Build it. Per shot, the Felarx puts out more single-target damage than almost anything else in the primary slot, and you don’t need a separate Incarnon Genesis farm to get there. The catch: ammo economy, and a reload that punishes every miss. This is a weapon for players who mod around a flaw instead of pretending it’s not there.
Felarx is one of the Zariman ceremonial weapons, so its Incarnon form shipped built in. No Circuit adapter to hunt down. Land 100 kills to unlock the transformation, then fill the charge gauge with weakpoint hits and hit Alt Fire to swap the shotgun for a pair of semi-auto pistols.
Felarx is the shotgun that got people to stop calling Zariman weapons a curiosity tier. Four pellets a shot. Heavy Slash bias. Burst numbers that can drop an Archon phase in a handful of hits, if the build is right.
The Incarnon angle gets the most attention, but the base shotgun form is doing the heavy lifting here. Don’t let the dual-pistol hype distract you from that.
How to get the Felarx
This isn’t a weapon you pick up early. You’ll need Mastery Rank 14 just to buy the blueprint.
- Reach Syndicate Rank 3 (Guardian) with The Holdfasts on the Zariman, which costs 8,000 Standing.
- Buy the blueprint from Cavalero in the Chrysalith.
- Build it for 30,000 Credits, 10 Voidplume Pinion, 15 Voidplume Quill, 30 Voidgel Orb, and 8,000 Alloy Plate, on a 1-day timer, rushable with Platinum.
Voidplume and Voidgel resources drop from Zariman missions and enemies, so budget a few runs if your stock’s thin.
Unlocking the Incarnon form is separate from building the gun.
- Land 100 kills with a freshly built Felarx to complete the transformation challenge, same as the other natural-Incarnon Zariman weapons.
- In missions, land roughly 30 weakpoint hits to fill the Transmutation gauge, then hit Alt Fire for dual-pistol mode.
- Unlock the 5 Evolutions through Cavalero’s in-game challenges, each offering three mutually exclusive perks, so you’re picking a path rather than unlocking everything.
None of this touches the Circuit or relics. If you’ve seen conflicting advice about farming an adapter for Felarx, ignore it. Doesn’t apply here.
Stats
| Class | Primary |
|---|---|
| Mastery Rank | 14 |
| Trigger | AUTO |
| Noise | Alarming |
| Fire Rate | 3 |
| Accuracy | 7.7 |
| Magazine | 6 |
| Reload | 3.7 s |
| Multishot | 4 |
| Critical Chance | 20% |
| Critical Multiplier | 2x |
| Status Chance | 5.5% |
| Riven Disposition | (0.6)Riven disposition 1 of 5 (0.60): a Riven mod rolls 40% weaker than the 1.00 baseline on this weapon. Digital Extremes sets one dot on the weapons players use most, so a Riven adds the least here. The dots measure how much a Riven helps, not how good the weapon is, and DE re-tunes them with every Prime Access. How Rivens work · The full disposition list |
| Damage | 190 total |
|---|---|
| Impact | 38 |
| Puncture | 68.4 |
| Slash | 83.6 |
Riven disposition sits at 0.60x, on the low-moderate side. A Felarx riven won’t roll the huge numbers you’d see on something at 1.0x or higher. Don’t overpay for one expecting miracles.
Builds
This is a raw damage build, centered on Corrosive (Electricity plus Toxin) with a separate Cold proc layered on top, aimed at Steel Path and Archon-hunt burst rather than sustained clearing. The two Primed elemental mods are what set Felarx apart here. Few shotguns get access to both Primed Charged Shell and Primed Chilling Grasp at once.
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Shotgun| Mod | Effect |
|---|---|
| Galvanized Hell | +110% multishot base, plus 30% per kill stacking up to 4 times for a max of +230%. |
| Galvanized Savvy | +80% status chance. On kill, +40% direct damage per status type on the target, stacking twice for 20 seconds. |
| Shotgun Barrage | +90% fire rate, which also speeds up how fast Galvanized Savvy’s kill stacks can build. |
| Primed Cleanse Grineer | x1.55 damage against Grineer specifically. Swap this out entirely against any other faction, it does nothing there. |
| Primed Charged Shell | +165% Electricity damage. |
| Contagious Spread | Up to +90% Toxin damage, which combines with the Electricity above into Corrosive. |
| Primed Chilling Grasp | +165% Cold damage, kept as a separate element rather than folded into the Corrosive combo. |
| Primed Ammo Stock | +110% magazine capacity, there to soften the reload problem this weapon is known for. |
Primed Cleanse Grineer only earns its slot against Grineer. Swap it for a generalist option like Primed Target Cracker or Vigilante Armaments against anything else.
Arcane slot goes to Primary Deadhead. Headshot kills give +120% primary damage for 24 seconds, stacking up to 3 times for +360% total, and at max rank it adds a flat +30% headshot multiplier with -50% recoil. Felarx’s slash-heavy pellets make headshots easy to land, so those stacks build fast.
If you’re leveling the Incarnon path, the order most builds settle on is Incarnon Form first, then Frictionless Flight for +50% projectile speed, Evolved Autoreloader for reload-on-holster, Wracking Wrath for the crit-and-status trade, and Devastating Attrition last, for a 50% chance at +2000% damage on non-crit hits.
One thing worth saying plainly: some players treat the Incarnon transformation as a sidegrade rather than an upgrade for sustained fights, because the pistol form can’t proc Slash naturally and its slower fire rate makes status stacking weak against armor. The base shotgun form carries most of this build’s damage. Treat the dual pistols as a burst option for specific moments, not the whole plan.
Reviewed September 2026.
Pros and Cons
Pros
- Four slash-biased pellets per shot give it enough burst to one-shot high-level single targets and Archons when the build is right
- The Incarnon dual-pistol form has no damage falloff, innate punch-through, and a 3.0x crit multiplier for a different kind of burst
- Built-in Incarnon means the only farm is the 100-kill unlock, not a separate adapter grind
- Access to two Primed elemental mods gives it top-end elemental scaling few other shotguns can match
- Ranked S-tier on multiple 2026 primary weapon tier lists as a single-target and boss option
Cons
- Individual-shell reloading plus magazine mods makes sustained fire clunky without heavy investment
- Ammo runs out fast. The burst damage has a real cost attached
- Damage falloff starts around 14 meters on the base shotgun form, and the Incarnon form has its own 50-meter hard cap
- The Incarnon pistols can’t proc Slash naturally, so they struggle against heavy armor and don’t stack status well
- Not every source agrees on S-tier status. At least one 2026 tier list puts it closer to B+ and points at the reload downtime as the reason
This is a weapon for players who already have their elemental mods primed and don’t mind reloading carefully. Still filling out your Primed mod collection? The build above won’t hit its numbers yet. Run it with placeholder elementals until Primed Charged Shell and Primed Chilling Grasp are in reach.
Newer players chasing Mastery Rank 14 should treat this as a goal to build toward, not something to rush. The Standing grind at the Holdfasts takes time no matter how fast you farm resources.