Review: Kuva Chakkhurr (U27.5.5)

The Kuva Chakkhurr is an MR15 Semi-Auto Rifle that fires explosive rounds. Dealing very heavy damage with a great spread of base stats, it is a unique and very potent Primary.

Acquisition

Make a Lich with it, Vanquish them, etc etc.

Stats

Immediately obvious is that the Kuva Chakkhurr is meant to hit things really, really hard. A Crit spread of 50%/2.3x is extremely high, with equal highest Crit Chance of any Primary. This naturally greatly augments a very high overall base Damage. A Status Chance of 27% is also very good. To balance out its impressive firepower, it has a very slow RoF, and one of the longest Reload Times in the game at 3.3 seconds. With such a slow RoF, it has a fairly respectable 2.85 Reload Ratio.

The KChakkhurr fires projectiles, which suffer from travel time and a small amount of projectile drop. Upon impact, these projectiles explode, dealing a mix of Puncture/Slash/Blast damage in a 2.9 metre radius. This explosion damage drops to 70% at the edges of its explosions, which is quite lenient. The explosion can deal self-stagger if you are within its radius.

Notably, and appropriately given its description, the Kuva Chakkhurr deals extra damage on headshots - on top of standard headshot bonuses.

Augments

None.

Builds

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

0-Forma:

The Kuva Chakkhurr has two innate V polarities, which are extremely useful. Besides the first six essentials, there is 13 mod capacity spare. This can be put towards upgrading one or both of the elementals to 60/60s, or a seventh mod. For a basic trial build, I'd recommend one of the following three mods: Vigilante Armaments, (Primed) Fast Hands, and Vile Acceleration/Speed Trigger. Vigilante Armaments is self-explanatory, for better damage-per-shot.

(Primed) Fast Hands and Vile Acceleration/Speed Trigger are intended to mitigate the KChakkhurr's main weaknesses - slow RoF and Reload Speed. I personally consider the slow Reload to be the bigger issue hence PFH in the above build.

Note that I strongly recommend against using (Primed) Shred. As with most other explosive weapons, if the KChakkhurr has Punch Through, its projectiles will pass through objects without exploding until it hits an object it cannot penetrate. This costs a significant amount of damage against your immediate target if the projectile passes through it.


In terms of elements, as usual, Viral is my recommended go-to. The KChakkhurr inflicts relatively few procs due to its low RoF, so procs that are strong with few stacks are ideal. Viral is one of these, giving an instant double damage bonus (to health) with just a single proc. It is also useful against every enemy in the game, and has decent multipliers.

Corrosive and Radiation are always worth a mention because of the multipliers they have, Corrosive against heavy Infested and Ferrite armour, and Radiation against Alloy armour. Pure Toxin is a very strong option against unarmoured Corpus, bypassing their shields entirely to deal damage directly to health.

Recommended Setups: Viral vs everything, Corrosive vs Infested, Radiation vs armoured Corpus, Toxin vs unarmoured Corpus

1-Forma:

One added polarity, in this case a - for PFH, is all that is needed to make use of all eight mod slots. Besides the aforementioned Vigilante Armaments, (Primed) Fast Hands and Vile Acceleration/Speed Trigger, there are several other mods worth considering.

One obvious option is another elemental mod. Notably, this allows for three-element combinations, of which there are several notable ones - Viral + Heat is very effective against most targets, Viral + Electric is exceptional against unarmoured Corpus, and Corrosive + Heat is brutal to the Infested. With 50% Crit Chance, Hunter Munitions is another obvious and very strong choice. Combined with Viral, it is exceptionally effective against armoured targets, especially the organic armoured units of the Grineer. It is however lacking in direct damage compared to other builds.

I do not recommend Heavy Caliber. Though it is a big damage boost, the accuracy penalty is extremely harsh on what is a mainly precision weapon. Bladed Rounds is a damage-boosting option that is very easy to trigger and take advantage of. Argon Scope is weaker, but also very easy to make use of. Wildfire is a novel option that slightly increases Mag Capacity as well as adding a small amount of Heat. Hammer Shot is not a big damage bonus, but its Status Chance boost can be very helpful in some builds. A Primed Bane mod is always worth looking at as a major damage boost, though of course requires switching for each faction. Firestorm is a funny option that increases explosive radius, though going from 2.9m to 3.6m is not really worth the slot.

For the Exilus slot, again there are several mods worthy of attention. As a projectile weapon, the KChakkhurr appreciates the increased Projectile Speed from Terminal Velocity, especially at longer range. An Ammo Mutation mod is certainly welcome with just 55 spare ammo and using the rare Sniper ammo - Vigilante Supplies in particular also increases the Vigilante mod set bonus. Cautious Shot drastically reduces the chance to self-stagger, though I've rarely found it to be an issue since it can't self-knockdown. Stabilizer for the reduced recoil can be nice if you struggle with it otherwise.

Recommended Setups: see above. Also consider: Viral + Heat vs everything, Viral + HM vs Grineer, Viral + Electric vs unarmoured Corpus, Corrosive + Heat vs Infested

Primed Cryo Rounds 2-Forma:

Primed Cryo Rounds is a massive Cold damage boost, and is worth slotting into appropriate builds where possible. Thanks to Kuva weapons gaining max ranks with Forma, it is very easy to fit into builds after a couple of Forma.

My Builds

I have two different styles of builds. This first one is the obligatory Viral build, making use of the Toxin bonus to save one mod slot. In particular, it lets this build get above 2 Multishot for better per-shot consistency.

