The Tenet Tetra is an MR16 Rifle, one of the new variants introduced for the U30.5 Sisters of Parvos. With massive stat increases across the board as well as a powerful new second firing mode, it is a well rounded and overall quite strong weapon.
EDIT: U32 changed the Tenet Tetra alternate fire to deplete the remaining magazine in the explosive attack, with damage scaling based on amount of ammo left. This is a significant improvement to the weapon and allows seamless use of both firing modes.
Updated posted on 30/09/2022, U32.0.8
Acquisition
Standard Tenet weapon stuff, create a Sister with this weapon and Vanquish them.
Stats
The Tenet Tetra has two distinct firing modes. Its Primary Fire is a pretty standard Full-Auto, with great Crit as well as high Status Chance. Unfortunately, the base Damage is biased primarily towards Puncture which is not a great damage type, nor a good proc.
A Fire Rate of just 5 is quite slow by Full-Auto standards. With a Mag Capacity of 80 and Reload Time of just 2.2 though, it has an exceptional Reload Ratio of 7.27.
Note that Primary Fire fires projectiles with reasonable Projectile Speed.
Alternate Fire depletes the remaining magazine in a single, extremely powerful blast. It retains the same fantastic Crit + Status Chance, as well as having enormous base Damage. Note that the base Damage is directly proportional to ammo remaining in the mag - a full mag will deal the full damage, while having only 40 rounds left in the default mag (half magazine) will deal half damage. Note that this scales with proportion of ammo remaining, not exact number of rounds - as such, mods that affect Mag Capacity do not impact maximum damage potential.
Keep in mind that damage-per-ammo, Alt Fire is worse than Primary Fire (15 vs 60), so Alt Fire should be used primarily for quick bursts of damage, or for its AoE.
An explosive radius of 8 metres is fantastic. Damage Fall-Off of 60% is fairly lenient for an explosion of this size. Naturally, this explosion can inflict self stagger/knockdown.
The projectile fired by Alt Fire is slower than those fired by Full-Auto, and also exhibits significant projectile drop.
Previously, using Alt Fire would grant a slightly faster Reload Time (1.8s vs 2.2s) as pictured in the stat screen. This doesn't seem to occur since the U32 changes, with a full time Reload even when Alt Fire is used.
An Ammo Pickup rate of 40 rounds-per-pickup is quite generous for Full-Auto, which is quite slow-firing for its type. It is surprisingly ammo efficient and can keep itself supplied fairly well. On the other hand, Alt Fire can be slightly problematic for ammo if used recklessly. Firing with a full magazine for maximum damage consumes 80 rounds at base, taking 2 ammo pickups to replenish - more than even the strongest other explosive weapons which recover 1 ammo per pickup. This of course can be mitigated by only using Alt Fire after partially depleting the mag with Primary Fire.
Augments
The Tenet Tetra has access to two Tetra-family-exclusive mods, both of which are Exilus-compatible.
Focused Acceleration is a formerly Conclave-only mod, and is now also available in the Nightwave store. It increases Projectile Speed by 80% while aiming, more than that of the generic Rifle mod Terminal Velocity at +60%. It is a nice option for more Projectile Speed, provided you regularly aim, though doesn't offer much over Terminal Velocity and only works when you aim.
Kinetic Ricochet drops primarily from enemies in the Index, but can also drop from Coildrive Bounties in the Vallis. It causes rounds to bounce off of solid objects up to 6 times, though limits range to 100m, and shorter with each bounce. It does not affect Alt Fire, which will still detonate on impact.
Kinetic Ricochet is a very entertaining option for Primary Fire. The range limitation is an unfortunate disadvantage, presumably intended to preserve people's GPUs and CPUs. In an ideal situation (such as a tight corridor), the bounces from Kinetic Ricochet and cause a given round to hit multiple enemies, or even the same enemy multiple times, for significantly more damage. In practice this is not very reliable unless you add Punch-Through as well - this allows shots to pass through thinner objects and enemies, but still bounce off of impenetrable surfaces like most walls.
Builds
NOTE: The below builds are pictured with a maximum +60% Radiation bonus. For a minimum +25% bonus, multiply the total damage numbers by 0.78125.
