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The Kestrel boomerang is a heavy throwing weapon that can knock down enemies at a distance.

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

Characteristics[]

  • This weapon deals primarily DmgImpactSmall64 Impact damage.
  • Slam Attacks deals only DmgMagneticSmall64 Magnetic damage.
  • Can be wielded in-tandem with a single-handed secondary weapon.
  • Holding the melee button throws the glaive, which can bounce up to three times, travel up to 23 meters uncharged, and 30 meters fully charged before returning to the user, damaging anyone in its path. Meleeing while the glaive is in mid-flight commands it to return.
    • Primary and secondary weapons can be fired and reloaded normally with a thrown glaive, and retrieving the glaive does not interrupt these actions. Additional throws can also be "buffered" while the glaive is in mid-flight.
    • Thrown glaive deals primarily DmgBlastSmall64 Blast damage.
    • Innate 1 meter punch through.
    • Thrown glaive is silent.
    • Heavy Attacks while the glaive is in mid-flight produce a 3.6 meter explosion and forces the glaive to return.
      • Explosion inflicts a guaranteed DmgImpactSmall64 Impact proc.
      • Explosion does not need direct line of sight to deal damage and will penetrate walls.
      • Explosion has linear Damage Falloff from 100% to 60% from central impact.
      • Explosion inflicts self-stagger.
      • Explosion has a headshot multiplier of 1x and cannot trigger headshot conditions.
    • Cannot use melee attacks or block while the glaive is in mid-flight.
  • Can use the Kestrel-exclusive Mod TT 20px Entropy Flight mod.
  • Can use the Glaive-exclusive mods Mod TT 20px Combo Fury, Mod TT 20px Power Throw, Mod TT 20px Quick Return (Mod TT 20px Volatile), Mod TT 20px Rebound (Mod TT 20px Volatile), and Mod TT 20px Whirlwind.
  • Stance slot has Naramon Pol polarity, matching Mod TT 20px Gleaming Talon, Mod TT 20px Astral Twilight and Mod TT 20px Celestial Nightfall (Conclave only) stance.
  • Innate Madurai Pol and Naramon Pol polarities.

Advantages over other Melee weapons (excluding modular weapons):

  • Normal Attack (wiki attack index 1)
    • Above average attack speed (1.08x animation speed)
    • Very high disposition (●●●●● (1.45x))
  • Throw (wiki attack index 2)
    • Very high disposition (●●●●● (1.45x))
  • Throw Bounce Explosion (wiki attack index 3)
    • Very high disposition (●●●●● (1.45x))
  • Throw Recall Explosion (wiki attack index 4)
    • High disposition (●●●●● (1.45x))
  • Charged Throw (wiki attack index 5)
    • Very high disposition (●●●●● (1.45x))
  • Charged Throw Bounce Explosion (wiki attack index 6)
    • Above average disposition (●●●●● (1.45x))
  • Charged Throw Recall Explosion (wiki attack index 7)
    • Above average disposition (●●●●● (1.45x))

Disadvantages over other Melee weapons (excluding modular weapons):

