WARFRAME Wiki
Register
Advertisement
WARFRAME Wiki
ArchimedeanYonta
“Very well. Keep your secrets.”
This article/section contains unofficial information, concepts, or terminology derived from or based on community discussion, invention, or knowledge. It may be subjective and contain information or terminology that is not used by Digital Extremes or in official WARFRAME communications, and may not be an officially recognized concept.

Preceded by
Damage 1.0 since Update 11.0 (2013-11-20)

Damage (version 2.0) is a system that determines the damage done to a certain target by a given attacker. Damage results are modified by several mechanics – damage type modifiers (main content of this article), armor, critical hit bonuses, stealth bonuses, Warframe ability debuffs, body part modifiers, faction modifiers, and other sources of damage reduction – which are discussed below and on their respective pages.

All damage dealt by any weapon or ability belongs to a certain damage type, and every target has specific resistances and vulnerabilities to different damage types. In-game, enemy resistances and vulnerabilities can be seen in the player's Codex after scanning at least one enemy of a particular type or by aiming at an enemy using the Synthesis Scanner with the Data-Parse Widget. Exploiting enemy vulnerabilities and avoiding resistances by means of weapon selection and mod installation may significantly improve players' damage output.

Damage Display[]

Damage dealt from players to enemies is displayed on the HUD as numbers near the point of impact on an enemy. Damage dealt from enemies to players is displayed on the HUD both as a bent strip to indicate its direction of origin and as a reduction in shield or health hitpoints to indicate its quantity.

Each individual projectile or melee attack will display a single damage instance whose value is rounded to the nearest integer. Weapons with multiple projectiles like shotguns or rifles with Multishot will display a damage instance for each individual projectile. Weapons that fire continuously will display a damage instance at a constant rate depending on the fire rate of the weapon.

Crit numbers

Three different color tiers of critical hits along with normal damage color

Damage indicators are color-coded using the following system (default UI colors):

  • Damage appears by default in white.
  • Ability damage appears by default in purple.
  • Critical hits and stealth attacks are in yellow.
  • Orange crits, appear in orange. These are stronger than yellow crits.
  • Red crits, as their name suggests, appear in red. These are stronger than orange crits.
  • Damage against shields and overshields appears in blue, regardless of other factors such as critical hits.
  • Attempts to damage an invulnerable enemy appear in grey.

Overview Table[]

These tables show damage type resistances and weaknesses of various Health, Shield, and Armor types of different Factions.

Damage Type Cloned Flesh Ferrite Armor Alloy Armor Machinery Status Effect
Physical
Damage
DmgImpactSmall64 Impact –25% +25% Stagger[1][2]
DmgPunctureSmall64 Puncture +50% +15% –Damage
DmgSlashSmall64 Slash +25% –15% –50% Bleed[1]
Elemental
Damage
DmgColdSmall64 Cold +25% Slowdown
DmgElectricitySmall64 Electricity –50% +50% Tesla Chain
Stun[1][2]
DmgFireSmall64 Heat +25% Burn DoT
Panic[1][2]
DmgToxinSmall64 Toxin –25% Poison DoT[1]
Combined
Elements
DmgBlastSmall64 Blast DmgFireSmall64 Heat + DmgColdSmall64 Cold –25% +75% –Accuracy[1][2]
DmgCorrosiveSmall64 Corrosive DmgElectricitySmall64 Electricity + DmgToxinSmall64 Toxin +75% –Armor
DmgGasSmall64 Gas DmgFireSmall64 Heat + DmgToxinSmall64 Toxin –50% Gas Cloud
DmgMagneticSmall64 Magnetic DmgColdSmall64 Cold + DmgElectricitySmall64 Electricity –50% Amplified damage to shields
Stops shield regen
DmgRadiationSmall64 Radiation DmgFireSmall64 Heat + DmgElectricitySmall64 Electricity +75% Friendly Fire
More damage to allies[2]
DmgViralSmall64 Viral DmgColdSmall64 Cold + DmgToxinSmall64 Toxin +75% –25% Amplified damage to health
Unique
Types
DmgTrueSmall64 True N/A[3] N/A[3] -
DmgVoidSmall64 Void Bullet Attract
  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 Does not affect Machinery-type enemies.
  2. 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 Does not affect Bosses.
  3. 3.0 3.1 The damage associated bypasses these secondary protections.

Damage Type Flesh Shield Proto Shield Ferrite Armor Alloy Armor Robotic Status Effect
Physical
Damage
DmgImpactSmall64 Impact

-25%

+50% +15% 1)3)Stagger
DmgPunctureSmall64 Puncture -20% -50% +50% +15% +25% –Damage
DmgSlashSmall64 Slash +25% –15% –50% -25% 3)Bleed
Elemental
Damage
DmgColdSmall64 Cold +50% +25% Slowdown
DmgElectricitySmall64 Electricity –50% +50% 3)Tesla Chain
1)3)Stun
DmgFireSmall64 Heat -50% 2)3)Burn DoT
1)2)3)Panic
DmgToxinSmall64 Toxin +50% 4)N/A   4)N/A   -25% 3)Poison DoT
Combined
Elements

DmgBlastSmall64 Blast

DmgFireSmall64 Heat + DmgColdSmall64 Cold –25% 1)3)–Accuracy
DmgCorrosiveSmall64 Corrosive DmgElectricitySmall64 Electricity + DmgToxinSmall64 Toxin -50% +75% –Armor

DmgGasSmall64 Gas

DmgFireSmall64 Heat + DmgToxinSmall64 Toxin -25% Gas Cloud
DmgMagneticSmall64 Magnetic DmgColdSmall64 Cold + DmgElectricitySmall64 Electricity +75% +75% –50% Amplified damage to shields
Stops shield regen
DmgRadiationSmall64 Radiation DmgFireSmall64 Heat + DmgElectricitySmall64 Electricity -25% +75% +25% 1)Friendly Fire
More damage to allies
DmgViralSmall64 Viral DmgColdSmall64 Cold + DmgToxinSmall64 Toxin +50% Amplified damage to health
Unique
Types
DmgTrueSmall64 True N/A[1] N/A[1] -
DmgVoidSmall64 Void Bullet Attract

1) Does not affect Bosses. | 2) Does not affect MOAs. | 3) Does not affect Ospreys. | 4) Bypasses shields

  1. 1.0 1.1 The damage associated bypasses these secondary protections.

Damage Type Infested Infested Flesh Fossilized Infested Sinew Ferrite Armor Status Effect
Physical
Damage

DmgImpactSmall64 Impact

1)2)Stagger
DmgPunctureSmall64 Puncture +25% +50% –Damage
DmgSlashSmall64 Slash +25% +50% +15% –15% Bleed
Elemental
Damage
DmgColdSmall64 Cold -50% -25% +25% Slowdown
DmgElectricitySmall64 Electricity Tesla Chain
1)2)Stun
DmgFireSmall64 Heat +25% +50% Burn DoT
1)2)Panic
DmgToxinSmall64 Toxin -50% Poison DoT
Combined
Elements
DmgBlastSmall64 Blast DmgFireSmall64 Heat + DmgColdSmall64 Cold +50% -50% –25% 1)2)–Accuracy
DmgCorrosiveSmall64 Corrosive DmgElectricitySmall64 Electricity + DmgToxinSmall64 Toxin +75% +75% –Armor
DmgGasSmall64 Gas DmgFireSmall64 Heat + DmgToxinSmall64 Toxin +75% +50% Gas Cloud
DmgMagneticSmall64 Magnetic DmgColdSmall64 Cold + DmgElectricitySmall64 Electricity Amplified damage to shields
Stops shield regen
DmgRadiationSmall64 Radiation DmgFireSmall64 Heat + DmgElectricitySmall64 Electricity -50% -75% +50% 1)Friendly Fire
More damage to allies
DmgViralSmall64 Viral DmgColdSmall64 Cold + DmgToxinSmall64 Toxin

-50%

Amplified damage to health
Unique
Types
DmgTrueSmall64 True N/A[1] N/A[1] -
DmgVoidSmall64 Void Bullet Attract

1) Does not affect Bosses. | 2) Does not affect Osprey enemies.

  1. 1.0 1.1 The damage associated bypasses these secondary protections.

