Review: Lex Incarnon (U33.5.6)

The Lex is another very old weapon family that has been given a new lease on life with Incarnon Genesis. Thoroughly outclassed in its base form for a long time, Incarnon form turns the Lex into one of the strongest single-shot weapons in the entire game.

NOTE: This review demonstrates Incarnon on a Lex Prime.

Acquisition

As standard for the current Incarnon Genesis adapters, the Lex Incarnon adapter is one of the potential Steel Path Circuit rewards, in the Week 3 batch.

Stats

The Lex Incarnon form is clearly built for extremely strong single shots. A Fire Rate of 0.667 is horrendously slow, however it has some of the highest single shot stats in the game. 1200 base Damage is colossal, backed by insanely high 35%/3× Crit. 44% Status Chance is also very nice for reliable procs, albeit limited by the very slow Fire Rate.

As standard, Lex Incarnon is charged by landing headshots, taking 10 headshots for full charge. At full charge it has 20 rounds, which is quite low.

Incarnon form fires a large, wave-like projectile - much like the Arca Plasmor and much larger than that of the Catchmoon. It has similar characteristics, with innate body Punch Through and the outer edge of the projectile ignoring solid objects. However, like those weapons, if the centre of the projectile hits a solid object it cannot penetrate with normal Punch Through (of which it has 1.4m innately), it will still dissipate. Additionally, it does not gain the default 3× headshot multiplier, however will still get the 2× Crit headshot multiplier.

This projectile has a base Range of around 28m - very respectable for this type of projectile. Though not shown on the stat screen, it also has Damage Falloff, starting at 10m and maxing out at 18m. At maximum range, it still deals 2/3rds of its total damage - far better than a Secondary Catchmoon. Finally, the projectile will inflict a guaranteed Impact proc, seemingly at any range.

Augments

None.

Evolutions

As standard, Evolution I unlocks Incarnon form.

Evolution II

Evolution II is unlocked from completing a solo mission with the Incarnon'd Lex equipped.

• Hoplite Virtue - +20 base Damage, with an additional +80 base Damage for 8 seconds after Shields are fully depleted. Very easy to trigger in high-level content unless you're one of the few Frames who has no Shields, or never runs out of Shields.
• Trusty Sidearm - +20 base Damage, with +60% Ammo Efficiency (i.e. consumes 0.4 ammo per shot). Lower damage of course, but the Ammo Efficiency can make Base form much, much more comfortable to use, effectively increasing the Mag Capacity by 2.5×. Unfortunately, the Ammo Efficiency does not affect Incarnon form.

While HV is the clear option for damage output, Incarnon form's base Damage is so high that the increases will barely register. With that in mind, TS might actually be the better option to make base Form much nicer to use.

Evolution III

Evolution III is unlocked from killing 100 enemies with Lex Incarnon form.

• Lex Talionis - on headshot, provides -20% Recoil and +20% Accuracy for 4 seconds. This stacks up to 4×. Very nice quality-of-life for both forms, reducing Recoil to essentially none and ensuring pellet/projectile spread is very tight.
• Extended Volley - +10 Mag Capacity for Base form. Very nice quality-of-life for Base form, but does not affect Incarnon.
• Ready Retaliation - upon reloading from empty, gains +100% Reload Speed. This lasts until being reloaded when not empty, and will shorten Incarnon transformation time while active.

These are all great quality-of-life options, although only Lex Talionis affects Incarnon form. As such, that's the one I use.

Evolution IV

Evolution IV is unlocked from landing 5 headshots in a single mission - a trivial task.

• Executioner's Dawn - on switching weapons to the Lex, gives +100% Headshot damage for 4 seconds. As of writing, is currently bugged to not activate, but when it works correctly, effectively doubles headshot damage. Technically very strong but the trigger condition can be annoying.
• Elemental Balance - +30% base Status Chance. A massive increase to both forms, making Status output significantly more reliable.
• Critical Parallel - +19% base Crit Chance and +0.4× base Crit Damage. A major unconditional damage buff to both forms.

All three have value. ED offers the highest peak damage (20% more damage than CP), but only on headshots and only if regularly switching weapons. CP is slightly weaker, but unconditional. EB increases natural Status output, but otherwise is significantly behind in damage output. I prefer CP personally.

Builds

NOTE: Overframe.gg does not have any of the Evolutions

Galvanised Build

Galv Diffusion and the Crit mods are auto-includes as per usual.

