Warframe contains dozens of ways to tweak your loadout to suit your playstyles. Warframes, weapons, companions, Focus schools, and Mods are tools players can use to create unique loadouts that support their favorite playstyles.

Related: Warframe: Every Kuva Lich Weapon, Ranked

Arcanes are special modifications to items that grant unique benefits that mods typically don't. These can range from gaining armor when taking damage to pulling enemies towards you when you slam the ground with a melee weapon. This unique item type is unique and powerful, opening avenues for builds that would otherwise be impossible. Here are a few Arcanes you need to have in Warframe.

Updated September 12th, 2022, by Charles Burgar: The Zariman tileset brought with it some fantastic Arcanes for players to try, and recent ammo changes have made Arcane Pistoleer better than ever. We've updated this list to include five more Arcanes, most of which are tied to the Zariman tileset and Syndicate.

15 Arcane Consequence

Arcane Consequence Rank Five Stats

Arcane Consequence is arguably the most underrated Arcane in Warframe. Instead of granting you bonus damage or survivability, this Arcane grants a substantial boost to your character's parkour speed when you headshot an opponent.

The headshot does not have to be lethal, and the buff lasts 18 seconds. The parkour velocity granted by this Arcane is not to be understated, granting a 60% parkour speed increase. Parkour velocity affects your rolls and bullet jumps. Ivara mains can roll much further while Prowl is active, speedrunners will love the increased roll velocity, and your Warframe's bullet jump will be comparable to Zephyr's Tail Wind ability. If you're speedrunning missions or need an extra boost to your mobility, Arcane Consequence is by far the best Arcane you can equip.

14 Arcane Velocity

Arcane Velocity Rank Five Stats

You can never get enough fire rate on your pistols, so long as they don't have to reload. Arcane Velocity grants your pistols an immense 120% fire rate buff when you land a critical hit, something that's quite easy with a Knell Prime or Mesa's Peacemakers. Throw this on Mesa, and prepare to fire dozens of rounds per second at your foes. And if you aren't playing Mesa, pair this Arcane with Arcane Pistoleer for devastating results.

13 Arcane Strike

Arcane Strike Rank Five Stats

Melee lovers will want to get their hands on a rank five Arcane Strike. This Warframe Arcane grants a 60% attack speed buff to your melee weapons for 18 seconds, proccing 15% of the time after you hit an enemy.

Related: Warframe: Styanax Complete Guide – Drops, Abilities, And Builds

A 60% attack speed buff is slightly better than Primed Fury grants. Players can safely drop their attack speed Mod when Arcane Strike is on, opting to equip additional elemental or critical damage Mods. Alternatively, you can run an attack speed Mod and this Arcane simultaneously to melee enemies at ludicrous speeds.

12 Arcane Pistoleer

Arcane Pistoleer Rank Five Stats

Arcane Pistoleer gives your weapons unlimited ammo for 12 seconds when you get a pistol headshot kill. This ammo efficiency applies to all weapons, not just secondaries. While having more ammo sounds lackluster on paper, this Arcane lets you create some absurdly powerful builds.

Players can pair Arcane Pistoleer with the Pyrana Prime to create "pocket Mesa," a build where you fire dozens of high-damage rounds per second with no need to reload. You can also pair this Arcane with Titania's Dex Pixias to give her Exalted guns a bottomless magazine. It's an Arcane you need to build around, but the results speak for themselves.

11 Arcane Grace And Victory

Arcane Grace Rank Five Stats

Arcane Victory Rank Five Stats

We're including two Arcanes in this entry since they both do the same thing. Arcane Grace grants 6% health regeneration when you take damage, while Arcane Victory grants 3% health regeneration after you land a headshot kill.

Both Arcanes are absurdly strong when used on Warframe with high health pools such as Inaros. Better yet, you can use both Arcanes together to gain 9% HP regen per second, making you nigh-invulnerable if you have enough damage reduction.