Damage Type Flesh Robotic Ferrite Armor Alloy Armor Shield Status
Physical
Damage
DmgImpactSmall64 Impact -25% +50% 1)3)Stagger
DmgPunctureSmall64 Puncture +25% +50% +15% -20% –Damage
DmgSlashSmall64 Slash +25% -25% -15% -50% 1)Bleed
Elemental
Damage
DmgColdSmall64 Cold +25% +50% Slowdown
DmgElectricitySmall64 Electricity +50% -50% Tesla Chain
1)3)Stun
DmgFireSmall64 Heat Burn DoT
1)2)3)Panic
DmgToxinSmall64 Toxin +50% -25% 4)N/A 1)Poison DoT
Combined
Elements
DmgBlastSmall64 Blast DmgFireSmall64 Heat+
DmgColdSmall64 Cold
-25% 1)3)–Accuracy
DmgCorrosiveSmall64 Corrosive DmgElectricitySmall64 Electricity+
DmgToxinSmall64 Toxin
+75% –Armor
DmgGasSmall64 Gas DmgFireSmall64 Heat+
DmgToxinSmall64 Toxin
-25% Gas Cloud
DmgMagneticSmall64 Magnetic DmgColdSmall64 Cold+
DmgElectricitySmall64 Electricity
-50% +75% Amplified damage to shields
Stops shield regen
DmgRadiationSmall64 Radiation DmgFireSmall64 Heat+
DmgElectricitySmall64 Electricity
+25% +75% -25% Friendly Fire
More damage to allies
DmgViralSmall64 Viral DmgColdSmall64 Cold+
DmgToxinSmall64 Toxin
+50% Amplified damage to health
Unique Types DmgTrueSmall64 True 4)N/A 4)N/A -
DmgVoidSmall64 Void Bullet Attract
1) Does not affect Ospreys, Drones. | 2) Does not affect MOAs. 3) Does not affect Corrupted Vor. | 4) The damage associated bypasses these secondary protections.

Damage Type Cloned Flesh Flesh Ferrite Armor Alloy Armor Shield Proto Shield Robotic Fossilized Status
Physical
Damage
DmgImpactSmall64 Impact -25% -25% +50% +25% 1)3)Stagger
DmgPunctureSmall64 Puncture +50% +15% -20% -50% +25% –Damage
DmgSlashSmall64 Slash +25% +25% -15% -50% -25% +15% 1)Bleed
Elemental
Damage
DmgColdSmall64 Cold +25% +50% -25% Slowdown
DmgElectricitySmall64 Electricity -50% +50% Tesla Chain
1)3)Stun
DmgFireSmall64 Heat +25% -50% Burn DoT
1)2)3)Panic
DmgToxinSmall64 Toxin +50% 4)N/A 4)N/A -25% -50% 1)Poison DoT
Combined
Elements
DmgBlastSmall64 Blast DmgFireSmall64 Heat+
DmgColdSmall64 Cold
-25% +50% 1)3)–Accuracy
DmgCorrosiveSmall64 Corrosive DmgElectricitySmall64 Electricity+
DmgToxinSmall64 Toxin
+75% -50% +75% –Armor
DmgGasSmall64 Gas DmgFireSmall64 Heat+
DmgToxinSmall64 Toxin
-50% -25% Gas Cloud
DmgMagneticSmall64 Magnetic DmgColdSmall64 Cold+
DmgElectricitySmall64 Electricity
-50% +75% +75% Amplified damage to shields
Stops shield regen
DmgRadiationSmall64 Radiation DmgFireSmall64 Heat+
DmgElectricitySmall64 Electricity
+75% -25% +25% -75% Friendly Fire
More damage to allies
DmgViralSmall64 Viral DmgColdSmall64 Cold+
DmgToxinSmall64 Toxin
+75% +50% Amplified damage to health
Unique Types DmgTrueSmall64 True 4)N/A 4)N/A -
DmgVoidSmall64 Void Bullet Attract


1) Does not affect Ospreys, Drones. | 2) Does not affect MOAs. 3) Does not affect Corrupted Vor. | 4) The damage associated bypasses these secondary protections.

Damage Type Tenno Flesh Tenno Armor Tenno Shield Status
Physical
Damage
DmgImpactSmall64 Impact –50% 1)Stagger
DmgPunctureSmall64 Puncture –50% –Damage
DmgSlashSmall64 Slash –50% Bleed
Elemental
Damage
DmgColdSmall64 Cold –50% Slowdown
DmgElectricitySmall64 Electricity –50% Tesla Chain
DmgFireSmall64 Heat –50% Burn DoT
DmgToxinSmall64 Toxin 2)N/A   Poison DoT
Combined
Elements
DmgBlastSmall64 Blast DmgFireSmall64 Heat + DmgColdSmall64 Cold –50% –Accuracy
DmgCorrosiveSmall64 Corrosive DmgElectricitySmall64 Electricity + DmgToxinSmall64 Toxin –50% –Armor
DmgGasSmall64 Gas DmgFireSmall64 Heat + DmgToxinSmall64 Toxin –50% Gas Cloud
DmgMagneticSmall64 Magnetic DmgColdSmall64 Cold + DmgElectricitySmall64 Electricity –50% Amplified damage to shields
Stops shield regen
Energy Drain
DmgRadiationSmall64 Radiation DmgFireSmall64 Heat + DmgElectricitySmall64 Electricity –50% –Accuracy
Friendly Fire
More damage to allies
DmgViralSmall64 Viral DmgColdSmall64 Cold + DmgToxinSmall64 Toxin –50% Amplified damage to health
Unique
Types
DmgTrueSmall64 True 2)N/A   -
DmgVoidSmall64 Void –50% Bullet Attract
  • Tenno Flesh: Applies to all Warframes, Operators and Railjacks (Tenno).
  • Tenno Armor: Applies to all Warframes, Operators and Railjacks (Tenno).
  • Tenno Shield: Applies to all Warframes, Operators and Railjacks (Tenno).
1) Does not affect the Tenno. | 2) The damage associated bypasses these secondary protections, but in the case of DmgToxinSmall64 Toxin damage, it has -50% damage modifier against HildrynIcon272 Hildryn when she has overshields.

Damage Type Indifferent Facade Ferrite Armor Infested Machinery Status Effect
Physical
Damage
DmgImpactSmall64 Impact +25% Stagger[1][2]
DmgPunctureSmall64 Puncture +25% +50% –Damage
DmgSlashSmall64 Slash -50% -15% +25% Bleed[1]
Elemental
Damage
DmgColdSmall64 Cold Slowdown
DmgElectricitySmall64 Electricity +25% +50% Tesla Chain
Stun[1][2]
DmgFireSmall64 Heat +25% Burn DoT
Panic[1][2]
DmgToxinSmall64 Toxin -25% Poison DoT[1]
Combined
Elements
DmgBlastSmall64 Blast DmgFireSmall64 Heat + DmgColdSmall64 Cold -25% +75% –Accuracy[1][2]
DmgCorrosiveSmall64 Corrosive DmgElectricitySmall64 Electricity + DmgToxinSmall64 Toxin +75% –Armor
DmgGasSmall64 Gas DmgFireSmall64 Heat + DmgToxinSmall64 Toxin +75% Gas Cloud
DmgMagneticSmall64 Magnetic DmgColdSmall64 Cold + DmgElectricitySmall64 Electricity Amplified damage to shields
Stops shield regen
DmgRadiationSmall64 Radiation DmgFireSmall64 Heat + DmgElectricitySmall64 Electricity +75% -50% Friendly Fire
More damage to allies[2]
DmgViralSmall64 Viral DmgColdSmall64 Cold + DmgToxinSmall64 Toxin -50% -50% -25% Amplified damage to health
Unique
Types
DmgTrueSmall64 True N/A[3] -
DmgVoidSmall64 Void +25% Bullet Attract
  • Indifferent Facade: Possessed by non-mechanical Murmur enemies.
  • Ferrite Armor: Possessed by Rogue Culverins and Rogue Arcocanids.
  • Infested: Possessed by Rogue Arcocanids.
  • Machinery: Possessed by Rogue Culverin.
  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 Does not affect Machinery-type enemies.
  2. 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 Does not affect Bosses.
  3. The damage associated bypasses these secondary protections.

