Review: Kuva Bramma (U27.2.2)

The Kuva Bramma is an MR15 portable supernova strapped to a bow with powercreep tape. With insane stats across the board, enormous AoE including extra cluster bomblets, and no self-damage to kill you, the Kuva Bramma is quite possibly the best Primary weapon in Warframe right now.

Acquisition

Same drill as the other Kuva weapons, create a Kuva Lich with the weapon, then Vanquish the Lich.

Stats

The Kuva Bramma's stats are exceptional. Its Crit is very good, backed up with a solid Status Chance and a very high base Damage. A Charge Time of just 0.4 seconds is the second fastest among Bows, and a Reload Time of 0.6 seconds is reasonably fast as well. A Max Ammo count of 15 is more than that of the Lenz, but still quite low overall.

The KBramma's explosions are very large, with an 8.3m radius. Appropriately, the damage dealt by the explosion scales down with distance from the epicentre, to a mere 10% at the edges. However, the KBramma has an edge over most other explosive weapons, producing 6 small bomblets upon detonation. Each of these deals an additional 187 Blast damage in a small radius. Do note that they spread out quite widely, so are most useful against groups or for spreading procs.

By default, the KBramma's arrows will detonate upon impact a solid surface or enemy. They can be prematurely detonated by pressing Alt-Fire, releasing the bomblets early.

Naturally, as an explosive weapon, the KBramma will deal a short self-stun, or a full self-knockdown, if you are caught in the blast. The severity depends how close you are to the epicentre of the blast.

Augments

None, it's a new weapon.

Builds

NOTE: These builds do not include the Kuva Lich Damage Bonus, which is an extra 25% to 60% more damage.
Additionally, these builds seemingly do not include the damage dealt by the cluster bomblets created on detonation, of which there are 6 dealing 187 Blast damage each.

General Purpose 0-Forma:

The Kuva Bramma has one innate V polarity, which is enough to vaporise all but the toughest armoured enemies already. A basic Crit build fits comfortably, with space for a 90% elemental, or some other small mod like a partially ranked Fast Hands.

Given it is relatively slow-firing, Viral is the KBramma's best option against most targets. It is effective against just about everything, and has very few weaknesses. Furthermore, a single proc is often enough to seal their fate with a second shot. Corrosive and Radiation are worth mentioning against certain tough bosses.

Really, the elements you add only matter against very tough enemies, or heavily armoured enemies - everything else just dies horribly even without elemental mods.

Recommended Setups: Viral vs everything, Corrosive or Radiation vs some bosses

Hunter Munitions 2-Forma:

Two added V polarities lets you slot in Hunter Munitions alongside another mod, for instance Vigilante Armaments. Hunter Munitions is the final nail in the coffin. A couple of Slash procs from a weapon as powerful as the KBramma is enough to end anything still somehow standing after the first few shots. Naturally, this combines very well with Viral. From this point on, there's a fair few options.

Heavy Caliber is a notable mod, offering significantly more damage, with its accuracy reduction being largely negligible. Vile Acceleration and (Primed) Fast Hands both reduce time between shots, though I've generally found the 1 second to be very manageable given the KBramma's insane AoE. Firestorm is a fun option for even larger explosions. Bladed Rounds will almost always be active, for another very powerful damage boost. Another elemental mod is an alternate damage boost option, and can enable some powerful combos like Viral + Heat or Corrosive + Heat/Cold.

For the Exilus slot, there are a few notable options. Vigilante Supplies offers a (less efficient) ammo mutation effect, but notably increases the Vigilante set bonus for more/improved Crits. Hush renders the KBramma completely silent, useful on Ivara to avoid breaking Prowl (3). Cautious Shot mitigates self-stagger/knockdown, though I often run Handspring which is more than enough for me. Terminal Velocity increases Projectile Speed, which can be nice for longer ranged engagements.

Recommended Setups: see above. Also consider: Viral + HM vs everything

High Damage 3-Forma:

If for whatever reason the KBramma is still not dealing enough direct damage for you, Primed Cryo Rounds and Heavy Caliber can help out. This build forgoes the anti-armour Hunter Munitions for an obscene amount of direct damage. Honestly this build is just for the fun of big numbers, I find the previous build to already do way more than enough damage against just about everything.

Recommended Setups: see above.

My Builds

Nothing special. Obliterates basically anything.

Kuva Lich Bonus

It hardly matters, the Kuva Bramma would destroy everything even without Lich Bonus. It's just another bonus for a weapon that is ridiculously good.

Innate Toxin or Cold allows you to form Viral with just one Elemental mod, ideal for pure Hunter Munitions builds. Heat is a great element to complement Viral, but hardly needed with the KBramma's absurd firepower. Magnetic will allow you to pretty much instantly destroy shields, though the KBramma does that already anyway. Radiation is a nice boost against Alloy Armour, and its proc is useful to turn off Ancient Healer auras, if anything survives the blast in the first place.

