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For the similarly named enemy, see Ballista.
The Ballistica crossbow features a unique dual firing mechanism, choose between a four bolt volley or a deadly accurate charged shot.

The Ballistica is a secondary crossbow that shoots four arrows in quick succession with a tap of the trigger, or a single arrow if charged.

This weapon can be sold for Credits64 5,000.

Characteristics

  • This weapon deals primarily DmgPunctureSmall64 Puncture damage.
  • Uncharged shots burst-fires four bolts consecutively.
  • Charged shots fire a single round.
  • On kill, bodies will follow the bolt that killed them, damaging anyone in their path and pinning the corpse to walls.

Advantages over other Secondary weapons (excluding modular weapons):

  • Silent.
  • No projectile arcing.
  • Charged Shot (wiki attack index 1)
    • Above average total damage (100)
    • Above average ammo max (210)
  • Burst Shot (wiki attack index 2)
    • Above average magazine (16)
    • Above average ammo max (210)
    • High fire rate (6.670 attacks/sec)

Disadvantages over other Secondary weapons (excluding modular weapons):

  • Projectiles have travel time.
  • Burst shots have low accuracy and high horizontal recoil.
  • Burst shots consume 4 ammo per shot, resulting in a 4-shot magazine. Linearly less efficient – sometimes a target may only die with five projectiles, which requires an entire second burst to be fired.
  • Charged Shot (wiki attack index 1)
    • Below average crit chance (15.00%)
    • Low reload speed (2.00 s)
    • Low fire rate (3.330 attacks/sec)
    • Low status chance (10.00%)
    • Very low crit multiplier (1.50x)
  • Burst Shot (wiki attack index 2)
    • Very low crit chance (2.50%)
    • Low reload speed (2.00 s)
    • Very low total damage (25)
    • Very low status chance (2.50%)
    • Very low crit multiplier (1.50x)

Comparisons:

Acquisition

The Ballistica's blueprint can be purchased from the Market.


Manufacturing Requirements
📝 Edit blueprint requirements
Credits
25,000
Neurodes
3
Gallium
4
NanoSpores
3,000
Rubedo
1,200
Time: 1 Day(s)
Rush: PlatinumLarge 25
MarketIcon Market Price: PlatinumLarge 240 Blueprint2 Blueprints Price:Credits40,000

Notes

  • The weapon's damage stat in the demonstration video is wrong at 10. The correct damage is 25. The weapon's critical chance stat is also wrong; it can in fact deal critical hits on normal attacks.
  • Mod TT 20px Gunslinger and Mod TT 20px Lethal Torrent affect the speed between bursts and the speed of the bursts themselves. These mods also speed up the charge time when holding down the trigger.
  • This crossbow has very little vertical recoil on burst fire. However, it spreads sideways, usually the initial shot on center, one to the right, then two to the left.
  • Both the four-burst shot and the charged shot deal 100 damage, assuming all shots connect for the former.
    • The charge shot only consumes one ammo while the burst consumes four, making the charge shot four times as efficient with ammo.
    • Using charge shots can result in a burst shot firing less than four shots, if there is less than four ammo left in the magazine.
  • You can only fire the Ballistica four times when using normal attacks, so a reload speed mod is recommended.
  • Consider Ballistica as a burst-fire version of the single Bolto Bolto pistol. Although it bears a lower damage per bolt, its DPS in general is greater due to its higher rate of fire aspect. It also has a slightly larger magazine size, faster reload speed and it is the only secondary weapon that can charge fire. The downside of Ballistica is being very expensive to build and its burst fire has a greater recoil.
  • Normal burst-fire attacks do not seem to pin enemies to walls.

Tips

  • Track your targets constantly when burst-firing, as the recoil shifts sideways when firing.
  • Crowd control with burst fire can also be generally effective, and will be benefited further when using a maxed Mod TT 20px Seeker.
  • With enough fire rate, it has more DPS when fired charged compared to semi-auto firing.
  • Due to significant horizontal recoil you may consider using the Mod TT 20px Steady Hands mod.
  • Unlike the other magazine based charge weapons (Lanka Lanka and Ogris Ogris), there is a period between charge shots in which, if clicked too soon after a charge shot, the Ballistica will neither charge nor fire, roughly 0.5-0.8 seconds after firing a charge shot. This lowers the actual DPS of a charge build. Increasing the fire rate decreases this delay however.

Trivia

  • Name is likely based on the medieval siege weapon, the Ballista, due to both being related to crossbows and the similarity in the names.
    • It may also be a pun on ballistic, and as a propelled projectile the Ballistica may be considered a ballistic weapon.
  • Upon reload, the magazine will be dropped onto the ground and can be seen for a short time before disappearing.
  • This gun has a non-static model as the strings glow and the arms cock back as a shot is charged. Additionally the arms fold in when the Ballistica is holstered and open up when it is selected, with a unique sound effect.
  • The Ballistica is the first secondary to utilize a charge function, and the third to utilize burst-fire.
    • It is so far the only weapon of any class to combine both.
  • Although not entirely similar to bow weapons, due to the fact it uses pistol ammo and has a burst fire mode, it is similar to bows such as the Paris Paris and Dread Dread, as they are capable of firing both charged and uncharged shots. The bows, however, are silent, whereas the Ballistica has reduced-awareness properties.

Bugs

  • In the game, it is stated that normal attacks have no critical chance, however, these stats are not correct. It has been verified through testing.
  • It would seem that the Ballistica does not retract its bows whenever its wielder performs a melee strike, as the Ballistica is forced on its holster. This is considered a bug as holstering the weapon usually retracts itself when switching.
  • The Ballistica will open and retract in a split second while selecting customization options on Warframes and weapons, such as selecting an alternate helmet.

Media

Ballistica Skins

Edit

Patch History

Update 27.3 (2020-03-24)

  • Fixed the Ballistica firing its arrows sideways when equipped with the Dali Skin.

Update 27.1 (2020-02-04)

  • Fixed performance issues with the Ballistica projectile trail FX over long distances.

Update 25.8 (2019-10-01)

October 2019 Riven Disposition Change
  • Ballistica: 1.05->1.1

Hotfix 25.0.7 (2019-05-30)

  • Fixed the Ballistica Energy color persisting as default on the strings.

Update 22.12 (2018-02-09)

  • Fixed not being able to draw your bow while sprinting (you could always charge your bow while sprinting, but pinky-friendly sprint changes have made this more obvious).

Update 22.8 (2017-12-21)

  • Fixed animation issue when charging an arrow immediately after firing a shot using Bows.

Update 21.4 (2017-08-10)

  • Increased the damage for all Bow's charged shots in Conclave.

Update 21.0 (2017-06-29)

  • Ballistica now available for use in Conclave.

Update 19.0 (2016-11-11)

  • Adjusted the Market icon size of the Ballistica.

Update 18.13 (2016-05-27)

  • Fixed incorrect icon sizing of the Ballistica in the Market.

Hotfix 18.5.5 (2016-03-08)

  • Fixed the Ballistica's projectile trail not using selected energy color.

Update 17.8 (2015-10-21)

  • Fixed enemies becoming alert to players using a charged Ballistica shot.

Hotfix 15.1.3 (2014-11-08)

  • Fixed an issue with the Ballistica where it would only burst fire on the first attempt. After that the "tap fire" would only shoot once.
  • Fixed an issue where Ballistica's magazines floated after reloading.

Update 10.4 (2013-10-16)

  • Introduced.

Last updated: Hotfix 24.1.5 (2018-12-13)

See Also

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