Damage Type Flesh Cloned Flesh Fossilized Infested Infested Flesh Infested Sinew Machinery Robotic Object Shield Proto Shield Ferrite Armor Alloy Armor Indifferent Facade Status
Physical
DmgImpactSmall64 Impact -25% -25% +25% +50% +15% Stagger1)2)
DmgPunctureSmall64 Puncture +25% +25% -20% -50% +50% +15% +25% –Damage
DmgSlashSmall64 Slash +25% +25% +15% +25% +50% -25% -15% -50% -50% Bleed
Primary Elemental
DmgColdSmall64 Cold -25% -50% +25% +50% +25% Slowdown
DmgElectricitySmall64 Electricity +50% +50% -50% +25% Tesla Chain
Stun1)2)
DmgFireSmall64 Heat +25% +25% +50% -50% Burn DoT
Panic1)2)3)
DmgToxinSmall64 Toxin +50% -50% -25% -25% 4)N/A 4)N/A Poison: Toxin DoT
Secondary Elemental
DmgBlastSmall64 Blast DmgFireSmall64 Heat+DmgColdSmall64 Cold +50% -50% +75% -25% –Accuracy1)2)
DmgCorrosiveSmall64 Corrosive DmgElectricitySmall64 Electricity+DmgToxinSmall64 Toxin +75% -50% +75% –Armor
DmgGasSmall64 Gas DmgFireSmall64 Heat+DmgToxinSmall64 Toxin -25% -50% +75% +50% Gas Cloud: Gas AOE DoT
DmgMagneticSmall64 Magnetic DmgColdSmall64 Cold+DmgElectricitySmall64 Electricity +75% +75% -50% Amplified damage to shields
Stops shield regen
DmgRadiationSmall64 Radiation DmgFireSmall64 Heat+DmgElectricitySmall64 Electricity -75% -50% +50% +25% -25% +75% +75% Friendly Fire1)
More damage to allies
DmgViralSmall64 Viral DmgColdSmall64 Cold+DmgToxinSmall64 Toxin +50% +75% -50% -25% -50% Amplified damage to health
Unique
DmgTrueSmall64 True 4)N/A 4)N/A -
DmgVoidSmall64 Void +25% Bullet Attract
1) Does not affect Bosses. | 2) Does not affect Rollers, Regulators, Latchers or Osprey. | 3) Does not affect MOAs. | 4) The damage associated bypasses these secondary protections.

Damage Types[]

Every weapon, ability or method of dealing damage is classified as one or more types of damage. Through mods or abilities, further types of damage can be added to attacks.

When multiple damage types are present on an attack, all of them will deal their respective amounts independent of each other, but only one damage number calculated from the combined value of the damage types will show.

With each shown damage value, there is also a chance of a Status Effect occurring; the likelihood of which type of damage this Status Effect is based on depends on the percent distribution of the damage types on the weapon.

Physical Damage[]

Most weapons' base damage is made up of a combination of three physical damage types: DmgImpactSmall64 Impact, DmgPunctureSmall64 Puncture, and DmgSlashSmall64 Slash. The overall physical damage of any given weapon is the sum of Impact, Puncture, and Slash damage. This is sometimes referred to as IPS.

Damage Type Damage Type Internal Name Status Effects Status Effect Internal Name
DmgImpactSmall64 Impact DT_IMPACT Knockback
Universal: Causes target to flinch and staggers movement for 1 second with higher stacks causing longer stagger duration. For 6 seconds, increases the health threshold for a Parazon finisher by 8% per stack, up to 5 stacks for 80% (100% on Corpus with all their shields removed) of their total health. Each stack has its own duration.
PT_KNOCKBACK
DmgPunctureSmall64 Puncture DT_PUNCTURE Weakened
Universal: Reduces any damage dealt by the target by 40% for 6 seconds. Subsequent Puncture Status effects add +10% weakening, leading to up to 80% reduced damage dealt at 5 stacks. Each stack has its own duration. Additionally also increases weapon Critical Chance per proc up to 25% at max stacks. This bonus is additive after mods, but does not apply to area of effect damage or Warframe abilities.
PT_FRAILTY
DmgSlashSmall64 Slash DT_SLASH Bleed
Universal: Deals 35% of the base damage as DmgTrueSmall64 True damage per second for 6 seconds after a 1 second delay. Stacks are not limited. Each stack has its own duration.
PT_BLEEDING

Although most weapons have varying proportions of DmgImpactSmall64 Impact, DmgPunctureSmall64 Puncture, and DmgSlashSmall64 Slash, some weapons (such as the Glaxion Glaxion or Phage Phage) can have no physical damage at all. Other weapons (like the Plinx Plinx or Tysis Tysis) can deal a combination of physical and elemental, or combo elemental damage.

Unlike elemental, or combo elemental damage types which can be added via mods, physical damage cannot be added to weapons already lacking them. Weapons that do not have one or more components of physical damage are not affected by the respective DmgImpactSmall64 Impact, DmgPunctureSmall64 Puncture, or DmgSlashSmall64 Slash mods.

General damage increasing mods such as Mod TT 20px Serration affect all the base damage types of a weapon. Additionally, Faction Damage Mods such as Mod TT 20px Expel Grineer also affect damage as a total damage multiplier against the faction in question.

Primary Elemental Damage[]

Elemental Damage can be applied on top of a weapon’s base damage depending on what Elemental Mods are applied. There are four primary Elemental Damage types:DmgFireSmall64 Heat, DmgColdSmall64 Cold, DmgElectricitySmall64 Electricity, and DmgToxinSmall64 Toxin.

Damage Type Damage Type Internal Name Status Effects Status Effect Internal Name
DmgColdSmall64 Cold DT_FREEZE Freeze
On Enemy: Reduces Movement Speed, Fire Rate, and Attack Speed by 50% for 6 seconds. Stacks up to 9 times, with subsequent procs increasing slow by 5% to a total of 90%. Each stack has its own duration.
On Player: Reduces Movement Speed, Fire Rate, and Attack Speed by 25% for 6 seconds.
PT_CHILLED
DmgElectricitySmall64 Electricity DT_ELECTRICITY Tesla Chain
On Enemy: Deals 50% of the base damage as DmgElectricitySmall64 Electricity damage per second over 6 seconds to enemies within 3 meters of the target and stuns the affected target for 3 seconds. Each stack has its own duration.
On Player: Deals 50% base DmgElectricitySmall64 Electricity damage to allies within 3 meters of the target.
PT_ELECTROCUTION
DmgFireSmall64 Heat DT_FIRE Ignite
On Enemy: Deals 50% of the base damage as DmgFireSmall64 Heat damage per second over 6 seconds after a 1 second delay (can be refreshed) while causing the target to panic for 4 seconds and stripping up to 50% Armor over 2 seconds. Stacks are not limited.
On Player: Deals 50% base DmgFireSmall64 Heat damage over 6 seconds and strips up to 50% Armor over 2 seconds.
PT_IMMOLATION
DmgToxinSmall64 Toxin DT_POISON Poison
Universal: Deals 50% of the base damage as DmgToxinSmall64 Toxin damage over 6 seconds after a 1 second delay (bypasses Shield). Stacks are not limited. Each stack has its own duration.
PT_POISONED

A single primary Elemental Damage type can be applied alone, but if a second primary Elemental Damage type is introduced they will combine into a secondary Elemental Damage type.

Secondary Elemental Damage[]

Creating these secondary elements requires mixing two primary elements together.

Elementsnew
Combined Damage Type Elemental Damage Types Damage Type Internal Name Status Effects Status Effect Internal Name
DmgBlastSmall64 Blast DmgColdSmall64 Cold + DmgFireSmall64 Heat DT_EXPLOSION Inaccuracy
On Enemy: Reduces accuracy by 30% for 6 seconds. Stacks for a maximum of 10 stacks and a 75% accuracy loss. Each stack has its own duration.
On Player: Reduces accuracy by 30% for 6 seconds.
PT_FLASHBANG
DmgCorrosiveSmall64 Corrosive DmgElectricitySmall64 Electricity + DmgToxinSmall64 Toxin DT_CORROSIVE Corrosion
On Enemy: Reduces current Armor by 26% for 8 seconds. Stacks for a maximum of 10 stacks and 80% reduced armor. Each stack has its own duration.
On Player: Reduces armor by 26% for 8 seconds.
PT_CAUSTIC_BURN
DmgGasSmall64 Gas DmgFireSmall64 Heat + DmgToxinSmall64 Toxin DT_GAS Gas Cloud
Universal: Creates a 3 meter radius effect which deals 50% of base damage as DmgGasSmall64 Gas damage per second for 6 seconds to targets inside. Stacks for a maximum of 10 stacks and a 6 meter radius. Each stack has its own duration. The effect stays for its duration even if the affected enemy dies.
PT_ASPHYXIATION
DmgMagneticSmall64 Magnetic DmgColdSmall64 Cold + DmgElectricitySmall64 Electricity DT_MAGNETIC Disrupt
On Enemy: Any instance of damage dealt to target's Shields will deal +100% additional damage for 6 seconds. Stacks for a maximum of 10 stacks and +325% additional damage. Each stack has its own duration. Enemies under this effect also cannot regenerate shields naturally.
On Player: Amplifies damage dealt to shields by 100%, nullifies shield regeneration, and deals 20 Energy Drain damage per second and scrambles the interface for 4 seconds.
PT_MAGNETIZED
DmgRadiationSmall64 Radiation DmgElectricitySmall64 Electricity + DmgFireSmall64 Heat DT_RADIATION Confusion
On Enemy: Attacks any closest enemy with +100% bonus damage to allies and will be attacked in return for 12 seconds. Also applies +100% damage dealt to allied units. Stacks for a maximum of 10 stacks and +550% damage against allied units. Each stack has its own duration.
Kuva Lich: Increases damage received from other units. Stacks for a maximum of 4 stacks and +250% damage received. Does not make the Lich attack his allied units.
On Player: Reduces firing Accuracy, able to damage and be damaged by allies for 4 seconds.
PT_RAD_TOX
DmgViralSmall64 Viral DmgColdSmall64 Cold + DmgToxinSmall64 Toxin DT_VIRAL Virus
On Enemy: Any instance of damage dealt to target's Health will deal +100% additional damage for 6 seconds. Stacks for a maximum of 10 stacks and +325% additional damage. Each stack has its own duration.
On Player: Amplifies damage dealt to health by 100% for 6 seconds.
PT_INFECTED

Elemental Damage is applied in addition to a weapon's physical damage types.