Galv Shot is an interesting option. Unlike the other weapons of its type, Lex Incarnon treats the +Damage effect from Galv Shot like a normal +Damage mod, rather than being a separate multiplier. With such high Status Chance, forced Impact procs, and Hemorrhage (see below), Lex Incarnon can easily inflict three or more unique Status procs - more than enough to beat Hornet Strike. The added +Status Chance isn't bad either. However, Lex Incarnon is also one of the slowest firing weapons in the game, and would really rather kill enemies with its first shot - and not have to rely on procs for maximum damage on a follow-up shot. As such, while Galv Shot offers significantly greater peak damage, Hornet Strike is a lot more consistent and does not require Status priming.

Additionally, if you are confident in your ability to maintain stacks on a +Damage Arcane, you could consider forgoing a +Damage mod entirely.

Galv Crosshairs is another interesting option. Both forms of Lex work well with Headshots - Base form wants to land them for maximum damage and to charge Incarnon, while Incarnon lands them very easily, albeit does not get the default multiplier from them. Of course, both forms also make extremely good use of the massive Crit Chance increase for major damage.

As always, Viral is a great all-rounder, with a near-universal proc and surprisingly decent multipliers. Corrosive deals far more direct damage to enemies with Ferrite-armour with a great anti-armour proc, as well as dealing great damage against most Infested units. The Cambion Drift Infested in particular are immune to Viral procs, and are best tackled with Corrosive. Heat can be added to either Viral or Corrosive builds very effectively, offering more overall damage and a proc that both reduces armour and deals strong damage-over-time.

Against Alloy-armour, Radiation deals the most direct damage, however unlike Corrosive its proc is not as useful for damaging enemies. Toxin is the best option against unarmoured Corpus units, as it bypasses their Shields entirely to strike at their often-weaker Health. The two can be combined for a great catch-all against the Corpus, as most of their armoured units use Alloy.

As mentioned previously, Lex Incarnon deals forced Impact procs, and has an extremely low Fire Rate. This makes it a perfect candidate for Hemorrhage, gaining a very high chance for every hit to inflict a colossal Slash proc. This is by far the best setup against Status-vulnerable heavily armoured enemies, whose massive armour damage reduction is completely ignored by Slash proc damage. It combines perfectly with Viral, whose own proc amplifies Slash proc damage.

Recommended Setups: Viral + Hemorrhage vs armoured enemies, Corrosive (+ Heat) vs Ferrite-armour, Infested, Radiation vs Alloy-armour, Toxin vs unarmoured Corpus, Radiation + Toxin vs Corpus

While I am normally a big supporter of Punch Through, Lex Incarnon does not need to mod for it. Base form would definitely appreciate it, however Incarnon already has innate body Punch Through and 1.4m object Punch Through. As such, I wouldn't bother for Lex Incarnon.

Magnum Force and Augur Pact offer +Damage, with the latter being weaker but cheaper (and offering shield restore with its set bonus), and the former being stronger with an Accuracy penalty and much higher cost and drain. However, once Galv Shot and +Damage Arcanes are added to the mix, they become severely outclassed and of limited value.

Instead, a (Primed) Expel is the best option for overall damage increase. In particular, the Faction Damage bonus is applied multiple times to damage-over-time procs like Slash, drastically increasing their effectiveness. The main drawback to these, besides finding the slot for them, is needing to switch them out per-faction for maximum effect.

If you don't want to bother with the faction switching stuff, Hydraulic Crosshairs and Sharpened Bullets are conditional Crit mods that offer more overall benefit than MF and AP.

If you find Incarnon form way too slow firing, and aren't as worried about ammo efficiency or damage, consider slotting in another +Fire Rate mod. Anemic Agility is the strongest unconditional one, and even alongside Lethal Torrent will still only bring the Fire Rate up to abotu 1.67 - well below the Hemorrhage threshold.

If you're not using E2RR, (Primed) Quickdraw can be very nice quality-of-life for base form, as its Reload Time is fairly slow. However, it offers little to Incarnon form, only improving transformation time.

For the Exilus slot, Lethal Momentum is the clear top option. It increases Incarnon form's range from a respectable 28m to almost 40m, as well as stretching the associated Damage Falloff ranges. It does nothing for Base form, but realistically Base Lex form doesn't offer much.

Quality-of-life mods like Steady Hands and Reflex Draw can be used, however Evo2LT covers off many of the same stats, and Lethal Momentum is often more valuable.

