Soma Prime

The Soma Prime is the primed version of the Soma assault rifle. It primarily features a greater magazine size, greater ammo reserves, and a slight increase to physical damage and status chance.

On November 15, 2016, it was announced that the Soma Prime, along with Nova Prime and the Vasto Prime, would enter the Prime Vault and be retired from the reward tables on November 22, 2016. Any preexisting components or fully-built weapons will remain as is.

On October 31, 2017, the Soma Prime became available for acquisition through Twitch Prime along with Frost Prime. This limited time offer lasted until December 31st, 2017.

Characteristics
This weapon deals primarily damage.

Advantages:
 * High critical chance.
 * Rewards critical headshots more due to its high critical chance.
 * Tied for the highest critical multiplier bonus ratio of all primary weapons alongside normal Soma and Rubico.
 * High fire rate, achieved after a wind up period of five bullets.
 * High accuracy.
 * Large magazine size.
 * Large magazine reserve size.
 * Two polarity slots.

Disadvantages:
 * Third lowest damage of all automatic rifles, behind Grakata/Prisma Grakata and normal Soma; very reliant on its high critical damage potential.
 * Ill-suited against Object-based health as it nullifies any critical hits.
 * Low damage - less effective against shields.
 * High fire rate generates high recoil, hindering accuracy.
 * Slow reload.
 * Inefficient in ammo economy.

Comparisons:

Tips

 * A critical focused build using, and/or  combined with , , and/or  is the best way to mod this weapon to take advantage of its high critical chance to increase its otherwise meager base damage.
 * If you are low on slots,, , and provide the most overall increase in DPS.
 * Firing in short bursts and landing headshots will significantly increase its efficiency.
 * Reload time can be shortened by using a melee attack or dodge roll when the reload timer reaches about 3/4. This works because, like many older weapons, the magazine is updated at this time instead of at the end, making the remaining time extraneous.
 * Due to the weapon's high rate-of-fire combined with its low base damage, the Soma Prime can be ammo inefficient. Using and/or  can be used to recover a steady supply of ammo. Alternatively, ammo can be instantly replenished using Team Ammo Restores. Additionally, Carrier's  mod grants more reserve ammo and turns unused ammo drops into ammo for equipped weapons.
 * The Soma Prime's high ammo consumption makes Critical Delay a good option for it, as the mod enhances critical chance while slowing down rate of fire, improving its ammo efficiency.

Trivia

 * The Soma Prime was one of the first prime items which had colorable gold parts. This trait was shared with the Vasto Prime, Nova Prime and the Pyra Prime Syandana.
 * The ring-like formation through which the Warframe holds the weapon with their left hand rotates while firing, making this one of the few primary weapons that have firing animations.
 * Like its non-prime version, the Soma Prime's magazine passes up through its receiver as it fires, with the portion of the magazine consumed indicating the amount of ammo left.