly, -Ammo Max can be quite tolerable in smaller amounts, though the Spectra's high Disposition can make this difficult. -Flight Speed has no effect, as does +Recoil. -Zoom is great considering the Spectra Vandal is only usable at close range.