Review: Nataruk (U31.0.3)

The Nataruk is a new Sentient Bow, introduced in U31 The New War. With a unique "perfect" charge mechanic providing immense potential damage-per-shot by Bow standards, it is a novel and very powerful conventional Bow.

All The New War spoilers have been censored from this review.

Acquisition

The Nataruk is awarded after completing The New War Quest.

Additional Nataruks can be purchased from Cephalon Simaris after completing The New War.

Stats

The Nataruk has very strong charged shot stats. 50%/2.2x Crit is fantastic, with a great 50% Status Chance. Its base Damage of 900 is incredibly high, far beyond any other ordinary Bow, though is unfortunately majority Puncture.

A Charge Time of 1 second is significantly slower than most standard Bows at 0.5 seconds. It compensates for this with a faster 0.1 second Reload Time, usually around 0.5-0.7 for ordinary Bows.

The Nataruk has infinite ammo, which is a neat minor advantage over other Bows. Oddly, it is not considered Silent like most other Bows.

The Nataruk also has a unique "perfect" charge mechanic. Like most Bows, a fully charged shot is much stronger than an uncharged shot. However, the Nataruk is actually strongest if released just before full charge, as indicated by the small area in the reticle. A perfect shot has even higher Crit stats than a fully charged shot, with the highest Crit Chance of any normal weapon in the game.

Both full charge and perfect charge shots have infinite body Punch-Through, which is great against clumped up enemies. Instead of just firing an arrow as normal, charged/perfect shots instead fire have a large energy projectile, with hitbox akin to the Opticor beam or a small Arca Plasmor/Catchmoon shot. This however means that they do not benefit from the normal headshot multiplier.

Since uncharged shots fire regular arrows, they do the usual ragdolling of enemy body upon kill, allowing the arrow to continue ahead.

Interestingly, neither uncharged nor charged/perfect shots have projectile drop, and both have fairly fast projectile speed. Uncharged shots inflict a forced Impact proc.

Augments

None.

Builds

NOTE: As of writing, overframe.gg does not yet have the Nataruk so I have used warframe-builder's custom Bow setting. The pictured builds show both charged and perfect shot stats.

0-Forma:

The Nataruk has an incredible 4 innate V polarities! I believe this is the most innate polarities of any weapon. This allows you to fit in a good build without needing any Forma. 

Split Flights unfortunately is not compatible with the Nataruk, presumably because its charged/perfect shots are considered AoE. (Primed) Firestorm does not affect charged/perfect shots.

Viral is of course my default catch-all elemental combo. Its proc is useful against most targets, and its multipliers are ok. Corrosive is very strong for dealing direct damage to Ferrite-armoured enemies, as well as the largely Viral-immune Deimos Infested, most useful against Status-immune targets like bosses. Radiation serves a similar purpose against Alloy-armoured enemies. 

Hunter Munitions is a fantastic addition alongside a Viral build. It drastically increases the number of Slash procs the Nataruk inflicts. Given the immense damage-per-shot, a single Slash proc is more than enough to kill all but the absolute tankiest of enemies, especially with some Viral procs. If HM is unavailable to you, Fanged Fusillade serves a similar purpose but is overall much less effective.

Gas is a novel option offering significantly greater anti-crowd potential. The Nataruk's immense damage-per-shot allows it to inflict extremely strong Gas procs, especially if anything survives the first hit. Combined with charged/perfect shot projectile size, such a setup can tear through groups of enemies surprisingly well. This comes at the cost of significantly lower damage against heavy enemies, particularly the Status-immune and heavily armoured.

Critical Delay is a nice alternative over Point Strike for some extra Crit Chance, at the cost of slower Charge Time. This is easily compensated for with a +Fire Rate mod.

There are of course a lot of mod options for the seventh and eight slots. As mentioned previously, HM is a great option in a Viral build. Vigilante Armaments is a relatively weak no-fuss positive. Heavy Caliber is stronger but the accuracy penalty can be frustrating for landing headshots, and it greatly loses value when Arcanes are included. A (Primed) Bane mod is very strong against the appropriate faction, especially on a damage-over-time proc build (e.g. Slash or Gas).

