Review: Corinth Prime (U27.4.1)

The Corinth Prime is an MR14 Shotgun released alongside Titania and Pangolin Primes in U27.3.6. With a large Mag Capacity and two potent and very different firing modes, it is a versatile and powerful Primary.

Acquisition

Standard Prime Weapon stuff, its Blueprint and Components drop from various Void Relics.

Stats

The Corinth Prime's Primary Fire is Crit-focused, combining with high base Damage to deal great damage-per-shot. 9% Status Chance is not great by any means, but it is usable and a noticeable improvement over the regular Corinth. Primary Fire naturally also has damage fall-off, starting at 18 metres and dropping to around 33% damage at 36 metres.

An enormous Mag Capacity of 20, coupled with relatively low RoF of 1.42 and Reload Time of 3 seconds gives an excellent Reload Ratio of 4.69.

On the other hand, Secondary Fire launches a single slow travelling projectile and consumes 4 ammo per shot. It has atrocious Crit stats, in exchange for a ridiculous 50% Status Chance.

This projectile only detonates upon pressing Alternate Fire again. If the projectile hits an object, it will not detonate. Direct hits deal very little damage. Upon detonation, the projectile explodes in an immense 9.8m radius explosion, with enormous base Damage. This explosion can cause self-stagger or even knockdown if you are too close. The explosion damage will fall-off to just 10% at its edges.

The Secondary Fire projectile travels surprisingly fast, so can be difficult to utilise in close quarters.

Augments

None.

Builds

0-Forma:

With one - and two V polarities, the Corinth can fit a lot of good mods in without any Forma. This above build uses the full 60 capacity. Besides the standard Damage/Multishot/Crit, there is space for a single elemental combo and anotheer mod. In this example build, I've used Chilling Reload as a low-capacity Cold mod, as well as for the extra Reload Speed. This leaves just enough space for Seeking Fury, which gives that all-important Punch Through and a little more Reload Speed. If using a 60/60 mod in place of Chilling Reload, Vigilante Armaments and Blaze are two good alternatives to Seeking Fury.

Hunter Munitions is another very solid option in place of Seeking Fury. The Corinth Prime's amazing Crit in Primary Fire allow it to inflict powerful Slash procs frequently with HM, tearing through heavily armoured targets with ease.

Viral is my recommended go-to element as always. It is solid against most targets, and its proc, even in small quantities, is quite powerful. It is especially potent alongside Hunter Munitions. Corrosive and Radiation are very effective against their appropriate targets (ie Ferrite armour and Infested, and Alloy armour respectively), if you care only about a few specific enemies. Heat is a great complement for both Viral and Corrosive, partly because it can be added by the extremely potent Blaze. Pure Toxin is very strong against the Corpus as well, bypassing their shields entirely and doing great damage to their Health.

Recommended Setups: Viral (+ Heat or HM) vs everything, Corrosive (+ Heat) vs Infested and bosses, Radiation vs armoured Corpus and bosses, Toxin vs unarmoured Corpus

2-Forma:

Two added V polarities open up a plethora of possibilities. I have already mentioned several good mods to consider - Chilling Reload, Seeking Fury, Hunter Munitions, Vigilante Armaments and Blaze. They all offer great benefits depending on the sort of build you're going for.

Shotgun Spazz is worth considering if you want the Corinth Prime to fire significantly faster. It is a great help against groups in particular, and drastically increases DPS, but also naturally ammo consumption. Another elemental mod is always worth considering, with Primed Charged Shell being a potent damage boost. Laser Sight and Shrapnel Shot are worth considering for a slot as well, both boosting a Crit stat if triggered. Motus Setup is an alternative conditional mod that boosts both Crit and Status Chances. If you are not using Blaze, Vicious Spread adds a little more damage than Vigilante Armaments, though the Spread penalty reduces effective range.

For the Exilus slot, Vigilante Supplies is always a solid option. Besides the Ammo Mutation effect, it also increases the Vigilante mod set bonus. Fatal Acceleration for increased Projectile Speed increases the effective range of Primary Fire, though also makes Secondary Fire even harder to use at close range.

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

My Builds

Go-to build is a Viral + HM one. Its direct damage tears through all but the heaviest armoured enemies, which is what HM is for.

These Corrosive and Radiation builds are primarily for use against bosses.

Combat Use and Summary

As you'd expect from a slow-firing, Crit-heavy Shotgun, the Corinth's Primary Fire is best against fewer, heavier enemies. It can deal immense damage to a single target at close range, and with Hunter Munitions, inflict a lot of Slash procs on anything that survives the first shot.

On the other hand, Secondary Fire is exceptionally well suited to taking down groups of enemies. Though it is slow firing and consumes a lot of ammo, it has an enormous explosion and deals more than enough damage to kill most weaker enemies. Any survivors are likely inflicted with several Status procs, making easy pickings for a follow-up shot.

