Review: Kuva Quartakk (U27.3.8)

The Kuva Quartakk is an MR13 Rifle with two firing modes. Firing from the hip uses a slow-firing, relatively weak Full-Auto. When zoomed in, it retains the signature simultaneous four-shot-Burst-Fire of the original Quartakk. With several increased stats to go with its new versatility, the Kuva Quartakk is a powerful but slow Rifle.

Acquisition

Same as all the other Kuva weapons, create a Lich with the Kuva Quartakk, then Vanquish it.

Stats

The Kuva Quartakk uses the same firing modes as its smaller cousin, the Quatz. Firing from the hip uses the above Status-focused Full-Auto, though its Crit is still very much usable. Its RoF is very, very slow for a Full-Auto weapon, which I find infuriating to use. It does have the one upside of having an absurdly good 10.72 Reload Ratio.

Zooming in switches to Burst-Fire, which trades a little Status Chance (which is still very good) for excellent Crit. As a result, it deals far more damage than Full-Auto. Additionally, as it fires bursts of four rounds simultaneously, it actually has a faster RoF of about 1.5 bursts-per-second. As a result, it Reload Ratio is worse, but still fantastic at 8.18. Innate Punch-Through of 0.5 metres is nice, though not enough to get through the largest enemies.

Augments

None.

Builds

NOTE: These builds do not include the Kuva Lich Bonus, which is a damage multiplier of 1.25x to 1.6x.

Shred 0-Forma:

Two innate V polarities allow the Kuva Quartakk to fit in quite a solid build from the get-go. Personally, I strongly recommend Shred or another +Fire Rate mod on the KQuartakk. Both firing modes are quite slow, and I find it much better to use when sped up significantly. The added Punch Through from Shred is also very helpful against groups.

Multishot 0-Forma:

If you want to focus more on damage-per-shot, you can fit in Vigilante Armaments, or potentially another elemental mod. Both are solid damage boosts, and a third element can offer some extra versatility. Another option is of course Hunter Munitions, which allows Burst-Fire to inflict a large number of Slash procs with ease. Even with the weakening of enemy armour scaling, Slash procs are one of the best ways to deal with armoured enemies.

As is always the case since U27.2, my recommended go-to elemental combo is Viral. It is effective against almost everything, and is frankly at least a little overpowered. Corrosive and Radiation are good against their respective armour types, particularly useful against bosses. Toxin can be worth using alone against Corpus, who besides their few armoured units, are hit really hard by it.

With the space to potentially have another element, there are a few other options available. Viral + Heat is really good against most targets, and Corrosive + Heat is quite solid as well, mainly against the Grineer and Infested. Viral + HM is really good against heavily armoured organics, mainly the Grineer. Viral + Electric can be very effective against the Corpus.

Recommended Setups: Viral (+ Heat) vs everything, Viral + HM vs Grineer, Corrupted, Corrosive (+ Heat) vs Grineer, Corrupted, Infested, Toxin or Viral (+ Electric) vs Corpus, Corrosive or Radiation vs some bosses

General Purpose 1-Forma:

One added V polarity lets you slot in both Vigilante Armaments and Shred, as well as most other combinations of two extra mods. The extra elementals as mentioned before can be quite powerful, as is Hunter Munitions. Heavy Caliber is a powerful option, but the accuracy reduction can be quite troublesome. Bladed Rounds and Argon Scope are Crit-boosting options, great for Burst-Fire as they both require zooming-in.

For the Exilus Slot, there aren't really any notable options. The Kuva Quartakk is reasonably ammo efficient and has a decently fast Reload Time. It's also hitscan so +Projectile Speed has no effect. Perhaps the one decent option is Stabilizer, to cut down the fairly heavy recoil on Burst-Fire. It is already partly mitigated by its slow RoF, which gives time for the recoil to naturally reset. Vigilante Supplies is an option to increase the Vigilante set bonus.

Recommended Setups: see above.

Primed Cryo Rounds 2-Forma:

If you want to go all-in on a Viral build, Primed Cryo Rounds is worth looking at. Again, Shred can be switched out for something else (e.g. Vigilante Armaments) if desired. Hunter Munitions is included particularly because it ignores Status Chance, so is just as effective here as the above builds. Primed Cryo Rounds is a massive direct damage boost. Unfortunately, it's a pain to fit into most builds due to its 16 drain and rare D polarity, and is slightly less likely to proc Viral than using the Cold 60/60 (Rime Rounds).

My Builds

My go-to is a Viral build. I have Corrosive and Radiation builds, but they see no use outside of bosses.

Kuva Lich Bonus

As usual, Toxin is always a good bonus to have, as it combines into both Viral and Corrosive, and is decent on its own as well. Heat is a great element to have alongside Viral or Corrosive, as is Radiation. If you want a pure anti-Corpus weapon, Magnetic is great against them, but rubbish against any other faction.

