Warframeis a big game and can feel daunting to newcomers. This guide is designed to help players understand the types of elemental damage their weapons can deal, and how these different damage types can benefit the Tenno in their battles against the many foes that infest the solar system.
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Warframehas a wide variety of weapons and weapon mods that allow players to deal damage with a wide variety of elements. Each element has its own special qualities, making each of them useful for facing off against the many kinds of foe players will face throughout the Solar System. With Cold, Electricity, Heat, and Toxin damage types to choose from, this guide will help playersmake the most of their weapons.
Cold
Cold Damage is a very useful damage type against enemies with shields and inflicts a status effect that slows down targets. Specifically, Cold Damagedeals 50% more damage against shieldsand 25% more damage against the Alloy Armor Health Class (frequently seen on Grineer enemies) and the Infested Sinew Health Class. Of the three enemy factions, the Corpus make heavy use of shields and can be torn apart with Cold Element attacks. The same is true of any shields utilized by other enemy types, such as Grineer Sensor Regulators.
Cold Damage performs much worse against the Infested Flesh (dealing 50% less damage) Health Class and the Fossilized Health Class (dealing 25% less damage). Thus, bringing Cold Damage on amission where Infested are expected to be encounteredis not recommended.
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Cold Damage inflicts theFreeze status effect, which reduces the target’s movement speed and fire/attack rate by 25% over 6 secondswhen inflicted. Triggering further instances of the status effect increases the reduction by 5% per stack, to a maximum of 70% in total at 10 stacks. Each stack has its own duration.
When used as ship-mounted weapons in Railjack missions, Cold Damage-inflicting weapons will instead apply theImmobilize status effect to enemy ships. This disables the target ship’s weapons and slows them to a complete stop for 6 seconds. The duration of Immobilize can be refreshed by inflicting it again.
Electricity
The Electricity Damage type shines whendealing with robotic foes of various kinds. It inflicts the Tesla Chain status effect, which stuns the target and inflicts electricity damage at regular intervals. Electricity Damagedeals 50% more damage against the Robotic and Machinery Health Classes.Unfortunately, theAlloy Armor worn by many Grineer enemy types is resistant to Electricity.Enemies with that Health Class take50% less damagefrom this damage type.
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Meanwhile, the Tesla Chain status effectstuns the target and inflicts electricity damage every 6 seconds.When used as ship-mounted weapons in Railjack missions, Electricity Damage-inflicting weapons will instead inflict theScramblestatus effect, which causes enemy ships tospiral erratically forward for 6 secondswith their weapons disabled.
Heat
Heat Damage is best used against infested enemies and can inflict the Ignite status effect to weaken armor. This damage typedeals 50% extra damage against enemies with the Infested flesh Health Class, and25% extra damage against foes of the Infested and Cloned Flesh Health Classes. Heat Damage is decidedlyless effective against the Proto Shield Health Class, used by many Corpus special units.
Heat Damage’s Ignite status effectsets enemies ablaze. This causes them to panic, flailing around wildly whilereducingtheir armor by up to 50%. After a 1-second delay, the status effect also deals Heat Damage every second for 6 seconds.
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When used asShip-Mounted weapons in Railjack missions, Heat Damage weapons inflict theSearstatus effect instead, whichdeals damage to the target 6 times over the next 5 seconds.
Toxin
Toxin Damage is an exceptional damage type against the majority of Corpus enemy types. It can also inflict thePoison status effect, which, after a 1-second delay, inflicts Toxin damage once every second for 6 seconds.
Toxin deals 50% extra damage against the Flesh Health Class(used by many Corpus enemies after getting through their shield), and25% extra damage to the Proto Shield Health Class.Additionally, Toxin completely bypasses the Shield and Proto Shield Health Classes, dealing damage to the Flesh health bar behind them. It fares worse against theMachinery and Robotic Health Classes, dealing 25% less damage to them.It also deals50% less damage to the Fossilized Health Class.
When used in Ship-Mounted weapons in a Railjack mission, Toxin Damage inflicts theIntoxicatestatus effect instead, which changes the faction of the target for 12 seconds,allowing friendly fire to occur between it and its allies.This status effect can be refreshed by inflicting it again during the duration.
Warframeis available now for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and Nintendo Switch.
