Acquisition
The Rauta's Blueprint and Components can be bought from Acrithis in Duviri, costing Kullervo's Bane which is acquired by completing the Kullervo boss battle in Duviri.
Stats
The Rauta's total base damage is quite high, and decent Slash bias is always appreciated for natural Slash procs. 12% Status Chance is decent alongside base Multishot of 8, but that is where the positives end.
6%/2× Crit is basically unusable, leaving the Rauta as a pure Status weapon. A Mag Capacity of just 4 rounds is quite small, though Reload Time of 1.2 seconds is not too long. Most notably however, its Fire Rate is a pathetically slow 0.8 rounds-per-second - not even one round per second. This gives a high on-paper Reload Ratio of 4.167.
As a Shotgun, the Rauta suffers from both significant pellet spread and severe Damage Falloff - dealing reduced damage starting at just 6m range, bottoming out at 20% damage at 16m range. Because of these, I've found it rather ineffective beyond 10m range.
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| Note that this UI is Kullervo's. The Rauta does not add any unique UI element. |
The Rauta's unique feature lies in its interaction with Melee. Each pellet that hits an enemy will grant +2 Melee Combo, to a maximum of +28 (14 pellets) per shot. Note that the pellets will not give extra combo from hitting multiple enemies from Punch Through. Additionally, when wielded by Kullervo, it adds 11 seconds to the Melee's Combo Duration. These can be quite valuable for Melee of course, but offer nothing to the Rauta itself.
Augments
None.
Builds
Basic Elements 0-Forma:
The Rauta has just a single native D polarity. While this is useful once you have Galvanised mods (for Galv Savvy), its use is rather limited with the normal suite of mods.
This example build has just basic +Damage/Multishot/Elemental mods. Notably, Chilling Grasp is one of the few Shotgun mods with a D polarity. This sample build offers decent direct damage with a lot of elemental options, however does little in the way of quality-of-life. If you don't have Primed Point Blank, regular Point Blank opens up some capacity for another mod, as shown in the below builds.
Status 0-Forma:
If you have the 60/60 elemental mods, they are a good bet for greatly increased Status Chance, at the cost of direct damage. They are generally more difficult to acquire than the 90% elementals, so as an early-game player you may not have access to all or even any of them.
Another benefit of the 60/60 mods is their lower drain, allowing fitting of more mods with less Forma. In this example build, I've used the space to slot in Ammo Stock for increased Mag Capacity. The Rauta greatly appreciates mods besides just damaging ones due to its very poor usability stats.
As always, the default recommended elemental combo is Viral. Viral's proc in particular is near-universal, increasing damage dealt to Health, and its multipliers are surprisingly relevant as well (increased damage to Grineer and Corpus organics). It can be augmented with Heat damage, whose proc is also very strong, offering armour reduction and a unique stacking damage-over-time effect. Heat also has some relevant multipliers, notably in this case against weaker Infested. Electric can be added instead for a degree of AoE damage from its proc, however I don't think the Rauta is a good user of Electric procs.
Corrosive is another strong option, notably being drastically more effective in direct damage against Ferrite-armoured enemies and most Infested heavies. Its proc greatly reduces enemy armour, offering good effect against all manner of armoured enemies. It also combines very well with Heat.
Radiation offers decent direct damage against Alloy-armoured enemies, however its proc is not as useful as Corrosive. Instead, it can be combined with Toxin to provide a great Corpus catch-all. Most armoured Corpus units have Alloy-armour, which Radiation is effective against, while most unarmoured Corpus are hit hard by pure Toxin, which bypasses their Shields entirely.
Finally, if really tough Shields are troubling you and you can't bypass them with Toxin damage, Magnetic is super-effective against them with both its multipliers and its proc. However, there are very few enemies in the game whose Shields are legitimately tough.
Recommended Setups: Viral + Heat vs everything, Corrosive + Heat vs Ferrite-armour, Infested, Radiation + Toxin vs Ally-armour, Corpus
1-Forma:
With an added V polarity, if you have the 60/60 mods, you can look at a seventh mod. In this example build, I've slotted in Shotgun Barrage for +Fire Rate. This greatly increases Burst DPS, as well as making the Rauta much more comfortable to use - over a second between shots is painfully slow.
It is also worth mentioning the alternative Nightmare elemental mods that Shotguns have access to.
Blaze offers +Heat and +Damage, which for non-Galv and non-Arcane'd builds is a significant damage boost to any build that uses Heat.
Chilling Reload offers +Cold and +Reload Speed, providing a significant quality-of-life improvement for many Shotguns, which tend to have small Mag Capacity.
These two mods come at the cost of Status Chance or total damage compared to their normal elemental versions, however depending on the weapon and build, can often be worth using.
Recommended Setups: see above.
2-Forma:
Sweeping Serration can be used to bias damage heavily towards Slash, for maximum Slash proc frequency. This is most notable against heavily armoured enemies, who are damaged most effectively by Slash procs, but somewhat lacking against other targets.
