The Tenet Cycron is an MR14 Beam Secondary, one of the new weapons that can be acquired from the also new Sisters of Parvos. With greatly improved stats and a chaining mechanic, it is an overall very strong weapon.
Acquisition
The weapon is now delivered to your Inbox, which then sends it to your Foundry when read.
Stats
The Tenet Cycron is clearly Status-focused, with an excellent 40% Status Chance and pure Heat damage. Its Crit is usable at 20%/1.8x, but not great especially by Secondary standards. Pure Heat base Damage is quite solid, as Heat is a decent damage type and amazing proc. A Fire Rate of 12 is great for quickly stacking up Status procs, and as a beam weapon the ammo consumption rate is only half of that.
Notably, the TCycron like its base version has a recharging magazine. It has a Recharge Delay of 1 second, after which it recharges ammo at a rate of 40 per second, for a maximum Reload Time of 2 seconds when depleted. This gives a below-average Reload Ratio of 1.67.
The TCycron has a limited range of 28m, which is fairly reasonable by beam weapon standards.
As is becoming increasingly common for new beam weapons, the TCycron's beam will chain from the main target to two other enemies within 7m range, dealing reduced damage to the secondary targets. This is especially potent with the innate 1m Punch-Through, as each enemy hit by the main beam will chain - drastically increasing potential damage output.
Augments
None.
Builds
NOTE: The below builds are shown with a maximum 60% damage bonus. Radiation has been selected as the bonus damage type so the bonus is shown more clearly. To calculate the on-paper damage dealt by a minimum 25% damage bonus, multiply the damage numbers by 0.78125.
Crit 0-Forma:
With two native - polarities, the Tenet Cycron can naturally fit the 90% elemental mods (besides Cold) quite comfortably. It can fit a rudimentary Crit build without needing Forma, though will be rather lacking in several areas. The obvious omission is Barrel Diffusion, and the build is somewhat lacking in DPS with just the base Crit mods.
In any Crit build, Creeping Bullseye is worth consideration over (Primed) Pistol Gambit. It offers slightly more Crit Chance than the Primed version (much more than the base version), in exchange for reducing Fire Rate. This is an overall reduction in DPS, however the reduced Fire Rate does slightly improve Reload Ratio. It is also much cheaper to max than the Primed mod.
Status 0-Forma:
Focusing on the TCycron's Status capabilities instead will offer an overall more effective weapon. This pictured build not only has more Status Chance, but also deals greater DPS than the above Crit build. Such a build can also leverage the two native - polarities more effectively.
The TCycron's innate Heat damage emphasises its most effective all-rounder builds, enabling very powerful combinations with fewer elemental mods. As always, Viral is the answer for an all-rounder build, with a fantastic Status proc that the TCycron will almost instantly max out. It also combines extremely well with Heat damage, innate or enhanced with mods, which add a stacking damage-over-time proc that also reduces armour. Corrosive is even stronger than Viral in a pure anti-armour role, and is also extremely strong against Infested, especially Cambion Drift Infested, however is far worse against other targets like the Corpus.
Due to its innate Heat damage, the TCycron is not easily capable of a pure Toxin build. Instead, it must first create a combined element that includes Heat, such as Radiation. This is not such a bad thing since Radiation + Toxin is itself a very good anti-Corpus setup. Most armoured Corpus use Alloy Armour, which Radiation is super-effective against, while Toxin is brutally effective against anything unarmoured, bypassing Shields entirely. Magnetic can be used against the select few enemies with strong Shields that cannot be bypassed by Toxin.
Recommended Setups: Viral + Heat vs everything, Corrosive + Heat vs armour, Infested, Radiation + Toxin or Magnetic + Heat vs Corpus
Crit 1-Forma:
One added V polarity and the extra capacity allows the Crit build to upgrade its Crit mods to their Primed versions, which is a major damage boost. However, it will still not fit Barrel Diffusion if all mods are maxed.
Elemental 1-Forma:
Again, with the capacity limitation, a more Status/Elemental focused build will end up with higher on-paper DPS than the above Crit build.
Recommended Setups: see above.
General Purpose 2-Forma:
A second added V polarity allows you to combine the two builds into one single, very powerful setup. This is the sort of build you should be ultimately aiming for, with the third elemental being swappable for a range of other mods if desired.
