Hey guys and welcome to another weapon build article. Today we will take a look at Cernos Prime and if this weapon is really worth the effort or not.
Cernos Prime Mechanic
But before we take a look at the stats and the damage, let’s talk about the mechanic of this weapon. Cernos Prime is different than other bows and you can’t compare this with the regular Cernos. Cernos Prime shoots 3 arrows per shot, 5-6 arrows with Multishot mod! Sounds very nice, but it’s not. Well, it depends on the situation.
The more arrows you shoot, the higher is the radius. Perfect for killing a lot of enemies at a decent distance. But at the same time very bad. Why? Because the more arrows you shoot, the lower the damage per arrow. For example, you deal 6000 damage in total, one arrow of the six will only deal 1000 damage. That means you have to get closer to the enemies to get the full damage potential of this weapon, which is weird for a bow.
Cernos Prime Stats
If we take a closer look at the stats we will see that this bow actually has the highest base damage of all bows with 360 damage even higher than the Daikyu. A decent Crit Chance of 17.5% and a pretty status chance of 30%. And the worst stat here is definitely the Reload Speed of one second! The Cernos Prime has the longest reload animation which is very bad in my opinion. It’s noticeable and kinda annoying if you want to kill enemies. But the damage is of course enough, level 30-40 Grineer enemies have no chance and they are one hit most of the times, no matter which planet or mission you choose.
So, Cernos Prime has a huge issue, in almost melee range you deal a decent amount of damage but a bow is not really a close range weapon, and if you want to kill enemies from far away, you lose so much damage.
Cernos Prime Build
The Cernos Prime Build is very simple, Serration plus Heavy Caliber for the damage. Heavy Caliber doesn’t really affect your accuracy on this weapon. Split Chamber for an “extra damage”. In this case, it can be a damage down or damage up. Also depends on if you want to kill a lot of enemies in low-mid tier missions because of the higher radius. Of course, Point Strike and Vital Sense for a decent Crit build. And 2x 90% elemental mods to get the elemental combo you want. Last but not least a Fire Rate mod, here you can decide whether you want to use the Vile Acceleration mod or Speed Trigger. I recommend you Vile Acceleration, you won’t notice the -15% damage of this mod.
Cernos Prime is overall not a good bow and can only be used for low-mid tier missions. If you don’t want to use Split Chamber you should consider using a Reload mod, the bow feels way too clunky. Anyways, I hope you enjoyed reading today’s article. Leave a comment if you want to and I see you next time.