Weapon Damage = (DmgImpactSmall64 Impact + DmgPunctureSmall64 Puncture + DmgSlashSmall64 Slash) + (Elemental Damage Types)

Note that a primary elemental damage type that has been combined into a secondary type will no longer be dealt to the weapon's targets, nor its status effect will be applied to the targets either. For example, a weapon dealing DmgBlastSmall64 Blast damage that is created by combining DmgColdSmall64 Cold + DmgFireSmall64 Heat will no longer deal DmgColdSmall64 Cold damage or cause its Freeze effect, nor DmgFireSmall64 Heat damage or its Ignite effect to this weapon's targets.

Modding[]

Elemental Damage Combinations are made by following a mod placement hierarchy. This hierarchy is from closest to top left (first to be considered) to the bottom right (last to be considered) on the mod layout. Innate weapon elemental damages are considered the very last in any hierarchy, with one exception: some Kuva and Tenet weapons from Kuva Liches or Sisters of Parvos are capable of having two base elemental damages (one from the weapon, one from the Valence damage of the Progenitor Warframe that made the Lich/Sister). In these cases, whichever of the two primary elements comes first in this element order - DmgFireSmall64 Heat > DmgColdSmall64 Cold > DmgElectricitySmall64 Electricity > DmgToxinSmall64 Toxin, or "HCET" for short - will be placed second to last in the element combine order, while the other primary element will be placed last in the combine order.

However, a weapon's innate elemental damage can be forced into a different position in the hierarchy (and thus be combined into a secondary element earlier) if the player has equipped a mod of the same element as the innate element. As well, when using multiple mods with the same element, the first position that element is placed in establishes its hierarchy and where it's combined.

For example, putting Mod TT 20px Stormbringer on the top left slot of an Amprex Amprex will change the position of its innate DmgElectricitySmall64 Electricity damage from last in hierarchy to first in hierarchy. Similarly, placing Mod TT 20px Thermite Rounds earlier in the hierarchy before placing Mod TT 20px Hellfire will still count the DmgFireSmall64 Heat damage where it was first placed.

A weapon's innate elemental damage will contribute to elemental combinations, as long as the combination has been established earlier in the hierarchy. It can also combine with the last uncombined elemental mod in the hierarchy to form a secondary element.

LoadOrder

Load Order

For example: when modding a weapon with DmgElectricitySmall64 Electricity such as the Prova Prova or the Lecta Lecta, then adding DmgColdSmall64 Cold, DmgToxinSmall64 Toxin, and DmgFireSmall64 Heat in 1, 2 and 3 respectively get: DmgViralSmall64 Viral (DmgColdSmall64 Cold + DmgToxinSmall64 Toxin) and DmgRadiationSmall64 Radiation (DmgFireSmall64 Heat + DmgElectricitySmall64 Electricity).

In the case of Riven Mods where there is more than one elemental stat present, the hierarchy priority will be given to the last elemental stat listed on the Riven mod. For example, a Riven mod with a bonus of +100% DmgElectricitySmall64 Electricity damage first and +90% DmgToxinSmall64 Toxin damage last, will enable the DmgToxinSmall64 Toxin damage to combine with an elemental mod higher up in the hierarchy, and the DmgElectricitySmall64 Electricity damage will combine with an elemental damage type lower in the hierarchy. If no other elemental damage mods are present, the elements on the Riven mod will combine with itself.

Weapons with innate secondary elements such as Ogris Ogris (DmgBlastSmall64 Blast), Penta Penta (DmgBlastSmall64 Blast), Stug Stug (DmgCorrosiveSmall64 Corrosive), Nukor Nukor (DmgRadiationSmall64 Radiation) and Detron Detron (DmgRadiationSmall64 Radiation) will always have that damage type, regardless of mods used. On weapons like these, basic elemental damage mods will combine and function independently of the innate secondary elements, as basic elements cannot combine with a weapon's already combined innate damage type. Kuva Lich Weapons and Tenet Weapons will follow this behavior too. For example, a TenetDetron Tenet Detron (DmgRadiationSmall64 Radiation) can come with an additional DmgElectricitySmall64 Electricity Progenitor damage bonus that will not add onto the innate DmgRadiationSmall64 Radiation damage.

Elemental additionals

This is an example of a secondary elemental with the combination elemental.

Possible Combinations[]

Except for weapons with innate secondary elemental damage, it is impossible to add more than two elemental damage types on a single weapon, because there are only four types of primary elemental damage and every two types of primary damage will be automatically combined into a secondary type. Because of this mechanic, the following combinations of added elemental damage are possible on a single weapon:

   Type 1
\
Type 2   
DmgColdSmall64 Cold DmgElectricitySmall64 Electricity DmgFireSmall64 Heat DmgToxinSmall64 Toxin DmgBlastSmall64 Blast DmgCorrosiveSmall64 Corrosive DmgGasSmall64 Gas DmgMagneticSmall64 Magnetic DmgRadiationSmall64 Radiation DmgViralSmall64 Viral
DmgColdSmall64 Cold
DmgElectricitySmall64 Electricity
DmgFireSmall64 Heat
DmgToxinSmall64 Toxin
DmgBlastSmall64 Blast
DmgCorrosiveSmall64 Corrosive
DmgGasSmall64 Gas
DmgMagneticSmall64 Magnetic
DmgRadiationSmall64 Radiation
DmgViralSmall64 Viral

Unique Damage[]

Sgt Nef AnyoIcon
“Orokin secrets cannot remain secret forever! Start talking!”
The following article/section is conjecture. Content is subjected to change/removal as the game progresses. Please do not use this article for critical in-game information.
Photo-4
“It's taking longer than I calculated.”
This page is actively being worked on and may not be completely correct. Please assist in making this page accurate. See WARFRAME Wiki:Research on ways to perform research on this game. Click here to add more info.
More research on unique damage types needed

These damage types are unique as they are not available as base damage types for any typical weapons nor can they be added through mods.

Damage Type Damage Type Internal Name Description Status Effects Status Effect Internal Name
Finisher DT_FINISHER A damage type that can be applied through finishers. Ignores armor's damage reduction and has neutral modifiers. N/A N/A
DmgVoidSmall64 Void DT_RADIANT A damage type that can be used by the Operator after completing The War Within or by players controlling the Warframe XakuIcon272 Xaku. It possesses special properties and effects against Sentient enemies while being neutral to all health/shields/armor classes except for Indifferent Facade, which takes 25% more damage from Void damage. Bullet Attract: A 2.5 meter radius field will be centered around where target is shot at for 3 seconds, redirecting all bullets and projectiles to its center. PT_RADIANT
DmgTauSmall64 Tau DT_SENTIENT A damage type unique to the energy attacks of Sentients. N/A N/A
Cinematic DT_CINEMATIC A damage type that can be applied through DmgSlashSmall64 Slash procs. Ignores armor's damage reduction and has neutral modifiers. N/A N/A
Shield Drain DT_SHIELD_DRAIN A damage type that can be applied through certain Warframe abilities. N/A N/A
DmgTrueSmall64 True DT_HEALTH_DRAIN A damage type that can be applied through certain Warframe abilities and some weapons. Ignores armor's damage reduction and has neutral modifiers. N/A N/A
Energy Drain DT_ENERGY_DRAIN Applied by DmgMagneticSmall64 Magnetic procs and Ancient Disruptor's aura. Drains energy equal to the damage dealt. Unaffected by most sources of Damage Reduction. N/A N/A
Suicide DT_SUICIDE Special damage type applied by typing /kill? N/A N/A
Physical DT_PHYSICAL Possibly a generic wrapper class for physical damage. N/A N/A
Base Elemental DT_BASE_ELEMENTAL Possibly a generic wrapper class for primary elemental damage. N/A N/A
Compound Elemental DT_COMPOUND_ELEMENTAL Possibly a generic wrapper class for secondary elemental damage. N/A N/A
Any DT_ANY Unknown N/A N/A
Invalid DT_INVALID Unknown N/A N/A

Empyrean[]

Empyrean gamemode and Railjacks use a slightly altered system of the currently existing damage system. Archguns and Archmelees deal 90.91% (10/11) reduced damage to space enemies (or 9.09% of its arsenal damage) while Railjack Armaments and Tactical mods deal their full listed damage to them before accounting for hit point resistances and vulnerabilities.

