The Bubonico is possibly my favourite weapon in all of Warframe, combining a strong Full-Auto Primary Fire with a Status-focused explosive Alternate Fire. I have spent an immense amount of time using it and refining its build, and thought it worth sharing what I'd settled on.
Stats
Before looking at the build, it's probably worth touching on the Bubonico's base stats again.
Primary Fire is a well-rounded Full-Auto, with very good Crit, reasonable Status Chance, and high Fire Rate and Mag Capacity for a Shotgun. The base Damage composition leaning towards Slash combines well with the solid Status output, and the innate Toxin is very useful as will be discussed later.
Innate Punch-Through of 1.9 metres is quite significant, easily passing through most enemies and indeed many solid objects as well. More importantly, its inclusion removes the need for a Punch-Through mod which would be detrimental to Alt Fire.
Pri Fire has Damage Fall-Off starting at 19 metres, bottoming out at 50% damage at 41 metres. By Shotgun standards, this is quite lenient and allows the Bubonico to still deal reasonable damage at longer range, although its pellet spread will become problematic.
Alt Fire is completely different, firing a burst of three explosive rounds. While these rounds deal significantly less damage than Pri Fire, with both lower base Damage and far worse Crit Chance, they notably deal pure innate Viral damage with colossal Status Chance in a very large radius. Alt Fire consumes 3 ammo-per-shot, so burns through 9 ammo-per-burst, which can be problematic.
Like most explosives, Alt Fire can inflict self-stagger/knockdown if you are too close. Unlike most explosive attacks however, the Bubonico's Alt Fire does not hit through walls.
It is worth noting that this is a significant nerf from its on-release stats, which had a Recharge Delay of 0.5 seconds and recovered 16.875 ammo-per-second (max Reload Time of 2.1 seconds). While the Bubonico was drastically nerfed alongside many other battery weapons in the U32 changes, the Bubonico is the only one whose changes were not fully reverted in the subsequent U32.0.2 Hotfix.
Especially when running Critical Decel, I find the Bubonico's Fire Rate a little slow for my liking. I'd recommend slot in a +Fire Rate mod to compensate. While Shotgun Barrage is the obvious go-to with DPS in mind, I find the Fire Rate of Vigi Fervor to be much more comfortable and so use it instead.
Though there are now 6 Primary weapon Arcanes, only 4 of them are worth considering for the Bubonico. The new Primary Plated Round does not trigger at all on battery weapons like the Bubonico, making it literally useless. The +Reload Speed from Fractalised Reset affects only Recharge Delay and not Recharge Speed, making its benefit to the Bubonico minimal.
Build
This is the core of the build.
Galv Hell is the standard non-negotiable Multishot mod, with Hell's Chamber being the default alternative if you don't have the Galv version yet.
Critical Decel and Primed Ravage are the standard non-negotiable Crit mods, with Blunderbuss and Ravage being the standard alternatives if you do not have them yet.
Hunter Munitions is critical against heavily armoured enemies if you are not running armour-stripping equipment (e.g. specific Warframe Abilities). Heavily armoured enemies are by far the toughest enemies in the game due to the colossal damage reduction they gain from Armour. Besides total armour-strip (which if you know how to do, you probably don't need my advice), the best way to deal with them if they are Status-vulnerable is Slash procs. Slash procs deal "True" damage that bypasses Armour entirely, thus ignoring the primary source of armoured enemies' toughness. Hunter Munitions allows a weapon to inflict Slash procs based purely off Crit Chance, drastically increasing the Slash proc capability of many weapons, and even allowing some to do so that would normally not be able to at all.
Slash proc damage against Health is greatly amplified by Viral procs, and thus Viral + Slash is the go-to damage combination for any weapon capable of running it. The Bubonico notably has innate Viral damage on its Status-heavy Alt Fire, so does not need to mod it on.