Obtaining Arcane Grace can be tough due to its Legendary rarity, although Arcane Victory's Uncommon rarity makes it much cheaper to purchase from other players. If you can't afford Arcane Grace, obtain an Arcane Victory set first. Those that want the most efficient healing possible should focus on obtaining Arcane Grace. With that said, we can't place this any higher on the list since you can subsume Sevagoth's Gloom onto any Warframe, acting as the ultimate solution to a Warframe's survivability issues.

10 Arcane Guardian

Arcane Guardian Rank Five Stats

Armor is a staple to most tanky builds in Warframe. The more armor you have, the less damage your health receives whenever you take damage.

Arcane Guardian helps weaker and tankier Warframe alike with its effect, granting 900 flat armor to your Warframe when you take damage. A 15% chance to activate for 20 seconds is fantastic and means this Arcane is almost always active. While really tanky Warframes like Chroma won't see much difference, weaker Warframes like Banshee can see as large as a 60% damage resistance increase with this Arcane equipped. Slap this Arcane on a caster Warframe alongside a Gloom subsume, and you'll be able to tank substantially more damage than what was previously possible. Definitely get this Arcane if you're building around HP.

9 Arcane Aegis

Arcane Aegis Rank Five Stats

After shield gating was introduced to Warframe, shield regeneration builds have become a niche but potent build archetype. For those unaware, players become invulnerable for 1.3 seconds after their shields are broken. If your shields are broken while partway charged, the duration is 0.33 seconds. This means that if you can find a way to constantly regain your shield, you become invulnerable to all non-Toxin damage.

Arcane Aegis is an excellent way to exploit shield gating on all of your Warframes that have shields. When your shields take damage, this Arcane has a 3% chance to regenerate 30% of your shields per second for 12 seconds. Since this also activates your Warframe's base shield regeneration, your character is always regenerating their shield, meaning the shield gate invulnerability window always gets reactivated. A 3% chance sounds horrible on paper, but this can easily be exploited through one mod: Rolling Guard.

If you activate Rolling Guard while your shields are recharged, any damage you take can activate Arcane Aegis. Roll into a group of enemies, get shot at, then enjoy a 12-second invulnerability window. When the duration is almost up, simply activate Rolling Guard again to reactivate the effect. As long as you are mindful of your buffs and positioning, this Arcane makes you nearly invincible. If you pair Arcane Aegis with Arcane Resistance, nothing can kill you.

8 Magus Lockdown

Magus Lockdown Rank Five Stats

Destiny fans will instantly recognize this Arcane as the Nightstalker's Shadowshot Super. This Operator Arcane drops a Tether Mine whenever you Void Dash, causing all nearby enemies to become incapacitated.

Related: Warframe: Abilities To Subsume In The Revamped Helminth Room

The damage this Arcane originally had was sadly removed, but the crowd control that Magus Lockdown provides is hard to ignore. Up to two of these Tether Mines can be up at once, allowing players to lock down entryways or small rooms using just their Operator. This level of crowd control at the ready is a must for Steel Path missions or long endurance runs.

7 Arcane Avenger

Arcane Avenger Rank Five Stats

There aren't many methods of gaining additive critical chance on weapons in Warframe. Besides Warframes like Harrow, your options for increasing the critical chance on status-heavy weapons are limited.

Luckily, Arcane Avenger exists to make those weapons viable critical weapons as well. When the player takes damage, they have a 21% chance to gain a 45% additive critical chance to all of their attacks for 12 seconds. While this is a rare drop from Hydrolysts, this allows nearly every weapon in the game to critically hit. Weapons with high critical multipliers, such as the Kuva Nukor and the Amprex, will particularly benefit from this Arcane. Best of all, Warframe abilities are affected by this buff. Slap on a Combat Discipline aura mod, find a way to heal yourself after every kill, and enjoy a permanent 45% critical chance buff.

