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Unlike most third-person shooters, Warframe's weapons have unique damage types that come with powerful status effects and damage multipliers. Learning the usefulness and status effects of each element is key to making your weapons as powerful as possible. If you take full advantage of Warframe's damage system, you can turn your enemies into ash, bypass their defenses, or make hostiles fight their allies.
In this guide, we're going to give a brief look at all 15 damage types present in Warframe, how to create certain elemental combinations like Blast and Viral, and explain what each damage type does. Before we give an explanation of what each damage type does, it's important to understand where these damage types come from and why they're important.
Updated February 10, 2022, by Charles Burgar: Creating the best loadout in Warframe will require a solid understanding of how Warframe's damage system works. To help newcomers and veteran players alike, we've updated this guide with more in-depth explanations on each damage type, updated Void damage to reflect its bonus damage against Overguard, and we've added a section explaining what the strongest, most popular damage type is in Warframe currently.
Damage Types In Warframe
There are 15 unique damage types in Warframe, each providing a unique effect and damage multipliers versus certain enemy types.
Damage types are divided into certain categories:
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Physical Damage (IPS) |
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Impact |
Effective against shields Status staggers targets and increases HP threshold for Parazon finishers |
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Puncture |
Effective against flesh Status reduces the target's damage output |
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Slash |
Effective against flesh Status inflicts a bleed DoT |
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Simple Elements |
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Cold |
Effective against shields Status slows targets |
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Electricity |
Effective against machines Status shocks enemies, chaining electricity to nearby targets |
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Heat |
Effective against flesh Status ignites targets and melts armor |
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Toxin |
Effective against flesh and bypasses shields Status inflicts a poison DoT |
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Combined Elements |
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Blast |
Effective against machines Status reduces enemy accuracy |
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Corrosive |
Effective against armor Status strips the target's armor |
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Gas |
Effective against Infested Status creates an AoE that deals damage over time |
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Magnetic |
Effective against shields Status multiplies damage against shields |
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Radiation |
Effective against heavy armor Status confuses enemies |
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Viral |
Effective against flesh Status multiplies damage against health |
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Special Damage Types |
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True |
Bypasses enemy shields and armor No damage modifiers or status effect |
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Void |
Effective against Overguard and resets Sentient resistances Status creates a dome that magnetizes projectiles toward the dome's epicenter |
Most weapons in Warframe use Impact, Puncture, and Slash as their default damage types, although some weapon types (Lich and Tenet weapons, the Phage, etc.) might have an elemental damage type that coincides or even replaces Impact, Puncture, and Slash.
Elemental damage types can be applied to your weapon by using certain mods, granting elemental damage based on a percentage of your base damage.
Combined elements are created by applying two or more simple elements onto a weapon.
Special damage types like True and Void damage are usually reserved for Warframe abilities or Operators.
Adding Elemental Damage To Weapons
Certain mods in Warframe allow you to add elemental effects to your weapons. An elemental mod adds one simple element onto your weapon—Cold, Electricity, Heat, or Toxin. The amount of damage the element does depends on the strength of the mod and your weapon's base damage. In the above example, applying a 90% Toxin Mod to the MK-1 Braton will grant 90% of the Braton's base damage as extra Toxin damage.
Combining two elemental mods will create a combined element. These elements typically come with more potent damage modifiers and status effects. A combined element's damage value is based on the sum of both simple elemental mods used to create the element. For example, applying a 90% Electricity mod and 90% Toxin mod onto a Braton makes Corrosive damage, which will deal 180% of the weapon's base damage as extra Corrosive damage.
What Is The Best Damage Type?
In general, Viral is the strongest damage type. It has massive damage multipliers against flesh and has the strongest status effect in the game, multiplying all damage dealt to the target's HP. Most players pair Viral with Heat to deal even more damage against flesh and even strip a portion of the target's armor through Heat status.
If you're a new player, we recommend Corrosive and Heat. Corrosive will destroy most Grineer targets you come across, and Heat will shred through Infested targets. Corpus will resist this combo, but you can simply use Toxin or Magnetic to deal with them. Exact explanations of how each damage type works can be found below.
