Review: Akstiletto Prime (U28.2.0)

The Akstiletto Prime is an MR10 Dual Secondary, released back in U18.12 alongside Vauban and Fragor Primes. Once a gold standard for Pistols, in recent times it faces stiff competition from a variety of new as well as old, buffed weapons. Nonetheless, it remains a reliable and effective weapon.

Acquisition

Standard part composition for a Prime Dual Secondary that doesn't have a single counterpart. Akstiletto Prime is part of Vauban's Prime pack, so as of writing is Vaulted and cannot be found in any currently-available Relics.

Stats

The Akstiletto Prime is a Status-focused weapon, with an excellent 30% base Status Chance, though still retains usable Crit. Majority Impact damage is rather sub-optimal, as Impact is both a poor damage type and proc. A base RoF of 7.08 is relatively slow by Full-Auto standards, though combines with a decent Mag Capacity of 40 and fast Reload Time of just 1.1 seconds to give an excellent Reload Ratio 5.14.

Augments

None.

Builds

Status 0-Forma:

With one V and - polarities, the Akstiletto Prime can fit in a solid Status build without any Forma. Besides the staple Damage/Multishot mods, three elemental mods gives good damage and offers many elemental combos, in this example Viral + Heat. Augur Pact is a small, no-nonsense damage boost. This pictured build has 4 capacity remaining, enough to switch one of the 60/60 elementals for a 90% if desired.

Primed Crit 0-Forma:

With only 15%/2x Crit, it is only really worth building the Akstiletto Prime for Crit if you have both Primed Crit mods. With the innate polarities, this is only possible by leaving out another essential mod, leaving it well behind the Status build for damage output. Additionally, with only 3 spare capacity, there is little room for customisation if your mods are max rank.


As always since the U27.2 Status rework, Viral is my recommended all-rounder. It has some decent multipliers, and its proc is effective against all types of enemies. Corrosive is especially powerful against Ferrite-armoured enemies, and is otherwise a solid anti-armour and anti-Infested setup. Radiation is very effective against Alloy-armoured enemies, notably the Corpus' armoured robotics. Toxin on its own is extremely effective against unarmoured Corpus units, bypassing their Shields entirely.

Adding in Heat alongside Viral or Corrosive is quite potent, the former against most targets and the latter especially against Infested. Radiation + Toxin is a powerful all-round anti-Corpus setup, while Viral + Electric targets their health types extremely well.

Recommended Setups: Viral (+ Heat) vs everything, Corrosive (+ Heat) vs Infested, armour, Radiation (+ Toxin) vs armoured Corpus, Toxin or (Viral + Electric) vs unarmoured Corpus

Primed Crit 2-Forma:

Two added V polarities allows comfortable use of both Primed Crit mods without forgoing one of the essentials. This above build has 5 spare capacity, again allowing you to switch the elemental mods around at will.

Recommended Setups: see above.

Punch-Through 3-Forma:

With yet another added V polarity, eight mods can be slotted in provided you use 60/60 elementals. As always, my go-to mod for that slot is Seeker, for Punch-Through, which is a great help against crowds.

Status 3-Forma:

Alternatively, you could go for a three-elemental build like the 0-Forma Status build above, which offers much more single-target damage. Besides going for very high Status Chance as shown in this build, Primed Heated Charge is a powerful option that gives very good direct damage.

Besides the aforementioned Augur Pact, there are several other non-elemental damage boosting mods you could consider. Magnum Force is powerful, but its accuracy penalty can be troublesome and it is a very high drain mod. Anemic Agility significantly increases RoF, for much higher Burst DPS and proc output, but naturally also results in far higher ammo consumption. Hydraulic Crosshairs and Sharpened Bullets are conditional Crit mods that are helpful, though not exceptional.

For the Exilus slot, there are not many notable options as the Akstiletto Prime already has minimal recoil, and very manageable ammo economy. Pistol Ammo Mutation of any rank would completely remove any ammo troubles. Eject Magazine can be a nice convenient mod, but is not as useful on a weapon with such a fast Reload Time. Suppress can be useful for keeping enemy alert levels down.

Recommended Setups: see above.

My Builds

As usual, as more of a Rifle person, I typically build my Secondaries to complement whatever Primary I have, which is usually equipped with Viral. As such, I almost always set up my Secondaries with Corrosive.

This second build is a damage-focused Corrosive + Heat, most effective against the Infested.

The last build is a Viral + Electric, aimed at unarmoured Corpus.

