Build it if you land headshots consistently, since flat crit chance and crit damage bonuses apply twice on this weapon, turning a weak 5% base crit into red-crit territory cheaply. Its real weakness is the 17-round mag and total headshot dependency, so skip it if you want a point-and-spray secondary.
Headshots burrow a spore that briefly stuns the target, then bursts into 6 homing spores that chase enemies within 20m. Flat crit chance and crit damage bonuses (arcanes, frame buffs, Galvanized procs) apply twice instead of once on this weapon.
Zymos is an MR11 Infested secondary pistol earned through Entrati standing on the Cambion Drift, and it still matters in 2026 because flat crit chance and crit damage bonuses apply to it twice, turning its weak 5% base crit chance into one of the highest crit ceilings of any secondary.
How to get the Zymos
- Hit Mastery Rank 11, the weapon’s rank gate.
- Travel to the Cambion Drift (Deimos) and rank up standing with the Entrati to Rank 1, “Stranger.”
- Buy the Zymos blueprint (2,000 standing) and its component blueprints (1,000 standing each) from Father in the Necralisk, 4,000 standing total.
- Build each piece in the Foundry with credits and standard resources, then assemble the finished weapon.
- Level it to 30 in missions, then add an Orokin Reactor and Forma to fit your build.
Also sits in the in-game Market for 190 platinum if you’d rather skip the Entrati standing grind entirely.
Stats
| Class | Secondary |
|---|---|
| Mastery Rank | 11 |
| Trigger | SEMI |
| Noise | Alarming |
| Fire Rate | 1.33 |
| Accuracy | 9.8 |
| Magazine | 17 |
| Reload | 3.2 s |
| Critical Chance | 5% |
| Critical Multiplier | 2.3x |
| Status Chance | 30% |
| Riven Disposition | (1.2) |
| Damage | 84 total |
|---|---|
| Impact | 9.2 |
| Puncture | 13.8 |
| Toxin | 61 |
Riven disposition is 1.2, lower-middle of the scale, but Zymos doubles flat crit bonuses so even a cheap riven with crit chance or crit damage compounds hard, making it worth grabbing cheap rather than paying for a god-roll.
Builds
Zymos runs a hybrid headshot crit build: Primed Pistol Gambit, Creeping Bullseye, Galvanized Crosshairs, and Hydraulic Crosshairs stack crit chance so its huge headshot passive has real numbers to multiply, while Barrel Diffusion multishot keeps both crits and status procs flowing. Pathogen Rounds and Deep Freeze combine with its innate Toxin into Viral, letting the homing spores clean up whatever the armor strip does not kill outright.
14Hornet Strike
Pistol
11Barrel Diffusion
Pistol
12Primed Pistol Gambit
Pistol
9Creeping Bullseye
Pistol
12Galvanized CrosshairsPistol
11Pathogen RoundsPistol
11Deep Freeze
Pistol
7Hydraulic Crosshairs
Pistol
| Mod | Why it’s here |
|---|---|
| Hornet Strike | Straight base damage multiplier so every headshot crit and Viral proc on Zymos has a bigger number to multiply. |
| Barrel Diffusion | Multishot puts more pellets on target per trigger pull, giving more rolls at Zymos’s 30% status chance and at landing the headshots its passive wants. |
| Primed Pistol Gambit | Raises Zymos’s low 5% base crit chance so its huge headshot-crit passive actually has a real number to multiply. |
| Creeping Bullseye | Adds more crit chance plus fire rate, letting Zymos chain headshots faster to keep the homing spore passive triggering. |
| Galvanized Crosshairs | Crit chance that stacks bonus crit damage on headshot kills rewards the exact headshot loop Zymos is built around. |
| Pathogen Rounds | Stacks extra Toxin on top of Zymos’s innate Toxin, the half of the Viral combo it already carries for free. |
| Deep Freeze | Supplies the Cold half of Viral against Zymos’s innate Toxin, shredding armor and shields on the 30% status chance while the Cold proc slows survivors. |
| Hydraulic Crosshairs | Extra crit chance while aiming rewards deliberate headshot aiming, stacking further into Zymos’s headshot-crit passive. |
Secondary Merciless is best-in-slot since its flat crit damage stacks cleanly with Zymos’s doubled crit math; Secondary Deadhead is a cheaper, easier-to-farm alternative, though its headshot bonus reportedly interacts inconsistently with Zymos’s delayed spore-burrow headshot.
Reviewed September 2026.
Pros and Cons
Pros
- Toxin-heavy native damage (61 toxin) chews through unarmored and lightly-armored enemies with no extra elemental mods needed
- Headshot spore burrow fires 6 homing projectiles that seek nearby targets, clearing clustered mobs without precise follow-up shots
- Flat crit bonuses apply twice on this weapon, giving it one of the best crit-scaling ceilings of any secondary once buffed
- Cheap to acquire: Entrati standing and Foundry resources only, or 190 plat outright, no relic RNG or Kuva grind
- Solid 30% base status (50% on the spore explosion itself) means it still functions as a status weapon if you build that way
Cons
- 5% base crit chance is dead weight without dedicated crit mods; a bare, un-optimized Zymos underperforms
- 17-round magazine and 1.33 shots/sec semi-auto trigger empties fast against tanky Steel Path targets
- No Incarnon Genesis adapter, so it can’t scale into Circuit content the way Incarnon secondaries do
- The whole kit is built around landing headshots; regular body shots are mediocre, punishing shaky aim or fast, erratic enemies
Best for players who like headshot-focused secondaries and want a cheap, standing-bought pistol (190 platinum on the Market) that rewards accuracy with disproportionate crit damage, not for anyone wanting an easy point-and-hold status gun.