Acquisition
Stats
The Kuva Hek has a very good stat spread for strong single shots. 23%/2.1x Crit is fairly strong by Shotgun standards, and 13.3% Status Chance is solid with 7 base Multishot. A base Damage of 609 before Lich Bonus is quite high as well.
This is all balanced out by relatively low Fire Rate of 2.17, and a tiny Mag Capacity of just 4. With a Reload Time of 1.9 seconds, the KHek a very poor Reload Ratio of 0.97.
Innate Punch-Through is always appreciated, though 0.3 metres will only penetrate the thinnest of objects.
The KHek has fairly harsh Damage Fall-Off. Starting at 15m, it will deal reduced damage to a minimum of just 17% damage at 30m and beyond.
The KHek also a special addition compared to the other Heks. Pressing Alternate Fire will fire four rounds at once, with heavy recoil. This is implemented simply by firing 28 pellets at base instead of just 7. Additionally, it seems to have a wider spread than regular shots.
By default, using Alternate Fire will force an immediate reload. Reducing Mag Capacity
will disable Alternate Fire entirely, while increasing Mag Capacity will
leave rounds in the mag after using it. Note that its Damage Fall-Off is even worse than normal, dropping to a minimum of just 1% at 30m.
Augments
None, the Kuva Hek cannot use the Hek-exclusive Scattered Justice Augment.
Builds
NOTE: The below pictured Overframe builds use a maximum Bonus of +60% Radiation. For a minimum 25% Bonus, multiply the total damage numbers by 0.78125.
Basic 0-Forma:
No innate polarities, a continual frustration for low-expenditure builds. This example build just fits in all the essentials (Damage, Multishot, Crit, two Elements), depending on what mods you have available to you. Any mods below max rank naturally offer a little wiggle room if necessary.
The usual elemental suspects are all here - Viral as a general purpose, Corrosive against Ferrite-armour and the heavier Infested (especially Cambion Drift), and Radiation against Alloy-armoured enemies. Toxin and Magnetic are both Corpus-focused, the former bypassing Shields and the latter dealing very heavy Shield damage.
It is quite possible to forgo one elemental mod in exchange for upgrading Point Blank and Ravage to their Primed versions, though this of course limits your elemental options. A Toxin bonus has the best options for elements (Viral, Corrosive, or Toxin).
Recommended Setups: Viral vs everything, Corrosive vs Ferrite-armour, Infested, Radiation vs Alloy-armour, Toxin vs unarmoured Corpus, Magnetic vs Shields
Primed 1-Forma:
One added V polarity allows you to upgrade Point Blank and Ravage to their Primed versions without leaving off elemental mods.
If you have it, I strongly recommend switching Blunderbuss to Critical Deceleration. The drastically increased Crit Chance is great for the Crit-heavy KHek, and the Fire Rate penalty is not usually a big deal.
Recommended Setups: see above.
2-Forma:
A second added V polarity and the extra ranks allows you to start slotting in seventh and eighth mods. Vigilante Armaments is a no-fuss positive and is always a nice (if not particularly strong) default option if you don't know what else to include.
The pictured build uses Chilling Reload as the Cold mod, as the +Reload Speed is a great stat on the constantly-reloading KHek.
Hunter Munitions is a very strong option in a Viral build. The KHek has quite good Crit Chance, so with HM can reliably inflict rather strong Slash procs. This gives it great capabilities against Status-vulnerable heavy enemies, though limits its direct damage against other targets.
Three-element builds are also worth considering. Adding Heat to a Viral or Corrosive build significantly improves their capabilities. Notably, this can be achieved using Blaze, which though quite rare, offers +Heat and +Damage for a massive overall damage boost. Radiation + Toxin is a solid Corpus catch-all.
Recommended Setups: see above. Also consider: Viral + HM vs armour, Viral + Heat vs everything, Corrosive + Heat vs Ferrite-armour, Infested, Radiation + Toxin vs Corpus
3-Forma:
A third Forma and the extra capacity offers a lot more options for the last two mod slots.
I am a fan of (Primed) Tactical Pump, if not already running Chilling Reload and/or Primary Merciless. The KHek is constantly reloading due to its tiny Mag Capacity, so shortening that time is a significant quality-of-life improvement. Seeking Fury adds a very small amount of +Reload Speed, but the +Punch-Through can be very helpful against dense crowds. An alternative is to increase Mag Capacity via Ammo Stock.
A (Primed) Cleanse mod is strong, especially in a build focusing on damage-over-time procs, but are expensive to max out and tedious to switch for each Faction. Vicious Spread is a little stronger than Vigilante Armaments if not using Blaze, but the Accuracy penalty can be troublesome.
Shrapnel Shot and Laser Sight are conditional Crit mods, the former being the better of the two if running Critical Deceleration. Motus Setup is a conditional Crit/Status Chance mod, but again its value is diminished if running Critical Deceleration.
For the Exilus slot, there are a few options. Fatal Acceleration increases Damage Fall-Off ranges, which improves longer-ranged combat. Narrow Barrel conditionally improves Accuracy for a similar purpose. An Ammo Mutation mod like Vigilante Supplies completely eliminates any ammo issues.
Recommended Setups: see above.
Galvanised Build and Arcane
Galvanised Hell, naturally.
Galvanised Savvy is worth consideration. The Kuva Hek has above-average Status Chance for a Shotgun, and can readily inflict multiple procs on single targets. This will of course come at the cost of much lower initial damage, and potentially lower damage if procs do not co-operate. It is most notable against very high level, very tough enemies as most anything else will quickly die to a Primed Point Blank setup.
