More than half of the time you spend killing all manners of aliens, clones, and businessmen in Warframe consists of weapons. After all, your warframes can only do so much and you still have to fall back to even the most archaic or ancient types of weaponry to get the job done.
Speaking of weapons, you'll likely be dazed at how many options you have and how many weapon categories you're allowed to use. The problem is, Warframe's weapon storage is rather limited for players who don't want to spend too much. So, to save space and time, we're here to tell you some which of those weapons in each main category are worth keeping or grabbing first. Note that this ranking is at the time of writing; it's subject to change based on Warframe's updates.
10 RUBICO
You'll definitely need a sniper rifle if you plan to delve into some endgame content, specifically Sorties or open-world grinding on Earth or Venus. In that category, we recommend Rubico, one of the best sniper rifles in the game.
It deals better damage than Buzlok and has a good scope bonus for boosting your damage even more. If you can, grab the Prime variant of the weapon as quickly as you can or if you're serious about sniper rifles.
9 PENTA
Ever since Tonkor got nerfed, launcher-type weapons in Warframe have been unpopular. That is until the introduction of Napalm Grenades in the Nightwave update which made Penta a viable successor to the once-mighty Tonkor.
It's basically a grenade launcher that can fire multiple rounds semi-automatically. Without the Napalm Grenades mod, it's not really something that will catch your attention. So make sure you have that mod as it will make Penta the only launcher weapon you need right now. Be sure to get the Secura Penta version as soon as you can.
8 ATOMOS
On to sidearms now. These little guys are usually not very popular and are overshadowed by their primary counterparts but a few of them stand out as more damaging and more handy, like the Atomos. It's something you can obtain quite early in-game.
Atomos is a beam-type weapon that takes care of the whole room for you. Its beams bounce between multiple enemies as long as you hit the first one and it even works on corpses! It's a low-effort weapon with good damage and doesn't demand much skill.
7 MUTALIST CERNOS
You certainly would need a bow if you plan on doing Sorties as some of those only allow players with bows. Besides, it's good to have one weapon in each category anyway. For bows, the easiest to obtain that still deals endgame-tier damage would be Mutalist Cernos.
It's essentially just an Infested version of Cernos and deals primarily impact damage which isn't really good against most enemy-types. However, it's high enough that you won't lose much to Cernos Prime, which is harder to obtain.
6 SUPRA
If you want the good old-fashioned machine-gun type weapon, then you'll find plenty to love in Supra. It's a projectile-based rifle that fires and sounds like a fully-automatic assault rifle or even a light machine gun.
The Supra can quickly take care of one enemy and lets you mow down the next in a brutal and loud manner. It will also sate your craving for a more "vanilla" weapon in Warframe. Be sure to grab the Supra Vandal version sold by Baro when you can.
5 AMPREX
Amprex is much like Atomos' older and bigger brother. It's also a beam weapon that shoots electricity at enemies and jumps from target to target when you hit the first one. It does higher damage than Atomos and can clear a room full of enemies quicker.
In that regard, Amprex is also a solid weapon of choice among most players since you can also obtain it quite early. Furthermore, it deals a base damage of electricity which is always great for status chance weapons, freeing up a mod slot.
4 AKARIUS
Akarius is a unique sidearm that lacks the subtlety of most secondary weapons at is gives off quite a band and lots of explosions. It's a quirky weapon that shoots rockets... yes, rockets. These rockets then seek out the targets' torsos and usually don't result in headshots.
However, the Akarius is a status weapon anyway so the headshots won't matter much. Each burst shot promises high damage and can easily compensate for the slower firing rate. Make sure to use it while sprinting as it reloads faster that way.
3 TWIN KOHMAK
Imagine wielding two sawed-off shotguns which actually fire like gattling guns instead of traditional shotguns. That certainly sounds overpowered on paper and it kind of is in practice with the Twin Kohmak.
These ridiculous dual shotguns are some of the most powerful sidearms in-game after certain Kitguns and Kuva weapons. They work simple enough: anything that tries to get close to you gets blown to a million bits and pieces. Do note that they require you to be Mastery Rank 10.
2 KOHM
As for the best-in-class for the primary shotgun category, we just have to give it to Kohm, which is a full-size version of the Kohmak sidearm. It's a gattling gun shotgun that as satisfying to use as to customize since it's a status weapon and is easy to tweak.
Kohm even defeats the more accomplished rifles and launcher weapons on this list and is probably among the top three most powerful primary weapons in Warframe. Even so, you can acquire it starting Mastery Rank 5, after that, any other primary is just Mastery fodder.
1 LESION
The irony in Warframe's extensive selection of melee weapons is that some of the newer and higher-ranked ones are dwarfed by something as simple as Lesion. It's a short polearm weapon that comes with innate toxic damage and high status chance.
What makes it one of the top-tier melee weapons right now is its speed and how quickly it can apply status effects and when combined with a key mod called Condition Overload, you'll be shredding through enemies faster than 98 percent of most melee weapons.