A Primed Expel mod is a solid damage boost, especially for amplifying damage-over-time procs like Heat that the TCycron excels at stacking. Magnum Force offers an overall solid damage boost independent of Faction, and its accuracy penalty is negligible.
Hydraulic Crosshairs and Sharpened Bullets are conditional Crit mods, but are a fair bit weaker than the above options. Augur Pact is also weaker, but very cheap to max out and non-conditional.
With relatively low Reload Ratio, you may like to increase Mag Capacity with a mod like Ice Storm or (Primed) Slip Magazine. Note that this will also slightly increase maximum Reload Time since the Recharge Rate is static.
Punch-Through on chaining beam weapons can be a massive damage multiplier, as each enemy hit by the main beam will spawn chains. The TCycron already has 1m innate Punch-Through, but should you want more Seeker can be added in.
If you have an Impact TCycron, Hemorrhage is a potentially interesting option that will offer Slash procs, which it of course cannot normally inflict. I do not know how effective this would be however, as Hemorrhage is best on low Fire Rate weapons (below 2.5 Fire Rate), which the TCycron definitely is not.
For the Exilus slot, Ruinous Extension is the obvious choice now that it is Exilus-compatible. It increases the TCycron's range to 36 metres, which is very solid, though does not affect chain range. Any other Exilus considerations are really to personal preference, as the TCycron does not need the usual main considerations of Ammo Mutation or Recoil reduction.
Recommended Setups: see above.
3-Forma Galvanised Build and Arcane:
The Tenet Cycron can make great use of Galvanised mods. As always, Galvanised Diffusion is a no-brainer upgrade over Barrel Diffusion.
Galvanised Crosshairs is a strong option instead of Primed Pistol Gambit if you regularly aim and land headshots, but not worth equipping if you generally aim for the body, or fire from the hip.
Finally, Galvanised Shot is a very strong option. As it matches Hornet Strike with two status type and exceeds it with three, it is best on an Impact, Radiation or Magnetic TCycron. With its fantastic Status capabilities, the TCycron will have no issue getting all three proc types on targets, thus granting extra damage over Hornet Strike once the first two kills are achieved. Any extra procs from other sources will also offer even more damage.
For the Arcane slot, Merciless will stack quickly and reliably as the TCycron can kill multiple enemies very quickly. However, it gains very little bonus from Merciless' other effects, since it has a recharging magazine. Deadhead is relatively easy to use as well if you aim for the head, and the extra headshot multiplier is nice, though the recoil reduction is pointless.
My Builds
Exactly as the Galvanised build above.
Sister of Parvos Bonus
Finally, Impact allows for a Hemorrhage build to inflict Slash procs. Impact is an awful damage type however, and I don't know how effective this setup would be - nor do I intend to farm and level up an Impact TCycron to find out. It would notably offer the largest damage boost from Galvanised Shot since it could have up to four proc types instead of just three.
Combat Use and Summary
Naturally for a Status-focused weapon, the TCycron is least effective against Status-immune enemies in particular. It has usable Crit for alright direct damage, but falls behind quite a lot of other, more Crit-focused Secondaries.
A recharging magazine is not particularly common, and has obvious major advantages over conventional reloading. Ammo is a non-issue in longer missions regardless how ammo-hungry the weapon is, potentially freeing up a mod slot from could otherwise be Ammo Case/Mutation/etc. It also means that partial reloads are shorter than full reloads, and that the magazine will automatically top up between firings. The primary disadvantage that it has, at least to me, is a relative lack of user feedback when the magazine is depleted.
As a beam weapon, the TCycron is naturally only usable at close to medium ranges. A base range of 28 metres is fairly reasonable in Warframe, where you can cross the vast majority of rooms in a split second once you get the hang of Warframe's movement system.
Overall, the Tenet Cycron is a very good Secondary. It deals with crowds extremely well, and stacks up huge numbers of procs on anything that survives a short burst. The recharging magazine is quite convenient for longer missions, and also pairs well in supporting other weapons. The small magazine can be frustrating at times, as it can deplete quite quickly especially with Lethal Torrent equipped - probably the closest thing the TCycron has to a weakness in the vast majority of content.
If you're at all interested in Beam weapons, AoE weapons or even just a decent Secondary, I'd heartily recommend the Tenet Cycron. It is relatively simple, easy to use and very capable, though faces notable competition from the Kuva Nukor as I discuss further below.
