Acquisition
Stats
The Tenet Plinx's Primary Fire is a fairly standard Semi-Auto single-target attack. Its base Crit is among the best of any Secondary, at 44%/3x. On the other hand, its Status Chance is not great at just 12%.
The TPlinx has a special charge-up Alternate Fire with a 0.8 sec Charge Time. This attack drains the entire magazine so can only be used with a full magazine, scaling in damage with each round consumed. It retains exceptional Crit and an increased Status Chance.
Alt Fire's projectiles travel very quickly and will embed into the target, and for a short time pull in nearby enemies. After the short delay, it will explode in a very respectable 6m radius, with huge base Radiation damage and rather light 40% Damage Fall-Off (deals 60% damage at maximum range). This explosion will of course inflict self-stagger/knockdown if you are too close.
Using Alt Fire will introduce an increased Recharge Delay of around 3.5 seconds, for a total Reload Time of around 4 seconds. This is extremely slow for a single shot, especially considering the addition charge time, however having infinite ammo is a notable advantage given most AoE weapons have had their Ammo Max severely reduced. Additionally, this Recharge Delay can be reduced by +Reload Speed effects.
Augments
None.
Builds
NOTE: The below pictured builds use a maximum +60% Magnetic Sister Bonus. For a minimum 25% bonus, multiply the final Damage numbers by 0.78125.
Basic 0-Forma:
The Tenet Plinx has two native V polarities, which is a great help in fitting in early builds. As pictured above, you can fit a build with all of the basic essentials (Damage, Multishot, Crit, Elements), provided one of your elements is a 60/60 or your mods are not max rank. Even with just this basic build, the TPlinx packs a rather impressive punch.
There are a couple of elemental combos to consider, all of which are the exact same as every other weapon and which I've detailed many times by now. Viral is the standard catch-all, effective against most targets. Corrosive is stronger against specifically Ferrite-armoured enemies, and notably deals much stronger direct damage against most Infested. This is particularly important for the Cambion Drift Infested, who are immune to Viral procs.
Radiation is strong against enemies with Alloy-armour, which many bosses hand most armoured Corpus units have. Finally, Magnetic is the obvious best against enemies with especially strong Shields, though there are relatively few such enemies in the game currently. Unfortunately pure Toxin is not possible on Primary Fire due to its base Heat damage.
Recommended Setups: Viral (+Heat) vs everything, Corrosive (+Heat) vs Ferrite-armour, Infested, Radiation vs Alloy-armour, Magnetic (+Heat) vs strong Shields
Primed Crit 1-Forma:
One Forma for an added V polarity and the extra capacity allows you to comfortably upgrade both Crit mods to their Primed versions, for a significant damage boost.
Recommended Setups: see above.
General Purpose 2-Forma:
Magnum Force or Augur Pact offer unconditional extra damage, with the former being stronger but having an Accuracy penalty. Both become obsolete with +Damage Arcanes in the mix. A (Primed) Expel mod is a stronger damage boosting option that retains its power even when you acquire lategame equipment, and is especially potent for boosting damage-over-time procs like Heat. However, they can be tedious to switch around for the appropriate targets, and are total overkill for the vast majority of content in Warframe. Hydraulic Crosshairs and Sharpened Bullets are conditional Crit mods that are decently strong if you can tolerate their trigger conditions.
Of course, you can slot in a third elemental mod. The TPlinx's combos are somewhat limited by its base Heat damage on Pri Fire, but at least Heat is one of the better single elements to have. Adding more Heat alongside Viral or Corrosive amplifies a strong combo, but does not offer anything that a two-element build cannot already do. Most notably, three elemental mods allows you to build Radiation + Toxin, which is a great catch-all against the Corpus. Toxin bypasses their Shields and is especially strong against their organic units, while Radiation is strong against most of their armour types and inorganics.
Seeker is a decent option for Pri Fire, as the added Punch Through allows it to potentially hit multiple enemies with each shot. However it is highly undesirable for Alt Fire, as it can cause the projectiles to pass through enemies instead of detonating on them, resulting in much lower damage output.
Building specifically for Alt Fire changes things quite a bit, as some options become pointless while others become surprisingly strong.
(Primed) Fulmination is of course an option for increasing the explosive radius, however does not offer any extra peak damage.
(Primed) Quickdraw is notable for Alt Fire builds, as it affects Recharge Delay including the extra delay from Alt Fire. A maxed Primed Quickdraw will reduce the Alt Fire Recharge Delay from around 3.5 seconds to around 2.3 seconds.
A +Mag Capacity mod like (Primed) Slip Magazine is also notable for Alt Fire, as its damage scales off of the increased Mag Capacity. This comes at the cost of a slightly longer Recharge Time.