For more overall damage, you can look at Vigilante Armaments and Vicious Spread. The latter is slightly more powerful, but comes at the cost of even worse pellet spread. Both become obsolete with Galv mods and Arcanes. If you want a damage boost that is still relevant with endgame mods and Arcanes, a (Primed) Cleanse mod is the go. Its +Faction Damage bonus is applied twice (or even more) to damage-over-time procs like Slash and Heat, offering a massive damage boost against the appropriate targets. The downsides to these of course are their massive cost to max out, the inconvenience of switching them per Faction, and some enemies not having a Faction/Faction damage mod (e.g. Sentients).
(Primed) Tactical Pump can be used to significantly improve Reload Speed, however I consider +Mag Capacity and +Fire Rate to be more impactful and useful. Additionally, there are other options to increase Reload Speed.
Punch Through from Seeking Fury/Force can be helpful against groups, allowing pellets to potentially hit multiple targets. In my testing it wasn't very effective on the Rauta, as its horrid Damage Falloff and pellet spread make its penetrating damage potential quite limited. Note also that the Rauta will not build additional Melee combo from a given pellet hitting multiple targets.
For the Exilus slot, there are a couple of decent options. Fatal Acceleration increases Projectile Speed, which in turn also increases Damage Falloff ranges. As mentioned previously, the Rauta's Damage Falloff ranges are very short, so extending them greatly improves its performance beyond point-blank range. However, its spread is also very wide - this can make Narrow Barrel/Soft Hands/Double Barrel Drift a good option as well for tightening pellet spread.
Recommended Setups: see above. Also consider: Viral + Slash vs armoured enemies
Galvanised Mods and Arcane
Galv Hell.
Galv Savvy is a strong option, the Rauta is readily capable of inflicting at least three unique procs for a significant damage boost over Primed Point Blank.
Galv Acceleration is a good choice for the Exilus slot, greatly increasing Damage Falloff ranges even beyond Fatal Accel and thus making the Rauta more effective beyond very close range. Unfortunately, it does not fix the pellet spread issue.
There are a heap of Arcanes to look through now.
+Damage Arcanes:
- Pri Merciless - the standard benchmark. Stacks from any kill including from damage-over-time procs, and the +Reload Speed is appreciated. However, the stacks decay very quickly, and the Rauta's very slow Fire Rate and low Mag Capacity can make gaining and maintaining stacks surprisingly troublesome.
- Pri Deadhead - stacks faster and decays slower than Merciless, however requires direct headshot kills to stack. Given the Rauta's reliance on procs for damage output, this is rather suboptimal. The reduced Recoil and increased Headshot multiplier are nice, but not groundbreaking.
- Pri Dexterity - I normally don't mention Dexterity as its Melee-focus makes it playstyle-dependant rather than weapon-dependant, but given the Rauta's focus on Melee support, I felt it worth mentioning. With the Rauta's ability to build Melee Combo, Dexterity's increased Melee Combo Duration, your Melee weapon can be easily kept at max Combo for maximum damage. This in turn allows you to keep maximum damage for the Rauta very easily.
- Pri Plated Rounds - the Rauta's very low Mag Capacity makes Plated Rounds very weak.
Other Arcanes:
- Pri Frostbite - as the Rauta is not a Crit weapon, Frostbite is not very strong on it.
- Pri Exhilarate - if focusing on utility and not worrying about damage, the Rauta can make reasonable use of Exhilarate. Though its Impact bias is not very high, its Status output is still solid, and of course you can slot in a +Impact mod to improve this. The free Energy can be beneficial.
- Pri Obstruct - again an option if building for utility, as Magnetic damage and proc is rarely relevant. The short radial jam effect can be a useful supplemental CC, though should not be your primary method of survivability given its cooldown.
- Shotgun Vendetta - a strong option for the Rauta if you can actually achieve kills with it. Increased Multishot and Reload Speed are both greatly appreciated, and the 5m range requirement is not as big a problem as the Rauta's effective range is very short anyway. Overall damage increase is smaller than with a +Damage Arcane, but doesn't require stacking.
- Pri Blight - given it has a heavier Crit focus than Frostbite, Blight is an even worse choice for the Rauta.
I'd recommend Pri Dexterity or Shotgun Vendetta for damage, with consideration for Pri Exhilarate and Pri Obstruct for pure utility.
My Builds
My build is very much a level-and-ignore type build, focusing on having decent faction-agnostic damage and improved usability. Scattering Inferno can be switched to Sweeping Serration to maximise Slash procs.
Combat Use and Summary
With underwhelming direct damage by Shotgun standards, the Rauta fares poorly against unarmoured and Status-resistant/immune enemies. It will take a lot of shots to deal major direct damage, and especially suffers if it cannot stack useful procs to weaken and chip away at enemies.
Thanks to solid Slash bias and reasonable Status Chance, the Rauta is perhaps least worst against heavily armoured enemies. It can inflict Slash procs fairly reliably, as well as a couple of Viral procs to help amplify them. Unfortunately, the Rauta's Slash procs are not particularly strong, especially outside of point-blank range.
With extremely wide pellet spread and very short range, harsh, Damage Falloff, the Rauta is terrible beyond close range. It struggles to keep most of its pellets on target, let alone having any significant effect due to greatly reduced damage. Ironically, this makes it largely only effective at Melee range.
