The Cernos is a 
Tenno bow, specializing in damaging shields by its high 
Impact damage.
This weapon can be sold for 
10,500. It is also a requisite ingredient for 
Mutalist Cernos.
Characteristics
This weapon deals primarily Impact damage.
Advantages over other Primary weapons (excluding modular weapons):
- Uncharged Shot (wiki attack index 1)
- Very high crit chance (36.00%)
- Very high reload speed (0.60 s)
- Above average total damage (190)
- Above average disposition (●●●●○ (1.30x))
- Charged Shot (wiki attack index 2)
- High crit chance (36.00%)
- High reload speed (0.60 s)
- High total damage (380)
- Above average disposition (●●●●○ (1.30x))
Disadvantages over other Primary weapons (excluding modular weapons):
- Uncharged Shot (wiki attack index 1)
- Very low magazine (1)
- Low ammo max (72)
- Very low fire rate (1.00 attacks/sec)
- Below average status chance (18.00%)
- Charged Shot (wiki attack index 2)
- Very low magazine (1)
- Low ammo max (72)
- Very low fire rate (1.00 attacks/sec)
- Low status chance (18.00%)
- Low crit multiplier (2.00x)
See WARFRAME Wiki:Stat Comparison/Percentiles for more details.
Comparisons:
Cernos (Charged Shot), compared to 
Cernos Prime (Charged Horizontal/Vertical Shot):
- Higher base damage per projectile (380.00 vs. 184.00)
- Lower total damage (380 vs. 552)
- Higher base critical chance (36.00% vs. 35.00%)
- Lower base status chance (18.00% vs. 30.00%)
- Lower average damage per tap (516.8 vs. 745.2)
- Lower burst DPS (861.33 vs. 1146.46)
- Lower sustained DPS (469.81 vs. 648)
- Lower multishot (1 vs. 3)
- Faster reload time (0.60 s vs. 0.65 s)
- Lesser projectile speed (90.0 m/s vs. 95.0 m/s)
- Less polarities (
vs. ) - Lower Mastery Rank required (6 vs. 12)
- Higher disposition (●●●●○ (1.30x) vs. ●●●●○ (1.25x))
- Cernos (Charged Shot), compared to
Rakta Cernos (Charged Shot):
- Lower base damage per projectile (380.00 vs. 470.00)
- Lower total damage (380 vs. 470)
- Higher base critical chance (36.00% vs. 35.00%)
- Higher base status chance (18.00% vs. 15.00%)
- Lower average damage per tap (516.8 vs. 634.5)
- Lower burst DPS (861.33 vs. 1057.5)
- Lower sustained DPS (469.81 vs. 746.47)
- Lesser projectile speed (90.0 m/s vs. 100.0 m/s)
- Less polarities ( vs.
) - Lower Mastery Rank required (6 vs. 12)
- Higher disposition (●●●●○ (1.30x) vs. ●●●●○ (1.25x))
- No innate Blight effect
Acquisition
The Cernos's blueprint can be purchased from the Market.
| Manufacturing Requirements | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 15,000 |
 Gallium3 |
 Plastids700 |
 Polymer Bundle600 |
 Ferrite1,750 |
Time: 12 Hour(s) |
Rush:  45
| |||||
 Market Price: 225
|
 Blueprints Price:20,000
| ||||
Tips
- Due to the weapon's high Impact damage but low
Puncture and 
Slash damage, consider using this to drain the enemies' shield first then finish them with other weapons which have higher damage where the Cernos lacks. Alternatively, consider making this your main bow for going against Corpus troops, the majority of which have high shields but very low health. - With a maxed
Critical Delay mod, it is possible to raise the Cernos' critical chance to 103.3%, ensuring that all shots will deal critical damage.
- Using a maxed Critical Delay however will also result in the Cernos having an even slower fire rate. This can be countered with the usage of a fire rate mod, preferably Speed Trigger.
- Using a maxed Critical Delay however will also result in the Cernos having an even slower fire rate. This can be countered with the usage of a fire rate mod, preferably
Trivia
- The name "Cernos" means "horn" in Gaulish.
- Being an Impact oriented bow, the Cernos uses arrows with a mace-like head, with a larger impact area. This spreads the kinetic energy of the arrows across a wider area, creating a blunt impact. Judging by the hole in the middle of the head, and the fact that it can still pin enemies to walls, it is likely the arrows are hollow to house a spring-loaded punch system that fires a spike upon impact.
- As of Update 30.3 (2021-05-25), the Cernos has the most variations of all weapons, having a total of 5 weapons in its family: basic, Prime, Rakta, Mutalist and Proboscis.
- The Cernos is also the first weapon to have 2 upgraded forms. With both Mutalist and Proboscics requiring the other form respectively in order to be built
Media
Cernos Skins
Seasonal
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
15 Ammo per Pick Up:
- Cernos
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 110 to 190
- Charged Shot increased from 220 to 380
- Flight Speed increased from 85 to 90
- Aim Zoom decreased from 2.23x to 2x
Hotfix 25.0.7 (2019-05-30)
- Fixed the Cernos Energy color persisting as default on the strings.
Update 22.12 (2018-02-09)
- Mastery Rank increased from 0 to 6.
- Charged shot damage increased from 200 to 220.
- Charge speed increased from 1s to 0.5s.
- Status chance increased from 10% to 18%.
- Critical chance increased from 35% to 36%.
Update 11.1 (2013-11-27)
- Introduced.
See also
- Rakta Cernos, the Red Veil custom counterpart.
- Cernos Prime, the primed counterpart.
- Mutalist Cernos, the Infested counterpart.
Proboscis Cernos, another Infested counterpart.
