Review: Tenora Prime (U29.9.1)

The Tenora Prime is an MR14 spool-up Primary, released in U29.9. Octavia Prime's signature Rifle, it is a direct upgrade from the base Tenora, and a very strong Rifle overall.

Acquisition

Standard Prime weapon stuff, Blueprint and Components are available from various Void Relics.

Stats 

The Tenora Prime has very strong all-round stats. Its Crit is excellent and its Status Chance is very good, which also combines well with a high Fire Rate. A very large Mag Capacity of 200 rounds, with a Reload Time of just 2.5 seconds, gives for an excellent Reload Ratio of 6.31. The one blemish on the TenoraP's stat spread is its base Damage composition, leaning towards Puncture with only 30% Slash.

As a spool-up weapon, the TenoraP starts at a slower Fire Rate, taking 9 continuous rounds to reach maximum Fire Rate. Interestingly, unlike other spool-up weapons, its accuracy also significantly improves and its recoil greatly decreases in continuous fire. This however takes much longer, requiring something like 40 rounds to max out.

As with the base model, the Tenora Prime has a charge-up Alternate Fire. This consumes 10 ammo-per-shot, and has a base Charge Rate of 0.8 seconds, but unleashes an extremely powerful shot that deals massive damage. Its Crit is exceptional, notably hitting 100% Crit Chance with just Point Strike. Innate Punch-Through of 1 metre is definitely nice, though will not reliably penetrate larger enemies.

Notably, when wielded by Octavia (Prime), Alternate Fire headshot kills have a 20% chance to instantly reload the magazine.

Augments

None.

Builds

NOTE: In these screenshots, Overframe did not correctly calculate the Alternate Fire damage - multiply all damage numbers by 10x for the actual damage values.

General 0-Forma:

With two native V polarities, the Tenora Prime can fit in a solid build right out of the gate. It comfortably fits the mandatory Damage + Multishot, Crit Chance + Damage, and two Elementals, still with space for another mod. Vigilante Armaments is the example third mod in this above build, for some extra no-fuss Multishot.

90% Elemental 0-Forma:

If you do not have access to either 60/60 mod, two 90% elementals will still comfortably fit. This simply means that you will have less space for a seventh mod.

As per usual, there are a few main two-element builds. Viral is a universally useful proc and a decent damage type, so is my usual all-round go-to. Corrosive is much stronger against anything with Ferrite-armour, still very good against other armour types thanks to its proc, and great against Deimos Infested as they are immune to Viral procs. Radiation is strong against Alloy-armour, which is used by a lot of boss enemies.

One last notable option is pure Toxin, which is excellent against unarmoured Corpus units, as it bypasses their Shields entirely - which is often a majority of their total Health. It is however much less effective against armoured units.

The Tenora Prime's Status Chance is quite good especially when enhanced by 60/60 mods, so it inflicts a lot of procs quite easily. In the case of capped procs like Viral and Corrosive, this allows it to quickly max out and maintain 10 stacks of them very easily. For infinite stacking procs like Toxin and Heat, this gives it fantastic damage-over-time capabilities.

Hunter Munitions 0-Forma:

If you have at least one of the 60/60s to form Viral, Hunter Munitions is a very strong option for the seventh mod slot. At higher levels, heavily armoured enemies end up being by far the toughest enemies around. Activating from its excellent Crit Chance, Hunter Munitions allows the Tenora Prime to reliably inflict a lot of Slash procs, which deal damage-over-time that bypasses armour entirely. The damage dealt by these is further increased by Viral procs, which increase all damage done to Health. This makes HM by far the Tenora Prime's best anti-armour setup, even with its very solid Status Chance. On the other hand, this setup is less efficient against unarmoured targets that do not have armour's enormous damage reduction effect.

Recommended Setups: Viral vs everything, Viral + HM vs Grineer, Corrupted, Corrosive vs Ferrite-armour, Infested, Radiation vs Alloy-armour, Toxin vs unarmoured Corpus

Three Element 1-Forma:

One added V polarity allows installation of three elemental mods, provided at least two of them are 60/60s. Thanks to its very good Status Chance, the Tenora Prime can quickly stack up multiple types of procs. There are several triple-elemental setups that are worth considering, especially with this in mind.

Viral + Heat is an amazing all-rounder. Viral procs are useful against almost every unit (with the primary exception of those immune to it), greatly increasing damage dealt to their health. This is especially potent alongside Heat procs, which deal a stacking damage-over-time, as well as up to 50% armour reduction. Corrosive + Heat is a more dedicated anti-armour solution with up to 90% armour reduction, but is far less effective against unarmoured enemies. Notably, it is also super-effective against practically all Infested units, especially Drift Infested.

