Bubonico

Bubonico came out of the Dojo research tree in Update 29.5, back in November 2020. Almost six years later, it’s still getting fresh Steel Path builds published. That says something for a shotgun with no Incarnon evolution and no Lich or Sister system propping it up. Two 2026 tier lists put it at A-tier, specifically for Infested and Defense missions, and it earns that spot through a kit that just works, not through inflated numbers borrowed from a progenitor system.

The idea is simple once you see it play out. Alt-fire lobs a three-round burst of viral explosive shots with a 7-meter blast radius, so you prime and group a room from range. Then you swap to primary fire, a fully automatic 7-pellet toxin barrage, and clean up whatever’s left standing. Two elements, two jobs, one trigger toggle.

There’s also a stronger Coda Bubonico floating around if you want the min-maxed version. More on that below. For a full walkthrough covering both a leveling build and an endgame Steel Path setup, this guide covers the basics well:

How to get the Bubonico

Bubonico comes out of your Clan’s Dojo, not a drop, a syndicate purchase, or a Circuit reward.

1. Have someone in your Clan research it in the Bio Lab first, or join a Clan that already has the tech unlocked.
2. Buy the Blueprint at the Foundry once that research is finished.
3. Gather the build cost: 30,000 Credits, 10 Mutagen Mass, 3 Argon Crystal, 1,200 Plastids, and 22,000 Nano Spores.
4. Build it in the Foundry over 1 day.
5. Reach Mastery Rank 13 to equip it.

Argon Crystal decays if you sit on it, so grab that piece close to when you’re actually ready to build. If your Clan hasn’t touched Bio Lab research at all, that’s a bigger project than one weapon blueprint, and it’s on you to sort out with your Clan or find one further along.

Coda Bubonico

1. Vanquish a Technocyte Coda to earn Live Heartcells.
2. Buy it from Eleanor, The Hex’s vendor in Höllvania Central Mall, for 10 Heartcells, the listed price, though her shop is worth checking directly.
3. Reach Mastery Rank 17 to equip it.

Eleanor’s shop rotates through Batch B every few days and prices can move between patches, so double-check the Heartcell cost before you commit. The Coda version trades some regen-adjacent stats for a bigger 36-round magazine plus higher crit chance, status chance, and fire rate, and it carries an even lower Riven disposition than the base gun.

Stats

Riven disposition sits at 0.75x, on the low end of the scale, and it was dialed down from a higher value in an earlier rebalance. The Coda variant is worse still at 0.55x. If you’re chasing a min-maxed Riven roll, put that time somewhere else. Bubonico’s ceiling comes from its mod slots and innate elements, not from a lucky roll.

Builds

The build philosophy here just follows how the gun already plays: alt-fire primes and groups with viral status, primary fire finishes with toxin plus whatever multishot and crit you’ve stacked. Galvanized Savvy is the mod that ties the two fire modes together, since a kill on a status-stacked target buffs your direct damage right after. The rest is standard shotgun scaling: multishot, flat damage, crit chance, crit damage, and a second element to shift your damage type toward whatever faction you’re fighting.

Mod	Why it’s there
Galvanized Hell	+110% multishot at max rank, plus an on-kill stack of +30% multishot for 20 seconds, up to 4 stacks. Straightforward pellet-count scaling, and it keeps climbing as long as you’re killing.
Galvanized Savvy	+80% status chance at max rank. On a kill, you gain +40% direct damage for 20 seconds for every status type that was active on the target, stacking up to 2 times. This is the mod that rewards priming with alt-fire before you finish with primary.
Primed Point Blank	Flat +165% damage at max rank. No conditions attached, just more damage on every pellet.
Critical Deceleration	+200% critical chance at max rank, at the cost of -20% fire rate. It’s a Corrupted mod, so that fire rate penalty is real. Worth it once the multishot and status side of the build is already carrying its weight.
Primed Ravage	+110% critical damage at max rank. Pairs with Critical Deceleration so crits actually hit hard once you’re landing them.
Primed Charged Shell	+165% Electric damage at max rank. Combine it with the innate Toxin on primary fire and you’re on the usual route to a Corrosive build.
Magnetic Strafe	+60% Magnetic damage and +40% fire rate at max rank. The fire rate helps offset what Critical Deceleration takes away, and Magnetic is the pick if Corpus shields are the problem.
Shotgun Barrage	+90% fire rate at max rank. Pure rate of fire, good if you’d rather lean into that than trade for crit chance via Critical Deceleration.

Stack too much fire rate on top of all that and you’ll hit the 1.5-second regen wall more often, since the clip empties faster than 9 rounds a second can refill it. That’s the tradeoff to keep in mind before you go all-in on Shotgun Barrage and Magnetic Strafe together.

For the arcane slot, Primary Crux is the common pick, and it’s chosen specifically because of the battery mechanic. It grants +30% status chance and +6% ammo efficiency per weak point hit, stacking up to 10 times, and that ammo efficiency stretches the small 27-round clip further than it would go on its own. Primary Merciless (stacking damage on kill, tied to reload speed) and Primary Deadhead (stacking damage per headshot kill) show up as alternatives if you’d rather build around raw damage stacking instead.

Reviewed September 2026.

Pros and Cons

Bubonico is for players who want a shotgun that keeps firing without babysitting ammo, and who don’t mind putting real Forma into it before it shows what it can do. It’s a strong pick for Infested nodes and Defense missions. Less so if you’re chasing raw single-target numbers against one tanky enemy with no crowd around it. Skip it if you’re set on Incarnon or Lich scaling, since Bubonico offers neither.

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