Arcanes

+Damage Arcanes

• Secondary Merciless - The standard, stacks from any kill and Lex Incarnon excels at killing groups to max out stacks quickly. Reload Speed bonus is great for base Form, and slightly shortens Incarnon transformation time. Stacks decay quite quickly, which can be annoying.
• Secondary Deadhead - Stacks with far fewer kills and decays slower than Merc, and the additional headshot damage is a notable advantage. Recoil reduction is very nice for base Form, but not as important for Incarnon. Most notably however, does not stack from kills due to certain damage-over-time procs like Slash, even if the inflicting shot was a headshot. This can be troublesome on a Hemorrhage build, which often gets its kills on heavies from Slash procs.
• Cascadia Flare - Offers more damage than Merc/Dead, however neither Lex form is very good at stacking Heat procs. Effective if you have other equipment to stack Heat procs (e.g. Thermal Sunder), but not so good on its own.
• Secondary Shiver - Does not offer any more damage than Merc/Dead, and neither Lex form is good at stacking Cold procs.

Other Arcanes

• Cascadia Accuracy - Very strong if the constant rolling and aiming-for-headshots playstyle suits you. Both forms of Lex want to land headshots for maximum damage, and Lex Incarnon lands headshots very easily. Needing to roll regularly can be troublesome.
• Cascadia Overcharge - Also very strong, this time if your equipment (mainly Abilities) allow you to have Overshields reliably.
• Cascadia Empowered - As discussed in my article on it, Casc Emp is only good on the lowest-damage, highest Status/Fire Rate weapons - which the Lex is distinctly not in either form.
• Conjunction Voltage - +Multishot effect is a lower overall damage increase than the +Damage or +Crit Arcanes. Reload Speed is quite beneficial for Base form, but offers little to Incarnon. Most problematic however is that Lex Incarnon is not a very good weapon for stacking Electric procs, as it would much rather build for Viral + Hemorrhage.
• Secondary Encumber - Neither form of Lex fires fast enough to benefit significantly from Sec Encumber.
• Secondary Kinship - Casc Acc/Over are generally just stronger and more convenient.
• Secondary Outburst - Weak damage boost compared to most of the other Arcanes.

If Casc Accuracy/Overcharge suit your playstyle and equipment, they are the strongest Arcane option from a pure DPS point of view. If you have some way of rapidly stacking Heat procs, Cascadia Flare is slightly weaker but still very strong. Otherwise, I'd recommend either Sec Merciless/Deadhead to preference. I use Merciless personally, Lex Incarnon kills groups with such ease that keeping it at full stacks is trivial.

My Build

Standard Viral + Hemorrhage build. I've left in Galv Shot mainly for the higher Status Chance.

Combat Use and Summary

Firing an enormous wave projectile, Lex Incarnon is excellent against clusters of enemies. It will effortlessly kill any weaker enemy, and its huge projectile allows it to wipe out entire groups of them at once. However, its very low Fire Rate can be troublesome against streams of spread-out enemies.

With enormous damage-per-shot, Lex Incarnon is also excellent for bursting down unarmoured and Status-resistant/immune enemies. One or two shots is enough to kill all but the absolute toughest of enemies.

Against heavily armoured enemies, the Lex Incarnon does not fare quite as well naturally. Though its direct damage output is exceptional, its Status output is limited by such low Fire Rate, so it is not particularly good at stacking lots of Status procs.

However, Lex Incarnon is one of the absolute best users of Hemorrhage. With forced Impact procs and very low Fire Rate, it gets the full effect of Hemorrhage for a hefty 70% Slash proc chance with every projectile. With Multishot, this is more than enough to reliably inflict at least one colossal Slash proc on any enemy who survives the direct damage. The enemies most likely to do so are heavily armoured ones, whose huge armour-based damage reduction is completely bypassed by Slash proc damage. A single Slash proc tick from Lex Incarnon is enough to finish off just about any heavily armoured enemy.

While range is normally a notable limitation of the wave-projectile weapons, the Lex Incarnon has a solid range of 28m, with very lenient Damage Falloff. This is enough to reach halfway across most rooms in Warframe, and with Warframe's incredibly fast movement system, it is rarely an issue outside of the open worlds. Conveniently, Lex base form is very precise, making it surprisingly effective at longer ranges anyway.

Overall, Lex Incarnon is another extremely strong Incarnon weapon. Its massive projectile slaughters clustered groups of units, and it instantly kills all but the absolute toughest of enemies. Against heavily armoured enemies who can survive its direct damage onslaught, Hemorrhage allows Lex Incarnon to inflict colossal Slash procs that will almost instantly bleed them to death instantly. Its main flaws are the need to charge up with headshots in base form, the relatively low max charge of 20, and of course the abysmally low Fire Rate.

