Review: Kuva Hind (U27.2.2)

The MR15 Kuva Hind is a drastically improved version of the Grineer-made Hind. With massive buffs to just about every stat, it is a formidable weapon and among the best Rifles in the game currently.

Acquisition

Like all the other Kuva weapons, the Kuva Hind can only be acquired by Vanquishing a Kuva Lich with this weapon. Once the Lich is Vanquished, the weapon will appear in your Foundry, automatically ready for collection.

Stats

The Kuva Hind has three firing modes, Burst-Fire, Semi-Auto and Full-Auto. I've re-ordered them here as Burst-Fire and Full-Auto are very similar stat-wise.

The Kuva Hind's Burst-Fire mode is very well rounded. Solid Crit stats are backed up by a very high Status Chance, good RoF, and good Slash bias. Its Reload Ratio is very good as well, at 4.30. Like the regular Hind, and differing from most Burst-Fire weapons, the KHind fires bursts of 5 rounds.

Full-Auto loses some Crit, in exchange for a higher Slash bias and slightly higher RoF. This makes it a little better at inflicting Status procs, but worse at dealing direct damage.

On the other hand, Semi-Auto sacrifices a fair bit of Status Chance to boost its Crit stats substantially. It also has tripled base Damage, at the cost of consuming 3 ammo per shot. Even so, its Status Chance is respectable and can inflict a reasonable number of procs. It does fire quite slowly however, even by Semi-Auto standards.

Augments

None.

Builds

NOTE: Keep in mind that these builds do not include the Kuva Lich bonus. This can range from 25%-60% bonus base Damage - essentially multiply the total damage output by 1.25x to 1.6x.

General Purpose 0-Forma:

A single native V polarity allows fitting all of the basic mods, with space to upgrade one of the 60/60 elemental mods for a 90%. This is sufficient to get a decent feel for the Kuva Hind, and try out the different firing modes with different elements.

With the recent Status changes, my recommended go-to would be Viral. It has very good damage multipliers, and a universally useful (and very powerful) Status proc. Combined with high Slash bias in every firing mode, the KHind makes very good use of Viral, both as a primary damage type as well as augmenting its natural Slash procs. With Corrosive now scaling much slower and having a cap to its armour strip capabilities, it is only notably effective against a select few high level enemies, which are primarily Ferrite armoured or Status immune. The most notable one you will regularly face is the Grineer Heavy Gunner. Viral is better against just about everything else given its interaction with Slash, and much more overall effective. Radiation is worth a mention for use against inorganic Alloy armoured enemies, such as Corpus Bursas, though again does not synergise with Slash as well.

Toxin is worth a mention against unarmoured Corpus, as it bypasses Shields entirely.

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

Hunter Munitions 1-Forma:

One added V polarity allows comfortable use of the seventh mod slot, for which there are many solid options. With all three firing modes having solid Crit, and Viral being so much more powerful, Hunter Munitions is a very strong option. Though it adds no direct damage, the Slash procs it inflicts are highly effective against armoured enemies, especially when augmented by Viral's damage boost.

Punch Through 1-Forma:

Alternatively, my favourite mod also fits comfortably, for a RoF boost and some highly useful Punch Through. In particular, I find the Burst-Fire and Semi-Auto much nicer to use with higher RoF.

Recommended Setups: see above. Also consider: Viral + HM vs Grineer, Corrupted

General Purpose 2-Forma:

Another added V polarity and the bonus mod space from being a Kuva weapon let you fit in most standard builds pretty comfortably. The aforementioned Hunter Munitions and (Primed) Shred are great options, as is Vigilante Armaments as always. Heavy Caliber is a powerful boost, but reduces accuracy which is a notable strength of Semi-Auto. Another elemental mod can be added in as well, notably Heat. With the recent Status changes, Viral + Heat and Corrosive + Heat are both exceptionally powerful combos. Argon Scope and Bladed Rounds are decent damage boosts as well. If you're going for a Slash status build, and want more direct damage than Hunter Munitions, Fanged Fusillade is an option.

