The Kuva Hek is the Kuva variant of the 
Hek shotgun, with boosts to its critical chance and falloff range, along with its damage, critical multiplier, and status chance surpassing the 
Vaykor Hek. It has the unique ability to fire all four barrels simultaneously via Alternate Fire.
Characteristics
- This weapon deals primarily
Puncture damage. - Alternate Fire shoots four shots simultaneously.
- Builds meant to utilize the alternate fire benefit significantly from reload modding, such as (
Primed) Tactical Pump. - Alternate Fire consumes 4 rounds of ammunition, effectively resulting in a 1-round magazine that prevents the alt fire from being used in tandem with the primary fire and must reload after every shot.
- Builds meant to utilize the alternate fire benefit significantly from reload modding, such as (
- Can use the Hek-exclusive Scattered Justice mod.
- Comes with an additional bonus
Impact, 
Heat, 
Cold, 
Electricity, 
Toxin, 
Magnetic, or 
Radiation damage, based on the Kuva Lich's progenitor Warframe, which increases the listed base damage of the weapon by 25%-60%.
- Valence Fusion can optionally change the resulting output damage type, and can upgrade the bonus increase (up to 60%).
- Polarizing the weapon increases its max rank by 2, capping at rank 40 after 5 polarizations, granting the weapon additional mod capacity.
- Listed Mastery Rank requirement is not enforced - the weapon may theoretically be obtained at any mastery rank by acquiring and vanquishing a Kuva Lich that has this weapon equipped.
Advantages over other Primary weapons (excluding modular weapons):
- Very high overall status chance.
- Innate multishot of 7 pellets.
- Tied with normal Hek, Vaykor Hek, and
Corinth for the second-narrowest pellet spread of all shotguns, behind 
Exergis. - Normal Attack (wiki attack index 1)
- Very high total damage (609)
- High average number of procs per shot (0.91)
- Very high average number of crits per shot (1.61)
- Alt-Fire (wiki attack index 2)
- Very high total damage (2,436)
- High average number of procs per shot (0.92)
- Very high average number of crits per shot (6.44)
Disadvantages over other Primary weapons (excluding modular weapons):
- Has linear damage falloff from 100% to 26.67% from 15m to 30m target distance (distances are affected by Projectile Speed).
- High recoil.
- Normal Attack (wiki attack index 1)
- Very low maximum falloff distance (30.0 m)
- Low magazine (4)
- Low fire rate (2.17 attacks/sec)
- Below average ammo max (120)
- Low status chance (13.00%)
- Low disposition (●●●○○ (0.90x))
- Alt-Fire (wiki attack index 2)
- Below average crit chance (23.00%)
- Very low magazine (4)
- Low fire rate (1.17 attacks/sec)
- Below average ammo max (120)
- Very low status chance (3.32%)
- Low disposition (●●●○○ (0.90x))
- Below average crit multiplier (2.10x)
See WARFRAME Wiki:Stat Comparison/Percentiles for more details.
Comparisons:
Kuva Hek (Normal Attack), compared to Hek (Normal Attack):
- Higher base damage per projectile (87.00 vs. 75.00) (excluding any Progenitor bonus)
- Higher total damage (using max +60% Progenitor bonus if applicable) (974.4 vs. 525)
- Higher base critical chance (23.00% vs. 10.00%)
- Higher base critical multiplier (2.10x vs. 2.00x)
- Higher base status chance (13.00% vs. 10.70%)
- Higher average damage per tap (using max +60% Progenitor bonus if applicable) (1220.92 vs. 577.5)
- Higher burst DPS (using max +60% Progenitor bonus if applicable) (2649.40 vs. 1253.17)
- Higher sustained DPS (using max +60% Progenitor bonus if applicable) (1270.69 vs. 601.04)
- Farther starting damage falloff distance (15.0 m vs. 10.0 m)
- Farther max damage falloff distance (30.0 m vs. 20.0 m)
- Greater max damage reduction at ending falloff distance (82.80% vs. 80.00%)
- Less accurate (Medium vs. Medium)
- Higher Mastery Rank required (15 vs. 4)
- Lower disposition (●●●○○ (0.90x) vs. ●●●●○ (1.20x))
Comparisons:
- Kuva Hek (Normal Attack), compared to Vaykor Hek (Normal Attack):
- Higher base damage per projectile (87.00 vs. 75.00) (excluding any Progenitor bonus)
- Higher total damage (using max +60% Progenitor bonus if applicable) (974.4 vs. 525)
- Lower base critical chance (23.00% vs. 25.00%)
- Higher base critical multiplier (2.10x vs. 2.00x)
- Higher base status chance (13.00% vs. 10.70%)
- Higher average damage per tap (using max +60% Progenitor bonus if applicable) (1220.92 vs. 656.25)
- Higher burst DPS (using max +60% Progenitor bonus if applicable) (2649.40 vs. 1968.75)
- Higher sustained DPS (using max +60% Progenitor bonus if applicable) (1270.69 vs. 1067.79)
- Farther starting damage falloff distance (15.0 m vs. 10.0 m)
- Farther max damage falloff distance (30.0 m vs. 25.0 m)
- Greater max damage reduction at ending falloff distance (82.80% vs. 73.33%)
- Lower fire rate (2.17 attacks/sec vs. 3.00 attacks/sec)
- Smaller magazine (4 vs. 8)
- Faster reload time (2.00 s vs. 2.25 s)
- Less accurate (Medium vs. Medium)
- Higher Mastery Rank required (15 vs. 12)
- Lower disposition (●●●○○ (0.90x) vs. ●●●●○ (1.15x))
- No innate Justice effect
Acquisition
This section is transcluded from Lich System/Weapons § Kuva Acquisition. To change it, please edit the transcluded page.
