You can choose from a lot of weapons in Warframe. These smaller weapons work great with the bigger guns.
There are a lot of unique weapons in Warframe, from plasma pistols to fully automatic explosive assault rifles. But secondary guns are a type of weapon that most people forget to talk about.
Most secondary weapons have mods that make them stronger than their primary counterparts. If you mod them properly, they could even be stronger than primary weapons. Like starters, which are close-range weapons, secondary weapons can have unique features that make them stand out from the others. Some even let players add their own affects, like getting stronger after killing someone or having unlimited ammunition. In Warframe, these are some of the best secondary guns that players can use.
Tenet Detron
If you really like the Detron, don’t let the Tenet Detron’s stats fool you. At first view, the weapon looks like a small improvement over the Mara Detron. However, this doesn’t take into account a few things:
- The Tenet Detron does more than one type of chemical damage.
- It shoots out 10 rounds instead of 7.
- With its alt-fire, it can empty its whole magazine in a second.
- The key stats of the Tenet variant are good enough that a hybrid build is worth making.
Because of these changes, the Tenet Detron is now one of the best secondary weapons in Warframe, especially for charging Condition Overload weapons. When you combine a Galvanized Shot Mod with a status build, your damage goes through the roof. Not many enemies will be able to handle just a few shots from this gun, let alone the alt-fire.
Knell Prime
The weapon that Harrow Prime is known for is nothing less than a monster. The Knell Prime destroys hordes of enemies with an endless supply of high-damage rounds. It has twice the chance of a critical hit and more base damage than its default cousin.
If you hit someone in the head with the Knell Prime, you’ll get unlimited ammo, a 0.5x boost to your critical chance, and a +20% chance to go into status for two seconds. This can be stacked up to three times, giving a huge boost to your status and vital stats. Hit someone in the head once, and then use a fully automatic gun to kill everyone else. That’s a Rubico Prime in your pocket that has unlimited ammo and works by itself. Unfortunately, the fact that it doesn’t have AoE makes it less useful than Warframe‘s meta secondary attacks.
Pyrana Prime
It’s possible that the Pyrana Prime is one of the game’s best weapons. Even though the gun’s status chance is only 3.6%, it does so much damage that it can just blast through most types of damage protection. With great base damage and critical stats, the Pyrana Prime is a great working weapon. If you get a triple kill, it’s even better. After three quick kills, you get a ghostly Pyrana in the other hand for a short time. This increases your fire rate and doubles your magazine. When the Pyrana Prime is in its dual-wield state, it’s easy to get rid of hordes of enemies.
Still, the fact that this gun doesn’t change your state makes it less useful in Steel Path. Also, it needs to reload a lot when a fire rate mod is installed. You can stop this with Arcane Pistoleer or a reload mod. This gun is definitely S-tier as long as you bring a Warframe that can remove armor and a way to reload it quickly (or not at all).
Dual Toxocyst
There are Dual Toxocysts that live inside dual guns and want to feed on brain matter. When you hit an enemy in the head with this weapon, it will go into an eating frenzy for a few seconds. Each shot will do more Toxin damage, and the gun will fire faster and use more ammo efficiently. The Dual Toxocyst isn’t meta just because of those buffs; when you add an Incarnon Adapter, it really shines.
When the Incarnon Form of this weapon is activated, it changes into a set of automatic, destructive pistols with much higher critical stats, a higher fire rate, and the ability to hit close targets with bullets that bounce off of other objects. You won’t find a better set of automatic dual guns than these, as long as you can handle Steel Path Circuit to get the Incarnon Adapter for this weapon. As it is, the Dual Toxocyst is fine for Star Chart content, but the adapter is what really makes it a monster.
Sporelacer Kitguns
Sporelacer Kitguns are made by combining a Sporelacer barrel with a secondary grip and magazine. With these Kitguns, a barrage of spore sacs burst, inflicting a huge amount of Toxin damage on anyone caught in their path.
Because these guns can be fired quickly, the Sporelacer works great in tight hallways to clear out adds. This gun can kill enemies in Steel Path and high-level material with just a few shots. As soon as possible, people who are sick of Kuva Nukor or more exact secondary should make a Sporelacer secondary.
