Review: Kuva Brakk (U26.0.7)

The Kuva Brakk is one of the new Kuva weapons, used and dropped by Kuva Liches introduced in U26. Even ignoring its Lich damage bonus, the Kuva Brakk has impressive base stats, resulting in incredible close-range firepower.

Acquisition

The Kuva Brakk (and the other Kuva weapons) are not acquired in any conventional method. Instead, they are only acquired upon Vanquishing a Kuva Lich who is using that weapon, with their name and damage bonus taken from that Lich. For instance, my Kuva Brakk was taken from "Sapp Hiss", who had a Toxin bonus as I'd used Saryn Prime to create him. Upon extracting from the mission, the weapon is automatically and instantly built in the Foundry for free.

Stats

As mentioned several times already, as a Kuva weapon, the Kuva Brakk gains a special damage bonus based on the Warframe used to create the Lich. This bonus varies in both damage type and magnitude. Since this bonus is variable, I'll be primarily discussing the weapon ignoring the damage bonus, and including separate discussions around it.

The Kuva Brakk's base stats are very impressive. High Crit, very high Status Chance (allows 100% Status Chance with just three 60/60 mods!), high RoF, reasonable base Damage and Mag Capacity, fast Reload Time, and even a little innate Punch Through. Its Reload Ratio is a little below-average, at only 1.72.

Its biggest downfall is damage falloff. The Kuva Brakk's damage starts dropping off after only 10 metres, and loses an insane 96% of its damage output at just 20 metres. This makes it essentially useless outside of close range.

Augments

None.

Builds

NOTE: These builds do not include the Kuva Lich Bonus. As such, the total damage numbers should be increased by 1.25x to 1.6x depending on exact bonus amount.

General Purpose 0-Forma: 

One native V and - polarities allow the Kuva Brakk to fit in a solid basic build before Forma. Only three 60/60 mods are required to reach 100% Status Chance, leaving space for both basic Crit mods.

For anti-armour purposes, given the new buff to Heat procs, Corrosive + Heat is the best option. It strips armour extremely fast between both status procs, and Heat has some good multipliers to some health types. Similarly, Corrosive + Heat damages everything Infested super-effectively. Pretty much the only unaccounted-for group is unarmoured Corpus. For them, I'd personally recommend either Viral + Electric, or Gas + Electric/Cold. Viral + Electric hits especially hard once shields are depleted, with great multipliers against all Corpus health types, while Gas + Electric/Cold inflicts quite impressive AoE Toxin procs.

Recommended Setups: Corrosive + Heat vs Grineer, Corrupted, Infested, armoured Corpus, Viral + Electric or Gas + Electric/Cold vs unarmoured Corpus

Primed Crit 1-Forma:

One added V polarity allows easy fitting of both Primed Crit mods, for a substantial damage boost.

As a Kuva weapon, like the Paracesis, the Kuva Brakk gains two additional maximum ranks for each Forma, to a maximum of 5 Forma/+10 ranks. For instance, with one Forma installed (and an Orokin Catalyst of course), a Kuva Brakk can reach Rank 32, for 64 mod capacity. As such, 5 Forma is required to attain full MR points from it, but at that point you can fit just about any build, even without all polarities matching correctly.

Recommended Setups: see above.

General Purpose 2-Forma:

Another added V polarity allows comfortable use of the eighth mod slot, with the pictured build actually still having 4 spare capacity, thanks to the increased max rank bonus from the Forma. As always, I've pictured Seeker there as I love Punch Through for its improved efficiency and convenience. I generally find the innate 0.5m of Punch Through insufficient for many targets. There are, of course, many other solid mod options.

Augur Pact, as always, is a no-fuss damage boost. Magnum Force is more powerful, but also worsens spread. Hydraulic Crosshairs can be powerful if you can trigger it reliably. A 90% elemental gives a solid damage boost and can increase the bias of a desirable status proc. Primed Heated Charge is an even bigger boost, though may not be a desired element. A Primed Expel mod, though annoying to change out for each Faction, is extremely powerful especially in a Gas build.

