The Cernos Prime is the Prime variant of the 
Cernos. Aside from increased damage, the Cernos Prime is unique in that it fires three arrows per shot in a horizontal spread, and has an Alternate Fire mode that shoots vertically, and deals bonus damage on headshots. It was released alongside 
Valkyr Prime and 
Venka Prime.
Characteristics[]
This weapon deals primarily 
Impact damage.
Advantages:
- Fourth highest base damage of all bows, behind
Daikyu , Lenz and Kuva Bramma.
- Very high critical chance.
- Very high overall status chance.
- Deals 50% bonus damage on headshots.
- Charged shots have innate 1 meter punch through.
- Innate multishot of 3 arrows.
- Alternate Fire can toggle a horizontal or vertical spread shot.
- Pinpoint accuracy when aiming (RMB ).
- Silent.
- On kill, bodies will follow the arrow that killed them, damaging enemies in their path and pinning the corpse to walls.
- Innate two polarities.
- Can use the bow-exclusive Thunderbolt mod.
- Fire rate mods apply double their bonuses.
Disadvantages:
- Low Puncture and Slash damage – less effective against armor and health.
- Draws from the rare sniper ammo pool.
- Very wide spread.
Comparisons:
- Cernos Prime (Charged Horizontal/Vertical Shot), compared to Cernos (Charged Shot):
- Lower base damage per projectile (184 vs. 380)
- Higher total damage (552 vs. 380)
- Lower base critical chance (35% vs. 36%)
- Higher base status chance (30% vs. 18%)
- Higher average damage per shot (745.2 vs. 516.8)
- Higher burst DPS (621 vs. 469.82)
- Higher sustained DPS (392.21 vs. 304)
- Higher multishot (3 projectile(s) vs. 1 projectile(s))
- Slower reload time (0.7 s vs. 0.6 s)
- Different polarities ( vs. )
- Higher Mastery Rank required (12 vs. 6)
- Lower disposition (1.25 vs. 1.3)
- Cernos Prime (Charged Horizontal/Vertical Shot), compared to Rakta Cernos (Charged Shot):
- Lower base damage per projectile (184 vs. 470)
- Higher total damage (552 vs. 470)
- Higher base status chance (30% vs. 15%)
- Higher average damage per shot (745.2 vs. 634.5)
- Lower burst DPS (621 vs. 746.47)
- Lower sustained DPS (392.21 vs. 437.59)
- Higher multishot (3 projectile(s) vs. 1 projectile(s))
- Slower reload time (0.7 s vs. 0.6 s)
- Different polarities ( vs. )
- Lack of an innate Blight effect
Acquisition[]
Lith, Meso, Neo, and Axi refer to Void Relics | (V) Denotes Vaulted Void Relics | (B) Denotes Baro Ki'Teer Exclusive Void Relic
| String | Lower Limb | Upper Limb | Blueprint | Grip |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 Axi V10 Common Axi A3 Uncommon (V) Axi K2 Uncommon (V) Lith B3 Uncommon (V) Meso N8 Uncommon (V) Meso O1 Uncommon (V) Meso S6 Uncommon (V) Neo A1 Uncommon (V)
|
Lith C7 Rare Axi C1 Rare (V) Axi C2 Rare (V) Lith C2 Rare (V) Lith C5 Rare (V) Meso C3 Rare (V)
|
Meso N11 Common Axi N4 Common (V) Lith V3 Common (V) Meso C2 Common (V) Meso K1 Common (V) Meso N8 Common (V) Meso O2 Common (V) Meso S7 Common (V) Neo N6 Common (V)
|
Neo V9 Uncommon Axi B1 Uncommon (V) Axi V4 Uncommon (V) Lith A2 Uncommon (V) Lith Z1 Uncommon (V) Neo S13 Uncommon (V) Neo V7 Uncommon (V)
|
Axi S8 Common Axi H3 Common (V) Axi K3 Common (V) Axi S5 Common (V) Lith V6 Common (V) Meso V5 Common (V) Neo V4 Common (V) Neo V6 Common (V)
|
| Manufacturing Requirements | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 15,000 |
 1 |
1 |
 1 |
 1 |
Time: 12 hrs |
Rush:  50
| |||||
 Market Price: N/A
|
 Blueprints Price:N/A
| ||||
Vaultings[]
- On September 11th, 2018, it was announced that Cernos Prime, along with Valkyr Prime and Venka Prime, would enter the Prime Vault and be retired from the reward tables on September 25th, 2018. Any preexisting components or fully-built weapons will remain as is.
- Cernos Prime's relics were permanently unvaulted as of Update 29.10 (2021-03-19), being only obtainable through Abandoned Derelict Caches in Corpus Railjack missions.
Notes[]
- The +50% bonus damage on headshots is multiplicative to other sources of +bonus damage on headshot such as Primary Deadhead and Prowl.
- The Cernos Prime's shots fire multiple arrows in a fanning spread. The number of arrows is affected by multishot mods, similar to shotguns.
- Alternate Fire toggles a Horizontal Spread or Vertical Spread fire.
