Kestrel

The Kestrel is a melee throwing weapon similar to the Glaive, capable of bouncing off surfaces when thrown. Unlike the Glaive, the Kestrel can knock down any opponents that it hits at range.

This weapon can be sold for 5,000.

Characteristics
This weapon deals primarily damage.

Advantages
 * Slam attacks can proc damage.
 * Ground Finisher attacks are guaranteed to inflict a bleed proc.
 * Can be thrown using the charge attack function.
 * Ragdolls enemies when thrown.
 * Can be bounced around corners and obstacles to hit enemies in cover.
 * Projectile speed when thrown is faster than the Glaive. Coupled with its shorter range, you can expect to be able to throw this more often than the Glaive.
 * Has  and  polarity slots,
 * Silent.
 * Regular attacks have momentum (resistance to interruptions such as stagger or knockdown), unlike other light weapons.
 * Can equip the Kestrel-exclusive Entropy Flight mod.

Disadvantages
 * Low base melee damage.
 * As long as the boomerang is in flight, it can't be used for close combat.
 * Thrown range is approximately 3/4 that of the Glaive.
 * Low Slash and Puncture damage, less effective against flesh and armor.
 * Low critical chance.

Tips

 * When equipping the Kestrel, the player can throw it and then press the channeling button to detonate the Kestrel, dealing high AoE damage and returns to the player immediately. This is true for all thrown melee weapons.
 * This is very useful for regenerating health with Life Strike.
 * It can explode in this manner when not equipped and thrown, but the explosion timing cannot be controlled and will often damage the user in close quarters.
 * The Ground Finisher's bleed proc damage is based on the Ground Finisher damage (which is 30 * 400% = 120 damage without mods). Therefore, the bleed damage can be increased with anything which affects the Ground Finisher, including Channeling and the Finishing Touch mod.
 * For example, a Kestrel without any mods will deal 42 damage (= 120 * 35%) per bleed tick. With only a fully leveled Finishing Touch, this is increased to 67 damage and to 100 damage while channeling.
 * Because bleed damage ignores shields, the Kestrel's Ground Finisher can be made into a potent attack against Corpus, especially when combined elemental mods.

Trivia

 * The Kestrel is a carnivorous bird in the falcon family known for hovering.
 * The Kestrel shares the same sheath style with the other thrown melee weapons, where they retract and attach under the right arm.