One decent option this setup does make available is Viral + Radiation, most effective against Corpus. It hits almost all of their units' health super-effectively, though will not scale as well against heavy armour as a Corrosive + Heat build.

Finally, there's one other mod I have yet to mention or include...

Recommended Setups: see above. Also consider Viral + Radiation vs Corpus.

Lethal Torrent 3-Forma:

You may have noticed that I've largely left Lethal Torrent out of these builds. This is primarily because of the relatively minimal benefit of its +Fire Rate. The Kuva Brakk is a Semi-Auto with an already fast RoF, which is difficult to reach and sustain just by clicking rapidly. Increasing its RoF significantly, though providing a substantial on-paper DPS boost, rarely results in an in-practice DPS boost as it requires ludicrously fast clicking to reach. Nonetheless, if you can maintain the significantly increased RoF, it does give the Kuva Brakk a very high Burst DPS.

At this point, it becomes quite possible to also make use of the Exilus slot. Notably, Steady Hands for the reduced Recoil can be helpful for making follow-up shots much easier to make. Lethal Momentum increases damage falloff distances, which can make the Kuva Brakk more effective beyond close range.

Recommended Setups: see above. 

My Builds

My go-to build is a Corrosive + Heat armour stripper build. At point blank range, it kills level 110 Heavy Gunners and Bombards in 2-4 shots easily. Steady Hands in the Exilus slot results in the Kuva Brakk having essentially no recoil, allowing rapid, precise shots.

This Viral + Electric build is intended primarily for use against unarmoured Corpus.

Kuva Lich Bonus

There are seven possible bonus damage types for Kuva weapons: Impact, Heat, Cold, Electricity, Toxin, Magnetic and Radiation. Of them, I'd consider Toxin, Electricity and Radiation to be the best options, not just for the Kuva Brakk, but for Kuva weapons in general. The recent Heat proc buff makes it also worth considering, depending on the weapon.

Toxin notably combines into Corrosive and Viral, arguably the two best damage types in the game. Electricity notably combines into Corrosive and Radiation, the two damage types with the best anti-armour damage multipliers. Finally, base Radiation allows otherwise impossible combinations like Corrosive + Radiation, which hits both armour types super-effectively. Radiation procs can also be helpful in a pinch, distracting enemies and shutting down enemy auras.

In particular for the Kuva Brakk, the other damage types are often not desirable because they reduce the number of desired procs (e.g. Corrosive), or potentially interfere with elemental setups (e.g. Cold makes Corrosive + Heat impossible, turning it into Corrosive + Blast).

Combat Use and Summary

Easily reaching 100% Status Chance, the Kuva Brakk excels against armoured enemies. A Corrosive + Heat Status build can rapidly deplete any enemy of their armour, with solid direct damage easily finishing them off. Its quite good direct damage also allows it to deal with heavy unarmoured enemies very effectively.

The Kuva Brakk is quite effective against groups at close range, with high damage output coupled with good RoF and fast Reloads. The innate Punch Through is helpful against thinner targets, though I prefer to add more for consistency against more targets. It is hindered in all cases primarily by severe damage falloff and below average Reload Ratio.


The Kuva Brakk is practically useless outside of close range. Its damage dropping it to a measly 4% beyond 20 metres is abysmal, and its wide spread makes it even more worthless at such ranges. Relatively high Recoil does not help either, potentially throwing subsequent shots off target, depending on range.

The other main complaint I have about the Kuva Brakk is more with the Kuva Lich system than the weapon itself - besides the recently implemented trading, acquiring a Kuva Brakk is, as far as is commonly known, purely down to Kuva Lich weapon RNG. They have a pool of 13 weapons to potentially have, making getting any one weapon in particular quite unlikely, and very time consuming given how long it takes to go through Liches. This is of course before even considering the magnitude of the Lich bonus. Of the three Liches I've had so far, none has had a bonus higher than 30% (thankfully each has had a different weapon), while I believe a bonus of up to 60% or so is very possible. The damage bonus is not at all necessary to make the Kuva Brakk powerful, but like with Rivens, it is yet another unnecessary layer of RNG.


