There aren't many loot-focused video games that let players use bows, but Warframe isn't an ordinary looter shooter. Fast movement and high ability usage are key to surviving in this game.
It turns out that space ninjas wielding superpowered bows are rather effective in most missions. While most games treat bows as slow, stealthy weapons that strike from the shadows, bows in Warframe are hard-hitting weapons that fire projectiles that can disintegrate foes or cause them to explode multiple times at once. No matter the playstyle, there is a bow for everyone to use. Here are the best bows players can use in Warframe.
Updated January 1st, 2022, by Charles Burgar: With the release of The New War quest, a new bow has entered the Warframe sandbox that has made a few waves. We've updated this guide to include the Nataruk bow, discussing the incredible base stats this weapon has and why it's one of Warframe's best bows. We've also reranked a few entries to better represent the state of the meta.
Minor New War Spoilers Below
13 Lenz
Most bows are terrible with dealing with crowds, only able to fire one arrow at a time that has travel time. The Lenz flips that expectation on its head, acting more as a rocket launcher than a proper bow.
The Lenz fires explosive arrows that arm then shortly detonate in a massive AoE. Enemies in the initial AoE are inflicted with a Cold proc. Shortly after, the arrow explodes, dealing substantial amounts of critical blast damage to anyone caught in the blast radius.
Does this sound familiar? The Kuva Bramma also fires explosive arrows, except that bow deals significantly more damage and doesn't have a Cold-inflicting AoE that can affect you. If you want an explosive bow, the Kuva Bramma is objectively better and easier to use. But if you're someone who can't farm Kuva Liches, the Lenz is a great substitute.
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11 Rakta Cernos
One of the many bows from the Cernos family, the Rakta Cernos is meant to be a rapid-fire stealth weapon used in the shadows. When things get tough, however, the Rakta Cernos has a trick up its sleeve.
Mainly, the Rakta Cernos is a syndicate weapon. All syndicate weapons can cause powerful AoE blasts and special buffs when enough affinity is earned with them equipped. In The Rakta Cernos' case, the bow will deal Viral damage in an explosion around the player while also granting 10% increased movement speed and 25% base energy to nearby Warframes. A fast charge time, high Impact damage that pairs nicely with Internal Bleeding, and a syndicate effect make the Rakta Cernos a fantastic bow for all Warframe content.
10 Dread
Slash damage is king in Warframe. It bypasses enemy armor, negating potentially millions of effective health that the target might possess.
This mixes incredibly well with bows, which is best seen with Stalker's unique bow: Dread. It deals mostly Slash damage, causing it to frequently proc on enemies hit by its highly critical arrows. Land for the head and enemies will hemorrhage health rapidly, further amplified if Viral is affecting their health pool. It might not beat the likes of the Kuva Bramma in most content, but the Dread is more than capable of carrying players through the Star Chart, Arbitrations, and Steel Path with the right Mods.
9 Daikyu
The Daikyu is a simple bow to understand. It doesn't do anything fancy, nor does it have any gimmicks that are detrimental. This bow simply wants to kill everything that it comes into contact with.
Clocking in with a 34% critical chance and 46% status chance, the Daikyu can be built for almost anything players want. But with its absurdly high 700 base damage, this weapon is begging for a critical build. With Hunter Munitions, this bow will decimate any enemy in the game with one well-placed arrow. While it needs a whole second to fully charge its arrow before firing, the damage it deals is incredible if modded right.
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6 Zhuge Prime
The Zhuge Prime is less of a bow and more of a fully automatic rifle that shoots explosive bolts. If that sounds just like the Acceltra, you'd be right. Both weapons share quite a few similarities, the largest difference being the Zhuge Prime's ability to inflict status effects. It also has a much higher Riven Disposition for those that want to maximize this gun's damage output.
Each arrow and explosion has a 30% chance to inflict a status ailment. Both the arrow and explosion roll status effects separately, meaning this weapon can very quickly stack ten Viral or Corrosive procs on a target. The Zhuge Prime's explosions also deal mostly Slash damage, pairing nicely with the weapon's high status chance and great critical stats. You'll need a fire rate mod to make it comparable to the Acceltra, but this full-auto crossbow is a fantastic primary that can stand alongside other meta primaries. Be sure to throw on Primed Firestorm and some sort of stagger immunity to get the most out of this gun.
