Penta is a Grenade launcher used by Corpus Penta Rangers. It launches ballistic grenades that can be manually detonated with Alternate Fire.
Characteristics[]
- This weapon deals primarily Blast damage.
- Can only have five grenades out at once.
- Extra projectiles generated by Multishot will count towards the limit of five live grenades.
- Grenades explode in a 4 meter radius upon impacting a surface or enemy.
- Initial hit and explosion apply status separately.
- Explosion does not need direct line of sight to deal damage and will penetrate walls.
- Can use the Penta-exclusive Tether Grenades and Napalm Grenades, as well as the launcher-exclusive mod Adhesive Blast.
- Can benefit from Firestorm ( Primed) and Cautious Shot.
Advantages over other Primary weapons (excluding modular weapons):
- Pinpoint accuracy.
- Heavy Caliber's accuracy penalty is minimal on this weapon.
- Grenade Impact (wiki attack index 1)
- High disposition (●●●●● (1.35x))
- Grenade Detonation (wiki attack index 2)
- Above average total damage (350)
- High disposition (●●●●● (1.35x))
Disadvantages over other Primary weapons (excluding modular weapons):
- Grenades have slow travel time and heavy arcing.
- Grenades have a high bouncing capability which makes it hard to stack on a desired spot.
- Can bounce off teammates or companions.
- This can be countered with Adhesive Blast which will make the grenades stick to any surface.
- Explosion inflicts self-stagger.
- Explosion has a headshot multiplier of 1x and cannot trigger headshot conditions.
- Explosion has linear Damage Falloff from 100% to 50% from central impact.
- Grenade Impact (wiki attack index 1)
- Very low crit chance (10.00%)
- Low reload speed (2.50 s)
- Low magazine (5)
- Very low ammo max (20)
- Very low fire rate (1.00 attacks/sec)
- Very low status chance (10.00%)
- Grenade Detonation (wiki attack index 2)
- Very low active falloff slope (8.0m/%)
- Low crit chance (10.00%)
- Very low maximum falloff distance (4.0 m)
- Low reload speed (2.50 s)
- Very low magazine (5)
- Very low fire rate (1.00 attacks/sec)
- Very low ammo max (20)
- Very low status chance (10.00%)
- Below average crit multiplier (2.00x)
See WARFRAME Wiki:Stat Comparison/Percentiles for more details.
Comparisons:
- Penta (Grenade Detonation), compared to Secura Penta (Grenade Detonation):
- Higher base damage per projectile (350.00 vs. 300.00)
- Higher Blast damage ( 350 vs. 300)
- Higher total damage (350 vs. 300)
- Lower base critical chance (10.00% vs. 26.00%)
- Lower base status chance (10.00% vs. 26.00%)
- Higher average damage per tap (385 vs. 378)
- Lower burst DPS (385 vs. 756)
- Lower sustained DPS (256.66 vs. 441)
- Closer max damage falloff distance (4.0 m vs. 6.0 m)
- Lesser max damage reduction at ending falloff distance (50.00% vs. 60.00%)
- Lower fire rate (1.00 attacks/sec vs. 2.00 attacks/sec)
- Smaller magazine (5 vs. 7)
- Less shots per magazine (5 vs. 7)
- Smaller max ammo capacity (20 vs. 28)
- Lower Mastery Rank required (6 vs. 12)
- Higher disposition (●●●●● (1.35x) vs. ●●●●○ (1.30x))
- No innate Sequence effect
- Higher base damage per projectile (350.00 vs. 300.00)
- Penta (Grenade Detonation), compared to Carmine Penta (Grenade Detonation):
- Equal base damage
- Lower burst DPS (385 vs. 1039.5)
- Lower sustained DPS (256.66 vs. 620.59)
- Lower fire rate (1.00 attacks/sec vs. 2.70 attacks/sec)
- Smaller magazine (5 vs. 10)
- Less shots per magazine (5 vs. 10)
- Smaller max ammo capacity (20 vs. 40)
- Higher disposition (●●●●● (1.35x) vs. ●●●●○ (1.25x))
Acquisition[]
The Penta's blueprint can be purchased from the Market. Alternatively, it can be acquired from completing the Jupiter to Saturn Junction.
Manufacturing Requirements | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
25,000 |
Control Module 3 |
Circuits 1,000 |
Ferrite 1,200 |
Alloy Plate 400 |
Time: 1 Day(s) |
Rush: 35 | |||||
Market Price: 150 | Blueprints Price:30,000 |
This weapon can be sold for 7,500.
Notes[]
- Detonations can be triggered while the player is performing other actions.
- The launch/flight of a grenade is silent (though the actual explosions are alarming, obviously).
- Grenades have no arming delay, and can be detonated instantly with the use of the Secondary Fire button.
- Grenades can be bounced around corners, off walls, and over low obstacles.
- Grenades that continuously bounce into enemies will deal impact damage with each collision.