By far the Rauta's best use is as a Melee support weapon. A single shot at close range can grant up to +28 Melee combo, which can be useful for kickstarting a Quick Attack combo build, or get some extra damage for a Heavy Attack build. Additionally, when wielded by Kullervo, the Rauta grants +11 seconds to Melee Combo duration.
Overall, the Rauta is not very good. It is terrible against groups, underwhelming against unarmoured and Status-resistant/immune targets, and weak against heavily armoured enemies. The only notable niche it offers is its utility for Melee weapons, building Melee Combo with its own shots, as well as increasing Combo Duration if wielded by Kullervo. Even in that instance though, the ranges it is effective at, you could just use your Melee weapon instead. As a weapon in its own right, the Rauta is quite weak and comically outclassed.
Scores
Vs Trash Mobs: 0.5/5 - Very low Fire Rate, lack of AoE outside of pellet spread, and overall middling damage output make the Rauta very poor against groups. Added Punch Through can help against clusters, but its awful Damage Falloff and pellet spread limit it to very close range only.
Vs Unarmoured Heavies: 1.5/5 - Unimpressive Burst DPS, especially for a non-Crit Shotgun, makes the Rauta thoroughly underwhelming against unarmoured and Status-resistant/immune enemies.
Vs Armoured Heavies without Forced Slash: 2.5/5 - Decent Slash bias is helpful, allowing the Rauta to somewhat reliably inflict Slash procs, however its base Damage is too low to make those procs really hurt. Even after stacking Viral procs to amplify them, it is severely lacking in firepower.
While not a Slash-heavy weapon, the MR15 Kuva Hek gives a great example of how badly outclassed the Rauta is at high power levels. The apparent base Damage disadvantage is greatly mitigated by the Kuva Lich Bonus (with 60% bonus, hits 974.4 base Damage), but of course the KHek's Crit is far superior, giving it much greater damage-per-shot. Despite having low Slash bias, the KHek can make good use of Hunter Munitions for reliable Slash procs as well. Once again, it also has tighter pellet spread and further Damage Falloff range than the Rauta, albeit with comparable damage loss (down to ~17%). Finally, the KHek has a far higher Fire Rate, as well as an Alt Fire that dumps four shots at once, for far, far superior Burst DPS.
Vs Armoured Heavies with Forced Slash: NA/5 - the Rauta does not have the Crit to make good use of Hunter Munitions.
Vs Variants
None (at least until Kullervo Prime is released years from now).
Competitors
The Rauta is a very slow firing Shotgun with low capacity, of which there are several to compare against.
Immediately, the Rauta goes up against the also MR8 Exergis. The Exergis can be a little more cumbersome to use, needing to reload after every shot. However, I consider it superior to the Rauta. The procs it inflicts are significantly stronger thanks to its massive base Damage advantage. Far higher Status Chance-per-pellet makes it a lot more consistent, despite firing fewer pellets. Much further and more lenient Damage Falloff (~50%) means it is a lot more usable beyond very close range, and its pellet spread is much tighter as well.
The MR13 Tigris Prime is the old king of Slash-based Shotguns, and though it has fallen far from its pedestal, it still has similar advantages over the Rauta as the Exergis. Though its Status output is slightly lower on average, its higher Slash bias and much higher base Damage make its procs more likely to be Slash, and significantly stronger. Once again, the TigrisP has further and more lenient Damage Falloff (~50%), as well as tighter pellet spread, making it a lot more effective beyond close range.
Overall, the Rauta's only notable advantage over other Shotguns is its unique interaction with Melees. As a weapon in its own right, it is badly outclassed.
Rivens
As standard for a new weapon, the Rauta's Riven Disposition starts at the rock bottom 1/5 (0.5). I expect it to skyrocket, to the 4/5 (1.3) range or even higher, given it is a pretty weak and totally outclassed weapon.
+Damage/Multishot are the standard nice positives. +Impact can be useful for Pri Exhilarate, but is useless otherwise. +Slash is helpful for better Slash bias. +Elemental Damage can be useful to save a mod slot. +Status Chance can help to maximise proc output. +Faction Damage is a strong multiplier of damage-over-time procs like Slash and Heat, most notable against the Grineer. +Fire Rate is a significant Burst DPS increase, and can make the Rauta much nicer to use. +Mag Capacity/Reload Speed are both great quality-of-life stats to have as well. +Projectile Speed is very beneficial for extending the Rauta's normally very short Damage Falloff range. +Punch Through can be very beneficial against tightly packed groups of enemies.
-Impact/Puncture are ideal negatives, reducing bias of the weaker procs (unless using Pri Exhilarate) and thus increasing bias of better procs like Slash and elements. Because the Rauta's Crit stats are so low, -Crit Chance/Damage are not significant damage losses. -Faction Damage to the weaker Factions (usually Infested, sometimes Corpus) is usually manageable with good positives, however the Rauta is so weak that I would recommend against it. -Ammo Max is a non-issue, the Rauta does not consume ammo quickly and replenishes a reasonable amount of ammo. +Recoil can be tolerable if you manage recoil well.
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