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Rain hell on the enemy with this handheld cluster-rocket launcher

The Kulstar is a IconGrineerOn Grineer-built torpedo/cluster bomb launcher. Once its torpedo comes in contact with an enemy or a surface, or if the player manually detonates it with Alternate Fire, it detonates and fragments into 3 smaller bomblets, which spread from the point of impact, also exploding on impact.

This weapon can be sold for Credits64 5,000.

Characteristics[]

  • This weapon deals innate DmgBlastSmall64 Blast damage.
  • Rocket explodes in a 3 meter radius on impact with a surface or enemy, then splits into 3 smaller cluster bombs that rain down on the point of impact.
    • Explosions and cluster bombs have innate DmgBlastSmall64 Blast damage — effective against Machinery and Fossilized.
    • Alternate Fire prematurely detonates the rocket and cluster bombs mid-flight.
    • Initial hit and explosion apply status separately.
    • Explosion does not need direct line of sight to deal damage and will penetrate walls.
    • Can benefit from Mod TT 20px Fulmination (Mod TT 20px Primed).
  • Innate Vazarin Pol polarity.

Advantages over other Secondary weapons (excluding modular weapons):

  • Very high accuracy.
  • Rocket Impact (wiki attack index 1)
    • High total damage (200)
    • Above average disposition (●●●●○ (1.30x))
    • High crit multiplier (2.30x)
  • Rocket Explosion (wiki attack index 2)
    • High total damage (300)
    • Above average disposition (●●●●○ (1.30x))
    • Above average crit multiplier (2.30x)
  • Cluster Bombs (wiki attack index 3)
    • Very high average number of crits per shot (0.51)
    • High disposition (●●●●○ (1.30x))
    • Above average crit multiplier (2.30x)
  • Cluster Bomb Explosion (wiki attack index 4)
    • Above average disposition (●●●●○ (1.30x))

Disadvantages over other Secondary weapons (excluding modular weapons):

  • Very high recoil when not aiming.
  • Rockets have travel time.
  • Poor ammo economy.
    • Extremely small magazine size of just 3 rounds; requires frequent reloading.
    • Extremely low ammo capacity of just 15 rounds; requires just 5 reloads to fully deplete all ammo reserves.
  • Explosions and cluster bombs inflicts self-stagger.
  • Explosions and cluster bombs have a headshot multiplier of 1x and cannot trigger headshot conditions.
  • Explosions and cluster bombs have linear Damage Falloff from 100% to 60% from central impact.
  • Rocket Impact (wiki attack index 1)
    • Low reload speed (2.00 s)
    • Very low magazine (3)
    • Very low ammo max (15)
    • Very low fire rate (2.000 attacks/sec)
  • Rocket Explosion (wiki attack index 2)
    • Low active falloff slope (9.8m/%)
    • Below average crit chance (17.00%)
    • Below average maximum falloff distance (3.9 m)
    • Low reload speed (2.00 s)
    • Very low magazine (3)
    • Below average fire rate (2.000 attacks/sec)
    • Very low ammo max (15)
    • Below average status chance (19.00%)
  • Cluster Bombs (wiki attack index 3)
    • Low reload speed (2.00 s)
    • Low magazine (3)
    • Below average total damage (225)
    • Below average fire rate (2.000 attacks/sec)
    • Very low ammo max (15)
    • Below average crit chance (17.00%)
    • Very low status chance (19.00%)
  • Cluster Bomb Explosion (wiki attack index 4)
    • Below average active falloff slope (9.8m/%)
    • Below average crit chance (17.00%)
    • Low maximum falloff distance (3.9 m)
    • Below average reload speed (2.00 s)
    • Low magazine (3)
    • Below average total damage (90)
    • Low ammo max (15)
    • Low status chance (19.00%)

Acquisition[]

The Kulstar's blueprint can be purchased from the Market.


