The Knell is 
Harrow's signature pistol that ultilizes its scope to more accurately land shots at long range. Although its magazine can only hold 1 round (2 rounds when equipped with Harrow), headshots grant it infinite ammunition and increased critical multiplier and status chance for a short duration, making it a "high risk, high reward" weapon.
Characteristics[]
- This weapon primarily deals
Puncture and Impact damage. - Landing a successful headshot grants the "Death Knell" buff, additively increasing the modded critical multiplier by 0.5x and modded status chance by 20% and stacks up to 3 times, and also increases Ammo Efficiency by 100%. The buff lasts 2 seconds and can be refreshed on subsequent headshots.
- Precise at long range due to the scope feature.
- Scope can be used even in Bleedout.
Advantages:
- Normal Attack
- Above average crit chance
- High damage
Disadvantages:
- Can only load one shot at a time (two when used by Harrow/ Harrow Prime).
- Normal Attack
- Very low magazine
- Below average effective fire rate
- Very low max ammo
- Low reload speed
- Very low status chance
- Very low crit multiplier
Comparisons:
- Knell (Normal Attack), compared to Knell Prime (Normal Attack):
- Lower base damage per projectile (150 vs. 180)
- Lower total damage (150 vs. 180)
- Lower base critical chance (20.00% vs. 40.00%)
- Lower base critical multiplier (1.5x vs. 2.0x)
- Lower base status chance (5.00% vs. 10.00%)
- Lower average damage per tap (165 vs. 252)
- Lower burst DPS (82.5 vs. 126)
- Lower sustained DPS (73.33 vs. 114.54)
- Lower fire rate (4 vs. 5)
- Lower Mastery Rank required (10 vs. 14)
- Higher disposition (●●●●○ (1.25x) vs. ●●●○○ (1.05x))
Acquisition[]
The Knell's blueprint can be purchased from the Market.
| Manufacturing Requirements | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 15,000 |
 2 |
 5,200 |
 3,800 |
 20,000 |
Time: 12 hrs |
Rush:  35
| |||||
 Market Price: 190
|
 Blueprints Price:20,000
| ||||
Notes[]
- When used by Harrow or Harrow Prime, the Knell's magazine size is increased by 1 round, for a total of 2 rounds.
- Death Knell adds a flat critical multiplier by 0.5x and a flat status chance by 20%. It also grants unlimited ammo. The buff lasts for 2 seconds and can be refreshed.
- Critical multiplier and status chance bonus can stack up to 3 times. When the buff times out, one stack is lost and the buff duration resets.
- Critical multiplier bonus is calculated as:
- Crit Multiplier = 1.5 × (1 + Crit Damage Mods) + 0.5 × Number of Stacks
- The buff triggers only on headshots, and not other weakspots, such as the backpacks of most MOA variants. Similarly, shooting weakspots generated by either Sonar or Detect Vulnerability in places other than heads will have no effect either.
- Headshots on corpses can proc Death Knell.
- Individual Multishot bullets can proc Death Knell and can generate max stacks instantly from a single shot.
- As an indication that this buff is active, the scope design while zoomed in will evolve, as well as showing the Death Knell buff in the UI.
- The scope shows a 1.5x, 2.0x or 2.5x crit multiplier for the number of stacks respectively. However this does not represent the actual buff.
Tips[]
- Synergizes well with Magnetize, Scourge, Harrow, Arcane Precision, Arcane Awakening, all other "On headshot" arcanes, Hydraulic Crosshairs, Orvius and Prowl (only if using Suppress). This is due to it having a fast reload, extremely small magazine, and the focus on scoring headshots.
- Harrow's Condemn, in particular, synergizes extremely well with Knell as chained enemies leave their heads very vulnerable to being shot at.
- Scourge also works particularly well with Knell, as the Bullet Attractor-like fields caused by throwing the speargun are created over the enemies' heads, and make it easier to land headshots.
- Orvius' charged attack holds enemies in the air where they are open to headshots.
- Combining a maxed Primed Pistol Gambit with a maxed active Hydraulic Crosshairs will give a combined 322% crit chance bonus, bringing crit chance for the Knell to 84.4%. Using Galvanized Crosshairs instead at maximum stacks will increase this further to 507% crit chance bonus, boosting the total crit chance to 121.4% for guaranteed critical hits.
- Harrow's
- Works surprisingly well in conjunction with Nyx's Mind Control, as headshots on the controlled enemy will still trigger Death Knell, but they will not take damage until the ability ends. This way you can always have a big-headed-buddy of your choice nearby for easy activations.
- Pressurized Magazine can be very beneficial on this weapon, as it will increase the fire rate during the infinite ammo buff considerably if you can score a headshot quickly after reloading.
- Seeker is also a viable mod for this pistol, especially when expecting enemies to spawn in a corridor such as the main hallway in a Void Defense mission, or when trying to score a headshot against an enemy hiding behind cover or Shield Lancers.
Trivia[]
- A knell is the sound made by a bell, specifically when rung to signify a death or a funeral.
- When viewed from overhead Knell resembles a cross, possibly in reference to Harrow's priest/exorcist theme.
- There is Tennobet engraved at the bottom of Knell's handle. This translates to "KUHT", which could mean "Cut".
Media[]
Knell in Codex.
Warframe Knell, Penalized For Not Scoring Head - 4 Forma Build thesnapshot
How to use the Knell- Properly! (Warframe weapon guide)
Warframe - KNELL BUILD - Sniper Pistol 4 forma
Knell Quick Showcase Bullet Hell (For Enemies) - 4 Forma
Warframe - All Tenno Secondaries - Weapon Animations & Sounds (2012 - 2019)
Warframe - All Tenno Weapon Reloads in 3 minutes (2012 - 2019)
Patch History[]
Hotfix 31.0.6 (2022-01-04)
- Fixed the Knells unlimited ammo not functioning after you've Transferred to the Operator.
Hotfix 31.0.5 (2021-12-21)
- Fixed Harrow Prime not giving weapon passive bonus (additional shot in the magazine) to the Knell/Knell Prime.
Update 25.8 (2019-10-01)
- October 2019 Riven Disposition Change
- Knell: 1.15->1.2
Hotfix 25.4.1 (2019-07-24)
- Fixed the Knell forcing a reload when empty even if you got a headshot.
Update 24.6 (2019-04-04)
- The Knell is now automatic.
- Having a ‘signature’ weapon now actually benefits you!
- Knell now has a 2 round mag when wielded by Harrow.
- (Undocumented) Increased reload time from 1.0s to 2.0s.
Update 22.20 (2018-05-17)
- Fixed Knell gaining multiple procs for a single shot on Client.
Update 22.12 (2018-02-09)
- Death Knell buff also adds +20% status chance.
Hotfix 21.0.7 (2017-07-13)
- Fixed incorrect projectile sounds with the Knell.
Hotfix 21.0.3 (2017-06-30)
- Fixed the Knell's Penitence buff not removing when the duration was complete.
- Fixed the Knell not displaying its Penitence buff icon in Conclave.
- Fixed the Knell not updating it’s scope UI correctly in Conclave.
Hotfix 21.0.2 (2017-06-29)
- Fixed the Knell headshot buff having default icon and description.
Hotfix 21.0.1 (2017-06-29)
- Fixed a crash when hitting enemies with the Knell while zoomed (32-bit only).
Update 21.0 (2017-06-29)
- Introduced.
Last updated: Update 24.6 (2019-04-04)
See Also[]
- Knell Prime, the Primed counterpart.
- Scourge, Harrow's signature speargun.