Combat Use and Summary

The Quartakk's two firing modes give it some versatility, though one is vastly superior to the other. Full-Auto is very slow-firing compared to most other Full-Auto weapons, and has poor damage output. Its best use is whittling down groups of enemies.

Burst-Fire deals far, far more damage, but of course a slower effective RoF, making it much better at taking down fewer, heavier units. Its Status Chance is still high enough to inflict Viral procs reliably, and a great Crit Chance allows it to make excellent use of Hunter Munitions if so desired.


Like with the Quatz, the Kuva Quartakk's two firing modes are suited to their zoom - Full-Auto is best firing from the hip for taking on groups of weak enemies at close range. On the other hand, Burst-Fire appreciates the extra precision from zooming in, and is much more effective at longer ranges (and against pretty much everything). However, as is always the case, being able to toggle between the two firing modes freely would have been preferable.

As with the regular Quartakk, the KQuartakk in Burst-Fire fires its four shots in a tight square formation. As cool as this is, beyond close range this often results in unnecessarily reduced precision and thus damage output. Especially as a high Crit weapon, the KQuartakk wants to be landing headshots to maximise its damage output (2x damage on regular headshots, 4x damage on Crit headshots). Additionally, the spread is not wide enough to be used like a shotgun.

Burst-Fire has fairly hefty recoil, which can be troublesome for landing repeated shots on-target quickly. Given its fairly low effective RoF, I've generally found the recoil to mostly reset before another burst can be fired. With +Fire Rate mods, this of course can become more troublesome.


Overall, the Kuva Quartakk is a powerful, but relatively niche weapon. Its Burst-Fire deals very good damage with decent Status output, but is very slow firing. Full-Auto is also slow-firing, but is also lacking in firepower and generally not worth using. If you are particularly fond of hard-hitting, slow-firing Rifles, the Kuva Quartakk is a powerful and very capable option. If you're just after an overall good Rifle, I'd advise looking elsewhere, for instance at the Kuva Hind, Kuva Karak, or any of the other more conventional weapons.

Scores

Vs Trash Mobs: 2.5/5 - Both firing modes are frustratingly slow-firing, and neither is notably good at taking down groups. Full-Auto is better at it, but still not great. An exceptional Reload Ratio is pretty much the only notable feature.
Vs Unarmoured Heavies: 4.5/5 - Burst-Fire deals very good damage by Rifle standards, making it very effective against unarmoured enemies.
Vs Armoured Heavies without Hunter Munitions: 4/5 - The Kuva Quartakk has a very high Status Chance in both firing modes, allowing it to reliably inflict Viral/Corrosive/Heat procs to weaken armoured enemies. Its great damage output in Burst-Fire finishes off weakened enemies easily.
Vs Armoured Heavies with Hunter Munitions: 5/5 - A very high Crit Chance allows Burst-Fire to inflict Slash procs via HM very regularly, bleeding heavy enemies dry with ease.

Vs Variants

The MR13 Kuva Quartakk is a significant improvement over the MR10 Quartakk. The most notable advantage is its significantly higher Crit Chance, with the other improvements being nice, but relatively minimal. Notably, the regular Quartakk does not have a Full-Auto firing mode.

Competitors

The Kuva Quartakk is in a bit of an odd spot. Its four-shot simultaneous burst makes it behave more like a slow firing Semi-Auto, with much higher Status capabilities and much worse ammo consumption. While versatility is always appreciated, its Full-Auto is slow, weak and rarely worth using. The KQuartakk deals the highest damage-per-burst of any Burst-Fire Rifle, and one of the highest damage-per-click of any Rifle. In exchange, it has one of the slowest effective RoFs, behaving like a Semi-Auto with a 1.5 Fire Rate.

In terms of versatility, the Kuva Hind and Tiberon Prime (among other options) are far superior, as all three of their firing modes are at worst decent. I also find both of them to be much nicer to use, primarily due to their higher RoF.

Rivens

The Kuva Quartakk has a neutral starting Disposition of 3/5 (1), while the regular Quartakk has a solid 4/5 (1.25) Disposition. I honestly would not be surprised if the KQuartakk's stayed as is, or dropped only slightly. Though quite powerful, it is a somewhat unwieldy weapon, and seemingly not very popular.

+Damage/Multishot/Crit Chance/Crit Damage are all great. +Elemental Damage is nice for another damage boost and for potentially saving a mod slot. +Fire Rate makes Burst-Fire much more forgiving, and Full-Auto easier to use. +Punch Through is a great help against crowds.

-Impact/Puncture/Slash are all decent, though the latter is the least desirable of the three. None of them are a particularly dominant damage type, and only Slash has a good Status proc. -Faction Damage is manageable to a weaker faction. -Mag Capacity/Reload Speed are very manageable as both Quartakks have exceptional Reload Ratios. -Ammo Max is also largely a non-issue as neither is particularly ammo hungry. -Projectile Speed has no effect. +Recoil is great if you manage recoil well. -Zoom is excellent, particularly as it makes Burst-Fire more usable in close quarters.