The manual detonation on Secondary Fire can be difficult to fully utilise. As a direct hit neutralises the projectile and deals minimal damage, it is usually best to fire above enemies. Lining up such shots and timing detonations for maximum effect requires practice and experience, but provides fantastic reward when mastered.

As you might expect from a Shotgun, neither firing mode is particularly effective at longer range. Primary Fire loses significant damage and its pellets spread out, while Secondary Fire travels slowly and disappears after a set time.


Overall, the Corinth Prime is a very powerful and surprisingly versatile Shotgun. Its Primary Fire deals great direct damage, and can make excellent use of Hunter Munitions to get through heavily armoured enemies. Secondary Fire explodes in a very wide range, excellent for dealing with crowds, and procs status on anything that is still alive afterwards. If you're after a solid all-round Shotgun, you can't really go wrong with the Corinth Prime.

I personally don't like the manual detonation of Secondary Fire, primarily because it is neutralised immediately upon hitting a surface and has no automatic detonation. All other explosive weapons either have some form of automatic detonation (e.g. Kuva Bramma, Acceltra beyond 7m, regular Corinth Secondary Fire at 20m), or do not disappear upon hitting an object (e.g. Penta). For all these weapons, exact timing is much less critical to make use of them, and small errors are not so punishing. I would like the Corinth Prime Secondary Fire much more if it had either of these features.

Scores

Vs Trash Mobs: 4/5 - The enormous explosions offerred by Secondary Fire can tear down entire groups of enemies in a single shot. My main complaint is that it must be manually detonated, and upon hitting any object it becomes inert. This is particularly troublesome in close quarters.
Vs Unarmoured Heavies: 4.5/5 - Great damage-per-shot in Primary Fire makes the Corinth exceptionally effective against single heavy targets.
Vs Armoured Heavies without Hunter Munitions: 4/5 - Extreme Status Chance in Secondary Fire allows it to weaken heavily armoured enemies with Viral/Corrosive/Heat procs, allowing Primary Fire to deal good direct damage to them. Primary Fire can inflict procs, but not as reliably.
Vs Armoured Heavies with Hunter Munitions: 5/5 - HM allows Primary Fire to inflict many powerful Slash procs on any enemy that survives its shot, bleeding out armoured enemies quickly.

Vs Variants

The MR14 Corinth Prime is a majority upgrade over the regular MR8 Corinth. It sports a far larger Mag Capacity for only a slightly longer reload, as well as both firing modes having significantly higher Status Chance. Primary Fire has a faster RoF. Secondary Fire trades a slower RoF for massively increased damage, though it also consumes 4 ammo per shot. Additionally, the Prime's Secondary Fire only detonates when re-triggered, while the regular Corinth's Secondary Fire automatically detonates at 20 metres.

It is worth noting however that the Corinth reloads shells one-at-a-time, while the Prime reloads the entire magazine as normal. As such, the regular Cornith can be ready to fire a panic shot very quickly, while the Prime must wait the full reload time.

The regular Corinth is a very powerful weapon at MR8.

Competitors

There are two other Crit-heavy, slow-firing Shotguns (Vaykor Hek, Strun Wraith), however neither deals as much single shot direct damage as the Corinth Prime. Both do fire faster and have better Status capabilities however.

The only other Shotgun with an explosive alternate fire is the Phantasma, which is a pure Status weapon and deals far less direct damage in both firing modes.

Rivens

The Corinth Prime has a slightly below average 3/5 (0.95) Riven Disposition. The regular Corinth has the same Disposition. Given it is a majority upgrade, and a great Shotgun all round, I would expect the Disposition of the Prime to drop in upcoming changes.

+Damage/Multishot/Crit Chance/Crit Damage are all obvious great positives. +Elemental Damage can be a good way to get some extra direct damage, or save a mod slot. I'd personally consider +Fire Rate to be very helpful, as the Corinth Prime has a very low RoF. +Projectile Speed improves Primary Fire performance at range, but also makes Secondary Fire projectiles faster and thus harder to control. I would also consider +Reload Speed to be quite helpful, as 3 seconds is a long time. +Punch Through is great for Primary Fire.

Any of -Impact/Puncture/Slash are not bad negatives, as none are especially dominant damage types. -Slash is the worst of the three since Slash procs are actually good. -Faction Damage can be very manageable against the weaker factions. -Mag Capacity is alright for Primary Fire, but much more noticeable for Secondary Fire. -Ammo Max is very manageable as the Corinth Prime is quite ammo efficient. -Projectile Speed can make Secondary Fire easier to use at close range, but further shortens Primary Fire's effective range. +Recoil is quite manageable at such slow RoF.