Warframe Damage Types Guide

Introduction

• Warframe offers a variety of damage types compared to most games which only include physical and elemental damage.
• Warframe has 3 physical damage types: Impact, Puncture, Slash.
• 4 base elements: Cold, Electricity, Toxin, Heat.
• 6 combined elements: Gas, Corrosive, Radiation, Blast, Magnetic, Viral.
• Special damage types: Void and True.

Understanding Damage Types and Status Effects

• Each damage type has a corresponding status effect, e.g., Cold damage freezes enemies.
• Weapons always deal their elemental damage, regardless of status effect application.
• Status effect chances are shown in weapon stats; higher chance by using specific mods.

Physical Damage Types

• Impact: Causes enemies to stagger, but generally considered weak.
• Puncture: Reduces enemy damage output, minor crit chance increase.
• Slash: Deals bleed damage ignoring enemy armor, very strong against armored enemies.

Base Elements

• Cold: Slows enemies, with 10 procs completely freezing them, adds crit damage bonus.
• Toxin: Deals damage over time, bypasses shields but not armor.
• Electricity: Stuns enemies, deals damage over time within AOE.
• Heat: Reduces enemy armor, deals damage over time with stacking potential.

Combined Elements

• Corrosive: Reduces enemy armor significantly, very effective against high-armor enemies.
• Magnetic: Increased damage to shields, niche use against shield-heavy units.
• Blast: Creates damage explosions, useful in crowd control.
• Radiation: Causes enemies to attack each other, reducing incoming fire.
• Viral: Increases damage taken to health, very effective universally.
• Gas: Creates damage AOE cloud, effective against grouped enemies.

Special Damage Types

• Void Damage: Effective against overguard, limited application for players.
• Tow Damage: Exclusively used by specific enemies.
• True Damage: Ignores buffs and weaknesses, limited use in abilities.

Strategic Use of Damage Types

• Viral: Universally effective for increasing damage vulnerability.
• Slash: Ideal against armored enemies due to armor ignorance.
• Cold: Useful for survival due to slowing effect.
• Corrosive: Always good to reduce armor.
• Radiation: Causes enemy disarray, useful regardless of enemy type.
• Blast: Effective in scenarios with grouped enemies.

Enemy Specific Recommendations

• Grineer: Use Corrosive or Slash for their armor.
• Corpus: Toxin or Magnetic due to shield presence.
• Corrupted: Viral universally, with a secondary for armor reduction.
• Infested: Heat or Slash for star chart, Gas or Blast for Cambion Drift.
• Murmur: Armor strip with Radiation, or Slash to bypass armor.

Final Tips

• Use mods to maximize damage over time effects.
• Status damage mods enhance DOT effects significantly.
• Viral and armor-stripping setups are generally strong in all situations.

Conclusion

• Review specific enemy weaknesses and strengths to optimize weapon builds.
• Utilize effective status effects for maximal damage output.
• Consider enemy types and situations when selecting damage types to ensure optimal efficiency.