6 Molt Efficiency

Molt Efficiency Rank Five Stats

Any Arcane that grants Ability stats is going to be useful, and Molt Efficiency is no exception. Obtained from the Zariman tileset, Molt Efficiency grants up to 36% additional Ability Duration if your shields remain active for a few seconds. This is effectively a slightly better Continuity mod that doesn't take a mod slot, allowing you to offset Transient Fortitude's downside or simply give your builds more duration to work with. It's an excellent Arcane for Warframes like Harrow, Xaku, and Gauss.

5 Molt Vigor

Molt Vigor Rank Five Stats

If you're playing a Warframe that wants to stack as much Ability Strength as possible, you'll want to consider using Molt Vigor. This Arcane grants 45% Ability Strength on your next ability cast upon using an Operator ability. This is fantastic if you're using abilities that snapshot your Ability Strength. Some good examples include Chroma's Vex Armor, Wisp's Motes, and Sevagoth's Gloom.

4 Arcane Energize

Arcane Energize Rank Five Stats

This Arcane is a shell of its former self. It has a 15-second cooldown, requires 21 of the same Legendary Arcane to reach its peak effectiveness, and it still isn't guaranteed when you grab an Energy Orb.

Related: Warframe: A Complete Guide On Archon Shards

So why is it still on the list? Well, it's still one of the strongest means of gaining Energy in Warframe. A single Energy Orb will grant 150 Energy to you and nearby allies. While it can only do this once every 15 seconds, 150 Energy is nothing to scoff at. Players can easily drop some Power Efficiency on their build if they're running this Arcane, indirectly allowing them to equip more Ability Strength or Ability Duration Mods.

This Energy return also occurs if you're in a channeled ability such as Ember's Inferno. Definitely get your hands on a rank five version of Arcane Energize, but consider doing so after you have other Arcanes mentioned on this list; Energize's rarity makes it absurdly expensive unless Operation: Scarlet Spear is active.

3 Molt Augmented

Molt Augmented Rank Five Stats

Just about every Warframe build can make use of Molt Augmented, a unique Arcane tied to the Zariman tileset. Every kill will cause this Arcane to grant 0.24% additional Ability Strength, stacking up to a 60% Ability Strength bonus at 250 kills. That's slightly more than Transient Fortitude without any downsides, and this Arcane stacks with other sources of Ability Strength. Simply put, this Arcane is S-tier for every Warframe build that can benefit from additional Ability Strength.

2 Magus Elevate

Magus Elevate Five Stats

Magus Elevate is a must-have Arcane, regardless of how often you use your Operator. While equipped, this Arcane has a 95% chance to heal your Warframe for 300 HP whenever you exit Operator mode.

Elevate's 300 HP heal is instant and doesn't have a cooldown, meaning players can spam their Operator button to repeatedly heal their Warframe. It turns your Operator transfer button into a panic heal whenever you need it, proving invaluable in higher-level content. Every Warframe player needs this Arcane.

1 Weapon Arcanes

Weapon Arcane Rank Five Stats

Since Primary and Secondary weapons now have Arcanes, they've quickly become mandatory in just about every endgame build in Warframe. Primary and Secondary weapons can use Merciless, Deadhead, or Dexterity Arcanes to increase their damage by up to 360%, far more than what Serration and even Hornet Strike can provide.

These Arcanes also provide a secondary effect that can be quite useful for certain loadouts:

• Merciless: +30% reload speed
• Deadhead: +30% to headshot multiplier, -50% recoil
• Dexterity: +7.5s to melee combo duration

The type of weapon Arcane you use will boil down to your playstyle or build, but they're all an objective upgrade over your common base damage Mods, freeing up a Mod slot to socket in more potent damage or quality of life effects. If you want to make the absolute best weapon builds in Warframe, you're going to need a weapon Arcane.

Next: Ways Warframe Is Better Than Destiny 2 And Ways Destiny 2 Is Better