Warframe, Digital Extremes’ free-to-play action shooter is a sprawling sci-fi adventure. The game focuses on finding better and better loot to add to your arsenal, which allows you to take on ever-increasing challenges. There are three main weapon categories with tons of discrete options to choose from. You will need a secondary and melee weapon at key combat moments throughout the game. However, you’ll spend most of your time wielding your primary weapon, your main tool for fighting the cybernetic and robotic enemies that inhabit this dystopian future. With so many options to choose from, we’ve decided to put together a list of some of the best weapons in Warframe.
Hek
First on the list is the Hek. This early game weapon only requires a level four mastery to equip. However, don’t let this fool you. With a base damage of 525 per shot, the Hek is a powerful weapon right from the outset. Its accuracy is pretty low, as are its critical chances, but the sheer fact that you can acquire something so powerful so early in the game makes this a must for every new player.
How to Find
You’ll find the blueprints for the Hek at the in-game market for 25,000 credits, or you can buy the weapon directly for 225 Platinum. The best part is that the resources required to craft it are quite low.
Tiberon Prime
This deadly assault rifle can be fired in semi-auto, burst-fire, and full-auto modes. This gives players several options when they enter into combat. Regardless of your firing mode, the Tiberon Prime comes with a very high critical and status chance which multiplies the DPS of the weapon.
It deals primarily puncture damage, so keep that in mind if you face enemies with very powerful shields. There are few other drawbacks to this versatile gun.
How to Find
The Tiberon Prime Blueprint drops on Axi O2. You’ll need to head to Meso T1, Meso O2, and Meso T2 to find the other components of the weapon.
Kuva Kohm
Looking for an auto-spooling shotgun that will tear through hordes of enemies like they were paper? The Kuva Kohm is for you. This powerful weapon does slash damage which makes it absolutely lethal to any armored enemy type.
It has a high critical chance and multiplier. It also has the highest status chance of any primary weapon in the entire game. The biggest downside to the Kuva Kohm is its high damage falloff, ammo consumption, and small magazine size, but the sheer damage it’s capable of unleashing more than makes up for those weaknesses.
How to Find
You’ll need to defeat a Kuva Lich that is in possession of one. After killing this powerful enemy, the Kuva Kohm will appear in the player’s Foundry, ready for action.
Dread
The Dread might be the most powerful bow in all of Warframe, and potentially the most powerful weapon in general. Unlike most bows, the Dread uses bolts tipped with curved blades. As a result, it delivers primarily slash damage instead of puncture damage.
Combined with one of the highest critical chance stats in the game and a very good status chance, you will almost certainly cause the bleed status on an enemy. In fact, with the right mods, you can almost guarantee bleeding enemies. Keep in mind that it draws from the Sniper ammo pool, so your ammo will be somewhat limited.
How to Find
The Stalker drops the blueprint for this particular weapon. The effort to acquire it won’t be too hard though as the drop rate is just above 35%. You also have the option of buying the “What Stalker?” bundle for 800 Platinum at the market.
Acceltra
Though categorized as a rifle, the Acceltra is actually a fully-automatic micro-rocket launcher! Each explosive projectile fired has a four-meter blast radius with a very high critical chance and multiplier. You’ll need to rely on the physical damage because this particular rifle has a very low status chance.
The Acceltra deals predominantly puncture damage with a bit of impact damage for good measure. Keep in mind that the rockets won’t explode for seven meters after being fired, so it’s most effective as a mid-range weapon.
How to Find
To claim the blueprint for the Acceltra as your own, you’ll need to kill Demolisher Infested in the Ur, Uranus Dark Sector mission. You’ll have to kill a lot of them too given that the drop rate for the blueprint is less than 1.5%.
Ignis Wraith
We were a little reluctant to add the Ignis Wraith flamethrower to this list given how hard it can be to come by, but its sheer potential for damage convinced us that it had to be included. The weapon does heat damage and a lot of it at that. Combined with one of the highest status chance stats in the game, every enemy weak to fire will run from you on sight! It has a decent critical chance and multiplier, but its strength is definitely in its ability to set things ablaze.
How to Find
The biggest downside to the Ignis Wraith is acquiring the blueprint. It’s no longer possible to farm for this particular item as it was part of the Operation: The Pacifism Defect event. However, the blueprint is tradable, and clans who received it have been known to trade it freely and sometimes give it away!
If you decide to grab and Ignis Wraith for yourself, your best bet is to start tracking down clan members who were playing during the original event timeframe. Who knows, you might just get lucky.
Kuva Bramma
Bows tend to be on the “hate” side of the love/hate scale as far as primary weapons in Warframe are concerned. However, there are several in the game that everyone loves regardless of their preferences otherwise. Kuva Bramma is one of those.