Notes
- Alt fire cannot be used if there are less than 4 rounds in the magazine. Attempting to alt fire with less than 4 rounds will result in a reload instead.
- The four-round burst consumption is consistent even if mods increasing magazine capacity such as Ammo Stock is equipped. It does allow the player to shoot extra rounds first before eventually using the alt-fire or, if Burdened Magazine is also equipped, two alt-fire bursts in sequence.
- If magazine capacity is decreased below 4 rounds (such as with a riven) then the alt fire becomes unusable.
- Alternatively, using Primed Ammo Stock grants four additional shots of the above two mods while only occupying one slot, resulting in an overall DPS increase by using the saved up slot for another damage-based mod.
- If the player is under an ammo-efficiency effect (such as Void Fuel or Energized Munitions), alt fire can be used with fewer than 4 rounds in the magazine. A reload is triggered when attempting to fire when consumption exceeds current magazine capacity.
- The four-round burst consumption is consistent even if mods increasing magazine capacity such as
This section is transcluded from Lich System § Notes. To change it, please edit the transcluded page.
This section is transcluded from Lich System/Progenitor . To change it, please edit the transcluded page.
| Element | Progenitor Warframe* |
|---|---|
| Impact
|
 Baruuk  Dante  Gauss  Grendel  Rhino  Sevagoth  Wukong  Zephyr
|
| Heat
|
 Chroma  Ember  Inaros  Jade  Kullervo  Nezha  Protea  Vauban  Wisp "Temple" wasn't found in Module:Warframes/data
|
| Cold
|
 Frost  Gara  Hildryn  Koumei  Revenant  Styanax  Titania  Trinity
|
| Electricity
|
 Banshee  Caliban  Excalibur  Gyre  Limbo  Nova  Valkyr  Volt
|
| Toxin
|
 Atlas  Dagath  Ivara  Khora  Nekros  Nidus  Oberon  Saryn
|
| Magnetic
|
 Citrine  Cyte-09  Harrow  Hydroid  Lavos  Mag  Mesa  Xaku  Yareli
|
| Radiation
|
 Ash  Equinox  Garuda  Loki  Mirage  Nyx  Octavia  Qorvex  Voruna
|
*Note that the Primed or Umbra version of a Warframe share the same element
Tips
- As with most weapons with the ability to unload an entire magazine in a single burst, the Kuva Hek's alt-fire synergizes well with Mag's short-tap
Magnetize bubble, as the quick torrent of shot can pulverize crowds of enemies caught in the bubble. - Primed Ammo Stock grants the Kuva Hek twice the magazine capacity, allowing for two quick successions of its alt-fire and increasing the already powerful shotgun's overall DPS.
- As both firing modes have Semi Trigger Types, the Kuva Hek can equip Semi-Shotgun Cannonade both to increase damage and add Punch Through.
Trivia
- The Grineer text translates into MIS4TUNE (Misfortune).
Bugs
- Manually reloading after the alt fire will use a soundless Braton reload animation.
Media
Kuva Hek Skins
Patch History
Update 35.6 (2024-05-15)
- "Scattered Justice" Augment Mod is now compatible with the Kuva Hek.
- When we first made the decision to prevent this Mod from being equipped on the Kuva Hek many years ago, we felt it was the right decision for the time. Our goal was to keep the Kuva Hek in check and avoid it being significantly more powerful than all other shotguns, which would have been limiting to the all-important player choice in the Arsenal. Revisiting this decision now in 2024, there are other sufficient weapons and upgrades to make the Kuva Hek & Scattered Justice a good choice but not the ONLY choice. Note that Scattered Justice remains incompatible with the Vaykor Hek because it already has a built in "Justice" effect.
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:
- Kuva Hek
Update 31.6 (2022-06-09)
- Fixed the Kuva Hek not playing the proper reload animation when the last shot in the magazine is from its alt fire.
Update 30.5 (2021-07-06)
- Introduced.
See Also
- Hek, the normal counterpart of this weapon.
- Vaykor Hek, a syndicate variant of this weapon.