Tenet Cycron
A lot of Kuva Nukor fans were excited about the Tenet Cycron, which was the Corpus’s take on the famous Kuva Nukor secondary. Both work the same way: they fire a beam that changes targets’ statuses and chains affects between targets. The Cycron is unique because it has a better status chance, a magazine that is charged with batteries, and Heat damage that is built in.
Does that mean the Tenet Cycron is better than the Kuva Nukor? No. The Kuva Nukor is much better at killing enemies in Steel Path because it has a crazy 5x critical ratio and Radiation damage built in. The Tenet Cycron is a slightly worse form of the Nukor. It does less damage but gets status effects more often.
Don’t let the similarity make you feel bad. The Tenet Cycron is still a great sidearm that can use hundreds of status effects in an instant. With hundreds of Heat effects and the gun’s good base damage, it will be hard for crowds to stay alive. There are better cards in Warframe than the Nukor, but the Tenet Cycron makes a name for itself in the secondary meta.
Epitaph
Do you like guns that can do a million damage with each shot? Do you like guns with big area-of-effect explosions? If you said “yes” to either of those questions, you need to start writing the Epitaph right away. It’s a terrible weapon that might not be as good as the Kuva Nukor.
Sevagoth’s signature crossbow is on his arm and fires huge AoE blasts that always deal Cold damage when they’re not charged. You can weaken crowds for your charged shot with a lot of different status effects that you can use in Snake Game. The Epitaph’s charged bolts do terrible damage, with great critical stats and great base damage.If you have the Hemorrhage Mod, direct shots always do Impact, and if you use Slash, each shot has a 70% chance to do it. There aren’t many foes in Warframe that can handle a single charged shot from this weapon.
Lex Prime
The Lex Prime is the first hand gun and one of Warframe‘s most famous secondary weapons when it first came out. Since then, metas have changed a lot, and this powerful hand gun has been replaced by more powerful ones. Thanks to Duviri’s Incarnon Genesis Adapters, the Lex Prime is back and deadlier than ever.
Incarnon Form of the Lex Prime turns it into a much better version of a Catchmoon Kitgun when you use it. Instead of bullets, there are wide energy missiles that do a ridiculous amount of damage and have much higher base damage and critical damage. The Lex Prime can destroy anything you shoot at, even Steel Path Acolytes and other tough enemies, if it’s built right. For Warframe veterans, this isn’t quite the Lex they know, but the Incarnon version of this weapon is still S-tier.
Laetum
It may come as a surprise that the Laetum is so high on this list, but its Incarnon state and Evolutions more than deserve it. There is a gun called the Laetum that can do more than a million damage with each shot. As if that wasn’t enough, if you hit a few people in the head with the semi-auto mode, the gun changes into an Acceltra with a 220-round magazine.
It’s not enough to say that the Laetum is a secondary Acceltra. Because of this weapon’s Evolution passives, you can get either a constant damage boost of 1,200% or a chance that non-crits will deal 2,000% more damage. These passives help in both modes, and the weapon’s main stats are good enough that it can be used for almost anything. A lot of status effects and critical hits will wipe out enemies for hybrid builds, while pure status builds can often get a 2,000% damage boost. If you want to make a combination build, use Cascade Empowered to make all of your status effects do more damage with your gun. Want to do even more harm? When you run Synth Charge and empty your clip all the way, all 220 shots will do three times as much damage.
In general, the Laetum is a great weapon for any occasion. You can use the main fire to hit people in the head with crushing blows from far away, and then instantly turn the gun into an add-clearing machine. Steel Path Acolytes and Liches melt into the Incarnon form of this gun. This is the best secondary weapon in Warframe if you’re willing to work a little to hit headshots. The Scourge can help you do that.
Kuva Nukor
As soon as people started getting the Kuva Nukor from Kuva Liches, it was clear which weapon would rule the meta until further notice.
It’s like a powerful mix of the Atomos and the Synapse. Every time this weapon hits an enemy, it deals damage to multiple targets at once. This makes it one of the best guns in the game. The gun’s 50% base status chance is what makes it really strong. If you mod this weapon to increase its state chance, it can quickly deal hundreds of Heat or Gas effects to a target. It also deals 5 times as much damage on critical hits as any other item in the game. Get sources of extra critical chance, like Harrow or Arcane Avenger, to make this already great weapon the best backup weapon in Warframe history.