Manufacturing Requirements
📝 Edit blueprint requirements
Credits
30,000
Kraken
1
Tellurium
2
Cryotic
4,800
Plastids
3,600
Time: 1 Day(s)
N/A
MarketIcon Market Price: PlatinumLarge 190 Blueprint2 Blueprints Price:Credits40,000

Notes[]

  • Cluster bombs are launched in a loose arc away from the primary explosion in a similar fashion to spawning pods from Boilers.
    • This may make it difficult to hit a single enemy with the primary explosion and cluster bombs and makes it so that arcing bomblets constitute an extra self-stagger hazard.
  • Multishot mods will only affect the rocket; the number of bomblets generated per rocket will always be 3.
    • Additional projectiles generated by Multishot will assume a geometric formation, as per the Angstrum Angstrum; 2 rockets will fire in a horizontal line, 3 rockets will fire in a triangle, and 4 rockets will fire in a diamond. 5 rockets, which is only possible with a Riven Mod in tow, will fire in a pentagon.
  • The Kulstar possesses an unusual difference in recoil between hipfire and aiming. When hipfiring, the Kulstar has very high recoil per shot, violently shaking aim, while stopping to aim will drastically reduce the recoil.

Tips[]

  • Magnetize130xWhite Magnetize will focus both the main projectile and its bomblets to a single target, delivering heavy damage to it.
  • HallOfMirrors130xWhite Hall of Mirrors can be used with the Kulstar to devastating effect, saturating an area with explosions and wiping out entire squads. This combination can be further improved if Mod TT 20px Hall of Malevolence is used.

Trivia[]

  • The Kulstar was first presented in the Echoes of the Sentients Highlight Video.
  • The Kulstar could be an intentional mispronunciation of the word "Cluster", which would be fitting given the Kulstar's projectiles are cluster bombs.
    • The bomblets themselves resemble naval contact mines. While smaller than the torpedoes, they are much higher resolution as they are recoloured versions of the mines from the Grineer Sealab tileset.

Media[]

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.

Secondary Weapon Ammo Pick Up Overrides

3 Ammo per Pick Up:

  • Kulstar
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 27.2.2 (2020-03-06)
Reduced the following AoE weapons Radial Damage Falloff from central impact that were all previously 90%:

  • Kulstar: 40%

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.

Update 22.12 (2018-02-09)

  • Mastery Rank increased from 4 to 5.
  • Changed contact damage from Explosion to Impact.
  • Added guaranteed Knockdown to contact damage.
  • Contact damage increased from 175 to 200.
  • Radial damage increased from 200 to 300.
  • Status chance increased from 10% to 19%.
  • Critical chance increased from 5% to 17%.
  • Critical damage increased from 2x to 2.3x.
  • Improved projectile trail FX of the bomblets after the initial explosion.
  • Ammo capacity decreased from 30 to 15.
  • Added recoil.
  • Decreased accuracy.

Update 20.0 (2017-03-24)

  • Arsenal now includes alt-fire stats for the Kulstar.

Update: The Index Preview (2016-10-20)

  • Increased damage of Kulstar in Conclave.
  • Kulstar projectiles are now more visible in Conclave.

Update 18.5 (2016-03-04)

  • Increased AoE damage of the Kulstar in Conclave.
  • Increased the damage of the Kulstar in Conclave.

Hotfix 18.4.10 (2016-02-11)

  • Removed the headshot multiplier from the Kulstar in Conclave.
  • The Kulstar's explosive damage no longer ignores cover in Conclave.

Hotfix 17.2.2 (2015-08-21)

  • Reduced the number of visual particle FX on the Kulstar's explosions.

Hotfix 17.0.5 (2015-08-07)

  • Reduced the damage of the Kulstar in PvP.

Hotfix 17.0.3 (2015-08-04)

  • Fixed the Kulstar's secondary fire hitting enemies outside of Limbo's rift while Limbo is riftwalking.

Update 17.0 (2015-07-31)

  • Introduced.

Last updated: Hotfix 23.2.1 (2018-08-03)

See also[]

  • Angstrum Angstrum, a similar secondary rocket launcher.
  • KuvaBramma Kuva Bramma, a Grineer bow that fires a similar projectile.
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