With the recent arrival of The Heart of Deimos, there’s more ways to fight in Warframe than ever before. You can hop in the new Necramech to go on a corn-fueled rampage, or you can whip out your K-Drive to shoot enemies while doing mid-air kickflips.
But the core of Warframe will always remain the titular Warframe, so it’s probably a good idea to make sure you’ve got yourself a ‘frame that’s as well equipped as can be. To help you out, we’ve got a guide on how to build some of the best Warframe’s around.
We’ve already covered Wisp in an even more detailed guide, and she’s definitely one of the better Warframes you can bring into pretty much any of the game’s content. We’ll cover a few more ‘frames here, but you’ll have to figure out how to get them on your own. Note that we’ll default to the Prime version of any given Warframe if one is available, but in most cases the un-Primed version will work fine–you just might need to spend a few more Forma in order to recreate the build you see here.
Nekros - The Farmer
Warframe has always been a game about farming materials to build bigger and better things, and there’s no better ‘frame to help with Farming than Nekros. His farming-focused build hasn’t changed much over the past year or so, but you do have a few more helpful tools to help keep Nekros alive and farming. Name, Arcane Grace and Arcane Pulse, but other Arcanes can be useful too.
Nekros’s plan is simple: kill a few dudes, Despoil their corpses, and then raise them from the dead to be your shield army of the night. The multitude of health orbs dropped will keep you healthy, but if not, you can always build your sentinel/pet to help with healing too.
Chroma - The Eidolon Slayer
Chroma has been the quintessential boss-killer in Warframe since his inception, and that hasn’t changed much either. Build for maximum power strength and duration so you can keep both Elemental Ward and Vex Armor up for as long as possible, and then equip your hardest-hitting weapon to deal bonkers damage to whatever boss you need dead yesterday.
This build has very minor variations depending on whether you’re hunting Eidolons or the Profit Taker on Venus (mostly just the aura slot depending on your target–we recommend using an Aura Forma on Chroma as a result). Arcane Grace and Arcane Guardian are recommended Arcanes to further enhance Chroma’s near-indestructibility.
Baruuk - The King Of Steel Path
The Steel Path update brought a sort of super hard mode for veteran Warframe players. Although The Steel Path’s rewards aren’t exactly enticing, the challenge itself can be enough of a draw for Warframe fans that love to show off their skills.
However, Steel Path can be brutally difficult for even the tankiest of Warframes. Baruuk gets around the ludicrous damage being dealt by hordes of opponents by being invincible a lot of the time thanks to his abilities, and this build further enhanced that invincibility by using Rolling Guard and Augur Mods for shield-gating cheese.
Brozime will also give us a breakdown of what to do with Baruuk’s exalted weapon as well as general gameplay tips.
Rhino - The New Player Powerhouse
Not every Warframe player has every Warframe, but every Warframe player should have Rhino. He’s the ultimate new player frame, and with the introduction of the Helminth system, even veteran players will want to subsume a Rhino to start passing around his Roar ability.
Rhino is big, tough, and can crowd control a room just as easily as he can boost his entire team’s damage. He’s always useful to bring to any encounter in Warframe, and just about the only downside to Rhino is that he’s occasionally outclassed by other ‘frames in very specific boss fights. His ability to complete 99% of Warframe with flying colors means that every new player should prioritize getting Rhino ASAP.
He can be built in a number of different ways to emphasize different parts of Rhino’s toolkit, but we’d recommend aiming for something like this for Warframe’s end-game. Arcane Guardian should definitely be slotted here for even more tankiness. If you don’t want to spend the Umbral Forma, go with regular Steel Fiber instead.
Mesa - The Gunslinger
Like Rhino, Mesa can be used to complete 99% of Warframe’s content. Unlike Rhino, Mesa is a lot harder to obtain, so new players are unlike to acquire Mesa without outright purchasing her. That said, she’s immensely powerful in ways that Rhino is not thanks to her Peacemakers being able to clear an entire world of enemies in the blink of an eye.
The only downside to Mesa is that she occasionally isn’t tough enough to withstand direct hits. To solve that, Brozime used the new Helminth system to replace her Ballistic Battery ability with Hildryn’s Pillage. This allows Mesa to both strip armor and improve her survivability by giving her an enormous amount of shields.
Octavia - The Battlefield Maestro
Octavia is still perhaps the most slept-on Warframe in the entire game. She has power, invisibility, and crowd control all in a single package. A skilled Octavia can do it all while simultaneously buffing her entire team into the stratosphere, and you can easily get her blueprint from the Octavia’s Anthem quest.
As with many Warframes, Octavia can be built in a number of different ways to emphasize different aspects of her kit. One way is to maximize her invisibility time by maximizing her duration for completing Spy missions, but we’re going to go for a more all-around Octavia build.
Arcane Energize is easily the best Arcane to use here in order to ensure Octavia has the energy to cast her abilities and keep proccing Brief Respite. Rolling Guard serves as an extra layer of protection in case your invisibility fails but can be replaced by either Vitality or Adaptation if you prefer.
Saryn - The Queen Of Poison
Saryn is up there with Mesa as perhaps the best Warframe in the game. She can also kill an entire room of enemies, can survive incoming fire thanks to her Molt ability, and buff her overall damage output thanks to Toxic Lash. There’s really nothing that Saryn can’t do except for a few extremely niche-use cases (mostly Eidolon and Profit Taker).
This build plays to Saryn’s strengths–namely, infecting an entire room of high-level enemies with Spores and then killing them. Arcane Energize, Zenurik Dash, or a pet that helps with Saryn’s energy economy is probably your best partner in crime here. As usual, substitute regular Vitality if you’re not willing to spend the Umbral Forma.
Nova - The Quantum Crowd Controller
Nova is interesting because she can not only slow down an entire room full of enemies, but she can also SPEED THEM UP. By building for negative power (less than 100%), Nova’s ultimate ability actually speeds up her opponents rather than slow them down, making her extremely useful for fast-farming of low-level content.
Besides this unique ability, Nova is also tough as nails thanks to her Null Star ability. This build turns Nova into both a tank and a crowd-controlling monster thanks to maximum duration. Note that this does make Wormhole pretty much useless with a range of just 34%, so use Helminth to swap it with whatever you prefer. Roar, Eclipse, and Dispensary are all fine options.
Swap Overextended for Adaptation if you plan to use Nova to fast-farm low-level content.