Another +Fire Rate mod like Anemic Agility can be used to cut down Charge Time significantly, but does not offset the long Recharge Delay and is of limited benefit to Primary Fire.
Notably, the damage bonus from Synth Charge works on Alt Fire for an enormous damage boost, though I would not be surprised if that gets patched out at some point. Again, it is a mod that offers little benefit to Primary Fire.
Since the TPlinx does not need to worry about ammo, its Exilus slot has few standout options. Lethal Momentum can be used to speed up Alt Fire's projectiles even more, though it seems unnecessary at closer range. Steady Hands can be used to eliminate any potential recoil concerns. Eject Magazine could be used to kickstart recharging after using Alt Fire, though the reload-while-holstered effect is separate to the regular recharge and so the time save is not major.
Recommended Setups: see above. Also consider: Radiation + Toxin vs Corpus
Galvanised Build and Arcane
Galv Diffusion.
Galv Shot is a solid option for Primary Fire. By default, Primary Fire can inflict up to three unique procs (base Puncture and Heat, modded combined element). An appropriate Sister Bonus (Impact, Radiation or Magnetic) increases that to four for a significant damage boost over Hornet Strike. Even though the TPlinx's base Status Chance is not great, with enough +Status Chance mods it will still reliably inflict enough procs to justify using Galv Shot. Galv Shot is naturally worthless for Alt Fire since it is primarily an explosive attack.
Galv Crosshairs can be a strong option for Primary Fire. It is relatively precise, and used properly can land Headshots quite reliably. The TPlinx is also not the best weapon for inflicting Status procs, so is at slightly lower risk of enemies dying to damage-over-time procs rather than direct damage.
Cascadia Accuracy/Overcharge are strong options for Primary Fire if you can manage their trigger conditions. Primary Fire has the precision to reliably land headshots, and especially benefits from them as a Crit weapon. With Galv Shot installed and with maximum benefit, Casc Accuracy/Overcharge will beat out Sec Merciless/etc and even Casc Flare for overall DPS. Alt Fire will mainly prefer Sec Merciless/etc or Casc Flare, due to its inability to benefit from Galv Shot.
Depending on playstyle, I would personally not recommend Casc Flare on the TPlinx unless you are running other equipment that quickly stacks Heat procs (e.g. Ember Warframe, Ignis [Wraith] Primary). The TPlinx itself does not inflict Heat procs very quickly, so can struggle to stack Casc Flare itself and maintain full benefit.
Conjunction Voltage is also a tough sell for the same reason as Casc Flare, except it stacks on Electric procs rather than Heat. Additionally, it offers +Reload Speed and Multishot, so its overall damage increase will be much smaller than any other Arcane. The +Reload Speed is at least quite useful for Alt Fire.
Choosing between Sec Merciless and Sec Deadhead I think comes down primarily to personal preference and playstyle. Merciless is particularly useful for Alt Fire, as it will easily get the kills necessary to stack and maintain full damage, while not being particularly good for landing Headshots. The +Reload Speed is nice too. On the other hand, I think Primary Fire likes Deadhead, as it maxes from far fewer kills, and can really benefit from the additional Headshot Damage.
My Builds
I find Primary Fire to be extremely boring to use. If I were to build for it, I would probably switch Hornet Strike to Galv Shot, and Primed Fulmination to Scorch for more Heat or Seeker for Punch Through.
Sister of Parvos Bonus
The TPlinx has base Heat on Primary Fire, and mostly Radiation on Alternate Fire. I personally prefer to avoid single element bonuses on weapons with innate single element damage (except for the one that is already on there), as the element combining can become a bit messy. This leaves just Impact, Heat, Radiation and Magnetic.
Heat amplifies Primary Fire's innate Heat, and combines particularly well with any Viral or Corrosive build. It is a reasonable damage type and offers an especially strong Status proc, however does not add any new procs.
All of Impact/Radiation/Magnetic add an extra proc type for Primary Fire with Galv Shot to benefit from. Impact is a rubbish damage type and proc, however it could be used to trigger Hemorrhage notably on Alt Fire. I don't know how effective such a build would be; Alt Fire has a nice low Fire Rate but also not amazing Status Chance.
Both Radiation and Magnetic have value. Magnetic is by far the best damage type against Shields, while Radiation is very strong against Alloy-armour. I went for Magnetic as Alt Fire already has base Radiation.
Combat Use and Summary
With relatively low Fire Rate and no AoE to speak of, Pri Fire is not very good against large groups of enemies. It effortlessly kills weak enemies with its great damage output, but is not efficient against lots of them.
Additionally, with fairly low Status output and no ability to inflict Slash procs, Pri Fire is not very effective against heavily armoured enemies. It can inflict a few Viral/Corrosive and Heat procs, but struggles to quickly stack up large quantities of them. Its brute force direct damage is significantly less effective against the insane damage reduction that heavily armoured units have.
