Review: Quartakk (U25.6.3)

The Quartakk is four-barreled MR10 Burst-Fire Rifle, with solid overall stats but a relatively slow RoF. It is an unusual Burst-Fire Rifle, easily distinguishing itself from the other Burst Rifles in the game, though has its own share of downsides.

Acquisition

The Quartakk's Blueprint can be acquired from Ghoul Bounties, or rarely as a drop from Ghoul Auger Alphas.

Stats

The Quartakk has a fairly solid stat spread. It has quite good Crit as well as very good Status Chance. This is somewhat limited by its mediocre RoF of just 6.33, and balanced Physical Base Damage. The Quartakk has an exceptionally high Mag Capacity, which combined with its very reasonable Reload Time, gives it an excellent Reload Ratio of 6.98

The Quartakk's innate 0.5m Punch Through is nice, though not enough to consistently penetrate most enemies. Generally speaking, you want at least 1m of Punch Through, and more doesn't hurt.

The Quartakk fires bursts of four rounds, though oddly, fires them all at once instead of consecutively. Additionally, it does not fire them all out of the same spot, instead firing them in a tight square formation. Though it has minimal effect at close range, this set spread can cause shots at longer range to be significantly less effective.

Augments

None.

Builds

General Purpose 0-Forma:

Yet again, the Quartakk is a weapon with no innate polarities. This basic build has all the fundamental mods barring Split Chamber, though Vigilante Armaments is a reasonable lower-drain alternative.

Without the space for Hunter Munitions, I find a Corrosive build with maximised Status Chance to be the most effective against armour. The Quartakk has rather high Status Chance, so can inflict a reasonable amount of Corrosive procs. With relatively low Slash bias, this is its best option against heavily armoured enemies.

Against Infested, as usual, Corrosive is the most reliable option, though Blast and Viral are decent as well. For unarmoured Corpus, again as always, Viral or Toxin are both very strong options. Viral is exceptionally effective once Shields have been depleted, while Toxin bypasses Shields entirely. Against armoured Corpus, there are two main options - a Corrosive Status build, or a Radiation direct damage build. I find the Radiation build to be more effective at the levels I play against (<110).

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

General Purpose 1-Forma:

One added V polarity lets you switch Vigilante Armaments for Split Chamber, for a little more consistency and damage.

Recommended Setups: see above.

Punch Through 2-Forma:

Another V polarity lets you comfortably fit in a seventh mod, provided both elementals are 60/60s. Notably, this lets you slot in a mod like Shred or Hunter Munitions in. I personally really like Shred on the Quartakk. The added Punch Through gives much improved consistency with enemy penetration, as 0.5m is low enough to not penetrate many enemies at certain angles. The increased RoF makes the Quartakk much nicer to use, as it is otherwise quite slow firing.

Hunter Munitions of course gives the Quartakk an additional option against armoured enemies, taking advantage of its solid Crit to inflict extra Slash procs. I generally find a Viral + HM build to be a little more effective and consistent than a Corrosive Status build against heavily armoured enemies, though it is noticeably worse against inorganics like armoured Corpus robotics.

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

General Purpose 4-Forma:

Another two V polarities and you can use all eight mod slots. Besides the aforementioned Hunter Munitions and Shred, there are a number of other good options for the last two mod slots.

Vigilante Armaments is always a solid, uncomplicated option for more damage. As a Crit weapon, the Quartakk benefits significantly from Bladed Rounds and/or Argon Scope if you can maintain their trigger conditions. Heavy Caliber is a pretty big damage boost, but the accuracy loss can be quite troublesome beyond close range. Vile Acceleration significantly boosts RoF, which can make the Quartakk much better to use. If you're not concerned with Punch Through, it is a great alternative over Shred. Naturally, you could also add in extra elemental mods, for more diverse damage types or for more bias and damage in one.

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

My Builds:

My primary build is a simple Viral one, with is quite effective against most targets. Thanks to the rather powerful Riven I have, I find Viral to be more consistent and overall effective than a Corrosive Status build, even without Hunter Munitions.

This second build is a standard Corrosive one for use against Infested. I'd equip the third build for Radiation in the same way, for use against armoured Corpus.

Combat Use and Summary

The Quartakk is a relatively slow firing Burst Rifle with a good mix of Crit and Status. As such, it is most effective against fewer, heavier enemies, than hordes of light enemies. It does more than enough damage to easily kill weak enemies, but its slow RoF hinders it from engaging many of them quickly. With solid Crit, the Quartakk fares decently well against high health enemies without armour. It is also reasonably effective against heavily armoured enemies, both with and without Hunter Munitions. As I discussed earlier however, I find a Viral + HM build to be more consistent than a Corrosive Status build.