Scores
Vs Variants
The base Cycron however does have one key advantage that could have been nice to retain - its base Damage composition. Where the TCycron deals pure Heat damage, the base Cycron has a mix of Puncture, Slash and Radiation. Even with the Sister bonus, the TCycron can at best inflict one fewer proc type than the base Cycron, this giving it a smaller bonus with Galvanised Shot equipped. Even with this however, the base Cycron will not come anywhere near the TCycron in overall killing power.
Competitors
There are a couple of other chaining beam Secondaries that the Tenet Cycron has to compete with.
The MR14 Tenet Cycron is a vast improvement over the MR5 Atomos. It loses out only in Mag Capacity, number of chain targets (2 vs 3) and base Damage (which it matches anyway with just a 32% bonus), being superior in everything else. That said, the Atomos is still an excellent weapon for its very low MR5 requirement.
A Gaze Kitgun also offers some competition. Though it cannot quite match the TCycron's Crit/Status spread, it can have comparable Mag Capacity, and with Pax Charge a recharging mag with comparable total Reload Time. A Gaze has the same chaining ability (2 secondary targets), and deals base Puncture and Radiation for an extra potential Status proc. A Crit-focused Gaze will also achieve much higher direct damage, at the cost of far fewer procs.
Ultimately, the two serve different roles. The TCycron is a far better Status-leaning weapon, dealing much more damage than a comparable Gaze, while a Crit-built Gaze will deal much more direct damage.
The last obvious comparison, and probably the most significant, is the MR13 Kuva Nukor. The two are both amazing Status weapons with usable Crit. The KNukor has an insane Crit Multiplier, while the TCycron has the much better Crit Chance. The KNukor has higher Status Chance, while the TCycron has (slightly) higher base Damage and Fire Rate. The KNukor has a much larger mag, while the TCycron has innate Punch-Through.
When compared directly against one another on-paper, with an ordinary build the TCycron will win out slightly on Burst DPS, while the KNukor is better in Sustained DPS. If all hits are treated as headshots, the TCycron wins in both DPS categories thanks to its higher Crit Chance.
With Galvanised Shot in the mix however, it becomes far more clear cut. By virtue of its base Radiation damage, the KNukor can have one extra damage type, which pushes its damage with Galv Shot well past the TCycron.
One last important factor to consider is that the KNukor uses a conventional mag, where the TCycron uses a recharging mag. The KNukor can be prone to running out of ammo during longer missions if used carelessly, while this is a complete non-issue for the TCycron.
Overall, I think the Kuva Nukor is better than the Tenet Cycron, however in the vast majority of content the difference is not significant. Both weapons are very capable Secondaries.
Rivens
As with all new weapons, the Tenet Cycron starts with a minimum 1/5 (0.5) Riven Disposition. The regular Cycron has a rather high 4/5 (1.2) Disposition. Being such a powerful and easy to use weapon, similar to the Kuva Nukor, I do not expect the Tenet's Disposition to rise much, if at all.
+Damage/Multishot are nice stats, but now with the Galvanised mods and weapon Arcanes offer much less benefit than they used to. +Crit Damage is much better, as is +Crit Chance if not running Galvanised Crosshairs. +Elemental Damage can be nice for saving a mod slot. +Faction Damage can be a strong multiplier of damage-over-time procs like Heat and Toxin, which the TCycron excels at. It is most useful against heavily armoured enemies, the majority of whom are Grineer units. +Mag Capacity can be a nice quality-of-life stat as it can deplete very quickly. +Punch-Through allows the main beam to hit more enemies, which can drastically increase the TCycron's damage output against groups.
If it is possible, -Impact/Puncture/Slash are all ideal stats for the TCycron, for obvious reasons. The regular Cycron is not so happy with the latter two. -Faction Damage to weaker factions (ie Corpus and Infested) is usually quite manageable with the appropriate positive stats. -Fire Rate can help to conserve ammo and improve sustained fire capabilities, but of course comes at the cost of DPS. -Ammo Max/Projectile Speed/+Recoil have no effect. -Reload Speed only affects the recharge delay rather than the recharge rate, so is relatively minor. -Zoom is ideal for close quarters, which is where the TCycron excels.
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