The Mutalist Cernos is an 
Infested 
Cernos, possessing a lower critical chance in exchange for a significant increase in status chance. The bow also releases 
Toxin spores that follow arrow impacts, producing lingering damage clouds.
This weapon can be sold for 
8,500. It is also a requisite ingredient for 
Proboscis Cernos.
Contents
Characteristics[]
This weapon deals primarily 
Impact damage.
Advantages:
- High
Impact damage – effective against shields. - Spore clouds have innate Toxin damage – effective against Flesh and bypasses Shielded and Proto Shields.
- Good critical chance.
- Highest status chance of all bows.
- Arrow impacts spawns a small Toxin cloud that deals damage over 3 meters and has a chance to apply a Toxin proc every second for 10 seconds.
- Spore cloud does not inflict self-stagger.
- Initial hit and spore cloud apply status separately.
- 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 polarity.
- Can use the bow-exclusive Thunderbolt mod.
- Can benefit from Firestorm ( Primed).
- Fire rate mods apply double their bonuses.
Disadvantages:
- Low Puncture and Slash damage – less effective against armor and health.
- Spore clouds have innate Toxin damage – less effective against Machinery, Robotics, and Fossilized.
- Arrows have travel time with slight arcing.
- Second lowest critical chance of all bows, after Proboscis Cernos.
- Draws from the rare sniper ammo pool.
- Spore clouds will alert enemies, despite the weapon being silent.
- Spore clouds appear as a second projectile shortly after the arrow impact, slightly delaying its presence.
- Spore clouds will follow arrow impacts even on ragdolled corpses.
- Spore cloud range cannot be increased with Amalgam Furax Body Count.
Acquisition[]
The Mutalist Cernos's blueprint can be purchased from the Market.
| Manufacturing Requirements | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 15,000 |
 1 |
 1,400 |
 1,200 |
 2,300 |
Time: 12 hrs |
Rush:  45
| |||||
 Market Price: 250
|
 Blueprints Price: 20,000
| ||||
Notes[]
- In regards to Riven Mods, the Mutalist Cernos is considered separate from the rest of the Cernos family and cannot use Cernos Rivens; they must be specifically for the Mutalist Cernos.
- Upon hitting an enemy or an object, the Mutalist Cernos's spore will create a small Toxin cloud that deals damage every second to any enemy within its radius. This cloud lasts for 10 seconds.
- The spore cloud deals 5 Toxin damage per second modified by any base damage and elemental damage mods installed on the weapon.
- The cloud's primary damage is of the same damage type(s) as the elements installed on the weapon, with the innate Toxin damage combining with them last, similarly to other pure elemental weapons.
- Each tick from the cloud has a chance to proc Toxin as well as any modded elemental status effect, with each stack displayed separately to the cloud's larger primary damage ticks.
- The forced Toxin proc damage over time is calculated as normal; 50% of the spore's base damage adjusted by base damage mods, plus the Toxin damage bonus from mods. Unmodified this is 2.5 Toxin damage per second stacks (displayed rounded down) in addition to the cloud's primary damage ticks. Since Toxin procs last 8 seconds, and the proc is refreshed every second of the 10 second cloud duration, the Toxin proc duration will last a maximum of 18 seconds from the initial spore cloud damage tick.
- The cloud itself is not affected by status duration mods like Continuous Misery, but the cloud's procs of Toxin, Heat or Gas of course are.
- The spore cloud deals 5
- While the cloud effect is similar to the Torid, the clouds are smaller and can sometimes spread between enemies.
- The user interface will not display elemental damage mods after combining with the toxin due to the calculation only displaying base damage initially and modded arrow damage (effectively treating the cloud as if it were the modded damage, thus reducing arrow elements from the UI), resulting in elemental damage displayed after first to be inaccurate.
- The number of spore clouds are affected by Multishot.
- For charged shots, the spore's critical chance and critical multiplier will be boosted, keep the same as the arrow's values. However, the spore's base damage is unaffected by charging.
- Altering the Projectile Speed will affect both the arrow and the spore, including Terminal Velocity, Jet Stream and possible Riven Mods' stats.
Tips[]
- The Mutalist Cernos is ill suited for stealth missions, as enemies that are damaged by lingering toxin clouds will be immediately alerted to the Tenno's presence.
- Multiple spore clouds can be a hindrance as they may obscure the player's vision.
- The continuous damage dealt by spore clouds is quite effective at in taking down Nullifier and Arctic Eximus shields faster compared to other bows, on top of dealing direct damage to the shielded enemy's health.
- Any arrow that procs Thunderbolt's explosion will not result in a spore being fired, making its usage ill-advised.
- Likewise, arrows landed on an ally or any containers (including resource deposits) will not have a spore followed, a significant difference from Torid.
- Likewise, arrows landed on an ally or any containers (including resource deposits) will not have a spore followed, a significant difference from
- Mods that add sufficient punch through will often result in the spore landing well behind a targeted enemy. While this may allow the Mutalist Cernos to deal with cameras, turrets, and other stationary destructibles or objects from behind obstructions, it is suggested that such mods be avoided, as the downsides far outweigh the benefits.
- Unlike the Torid's projectile, the spores will attach to a Nullifier bubble (or Arctic Eximus Globe) at the point of impact, continuously applying damage and shrinking the bubble. This makes the bow an efficient means of combating Nullifiers in Bow-only Corpus Sorties.
- Can utilize Split Flights effectively, as damage from the clouds will refresh the duration of the multishot bonus, and cause the weapon to fire a large spread of arrows for excessive amounts of procs.
Bugs[]
- Mutalist cloud from the second arrow may have a base status chance of around 15~23% or is not affected by status chance mods like the Ferrox lightning rings.
- Similar to a bug previously present on the Torid, the clouds that stick to enemies after getting shot with an arrow will sometimes do no damage to that enemy.
Media[]
The Mutalist Cernos, shown in the Update 18.5 Teaser
18.5 Hub's Weapon Teaser
Mutalist Cernos when equipped in the arsenal
Mutalist Cernos's Quiver
Warframe Test Drive Mutualist Cernos
MUTALIST CERNOS BUILD - 100% Status fun 3 forma - Warframe
Warframe MUTALIST CERNOS Setup & Discussions 3x Forma (U18.8.2)
Mutalist Cernos Skins
Patch History[]
Update 27.4 (2020-05-01)
- Fixed the Mutalist Cernos Damage over Time applying self-damage.
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 120 to 205
- Charged Shot increased from 225 to 410
- Aim Zoom decreased from 2.23x to 2x
Update 22.12 (2018-02-09)
- Mastery Rank increased from 5 to 7.
- Charge speed increased from 1s to 0.5s.
- Status chance increased from 45% to 49%.
- Status chance per tick now uses weapon's own status chance. (Undocumented)
- Slightly faster tick rate. (Undocumented)
Update 18.5 (2016-03-04)
- Introduced.
See also[]
- Cernos, the normal counterpart.
- Rakta Cernos, the Red Veil custom counterpart.
- Cernos Prime, the primed counterpart.
- Proboscis Cernos, another Infested Cernos that uses Mutalist Cernos as a requisite ingredient.