The Quartakk's unusual spread is primarily more of a hindrance than anything else. It fires its four shots in a tight square spread, centred around the middle of the reticle. As such, especially at longer ranges, it often results in several wasted shots. With relatively low RoF however, I generally find the Quartakk to be reasonably ammo efficient. Overall, the combination of set but precise spread, and low RoF is a poor one. The Quartakk can't make use of its spread to hit a larger area like a Shotgun can, and is much less effective at longer range than a typical Rifle.

Overall, the Quartakk is a solid, though not exceptional, Burst-Fire Rifle. It has a very solid mix of base stats, however its unusual mechanics hold it back significantly. Its square-shaped spread greatly hinders the Quartakk at longer range, while not having a wide enough AoE to function like a Shotgun at close range. Additionally, firing four shots at once is not majorly beneficial, with the only notable upside being the viability of a Corrosive Status build, which many other weapons do better anyway.
If you're after a solid Burst-Fire, or Semi-Auto-like Rifle, the Quartakk is a decent option, though is definitely not a best-in-class.

Scores

Vs Trash Mobs: 2/5 - As the Quartakk fires its burst of 4 shots at once, it behaves more like a Semi-Auto Rifle with a base RoF of 1.5, which is quite poor against large groups without some kind of AoE. Additionally, its shot spread is quite tight, so cannot emulate shotgun functionality. It is helped significantly by an exceptional Reload Ratio, but nonetheless does not engage large numbers of targets very well.
Vs Unarmoured Heavies: 3.5/5 - With solid but not exceptional Crit and overall burst DPS, the Quartakk is good but not great against enemies with a lot of health.
Vs Armoured Heavies without Hunter Munitions: 3/5 - High Status Chance allows the Quartakk to make reasonable, though somewhat inconsistent, use of a Corrosive status build. Its relatively slow RoF hinders it however, and it isn't an especially powerful weapon overall.
Vs Armoured Heavies with Hunter Munitions: 3.5/5 - I generally find a Viral + HM build to be a little more consistent than a Corrosive status build against heavily armoured enemies. The Quartakk's solid Crit lets it make decent use of HM, though its Crit Chance is not exceptional.

Vs Variants

None.

Competitors

The Quartakk is a Burst-Fire Rifle that handles more like a Semi-Auto, widening its competitor pool further. It has among the best Reload Ratio for either of these weapon classes, and solid DPS.

In terms of Burst-Fire Rifles, there are options that deal more direct damage (e.g. Tiberon and Sybaris Primes), as well as weapons that are more effective with Status (e.g. Burston Prime and Hema). Notably, besides Mag Capacity/Reload Ratio, the TiberonP is a much more powerful Crit weapon, while also being a reasonably potent Status Rifle. I generally consider the Tiberon Prime to be an overall superior weapon, as it does just about everything better than the Quartakk.

In terms of Semi-Auto Rifles, by far the biggest competitor is the Prisma Grinlok. It outclasses just about every other non-Sniper Semi-Auto Rifle, though the Stradavar Prime's Semi-Auto is quite good as well. The PGrinlok has superior DPS thanks to its great Deadly Sequence Augment, as well as a comparably excellent Reload Ratio. It is also highly Slash-Status capable, much more ammo efficient, and generally just really strong. Besides its ability to use a Corrosive Status build, which the PGrinlok is not very good at, I generally consider the Quartakk to be a worse overall weapon.

Rivens 

The Quartakk has a fairly high Riven Disposition of 4/5 (1.25). Given that it is a fairly powerful weapon, I don't think it unreasonable to drop the Disposition down a little, though it is not a very popular weapon.

As always, +Damage/Multishot/Crit Chance/Crit Damage are all fantastic stats to have. +Elemental damage of the right element can be useful for saving a mod slot, or increasing bias. +Slash can be useful for a Viral + Slash status build. I personally find +Fire Rate to make the Quartakk much nicer to use. +Punch Through can be useful for penetrating the larger enemies (e.g. Boilers) that the Quartakk's innate Punch Through cannot.

-Impact/Puncture are both very good negatives. Neither has a major impact on overall damage output, and significantly increases proc rate of more desirable Status effects. -Slash can be good for a Corrosive Status build. -Faction damage for a weaker faction can be a good negative. -Mag Capacity in lower magnitude can be a reasonable negative thanks to the Quartakk's great Reload Ratio, as can -Reload Speed. -Ammo Max is quite tolerable even without Ammo Case/Mutation/etc, thanks to its relatively low RoF. -Projectile Speed has no effect. +Recoil can be quite manageable at lower RoF. -Zoom is great for cloe quarters combat.