After every major update to Warframe, plenty of new players hop in to see what the sci-fi space ninja game is all about. With its fast yet fluent gameplay, deep customization, and overall alien art style, it has made plenty of hardcore players hooked.

It can also ward plenty of new players away with its plethora of confusing systems and lacking tutorials. Along with that, the game gets progressively harder if players do not use good weapons or mods. While good mods are important, a good weapon is equally as important. Here are ten of the best primary weapons you can use in Warframe.

Updated February 19, 2024, by Charles Burgar: Incarnon weapons fundamentally changed the weapon meta in 2023. Old classics like the Torid, Latron, and Boltor are now viable in Steel Path content and endurance missions. As such, this article's rankings needed a complete overhaul.

Every entry has been reworked to include a table that explains how to acquire the weapon, what Mastery Rank you need to wield it, and a short summary on why we recommend the weapon. Earlier entries now focus on accessible weapons that can be scaled to handle Steel Path content, while later entries focus more on Incarnons and other meta-defining weapons. Read the "How We Rank Weapons" note to see our exact ranking rationale for this list.

How We Rank Weapons

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Our rankings value weapons that can handle Steel Path content with minimal help from Warframes and other equipment. Entries list the best variant of the weapon (Vandal, Prime, etc.). Incarnon Adapters and augments are included when applicable, but Riven mods are excluded from list rankings.

To ensure this article is useful for Warframe players in the early to mid-game, our first few entries will showcase weapons with excellent scaling that you can obtain quite early. We are also limiting Incarnon recommendations to a maximum of four. This ensures that the Incarnon weapons on the list are best-in-class, and it gives players who dislike Incarnons some powerful endgame alternatives.

10 Ignis Wraith

A Powerful Mid-Game Flamethrower

The Ignis Wraith might not be the defacto beam weapon in today's meta, yet its cheap build requirements and solid stats make it the perfect weapon for a mid-game player looking to expand their arsenal. You can obtain the standard Ignis as early as Mastery Rank 5, and the more popular Wraith variant can be replicated from Clan Dojos as early as Mastery Rank 9.

Excellent base status chance, fire rate, and a focus on Heat damage make for a great status primer and hard-hitting weapon against unarmored targets. It doesn't require many mods to finish the Star Chart, and it can handle Steel Path content with some investment. A Viral and Hunter Munitions build will shred through most armored units, but don't expect the Ignis Wraith to kill Acolytes or boss units on its own.

9 Kuva Hek

Excellent Early-Game Shotgun With An Endgame Upgrade

There are few things in Warframe as satisfying as shooting an enemy with the Hek and watching them ragdoll backwards. This quad-barreled shotgun deals a high amount of damage considering its fairly low MR requirement. It also has access to the Scattered Justice augment mod from Steel Meridian, giving this weapon a whopping 200% multishot. Throw in a basic damage build, and you have the perfect weapon for a new player.

The default Hek begins to fall off once you hit Arbitrations and Steel Path, but you can easily fix this with its Kuva variant. The Kuva Hek features significantly higher base stats and the ability to fire four shots simultaneously. This level of burst damage makes it a great choice for killing Acolytes and other Steel Path bosses. It doesn't have the same level of DPS as the Felarx, but for players who don't have access to Incarnons, the Kuva Hek is a great substitute.

8 Fulmin Prime

Infinite Ammo Rifle With Great Scaling

As far as beginner-friendly weapons go, it's tough to top the Fulmin and its Prime counterpart. Craftable as early as Mastery Rank 8—increased to MR12 for the Prime variant—the Fulmin is a rifle that can swap between an Arca Plasmor shotgun and a full-auto lightning rifle with the push of a button. It has infinite ammo, great critical and status chances, and is easy to obtain.

Internal Bleeding

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Internal Bleeding is an excellent mod for the Fulmin, as every shotgun projectile inflicts Impact status. The forced Slash bleed from Internal Bleeding will bypass enemy armor and greatly improve the Fulmin's single-target DPS.

We cover this in more detail in our Fulmin build guide.

The Fulmin's base stats make it excellent for clearing the Star Chart, and a few Forma can turn this weapon into a Steel Path killing machine. And once you reach Mastery Rank 12, the Prime version is more than capable of crushing Steel Path content with a moderate degree of investment.

7 Tenet Arca Plasmor

The BFG Of Warframe

Not many enemies can survive a single shot from the Tenet Arca Plasmor. Each shot from this plasma shotgun release a wide energy projectile that disintegrates anything it comes in contact with. It deals over 1,000 base damage per shot if you have a good progenitor bonus, and it has a fairly high critical chance for a shotgun. It also exclusively deals Radiation damage, giving it a 75% damage bonus against Alloy Armor and Murmur units, some of the tankiest enemies in the game.

Such raw firepower can be greatly enhanced with a good build. Critical Deceleration and Primed Ravage, when paired with a Primary Arcane, allow this weapon to obliterate just about every Steel Path enemy in the game. If an Acolyte dares approach you, fire a shot or two in its general direction. You don't need forced Slash procs either. The sheer damage of this gun will delete your foes from existence. It's the BFG of Warframe.