Overall, the Kuva Brakk is an extremely good close range weapon. It has a powerful mix of both Crit and Status that few weapons can match, allowing it to down almost any enemy quickly. However, it is strictly a close range weapon, with horrid damage-falloff and wide spread that renders it practically useless beyond 15 or so metres. If you're looking for a capable, close range Secondary, I would definitely recommend the Kuva Brakk. I would strongly recommend pairing it with a long-range Primary to mitigate its biggest (and perhaps only) flaw.

Scores 

Vs Trash Mobs: 4/5 - High RoF and a fast Reload Time allow the Kuva Brakk to quickly engage groups of enemies fairly efficiently. It is let down slightly by its below-par Reload Ratio, and horrendous damage falloff.
Vs Unarmoured Heavies: 5/5 - Quite high Crit and base Damage allow the Kuva Brakk to kill unarmoured heavies very quickly at very close range.
Vs Armoured Heavies without Hunter Munitions: 5/5 - As a 100% Status Chance capable shotgun, with high RoF, many pellets and even very good Crit, the Kuva Brakk blitzes through heavily armoured enemies with ease. Corrosive + Heat rapidly depletes enemy armour, with high Crit dealing the killing blow.

Vs Variants

The Kuva Brakk, with an (irrelevant) MR13 rating, is hilariously superior to the MR6 Brakk, even without the Lich bonus. The Kuva has much higher Crit Chance, Status Chance and Mag Capacity, as well as a slightly higher RoF and some innate Punch Through. In exchange, it has lower base Damage, slightly longer Reload Time, and much harsher damage falloff (96% vs 60%).

Competitors

Few shotgun Secondaries can challenge the Kuva Brakk, and none match its versatility. The ones most worth mentioning are the Mara Detron and Pyrana Prime.

The Mara Detron is an elemental Status shotgun, notable because of its pure Radiation base Damage. As such, it can inflict Corrosive procs far more quickly, and thus strip armour far faster. However, its lack of Crit means that it lags far behind the Kuva Brakk for raw DPS.

The Pyrana Prime is a Crit shotgun, notable because of its utterly absurd raw DPS. Its special ability of doubling upon achieving several successive kills makes it far superior against crowds of enemies. However, it is not at all Status capable, and as such is much less effective against heavily armoured enemies.

Compared to these two, the Kuva Brakk is not as Status-capable as the Mara Detron, and nowhere near as powerful as a buffed Pyrana Prime. However, it provides a formidable mix of the best of both, exceeding them in the process.

Rivens

As with all the other new Kuva weapons, the Kuva Brakk has a neutral 3/5 (1) Riven Disposition, separate from the regular Brakk at 4/5 (1.25). This is slated to apply to all other weapon variants now as well, with each variant having a separate disposition. Given its substantial firepower, I could definitely see it dropping down to 2/5 or even 1/5.

Naturally, +Damage/Multishot/Crit Chance/Crit Damage are all top notch stats. +Elemental Damage of a desired damage type can be helpful, both for bias and direct damage. +Status Chance can save a mod slot, replacing one of the 60/60s. +Mag Capacity or Reload Speed can make the Kuva Brakk nicer to use. +Projectile Speed increases the damage falloff distances, which can significantly improve the Kuva Brakk's effective range. -Recoil can make it easier to control if you struggle with recoil. +Punch Through is a great help against crowds, drastically increasing efficiency.

-Impact/Puncture/Slash are all good stats to have. None is an especially dominant damage type on the Kuva Brakk, and of the three, only Slash is worth inflicting as a status proc. Nonetheless, the reduction of any of them significantly increases elemental proc bias. -Faction Damage can be alright, depending on faction (Infested is generally considerd the best). -Fire Rate could be alright if you are already at the limits of your clicking speed without Lethal Torrent. -Ammo Max is not a problem, the Kuva Brakk is fairly ammo efficient. +Recoil can be manageable if you are good with recoil. -Zoom is ideal as the Kuva Brakk is only effective in close quarters.