IPS - Impact, Puncture, And Slash
IPS—short for Impact, Puncture, and Slash—is the backbone of most weapons you'll find in Warframe. These are the most common damage types.
Credit to the Warframe Fandom Wiki for the IPS damage icons provided below.
Impact
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Damage Modifiers |
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Status Effect |
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Strong Against |
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Impact's effectiveness versus Shields and Machinery makes it a great damage type against the Corpus. If you're using a weapon with high status chance, Impact can easily stunlock targets and ramp up their HP threshold for a Parazon finisher, making this a solid damage type for newcomers looking to kill tougher units.
In high-level content like Steel Path, Impact's main use is to trigger mods like Internal Bleeding and Hemorrhage, inflicting a Slash status on the target whenever you inflict an Impact stagger.
Puncture
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Damage Modifiers |
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Status Effect |
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Strong Against |
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Puncture's status effect is somewhat lackluster when compared to Impact and Slash, yet its high damage multipliers to common health types make Puncture a solid damage type for weapons with high critical stats and low status chance.
Endgame loadouts seldom spec for Puncture unless they need another status effect for Condition Overload or similar mods.
Slash
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Damage Modifiers |
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Status Effect |
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Strong Against |
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Slash is the best IPS damage type. It has solid damage multipliers that make it great against Infested, and its status effect makes Slash an excellent option for killing highly-armored targets across all content.
Many endgame loadouts will use mods like Hunter Munitions to inflict as many Slash effects as possible, killing the target with a barrage of damage-over-time effects. Slash-focused loadouts tend to pair this damage type with Viral to increase Slash's bleed damage.
Elemental Damage
There are four standard Elemental Damage types in Warframe: Cold, Electricity, Heat, and Toxin.
Cold
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Damage Modifiers |
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Status Effect |
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Strong Against |
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Cold is great for damaging shields and certain Grineer heavy units. Its status effect can stack with other slows, although most players opt to combine Cold with Toxin to create Viral—one of Warframe's combined elemental damage types.
Endgame builds seldom use Cold on its own, although some players will use this on a status primer—weapons that are built around inflicting status effects and nothing else—to increase the effectiveness of Condition Overload and similar mods.
Electricity
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Damage Modifiers |
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Status Effect |
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Strong Against |
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If you're struggling to fight the Corpus in the early game, equip an Electricity mod. It is fantastic against the Corpus but horrible against heavily armored Grineer. Its status effect, while powerful on paper, deals insignificant damage on its own. You'll need to build your loadout around Electricity procs and damage multipliers to make the status effect worth using.
Some endgame builds pair Electricity with Gas to double as a crowd control effect and extra source of damage. Electricity will keep enemies stuck in the Gas cloud and deal constant damage over time. Consider using buffs like Rhino's Roar or play Gyre to get the most out of Electricity in difficult activities.
Heat
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Damage Modifiers |
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Status Effect |
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Strong Against |
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Heat is considered by many as the best simple element in Warframe. Armor strip and DoT damage make Heat excellent for all factions across all activities.
Just about every endgame build in Warframe uses Heat. It's an excellent damage type to pair with Viral or Corrosive. Viral will multiply the damage of your Heat procs, while Corrosive will help Heat strip as much armor as possible.
Toxin
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Damage Modifiers |
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Status Effect |
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Unique Property |
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Strong Against |
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Toxin is the best standalone element for combating Corpus shields, as Toxin damage completely bypasses enemy shields. Toxin is also a solid choice for fighting unarmored Grineer. Just be wary of using it against the Infested, as Toxic Ancients make nearby Infested completely immune to Toxin.
Endgame builds sometimes use this element in Corpus missions to completely bypass their shields. That said, never use Toxin against the Infested at higher levels due to how common Toxic Ancients are.
Combined Damage Types
Warframe has six combined elemental damage types: Blast, Corrosive, Gas, Magnetic, Radiation, and Viral.