Like with Pri Fire, Alt Fire is lacking in Status output. Though its Status Chance is higher, its extremely low effective Fire Rate makes it rather unreliable at stacking Status procs. As such, it also struggles to deal with heavily armoured enemies who can shrug off its direct damage with their ridiculous damage reduction.
Alt Fire's ability to pull in enemies is nice for slightly improving its effective damage at range, since enemies closer to the epicentre will take more damage. However, it does not seem to be as strong a pull or as long-range as that of the (Tenet) Ferrox or especially the Proboscis Cernos.
Besides lack of Status output, Alt Fire's biggest weakness is its extended Recharge Delay of nearly 4 seconds. This introduces a lengthy time between shots, making timely follow-up shots impossible and potentially forcing you to rely on other weapons or abilities. If any enemies survive the initial blast, or if a new group of enemies approach immediately after, you are left vulnerable for a short period. This is less of an issue with instant quick melee and the much faster universal draw/holster speed, but is still inconvenient. At higher levels where even a split second of vulnerability can mean death, Alt Fire's 4 second time between shots can be dangerous and must be mitigated through weapon switching.
The TPlinx's recharging magazine means that ammo is a non-issue, making it ideal for endurance missions. Its Alt Fire is notable for being one of very few explosive attacks for which ammo is not an issue, since the massive Ammo overhaul in U32. Pri Fire's hitscan nature and high accuracy also make it surprisingly effective at longer ranges.
Overall, the Tenet Plinx is a strong two-mode Secondary with a few key flaws. Primary Fire is a strong and precise Crit-focused Semi-Auto, dealing extremely high direct damage to single targets. Alt Fire offers a very strong and reasonably large explosive attack, ideal for clearing out groups of enemies. While using it induces a significantly longer Recharge Delay than Pri Fire, its sheer firepower and AoE is definitely worth it given Pri Fire struggles against large groups.
The Tenet Plinx's biggest weakness is its relatively poor Status capabilities. While it can inflict a few procs fairly reliably, it struggles to quickly inflict significant stacks of them. Additionally, it has no native means of inflicting Slash procs, and even Hemorrhage is difficult to use as only Alt Fire's direct hits inflict Impact damage and procs. This is particularly troublesome against heavily armoured enemies, who can easily resist the TPlinx's impressive direct damage output if not weakened with Status procs.
If you like strong Semi-Auto Secondaries, the TPlinx is one of many decent options to consider using. If you're after a multi-mode Secondary, the TPlinx is one of relatively few that is actually effective in both of its modes.
Scores
Vs Trash Mobs: 4.5/5 - Primary Fire is unexceptional against large groups. It will kill individual enemies effortlessly, but has mediocre Fire Rate and no AoE to speak of. Added Punch-Through can be helpful. Alternate Fire excels against groups, dealing massive damage in a very large radius. However, it is kept in check by its extended Recharge Delay that increases its effective Reload Time to around 4 seconds.
Vs Unarmoured Heavies: 5/5 - The TPlinx has incredible Crit in both firing modes, so deals exceptionally high Burst DPS. It can deal massive damage to unarmoured and Status-resistant/immune enemies.
Vs Armoured Heavies without Forced Slash: 3/5 - The TPlinx is not very good at stacking up lots of Status procs, and cannot inflict Slash procs at all. Primary Fire is notable for its innate Heat, and will inflict at least a few (Viral or Corrosive) + Heat procs. It also deals massive direct damage especially on headshots, so can brute-force through armoured enemies at lower levels.
The MR6 Tenet Plinx is a vast improvement over the also MR6 regular Plinx. It has significantly higher Crit and Status Chance, as well as vastly superior base Damage even before including its Sister Bonus. The Tenet also adds the entirely new explosive Alternate Fire.
The Tenet Spirex is another small AoE Secondary, with a not-pictured 80 damage AoE. This massive base Damage advantage actually gives it a small Burst DPS edge over the TPlinx despite the much lower Crit. Additionally, the TSpirex is significantly more Status-capable with its far higher Status Chance. The TPlinx has generally superior quality-of-life, with much shorter total Reload Time, but even then the TSpirex can gain faster Reload Time by landing headshots.
Finally, we can't talk about strong Secondaries without mentioning the MR14 Laetum. It has a few notable advantages over the TPlinx in base form without Evolutions, mainly in Status Chance, base Slash damage and thus Slash proc capability, and overall higher base Damage even with Sister bonus included. On the other hand, the TPlinx has higher Fire Rate and significantly higher Crit, for overall much higher Burst DPS. Additionally, the TPlinx's Alt Fire gives it decent anti-crowd capability that default Laetum cannot come close to. With Evolutions and Incarnon form in the mix though, the Laetum pulls out comically far ahead for overall firepower, as it does against just about every other Secondary.