Viral + Electric is much more potent against unarmoured Corpus units, as Electric is particularly effective against their Robotics. Otherwise, Radiation + Toxin is a strong catch-all against the Corpus. As basically all Corpus who have armour are Alloy-armoured, Radiation is extremely effective against them. Toxin easily clears up those without armour.

Recommended Setups: see above. Also consider: Viral + Heat vs everything, Corrosive + Heat vs armour, Infested, Viral + Electric vs unarmoured Corpus, Radiation + Toxin vs Corpus

General Purpose 2-Forma:

Another added V polarity gives ample space to consider all kinds of mods for all eight slots. The above builds have already shown off several strong options, but of course there are a fair few more.

I am a big fan of Shred on the Tenora Prime. The added Punch-Through is always useful against groups, and the Fire Rate boost is highly beneficial for both firing modes. It makes Primary Fire spool-up faster, and also shortens Alternate Fire's Charge Time. If you want more Fire Rate and don't care for Punch-Through, Vile Acceleration is a strong option.

Heavy Caliber adds a significant amount of damage, however the accuracy penalty is quite significant, even when spooled up. As such, though each shot will deal more damage, outside of point-blank range, fewer shots will actually hit the target. I would personally recommend against it.

Argon Scope and Bladed Rounds are conditional Crit-boosting mods. Argon Scope in particular greatly increases Hunter Munitions' proc rate, but Bladed Rounds adds more overall damage. Hammer Shot increases both Crit Damage and Status Chance, though often ends up better replaced by another mod.

If running a build with damage-over-time procs (Slash, Heat, Toxin), a (Primed) Bane mod is extremely strong. The factional damage boost is applied twice to such procs, massively increasing their damage output.

For the Exilus slot, I recommend an Ammo Mutation mod. The TenoraP can eat through ammo quite quickly, so even though it uses the very common Rifle ammo, it can be rendered useless for periods in longer missions. Vigilante Supplies in particular also adds to the Vigilante mod set bonus. Otherwise, (Primed) Rifle Ammo Mutation is more efficient.

Recommended Setups: see above.

My Builds

As usual, Viral is my all-round go-to build. It is effective against most targets. I have an unranked Primed Rifle Ammo Mutation in the Exilus slot as I have zero capacity spare.

Also as usual, Corrosive and Radiation builds are there to target specific enemies, mainly bosses.

Combat Use and Summary

With high Fire Rate and great Reload Ratio, the Tenora Prime's Primary Fire naturally performs very well against lots of weaker enemies. It deals more than enough damage to easily kill weak enemies, and can sweep through large groups very comfortably. With very good Crit but also very good Status Chance, Primary Fire is also quite effective against both Status-immune and heavily armoured enemies. It deals above-average DPS for a Full-Auto Rifle, and can quickly stack up quite a few elemental procs.

Being a relatively slow charge-shot, naturally Alternate Fire is best against singular, heavy enemies. Its incredible Crit grants massive damage-per-shot, especially on headshots. This is ideal particularly against Status-immune foes. In the hands of an Octavia (Prime), Alternate Fire headshots even have a chance to instantly reload the TenoraP. Unfortunately this is just an instant reload and not a true magazine replenish, as the ammo is still drawn from your reserves.

Hunter Munitions is a very strong option against heavily armoured enemies. Both firing modes have very high Crit Chance to proc it frequently, stacking up huge numbers of Slash procs on enemies. With Primary Fire's ability to quickly max out Viral stacks as well, this can rapidly eat through even the toughest of armoured enemies, provided they are vulnerable to Status.

The Tenora Prime is not very ammo-efficient. Primary Fire has a fairly high Fire Rate, and as a spool-up, wastes ammo to reach its full potential and wants to be fired continuously. Additionally, Alternate Fire consumes 10 ammo per shot. Unique to the Tenora family is that spooling-up also improves accuracy and reduces recoil, which actually improves continuous fire ammo efficiency compared to most other spool-up rifles. Nonetheless, the TenoraP will eat through ammo very quickly. As such, for longer missions, at least one of Ammo Case/Mutation/etc is strongly recommended.

Overall, the Tenora Prime is a very capable Rifle. It can take on just about any enemy in the game with its two firing modes, and is very well rounded in both high direct damage output as well as Status capabilities. Besides an issue of poor ammo efficiency, it has no major downsides or weaknesses. If you're after a solid Full-Auto Rifle, like spool-up weapons, enjoy weapons with distinct firing modes, or even just want a solid Primary, I highly recommend the Tenora Prime. I'm quite a big fan of it, I enjoyed using it even while just levelling it up.

Scores

Vs Trash Mobs: 4.5/5 - High Fire Rate, great Reload Ratio and solid damage output make the TenoraP excellent against trash mobs. It can work through large groups of enemies with ease and minimal downtime.