There aren't too many Exilus mods of note. Vigilante Supplies is probably the best, and is a mod I should have mentioned long ago. Besides being a (less efficient) universal Primary ammo mutation, it also adds to the Vigilante mod set bonus (chance to increase a hit to the next Crit level), making it the only damage increasing weapon Exilus mod.
Rifle Ammo Mutation is more efficient, but does not increase damage output. Hush can be useful for minimising the number of enemies alerted when you start blasting. Twitch increase Holster Speed, which is something if you switch weapons a lot. Similarly, Tactical Reload can be nice to passively top up your Rifle when holstered.

Recommended Setups: see above. Also consider: Viral + Heat vs Grineer, Corrupted, Infested, Corrosive + Heat vs Infested

My Builds

My two Kuva Hind builds are very standard. Viral is much better against basically everything that is Status-vulnerable, while Corrosive is useful for some targets that are Status-immune. I've since converted the Corrosive build to use 90% elementals, and added in a comparable Radiation build as well. For the Exilus slot, I use Vigilante Supplies.

Kuva Lich Bonus

As always, Toxin is a great element to have, especially now that Viral is stackable and Corrosive is still good. Heat would be a very good alternative as well, enabling Viral + Heat without consuming an extra mod slot. Cold is also good for making Viral, though Toxin has far better alternative combinations. Radiation is a useful damage type to have a bit of, given it does not interfere with added elemental combos.

Combat Use and Summary

Three firing modes offer the Kuva Hind substantial versatility. Burst-Fire and Full-Auto are quite similar, with Burst-Fire being more powerful and Full-Auto firing slightly faster.

Full-Auto handles quite well against groups, with a good Mag Capacity, decent RoF and solid firepower. High Status Chance and Slash bias makes it excellent against heavily armoured enemies. Both Viral and Corrosive are extremely effective, especially if Heat is added into the mix. Full-Auto is least effective against unarmoured heavy enemies, as it has the lowest Crit of the three firing modes.

Burst-Fire is a fantastic general-purpose firing mode. With only slightly lower RoF than Full-Auto, it is nearly as effective against groups. Its higher Crit makes better against both types of heavy enemies as well. Bursts of 5 rounds can be rather wasteful, though this is mitigated by a very large spare ammo pool of 900.

On the other hand, Semi-Auto is slow firing and has lower Status Chance, making it much less effective against groups. However, it is by far the most effective against unarmoured heavy enemies, dealing by far the most Burst DPS of the three firing modes. Hunter Munitions also leverages its great Crit to give it a powerful option against armoured enemies.


The KHind has benefitted enormously from the Status changes in U27.2. Notably, now that Physical Damage types do not have a 4x bias for Status chance, and that Viral can stack, it can proc an insane number of all Status types with ease. Even without the 4x bias, its natural Slash bias results in a good number of Slash procs.

Recoil-wise, I have no issue with the KHind. All three firing modes have relatively little kick to them. The most notable is Semi-Auto, however your Warframe recoils far more than the reticle actually does, making it a relative non-issue. In longer missions, ammo consumption can be an issue mainly for Burst-Fire and Full-Auto, primarily if you have +Fire Rate mods. As such, one of Ammo Case/Mutation/etc could be helpful.


Overall, the Kuva Hind is an extremely good Rifle. It is quite versatile and all three firing modes are very effective. With the right build, it can tackle just about any enemy in the game. I would strongly recommend the KHind to anyone looking for a good Rifle, whether Burst-Fire, Semi-Auto or Full-Auto, or really just a good Primary.

In fact, the Kuva Hind has become my favourite Rifle in the game, surpassing the TIberon Prime due to its impressive Status capabilities. The very large Toxin bonus that mine came with is definitely a plus as well. Despite not liking 5-round bursts, I find the KHind very comfortable to use.

Scores

Vs Trash Mobs: 4/5 - A large capacity and RoF and good damage output in Full-Auto makes the Kuva Hind quite solid against crowds.
Vs Unarmoured Heavies: 4.5/5 - Semi-Auto has the highest DPS of the three firing modes, and deals a lot of damage with its high base Damage and insane Crit.
Vs Armoured Heavies without Hunter Munitions: 5/5 - Very high Status Chance, good RoF and high Slash bias on both Burst-Fire and Full-Auto make the KHind extremely effective against armoured enemies. It can pull off both Corrosive and Viral builds very well, and deals more than enough damage to kill most heavily armoured enemies.
Vs Armoured Heavies with Hunter Munitions: 5/5 - Hunter Munitions is notably effective for Semi-Auto, which trades Status Chance and RoF for the highest Crit Chance and base Damage. As such, it is much less effective at inflicting Status procs naturally, but can take even better advantage of HM.

