This article is to explain and give insight to all that the Damage system in Warframe entails, such as Puncture, Slash and Impact base damage, as well as Elemental damage (Heat, Cold, Electricity and Toxin) and Elemental Combo damage (Blast, Corrosive, Radiation, Viral, Magnetic and Gas) – and Finisher damage (bypass shields and armor and goes straight onto health), yellow, orange and red crits.

The Damage system in Warframe can be thought of as quite intricate and very complex, I will try to explain the most commonly mentioned attributes as best as I can.

All damage types in Warframe has a so called “status effect” that can be procced based on specific weapons and their stats for status chance. You can consider the status effect like a possible effect of using a certain damage type – it will proc based on the amount of status chance you have – and different damage types have different effects.

Let me break it all down for you :)

Puncture damage in Warframe

Puncture damage is a highly effective base damage type vs. Ferrite armor (+50% physical damage) as well as Alloy armor (+15% physical damage). So then what is Ferrite armor and Alloy armor?

Ferrite armor is mostly used by grineers, same as Alloy armor – which makes Puncture damage most effective against these types of enemies.

Puncture damage status effect

The status effect that can be procced with Puncture damage is negative/reduced damage for the enemies(!) being battled with puncture damage.

Puncture damage weakness

Puncture falls short vs. all manner of shield enemy units – such that can be found within corpus enemy faction – only thing in corpus that puncture is remotely effective against is the Robotic enemy units where it deals +25% physical damage.

Looking closer at the infested faction we can see that Puncture has neither boost or lack of damage except for vs. “Sinew” enemy which there only is one of, a boss called Jordas Golem, besides this exception – Puncture is “neutral” and normal vs. all infested units.

So to summarize: Puncture is effective vs. Ferrite armor (+50%), Alloy armor (+15%) and Robotics (+25%), and falls short vs. Shield (-20%) and Proto Shields (-50%). Conclusion: Best to use against the Grineer enemy faction.

Impact damage in Warframe

Impact damage deals +50% physical damage to Shield enemy units and +15% physical damage to Proto-shield enemy units – which makes it the most effective option vs. the Corpus enemy faction who have most enemy units of these two types.

Impact damage status effect

The status effect that can be procced with Impact damage is to make enemies “stagger” – which is a form of Crowd Control (CC) and can help you when fighting tougher enemies especially.

Impact damage weakness

Impact damage is least effective against so called “cloned flesh enemy units” which exist mostly within grineer (the less armored units) – it does -25% physical damage against these units.  It does however deal +25% physical damage to Machinery type enemy units which can also be found within the grineer.

Slash damage in Warframe

Slash damage is most effective against flesh enemy units which can be found in the Infested enemy faction. It deals +25% vs. Infested enemy units, +50% vs. Infested Flesh enemy units and +15% vs. Fossilized Flesh enemy units (ancients for example). It is also quite effective vs. the grineer “cloned flesh” (lesser armored) enemy units.

Slash damage status effect

The status effect of Slash damage is to proc a “bleed effect” which deals damage over time (DoT) consisting of Finisher damage (which as you read above bypasses both shields AND armor to go directly onto health!).

Slash damage weakness

Even if Slash damage is quite effective vs. the grineer enemy factions lesser armored units – the “cloned flesh” units- it is still not very effective against the overall enemy faction because the grineer have a lot of heavily armored units as well – probably more than it has “cloned flesh” units. And vs. heavily armored units the Slash damage gets reduced physical damage by -15% vs. Ferrite armored enemy units, and -50% vs. Alloy armored (more heavily armored) enemy units.

Finishing/Finisher damage in Warframe

This damage type as explained above Ignores all kinds of armor and shields(!) and goes directly onto pure health. Which makes this damage type especially effective against both shielded as well as armored enemy units (Grineer and corpus), which normally have a lot of defenses to bypass before succeeding in killing them(!).

Corrupted enemy units in Warframe

Corrupted enemy units is what you will be battling at The Void for example and these units consist of a mix of all enemy factions – it’s hard to say what damage type is most effective against these, but many people simply goes Corrosive to melt the armor, coupled with Cold to make a dent into the massive shields The Void faction tend to have because of their Corpus Drone enemy units etc. More about cold in the next section below and corrosive  later in this article under Elemental Combo damage.

Elemental damage in Warframe

Cold damage in Warframe

Cold is one of the 4 main Elemental damage types in Warframe, these can also be combined 1+1 to become a new type of damage that we will refer to as Elemental Combo damage and will discuss a bit later in this article.

Cold damage status effect

Cold damage has a status effect of slowing enemies down when procced. Could be a useful way of crowd control :)

Super-effectiveness of Cold damage in Warframe

It is quite effective vs. heavily armored (Alloy armor) enemy units that can be found within the Grineer faction, as well super effective vs. Shield units (+50% damage) – which makes Cold damage probably most effective vs. corpus but can be quite nice vs. Grineer enemies as well.