- Grenades do not bounce when striking water, coming to a dead stop instead. This allows for easier setting of traps.
- Increasing the Magazine size of the weapon does not increase the 5 grenade limit.
- Though the grenade explosion does not destroy rockets from Bombards, impacts by the grenades from very accurate (and lucky) shots can.
- With Multishot, the second grenade is usually indistinguishable from the first, as they follow the same trajectory simultaneously and bounce in the same direction. They can be "separated" with negative accuracy from Heavy Caliber at a high enough rank.
Tips[]
- Grenades fired from the Penta are lobbed in a heavy arc, allowing the player to kill enemies hiding behind cover much more easily, as the detonation happens upon external trigger.
- Standing at a greater height allows for the grenades to be lobbed and bounce further, allowing the user to see the grenades better, as well as eliminating the worry of stagger.
- A maxed Firestorm increases the blast radius from the initial 5 meters up to 6.2 meters (6.64 with Primed Firestorm), allowing more enemies to be caught in the blast.
- It is not recommended to use Punch Through mods as grenades can often go through the floor on some tilesets, making it impossible to bounce every time.
- Split Chamber can spawn a sixth grenade provided that the multishot procs when 4 grenades are already out
- While multishot mods are commonly considered necessary to increase damage output, due to the Penta's mechanics of careful detonation and limited grenades active at once, it's not as much of an instant damage increase as with normal weapons. It can be useful for setting up a large number of grenades faster, however.
- Elemental mods such as Hellfire are external from the main Blast damage, allowing the weapon to have 3 separate elemental combinations.
- Players can detonate grenades in mid-air to score headshots on targets below.
- The default color of the grenades can make it hard to see in the middle of a crowd of enemies or from their bouncing. Changing energy color can help with certain tile sets (e.g. do not use bright white for Corpus Outpost missions).
- Grenades will immediately explode when they hit Blunts, water surface, puddles from Tar-Mutalist Moa or Bulwarks.
Trivia[]
- Penta derives from the Greek prefix of "five", which may refer to its magazine of 5 grenades.
- The Penta (and its variants) are the first and currently only weapons for which the magazine becomes visibly larger as magazine capacity is increased. With high enough capacity the magazine will even protrude out from the bottom of the magazine feed.
- The Penta formerly used Rifle Ammo Mutation instead of Sniper Ammo Mutation, despite still using sniper ammo. This was fixed in Update 17.5 (2015-10-01).
- Update 32.3 (2023-02-15) made it so that it cannot equip Sniper Ammo Mutation after Update 32.0 (2022-09-07) ammo changes.
- The Penta was one of the first weapons with a non-static model: The magazine feeds up to the gun upon firing and the slide around the barrel are pulled back during reloading actions.
- The Penta was the first Corpus weapon to focus on explosive weaponry, followed by the Lenz in Update 21.3 (2017-08-02).
- The grenades are flat and rectangular, which is odd, considering their ability to bounce.
- Prior to Update 23.2 (2018-08-02), the Tether Grenades augment changed the grenade model to be a short cylinder with concave ends. It still used the default grenade texture, which looked strange but was normally obscured by the grenades's blue glow.
- Tether Grenades now causes the grenade to spin towards the enemy instead of staying flat.
- Prior to Update 18.5 (2016-03-04), Adhesive Blast caused grenades to explode after a set amount of time.
- This was the first weapon to have the Zoom capability replaced with a different function pre-Update 17.0 (2015-07-31).
- The Arsenal interface used to label only the damage of the grenade projectile impact, but now labels the Impact damage of the projectile as well as the base Blast damage seperately (350 base).
Bugs[]
- In its Arsenal UI, it does not display its trigger function, though it functions as Semi-Auto, possibly because it deals damage on impact, unlike other Active trigger weapons.
Media[]
Penta Skins
Patch History[]
Update 32.0 (2022-09-07)
- Ammo Changes
We understand the power fantasy of these weapons is very popular for some, so our first approach was to keep them powerful, but limit how often they can be used by making changes to ammo pick-up.
Ammo Pickup Overrides
The following weapons now have ammo pickup overrides, meaning they gain less from picking up ammo. This mostly applies to AoE weapons, in hopes that players will become more deliberate with their aim to make the most of their Ammo pools. The following lists the specific ammo pick up overrides per weapon category.
Primary Weapon Ammo Pick Up Overrides
5 Ammo per Pick Up:
- Penta
- Headshot Damage Changes
During playtesting, the ammo changes alone weren’t enough to significantly change things for AoE weapons. So instead of tightening these values to be overly restrictive, we chose to address other factors that make these weapons so strong, such as headshot damage.
Our approach here is two-fold, to reduce the impact of headshots for AOE weapons, but to also make precision headshots pack a larger punch overall.
- Radial damage no longer gains extra headshot damage or triggers headshot conditions.