0-Forma:
Yet another weapon with no innate polarities, so Forma-less builds are troublesome. If any of your core mods are below max Rank, and you have both 60/60 mods for the desired elements, you can fit in Split Chamber in place of Vigilante Armaments. Unfortunately, some of these 60/60s can be difficult/expensive to acquire.
Until DE makes more changes to damage types and procs, the same few setups will remain best. Viral is of course the best overall, with ok multipliers and a near-universal proc. Corrosive provides stronger upfront damage against the Infested, particularly on the Cambion Drift (who are largely immune to Viral procs), and is especially effective against Ferrite-armoured enemies. Radiation is the strongest direct damage against Alloy-armoured enemies. Toxin provides damage that bypasses the Shields of most enemies, which is highly effective against most unarmoured Corpus units. Magnetic is worth consideration against enemies with strong Shields that cannot be bypassed, but there are very few such units.
If you have a single element Sister bonus, you can potentially drop one elemental mod and still get a combined element. Toxin is the best bonus for this, since it can form Viral or Corrosive.
Recommended Setups: Viral vs everything, Corrosive vs Infested, Ferrite-armour, Radiation vs Alloy-armour, Toxin vs unarmoured Corpus
General Purpose 1-Forma:
One added V polarity and the extra ranks offer ample space to upgrade Vigilante Armaments up to Split Chamber. Depending on the elemental mods you have available, you may be able to fit in a seventh mod as well. In this example, I've slotted in Vigi Armaments again as a no-fuss positive.
Hunter Munitions 1-Forma:
With great Crit in both firing modes, Hunter Munitions is naturally a fantastic mod option. It gives the TTetra ability to inflict Slash procs somewhat reliably, which is a very strong anti-armour option. Slash procs deal armour-bypassing damage, and both of the TTetra's firing modes have the Crit and damage output to inflict strong Slash procs.
If you have a Toxin or Cold bonus, you can even drop one elemental mod and still form Viral, leaving one mod slot spare for something else. I've discussed most other options further below, notably including more quality-of-life mods, or mods that further boost the damage of Slash procs.
Another solid option for the seventh mod slot is a third element. There are a few triple-element combinations worth mentioning. Adding Heat alongside either Viral or Corrosive is a great option. Heat provides additional armour reduction, as well as a stacking damage-over-time proc that can greatly benefit from the Viral/Corrosive procs. Combining Radiation and Toxin together provides a decent catch-all against the Corpus, dealing effective damage against pretty much all of their Health types. Its primary weakness is somewhat unimpressive damage against Shields.
Recommended Setups: see above. Also consider: Viral + HM vs armour, Viral + Heat vs everything, Corrosive + Heat vs Infested, Ferrite-armour, Radiation + Toxin vs Corpus
General Purpose 2-Forma:
Another added V polarity and you can start looking at mod options for the eighth slot as well. As pictured, Shred is a favourite of mine for Primary Fire. The +Fire Rate makes Primary Fire much more comfortable to handle in my opinion, and the +Punch-Through is a great help against crowds.
This however does not apply to Alt Fire. The +Fire Rate is meaningless as it reloads after every shot anyway, and +Punch-Through can prevent it from detonating on enemies it can penetrate. Adding Punch-Through to Alt Fire will require aiming at walls or the ground to ensure detonations.
Critical Delay 2-Forma:
Critical Delay is very much worth mentioning. The extra Crit Chance it offers over Point Strike is significant, and the Fire Rate penalty is easily compensated for with another +Fire Rate mod for Primary Fire, or irrelevant for Alt Fire.
There are of course more options to consider for the seventh and eighth mod slots. Heavy Caliber provides a larger damage boost than Vigi Armaments, but the Accuracy penalty can be troublesome for landing precise shots with Full-Auto. It is also greatly devalued by weapon Arcanes and Galvanised Aptitude. A (Primed) Bane mod is a strong multiplier of damage-over-time procs
like Slash and Heat. It is particularly effective alongside Hunter
Munitions. Naturally though, they cost quite a lot to max out and are rather tedious to switch around.
Hammer Shot provides +Crit Damage and +Status Chance, though is a fair bit weaker than other options. Argon Scope and Bladed Rounds are useful conditional Crit mods, while Proton Jet offers conditional Crit and Status Chances. Argon Scope is effective in Primary Fire, but difficult to use with Alt Fire. The other two work well in both firing modes.