Primary physical and elemental damage types have different status effects against space enemies outlined in the chart below. Secondary elemental damage types (DmgBlastSmall64 Blast, DmgCorrosiveSmall64 Corrosive, DmgGasSmall64 Gas, DmgMagneticSmall64 Magnetic, DmgRadiationSmall64 Radiation, and DmgViralSmall64 Viral) do not have altered status effects and cannot proc against space enemies, but Archguns and Archmelees modded for secondary elementals will still increase total damage.

This system does not apply to on-foot enemies, such as Ramsled boarding parties, and Crewship and Points of Interest personnel, who will take damage and status as per normal.

Damage Type Empyrean-only Status Effects
DmgImpactSmall64 Impact Concuss
Crew within a gunship have reduced aim and damage for 6 seconds. Additional procs refresh duration.
DmgPunctureSmall64 Puncture Decompress
Temporarily reduces target ship's shields by ?% and current armor by 10% for 20 seconds. Additional procs stack multiplicatively.
DmgSlashSmall64 Slash Tear
Target ship receives 7.5% increased damage for 20 seconds. Additional procs stack multiplicatively with itself.
DmgColdSmall64 Cold Immobilize
Target ship's weapons are disabled and it slows down to a complete stop. Lasts for 6 seconds. Additional procs refresh duration.
DmgElectricitySmall64 Electricity Scramble
Target ship spirals erratically for 6 seconds, being unable to attack while moving in a straight line. Additional procs refresh duration.
DmgFireSmall64 Heat Sear
Target ship receives damage over time for 6 seconds. Additional procs increase damage dealt over time.
DmgToxinSmall64 Toxin Intoxicate
Target ship attacks any closest enemy and will be attacked in return for 12 seconds. Additional procs refresh duration.

Conclave-Specific (PvP)[]

Main article: Conclave#Damage Mechanics

Status Effect[]

Main article: Status Effect

A Status Effect, also known as proc, is an additional effect that may be triggered at random by a hit from a weapon, while Status Chance is the probability that a hit will inflict a Status Effect. Each damage type has a unique Status Effect associated with it.

It is a common misconception that status effects determine the damage type dealt to the enemy when in fact a weapon will always (with every shot) deal any elemental and physical damage installed, regardless of the corresponding status triggering or not. In other words, status chance/effects are independent from the actual damage types dealt.

Damage Over Time[]

Damage over Time (DoT) is a type of damage dealt to targets over a duration. Throughout the duration, a target will take "ticks" of damage periodically. These ticks of damage will sum to be the total damage dealt over the duration, which is the value described when referring to DoT.

Status effects that deal damage over time will have a base duration of 6 seconds, during which they will deal a tick of damage for every second that the effect is active. AoE status effects, such as DmgElectricitySmall64 Electricity and DmgGasSmall64 Gas will always start dealing damage ticks the moment it is procced on an enemy. Single target status effects will have a 1 second delay before dealing their damage ticks. The table below illustrates this mechanic.

Damage Tick and Proc Duration
Time From Initial Proc 0s 1s 2s 3s 4s 5s 6s
Damage Tick Occurred? DmgSlashSmall64 Slash ✔️ ✔️ ✔️ ✔️ ✔️ ✔️
DmgFireSmall64 Heat ✔️ ✔️ ✔️ ✔️ ✔️ ✔️
DmgToxinSmall64 Toxin ✔️ ✔️ ✔️ ✔️ ✔️ ✔️
DmgElectricitySmall64 Electricity ✔️ ✔️ ✔️ ✔️ ✔️ ✔️
DmgGasSmall64 Gas ✔️ ✔️ ✔️ ✔️ ✔️ ✔️

For example, when an ability is described to deal 600 damage per tick and it ticks twice per second, it means the ability will deal 1,200 damage per second. Or more concisely, the ability has a DoT of 1,200.

Tick rates vary across DoT sources. In the example above the tick rate was 2s-1, which is a common rate for DoT from Warframe abilities. But in the case of a Bleed DoT, damage ticks 6 times over a 6 second duration. This results in a tick rate of 1s-1, and the same applies to all DoT from Status Effects. If the tick rate does not divide into the total duration evenly, the total number of ticks dealt is rounded down. For example, with a tick rate of 2s-1 and a total duration of 3.4s, the first tick will occur at 0 seconds, with each subsequent tick occurring every 0.5 seconds until 3 seconds have passed. The last tick occurs here because the 3.4 second duration ends before the next tick can occur at the 3.5 second mark. As such, the total number of ticks that occurred is 7. More generally, this can be expressed as:

Altering the total duration does not affect the tick rate of the DoT, it will only affect the total number of ticks dealt, and in turn, the total damage dealt. For example, at base DmgSlashSmall64 Slash procs have a tick rate of 1s-1 and a duration of 6 seconds. If the duration is increased to 7.8s, the total number of ticks then becomes floor(1 × (7.8 - 1)) + 1 = 7.

For the sake of damage calculation, DoT will hit enemy torsos or their torso-equilvalent. The targeted Enemy Body Parts will differ from enemy to enemy, but DoT will be affected by any damage multipliers on the enemy's torso. Note that any DoT will still inherit the headshot multiplier bonus if the initial shot that procs the DoT damages the enemy's head.

Damage Calculation[]

Photo-4
“It's taking longer than I calculated.”
This page is actively being worked on and may not be completely correct. Please assist in making this page accurate. See WARFRAME Wiki:Research on ways to perform research on this game. Click here to add more info.
Include a more nuanced look at damage when accounting for status chance and status effects that increase damage dealt and/or reduce target's armor

The following explains how a certain amount of damage of one type turns into actual inflicted damage to a target, considering type modifiers and armor. Faction modifiers, body part modifiers, critical hit and stealth modifiers, as well as Warframe debuffs, are disregarded for now, since all of these are independent of damage types.

Quantization[]

Dealing damage is quantized. Meaning, rather than the damage being applied smoothly it is dealt in discrete "chunks", or quanta. These quanta are determined by the total listed damage of the source divided by 16.[1][2] This is most likely done for performance reasons since damage values are calculated and relayed between clients in real-time.

For each damage type that a weapon deals, the modded damage for that damage type will be divided by the quanta and then rounded to the nearest whole number. This quantized value will be used in the game's damage calculations. As a result, the resultant damage displayed in-game may not equal theoretical damage calculations due to this rounding.

  1. For example, if you have a weapon with a listed damage distribution of 30 DmgImpactSmall64 Impact, 30 DmgPunctureSmall64 Puncture, and 40 DmgSlashSmall64 Slash, the total damage is 100.
  2. The value of a quantum will then be 100 / 16 = 6.25.
  3. The amount of DmgImpactSmall64 Impact damage dealt by the weapon will then be 30 / 6.25 = 4.8 rounded to the nearest whole number, multiplied by the quantum: 5 * 6.25 = 31.25. This process is applied to DmgPunctureSmall64 Puncture and DmgSlashSmall64 Slash as well, yielding 31.25 and 37.5 respectively.
  4. As such, when damaging a Charger, which has a +25% bonus to DmgSlashSmall64 Slash damage due to having Infested health, the total damage dealt to the Charger will then be 31.25 + 31.25 + 37.5 * (1 + 25%) = 109.375 (the game will display the rounded value of 109). Note that while in this case the weapon's total damage after the conversion remained the same (at 100), sometimes damage may either be gained or lost after the conversion.

Also note that the value of a quantum is affected by base damage mods, but not affected by elemental or physical damage mods.

  1. For example, if a maxed Mod TT 20px Hornet Strike was applied in the above example, the weapon's total damage would become 100 * (1 + 2.2) = 320.
  2. The quantum would become 320 / 16 = 20.
  3. The weapon's damage distribution would then become 100 DmgImpactSmall64 Impact, 100 DmgPunctureSmall64 Puncture, and 120 DmgSlashSmall64 Slash after being converted with the new quantum value of 20.

