Build uses 2 red archon shards to gain up to 200% ability strength
Update Hotfix 35.1.2
This build has a mid level skill ceiling. Be prepared to put in the work if you want to use this setup to its full potential

- Introduction

Kullervo answers for his sins and the sins of others. His daggers and [Melee Prowess] deal high damage. Seize the power of treachery to slake his thirst for [Revenge].

Daggers and [Melee Prowess]. While yes those are definitely some of his strong suits, he is a very proficient frame in other forms of combat as well. Too long there's been only somewhat acceptable frames you can run with snipers. [Kullervo] hits all of them right out the park by essentially transforming any sniper into an aoe weapon, instant relocations and a somewhat easy to maintain survivability.

Let's dive into it.

- Playstyle - Tldr Version

• Enter mission, find enemies
• Stack up Overguard whenever you find time
• For groups of enemies: Cast collective curse, cast your shuriken (to armor strip), shoot your gun, watch everything die
• Listen to the Overguard breaking sound cue, you dont want to hear it but if you do activate rolling guard, find enemies, cast your 2 to stack Overguard
• Additionally incase of danger, to find enemies, move around quickly use your 1 to teleport (invert the controls in the settings so you only have to tap it)

- Playstyle - Explained Version

Survivability

Kullervo uses Overguard. A mechanic allowing his 2 to stack hitpoints on top of his health, granting him immunity to crowd control. Naturally we need to always maintain Overguard. It doesn't have to be fully stacked at any time, it just shouldn't break.

If it does break you will hear a sound cue (turn up your in game audio if you don't).

1. Quickly use rolling guard
2. Now locate some enemies on your hud - at best a group of atleast 4 (your 2 will cast much faster which will allow you to cast it again without having to wait for the whole animation to finish)
3. Use your teleport ability to quickly cover large distances (Invert the controls in the settings for Kullervo. This will allow you to tap the ability making it much smoother and quicker in succession)
4. Cast your 2 to replenish Overguard
5. Reposition if need be and back to killing

Killing

1. Find a group of enemies or create one (more to that later)
2. Cast your Collective Curse
3. Pick a target to shoot at. It needs to be infront of the group and at best one with a high health pool. If it has less health than others we run into the possibility that higher health targets stay alive.
4. Cast Shuriken to armor strip the desired target while scoped.
5. Kill the target instantly after the shuriken hits (Armor strip lasts only for a second)

Positioning

• You're a sniper. You want distance. Your abilities (other than your 2) all have range. Use your Teleport to move around
• You will either want to have your back to a wall or enough space behind you to not get surprised by enemies
• Try to get used to finding good spots to take shots off quickly. Most of warframe's missions are hit and run so you will need to keep up with everybody
• Should enemies be somewhat far apart then aggro them, use your teleport and your 2 for survivability and reposition to take them out in one shot using your killing rotation. (Dont overcomplicate enemy manipulating, the build is energy efficient so taking more shots with multiple rotations is more than fine)
• Energy wise we rely on energy orbs. Keep in mind to pick them up. It's also great practice to remember to be mobile. Use your teleport to quickly zoom around the battlefield.

- The build

With a keen eye we see sth unconventional here. 13% duration.
Why do we dump duration? 2 reasons. Because we can. And because we want to.

Why can we dump duration?

Let's ignore the 1 for a second. The 2 doesn't care for duration. Now our 3. Collective curse. It only needs to stay active for the duration we need to line up our shot. Same as the 4. The Shuriken armor strip. We can cast both of these while we are scoped in. No need for durations longer than that (Collective Curse will be 3 seconds, armor strip 1 second).

But why do we actively want to dump it?

Because of the way our teleport works (keep in mind we use the one that doesn't need an enemy, invert controls for Kullervo in the settings for ease of use).
Recasting teleport after we recently used it is only possible after the buff it gives (melee critical chance) runs out. We want to cast teleport more often in quick successions. That's why we minimize the uptime of this buff with 13% duration to 1.25 seconds. Which effectively means we can now teleport every 1.25 seconds to wherever our crosshair can see.