Electricity damage in Warframe

Electricity is another one of Warframes 4 main Elemental damage types.

Electricity damage status effect

It’s status effect is a “Chain-attack stun” which basically means AoE (Area of Effect) stun effect(!).

Super-effectiveness of Electricity damage in Warframe

Electricity is super effective vs. Machinery enemy units that can be found within the Grineer (+50% damage), as well as Robotics enemy units found within the Corpus (+50% damage also).

Weakness of Electricity damage

It does however deal -50% damage to Alloy enemy units which makes it a bit impractical to use vs. Grineer since they have a lot of these units compared to the amount of Alloy armored enemy units and the fact that Electricity doesn’t seem to have a downside vs. Corpus in comparison.

Heat damage in Warframe

Super-effectiveness of Heat damage in Warframe

Heat damage is very effective vs. all manner of Flesh units (+25% damage vs. grineer cloned flesh units, +25% vs. infested and +50% vs. infested flesh).

Heat damage status effect

It can proc a Fire DoT effect together with “Panic” which is a form of CC (crowd control) on enemies.

Weakness of Heat damage

It does fall short against Proto shield enemy units however with a reduction in damage dealt by -50%.

So in conclusion most effective to use against Infested enemy units, or lower level grineer enemy units.

Toxin damage in Warframe

Super-effectiveness of Toxin damage in Warframe

Toxin damage deals +25% damage vs. Ferrite armored units, but  and deals +50% damage vs. Flesh units within Corpus

Toxin damage has a status effect of Health DoT effect which means it can bypass shields and some forms of armor.

Weakness of Toxin damage

It falls short vs. Machinery enemy units in the Grineer faction, as well as -25% damage vs. their Robotic units and -50% damage vs. Fossilized enemy units such as the infested ancients.

Toxin damage status effect

So it’s hard to say exactly where it would be most effective, since the status effect is Health DoT.

Perhaps with modding to proc Status effect as much as possible it could be effective against Corpus.

Elemental Combo Damage in Warframe

How to get Elemental combo damage? Basically when modding your weapons you want to place 2 mods with respective elemental damage – such as Heat + Cold next to each other (modding order goes from Top-left corner to the right, to move onto lower row from left->right). Check out below image:

As you can see in the above image, Hellfire which is a Heat mod is placed next to Cryo rounds, which will give us Blast damage. And it wouldn’t matter if Hellfire was where Cryo rounds currently are and vice versa – as long as they are the adjacent next to each other elemental mods. If however we would place Hellfire where Cryo rounds are and Malignant Force (toxin mod) where Split chamber currently is at – then we would get Heat + Toxin = Gas damage – this is because after the first row – the mod-order continues on the bottom row from Left->Right same as on the first row. This example would however require us NOT to have Cryo rounds anywhere on the first row because first row has order priority over the second row!

Blast damage in Warframe

How to get Blast damage

Blast is the culmination of Heat damage + Cold damage.

Status effect of Blast damage

Blast damage gives the Status effect of a Knockdown – which can be useful Crowd control vs. tough enemy units.

Effectiveness of Blast damage

Blast damage is +75% effective vs. Machinery units within the Grineer and it is +50% effective vs. Fossilized enemy units such as Ancients.

Weakness of Blast damage

It fall short vs. Ferrite armored units which can be found within the Grineer enemy faction.

Hard to say where it’s most effective but either higher-level grineer enemy units or infested.

Corrosive damage in Warframe

How to get Corrosive damage

Corrosive is the culmination of Electricity + Toxin damage.

Status effect of Corrosive damage

This is one of the popular Elemental combo damage types in Warframe due to it’s Status effect being reduction of Armor(!).

Effectiveness of Corrosive damage

Corrosive damage melts Ancients and the like Fossilized enemy units within Infested, as well as deal +75% damage to the Grineer Ferrite armored enemy units.

Weakness of Corrosive damage

Corrosive damage does fall short by -50% against Proto Shield enemy units within the Corpus.

I’d probably say it’s most effective vs. High-level Infested enemy units as well as Grineer in general since they have a lot of Armored enemy units.

Gas damage in Warframe

How to get Gas damage

Gas damage is created from combining Heat + Toxin.

Status effect of Gas damage

Gas damage gives a Toxin AoE Status effect if procced.

Weakness of Gas damage

Gas damage deals -50% to Grineer’s cloned flesh units.

Effectiveness of Gas damage

Gas damage deals +75% damage to both Shield as well as Proto Shield units(!) as well as +75% damage to Infested and +50% to Infested Flesh enemy units.

Which makes it highly effective against the Corpus enemy faction, as well as Infested.

Magnetic damage in Warframe

How to get Magnetic damage

Magnetic damage is the culmination of Cold + Electricity.

Status effect of Magnetic damage

Magnetic damage has a Status effect of reducing Max shields(!).

