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Thunderbolt is a mod that gives arrows fired from primary bows a chance of exploding on impact of a surface or an enemy.

Stats[]

Rank Proc Chance Cost
0 +7.5% 6
1 +15% 7
2 +22.5% 8
3 +30% 9

Drop Locations[]

Mission Drop Tables

Mission Type Source Rotations
or
Drop Table
Chance[1] Quantity[2] Avg. per roll[3] Star Chart Nodes
Defense Dark Sector Defense C 0.4% 1 0.004
The Circuit Tier 4 The Circuit (Normal) A 1.49% 1 0.0149

Accessed through Duviri's The Circuit gamemode

The Circuit Tier 6 The Circuit (Normal) A 1.03% 1 0.0103

Accessed through Duviri's The Circuit gamemode

Enemy Drop Tables

Enemy Drop Table Chance[4] Item Chance[5] Chance[6] Expected Kills[7] Quantity[8] Avg. per roll attempt[9]
Darek Draga 3% 0.67% 0.0201% 4975 1 0.000201
Dargyn Pilot 3% 0.67% 0.0201% 4975 1 0.000201
Draga 3% 0.67% 0.0201% 4975 1 0.000201
Elite Arid Lancer 3% 0.67% 0.0201% 4975 1 0.000201
Elite Frontier Lancer 3% 0.67% 0.0201% 4975 1 0.000201
Elite Lancer 3% 0.67% 0.0201% 4975 1 0.000201
Kuva Elite Lancer 3% 0.67% 0.0201% 4975 1 0.000201
Shock Draga 3% 0.67% 0.0201% 4975 1 0.000201
Tusk Elite Lancer 3% 0.67% 0.0201% 4975 1 0.000201

Sourced from official drop table repository.

Notes[]

  • The explosion deals 250 DmgBlastSmall64 Blast damage to the target, as well as to nearby enemies within 10 meters of the blast.
    • The explosion inflicts self-stagger.
    • Unlike the area blasts of dedicated blast weapons like Launchers, Thunderbolt does NOT have a safety distance to prevent self-stagger. Furthermore, if the shot hits and explodes close enough to you it will do a full Knockdown instead of just a self-stagger.
    • The explosive damage from this mod cannot be increased with base damage, such as Mod TT 20px Serration, and elemental mods such as Mod TT 20px Hellfire, but it will be increased by Bane mods, like Mod TT 20px Bane of Infested.
  • Compared to Launchers, the Thunderbolt blast has full Punch Through (like most Launchers) and zero falloff throughout its entire area of effect (unlike most Launchers), so all enemies take full damage even at the outer-most edges of the blast while behind cover.
  • The blast area is increased by Mod TT 20px Firestorm or Mod TT 20px Primed Firestorm.
  • The explosions are silent.
  • Arrows fired at terrain and other surfaces still explode, but not arrows fired at teammates or other allies.
  • When the explosion occurs, the projectile of the arrow causing that is actually "dissolved". Thus any subsequent mechanics relating to the projectile will not happen, such as punching through or the spore coming after the arrow of MutalistCernos Mutalist Cernos.
  • Cannot be equipped on Lenz Lenz.

Tips[]

  • As the blast damage is not improved by damage increasing/elemental mods on the corresponding bow but it IS reduced by the resistances/armor of the enemies, viable builds using Thunderbolt rely on sending out a massive number of arrows quickly to have as many explosions as possible.
  • Pair with a high-rank Multishot mod for maximum effect. Calculating per shot, there will be a 48.9% chance of at least one explosion with both Mod TT 20px Split Chamber and Thunderbolt at max rank. The chance for two explosions is 8.1%. With Split Chamber, Mod TT 20px Vigilante Armaments, and Thunderbolt there is a 58.4% chance of at least one explosion, a 15.3% chance of at least two explosions, and a 1.4% chance of three explosions.
  • When facing groups of enemies at medium-to-long range, maximize splash damage by aiming for a nearby surface rather than directly at an enemy.
  • Since explosive damage is unaffected by the amount of time the shot has been charged, rapid shots can be more effective at quickly taking out large groups of enemies.
  • This mod pairs well with the Attica Attica or Zhuge Zhuge due to the high volume of fire of crossbow-type primaries compared to other bows, ensuring a very high chance of bolts exploding within a short period of time. Combined with the higher ammo capacity, using Thunderbolt on these weapons is very effective for dealing with crowds.
    • Combining the Attica or Zhuge, especially modded for fire rate, with MirageIcon272 Mirage while using her HallOfMirrors130xWhite Hall of Mirrors ability can create an extremely large number of explosions over a wide area, since arrows fired by Mirage's clones can also proc Thunderbolt.
      • The ZhugePrime Zhuge Prime does not benefit from this mod, as the arrows already have a guaranteed explosion after making contact.

Gallery[]

Patch History[]

Update 35.0 (2023-12-13)

  • Fixed the Thunderbolt Mod causing self-damage to Ivara when equipped on her Artemis Bow.

Update 30.8 (2021-10-04)

  • The explosion FX for Thunderbolt have been updated.

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.

Update 18.10 (2016-04-29)

  • Improved the FX and performance of the Thunderbolt mod.
  • Reduced the FX of the Thunderbolt mod on Mirage's clones to improve performance.

Hotfix 14.2.1 (2014-08-14)

  • Improved performance of Thunderbolt explosions on low end systems.

Update 9.8 (2013-09-03)

  • Fixed Thunderbolt explosive damage trumping impact damage. Projectile damage now applies first, and then the chance to explode is checked.

Update 7.10 (2013-05-03)

  • Introduced.

Last updated: Update 27.2 (2020-03-05)

See Also[]

  1. Chance to roll item within drop table
  2. Amount rewarded on successful roll
  3. (Quantity × Chance)
  4. Chance to roll drop table
  5. Chance to roll item within drop table
  6. (Drop Table Chance × Item Chance)
  7. (1 / Chance), see WARFRAME Wiki:Expected & Nearly Guaranteed Numbers for more details
  8. Amount rewarded on successful roll
  9. (Quantity × Chance), average item quantity on a roll attempt (successful or not)
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