This giant bow does blast damage on impact, which has the secondary effect of releasing several smaller cluster bombs after the initial explosion. Additionally, you can detonate a bolt mid-flight using its alternate fire mode. It has all of the challenges of using a bow, coupled with a limited ammo capacity, but its power more than makes up for these small disadvantages.
How to Find
Like the Kuva Kohm, the Kuva Bramma is acquired by killing a Kuva Lich who has one equipped. Once the Kuva Lich is defeated, the Kuva Bramma will show up in the Foundry.
Zarr
Have you ever wanted to carry around an actual cannon like it was a rocket launcher? If so, we’ve got the weapon for you. The Zarr looks like an old-timey cannon with some very cool sci-fi embellishments.
It fires explosive cannonballs one at a time, or in a barrage if you use its alternate fire mode. Each cannonball explodes in a four-meter radius and does significant blast damage. Be careful though, because there aren’t any delayed detonations for the Zarr. One poorly aimed cannonball and you’ll wind up killing yourself instead of your intended target.
How to Find
The Zarr is easy enough to come by. Once you’re at a mastery level of seven, head over to a market selling it or its blueprint. You can buy the weapon for 225 Platinum or the blueprint for 30,000 credits.
Tigris Prime
The Tigris Prime is a very advanced weapon. Without a lot of skill, it will be hard to overcome some of its serious shortfalls. It’s no wonder then that you’ll need to be at a master level of 13 before you can even equip it. This particular shotgun has a very low magazine size and low accuracy (less than 10%), so you’ll need to be up close and personal to do damage with this thing. Additionally, since you’ll be reloading a lot, you’ll want to make sure every shot counts.
However. What you get for your efforts is a weapon that is nearly guaranteed to cause a status effect with each pellet of each shot! And since each shot fired contains eight pellets…well, we’ll let you do the math.
How to Find
You’ll need to take on a mission from the Void, or from Cetus and Orb Vallis bounties to track down the blueprints and relics required to craft the Tigris Prime. Bounties might be the easier way to go as rewards for them are clearly marked, so you’ll know before taking the bounty on whether there is a chance to get it or not.
Arca Plasmor
The Arca Plasmor is the definition of a room clearer. There aren’t any particular stats on this shotgun that make it stand out from the rest. However, the fact that it fires clusters of projectiles that each do AoE damage more than makes up for its otherwise middle-of-the-road stats. The damage is radiation and impact-based, and in a room filled with enemies, there are few weapons better for hitting everything at the same time. It also has a three-meter punch through, so even bad guys in the back of a cluster aren’t safe.
How to Find
The easiest way to acquire the Arca Plasmor is by coughing up the 190 Platinum at a market. However, you can pick one up without spending cash. This method requires you to be a member of a clan, research and then buy the blueprint from your clan’s dojo, and then farm the required resources to craft it.
Lenz
Stealth focused players tend to favor bows, which makes the Lenz a bit of an odd duck. This particular weapon fires bolts that have massive bombs mounted to their tips! The bolts do cold procs within an eight-meter radius but eventually explode. This explosion does significant blast damage within a six-meter radius. It also comes with built-in ammo mutation to compensate for its limited ammo pool.
How to Find
Unfortunately, you’ll need to join a clan to gain access to the blueprint for the Lenz. The blueprint has to be researched through the Energy Lab in the dojo.
Kuva Quartakk
The Kuva Quartakk requires a master level of 13 which makes it an advanced rifle. While firing from the hip it enters a full-auto mode. Aiming down the sights transitions it into burst-fire mode. It does primarily impact damage, but you do get a bit of slash and puncture damage as well.
As a result, this is a great all-around rifle capable of dishing out the hurt to nearly every enemy type. It comes with a high critical and status chance and has great accuracy and a deep magazine. Its fire rate is on the lower end, but not enough to hurt its overall DPS.
How to Find
As with the other Kuva weapons on this list, you’ll need to take down a Kuva Lich who carries one to add the Kuva Quartakk to your Foundry.
Primary Combat Solutions
Warframe has three weapon categories with tons of weapons to wield against the infinite horde of enemies thrown at you. Your primary weapon is a critical component of your arsenal and your main defense against your merciless foes.
There are a lot of amazing loot-based action games on the market, but Warframe is unique in that it’s free to play. While some of your progress can be sped up through microtransactions, the ability to acquire all of these amazing weapons without having to spend any money is an attractive value proposition.
Whether you spend money or embark on a very fun loot grind, the list above contains some of the best weapons in Warframe. Go forth, Tenno, and bring peace back to the universe!
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