If you're a fan of one-shot, one-kill type weapons and don't mind the huge wave projectile, I strongly recommend getting a Lex Incarnon. It is among the strongest weapons in the game in my opinion.

Scores

Vs Trash Mobs: 4.5/5 - Firing a massive projectile with innate body Punch Through, Lex Incarnon tears through groups of enemies with ease. Its very low Fire Rate is its biggest drawback, resulting in a long time between shots.

Vs Unarmoured Heavies: 5/5 - Dealing colossal damage-per-shot, Lex Incarnon smashes through any enemy without armour, or with the right damage type, any enemy resistant/immune to Status procs.

Vs Armoured Heavies without Forced Slash: 4/5 - With very low Fire Rate, Incarnon form struggles to stack more than a few procs quickly. Though it can brute force through enemies quite effectively with such high damage-per-shot, this does not scale well into very high levels.

Vs Armoured Heavies with Forced Slash: 5/5 - Incarnon form's projectile inflicting a forced Impact proc at very low Fire Rate makes it a perfect candidate for Hemorrhage. Scaling from colossal damage-per-shot, any Slash procs that Hemorrhage inflicts will kill survivors in a single damage tick.

Vs Variants

The base Lex gets slightly stronger Evolutions than Lex Prime, however its base stats in both forms are significantly weaker. The net result is that the Prime is a much better candidate for Incarnon Genesis regardless.

Competitors

The only other Secondary with the same type of projectile is a Catchmoon Kitgun. Even with the slowest-firing Grip (Haymaker), the Catchmoon will have a much higher Fire Rate (1.17 vs 0.667). However, the Lex Incarnon has far higher base Damage (1200 vs 460), and superior Crit (35%/3× vs 35%/2.3× max) and Status Chance (44% vs 35% max) to any possible Loader setup, even before any Evolutions. It also has a much larger and longer-ranged projectile.

Overall, the Catchmoon is a lot easier to use, with higher Fire Rate and no need to charge up with headshots. Lex Incarnon is slow-firing and takes charging up with headshots to use, but is far, far more powerful per-shot.

Rivens

Being that its base form is totally outclassed in today's meta, the Lex Prime's Riven Disposition is currently a rather high 4/5 (1.2), and the regular Lex a slightly higher 4/5 (1.25). I'm not sure how DE will handle Dispositions for Incarnon Genesis, but I'm very confident that Lex Prime Incarnon's will plummet to at highest a 2/5 (0.7). It is an exceptionally powerful weapon, capable of obliterating groups of anything that can be obliterated by a single, strong shots.

+Damage/Multishot/Crit Chance/Crit Damage are the usual good positives, with the Crit ones being more valuable with Galv mods and Arcanes in the picture. +Elemental Damage can be helpful to save a mod slot, which is greatly appreciated on the slot-tight Lex Incarnon. +Faction Damage is an extremely strong multiplier of Slash procs, most useful against the Grineer who have the most armoured units.

+Fire Rate can make Incarnon form especially much nicer to use, with its horrifically low base Fire Rate. Additionally, there is no risk of increasing Fire Rate beyond 2.5 because of just how low the base Fire Rate is. +Mag Capacity/Reload Speed/-Recoil can be nice quality-of-life for base form, but offer little for Incarnon. +Projectile Speed is a significant boon for Incarnon, directly increasing its range. +Punch Through is very helpful for base Form against tightly packed groups, and can allow Incarnon shots to pass through solid objects.

-Impact/Puncture/Slash all have value. Impact is the largest physical component of Incarnon form, however it is still only a third of base damage there. Removing Impact will not remove Incarnon's ability to inflict Impact procs, as those are forced on hit regardless. Additionally, Impact is generally not a good damage type. Puncture is a huge component of Base form base damage, however it is not present in Incarnon at all. Additionally, removing Puncture from Base form can be arguably beneficial, as it increases the (still fairly low) chance of inflicting natural Slash procs. Puncture is the best direct damage of the three physical types, but it is still not amazing. Slash is only a minor component of Base form, and is not present in Incarnon at all either. Though it is by far the best proc of the three, it is so low on Base form that it will very rarely naturally proc.

-Faction Damage to weaker Factions (Infested, arguably Corpus) is often negligible against all but the absolute toughest of their units. -Mag Capacity can be mitigated with E3EV, and of course has no impact on Incarnon form. -Ammo Max is a non-issue. +Recoil can be ok for Incarnon form if you manage recoil well, and can be mitigated with E3LT. -Zoom is ideal for close quarters.