If a physical or elemental mod was applied instead of Hornet Strike, the quanta would stay at its original value of 6.25.

  1. For example if Mod TT 20px Maim was used, the DmgSlashSmall64 Slash damage would be increased to 40 * (1 + 1.2) = 88.
  2. The value of a quantum will then be 100 / 16 = 6.25.
  3. The damage distribution would then be converted into 31.25 DmgImpactSmall64 Impact, 31.25 DmgPunctureSmall64 Puncture, and 87.5 DmgSlashSmall64 Slash.

Unarmored Enemies[]

Against unarmored enemies or when applying DmgTrueSmall64 True damage, the formula is simply:

  • Inflicted Damage (ID) is the final damage result of a particular damage type.
  • Starting Damage (SD) is the initial damage value of a particular damage type, modded or not.
  • Health-type Modifier (HM) is the damage modifier against that health type (may be shields or health).

To make it independent from the amount of base damage:

  • Damage Modifier (DM) is the total damage modifier. An amount of damage of that type (SD) against that enemy will then always be multiplied with this factor (DM).

Armored Enemies[]

Against armored enemies, the formula is:

Where in addition to the previous definitions, AM is the damage modifier against the armor type and AR is the target's armor after all reductions from debuffs (e.g. Mod TT 20px Corrosive Projection, DmgCorrosiveSmall64 Corrosive procs, and Terrify130xWhite Terrify).

Note that from the formula above damage type modifiers directly affect the value of the armor as well as damage. Positive armor modifiers will reduce the effective armor by the percentage value, which is commonly thought of as that damage type essentially ignoring some of the armor. Conversely, negative armor modifiers will increase the effective armor by the magnitude of the percent value. Because of this, damage values see larger changes from armor than intuition may lead one to think since both the damage itself is affected as well as the damage mitigation caused by armor. So in many cases, it is more important to consider armor modifiers before health modifiers.

It is important to emphasize that type modifiers against armor work in two ways here:

  • Mitigate or enhance a percentage of the target's armor (represented by AR(1 - AM) in the above equation)
  • Increase or decrease the damage dealt in the same way as a type modifier against the hit points would do (represented by (1 + AM))

Practically speaking, this means that DmgCorrosiveSmall64 Corrosive damage is only reduced by 25% of a target's whole Ferrite Armor and the base damage is increased by +75%. The formula also causes a massive difference between a medium and a large reduction: 75% reduction (¼ original armor) is essentially twice more than 50% reduction (½ original armor). Thus, having the damage type with the highest appropriate bonus is far more important against armored than unarmored targets.

Comparing Damage Type Modifiers on Armored Enemies[]

Since certain damage types can ignore armor while being reduced by them, a simple (1 + HM) × (1 + AM) calculation yields incorrect results. For example, the following damage type pairings deviate from that simplified calculation (ignoring status effects):

This just shows that one cannot easily compare damage type modifiers against an armor class to those against health classes, and those against armor are, at similar values, considerably more effective especially when fighting high-level enemies (since armor scales with enemy level).


Exact relative damage bonus (i.e. benefit) of a non-zero armor modifier at a given target net armor value.

The relative damage bonus due to a damage type's armor modifier against armored health compared to no modifier can be quantified using the above expression. This is only defined for armor values greater than 0 because at 0, the armor type of the target is lost, such that the effect of the damage type's armor modifier is lost as well. Hence, the benefit (relative damage bonus) of the armor modifier at 0 armor is always 0.

Limit for the benefit as armor approaches infinity (300/AR term resolves to 0).

An interesting property of this benefit function is that, while one would intuitively assume the benefit of the armor modifier gets always greater the greater the target's armor, this benefit actually converges against a limit as armor approaches infinity if the armor modifier is smaller than one (which is true for all damage types against all armor types with the sole exception of DmgTrueSmall64 True damage). Since this limit is only determined by the armor modifier of the damage type itself, it is a practical metric to gauge the relative effectiveness of damage types for long endless missions.

Below is a table of the actual values for all currently implemented armor modifiers, illustrating the growing returns of greater armor modifiers, which may be compared to the behavior of Mod TT 20px Corrosive Projection aura stacking.

Codex Label +++ ++ + + N/A - - --
AM +0.75 +0.5 +0.25 +0.15 +0 -0.15 -0.25 -0.5
lim as fraction +6 +2 +2/3 +6/17 +0 -6/23 -2/5 -2/3
lim in % +600 +200 +66.67 +35.29 +0 -26.09 -40 -66.67

Generalized Damage Modifier[]

A generalized version of the damage modifier formula is:

Generalized damage modifier formula for a specific damage type. The term following the capital pi operator (Π) simply means that this is a product, so all these bonuses stack multiplicatively. The notation replaces (1 + M1) × (1 + M2) × ... .

AR is still the target's armor after all debuffs (e.g. Mod TT 20px Corrosive Projection, DmgCorrosiveSmall64 Corrosive procs, and Terrify130xWhite Terrify) have been applied, how these debuffs work is explained on the Armor page. AM is the damage type modifier against the armor class for a specific damage type. Mi for all indices i are all independent modifiers that are active, stacking multiplicatively with each other and are relative increases in damage (e.g. 2.5x damage would be represented as +150% or +1.5x). These include, but not limited to:

In the case of enemies who have both shields and armor, damage to shields is not mitigated by armor. Lastly, when DmgToxinSmall64 Toxin damage is applied to a shielded target, generally the damage is applied directly to its health, not shields (i.e. it bypasses shields). Some special enemies like Treasurer or Hounds cannot have their shields bypassed with DmgToxinSmall64 Toxin damage however.

Final Calculations[]

Modded Stats[]

Basic formula for calculating modded stats (e.g. critical chance) with the exception of accuracy, reload time, and charge time.

Formula for calculating modded reload time and charge time.

Total Damage[]

The damage numbers displayed in the in-game arsenal calculates total weapon damage as such:

For melee weapons, remove multishot from the equation

Theoretical total inflicted damage against an enemy can be calculated as such (ignoring quantization for simplification):

Where SD represents the modded value of a particular damage type and DM represents the damage modifier for a particular damage type using the generalized damage modifier formula

Gun Damage Per Second[]

Photo-4
“It's taking longer than I calculated.”
This page is actively being worked on and may not be completely correct. Please assist in making this page accurate. See WARFRAME Wiki:Research on ways to perform research on this game. Click here to add more info.
Burst-fire and mag-burst attacks (not simultaneous burst like Quartakk Quartakk which can be treated like semi-auto weapons) have a more complicated DPS calculation

When comparing the performance of non-melee weapons, it may be useful to calculate their theoretical damage per second (DPS) (without accounting for status effects) using the following formulas:

In the case where modded critical chance is over 100%, the lowest crit tier possible will be considered a normal shot. (e.g. if a weapon has 250% crit chance, the 100% for an orange crit will be considered a normal shot)
Note that denotes a flooring function (rounding down)

In the case where modded critical chance is over 100%, the next crit tier possible will be considered a critical shot (e.g. if a weapon has 250% crit chance, the 50% for a red crit will be considered a critical shot)
Note that denotes a ceiling function (rounding up)

The average damage dealt on a single button input if all projectiles hit an enemy.

The lower the Fire Rate, the more delay between charge shots. If attack is not a charge trigger type (charge time is 0), then effective fire rate equals modded fire rate.

Not all weapons consume one ammo per shot; this is to account for cases such as Continuous Weapons

For the Vectis Vectis and VectisPrime Vectis Prime specifically, one (1) should be subtracted from the denominator to account for their lack of a reload delay.
For Epitaph Epitaph specifically, ignore Modded Reload Time since it draws ammo directly from the full ammo pool similar to bows, but does not "reload" between shots like them.
Assumes that damage ramp up is at max for Continuous Weapons.
Reload time is in seconds.
Reload time includes reload delay which is more prevalent for Battery Weapons. Reload delay for most weapons are negligible if not non-existent.

Melee Damage Per Second[]

When comparing the performance of melee weapons, it may be useful to calculate their theoretical damage per second (DPS) (without accounting for status effects) using the following formulas:

In the case where modded critical chance is over 100%, the lowest crit tier possible will be considered a normal hit. (e.g. if a weapon has 250% crit chance, the 100% for an orange crit will be considered a normal shot)
Note that denotes a flooring function (rounding down)

In the case where modded critical chance is over 100%, the next crit tier possible will be considered a critical hit (e.g. if a weapon has 250% crit chance, the 50% for a red crit will be considered a critical shot)
Note that denotes a ceiling function (rounding up)

The average damage dealt on the first enemy hit by melee attack, not accounting Follow Through
See individual stance pages for average combo damage multipliers or go to Stance#Comparison


See individual stance pages for average base combo lengths or go to Stance#Comparison

Damage Over Time[]

Total modded damage calculations used for DoT ignores elemental and physical damage bonuses.