- Heavy Caliber will decrease accuracy by a small amount, making each arrow fire slightly off from its normal trajectory.
- As of Hotfix 19.11.2 (2017-02-17) this was increased dramatically, making the weapon act more like a wildly-spreading shotgun than a fan of arrows.
- The arrows seem to be spread in a formation where some arrows are lower than the others, rather than being wider spread than others, this might make it difficult to get headshots with multiple arrows.
- Although Heavy Caliber dramatically affects the Horizontal mode, firing the Cernos Prime in Vertical mode will shoot the arrows in a horizontal formation with great accuracy
Trivia[]
- The Cernos Prime, alongside Akstiletto Prime, Dual Kamas Prime, Fang Prime, Paris Prime, and Zhuge Prime are the only Prime weapons that do not require Orokin Cells as crafting ingredients.
Tips[]
- Cernos Prime is capable of orange crits with Point Strike and Argon Scope averaging approximately 1015 orange crit damage with a single arrow.
- The horizontal arrow spread is effective against groups of enemies, while the vertical spread is effective against a single target.
- While capable of reaching 100% status making every arrow proc, often the Cernos Prime's power comes with modding for Hunter Munitions, which is not affected by status chance. Building for Viral with Malignant Force and Rime Rounds is sufficient for the arrows to proc Viral often enough to increase the damage from Slash procs brought on by Hunter Munitions to finish them off.
Media[]
Cernos Prime in Codex.
Cernos Prime as shown in the Arsenal
Cernos Prime Arrow Quiver with Arrows
Warframe - All Prime Primaries - Weapon Animations & Sounds (2013 - 2019)
2 Minute Guide to Delete Enemies in 2 Secs with Cernos Prime - Warframe
Cernos Prime Build 2021 (Guide) - The Bludgeon Shortbow - Warframe
Cernos Prime Skins
Patch History[]
Update 28.0 (2020-06-11)
- Reduced the hit FX of the Cernos Prime.
Hotfix 27.2.1 (2020-03-05)
- Increased Cernos Prime 10% Status Chance per projectile to 30% Status Chance per projectile.
Update 27.2 (2020-03-05)
- Greater than 100% Status having meaning
Shotguns have a unique Role here based on a very patch-work history with how they interact with Status Chance. A Shotgun that shoots 99% Status Chance would give you 35% (roughly) status per pellet. 100% Status Gives you 100% Status per pellet. This huge jump in performance happens with just a 1% gain - why? Well, to answer that we have to look at our choice to make what the UI conveys reality. It would feel broken to shoot a Shotgun with 100% Status and not see a perfect spread of Effects. In reality, to make Status consistent we have to treat Shotguns as a special case.
Shotguns as a special case means we have buffed the Status Chance of all Shotguns by x3 or greater. The UI now behaves to show the reality that you are determining Status Chance per pellet.
Update 25.7 (2019-08-29)
- Normalized quick shots to have the same critical chance/damage and status chance as charged shots.
- While reviewing Bow stats the team has also refreshed all their FX (including the Lenz)!
- Quick Shot increased from 60 to 92
- Charged Shot increased from 120 to 184
- Flight Speed increased from 85 to 95
- Tightened the spread of the vertical fire mode and made the top arrow land on the reticle instead of the middle
- Fixed Cernos Prime equipped with Heavy Caliber causing Vertical Spread mode to function as a Horizontal Spread.
Hotfix 25.3.3 (2019-07-16)
- Fixed an issue with Cernos Prime arrows fired by Mirage's Hall of Mirrors clones always hitting the floor.
Hotfix 25.0.7 (2019-05-30)
- Fixed the Cernos (Prime) Energy color persisting as default on the strings.
Update 23.9 (2018-09-25)
- Cernos Prime has entered the Prime Vault.
Update 22.16 (2018-03-15)
- Fixed Cernos Prime’s vertical spread not using equipped arrow Skins.
Hotfix 22.13.3 (2018-02-21)
- Cernos Prime Alt Fire is now silent as intended.
Hotfix 22.13.1 (2018-02-15)
- Fixed numerous projectile weapons (Cernos Prime, etc) having incorrect Status Chance calculations.
Update 22.12 (2018-02-09)
- Mastery Rank increased from 8 to 12.
- Charge speed increased from 1s to 0.5s.
- Status chance increased from 10% to 30%.
- Reload speed increased from 1s to 0.7s (in note put 0.65).
- Added Secondary Fire Mode toggle that shoots a vertical spread of 3 arrows.
- Added innate +50% damage to headshots.
Hotfix 19.0.7 (2016-11-22)
- Released via Valkyr Prime Access.
Hotfix 19.0.2 (2016-11-12)
- Removed an unreleased Relic from the wild.
Update 19.0 (2016-11-11)
- Parts and Relics loaded to the build.
Last updated: Update 23.9 (2018-09-25)
See also[]
- Cernos, the normal counterpart.
- Rakta Cernos, the Red Veil custom counterpart.
- Mutalist Cernos, the Infested counterpart.
