The Hikou Prime, the quiet and stylish throwing stars, have been in the game’s drop tables. It was usually not ideal to farm this weapon previously before the August unvaulting of Nyx Prime and Rhino Prime. Now with the unvaulting, farming them has become a lot easier and has definitely reduced the typical prices they go for in the trade chat.
This weapon is also part of the older batch of Primes that never really had some kind of innate secondary effect. The only thing this weapon has going for it is its high status chance and silent firing sound. It’s an ideal weapon for a stealthy approach, but it struggles to remain consistent at higher levels.
Here is a build where I make use of the weapon’s greatest strength.
Hikou Prime Build
Luckily, the Mastery Rank requirement for this weapon is a lot more accessible to newcomers. It’s a lot more in line to its overall place in the meta in Warframe, too. You only need to be MR 4 to craft these.
The standard 3 mods are to be used without question (Hornet Strike, Barrel Diffusion, Lethal Torrent). Since this is a status-based weapon, it’s advised to use the dual-stat (or 60/60) mods. Of course, since this build was tested on level 185 corrupted gunners, I modded it for maximum damage against their armor. Remember to swap elements accordingly.
Unfortunately this weapon, despite its gold trimmed and awesome look, does not hold up too well against higher level content without the need for something like a strongly rolled Riven Mod and Galvanized Mods. The Galvanized Shot mod allows for the weapon to barely surpass 100% status chance. With the conditional ‘On Kill’ mechanic, it heavily beefs up the damage potential of the Hikou Prime significantly.
This is a 2-Forma Build with an Orokin Catalyst installed. It seems pretty standard, though I would highly suggest adding one or two more Forma and an Exilus Weapon Adapter so an Ammo Mutation or Vigilante Supplies mod can be slapped in. The Hikou Prime is not very ammo-efficient to begin with.
This weapon performs just okay in the grand scheme of things. It gets the job done, but there are others that massively outperform them. If you want to use weapons like the Hikou Prime, but better performing, I’d suggest the Spira Prime or the Pox.
