Acquisition
Like the Trumna, the Sepulcrum and its component blueprints are acquired from the weapon vendor in the Necralisk on Deimos. The blueprints are made available at Rank 2: Acquiantance.
Stats
A Mag Capacity of 90 rounds is one of the largest of any Secondary, complemented by a relatively slow RoF for very long periods of sustained fire. A Reload Time of 4 seconds is the longest of any Secondary, but the Sepulcrum still maintains an excellent Reload Ratio of 6.13.
As previously mentioned, Primary Fire's projectiles are explosive, dealing pure Heat damage in a small 1.6m radius. It suffers from only a small amount of damage fall-off, still dealing 80% damage at the limits of its explosions.Naturally, these explosions can inflict self-stagger, though I rarely found this to occur given how small they are.
Alternate Fire's projectiles have a much larger explosive radius than Primary Fire, and sports more than 10 times the base Damage. It retains the excellent base Heat damage, as well as the rather low damage fall-off.
Once targets are locked, Alternate Fire is unleashed by pressing the standard Fire button, releasing a barrage of homing rockets that seek out the locked targets. This does not consume any ammo, but will fully deplete the charge bar regardless of number of targets.
Augments
None.
Builds
0-Forma:
The Sepulcrum also has no innate polarities, which makes it quite frustrating to fit a good Forma-less build in. This example build forgoes Lethal Torrent to focus on damage-per-shot, with 3 spare capacity. Barrel Diffusion can be switched out for it, for higher Fire Rate and overall damage-per-second, but will have lower damage-per-shot and worse consistency.
Especially with its innate Heat, Viral is a great all-round damage type. It has reasonable multipliers, but more importantly an amazing Status proc that drastically increases health damage taken by enemies. Corrosive has great multipliers against Ferrite armour and heavy Infested, and its proc greatly weakens armour as well. This is especially useful against Cambion Drift Infested, many of whom are immune to Viral procs.
An alternative option against Alloy-armoured or Infested Sinew enemies is Radiation, which has great multipliers against these two. However, its proc is nowhere near as good as Viral or Corrosive.
Recommended Setups: Viral vs everything, Corrosive vs armour, Infested, Radiation vs armoured Corpus
Lethal Torrent 2-Forma:
Two V polarities allows you to add in Lethal Torrent. If you shift Barrel Diffusion or Lethal Torrent into the Pistol Gambit slot, you can save one more capacity, for up to 4 spare. I've arranged it as is in preparation for the below setup.
If you are after more damage at the expense of Status Chance, there is space to replace one of the 60/60 elementals with a 90%.
Recommended Setups: see above.
Primed Crit 3-Forma:
Another added V polarity allows you to upgrade both Pistol Gambit and Target Cracker to their Primed versions, which offers a huge damage boost. This build fits in with 4 spare capacity, again allowing changing of one of the 60/60s to a 90%.
Recommended Setups: see above.
General Purpose 4-Forma:
Finally, after one more V polarity, you can begin considering what eighth mod to include, though several options will require even more Forma. This example build slots in Augur Pact as it is simple, effective and low-capacity, with 2 spare capacity. Magnum Force is more powerful, but its accuracy penalty can make landing precise shots more difficult, and is especially noticeable beyond close range. If you are after direct damage, there is always the possibility of switching the 60/60 mods for 90% elementals.
Primed Heated Charge adds a lot of damage, and also swings damage type bias towards Heat. This results in more frequent, stronger Heat procs at the expense of other procs. Scorch is a weaker option that further increases Status Chance, for even more procs overall. Other elemental setups are very much, though the innate Heat does limit these. Notably, Radiation + Toxin covers most Corpus health types quite well.
Hydraulic Crosshairs and Sharpened Bullets are conditional Crit-boosting options that offer a larger damage boost than Augur Pact. The Primed Expel mods are powerful options, being especially good for Heat procs, however are expensive to max and annoying to switch around. (Primed) Quickdraw does not offer any damage boost, but significantly reduces the Sepulcrum's otherwise very long Reload Time, which is a great quality-of-life bonus. Anemic Agility significantly increases Fire Rate, which can be quite helpful against large groups.
As with other explosive weapons, I do not recommend Punch Through. It will cause the projectiles to pass through enemies without exploding, which drastically reduces your damage output. Fulmination is an entertaining option to increase the explosive radii of both firing modes, though as neither starts off very large, they are not significantly increased.
For the Exilus slot, the main option I'd recommend considering is Lethal Momentum. The increased Projectile Speed allows you to engage targets at longer ranges more effectively. Otherwise, (Primed) Pistol Ammo Mutation will ensure that you never run out of ammo, or Reflex Draw to speed up weapon switching. Eject Magazine for reload-while-holstered would be a perfect complement to mitigate the extremely long Reload Time, but it cannot be equipped on the Sepulcrum currently.
Recommended Setups: see above. Also consider: Radiation + Toxin vs Corpus
My Builds
Combat Use and Summary
The Sepulcrum's Primary Fire is least effective against large groups of enemies, though naturally not due to a lack of damage. It is relatively slow firing even with Lethal Torrent, and its explosions are quite small. Additionally, as it fires two rounds simultaneously side-by-side, its effective Fire Rate is half of that listed.
Secondary Fire, though quite powerful, can be quite annoying to actually make use of. After obtaining the requisite kills, you need to switch to a lock-on mode, during which you cannot fire at all. A recent update has made it much easier and faster to acquire locks, which is a good improvement, but does not eliminate its inconvenience.