Combat Use and Summary

The Akstiletto Prime is a fairly well-rounded weapon, and can take on most types of enemies. A great Reload Ratio, decent RoF and damage output make it quite effective against large numbers of enemies. It can comfortably engage streams of enemies, with minimal downtime thanks to its very fast Reload Time.

With a high Status Chance, it is also quite effective at weakening heavily armoured enemies. Rapidly stacking 10 Viral or Corrosive procs greatly increases damage dealt to such enemies, especially when combined with Heat. Where the Akstiletto Prime is weakest is in dealing direct damage.

As a Status-focused weapon, even with a Crit build, the Akstiletto Prime does not deal a lot of damage by Secondary standards. As such, though it is very effective at weakening tough enemies, it is somewhat less efficient at actually killing them. This is most prominent against Status-immune enemies.


Compared to many of its contemporaries, the Akstiletto Prime has a relatively low RoF. This results in minimal recoil and surprisingly good ammo economy. It is also quite accurate, even at relatively longer ranges.


Overall, the Akstiletto Prime is a solid Secondary. It has great Status capabilities and sports a very good Reload Ratio, though is a tad lacking for direct damage. By far the biggest issue it faces is very stiff competition from other weapons, both older, buffed weapons and newer powercreep. Nonetheless, it retains its place as a dependable and very easy to use weapon.

Scores

Vs Trash Mobs: 4/5 - Decent RoF and great Reload Ratio give the Akstiletto Prime very good anti-crowd capabilities. It can readily engage groups of enemies with minimal downtime, and deals enough damage to comfortably kill weaker units.
Vs Unarmoured Heavies: 2/5 - By Secondary standards, the AkstilettoP does not deal a lot of direct damage. Its Crit is fairly low, and as such it can struggle against high-health enemies, especially if they are Status-resistant/immune.
Vs Armoured Heavies: 4/5 - High Status Chance and decent RoF allow the AkstilettoP to stack up Viral or Corrosive procs very quickly on armoured enemies, greatly weakening them. It is also very capable of stacking up powerful Heat procs, which are very effective alongside the aforementioned procs.

Vs Variants

The MR10 Akstiletto Prime is a majority upgrade over the MR8 Akstiletto. In exchange for a lower Crit Chance and Fire Rate, it gains a larger Mag Capacity, much higher Status Chance, better Crit Multiplier and higher base Damage.

Competitors

There are several other strong Secondaries that compete for much the same role (Status-focused with usable Crit) as the Akstiletto Prime. Both the Dex Furis and Secura Dual Cestra can put out many more rounds and thus procs, with much higher Mag Capacities to match, but of course have the associated ammo economy issues.

Most notably, the Kuva Twin Stubbas is an incredibly potent competitor. Superior Crit Chance, much larger Mag Capacity, better Slash bias, higher RoF and the Kuva Lich Bonus (a bonus of at least 34% will give superior base Damage as well) are all strong advantages. The Akstiletto Prime's only advantages are marginally higher Crit Multiplier, and much faster Reload Time.

There are a few powerful beam Secondaries that can compete as well, namely the Synoid Gammacor, Spectra Vandal, and of course Kuva Nukor. Each is a very capable weapon, and has their own advantage over the Akstiletto Prime.

Rivens

The Akstiletto Prime currently retains a very low 1/5 (0.6) Riven Disposition, with the regular Akstiletto at a higher but still underwhelming 2/5 (0.8). This is largely a holdover of its immense popularity in the past. In terms of power-level, given it faces incredibly stiff competition, I would think it is deserving of a higher disposition.

The usual +Damage/Multishot/Crit Chance/Crit Damage are all great stats to have. +Slash can be useful if chasing a Viral + Slash build, especially if you happen to also get -Impact. +Elemental Damage can be helpful for saving a mod slot, shifting bias, or just attaining more damage. +Fire Rate can be helpful for putting out more damage and procs in a short time, but will result in more reloading and worse ammo economy. +Reload Speed will come in handy a lot since the Akstiletto Prime reloads frequently, though it is already quite fast. +Punch Through is a great help against groups.

-Impact/Puncture/Slash all have their advantages. -Impact has the largest effect on overall damage, but is a poor damage type anyway and shifts bias towards better procs. -Puncture has minimal effect. -Slash reduces bias of a good proc, but also shifts bias towards elements. -Faction Damage to Corpus or especially Infested can be manageable. A small amount of -Mag Capacity can be manageable with such fast reloads. -Ammo Max is very manageable alongside one of Ammo Case/Mutation/etc. -Projectile Speed has no effect. -Reload Speed can be manageable as it is normally very fast. +Recoil is minimal as the Akstiletto Prime has very little recoil in the first place. -Zoom is ideal for close quarters.