Weakness of Magnetic damage

It falls short by -50% against Grineer Alloy enemy units.

Effectiveness of Magnetic damage

Magnetic damage is highly effective (+75%) vs. Corpus Shield as well as Proto Shield units.

Best used vs. Corpus I would say due to its massive effectiveness vs. Shielded units as well as the reduction of Max shields status effect(!).

Radiation damage in Warframe

How to get Radiation damage

Radiation is the culmination of Heat + Electricity damage in Warframe.

Status effect of Radiation damage

Radiation damage has the Status effect of Reduced Accuracy as well as Friendly fire which can be good crowd control!

Effectiveness of Radiation damage

Radiation is Highly effective (+75%) vs. Grineer Heavily armored (Alloy) units and +25% vs. Corpus Robotic units.

Weakness of Radiation damage

Radiation damage falls short -25% vs. Shielded Corpus units as well as -50% vs. Infested and -75% vs. Fossilized enemy units.

Which makes it least effective vs. Infested and most effective vs. Grineer.

Viral damage in Warframe

How to get Viral damage

You get Viral damage from combining Cold + Toxin damage.

Status effect of Viral damage

Viral damage status effect is Reduction of Max health(!).

Effectiveness of Viral damage

It deals +75% damage to Grineer cloned Flesh and +50% damage vs. Corpus Flesh.

Weakness of Viral damage

Viral damage falls short by -25% vs. Grineer Machinery, and -50% vs. Infested units.

Which probably makes for the argument that its best suited vs. Grineer.

Popular Elemental Combo damage pairs in Warframe

Usually Blast + Corrosive is one Elemental Combo pair in Warframe that utilized all the elements – very effective vs. Armored units as well as Infested.

Another one is Magnetic + Gas which is most effective vs. Corpus enemy units.

Radiation + Viral is supposedly most effective vs. Grineer – but Blast + Corrosive is also very good here too.

Rarer in-complete Elemental Combo damages in Warframe

Sometimes People simply go Corrosive + Cold for example vs. Shielded units and/or The Void enemy faction or Corrosive + Heat vs. armored/infested units.

Complete damage setups vs. specific enemy factions in Warframe

Vs. Grineer you probably want to go Puncture damage as well as Blast + Corrosive – OR if you want to try it out, Radiation + Viral :)

Vs. Corpus you probably want to go Impact damage as well as Gas + Magnetic.

Vs. Infested you probably want to go Slash damage and Blast + Corrosive (or corrosive + heat).

Vs. Corrupted you can try going Corrosive + Cold damage to reduce armor as well as Shields – opt for Status chance perhaps? It’s hard to say really.

Enemy faction specific Damage mods

There are mods such as “Expel”, “Bane”, “Cleanse” and “Smite” Corpus/Grineer/Corrupted/Infested that gives an increase in damage vs. these specific types of Enemy factions by +30%. Could be strong to use in your mod-setup to boost damage vs. specific enemies.

Punch through in Warframe

Punch through is a mechanic added to weapons through mods and can make the weapon fire through enemies, cover and objects. Might be cool/effective to try with a Bow for example to shoot 1 arrow through a few enemies xD

Stealth attack in Warframe

Stealth attacks bypass shields and armor due to its damage being Finisher damage. The damage is affected by weapon damage and mods (critical damage and critical chance). And it deals 3x Weapon damage for Daggers, Dual Daggers, Polearms and Staves while dealing 6x Weapon damage for Hammers and 4x weapon damage for all other types of weapons.

To calculate Stealth attack damage bonus the formula is Weapon Damage * Stealth multiplier (8x) * Weapon multiplier (6x for hammers).

You can access this type of damage if enemies are unaware of your presence when you walk up to them you get the option to press X to deal a stealth attack to the enemy executing in special animation.

Yellow, Orange and Red crits

If the Critical hit chance of a weapon Exceeds 100% every strike will be a critical hit, but there will also be a chance of an Orange crit which is displayed in orange color compared to the Regular crits which are displayed as Yellow color.

If the Weapons Critical chance Exceeds 200% however – you get a chance to Red Crit with every attack and at 300% every attack will be a guaranteed red crit.

Obviously Orange crits deal more damage than yellow crits and Red crits is the mother of all crits in damage but by how much you may wonder?

Orange crits deal 2*(crit multiplier -1) +1 <- the 2 comes from 200% and the crit multiplier can be seen on the weapons – you subtract with 1 because weapons damage is that 1.

For 300% crit you take 3*(crit multiplier -1)+1 (for minimum red crit) if you got 400% you do the same formula but 4 instead of 3 in the beginning :)

And as you can imagine, Red crits can lead to very impressive damage numbers :)

If you are interested in critical damage, take a look at warframe.wikia.com.

Headshot damage increase

Shooting enemies in the head usually increases damage dealt by 2 times (doubles the damage)!