Vs Unarmoured Heavies: 4.5/5 - With even higher Crit and overall damage output, Alternate Fire is very well suited to killing unarmoured and particularly Status-immune enemies.

Vs Armoured Heavies without Hunter Munitions: 4/5 - Fairly high Status Chance allows the TenoraP to stack up procs with Primary Fire quite quickly. This can be used to stack up damage-over-time procs (Slash, Heat), or to soften up a target for Alternate Fire's high damage shot.

Vs Armoured Heavies with Hunter Munitions: 5/5 - Primary Fire rapidly stacks up Viral procs naturally, and with HM, will also inflict a massive number of Slash procs. This setup can rapidly eat through extremely heavily armoured enemies. Alternate Fire can be unreliable with inflicting Slash procs, but any Slash procs it does inflict will deal enormous armour-ignoring damage.

Vs Variants

The MR14 Tenora Prime is an almost strict upgrade over the MR10 Tenora, with superior Crit, Status Chance, base Damage, Fire Rate and Mag Capacity. The reduced Fire Rate for Alternate Fire gives quite a significant shot delay. If you use Alternate Fire frequently, and inparticular try to rapid-fire it, you will definitely notice the difference.

Competitors

There are several other spool-up Rifles, however I'd argue that the Tenora Prime is the overall best of them all. It has the most well-rounded stat spread, and its Alternate Fire provides high damage shots that the others can only dream of.

First up, the MR7 Soma Prime. The SomaP enjoys advantages in a higher Crit Multiplier and Fire Rate, and shorter spool-up period, however is significantly lacking in other regards. The Tenora Prime has a faster Reload Time with the same Mag Capacity, and more than double of both the Status Chance and Base Damage. As a result, the TenoraP not only deals much higher DPS, but also inflicts far more Status procs.

The MR11 Prisma Gorgon puts up a better fight. It too has higher Crit Multiplier and Fire Rate, however its base Damage is also a lot closer. On the other hand, its Status Chance is still a lot lower than the TenoraP, its spool-up period is longer, and its Reload Ratio is far, far worse. Though the two are relatively close for Burst DPS, the TenoraP gains major advantages in Sustained DPS and Status output.

Additionally, where the PGorgon's accuracy and recoil degrade noticeably as it spools up, the TenoraP improves significantly.

Things are a little less clear-cut against the most Status-focused of the spool-up Rifles, the Supra Vandal. It has better Reload Ratio, higher Status Chance, incredibly fast spool-up and higher base Damage, in exchange for far worse Crit. The TenoraP again ends up with the higher DPS, both Burst and Sustained, however this time will end up slightly behind in Status output. In my experience in the content I usually play, the TenoraP's extra damage usually outweighs the slightly lower Status output, and is more versatile particularly taking into account Status-immune enemies. Both are top notch weapons.

Even among more general Full-Auto Rifles, the Tenora Prime stands near the top of the pile. It compares fairly well to weapons like the Baza Prime, Prisma Grakata, and Kuva Karak.

Rivens

As a new release, the Tenora Prime starts off with a minimum 1/5 (0.5) Riven Disposition. Given it is quite powerful though perhaps not the most incredible weapon, I am expecting its disposition to end up around the 2/5 (0.7-0.8) mark. The regular Tenora currently has a 3/5 (1.1) Disposition.

As per usual, +Damage/Multishot/Crit Chance/Crit Damage are all top stats to have. +Slash can be useful if you want to maximise your Slash procs, but it will cut into your elemental procs. +Elemental d]amage can save you a mod slot for something else. +Faction Damage is a great Slash/Heat/Toxin proc multiplier, most useful against the Grineer as they have the most heavily armoured units. I find +Fire Rate quite useful on the Tenora (Prime), as it not only reduces the time taken to reach maximum Fire Rate, but for the Tenora family also reduces time taken to reach maximum accuracy and minimum recoil. +Punch-Through is a great help against tightly packed crowds.

-Impact/Puncture are great negatives. Impact in particular is a terrible damage type and proc, and is a smaller component of the Tenora (Prime)'s base Damage. Puncture is a slightly better damage type and proc, and is a larger component of base Damage. However, it is still nowhere near as good as Slash or elemental damage. -Faction Damage to a weaker faction (Infested is ideal) can be quite manageable. I would personally stay away from -Fire Rate, as it lenthens the spool-up period as well as significantly reducing DPS, but it does also improve ammo economy. -Mag Capacity/Reload Speed in small amounts are not terrible, as the TenoraP's base Reload Ratio is very good. -Ammo Max is largely a non-issue alongside one of Ammo Case/Mutation/etc. -Projectile Speed has no effect. +Recoil can be manageable, especially once the TenoraP is spooled up due to its recoil-reduction effect. -Zoom is ideal for close quarters.