I personally decided to go for Radiation for something a little different (the Ephemera was a lucky coincidence), and to open up fun and otherwise difficult/impossible combos. For instance, I can have Viral + Radiation with just two mods, Corrosive + Radiation or Radiation + Heat which are normally impossible. Extra bias for Viral is not super necessary since I would already be modding a lot of it on. Like I said just before though, with the Kuva Bramma, it barely matters. Slap on Viral and Hunter Munitions and almost everything just dies at the mere sight of it.

Combat Use and Summary

The Kuva Bramma destroys everything with ease. Groups of enemies are decimated by its large explosions and cluster munitions. Heavy unarmoured enemies are blitzed by its absurd damage output. Heavily armoured enemies are shredded with a combination of raw damage, Viral procs, and Slash procs if you have Hunter Munitions.


A Max Ammo of only 15 can be troublesome if enemies do not drop the right ammo type, as the KBramma uses the rare Sniper ammo. As such, I recommend having at least one of Ammo Case/Mutation/etc to make sure that whatever ammo is dropped is useful.

The only enemies that the KBramma is not very effective against are enemies requiring precision shooting, and fast moving flying enemies. It has wide spread, slow projectiles and projectile drop, making it very poor at hitting fast moving or precise targets. Those same traits make it poor at long range, though this is hardly an issue with Warframe's incredibly fast movement system. Pretty much anything that it can reliably hit, it will reliably obliterate.

Until recently, the KBramma dealt self-damage, which with its absurd damage output, usually meant instant death if you didn't have Cautious Shot. That was pretty much the only balancing factor against it, besides low Max Ammo count. Now, catching yourself in the explosion merely results in a short stun or knockdown. These are largely non-issues - the stun is only for a split second, and the knockdown can be mitigated/blocked with Handspring/Primed Sure Footed. More importantly, these are also non-issues if there are no enemies alive to punish you for it - the blast that knocked you down probably also killed every nearby enemy anyway.


The Kuva Bramma is utterly bonkers. Its direct firepower is second only to Snipers with a built-up Combo Counter, the Pyrana Prime at point-blank range landing precision hits (and even then I think the bomblets give the KBramma the edge), and good Melee weapons with stacked up Blood Rush + Condition Overload. It is capable of dealing immense damage over a very wide area, with bomblets cleaning up anything that somehow didn't die in the main blast. Self-knockdown/stagger is hardly an issue when there is nothing left alive to punish you for it.

Simply put, get the Kuva Bramma if at all possible. Except against very specific scenarios/enemies, it is among the most capable weapons in the game, and will breeze through almost any situation. In my opinion, it is actually too powerful, and with the removal of self-damage, has almost no real downsides, but that is a different discussion altogether.

Scores

Vs Trash Mobs: 5/5 - Enormous explosions, cluster munitions, and faster-than-average Reload Time and Charge Time make the Kuva Bramma ridiculously good against groups.
Vs Unarmoured Heavies: 5/5 - A direct hit will vaporise basically any unarmoured enemy.
Vs Armoured Heavies without Hunter Munitions: 4.5/5 - Heavy armour allows certain enemies to survive one or two, especially if they're on the edge of the blast radius. The next direct hit will probably kill them, especially if the first few procced Viral.
Vs Armoured Heavies with Hunter Munitions: 5/5 - Anything that survives the first arrow or two will inevitably die to the brutal Slash procs they've been afflicted with.

Vs Variants

There is no regular Bramma, the Kuva Bramma is one of the few Kuva weapons that is completely new.

Competitors

Nothing comes remotely close to the Kuva Bramma. The Lenz is the most comparable weapon, as the only other explosive bow.

In both images, the KBramma's stats are on the left, and the Lenz's on the right. The primary advantage of the Lenz is that its explosion damage falloff is less severe. A built-in ammo-mutation is also nice, as is the forced Cold proc.

Even before taking into account its bomblets and Lich Bonus, the KBramma wins out in damage-per-shot, as well as firing much faster. It doesn't have the delayed explosion that the Lenz has, which was much more useful when it had self-damage (giving time to escape certain death). The massively higher Status Chance is another big advantage, and a larger explosion radius is always nice.

Overall, the KBramma is vastly superior to the Lenz.

Rivens

As a new weapon, the Kuva Bramma currently has a neutral Riven Disposition of 3/5 (1). I fully expect to see that down at the minimum of 1/5 (0.5) after a few adjustments. It is far too strong and popular to have anything but the minimum Disposition.

+Damage/Multishot/Crit Chance/Crit Damage all help push the KBramma's already ridiculous damage even higher. +Elemental Damage also helps with this, and can also help save mod slots. +Fire Rate reduces the Charge Time, but 0.4 seconds is already pretty short. +Reload Speed is effectively also increasing Fire Rate, since as a Bow it reloads after every shot. +Projectile Speed helps to engage enemies at longer range more precisely.

-Impact/Puncture/Slash are all fine. The latter two have no effect, while the former is only a small component of the total (and utterly ridiculous) damage anyway. -Faction Damage is very manageable, though hurts most against Grineer. -Mag Capacity has no effect. -Ammo Max can be managed alongside Ammo Case/Mutation/etc, but I'm personally not a fan here. -Projectile Speed is not an issue in close quarters. +Recoil has no effect. -Zoom is perfect for close quarters.