Blast
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Element Combination |
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Damage Modifiers |
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Status Effect |
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Strong Against |
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Blast is created by combining Heat and Cold. It acts similarly to Puncture, reducing an enemy's lethality while inflicted with the effect. Out of every elemental damage type, Blast is arguably the worst. Its damage modifiers make it solid for Corpus enemies, although this element seriously struggles against armored and Infested enemy types.
Most endgame builds avoid using Blast altogether since it has terrible damage multipliers. Only use Blast on a status primer.
Corrosive
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Element Combination |
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Damage Modifiers |
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Status Effect |
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Strong Against |
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Corrosive is created by combining Toxin and Electricity. While it can't fully strip armor on its own, Corrosive's damage multipliers and status effect make it a fantastic element for fighting the Grineer and Infested. Proto Shields are used by rather weak Corpus enemies, so you can use this as a reliable element for all factions.
While Corrosive doesn't see much use in endgame builds, Corrosive is a solid choice if you're fighting tougher foes that are resistant to status procs. Acolytes and Liches can only be affected by four status procs per type, making effects like Viral much less effective. Corrosive's high damage multipliers help counteract this, especially against enemies that can't have their armor stripped through Warframe abilities.
Gas
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Element Combination |
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Damage Modifiers |
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Status Effect |
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Strong Against |
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Gas is created by combining Heat and Toxin. Gas clouds require Faction Mods and high base damage to deal respectable damage. However, Gas' great AoE coverage makes it excellent against the Infested and even the Corpus if you build around Gas' status effect.
Most players avoid using Gas in endgame content since its status effect caps at ten stacks, the only DoT effect in Warframe with a stack limit. If you can find a way to inflict incredibly powerful Gas DoTs on targets (such as with Baruuks' Serene Storm), it can be a useful AoE effect. Otherwise, Gas is best used on status primers to scale Condition Overload and similar mods.
Magnetic
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Element Combination |
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Damage Modifiers |
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Status Effect |
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Strong Against |
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Magnetic can be created by combining Cold and Toxin. This is a fantastic element for fighting the Corpus, amplifying the damage their shields take tremendously. If an enemy is too heavily armored for Toxin's shield-bypassing damage to be effective, Magnetic is a great substitute.
Most endgame builds use Toxin over Magnetic since Toxin completely bypasses Corpus shields. Only use this on a status primer.
Radiation
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Element Combination |
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Damage Modifiers |
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Status Effect |
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Strong Against |
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Radiation is the result of combining Heat and Electricity. Its damage modifiers make Radiation a fantastic choice against heavily armored Grineer, although it struggles against humanoid Corpus enemies and the Infested. Radiation's status effect is especially useful for pacifying Ancient Healers and Eximus targets, preventing their auras from buffing their allies.
You rarely see Radiation used in high-level content except for status primers and niche builds. Some Nyx players will use Radiation to ramp up a target's damage before casting Mind Control, substantially increasing the target's damage output for the ability's duration.
Viral
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Element Combination |
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Damage Modifiers |
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Status Effect |
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Strong Against |
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Viral is the result of combining Toxin and Cold. This element is fantastic for all situations, causing all targets afflicted to take increased damage from all sources. Its damage multipliers allow it to decimate unarmored targets, while its status effect makes Viral a great element for killing more armored targets as well. It's tough to top Viral in the current meta.
Just about every endgame build uses Viral. Bring some form of armor strip to maximize Viral's damage output.
Void And True Damage
Void and True damage are two unique damage types that are fairly rare. Let's go over how they work.
Void
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Damage Modifiers |
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Status Effect |
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Unique Property |
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Strong Against |
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Void damage is reserved for Operator Amps and the Xaku Warframe. This damage type causes bullets to magnetize to a certain location, making it much easier to land headshots or hit a target multiple times with a punch-through projectile. Void damage strips Sentient resistances, although only Operator Amps can damage Eidolon shields.
True Damage
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Damage Modifiers |
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Status Effect |
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Unique Property |
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Strong Against |
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True damage is an unlisted damage type that some Warframe abilities possess. It has no damage modifiers or unique status effects. Instead, True damage ignores all armor that an enemy possesses. Some examples of true damage include melee finishers (not Parazon finishers), Slash's bleed status effect, and Ash's Blade Storm ability.