A Kitgun is Warframe’s modular pistol-or-rifle, built from three parts: a Chamber (the barrel and identity), a Grip (the damage and fire-rate dial) and a Loader (the crit, status and magazine dial). There is no single best Kitgun because you assemble it — but the wiki’s real numbers make the trade-offs readable. This guide breaks down all six chambers, ten grips and twelve loaders, then gives the builds that actually point at one job.
The three parts and what each decides
| Part | What it sets |
|---|---|
| Chamber | The weapon’s identity: damage types, trigger, projectile behaviour |
| Grip | Base damage, fire rate, recoil (and beam range on beam chambers) |
| Loader | Magazine size, reload speed, crit chance, status chance |
Because each part pushes a different stat, a Kitgun is only as good as the match between them. Max one stat and you usually starve another.
The six chambers
| Chamber | Damage types | Identity |
|---|---|---|
| Catchmoon | Impact + Heat | Wide energy projectile with infinite body punch-through (Arca Plasmor-like); guaranteed Impact proc within 9 m; travel time, falloff, no headshot bonus |
| Gaze | Radiation (+ Puncture secondary) | Pinpoint continuous beam; primary adds a 3 m radial field, secondary chains to 2 enemies |
| Rattleguts | Radiation + Puncture + Slash + Impact | Hitscan full-auto rifle |
| Sporelacer | Toxin | Explosive shots; primary bounces, secondary splits into 3 bomblets |
| Tombfinger | Impact + Puncture + Radiation | Primary chargeable (charged blast drops Puncture); secondary detonates on hit with a guaranteed Impact proc |
| Vermisplicer | Impact + Puncture + Slash + Toxin | Infested multi-type projectile |
The grip is a damage ↔ fire-rate dial
The grip’s numbers are not flavour — they move the two stats that decide feel. For the projectile chambers (Catchmoon and Sporelacer primary), the wikitable reads:
| Grip | Base damage | Fire rate | Recoil |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tremor | +82 | 3.00 | +20% |
| Steadyslam | +41 | 3.33 | +10% |
| Shrewd | −12 | 4.67 | 0% |
| Palmaris | −18 | 5.17 | −20% |
| Brash | −24 | 5.67 | −20% |
Tremor is the biggest single damage gain (+82) but drops fire rate to 3.00, while Brash is the opposite (−24 damage, 5.67 fire rate). For a slow, heavy-hitting chamber, Tremor wins; for a status spray, Brash wins because you land more hits.
The loader is a crit ↔ status dial
Loaders are where builds split. The key pairs:
- Killstream — +reload, ++ crit, — status. The crit pick.
- Flutterfire — −mag, +reload, — crit, ++ status. The status pick.
- Ramflare — +mag, −reload, — crit, ++ status. Status with more magazine.
- Bellows — ++ magazine, — reload. Volume pick.
- Macro Arcroid — ++++ magazine, --- reload. Extreme volume for a slow reload.
- Bashrack — +mag, −reload, +crit, −status. The balanced crit pick.
Crit and status are near-opposites here: you almost always get one at the cost of the other, so decide your damage source before you pick the loader.
Best builds by purpose
- Room-clear / AoE: Catchmoon + a magazine or status loader. Catchmoon’s infinite body punch-through and 9 m Impact proc clear groups, and since it has no headshot bonus, a crit loader is wasted — give it magazine or status instead.
- Smooth full-auto: Rattleguts + Shrewd or Steadyslam grip + Killstream loader. Hitscan, no travel time, crit-friendly.
- Status spreader: Sporelacer + Brash grip (5.67 fire rate) + Flutterfire or Ramflare loader. High hit rate plus Toxin explosive equals fast status application.
- Single-target burst: Tombfinger secondary + Tremor grip (+82) + Killstream. The detonating projectile carries a guaranteed Impact proc, so raw damage and crit both pay.
- Chaining beam: Gaze + a beam-range grip. Gaze chains to 2 enemies on secondary and drops a 3 m field on primary, so fire rate matters for uptime.
The counter-intuitive bits
- Catchmoon punishes crit. No headshots and range falloff mean a crit-cheating loader adds less than a status or magazine loader. Its job is coverage, not precision.
- Tremor’s +82 is not always a gain. On a chamber you clear rooms with, the fire-rate drop to 3.00 costs more than the flat damage adds.
- Status builds want the “bad” grip. Brash’s −24 damage looks like a downgrade, but the 5.67 fire rate applies status far faster, which is the whole point of a status build.
Primary vs secondary changes the chamber
Each chamber can be built as a primary or a secondary, and the trigger changes how it behaves:
- Catchmoon — primary fires full-auto with smaller projectiles; secondary semi-automatically fires one wide projectile.
- Gaze — primary projects a 3 m radial field of pure Radiation; secondary has 1 m innate punch-through and chains to 2 enemies with Radiation plus Puncture.
- Sporelacer — primary fires full-auto bouncing shots; secondary fires one shot that splits into 3 bomblets.
- Tombfinger — primary is chargeable (the charged blast loses Puncture); secondary is a precise projectile that detonates on contact with a guaranteed Impact proc.
That means “which chamber is best” depends on the slot too: Tombfinger as a charged primary is a different weapon from Tombfinger as a detonating secondary.
Recoil is the hidden grip stat
The grip table also lists recoil, and it moves with the damage. Brash and Palmaris both cut recoil by −20%, Shrewd sits at 0%, and Steadyslam and Tremor add +10% and +20%. On a full-auto chamber, high recoil pushes your shots off target, so Tremor’s +82 damage comes with an accuracy tax on top of its 3.00 fire rate. For a sustained-fire build, a low-recoil grip often feels better than the raw-damage one.
The beam-chamber exception
For beam-type chambers like Gaze, the grip behaves differently: it only sets base damage and maximum range, and does not affect fire rate or recoil. So the grip fire-rate numbers above (Brash 5.67, Tremor 3.00) do not apply to a beam. On Gaze you pick the grip purely for damage and range, and the fire-rate decision disappears.
Gilding and Pax arcanes
A Kitgun can be gilded after assembly, and a gilded Kitgun accepts Pax Arcanes and Residual Arcanes — extra effects layered on top of the base build. The chamber blueprint costs 500 standing from Rude Zuud (Solaris United) or Father (Entrati), and the finished weapon needs one chamber, one grip and one loader. That is why a “best Kitgun” is really a build decision: the arcs are a late layer on top of a part combination you choose first.
For the surrounding systems, the damage types guide explains the Impact, Heat, Radiation and Toxin damage the chambers deal, the mods guide covers how to mod a finished Kitgun, and the best weapons page compares Kitguns against the rest of the arsenal. The crafting and foundry guide covers building one, and the beginner guide explains where Kitguns fit early.