A stronger +Fire Rate mod like Vile Acceleration is quite effective for Primary Fire, but again is useless for Alt Fire. Conversely, (Primed) Firestorm is very strong for Alt Fire, significantly improving its AoE, but does nothing for Primary Fire. (Primed) Fast Hands is also great quality-of-life for the constantly-reloading Alt Fire, but again does little for pure Primary Fire which has a great Reload Ratio.
There are a few notable options for the Exilus slot. An Ammo Mutation mod is strongly recommended if you regularly use Alt Fire, as it chews through ammo very quickly. For Full-Auto, Kinetic Ricochet can be a lot of fun and works very well with Punch-Through. If you want more Projectile Speed, Terminal Velocity is a solid option for either mode. Focused Acceleration offers slightly more, but has a much higher drain and only activates while aiming. Cautious Shot is an option to mitigate self-stagger/knockdown from Alt Fire.
Recommended Setups: see above.
Galvanised Build and Arcane
Galvanised Chamber of course.
Galvanised Aptitude is a solid option for Primary Fire. Though its Fire Rate is not amazing, its Status Chance is very high so it can readily stack a good number of Status procs for great damage from Galv Apt. Semi-Auto does not benefit from it as it is an explosive weapon.
Galv Scope is an interesting option. Primary Fire can land headshots reasonably consistently to trigger and stack it up, though as usual note that kills from damage-over-time procs will not stack it. With the change to Alt Fire, you can potentially use Primary Fire to stack up Galv Scope to maximum, then fire a quick Alt Fire shot with maximum Crit, though of course Alt Fire will struggle to stack it up.
I wouldn't bother with Fractalised Reset unless you exclusively use Alt Fire. The loss of damage is very significant and I don't find the base Reload Time to be too bad, especially with any +Reload Speed installed.
Both Deadhead and Merciless are solid options, though which firing mode you prefer will influence their impact.
Deadhead of course wants and enhances headshots, which works well with Primary Fire, but poorly with Alt Fire. Merciless is more convenient especially for Alt Fire, which has no issues stacking it up in very few shots, and also benefits from the +Reload Speed more.
My Builds
I use two different builds on the TTetra. My default build emphasises the high explosive Alt Fire, with Primed Firestorm for a massive blast radius. Hunter Munitions takes care of anything that somehow survives the initial blast, the vast majority of which will likely be heavily armoured.
Primed Firestorm is of course worthless for Primary Fire, and Critical Delay without a +Fire Rate mod makes Full-Auto quite slow - far too slow for my taste.
Sister of Parvos Bonus
There are several decent options for Sister bonus. Radiation and Magnetic are two options I always like as they do not interfere with any other elements. Their respective multipliers and procs are useful in various situations, and offer an extra multiplier for Galv Aptitude.
For single elements, Toxin and Heat are your main options. Toxin notably combines into Viral with a single elemental mod, leaving more space for Hunter Munitions and other useful mods. It also works well for Corrosive or Toxin builds, but is sub-optimal for Heat + Viral/Corrosive setups. For those, Heat is much better as it adds Heat without requiring an associated elemental mod.
Combat Use and Summary
With very well-rounded stats, the Tenet Tetra's Primary Fire fares well against most targets. Great Reload Ratio allows it to put out a lot of rounds with little downtime, though a below-average Fire Rate can be slightly troublesome. Above-average DPS for a Full-Auto, good Crit and high Status Chance all make Primary Fire quite solid against all manner of heavier targets. Status-vulnerable enemies are inflicted quite reliably with a reasonable number procs, of note Corrosive, Viral or Magnetic depending on the type of enemy.
Added or bonus Heat can contribute both extra armour reduction and a damage-over-time proc, but it is not as potent as Slash against heavily armoured enemies. Natural Slash procs are unfortunately infrequent as it is only a small component of the TTetra's base Damage.
Alt Fire's powerful explosion is strong against most targets. It clears out clustered groups effortlessly, with very good explosive radius and great damage output. Dealing very high damage-per-shot to anything near its blast epicentre, it also fares very well against singular unarmoured and Status-immune targets.