Vs Armoured Heavies with Forced Slash: NA/5 - The TPlinx can only inflict Impact procs on direct Alt Fire hits, which are slow and consist of only a small amount of Alt Fire's total damage output. As such, Hemorrhage is not worth running unless you have an Impact bonus, which I am not able to assess, and have no intention of working towards currently.
Vs Variants
Competitors
There are a number of other potent Semi-Auto Secondaries that the Tenet Plinx has to go up against.
The MR12 Akvasto Prime is one of many solid Semi-Auto Secondaries. The TPlinx will match its total base Damage with a near-max Sister bonus (~57%+), while having far superior Crit, for overall much higher DPS. On the other hand, the AkvastoP is far more adept at inflicting Status procs, and especially Slash with its very high Slash bias.
The MR14 Pandero Prime is in many ways just a harder-hitting, fewer Slash procs alternate to the (Ak)Vasto Prime. Its Crit is better, however it has lower Slash bias. The PanderoP's DPS again remains well below that of the TPlinx. Nonetheless, the TPlinx cannot inflict natural Slash procs at all so that remains a distinct advantage to the PanderoP.
A Crit-built Tombfinger Kitgun is a rather strong option as well. Once again the TPlinx has a significant Crit advantage, however its base Damage remains a lot lower as this image does not include the Tombfinger's 89 damage small AoE. Nonetheless, the TPlinx has a significant DPS advantage. The Tombfinger is more adept at inflicting Status procs, thanks to its higher Status Chance as well as multi-hit (direct hit + AoE gives two chances per shot for procs).
There are far fewer strong explosive Secondaries to compare to TPlinx's Alt Fire. The most notable ones currently are the MR11 Aegrit and a Crit-build Sporelacer Kitgun. The Aegrit sports a significantly larger explosive radius than the TPlinx (9m vs 6m), but is otherwise a lot weaker and suffers from serious ammo issues which the Tplinx does not. On the other hand, a Sporelacer has a smaller explosive radius (4.7m) as well as base damages and even Crit, but much higher effective Fire Rate particularly as it has a decent Mag Capacity and short Reload Time. Of the three, I prefer the Sporelacer, as its Fire Rate advantage makes it significantly easier to use. The Aegrit excels at clearing large groups of weak enemies with its massive explosive radius, while the TPlinx packs the highest Burst damage of the three.
The TPlinx faces a lot of competition particularly in the Semi-Auto space, particularly for Status output, however it retains amongst the highest Burst DPS of any normal Secondary. It is much less contested in the explosive attacks category, and no other weapon really directly compares to its two firing modes combined. The two most comparable weapons are probably the Epitaph and Staticor, which have a mix of AoE and single-target attacks. Even then, those two operate completely differently to the TPlinx.
Rivens
As a new weapon, the Tenet Plinx starts with a minimum 1/5 (0.5) Riven Disposition. The base Plinx has a high 4/5 (1.2) Disposition. I expect the Tenet's to rise up a reasonable amount. Primary Fire is not spectacular, and while Alt Fire offers a decently strong explosive, it is also nothing too special by AoE weapon standards.
+Damage/Multishot/Crit Chance/Crit Damage are the usual nice positives to have, with +Damage or +Crit Chance being the weakest of the lot depending on Arcane choice. +Elemental Damage can be useful to save a mod slot of shift around biases. +Faction Damage is a strong multiplier particularly of damage-over-time procs, most useful against the Grineer as they are by far the toughest on average.
+Fire Rate notably reduces Alt Fire's Charge Time. +Mag Capacity can be a nice quality-of-life for Primary Fire, and though it slightly increases total Recharge Time, also increases the damage dealt by Alt Fire. +Reload Speed reduces only Recharge Delay but this can still be quite beneficial for Alt Fire, which has a very long Recharge Delay. +Punch Through can be very useful for Primary Fire against tightly packed groups of enemies, but is detrimental to Alt Fire detonating correctly.
-Slash is an ideal negative as it has no effect on either firing mode. -Impact/Puncture affect only Alt Fire and Primary Fire respectively, and neither is an especially strong damage type or proc anyway. -Faction Damage to a weaker faction (Infested, arguably Corpus) can be manageable with good positives, and has no effect on other targets. -Ammo Max and -Projectile Speed have no effect on Primary Fire, and Alt Fire's projectile seems to travel extremely quickly. -Reload Speed increases Recharge Delay, which is minor for Primary Fire but a significant drawback for Alt Fire. +Recoil is no issue if you handle recoil well. -Zoom is ideal for close quarters.
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