Without accounting multipliers of specific DoT.

Individual calculations for each DoT proc. Keep in mind Slash DoT deals DmgTrueSmall64 True damage, ignoring armor.


Multiply each DoT with the respective damage distribution (i.e. damage type / total damage) and add them together

In the case where modded critical chance is over 100%, the lowest crit tier possible will be considered a normal shot. (e.g. if a weapon has 250% crit chance, the 100% for an orange crit will be considered a normal shot)
Note that denotes a flooring function (rounding down)

In the case where modded critical chance is over 100%, the next crit tier possible will be considered a critical shot (e.g. if a weapon has 250% crit chance, the 50% for a red crit will be considered a critical shot)
Note that denotes a ceiling function (rounding up)

Accounting for critical hits, non-crits, and status chance for an average of total DoT averages.

Lifetime Damage[]

Lifetime damage is a derived damage stat that is based on the total amount of damage that a weapon can deal before it depletes its ammo reserve. Melee weapons, Battery Weapons or rechargable weapons, and Exalted Weapons (assuming Energy is always restored) will deal infinite damage over their in-game use since they are always available and are not reliant on ammo pickups or Squad Ammo Restores.

The average total damage dealt by a weapon without switching weapons or replenishing ammo.

Enemy Damage Scaling[]

Main article: Enemy Level Scaling

The formula enemy damage scales at is as follows:

DamageScaling

Current damage scaling at Base Level = 1.

Increasing Base Damage[]

Decreasing Base Damage[]

Media[]

Impact, Puncture, Slash Warframe Damage Rundown (2020) (Correction: Impact procs also increase health threshold for mercy kills)
Complete damage type guide (Correction: Impact procs also increase health threshold for mercy kills)

Visual Effects[]

Status Effects before Warframe Revised U27.2- Warframe Archive
Warframe: New Status Effect Visuals

References[]

  1. Theroxenes (2018, March 2). Internal rounding leading to unintended applied damage. Warframe Forums. Accessed 2022-09-19. Archived from the original on 2022-09-19.
  2. Theroxenes (2018, February 28). Internal damage quantization or: Another way the arsenal is lying to you.. Reddit. Accessed 2022-09-19. Archived from the original on 2021-11-24.

See Also[]

Patch History[]

Hotfix 33.6.1 (2023-07-31)

  • Fixed Enhanced Damage Numbers missing their outline.

Missed Notes:

  • With the new Ability Damage qualifier with the Enhanced Damage Numbers system, some players may think that certain Warframe abilities have had their Critical Chance nerfed. In truth, some Warframe abilities had a Critical Chance multiplier simply to add “oomph” to their damage numbers, without having an actual impact on Damage output. With this new Enhanced Damage System, that extra oomph is no longer needed, so those non-functional Critical Change values were removed, but the overall damage of these abilities are unchanged.

Update 33.6 (2023-07-27)

Enhanced Damage Numbers

Warframe is a numbers game, whether you’re Modding your Warframe or your Weapons to do as much damage as possible. With that in mind, we have introduced a new Enhanced Damage Number setting with the goal of properly communicating the impact of your attacks and increasing the overall legibility of damage numbers in-game.

This new setting can be found in the Interface: HUD Category of your Settings Menu under “Show Damage Numbers.” You can cycle between the new Enhanced system and the familiar Legacy system or turn off damage numbers altogether!

Overall Damage Number Changes:
Whether you are using Legacy or Enhanced Damage Numbers, these new settings will be available with Echoes of Duviri:

Damage Number Scale
Custom scaling of your damage number text size, from 50 to 300!

Additionally, Damage numbers will no longer scale with HUD scale setting as they used to. So you can customize the HUD and the numbers separately.

Compact Damage Numbers
This Toggle will shorten large numbers for legibility (i.e. 100,357 would be shortened to 100k)

Enhanced Damage Numbers Setting
With this new setting toggled on, players can expect to see the following:

Refreshed Damage Number Appearance
A punchier presentation of damage numbers, with an updated font treatment to improve legibility. For reference of what this looks like in action, refer to Pablo’s video above.

Prioritized Critical Hits
Player damage output varies wildly from damage over time (DOT) from Status Effects to powerful Critical Hits. Previously all types of Damage were treated the same in the Damage Number cycle: meaning, Critical Hit Damage Numbers often disappeared quickly if there were a lot of small DOT procs happening concurrently. From a gameplay side, this had no impact on the actual damage done to your enemies, but it meant the true impact of your Critical Hits was not always communicated to you as clearly as we would like.

Now, your Critical Hits will be prioritized over smaller damage numbers. Those smaller numbers will still appear but now disappear sooner if higher-priority damage is done. Additionally, this prioritization system applies to Critical Hit Tiers as well, meaning Super Critical Hit Damage Numbers will linger longer than regular Critical Hits.

Custom Ability Damage Treatment
Since your Abilities traditionally cannot Crit, these attacks tend to have less oomph. Now Ability Damage has its own Damage Color so that it will stand out amongst the rest!

Like all other Damage Numbers, you can customize Ability Damage colors in the “Customize Hud Colors” menu (found in the Interface category of your Accessibility Settings).

Melee Damage Numbers
With Legacy settings, Damage Numbers appear at the point of contact, often off-screen or otherwise obstructed by Melee attacks.

With Enhanced settings, Melee Damage numbers will now travel with you to improve visibility and will travel with the attack movement as well. Again, this is best illustrated in Pablo’s video for those who want to see this in action!

Hotfix 32.2.1 (2022-11-30)

  • Added a new backer to the new enemy damage resistance icons to improve visibility.

Update 32.2 (2022-11-30)
HUD Improvements:
The following changes have been made to better communicate an enemy’s state to players via HUD improvements.

  • Elemental Damage Resistance Icons (Soft Launch): These new icons help indicate when Elemental Damage resistances are active on enemies. For each active resistance, the corresponding icon will now appear to the right of the enemy’s Health bar.
    • Since this new feature is still in its infancy stages, the following enemies are the only ones that currently use these new icons: Infested Alad V, Hyekka Masters, Hyena Pack, and Sentients.
    • Resistance from armor/health types (e.g. Ferrite Armor) are not included as it would clutter the UI too much.

Update 27.2 (2020-03-05)

Armor and Damage Changes (Enemy):

This section will go over before and after scenarios with our enemy Armor, Health, and Shield changes. Reading this section should give you a conceptual and on-paper understanding of what we’re changing and why, but practical experiences will tell the full story here. You may need to refresh some aspects of your Builds to truly optimize your power against your enemies.

Before: Armor, Shields and Health on an Exponential Curve After: Armor Shields and Health on an S curve

Damage Changes:

Enemy Damage output should still be close to what is currently on the Live version of the game, but we have made a few changes that will affect how players take Damage in-game.

Damage-Type Changes:
  • Slash Status now does not bypass Shields and instead deals damage over time to Shields. Slash Status still bypasses Armor.
  • Toxin Damage used to apply to Armor with a 25% bonus. Now it is neutral. For role distinction, Toxin bypasses Shields (but not Armor) where as Slash Status bypasses Armor but not Shields.
Player Changes:

Player Shields, Health, and Armor used to be shared with all AI, so they had all the weaknesses and resistances that their AI counterparts did.

Now Players have their own unique Shield, Health, and Armor type classified as TENNO! These have all weaknesses and resistances neutralized (for now). Player Shields now reduce 25% of incoming damage. Player Shields now recharge with custom player-only logic. Shield recharge delays are based on depleted or partial depleted shields. Partially depleted shields (any amount) is a 1 second recharge delay. Full depletion is a 4 second recharge delay.

These changes to Player shields are in addition to coming Shield Gating changes, which you can read about in our Shield Gating section!

Why: Armor Scaling and enemy Damage Reduction was the nucleus for this change. For years Tenno have had the tools to deal with these things, but the tools were uniform: Use Corrosive Projection, or else. While this is a simplification, it removed the feeling of choice. With these changes, we hope players experience a feeling of variety and choice when taking on enemies. By changing the scaling for Armor, we could consistently change the scaling for all!

Stacking Status Effects:

But wait - THERE’S MORE! In addition to being able to achieve two Status Effects on a single shot with >100% Status, we are also adding new meaning if you get a duplicate Status Effect on an enemy overall.