Elemental Mod
The Bubonico's innate Toxin on Pri Fire and Viral on Alt Fire gives a huge range of elemental diversity. Notably, it allows you to form some very potent elemental combs with just a single elemental mod, rather than the two or three normally required. Each of the elementals offers something unique.
Adding in a Cold mod creates Viral on Pri Fire, and Viral + Cold on Alt Fire. The two main advantages this provides are being able to inflict Viral procs with Pri Fire rather than the ammo-hungry Alt Fire, and inflicting Cold procs with Alt Fire which can be useful against targets like Disruption Demos.
Adding in a Heat mod creates Gas on Pri Fire, and Viral + Heat on Alt Fire. Gas is generally a pretty poor damage type and proc outside of very specific setups, but Viral + Heat is a strong combo.
An Electric mod creates Corrosive on Pri Fire, and Viral + Elec on Alt Fire. This is the best overall combo, as Corrosive and Viral together is normally impossible to have on most weapons, and is horrifyingly effective against all manner of armoured targets. Any enemy with Armour weak to Corrosive (e.g. Ferrite-armour used notably by Heavy Gunners) is dealt colossal direct damage even before procs are factored in. Anything else is drastically weakened with the Corrosive + Viral proc combo, and chewed through effortlessly with Slash procs and direct damage.
A Toxin mod keeps pure Toxin on Pri Fire, and gives Alt Fire Viral + Toxin. This is most notably effective against the Corpus, as Toxin damage and proc bypass their Shields entirely, striking directly at their often-weaker Health. Anything heavily armoured that survives the Toxin assault will still die as normal to the Viral + Slash combo.
I default to the Electric build for general use, and use the Cold build with my Venom Dose Saryn (which adds Corrosive damage) and in Disruption, again for slowing down Demos.
Fire Rate Mod
+Damage Mod
The introduction of Weapon Arcanes and Galvanised mods has made +Damage mod choice significantly more complicated - and indeed in some cases optional.
Primed Point Blank offers some solid, no-fuss +Damage. It is simple and unconditional, and applies to both Pri Fire and Alt Fire.
Galvanised Savvy offers +Damage scaling with unique Status procs on the target, requiring just 3 to exceed PPB. The Bubonico can achieve this effortlessly for a massive Damage boost to Pri Fire. However, Galv Savvy's +Damage does not apply to the radial damage of Alt Fire, so it will be significantly weaker than using PPB.
Given Alt Fire's main role of Status priming rather than actual damage dealing, this probably isn't the biggest deal. As in the pictured build, I favour the higher single-target damage from Galv Savvy for Pri Fire.
Exilus Mod
There are three main Exilus mods that I'd recommend choosing from.
Fatal/Galvanised Acceleration provides significantly increased Projectile Speed, which also increases Pri Fire's Damage Falloff ranges. The overall effect is that Pri Fire becomes much more effective beyond close range.
Lock and Load gives a 20% Reload while Holstered effect. I didn't previously give it much thought as the Bubonico on-release recharged so quickly, however the recharge nerfs made it much more interesting. Note that it will stack with the Bubonico's native recharge to up to ~50% Reload while Holstered once the delay has passed - close to that of its on-release recharge rate. Instant quick Melee and the universally faster holster speeds also make Lock and Load much easier to use.
Vigilante Supplies' Ammo Mutation effect does nothing for the Bubonico, but its Vigilante mod set bonus marginally increases your damage output. I'd only consider it if somehow you had no use for the other two mods.
While I greatly appreciate the +Projectile Speed from Galv Accel, I've found Lock and Load to best suit my playstyle, as it gives the Bubonico much higher uptime than it would normally have.
Arcane
Primary Dexterity suits a Melee-heavy playstyle, since it stacks from Melee kills and its secondary effect buffs Melee. It has by far the most overall lenient stack timer of all the Arcanes, but of course only works if you regularly use Melee alongside Primary.
Primary Merciless stacks from any kill as normal, and the increased Reload Speed slightly reduces Recharge Delay. It is the standard benchmark and is almost never an outright bad option.
