Review: Alternox (U31.7.2)

The Alternox is an MR8 Rifle, recently released in U31.5. Gyre's signature weapon, it is a Status-focused Electric weapon with two distinct, but unfortunately unimpressive firing modes. While novel, it offers little that other weapons do not match or outclass.

NOTE: There are very slight spoilers for Angels of the Zariman, noting the Alternox's acquisition method.

UPDATED 21/08/2022 (U31.7.2) - Update made to the Galvanised Mods section in light of new information.

Acquisition

The Alternox's blueprint is a potential reward from the new Zariman bounties, being a rare reward from the tier-3 (level 90-95) Bounty.

Stats

NOTE: These stats screenshots were taken while wielded by Gyre, who adds 20% (0.2) Multishot. The base Multishot of both firing modes is the standard 1.0.

The Alternox has two firing modes. Its Primary firing mode is a fairly standard Full-Auto, firing electric projectiles. It has usable Crit and very good Status Chance, though a relatively low Fire Rate. Pure base Electric damage makes sense as Gyre's signature weapon, but is unfortunate as it is arguably the worst of the four single elements to have.

With such low Fire Rate, Primary Fire has a very solid 3.59 Reload Ratio.

Notably, Primary Fire also has innate body Punch Through.

Alternate Fire is somewhat different. It launches an electric orb with significant AoE. This firing mode goes all-in on Status, with awful Crit Chance but great Status Chance. Each shot consumes 4 ammo.

Unlike typical AoE weapons, the Alternox's Alt Fire doesn't detonate immediately. Instead, it will stick to the first solid object it hits, including walls and enemies, and deal continuous AoE damage and Status procs for 10 seconds afterwards before exploding. The final explosion deals significantly more damage than the damage-over-time ticks, at roughly 3x. The stat screen is currently inaccurate, the Damage/s Falloff should be 0% as stated by DE - the 60% Falloff applies to the overall AoE.

Only one Alt Fire orb can be active at any one time. Pressing Alt Fire again when one is already active will immediately detonate that one. Alt Fire orbs travel quite slowly and also suffer from significant projectile drop.

The continuous damage ticks will not inflict self-stagger or knockdown, but the final explosion can. Note that the self-stagger/knockdown range seems to be quite small.

Strangely, Alt Fire is not affected by Multishot at all, which is a major disadvantage.

Augments

None of course, it's a new weapon.

Builds

NOTE: These builds have been created in warframe.builder using the Custom Rifle setting, representing only Primary Fire. I have set its base damage as Impact rather than Electric, because setting it to Electric was causing some issues with damage calculations. warframe.builder also does not correctly apply Galvanised mods or Arcanes.

Basic Crit 0-Forma:

A single V polarity makes basic builds a lot easier to fit. This sample Crit build is effective for Primary Fire, and fits in comfortably depending on what mods you have available and what rank they are. Note that Crit does very little for Alternate Fire.

Elemental 0-Forma:

This element-heavy build deals less damage with Primary Fire, but its Alt Fire is much more powerful. Choosing between the two builds will depend on your preference between firing modes, and available mods.

Base Electric damage unfortunately limits elemental possibilities. As usual, Viral is the go-to do-everything element. It is useful against most enemies. Corrosive is a strong alternative, with better direct damage against most Infested units, as well as having a greater effect against armoured enemies, and being exceptionally strong against Ferrite-armoured enemies. Radiation deals the most damage to most Alloy-armoured enemies, though its Status proc is of limited use. Magnetic is extremely effective against strong enemy Shields, though there are few such enemies.

If you go for a pure-elemental build, there are several such worth consideration, which I have discussed below.

Recommended Setups: Viral vs everything, Corrosive vs Ferrite-armour, Infested, Radiation vs Alloy-armour, Magnetic vs Shields

Crit 1-Forma:

One added V polarity can allow you to fit in a seventh mod. In this sample Crit build, I've slotted in Vigilante Armaments as a no-fuss nice mod.

A pure Elemental build can also look at fitting a seventh mod, depending what mods you have available. As mentioned previously, a multi-element build is also very much possible.

Adding in Heat alongside Corrosive is an extremely strong anti-armour setup, drastically weakening armour and inflicting stacking damage-over-time. A Radiation + Toxin combo is one of the few ways of getting pure Toxin on the Alternox, and it provides a decent catch-all against most Corpus units.

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

Hunter Munitions 3-Forma:

Two more added Forma allows you to investigate eighth mods as well. For Primary Fire, Hunter Munitions is very notable. It gives the Alternox a reliable method for inflicting Slash procs, which are the best scaling way for weapons to deal with heavily armoured enemies. note that such a build is not as effective against unarmoured targets.

(Primed) Firestorm is a great option for increasing the AoE of Alt Fire, inflicting damage and procs in a significantly larger area. Unfortunately, it is useless to Primary Fire.