  • Lowest base damage of all Glaives.
  • Normal Attack (wiki attack index 1)
    • Very low crit chance (10.00%)
    • Very low total damage (84)
    • Very low attack range (1.20 m)
    • Very low status chance (10.00%)
  • Throw (wiki attack index 2)
    • Very low crit chance (12.00%)
    • Very low total damage (92)
    • Very low attack range (1.20 m)
    • Low status chance (12.00%)
  • Throw Bounce Explosion (wiki attack index 3)
    • Very low active falloff slope (9.0m/%)
    • Low crit chance (12.00%)
    • Very low maximum falloff distance (3.6 m)
    • Low total damage (126)
    • Very low attack range (1.20 m)
    • Low status chance (12.00%)
  • Throw Recall Explosion (wiki attack index 4)
    • Very low crit chance (12.00%)
    • Low maximum falloff distance (3.6 m)
    • Very low total damage (252)
    • Low attack range (1.20 m)
    • Very low status chance (12.00%)
    • Below average crit multiplier (2.10x)
  • Charged Throw (wiki attack index 5)
    • Low crit chance (14.00%)
    • Very low total damage (184)
    • Below average attack range (1.20 m)
    • Very low status chance (14.00%)
    • Below average crit multiplier (2.20x)
  • Charged Throw Bounce Explosion (wiki attack index 6)
    • Low active falloff slope (10.0m/%)
    • Below average crit chance (14.00%)
    • Low maximum falloff distance (4.0 m)
    • Very low total damage (252)
    • Below average attack range (1.20 m)
    • Very low status chance (14.00%)
    • Low crit multiplier (2.20x)
  • Charged Throw Recall Explosion (wiki attack index 7)
    • Below average crit chance (14.00%)
    • Low maximum falloff distance (4.0 m)
    • Very low total damage (504)
    • Below average attack range (1.20 m)
    • Very low status chance (14.00%)
    • Low crit multiplier (2.20x)

Acquisition[]

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


Manufacturing Requirements
📝 Edit blueprint requirements
Credits
15,000
Morphics
8
Ferrite
4,800
NanoSpores
5,000
Salvage
4,000
Time: 12 Hour(s)
Rush: PlatinumLarge 50
MarketIcon Market Price: PlatinumLarge 150 Blueprint2 Blueprints Price:Credits20,000

This weapon can be sold for Credits64 5,000.

Notes[]

  • Can hit theoretically infinite targets on return.
  • Like with other thrown weapons, using Mod TT 20px Whirlwind on the Kestrel will increase flight speed as well as distance traveled, because the flight time is constant. A fully leveled Mod TT 20px Whirlwind will increase the maximum distance to ~63m.
  • When not in use, the Kestrel sheaths under your right arm.
  • Ragdolled enemies' health and shield bars are also concealed while ragdolled. Although they usually display damage indicators while ragdolled, sometimes they will not display if you are not the host - giving the impression that the enemy is invulnerable (not the case).
  • Sometimes it will continuously fly around its user in a circular path indefinitely after bouncing off at least 2 objects, such as two adjacent walls, if the user stands back and stays still afterwards. (Possibly intended but its exact mechanics are unknown, however, Mod TT 20px Rebound and Mod TT 20px Whirlwind were installed when this was discovered.)
    • Simply installing a max rank Entropy Flight mod will also cause this. The Kestrel is considered flying on a return path the entire time, so it punches through everything it hits. If the player moves too quickly, they will catch the Kestrel; however, if it is carefully maintained, it can continually fly around the player and deal large amounts of damage to everyone in the vicinity.
    • High flight speed, which causes this orbiting behavior, does carry some risk, as a current bug can cause the thrown weapon to disappear, disabling melee for the rest of the level or until the player has died & revived.

Tips[]

  • When equipping the Kestrel, the player can throw it and then press the melee 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 Mod TT 20px 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.
    • It should be however noted that finisher attacks can still be executed while the weapon is in the air.
  • 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 the Mod TT 20px Finishing Touch mod.
    • For example, a Kestrel without any mods will deal 42 damage (= 120 * 35%) per bleed tick. With only a fully levelled Mod TT 20px Finishing Touch, this is increased to 67 damage and to 100 damage while channeling.
  • With Mod TT 20px Entropy Flight unique to it and Mod TT 20px Whirlwind, the Kestrel can attain a higher flight speed than any other thrown melee weapon with Whirlwind. This also indirectly increases its maximum range.

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 forearm.

Media[]

Kestrel Skins

Edit

Patch History[]

Update 31.6 (2022-06-09)

  • Fixed the Kestrel’s boomerang sound not stopping if using a Warframe ability during melee attacks.