Galvanised Acceleration is a solid option for the Exilus slot. Its Projectile Speed increase extends the KHek's Damage Fall-Off ranges significantly, greatly improving its capabilities beyond close range.
Both Deadhead and Merciless have unique benefits as well as notable weaknesses compared to one another.
Deadhead is much easier to max, requiring only 3 stacks, and offers extra damage on headshots. The Recoil reduction can be nice for quick follow-up shots, but with such low Fire Rate I don't think it is important. Deadhead suffers from the same drawbacks as it does on other Shotguns, where a kill may not register as a headshot kill if the killing pellet did not hit the target's head - even if other pellets did. Additionally, it will not stack on kills from damage-over-time procs.
Merciless stacks from any kills, and the +Relaod Speed is very much appreciated on the constantly-reloading KHek. However it requires a lot of stacks and decays quite quickly. As such, it takes a lot longer for a single-target weapon like the KHek to build up to full strength.
Between the two, I'd lean to Merciless primarily for the +Reload Speed.
My Builds
Kuva Lich Bonus
There are some good options to consider. Toxin is your main option if you want to focus on a Viral + HM build, as it saves you an elemental mod for a mod that enhances Slash procs, like a (Primed) Cleanse mod. Heat is a better general-purpose option, ideal for the more versatile Viral/Corrosive + Heat builds.
Radiation and Magnetic are neat not only for their unique damage multipliers and proc effects, but also as an extra multiplier for Galv Savvy. The former is strong against Alloy-armour and can shut down Eximus/Ancient auras, while the latter is extremely effective against Shields.
Combat Use and Summary
With low Mag Capacity, terrible Reload Ratio and no AoE, the Kuva Hek is clearly best against fewer, tougher targets. It deals very high damage-per-shot for great Burst DPS, with a reasonable number of procs, though low Fire Rate and poor Slash bias mean that the majority of its useful natural procs will be from elements. Hunter Munitions can be included to rectify this, leveraging strong Crit to reliably inflict powerful Slash procs against heavily armoured enemies.
Alternate Fire really leans into this single target design, dumping all four rounds into a single extremely powerful shot. This is very useful if there is a priority target that you need to get rid of, provided you can get close to it. Alternate Fire's wide spread and extreme Damage Fall-Off past 15m makes it quite inefficient beyond very close range.
Neither of the Kuva Hek's firing modes are much good at longer ranges. Both have significant pellet spread as well as heavy Damage Fall-Off, drastically reducing damage dealt at long range.
Overall, the Kuva Hek is a strong single-target Shotgun. It deals great damage with a good number of procs against single enemies, but really struggles when confronted with large groups. Alternate Fire can provide a great burst of firepower when needed against very tough targets.
If you're after a good close-range single-target killing Primary, the Kuva Hek is one of many solid options to consider. If you're looking for a general-purpose Primary for Warframe's typical content however, I'd suggest looking elsewhere. There are many other weapons that are nearly as good against single targets, while being much better against crowds.
Scores
Vs Variants
Competitors
Besides the Vaykor Hek, there are a few other slow-firing Shotguns to consider.
The Corinth Prime is a notable competitor to the Kuva Hek. It inflicts far fewer Status procs with its Primary Fire, as well as dealing lower damage-per-shot at a slower Fire Rate. However, it has a far better Reload Ratio, and its explosive Alternate Fire offers a massive AoE attack that the KHek can only dream of.
The Kuva Drakgoon also offers strong competition. It has similar Crit and Status output to the KHek, with a much superior Reload Ratio, slightly higher Fire Rate, more innate Punch-Through and even no Damage Fall-Off. The only aspects that the KDrakgoon fall behind in are lower base Damage, and the requirement to charge it for maximum damage, though with a Charge Time of just 0.3 seconds, this is not a big issue.
None of the KHek's Shotgun brethren can match its on-paper Burst Damage especially with Alternate Fire, but all offer significantly better capabilities in other areas.
Looking more generally at single-target Primaries, the other obvious option is to look at Snipers like the Rubico Prime. Though they are less user-friendly than Shotguns, Snipers uniquely benefit from their Scope Bonus as well as Combo Counter, giving them a much higher damage ceiling, as well as obviously being far more effective at range.
Rivens
Starting at minimum 1/5 (0.5), I expect the Kuva Hek's Disposition to increase. The Vaykor's is currently sitting at 3/5 (1.1). The Kuva is a very strong single-target weapon, but does not fare well against groups which tends to be most of Warframe's combat.
+Damage/Multishot/Crit Chance/Crit Damage are the usual suspects of good stats. With Galvanised mods and weapon Arcanes, +Damage becomes far less valuable, and +Crit Damage becomes the best of the four. +Elemental Damage can help to save a mod slot. +Mag Capacity/Reload Speed are very nice quality-of-life stats to have. +Projectile Speed is not worthless as it increases Damage Fall-Off ranges. +Punch-Through is quite helpful against clustered enemies.
All of -Impact/Puncture/Slash are negatives worth considering. Puncture is the largest component of the KHek's base Damage, but it is not a very good damage type or proc so is not very valuable. The other two are much smaller components so have less effect on overall damage output, though Slash is better to keep around. -Faction Damage against weaker enemies (Infested is generally accepted as the weakest) can be very manageable with good positives. -Fire Rate in small amounts is not a big deal if you do not fire quickly, as is +Recoil. -Ammo Max is not a big issue, especially with Ammo Case/Mutation/etc.
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