The other two builds are just other elements for different bosses.

Kuva Lich Bonus

As standard, the main three elements to look at are Toxin, Heat and Radiation. Toxin combines into Viral and Corrosive, and is solid on its own as well. Heat is a great complement to Viral or Corrosive, and combines into Radiation. Added Radiation has some very useful damage multipliers, and notably its proc can shut down Eximus/Ancient auras. As always, Magnetic is worth considering if you need a dedicated anti-Corpus weapon.

Combat Use and Summary

The Kuva Chakkhurr is a powerful marksman rifle with the AoE of a small explosive. It is an unusual, though very effective, hybrid weapon. With high damage output and an extra bonus to headshots, it is exceptionally effective against single targets, especially when unarmoured. Even against more heavily armoured enemies, its high Status Chance and explosion allow it to inflict a surprising number of elemental procs, and the Slash component on explosions can inflict brutal Slash procs. Hunter Munitions drastically increases the number of Slash procs inflicted, which is especially effective against heavily armoured enemies.

Even with its explosive rounds,  the KChakkhurr is weakest against groups. Its extremely slow RoF and Reload Speed are big issues here, greatly reducing the speed at which you can put down multiple groups of enemies. The explosions do help, but at only 2.9m radius, are not exceptional for crowd clearing.


As a weapon that uses the rare Sniper ammo type, I strongly recommend at least one of Ammo Case/Mutation when using the KChakkhurr. Though it is fairly ammo efficient, unlucky ammo drops can leave it impotent for frustratingly long times. This is magnified by a relatively small spare ammo pool of just 55 rounds.

The KChakkhurr has pretty heavy per-shot recoil, however I've generally found it to be a non-issue with such a low RoF. As a projectile weapon, it suffers from travel time and slight projectile drop, both which can be issues at longer range. It is also quite inaccurate when fired from the hip, though very accurate when aimed.


Overall, the Kuva Chakkhurr is a very good marksman rifle. It deals massive damage, with a novel and very effective explosive shot. It is appropriately very slow, both in RoF and Reload Speed. If you enjoy precision weapons, I strongly recommend looking into the Kuva Chakkhurr. It is among the best weapons in this class, and its explosive shot mitigates the class' overall weakness against groups. I personally found it very enjoyable to use with a reduced Reload Time.

Scores

Vs Trash Mobs: 2.5/5 - Its explosive shot is the main factor keeping it relevant against groups, as its low RoF and very slow Reload Time are significant drawbacks.
Vs Unarmoured Heavies: 5/5 - Exceptional direct damage with an extra headshot multiplier allows the KChakkhurr to deal immense damage to single targets.
Vs Armoured Heavies without Hunter Munitions: 4/5 - High Status Chance and explosions allows the KChakkhurr to inflict a surprising number of Status procs, given its very slow RoF. This combined with its great damage output, especially on headshots, makes it rather effective against armoured enemies.
Vs Armoured Heavies with Hunter Munitions: 5/5 - Equal highest Crit Chance of any Primary allows the KChakkhurr to make exceptional use of HM. A single Slash proc can spell death for all but the highest health enemies. Its explosion even lets it inflict Slash procs on groups.

Vs Variants

None. It is one of the Kuva weapons that does not have a regular variant.

Competitors

The Kuva Chakkhurr is one of only two marksman rifles in Warframe that has any built-in AoE - the other being the Komorex. The two have many different attributes - the KChakkhurr is a Crit-focused Rifle, with its 2.9m explosion dealing Puncture, Slash and Blast. The Komorex is a Status-focused Sniper with two distinct firing modes, the hip-fire/low-zoom being a fast-firing Semi-Auto, and the high-zoom being a slow-firing, explosive shot. It notably deals Viral on its 3.5m explosions, with the shot itself dealing IPS. As a Sniper, the Komorex also has a Combo-Counter that builds up and boosts damage when zoomed in.

As it requires full zoom to use its explosive shot, I personally find the Komorex to be extremely annoying to use. It does have the much higher Mag Capacity, and with its two firing modes, surprising versatility. I also prefer the KChakkhurr's higher Crit, lower Status stat spread, which with its also higher Base Damage, results in far higher Direct Damage unless the Komorex has a very high Combo-Counter.

Overall, I personally consider the Kuva Chakkhurr to be much better than the Komorex.

Rivens

The Kuva Chakkhurr currently sports a 2/5 (0.85) Riven Disposition. Though it did not drop as much as the more popular Kuva weapons (Bramma and Nukor), I would not be surprised to see it drop further in future updates. It is a very powerful and capable rifle.

As always, +Damage/Multishot/Crit Chance/Crit Damage are all great stats to have. +Elemental Damage can be some nice extra damage, shift around damage biases, or even save a mod slot. I personally find the KChakkhurr to be very slow, so +Fire Rate is a big positive. +Projectile Speed can make longer ranged combat much easier. With such a long Reload Time, +Reload Speed is also a big help.

Of the Physical damage types, Puncture is probably the best negative to have. The direct hit damage is pure Impact, while Slash is always a good damage type to potentially proc. -Puncture has limited effect on overall damage output, and does not remove a notably useful proc type. -Faction Damage can be manageable against the weaker factions, and of course has no effect on other factions. -Ammo Max can be managed by having Ammo Case/Mutation/etc. +Recoil is very manageable if firing slowly, however can be a big issue with boosted RoF. -Zoom is ideal for close quarters.