Update 30.9 (2021-11-11)

  • Fixed Glaives not being affected by abilities that attract projectiles (i.e Mag’s Magnetize).
    • This also fixes a Glaive that has been redirected in such a way infinitely bouncing.
    • This also fixes Glaive being unable to punchthrough certain Metal surfaces (Crewman Helmets)

Update 30.5 (2021-07-06)

MELEE / PRIMARY BALANCE CHANGES

In late 2020, we reworked the Glaive melee class to be more powerful and comfortable to use. Overall, we feel these changes had their intended effect as weapons like the Glaive Prime skyrocketed from obscurity to the top of the pile with their newfound ability to inflict huge damage using heavy attacks.

However, these changes also introduced a common issue: players with high melee attack speed would sometimes accidentally throw their Glaives when trying to perform simple melee strikes, and the “catch and release” mechanic sometimes resulted in multiple unintended throws. In reviewing our Melee system, we felt it was a good opportunity to address this concern, while also doing a balancing pass to reflect the power in this newly reworked melee class.

That said, our two changes to Glaives go hand in hand:

First, the heavy attack wind-up speed is being increased from 0.6 seconds to 1.2 seconds. With more time on the wind-up, it is much harder to accidentally throw when you are trying to swing.

With this increased wind-up speed, players are also more capable of performing quick throws. Right now the damage on quick throws is very close to fully charged, so in order to encourage more meaningful choice, our second change is to reduce quick throw damage to approximately 50% of the maximum charge. Exact number changes are as follows:

Kestrel
Direct Hit Damage from 168 to 92
Radial Damage from 252 to 126

Update 29.5 (2020-11-19)

  • Added guaranteed Impact proc to Heavy Attack Detonation.
  • Reduced AoE fall off from 50% to 40%.
  • Reduced Max self CC from Knocked Down to Stagger.
  • Removed falloff from Throw Explosion and Charged Throw Explosion damage.
  • (Undocumented) Throw Explosion and Charged Throw Explosion damage increased from 252 to 504 Blast damage.

Hotfix 27.2.2 (2020-03-06)
Reduced the following AoE weapons Radial Damage Falloff from central impact that were all previously 90%:

  • Kestrel: 50%

Update 27.2 (2020-03-05)

Self Damage Changes

We are getting rid of Self Damage and replacing it with something else: instead of Self Damage, it’s now ‘Stagger’. This change completely removes the chance of killing yourself, and instead now creates scenarios where you will interrupt yourself - or ‘Stagger’ - to varying degrees if you aren’t careful.

The degrees of Self-Interrupt start with a small stumble all the way to full knockdown depending on how close you are to the center of explosion. Any Mods referring to Self Damage will be converted to acknowledge Stagger.

With this Self-Interrupt system, we have added dozens of new recovery animations that harness a ninja-like recovery experience. By pressing ‘Jump’ at the correct time, you can execute a ninja-skill-based knockdown recovery to ALL in-game knockdowns. This ninja recovery window is indicated by a glowing FX on your Warframe.

In the original Dev Workshop, we said:
As a result of this overall systemic change, Weapons with Stagger will be getting approximately a 20% buff in Damage, with any weapons with AOE receiving a 50% Radial Damage Falloff from central impact.

This is no longer accurate after continued testing. What we are doing now is:

No damage buffs have been added, but any weapons with AOE are receiving ~20% increase in Radius. Additionally, AOE weapons are receiving a 90% Radial Damage Falloff from central impact. This means on the very outer section of the explosion Radius 10% of the Damage will be dealt. Tactics will be deadly - aim true, Tenno.

Why: Several players brought up the history of the Tonkor and we want to make sure we ship this change in a place that’s conservative in its starting point from a balance perspective. The complete removal of Self Damage does change the pace of destruction with some of the game’s most powerful weapons, so we want to make sure we can iterate upwardly instead of releasing a bonanza of explosions with no other choices.

Update 26.0 (2019-10-31)
As a general note, self damage has been removed from Glaive power throws. As this decision made it through the testing pipeline, some mentioned this impacts a specific Chroma interaction, but positively impacts 41 other Warframes.