With very low shot output and no natural ability to inflict Slash procs, Alt Fire fares less well against heavily armoured enemies. With high Status Chance it will inflict a few procs, but nowhere near enough for maximum effect. It can brute-force through some armour, but of course this drops off significantly at very high levels.
Hunter Munitions is a great addition for either firing mode. Primary Fire can use it to reliably and consistently inflict solid Slash procs, alongside being modded for Viral procs. Once inflicted on heavily armoured enemies, this setup will periodically take significant chunks out of their Health, bypassing their Armour entirely. Alt Fire is a lot less consistent due to its much lower Fire Rate, but thanks to its massive damage-per-shot, any Slash procs it does inflict will be enormous. Only the absolute toughest of enemies will survive more than a few ticks from one of Alt Fire's Slash procs.
The change to Alt Fire making it simply consume the rest of the magazine was a fantastic change to the TTetra, allowing it to function more effectively as a two-mode weapon. Primary Fire can be used for most targets, with Alt Fire providing a quick burst of strong AoE damage, provided you still have reasonable ammo left in the magazine. However, Alt Fire should not be used as the main firing mode due to its immense ammo consumption, and its much lower damage-per-ammo than Primary Fire.
Like with other similar weapons, building for both firing modes can be difficult as they appreciate different supplementary mods. Primary Fire does well with Punch-Through and +Fire Rate mods, reloads very infrequently, and of course does not have an explosive radius. Alt Fire is great with +Blast Radius mods and appreciates +Reload Speed for its constant reloading, while +Fire Rate is meaningless and Punch-Through is actively detrimental.
Since both firing modes fire projectiles, the TTetra can be a little difficult to use at longer ranges. Primary Fire is reasonably ammo-efficient with relatively low Fire Rate (for a Full-Auto), and it replenishes a solid 40 rounds per pickup. Alt Fire immediately depleting the remaining magazine can quickly become a significant ammo drain if used with a near-full magazine, and so greatly appreciates Ammo Case/Mutation/etc mods to stay topped up.
Overall, the Tenet Tetra is a strong and versatile Rifle. Primary Fire, though a little slow, is reasonably powerful and inflicts a good number of Status procs. Alt Fire consumes a lot of ammo and packs a great punch, though is surprisingly unimpressive when compared to some of its explosive contemporaries (see below). The change to Alt Fire makes the two firing modes quite usable alongside one another, however the mod situation makes it impossible to optimise both simultaneously. Additionally, Alt Fire still forces a reload immediately after being used, which is a notable disadvantage compared to other surprisingly similar weapons.
Personally, I'm not a big fan of the Tenet Tetra. I find its Primary Fire to be painfully slow even with Primed Shred, and much prefer faster-firing weapons like the Kuva Hind. Alt Fire is strong, but unexceptional by explosive Primary standards - though perhaps this is more just a symptom of the insane powercreep of AoE weapons recently.
Scores
Vs Variants
The MR4 Prisma Tetra is better than the base Tetra, but still does not remotely compare to the Tenet.
Oddly, the Tenet has a lower Fire Rate and slower Reload Time than either of its variants, but these are easily compensated for with the other vast stat improvements.
Competitors
The Tenet Tetra combines two very different firing modes into a single weapon. Surprisingly, there are a few somewhat similar weapons.
The Stahlta is probably the closest direct comparison, with a similar Full-Auto as well as a powerful Alternate Fire.
The TTetra's Alt Fire retains a few advantages, notably a slightly larger explosive radius with less Damage Fall-Off and no explosion delay. It is also fires instantly, where else the Stahlta's Alt Fire requires a very length 1.6 second Charge Time.
Overall, the TTetra is the overall stronger Full-Auto and simpler explosive Alt Fire, while the Stahlta's Alt Fire packs a slow but immensely powerful punch.
The Quellor is also somewhat similar, yet quite distinct.
The Quellor's Primary Fire has higher Status Chance and Fire Rate for overall slightly better Status output, as well as a little innate Punch-Through. However, the TTetra's Full-Auto far superior Crit and base Damage give it much higher DPS.
The Quellor has an even higher Reload Ratio thanks to its enormous Mag Capacity, though this is much more relevant when looking at Alt Fire.