Primary Deadhead can stack the fastest, requiring the fewest kills of the kill-based Arcanes, however it requires specifically Headshot kills to stack. This is especially problematic with Slash procs as kills due to Slash procs cannot count as Headshot kills. Nonetheless, the Bubonico is powerful enough that in most content it will still achieve the requisite kills to stack Deadhead, and the further increased Headshot multiplier is always appreciated for even more damage.
If using Galv Savvy, Primary Frostbite will offer Pri Fire a larger overall damage increase than any of the +Damage Arcanes. With a single Cold mod giving Alt Fire Viral + Cold, the Bubonico can also stack it surprisingly quickly with a reasonable build, although you can of course use other equipment to inflict the necessary Cold procs (e.g. Epitaph or Cold-based Abilities). The main downside besides the restrictive loadout requirement is that Alt Fire will be at its weakest, as it will not get any +Damage effects.
Ultimately, I favour Merciless for its simplicity, as well as the +Reload Speed offsetting the -Reload Speed of my Riven.
Finally, the Flex Slot is where I normally slot in my Riven. Of course, not many players will have a Bubonico Riven, let alone one that they actually want to use.
Flex Slot
The premier option for the slot is a (Primed) Cleanse mod. Their +Faction Damage effect is external to just about all other damage multipliers, and notably it is applied multiple times to damage-over-time procs like Slash. For endurance runs, a (Primed) Cleanse is very clearly the mod you should run. However, it is completely excessive for the vast majority of players. I have personally gotten to around level 500 Steel Path without using +Faction Damage mods at all, and never felt the need to.
You could use this slot for a second elemental mod, though there isn't too much new that it would add. The only ones that come to mind of any real value are Radiation against Alloy-armoured, Status-immune enemies (e.g. some bosses), and Magnetic for the select few enemies whose Shields are actually tough and cannot be bypassed using Toxin damage (e.g. Kyta Raknoids on the Vallis). Besides these very specific niches, making Corrosive with elemental mods would give Alt Fire Viral + Corrosive on its own, which is nice as a primer.
Otherwise, Shrapnel Shot is the next strongest mod you could add, offering conditional +Crit Damage.
Gameplay and Summary
The Bubonico functions best when both of its firing modes are used. Alternate Fire can kill weaker enemies with its direct damage, but excels in softening up groups of targets with its innate Viral and other elemental procs. Its high ammo consumption can make it a little difficult to manage, but its Status spreading capability is exceptional.
Primary Fire is the main damage dealer, and with help from Alt Fire's Viral procs and Hunter Munitions, can deal massive damage to just about anything. With the Galv mods and Arcane stacked up, it effortlessly kills even the toughest Steel Path enemies like Corrupted Heavy Gunners and Bombards. Anything that survives the direct damage will almost certainly die in the next tick to the colossal Slash procs.
With Lock and Load and any other Reload-while-Holstered effects (e.g. Synth mod set bonus), I have adopted a playstyle that incorporates regular quick Melee attacks, even if there is nothing in Melee range. The combination of natural recharging and Reload-while-Holstered greatly reduces the Bubonico's overall Reload Time (~2 seconds down from ~3-4.5 seconds) without leaving you vulnerable, and ensures much greater uptime on the Bubonico. With the universal reduction to Holster Times, switching to/from Secondaries is also much more palatable.
This Bubonico build aims to leverage all of the Bubonico's many strengths, while mitigating its few weaknesses. It can tackle almost any content in the game effectively, though of course is most effective when enemies are vulnerable to Status procs. The core build is highly customisable to your own preferences as well as intended targets. It can be very effectively with just a simple build using basic mods, and can be progressively upgraded all the way to an end-game viable build with a plethora of high-end, powerful mods and a suitable Arcane.
The Bubonico's customisability, versatility, and overall impressive firepower have made it one of my favourite weapons in the game, and in my opinion one of the most powerful as well.
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