- This is primarily targeted at the Ignis Wraith - as a “flamethrower” weapon, it’s hard to imagine a blanket of elements being precise enough to target weak points specifically. Explosive projectiles themselves can still land headshots, so there is still a reason to aim with most weapons for maximum damage.
Hotfix 27.3.16 (2020-04-22)
- Fixed Penta grenades becoming stuck when Napalm Grenades is equipped, thus rendering the Penta unusable. As reported here: https://forums.warframe.com/topic/1174244-penta-grenades-getting-stuck-causing-the-weapon-to-be-completely-useless/
Hotfix 27.2.2 (2020-03-06)
Reduced the following AoE weapons Radial Damage Falloff from central impact that were all previously 90%:
- Penta: 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.
Hotfix 25.7.3 (2019-09-03)
- Fixed an issue where some projectiles wouldn't come to a complete stop and would slowly float away (noticed on some bouncing Penta grenades).
Update 23.2 (2018-08-02)
- Fixed viewing the Penta in the marketplace (specifically the Penta Shock-Camo Skin) resulting in the ammo in the gun taking a second to load upon viewing it everytime.
- Fixed the Tether Grenades Mod distorting the look of grenades
Update 22.3 (2017-11-15)
- Penta grenades will now bounce off the Blunt. It has a similar behavior as hitting a Grineer.
Update 21.0 (2017-06-29)
- Fixed an issue with the Penta grenades not detonating in succession while switching weapons with Adhesive Blast equipped.
Update 20.0 (2017-03-24)
- Penta Alt-Fire mode now has stats in the Arsenal.
- To improve performance, added a small delay between each explosion when activating the alt-fire on certain weapons (e.g. Penta).
- Fixed the Tether Grenade Mod for the Penta cancelling Self Damage.
Update 19.10 (2017-02-09)
- Fixed unintentional DoT from Adhesive Blast on the Penta.
Hotfix 19.0.5 (2016-11-18)
- Fixed Adhesive Blast causing the Penta projectile sound to not play.
Update: The Silver Grove (2016-08-19)
- Penta series damage increased in Conclave.
Update 18.5 (2016-03-04)
- Increased AoE damage of the Penta in Conclave.
- Increased the ammo pool of Penta series in Conclave.
- Penta explosions visual FX have been updated, and will now be based on the player’s energy color.
- Fixed the Adhesive Blast Mod causing Penta weapons to detonate after a certain amount of time.
Hotfix 18.4.10 (2016-02-11)
- Removed the headshot multiplier from the Penta series in Conclave.
- The Penta series' explosive damage no longer ignores cover in Conclave.
Hotfix 18.1.3 (2015-12-18)
- Increased damage and ammo pool of Penta series in Conclave.
Update 18.0 (2015-12-03)
- Increased blast radius of Penta series in PvP.
Update 17.10 (2015-11-04)
- Fixed Penta Grenades falling through the floor instead of bouncing.
Update 17.5 (2015-10-01)
- Penta series damage increased in PvP.
Update 17.4 (2015-09-09)
- Reduced the damage radius of the Penta series in PvP.
Hotfix 17.3.1 (2015-09-04)
- Reduced the damage of the Penta series in PvP.
Update 17.3 (2015-09-02)
- The Penta can now be used in PvP.
Hotfix 16.4.5 (2015-05-06)
- Fixed the Penta not being affected by Volt’s Electric Shield.
Update 14.5 (2014-08-28)
- Fixed issues with blank “Trigger” types in the UI for Penta.
Update 14.2 (2014-08-13)
- Penta ammo capacity reduced from 540 to 20.
Hotfix 14.1.3 (2014-08-02)
- Penta shots fired from Hall of Mirror clones will no longer display weapon trails.
Update 13.7 (2014-06-11)
- Improved the performance of the Penta on low end computers.
Hotfix 12.0.5 (2014-02-10)
- Changes to Penta's sounds.
Update 11.6 (2014-01-08)
- Fixed Penta energy color not always applying to grenades.
Hotfix 11.5.3 (2013-12-21)
- Fixed elemental damage upgrade mods not applying to the splash & embed damage from projectiles.
Update 11.5 (2013-12-19)
- Fixed Arsenal stats for weapons that have projectiles with complex damage.
Hotfix 11.3.3 (2013-12-13)
- Changes to Penta aiming reticle – firing trajectory should better align with reticle.
Hotfix 11.3.2 (2013-12-13)
- Tweaks to Penta 2D sounds.
- Lens flare added to Penta projectiles.
- Penta now supports energy color customization.
Update 11.3 (2013-12-12)
- Introduced.
Last updated: Hotfix 24.1.4 (2018-12-10)
See also[]
- Torid, an Infested grenade launcher.
- Tonkor, a Grineer grenade launcher.
- Secura Penta, the Perrin Sequence custom version.
- Carmine Penta, a special version of the Penta.