The Quellor's Alt Fire is not an explosive, instead firing a short-range energy wave much like the Arca Plasmor. Nonetheless, it is still a potent AoE attack so serves as a useful comparison. The TTetra's Alt Fire packs slightly higher peak damage with a direct hit and maximum Sister bonus. It also covers a lot more area with its large explosive radius, and has a far higher Status Chance.
The Quellor's Alt Fire deals much more consistent damage at close range, though it suffers from significant Damage Fall-Off beyond that and has a limited range of 26 metres. As it consumes 50 rounds per shot, it can fire six shots before having to reload, and is a little more ammo efficient. With a Charge Time of 1.2 seconds, this lets it fire follow-up shots more quickly than the TTetra's Alt Fire. Again, its lower ammo drain allows the Quellor to use both of its firing modes together more effectively.
As with the Stahlta comparison, the Quellor's Primary Fire is largely worse than the TTetra's, but its AoE attack retains notable advantages.
One last weapon I'd like to compare is the Tenora Prime, though this one is not as useful.
The TenoraP's Alt Fire is a completely different type of attack, being a high damage shot with no explosion. It has significant Charge Time, though consumes only 10 ammo. Again, this means that the TenoraP can seamlessly use its Alternate-Fire alongside Full-Auto.
Overall, the Tenora Prime puts up a much better fight in the Full-Auto department, but its Alt Fire is nothing like the Tenet Tetra's, so the two serve very different roles.
If we look simply at generic Full-Auto weapons, there are a huge bunch to consider. Weapons like the Kuva Karak, Supra Vandal, Tenet Flux Rifle the list is extensive. The Tenet Tetra retains a DPS advantage over many of these, however falls well behind in Status output due to its (comparatively) very low Fire Rate.
When looking solely at explosive Primaries, the comparison becomes quite troublesome. Of note, the Tenet Tetra has to compete with powerhouses like the Kuva Bramma and Kuva Zarr. The KBramma retains superior damage-per-shot, area-of-effect and Status output thanks to its additional bomblets. On the other hand, while the KZarr deals less damage-per-shot in a smaller range, it can fire multiple shots quickly which is a distinct advantage over the other two. I'd consider both of them superior explosive weapons to the TTetra.
All told, while the Tenet Tetra faces stiff competition in either one of its firing modes, and cannot practically switch between the two on-the-fly, no other single weapon effectively competes with both of its firing modes.
Rivens
The Tenet Tetra currently has an above-average 3/5 (1.1) Riven Disposition, which is a bit higher than I expected. It is undoubtedly a strong and versatile weapon, but I guess it isn't popular as it is not the most convenient for either of its firing modes. Both the Prisma and regular Tetra have near maximum Riven Dispositions, at 5/5 (1.45) and 5/5 (1.5) respectively.
The usual fare of +Damage/Multishot/Crit Chance/Crit Damage are nice stats. The former two are much less impactful with Galvanised mods and weapon Arcanes included. +Slash could be nice for Full-Auto to try and eke out more Slash procs, though you are much better off just slotting in Hunter Munitions at that point. +Elemental Damage can be useful for saving a mod slot. +Fire Rate is in my opinion very beneficial for Full-Auto, but has no impact on Semi-Auto. +Projectile Speed can be nice quality-of-life. +Reload Speed is very nice for Semi-Auto, but minimal for Full-Auto. +Punch-Through is nice for Full-Auto, but actively detrimental for Semi-Auto.
-Impact/Puncture/Slash are all usable negatives. -Impact has the smallest effect on Full-Auto but is the only one that weakens (only very slightly) Semi-Auto. -Puncture reduces Full-Auto's damage the most, but this is barely an issue since Puncture is a poor damage type and proc anyway. It has no effect on Semi-Auto. -Slash also has no effect on Semi-Auto but is the worst of the three for Full-Auto, since it is an actually useful proc. -Faction Damage to a weaker faction (primarily Infested) is usually quite manageable. -Fire Rate has no effect on Semi-Auto and can be compensated for with a +Fire Rate mod in Full-Auto. -Mag Capacity has minimal effect on either firing mode at lower values. Similarly, -Reload Speed is minor for Full-Auto but much more troublesome for the constantly-reloading Semi-Auto. -Projectile Speed can be compensated for by an Exilus mod. +Recoil is not major for either firing mode. -Zoom is ideal for close quarters.
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