  • Damage increased from 35 to 84.
  • Range increased from 0.5 to 1.2.
  • Slam Attack increased from 70 to 252.
  • Slide Attack decreased from 175 to 168.
  • Parry Angle set to 55.
  • Follow Through increased from 0.5 to 0.7.

Hotfix 24.5.3 (2019-03-19)

  • Changed the Glaive recall to be done with Melee instead of Melee Channel so its consistent again (Channel being a toggle-only messed up this function).
  • Fixed an error where, after Dual-Wielding gun and Glaive, throwing the Glaive in the "normal" Melee only mode could result in a turbo throw that is only supposed to apply for Dual-Wield.

Update 22.12 (2018-02-09)

  • Updates and sound additions to one handed secondaries when using Glaive type weapons.

Update 21.0 (2017-06-29)

  • Increased critical chance from 5% to 10% for Melee hits and projectiles.
  • Increased damage from 30 to 35.
  • Increased Crit Multiplier from 1.5 to 2.
  • Fixed issues with Glaive-style weapons being thrown through walls.

Update 19.4.2 (2016-12-20)

  • Fixed a crash that could occur when Glaives and similar Weapons hit ragdolled enemies.

Hotfix 19.0.7 (2016-11-22)

  • Reduced the Channeled explosion damage and radius of all Glaive weapons in Conclave.
  • Increased projectile damage of Kestrel in Conclave.

Update: The Index Preview (2016-10-20)

  • Removed auto-targeting of Kestrel in Conclave.
  • Fixed Glaive type weapons with increased flight speed 'orbiting' players when attempting to recall it by channeling.

Hotfix: Specters of the Rail 0.1 (2016-07-08)

  • Fixed an instance of Glaive weapons causing the game to crash.

Update 17.9.1 (2015-10-29)

  • Fixed Glaive weapons not appearing for melee stealth attacks.

Update 17.5 (2015-10-01)

  • Reduced the radius of channeled explosions from Glaive projectiles in PvP.

Hotfix 17.0.3 (2015-08-04)

  • Fixed the Redeemer and Glaive weapons being unable to do a charge attack when the player had a fast enough attack speed.

Hotfix 16.5.1 (2015-05-12)

  • Fixed an issue causing Glaive weapons not to appear as full size when viewed in the Codex.

Update 16.5 (2015-05-12)

  • The Kestrel now available for use in Conclave.

Update 15.0 (2014-10-24)

  • Fixed an issue with Glaives/boomerangs staying scaled down/weapon trails off if you attack during the previous attack scaling down.

Update 14.8 (2014-09-24)

  • Fixed an issue with thrown melee weapons (Kestrel) losing weapon functionality if they perform a ground slam attack when they are already close to the ground while in melee mode.

Update 14.0 (2014-07-18)

  • Improved the positioning of melee accessories on Boomerang weapons (Kestrel).

Hotfix 13.9.1 (2014-07-02)

  • Fixed edge case of Glaive type weapons not being immediately throwable when holding Melee if you were in a Primary/Secondary weapon grip.

Hotfix 13.6.1 (2014-06-06)

  • Fixes self-inflicted death wounds being caused by throwing Glaives through Volt or Nyx's energy shields/bubbles.

Update 12.0 (2014-02-05)

  • Made the glaive type weapons shrink when "unfocused" in arsenal.

Update 11.0 (2013-11-20)

  • Fixed issue with Kestrel and Glaive animations for holstering.

Update 10.3 (2013-10-09)

  • Fix for Glaive mods to be shared between Glaive/Kestrel.

Update 9.2 (2013-07-19)

  • Fixed the Glaive and Kestrels charged attacks so that they take into account any power stored in the weapon from mods such as Melee Channel.

Hotfix 8.1.2 (2013-06-13)

  • Fixed Infested bosses disappearing after being damaged by Kestrel

Update 8.1 (2013-06-07)

  • Introduced.

Last updated: Update 26.0 (2019-10-31)

See Also[]

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