Heavy Caliber is a solid damage boost, though becomes near-worthless with a damage Arcane installed. A (Primed) Bane is a strong damage boost, especially alongside Slash procs, but can be tedious and expensive to max out. A +Fire Rate mod like Speed Trigger or Vile Acceleration is also a large DPS increase, though of course comes at the cost of increased ammo consumption. It does not appear to affect Alt Fire's damage/tick rate however. The added Punch-Through from (Primed) Shred is less useful for the Alternox, since Primary Fire already has body Punch Through, and it can be troublesome for Alt Fire.

If running a +Fire Rate mod, Point Strike can be replaced with Critical Delay, for more Crit Chance at a minor loss in Fire Rate. The conditional Crit mods Argon Scope and Bladed Rounds are also worth consideration in a Crit-focused build, though do almost nothing for Alt-Fire. Proton Jet is a conditional mod that boosts both Crit and Status. Hammer Shot is a weak option that also boosts both Crit and Status.

There are a few decent options for the Exilus slot. An Ammo Mutation mod completely eliminates any ammo concerns. Vigilante Supplies in particular also marginally increases damage output. Terminal Velocity significantly increases Projectile Speed, which is a great help beyond close quarters. Cautious Shot could be used to mitigate Alt Fire self-stagger/knockdown, though there are far better ways of doing that.

Recommended Setups: see above. Also consider: Viral + HM vs armour

Galvanised Build and Arcane

Galv Chamber.

Galv Aptitude is not a great replacement for Serration without other equipment to inflict additional Status procs. With base Electric damage as the Alternox's primary damage type, it can only reliably inflict a third proc type with Hunter Munitions, or from direct hits with Alt Fire. Additionally, it does not affect Alt Fire's AoE.

The Alternox is one of those weapons for which the +Damage bonus from Galv Aptitude is multiplicative of other +Damage effects, not additive. As such, it is significantly stronger than expected, working especially well with an Arcane and comfortably replacing Serration. Of course, the Galv Apt Damage bonus does not apply to Alt Fire's AoE so it is not good for an Alt Fire-focused build.

Galvanised Scope is niche at best. With relatively low Projectile Speed, the Alternox does not land headshots especially well. Additionally, much of its power comes from its Status capabilities, so it will often kill with damage-over-time procs rather than direct hit damage. As such, Galv Scope can be extremely difficult to stack and make good use of. Alt Fire also does not care at all for the Crit Chance.

U31.5 introduced several new Weapon Arcanes. The new one for Primaries is Fractalized Reset, which gives +240% Reload Speed for 5s after casting an ability. The Alternox already has decent Reload Ratio, and would much rather have the extra damage from Primary Merciless or Deadhead. Indeed, very few weapons would take Fractalized Reset over an ordinary damage-boosting Arcane.

As with the discussion on Galv Scope, I'd favour Primary Merciless over Deadhead. Merciless is easier to stack as landing killing headshots for Deadhead can be somewhat difficult. Their other benefits are nice, but largely unremarkable.

My Builds

Pretty ordinary Viral + Hunter Munitions build. I find Primary Fire's Fire Rate painfully slow, hence Speed Trigger to speed it up. I have since switched to Vile Acceleration for even higher DPS.

Combat Use and Summary

The Alternox's Primary Fire is a fairly weak Status-leaning Full-Auto. Its Fire Rate is quite slow, and it is rather lacking in direct damage, even when built for Crit. It does not excel against any particular enemy type, but is of course notably weaker against Status-resistant/immune enemies.

Hunter Munitions can help in providing a semi-reliable Slash proc method, which is the Alternox's best build against heavily armoured targets. They combine with reliable Viral procs to deal reasonable damage to such enemies, however the sheer lack of direct damage means even this is not impressive.

Alternate Fire is rather different than the typical AoE weapon, but offers similar capabilities. With decent radius and high Status Chance, it can spread Status in a solid area. Its persistent damage output and ability to stick to objects gives it novel utility as a short-lived area-denial tool, similar to the Zenistar Melee.

This wide-area damage and Status output makes it reasonable against groups. Its native Electric procs are greatly magnified when spread in a tightly packed group, and it can quickly stack up Gas or Viral procs as well for more damage. However, Alt Fire's inability to scale with Multishot mods puts it well behind most other competitors for overall power.

Both firing modes stack Status procs at a reasonable rate, which is about their only redeeming feature. A typical elemental build can stack all of its damage types relatively quickly, most useful in builds such as Viral + Electric or Corrosive + Heat.

Both firing modes fire projectiles with relatively low projectile speed, so it can be difficult to land hits at longer ranges.

Alternox is Gyre's signature weapon, and it definitely shows thematically. It excels at spreading Electric procs which feed her Passive. Granted, her ability kit has no issue maxing out her Passive anyway. Additionally, she gives it a small amount of additional Multishot. However, Gyre's Rotorswell (4) works best with high Crit Chance weapons, which the Alternox is definitely not. As such, there are much better weapon choices for getting the most out of Rotorswell and thus Gyre's full damage capabilities.

