Soma vs Burston in Warframe: Which is the better Incarnon assault rifle?

The fifth week of Circuit rewards in Warframe: Duviri Paradox (rotation 5) contains the community-favorite Soma. Upon launch, the Soma Incarnon upgrade was not quite the buff most players hoped it would be. Instead of an even more breakneck bullet hose, the Incarnon metamorphosis turns this weapon into an auto-shotgun. Its behavior inches more towards the Strun, with a high pellet per round and a tighter-than-average spread.

The irony is that the Incarnon form gains its shotgun nature at the cost of Soma's primary identity as a crit monster.

The Incarnon Burston was also released in the same rotation as the Incarnon Soma. The Burston is the Soma's soft-spoken peer in the assault rifle class. Its burst-fire rounds are a reprieve of decent damage, but only at lower levels of the game. This erstwhile starter weapon, thanks to its Incarnon upgrade, has now usurped Soma's throne as the paragon of crit-based bullet hoses in Warframe.

Note: Some aspects of this article are subjective and solely reflect the opinions of the writer

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The Burston is a better assault rifle than the Soma, but is it the best in Warframe right now?

Is the Incarnon Soma good?

Let us look at raw numbers. The Soma Prime deals 12 total damage per projectile unmodded. The Incarnon upgrade increases that to 25 damage per projectile, and it fires eight pellets per projectile, bringing the tally to 144.

The catch is that the stock Soma Prime comes with a 30% base critical chance, and the Incarnon mode dials it back all the way to 10%. Moreover, there are no critical chance Evolution perks that increase this number.

While the base damage itself is high, it is not enough to outright kill Steel Path mobs with a corrosive build. To make it endgame-viable, the Hunter Munition must be slotted for the Slash procs.

The big issue currently is that the likely intended mod to synergize with the Incarnon form's high crit multiplier, Hata-Satya, is bugged. As of Warframe Update 33.0.11, it still does not work with the Incarnon form. Currently, the bug can be bypassed by either shooting into Zephyr's Tornado or having Saryn's Toxic Lash active.

When these conditions are met, a fully modded Incarnon Soma with the highest Hata-Satya stacks will have twice the Slash DPS compared to regular Soma Prime (about 60,000 compared to 30,000). This, nevertheless, is not remotely on par with the best-in-class Warframe auto-shotguns. The only thing that can push this over the edge is Harrow with an Arcane Avenger setup for extra base critical chance.

The Incarnon Boltor from the last rotation, for reference, has a similar multi-pellet Incarnon form. With a similar setup, it far outperforms the Incarnon Soma.

Incarnon Soma build comparisons to regular Soma Prime in Warframe (Image via ninjase on Overframe)

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Evaluating the Incarnon Burston

The Incarnon Burston is everything that players anticipated the Soma upgrade to be. The Incarnon form turns it into a fully-automatic minigun that fires literal hot lead, dealing pure heat damage. The base damage is somewhat low at 13, but with the Absolute Valor Evolution, it has a 50% base critical chance. A regular critical build lets it easily deal nearly 300,000 burst DPS.

The Incarnon Burston may not be the most overpowered assault rifle in Warframe right now, but it has surely eclipsed the 10-year reign of the Soma.