A 1-second Charge Time is relatively slow, so I like having a +Fire Rate mod. Note however that a shorter Charge Time also means a smaller perfect shot window. As such, the Fire Rate mod should be chosen to your personal preference of perfect shot timing. I personally like Primed Shred + Critical Delay. It overall improves Charge Time significantly, while still leaving reasonable time to land a perfect shot. The extra Punch-Through allows you to shoot through objects and walls - while charged/perfect shots have infinite body Punch-Through, they do not have any object Punch-Through.

Argon Scope/Bladed Rounds are decent conditional Crit mods. Hammer Shot is a weak +Crit/Status mod. Proton Jet is a stronger conditional +Crit/Status mod.

Internal Bleeding works extremely well on uncharged shots which have forced Impact procs, but does nothing for the much more powerful charged/perfect shots. Unless you have a specific uncharged shot interaction in mind, you'd be much better off with HM.

For the Exilus mod, Terminal Velocity remains a solid option for easier engagement at longer range. The Ammo Mutation effect from Vigilante Supplies does nothing for the infinite ammo Nataruk, but it still applies its set bonus to occasionally improve Crits.

Recommended Setups: Viral + HM vs everything, Corrosive (+Heat) vs Ferrite-armour, Infested, Radiation vs Alloy-armour, Gas vs groups

Galvanised Build and Arcane

Note that warframe-builder does not correctly show the maximum benefit from Galvanised mods or Arcanes.

Galvanised Chamber of course. 

 

I am not personally a fan of Galvanised Aptitude on the Nataruk. I consider Galv Apt to be best on weapons firing many pellets, or faster firing weapons, as the +Damage bonus is only applied to shots after the one(s) that applied the Status procs. The Nataruk is relatively slow firing, and I personally prefer having the higher first-shot, more consistent damage of Serration than the potential extra damage on a follow-up shot from Galv Apt. That said...

The damage bonus from Galv Apt does not apply seemingly at all to the Nataruk's uncharged shots. On charged/perfect shots, the damage bonus is applied multiplicatively with other +Damage mods (e.g. Serration), rather than additively. In short, charged/perfect Nataruk Galv Apt combined with Serration/Arcanes deals far, far more damage than it actually should. If you're looking to get into really, really high level content (e.g. level 1,000+), Galv Apt is a clear auto-include for its absurd damage scaling.

Galvanised Scope can be a solid option if you land headshots well. The Nataruk is quite precise so lands headshots quite easily, and of course greatly appreciates +Crit Chance. Additionally, the large hitbox from charged/perfect shots makes landing headshots a lot easier. However, requiring headshot kills specifically can be a tad inconvenient at very high levels as it will not trigger from damage-over-time procs like Slash.

Merciless offers its usual easy-to-stack Damage bonus from any kills. The Nataruk can stack it more easily than other ordinary bows thanks to its large projectile hitbox. Merciless' other benefits (+Ammo Max, +Reload Speed) are useless however. Deadhead stacks with fewer kills and offers more damage, provided you reliably land headshots. Although the Nataruk does not benefit from the usual headshot multiplier, Deadhead's additional headshot damage still applies, much like how the Crit headshot multiplier still applies.

My Build

Very standard Viral + HM build.

Combat Use and Summary

Slow-firing with great damage-per-shot, the Nataruk is best against singular or tightly packed heavy enemies. It is far stronger than any other conventional bow, packing almost Sniper-levels of single-target firepower. Any unarmoured or Status-immune enemy can be muscled through quite effectively.

Armoured enemies can also be taken on quite effectively either with +Slash mods or especially Hunter Munitions. HM allows the Nataruk to inflict Slash procs without reducing the number of Viral procs inflicted, for overall massively more damage against heavily armoured enemies. Its immense Crit Chance on charged/perfect shots triggers HM very reliably. Uncharged shots can use Internal Bleeding more effectively, but are much weaker so I would not recommend it.