5 Mutalist Cernos
While it won't win any fashion contests, the Mutalist Cernos is one of the strongest bows in the Cernos family, capable of spreading status effects like no other bow can.
Critical hits are not this weapon's strong suit, only possessing a base chance of 15%. It does have a 49% status chance, however, meaning every arrow can easily apply a status effect like Heat or Viral. Better yet, this bow fires Toxin clouds at enemies with every arrow, causing the enemy to take Toxin damage, Toxin status, and any elemental status effects modded onto the weapon. Throw on the Split Flights Mod, then have fun carpet-bombing entire rooms with poison clouds that can rapidly apply status effects. If you need a good Condition Overload primer, this is one of the best weapons you can use.
4 Cernos Prime
If you've ignored the Cernos Prime due to its horrendous accuracy and stats back when Valkyr Prime was released, you might want to give this bow another chance. After years of buffs and the addition of Galvanized Mods and Weapon Arcanes, the Cernos Prime has morphed into one of the highest damage weapons in Warframe.
Unlike other bows, the Cernos Prime fires three arrows with each shot instead of just one. This is multiplicative with multishot mods, meaning a Cernos Prime with Galvanized Chamber can fire 9 arrows simultaneously with a small chance of firing 12 instead. Each arrow has a high chance to inflict Impact, pairing with Internal Bleeding better than most weapons. Good critical stats further enhance this bow, and with the release of Galvanized Aptitude, the Cernos Prime can easily one-shot enemies in Steel Path with no issue.
But what if you need this bow to clear a hallway of enemies? No problem. Just switch its fire mode. The Cernos Prime also features two fire modes: vertical spread and horizontal spread. The former packs your arrows together to make a devastating shot that will one-shot Acolytes and tougher foes. Horizontal spread turns the Cernos Prime into a shotgun, spreading the arrows far enough to clear a tight hallway of enemies. If you can't stand the Kuva Bramma or Lenz but love their damage output, you need to give this bow a try.
3 Nataruk
Completing The New War quest grants the Nataruk, a Sentient bow that features one of the highest critical ratings out of all primary weapons. A 50% critical chance—60% when perfectly charged—with high base damage will ensure that most enemies will turn into space dust when hit with this bow.
Unlike most bows in Warframe, the Nataruk has a unique charging mechanic. If you release your arrow at the perfect time (just before it's fully charged), your shot will have 60% critical chance with a 2.4x multiplier instead of the standard 50% chance and 2.2x multiplier. Each charged arrow also releases a wave of energy that mimics the Arca Plasmor. It mimics that weapon's lack of a headshot multiplier, yet the damage and crit stats on this weapon are so fantastic that the Nataruk can easily carve through Steel Path enemies with the right Mods. Non-AoE bows don't get much better than this.
2 Proboscis Cernos
You might be sick of seeing Cernos weapons at this point, but we couldn't make a bow tier list without mentioning the Proboscis variant of the Cernos bow. Requiring a Mutalist Cernos to craft, the Proboscis Cernos combines that weapon's great status effects with its own gimmick.
Arrows fired from the Proboscis Cernos create a ball of appendages that grab nearby targets, clumping them together. Shortly after, the appendages explode, dealing a large amount of Viral damage over a wide radius. These explosions also have a high chance of inflicting Slash, pairing beautifully with Viral. It lacks critical stats to scale the Slash damage, yet its incredible status chance of 43% and large AoE coverage make this the perfect candidate for Galvanized Aptitude. There are very few weapons in Warframe that can clear a room full of enemies as quickly as the Proboscis Cernos.
1 Kuva Bramma
Introduced in The Old Blood update, the Kuva Bramma is a Grineer bow that packs a significant punch, surpassing what the mighty Lenz used to be praised for.
The Kuva Bramma fires explosive arrowheads that cover a large area, which then detonate into a swarm of micro-bomblets that further damage foes. Saying this weapon deals obscene damage would be an understatement; the Kuva Bramma can carpet bomb a room of Steel Path enemies and kill all of them with no issue. Excellent base damage, critical stats, and a solid status chance of 21% are enough to make the Kuva Bramma a great bow. But the absurd AoE coverage of this bow brings it from A-tier to S-tier. Very few enemies can survive the raw power of the Kuva Bramma.