- Customizations and Alternatives

Mods and Arcanes and Shards:

• The only caps we need to hit are 200% ability strength for our collective curse and as low duration as we can for a low cooldown on our teleport
• For Molt Augmented: Instead use tauforged red archon shards or drop [Adaptation] for a rank 9 blind rage plus rank 5 overextended
• Not a fan of adaptation? Me neither. Be a gamer and use your reflexes to survive. Drop it for blind rage or umbral intensify. Drop out power drift for utility. Primed sure footed or preparation are great contenders here.
• No adaptation? Drop arcane blessing. Useless without it.
  Use arcane energize if you don't run Zenurik or struggle with energy.
  Use arcane avenger and combat discipline for more crits
  Use arcane acceleration or arcane rage to swap out redundant mods in your gun
• 2 red shards are needed to hit 200% at max stacks of molt augmented. If you want to hit the cap sooner use more red shards or tauforged variants. Casting speed isn't needed. Energy on spawn is always good to have.
• If you find yourself having trouble placing the shot quickly enough before they regain their armor back then take off a rank or two from fleeting expertise. Keep in mind however that this will also increase the cooldown of your teleport

Guns:

• Snipers:

Arguably the best in slot might be the Rubico prime. Great crit chance and multiplier from the get go. Once it gets stacked with the shot combo multiplier it becomes a force to be reckoned with.

I personally use the Lanka, modded for high viral damage. Less usable than the Rubico prime. It has a charge mechanic and is a projectile based weapon. I use it because I'm very aquainted with it, have a riven and find its long shot combo reset counter adding a great quality of life.

Honorable mentions are the Vectis prime, Perigale and Komorex.

• Alternatives to snipers:

Ugh fine really don't wanna use snipers then. This setup also does well with shotguns, gunblades, glaives and of course your run of the mill heavy attack melee setup. The criteria you will want to look for is high damage in a single shot because our armor strip only last for a second. Melee in particular benefit from the melee crit chance multiplier of your teleport. The killing rotation would be activating your 3 on enemies, teleport for the buff followed by an instant cast of shuriken and the shot. The timing will be tight but doable for someone with quick fingers.

Companions:

Among the best are:

• Adarza Kavat for Crit Chance buff
• Nautilus for grouping
• Smeeta Kavat for a range of random different buffs
• Huras Kubrow for stealth
• Panzer vulpaphyla for spreading viral

Secondaries:

• Not really any mentionable high damage single shot so best in slot are primers
• Best primers: Epitaph, Kuva Nukor and also regular Nukor (we only need to prime one enemy after all)
• Mod for viral status for amplified damage against health

Melee:

• Damage wise are gunblades, glaives and heavy attack setups doable, not the point of the build however
• As for utility using amalgam mods for sprint speed or sth like Rakta Dark Dagger for decreased enemy detection always a good choice. In a regular gameplay loop you wont find yourself using melee too much though

- Conclusion

This build exploits the synergies of low duration on multiple abilities, using a sniper (or a high damage, quick and single shot weapon) and the true damage mechanics of Collective Curse.

In doing so the gameplay of this setup is a very active one. Quick rotations of abilities, lining up your shots, reflexes for [Rolling Guard] usage, knowledge of positioning and energy management are all very much needed mechanics for this build to work. Lacking either one of those will diminish this builds effectiveness.

His mobility rivals that of the fastest frames in the game. I've outrun friends on their Volts, Wukongs and Titanias on multiple occasions. With Netracells and other gamemodes being added requiring fast frames this kind of utility only adds to this frames usability in a wide range of missions.

Learning the rotations, getting better aim and most importantly utilizing his teleport will gradually increase your effectiveness as you play. Hence the mid level skill ceiling. Not the hardest to learn, but definitely some mechanics to practice. And it definitely helps that it all just feels really smooth to play once you get in the groove. Kill rotation, reposition, stack over guard, kill rotation, reposition, extract.

That being said all this makes Kullervo the single best Sniper Warframe there is (excluding boss missions like eidolons and whatnot for obvious reasons). Even in a game clearly not designed for sniping. And he makes it very fun too.