This section will outline exactly what this means for each Status type, including information on how multiple Status Effects behaved with stacking prior to this Hotfix:

  • DmgImpactSmall64 Impact: Repeat single-target Impact Status Effects will escalate the efficacy of the Impact Status (removed previous change of adding Ragdoll as maximum Stagger consequence).
  • DmgPunctureSmall64 Puncture: The first Puncture Status Effect has an enemy deal 30% less Damage. Subsequent Puncture Status add +5% weakening, leading to up to 75% (capped). Each Puncture Status has a duration of 6 Seconds.
  • DmgSlashSmall64 Slash: Each Slash Status has its own duration, but now we only show a maximum of 10 damage numbers in the HUD, damage is unaffected, but reducing how many damage events we show helps with performance
  • DmgColdSmall64 Cold: The first Cold Status Effect deals 25% slow. Subsequent Cold Status Effects deal +5% slow for a total of 70% slow at 10 procs. Each Cold Status has a duration of 6 seconds.
  • DmgFireSmall64 Heat: No Change.
  • DmgToxinSmall64 Toxin: See Slash, plus the base duration of a Toxin Status Effect now matches Slash for 6 seconds.
  • DmgElectricitySmall64 Electricity: AoE Electricity Damage that is part of the Status Effect can now reoccur while the target is still under the stun animation of another Electricity Status Effect.
  • DmgBlastSmall64 Blast: Grants the Blast Status Effect a single target. Blast Status reduces enemy accuracy by 30% base. Subsequent Blast Status Effects add +5% inaccuracy for for 75% total at 10 stacks. Each Blast Status has a 6 second Duration.
  • DmgCorrosiveSmall64 Corrosive: The first Corrosive Status Effect strips 26% Armor. Subsequent Corrosive Status Effects strip 6% more Armor, leading up to 80% Armor removal. Each Corrosive Status Effect lasts 8 seconds.
    • Note: Corrosive was the only Status with infinite Duration and 100% Efficacy toward a defensive stat. This was necessary to some based on how Armor Scaled. We feel our rebalancing efforts need a differently behaving Corrosive to balance out all Status overall.
  • DmgRadiationSmall64 Radiation: The first Radiation Status Effect has an enemy deal 100% Damage to allies. Subsequent Radiation Status adds +50% damage, leading to up to 550% (capped). Each Radiation Status Effect has a duration of 12 seconds.
  • DmgMagneticSmall64 Magnetic: New Status Effect entirely: enhanced Damage! First Magnetic Status Effect deals 100% additional Shield damage, subsequent Magnetic Status add +25% for a total of 325% (capped). Enemies under a Magnetic Status Effect cannot regenerate Shields. Magnetic Status Duration is now 6 seconds.
  • DmgViralSmall64 Viral: New Status Effect entirely: enhanced Damage! First Viral Status Effect deals 100% additional Health damage, subsequent Viral Status add +25% for a total of 325% (capped).
    • Note: Before Viral would halve a target’s health pool and simply refresh the duration. Now it deals 2x Damage to Health, and can scale up to 4.5x Damage on repeat Status Effects.
  • DmgGasSmall64 Gas: The base duration of a Gas Status Effect now matches Slash for 6 seconds. No longer does AoE with forced Poison Status Effect (resulting in Poison DoT for enemies in radius), instead it does AoE DoT Gas damage around the target.

Hotfix 27.0.9 (2020-01-09)

Weapon & Proc Adjustments

The idea of ‘one damage type to rule them all’ is one we want to avoid in Railjack’s early days. We are rebalancing aspects of certain Damage types to ensure there’s balanced choices. The Armor changes in conjunction with this means this is a combined effort of finding the right place for all damage types, not just one leader. Please bear with us as we navigate this particular space - with your help, hopefully everyone will get to put their favourites from their Arsenal to use!

  • Decreased the effectiveness of the Particle proc but increased its Duration
    • Reduced to 7.5% damage bonus per hit, still stacks, and lasts 20 seconds. The exponential growth and short duration meant this was far more beneficial to rapid-fire guns than anything else.
  • Increased the effectiveness of the Incendiary proc but decreased its Duration
    • Double the damage per tick but half the duration; same total damage but in less time to feel more relevant.
  • Fixed Ballistic and Particle damage icons being swapped in-game.

Hotfix 25.7.5 (2019-09-09)

  • Updated terminology for Damage Types in Portuguese.

Update 11.2 (2013-12-04)

  • Tweaked Radiation Proc to not last as long on players and is more obvious when active.

Update 11.0 (2013-11-20)

Damage 2.0 Introduced

Source: https://forums.warframe.com/topic/132366-information-on-damage-20/

This new damage system introduces a number of new terms. This post will take you through introducing and explaining these terms, then elaborating on what they mean for combat. Keep in mind that things are subject to change, that some terms may be placeholder.

Physical Damage:
  • Impact
  • Puncture
  • Slash

Every weapon in the game is made up of a combination of these three damage types. The overall damage of any given weapon is the sum of Impact, Puncture, and Slash damage. Weapons will exhibit a variety of combinations on the Impact, Puncture, and Slash damage spectrum. Mods will affect damage types as decided by the player by their loadout.

In short, Weapon Damage = (Impact + Puncture + Slash)

Real-life Firearm Metaphor: Impact = Slug; Puncture = Armor Piercing; Slash = Hollow-point. When assigning physical damage aspects to weapons we avoid making them 'pure' (100% in one direction). This ensures you can damage all enemies in the game.

Elemental Damage:

In addition to the 3 base damage types, Elemental Damage can be applied on top of a weapon’s base damage depending on what Elemental Mods are applied. For some rare weapons, elemental damage is all they have.

There are four primary Elemental Damage types:

  • Heat
  • Cold
  • Electric
  • Toxin

Elemental Damage can be applied alone but if you combine primary elements they create new combined elemental damage types! This opens up new possibilities, reduces 'rainbow build' problems and reduces some of the confusing effects like 'frozen guy is on fire'.

Combined Elemental Types:

To create these combined elements requires mixing two primary elements together:

  • Blast (Fire + Cold)
  • Gas (Fire + Toxin)
  • Radiation (Fire + Electricity)
  • Magnetic (Cold + Electricity)
  • Viral (Cold + Toxin)
  • Corrosive (Electricity + Toxin)

Elemental Damage is applied in addition to a weapon’s physical damage types.

Weapon Damage = (Impact + Puncture + Slash) + (Elemental).

Elemental Damage Hierarchy & Combining Elementals

Elemental damage combinations are made by following a strict order.

Fire, Cold, Electric, Toxin.

As an example: If you want Fire damage + Magnetic damage (Cold + Electricity), you will need to split it between weapons because when a Fire Mod enters the mod loadout any other elementals will combine with it as it is first in the hierarchy.

Elemental Damage & Combining Elements: CHANGES!

After reviewing this thread and working things out with combinations, we have changes to report to Elemental Combinations. Elemental combinations will no longer be based on a predetermined elemental hierarchy, but instead a MOD PLACEMENT hierarchy.

This hierarchy is from closest to top left (first to be considered) to closest to bottom right (last to be considered) on the Mod Layout.

If you place Cold, Toxin, Fire, and, Electric, in that order from top left to bottom right, you will get:

(Cold + Toxin) and (Electric + Fire).

Status Effects ('Procs')

All damage types have a chance to inflict a status on the target – including you!

Impact: Knockback Puncture: Weakened (reduced damage output) Slash: Bleed (health reduced over time, healing blocked)

Fire: Ignited (fire damage over time) Cold: Slowed Electric: Chain Electricity Damage Toxin: Poison Damage over time to health.

Blast: Stun Gas: Poison in area Radiation: Confusion (difficulties targeting) Magnetic: Shield reduction Viral: Sickened Corrosive: Armor Damage

Enemy Levels

Enemy levels now fall in a more compressed scale. Level 1 enemies are still the easiest, but the difficulty of a Level 40 enemy in Damage 2.0 will be comparable to a Level 100 enemy in Damage 1.0. Infinite mission types will still feature ever increasing enemy levels. Enemies will be wielding weapons that can inflict different types of damage and Procs on the Tenno, meaning the difficulty will come from a combination of their loadouts and their level.

Know your enemy.

Enemies will react to damage types differently. Begin hunting your enemies to discover the best way to approach different faction and enemies. With your Primary, Secondary, and Melee weapon, you will be able to take on the fiercest foes with many different combinations.

Significance of Change

Damage 2.0 is a very significant change to Warframe. We are standing by to receive feedback and experiences on this new Damage system when it is released.

Thank you for reading, everyone!



Advertisement