6 Kuva Tonkor

Nothin' In The World That 30 Grenades Can't Solve

If you need to clear a room of enemies in an instant, it's tough to top the Tonkor and its Kuva variant. This breech-loaded grenade launcher deals massive damage over a fairly wide area, and it has the best ammo economy out of all non-regenerating AoE weapons in the game. You have a whopping 30 grenades to play with before your reserves run dry. Most explosive weapons are lucky to get two cartridges worth of reserve ammo.

The standard Tonkor can be obtained as early as MR5, making it a fantastic early-game option. More experienced players should get their hands on the Kuva variant, as it features substantially better critical stats and more base damage. You can kill Steel Path armored units with raw damage alone, but if Acolytes are giving you trouble, throw on Hunter Munitions and let the Slash bleeds take care of the rest.

5 Burston Prime

What The Soma Incarnon Should Have Been

According to this weapon's Codex entry, the Burston Prime we know today is a mere replica of its original design. Middling base damage and critical stats leave a lot to be desired, especially for its Mastery Rank requirement. But thanks to Incarnon Genesis Adapters, we can finally get a glimpse of the Burston Prime's true power.

Incarnon Evolutions for this weapon greatly buff its base damage and critical stats to a competitive level, but it's the Incarnon Form itself that makes the Burston Prime worth using. While in Incarnon Form, this weapon turns into an explosive minigun that fires Heat-infused rounds. And unlike most Incarnon weapons, you have a whopping 600 rounds to play with. That's more than the Burston Prime's entire ammo reserves.

Land a couple of headshots with the primary fire, and you can turn the Burston Prime into a supercharged Acceltra for the next 600 rounds. It isn't the hardest-hitting Incarnon in the game, but that doesn't matter when you can remain in the Burston's Incarnon Form for minutes at a time. If you're a fan of the Acceltra or Soma, the Burston Prime's Incarnon Adapter is absolutely worth chasing.

4 Cedo

The Shotgun That Commits War Crimes

The Cedo is Lavos' signature shotgun that has Condition Overload as a passive. As the enemy is afflicted with more status types, this gun becomes stronger. Not only does this stack with Galvanized Savvy, but it does so multiplicatively. In other words, if you can apply a few status ailments, the Cedo will vaporize that target from existence in a single shot. The damage scaling on this weapon is absurd.

It's fortunate then that you can apply every basic status ailment through the Cedo's alt-fire. This weapon's secondary fire releases a glaive projectile that ricochets and explodes between targets, inflicting a status ailment with each detonation. Increase the Cedo's multishot, and you have the ultimate status primer for your primary fire or similar Condition Overload (CO) weapons.

3 Felarx

Lich Begone

The Felarx is a fully automatic shotgun that can be earned from the Holdfasts faction aboard the Zariman. As with most weapons sold by the Holdfasts, the Felarx is an Incarnon weapon and, as such, comes with an Incarnon Form and multiple evolution passives. Unlike most Incarnon weapons, the Felarx's alt-fire is not the star of the show. It morphs into akimbo pistols with pitiful damage and narrow projectiles. They're decent for killing groups of targets, but the primary fire doesn't struggle with this either.

What makes the Felarx special is the sheer number of damage scalars on offer. Overwhelming Attrition, one of its T5 Evolutions, grants a 2,000% multiplicative damage bonus to non-critical hits half of the time. This weapon also has multiplicative scaling with Galvanized Savvy, similar to the Cedo. Pair both of these effects together, and the Felarx can deal millions of damage per second. Liches and Acolytes don't stand a chance.

2 Latron Prime

DMR Turned Grenade Launcher

As a DMR, the Latron Prime is a solid enough weapon that has fallen to the wayside over the years. That is until the weapon's Incarnon Genesis Adapter was released. Now, all fans of the Latron are rewarded for their precise aim with one of Warframe's strongest AoE weapons.

Once transformed, the Latron Prime morphs into a grenade launcher that fires ricocheting projectiles, detonating with every bounce. With a good build, a single ricochet explosion can wipe out a squad of Steel Path Grineer. Use a Mag bubble or lock your targets into an enclosed space, and your enemy's survival rates plummet to zero.

The Echoes of Duviri update also made the powerful Double Tap mod work with this gun's Incarnon Form, allowing it to dish out millions of damage with every explosion.

It hits hard, is incredibly easy to use, and has multiple S-tier Incarnon Evolutions to choose from. You can greatly buff the weapon's critical chance, make it fully strip armor through Puncture procs, or greatly scale its headshot damage to assist its primary mode. For DMR and AoE fans alike, the Latron Prime is a must-own.

1 Torid

The Kuva Nukor's Big Brother

The Torid is a relic of a bygone era, a once powerful weapon that has suffered from major powercreep over Warframe's many mainline updates. But as with the Latron and Burston, the addition of Incarnon Genesis Adapters has transformed the Torid into the single best primary weapon in the game.

Unlike most Incarnon weapons, you only need to land direct hits with the Torid to charge it; no headshots are required. Once charged, the Torid morphs into a toxic variant of the Amprex, releasing a concentrated beam of Toxin damage that can damage up to six targets simultaneously.

The extremely high critical stats in this form allow the Torid to melt virtually any foe with a barrage of orange crits. Get the adapter, spec the weapon for critical damage, and enjoy killing hordes of enemies in the blink of an eye. It's the Kuva Nukor's bigger, more destructive brother.