In fairness, once these conditions are all achieved, Secondary Fire looses a barrage of homing rounds that deal massive damage to anything unfortunate enough to have been locked. Thanks to its significantly increased Status Chance, any enemy that survives the initial blasts will likely be inflicted with a number of Status procs, often leaving them to burn to death and/or be drastically weakened. A larger blast radius than Primary Fire helps with tightly packed groups, however it still pales in comparison to most dedicated explosive weapons. Between this and the limited number of targets, like the Primary Fire I generally find it to be more effective against a few, heavier enemies.
Like the Trumna, the Sepulcrum's spare ammo count is sufficient for only 2 spare mags. Given its exceptionally large capacity, this is much less of an issue than it would be for most weapons, and it is also relatively ammo-efficient. Also like the Trumna, the Sepulcrum has an extremely long Reload Time, but cannot equip its reload-while-holstered mod, in this case Eject Magazine. As I tend to run the Synth mod set on my Companion, I always have this effect available, albeit at a reduced rate, and it is extremely helpful.
Due to its projectile nature, Primary Fire can be a tad difficult to use at long range, though its precision rewards skill if you can lead targets well. Additionally, it has a fairly high Projectile Speed, so suffers much less than most other projectile weapons. Alternate Fire can lock on to targets up to 80 metres away, and will maintain locks up to 100 metres away. This is well beyond the ranges that most combat in Warframe occurs, and its homing nature all but guarantees hits.
Overall, the Sepulcrum is a hard-hitting, relatively slow Secondary. It deals great direct damage, with reasonable Status Chance and innate Heat damage offering decent anti-armour capabilities. Alternate Fire, though clunky, packs an impressive punch and is great for softening up or finishing off heavier targes. A very long Reload Time is offset by an enormous Mag Capacity, and can be mitigated with the Synth mod set bonus. If you're a fan of Burst-Fire or slower firing weapons, I'd definitely recommend working towards the Sepulcrum. It has rather steep building requirements, but is a very powerful weapon.
Scores
Vs Trash Mobs: 3/5 - The Sepulcrum's Primary Fire is relatively slow firing, and though explosive, its explosion radius is quite small. Alternate Fire with its larger (though still fairly small) explosions is a little better, but of course the charge mechanic greatly limits its use. A very good Reload Ratio is quite helpful in this area.
Vs Unarmoured Heavies: 4.5/5 - Great Crit and reasonable precision allows the Sepulcrum to precisely deal quite high direct damage. It is very effective against Status-immune targets, especially if aimed well to achieve consistent headshots. Alternate Fire's even higher damage output can quickly put down a small number of heavy enemies as well.
Vs Armoured Heavies: 4/5 - Primary Fire has reasonable Status Chance, allowing it to steadily stack up Viral/Corrosive procs, which combine very well with its innate Heat and high direct damage. Again, Alternate Fire's very high damage, as well as significantly increased Status Chance, can be a good opener to soften up armoured enemies, or a strong finisher against weakened enemies.
Vs Variants
None.
Competitors
There are relatively few other Secondaries that fire small explosive rounds, and none that share its kill-charged Alternate Fire. The other Burst-Fire Secondaries, the (Kuva) Kraken and Sicarus (Prime), fire conventional hitscan non-explosive rounds, and are a lot faster firing. The closest comparison is probably the Kuva Seer, which also fires powerful explosive projectiles.
The Kuva Seer has a far higher base Damage especially considering its Lich Damage Bonus, and so deals higher Burst DPS and damage-per-shot. Its innate Corrosive on explosions is even better than the Sepulcrum's smaller Heat blasts, since it does not interfere with elemental setups, and allows otherwise impossible combinations like Viral + Corrosive. The KSeer even has a much higher Status Chance.
Where the Sepulcrum has its major advantage is in Mag Capacity - it has an impressive 90 where the KSeer holds a measly 9 rounds per mag. As such, it is much more effective against groups, and in my opinion, more convenient to use. Additionally, its Alternate Fire offers a massive damage spike far beyond what either weapon is normally capable of.
Primarily by virtue of its much larger Mag Capacity, I personally find the Sepulcrum much nicer to use.
Rivens
As usual for new weapons, the Sepulcrum starts at a minimum 1/5 (0.5) Riven Disposition. Though powerful, I find its two-shot Burst-Fire a tad slow, and its Alternate Fire is a little clunky to use, so would not be surprised to see a slight increase. Time and again, Warframe players show a preference for weapons with strong crowd-clearing capabilities, and weapons that fare better against single targets, like the Sepulcrum, are usually lesser-used.
+Damage/Multishot/Crit Chance/Crit Damage are never bad stats to have. +Elemental Damage can be a nice damage boost or help to save a mod slot. +Faction Damage is a great damage multiplier for Heat procs in particular. +Projectile Speed can be helpful at longer ranges. +Fire Rate allows the Sepulcrum to engage large numbers of enemies more easily. +Reload Speed greatly improves one of the Sepulcrum's main flaws of very slow Reload Time.
Since a large portion of the Sepulcrum's base Damage is in its Heat explosions, all of -Impact/Puncture/Slash are good negatives, with the former two being better as Slash procs are actually good. -Faction Damage is a non-issue against any of the other factions. -Mag Capacity is quite manageable in small amounts. -Ammo Max can be manageable particularly alongside one of Ammo Case/Mutation/etc. -Reload Speed is not an issue if you are relying on the Synth mod set bonus. +Recoil is very manageable as the Sepulcrum does not have a lot of recoil. -Zoom is ideal for close quarters.
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