Overall, the Alternox is an underwhelming Electric-based Status weapon. While it offers an unusual AoE capability, it is severely lacking in damage output and is outclassed in almost everything it does (see Competitors below). Outside of MR points, I can't really recommend the Alternox for any particular role.

Scores

Vs Trash Mobs: 3.5/5 - The Alternox's Alternate Fire offers a solid AoE option that deals damage with many Status procs in a decent area. Against weak, tightly bunched crowds, it can deal reasonable damage thanks to Electric procs. It still pales in comparison to more conventional AoE weapons due to its slow damage pulses and overall low damage output. Primary Fire is quite slow firing and has no AoE of its own, but does have innate body Punch Through which is helpful.

Vs Unarmoured Heavies: 2/5 - Low DPS even when built for Crit makes the Alternox very poor at brute-forcing through enemy health pools. It is especially bad when the enemy is resistant or immune to Status.

Vs Armoured Heavies without Forced Slash: 2.5/5 - Relatively low Fire Rate and base Electric damage are both suboptimal. A Corrosive + Heat build is your best bet from a pure-element point of view, and both firing modes can stack it up. However, neither does significant damage, and so can struggle to finish off weakened enemies.

Vs Armoured Heavies with Forced Slash: 3/5 - HM allows Primary Fire to inflict Slash procs, which are much more efficient than a Corrosive + Heat build. However, its low base Crit Chance makes HM somewhat unreliable at best, and its severe lack of direct damage is detrimental to the strength of its Slash procs.

Vs Variants

None.

Competitors

NOTE: The following stat pictures again feature Alternox in Gyre's hands, giving it an extra 0.2 Multishot from what should be an ordinary 1.0. Curiously, many of the other weapons show their base Multishot as 0 instead 1.0 - I don't know what is up with that but it is obviously not accurate.

While Alternate Fire's sticky projectile is quite rare, neither of the Alternox's firing modes are all that special. Looking at the firing modes individually, there are so many weapons that outclass the Alternox.

Primary Fire doesn't compare favourably to even unpopular weaponry like the Quanta Vandal and Ambassador, let alone more meta options like a Primary Vermisplicer, Amprex or Ignis Wraith, among many others. All of these weapons (and more) have a number of benefits, often including but not limited to: superior Crit, better Status output, more useful damage types, higher damage output, and/or AoE.

There are very few weapons whose projectiles stay embedded in an object and continue to deal damage outside of initial impact and final explosion. The Proboscis Cernos somewhat does this, with initial impact protruding tentacles that drag enemies in and deal some damage, before finally detonating. However, the Proboscis Cernos deals much more damage with far more useful damage types (notably innate Viral). Notably, the Ferrox's Alt Fire throws the Ferrox into the ground, in which it will draw in enemies for a time while dealing some Electric damage-over-time, with high Status Chance and poor Crit. The Ferrox of course cannot be used while deployed, but its ability to draw in enemies offers additional utility over the Alternox Alt Fire's damaging field.

In terms of weapons that have both a Full-Auto firing mode and an AoE firing mode, I would consider all of the following superior weapons: Ambassador, Quellor, Stahlta and the newly released Aeolak. Each one is more useful and overall more powerful than the Alternox. While its Alt Fire is more unusual and difficult to compare, the Quanta Vandal is also an overall better weapon.

Rivens

As a new weapon, the Alternox starts with a minimum 1/5 (0.5) Riven Disposition. I expect it to shoot up very quickly, probably settling in around the 5/5 (1.3+) range. Compared to the typical meta weapons, the Alternox does not do anything notable, so will likely not see significant use.

+Damage/Multishot are your obvious good stats. +Crit Chance/Damage are also good if going for a Crit build on Primary Fire, but do essentially nothing for Alt Fire. +Elemental Damage can be useful for more direct damage, to save mod slots, or to shift elemental biases. +Status Chance can be nice to maximise Alt Fire's utility. +Faction Damage can be a useful damage multiplier for damage-over-time procs, most useful against the Grineer because they are by far the toughest. +Fire Rate is a solid DPS increase and makes Primary Fire much nicer to use. +Projectile Speed makes both firing modes a lot easier to use outside of close range. +Punch-Through can make Primary Fire more effective against groups, but will cause Alt Fire's projectiles to pass through objects it would normally stick to.

While I'm not sure if they are possible rolls, any of -Impact/Puncture/Slash are good. They have no effect on Primary Fire, and would only reduce the direct hit part of Alt Fire, which is not significant. -Faction Damage to a weaker faction (primarily Infested, also Corpus) can be manageable. -Mag Capacity/Reload Speed in small amounts are not a major issue. -Ammo Max is not a major issue as the Alternox is relatively ammo-efficient and uses common Rifle ammo. +Recoil is a non-issue if you handle recoil well. -Zoom is ideal for close-quarters.