Vs Variants

Comparing the MR15 Kuva Hind to the MR0 Hind is not an exercise worth conducting.

Competitors

There aren't many Select-Fire Rifles in Warframe, and only one of them has the same firing modes as the Kuva Hind - the Tiberon Prime. This makes it pretty much the only good comparison point. Looking towards any other weapons is not a fair comparison, because the KHind, like the TibP, has three distinct but all very powerful firing modes to call upon.

Right off the bat, the Kuva Hind fires a 5-round burst while the Tiberon Prime fires a 3-round burst. Generally speaking, I prefer smaller bursts as it reduces ammo wastage, but in Warframe ammo tends to be super abundant anyway.

Where the TibP's Burst-Fire is Crit-focused, the KHind is more balanced out, with significantly higher Status Chance and slightly higher RoF. As such, the TibP gets significantly higher raw damage-per-second, while the KHind inflicts far more Status procs, as well as having a much better Reload Ratio. A large Kuva Lich bonus does significantly reduce the damage difference. Both are forrmidable and capable of killing most enemies with ease.

On the other hand, both Semi-Auto firing modes are heavily Crit-focused. The Kuva Hind has a higher Crit Chance, base Damage (and base Damage distribution, with majority Slash) and slightly morre Status Chance, while the Tiberon Prime has better Crit Damage and RoF. With comparable builds, the KHind wins out easily in damage-per-second, especially with a high Kuva Lich bonus. It is also much easier to make the most of, as the TibP's Semi-Auto has a very high RoF, which can be difficult to sustain.

The KHind's Semi-Auto consumes 3 ammo per shot, which makes it a little more ammo hungry than the TibP.

Both Full-Autos are Status-focused, with the Kuva Hind having the edge in RoF, Crit Chance and (barely) Status Chance. It also has a way better base Damage distribution of mostly Slash. On the other hand, the Tiberon Prime has a massively largely Crit Damage multiplier, as well as higher base Damage unless the KHind has a large Kuva Lich bonus (needs ~53% to match).
Even with a lower Crit Chance, the enormous Crit Damage multiplier gives the TibP the edge for damage-per-second, up to a Kuva Lich bonus of about 47% - at which point the KHind takes over. The KHind wins in just about every other department - notably Reload Ratio and Status application.

That said, the KHind's Full-Auto is almost strictly inferior to its Burst-Fire, while the TIbP's Full-Auto is distinct from its Burst-Fire and Semi-Auto.


In terms of burst DPS, each weapon's firing modes ranks as follows:

1. Kuva Hind Semi-Auto
2. Tiberon Prime Burst-Fire/Semi-Auto
3. KHind Burst-Fire/Full-Auto (Kuva Lich bonus >40% roughly)
4. TibP Full-Auto
5. KHind Burst-Fire/Full-Auto (Kuva Lich bonus <40% roughly)

Overall, especially with the massive Viral buff in U27.2, I consider the Kuva Hind pretty much strictly superior. Its Semi-Auto has the highest burst DPS of either weapons' firing modes, while its Burst-Fire has exceptional Status capabilities, while still dealing solid damage. Its Full-Auto, though not necessarily as powerful as the Tiberon Prime's (depending on Lich bonus), is much more status capable and handles much better due to its higher Reload Ratio.

Rivens

Like all othe new weapons, and now that variants have separate disposition, the Kuva Hind has a neutral 3/5 (1) Riven Disposition. I very much expect that to drop down, as it is a very powerful weapon.

+Damage/Multishot/Crit Chance/Crit Damage are all amazing, as usual. +Slash can be good for a Viral + Slash build. +Elemental Damage can be useful for boosting the bias of a particular element, saving mod slots, or adding in an element you otherwise couldn't fit. +Punch Through is always great against crowds.

-Impact/Puncture are both great negatives, as neither is a significant damage component, or contributes useful procs. -Slash can be good as well, but less so than the former two as Slash procs are actually good. -Faction Damage to not Grineer can be quite manageable. -Ammo Max is very manageable in shorter missions, or alongside one of Ammo Case/Mutation/etc. -Projectile Speed has no effect. +Recoil can be quite manageable as the Kuva Hind has minimal recoil. -Zoom is great for close quarters combat.