With the large projectile hitbox and infinite body Punch-Through on charged/perfect shots, the Nataruk is surprisingly usable against groups of enemies. It can strike through multiple clumped up enemies with ease, and will effortlessly kill weaker enemies. Spread out groups pose the biggest problem, where it cannot leverage its large hitboxes and must rely on rapid-fire. Again, the Nataruk handles this better than most Bows as its shot downtime is almost entirely in Charge Time, which can be greatly reduced by increasing Fire Rate.

Uncharged shots serve limited value outside of quick panic shots. They are far weaker than charged/perfect shots, and do not have the body Punch-Through or large hitbox. About their only advantage is a forced Impact proc, which may be useful for staggering an enemy or interaction with Internal Bleeding.

Infinite ammo and no projectile drop are two notable advantages compared to other bows. While the Nataruk still requires some skill at long range due to its projectile travel time, it is much easier to use effectively than regular bows.

Charged/perfect shots have quite bright visual effects. If this bothers you, set the first Energy colour to a dark colour to reduce its intensity.

Overall, the Nataruk is easily the strongest "conventional" bow. It packs incredible damage-per-shot for great single target damage, with a surprisingly large charged/perfect shot hitbox to mitigate its weakness against groups. Perfect shots are incredibly powerful, though require a bit of finesse to use properly. Charged shots are only slightly weaker, and much more convenient to use.

If you are a fan of bows, I'd strongly recommend working towards The New War to acquire the Nataruk. It is very powerful and quite capable in the vast majority of content.

Scores

Vs Trash Mobs: 3/5 - The Nataruk's charged/perfect shot projectile hitbox is surprisingly large and has infinite body Punch-Through, allowing it to strike through tightly packed groups of enemies quite effectively. However it is not very fast firing, and it still does not remotely compare to a conventional AoE weapon.

Vs Unarmoured Heavies: 5/5 - Immense damage with charged/perfect shots gives the Nataruk great DPS against unarmoured/Status-immune enemies.

Vs Armoured Heavies without Forced Slash: 3.5/5 - Very high Status Chance and damage-per-shot makes the Nataruk surprisingly decent against heavily armoured enemies even without Hunter Munitions. It can brute-force through lower level targets reasonably quickly, and with a +Slash mod can be set up to somewhat reliably inflict Slash procs.

Vs Armoured Heavies with Forced Slash: 5/5 - Immense Crit Chance allows the Nataruk to proc HM with frightening regularity, for reliable and immensely strong Slash procs.

Vs Variants

None.

Competitors

The Nataruk puts to shame just about every other ordinary Bow.

The MR5 Dread charges faster and has much better Slash bias, however the Nataruk is much stronger overall, and has infinite body Punch-Through on charged shots.

The MR10 Daikyu serves as an arguably better comparison, with a comparable slow Charge Time. However, it notably cannot fire unless fully charged, hence why its stats line up against the Nataruk's uncharged shot. When correctly compared to the Nataruk's charged or even pefect shot, it becomes almost entirely unfavourable. The Nataruk is much, much stronger.

Rivens

The Nataruk has the standard new-weapon 1/5 (0.5) Riven Disposition. I expect it to stay the lowest of the conventional bows as it is easily the overall strongest of them. That said, it is still not particularly good against lots of enemies so does not serve the typical horde-killing meta of Warframe.

+Damage/Multishot/Crit Chance/Crit Damage are never outright bad, though the former is the weakest with weapon Arcanes in the mix. +Slash can be useful to inflict Slash procs more frequently. +Elemental damage can be useful to save a slot. +Fire Rate significantly reduces Charge Time, which can be a great help for getting faster charged shots, but can be troublesome for perfect shots. +Projectile SPeed can be useful at longer range. +Punch-Through can be useful to penetrate objects, as the Nataruk only has innate body Punch-Through.

-Impact has no negative effect. While -Puncture significantly reduces base physical damage, it also greatly improves the damage type biases towards better procs (notably Slash). -Slash is  not ideal, but will still improve the other stats of the Riven. -Faction Damage to a weaker faction (i.e. Corpus or Infested) is usually quite manageable, and of course has no effect on other enemies. -Mag Capacity and -Ammo Max have no effect. -Reload Speed has essentially no impact either. +Recoil is negligible with such low Fire Rate. -Zoom is ideal for close quarters.