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Damage 1.0 since Update 11

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

The main feature of the Damage 2.0 system is that 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. Exploiting enemy vulnerabilities and avoiding resistances by means of weapon selection and mod installation may significantly improve players' damage output.

Overview Table

Below is a table showing all damage resistances and vulnerabilities of all hitpoint and armor classes against each other. Keep in mind that armor modifiers work differently from hitpoint modifiers when comparing them.

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 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 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.

Physical Damage

Most weapons' base damage is made up of a combination of three physical damage types: Impact, Puncture, and Slash. The overall physical damage of any given weapon is the sum of Impact, Puncture, and Slash damage.

Most weapons have varying proportions of Impact, Puncture, and Slash damage. This ensures that all enemies can be damaged to some degree.

Some weapons do however replace physical damage with either an elemental or combo elemental damage type. These do not have physical damage and are not affected by Impact, Puncture, or Slash mods.

Mods will affect damage types as decided by the player's loadout. General damage increasing mods, such as Serration, affect all the damage types of a weapon. However, specific physical damage type mods increase effectiveness only against certain armor types. Rupture increases only the impact damage; which is more helpful against Corpus than Infested, for example. Faction damage mods, such as Expel Grineer, also increase each type of damage against the faction in question.

Elemental Damage

In addition to the three base damage types, 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:Script error: The function "Proc" does not exist., Script error: The function "Proc" does not exist., Script error: The function "Proc" does not exist., and Script error: The function "Proc" does not exist..

Certain weapons will deal only Elemental Damage, having no innate Physical Damage.

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.

Combined Elemental Types

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

Elements
Combined Damage Type Elemental Damage Types Status Effects
Script error: The function "Proc" does not exist. Script error: The function "Proc" does not exist. + Script error: The function "Proc" does not exist. Inflicts a small AoE Knockdown effect.
Script error: The function "Proc" does not exist. Script error: The function "Proc" does not exist. + Script error: The function "Proc" does not exist. Reduces Armor permanently.
Script error: The function "Proc" does not exist. Script error: The function "Proc" does not exist. + Script error: The function "Proc" does not exist. Creates an AoE Poison effect in the area.
Script error: The function "Proc" does not exist. Script error: The function "Proc" does not exist. + Script error: The function "Proc" does not exist. Reduces Maximum Shields and drains energy.
Script error: The function "Proc" does not exist. Script error: The function "Proc" does not exist. + Script error: The function "Proc" does not exist. Reduces Accuracy and attacks any closest target.
Script error: The function "Proc" does not exist. Script error: The function "Proc" does not exist. + Script error: The function "Proc" does not exist. Reduces Maximum Health.

Elemental Damage is applied in addition to a weapon’s physical damage types. Weapon Damage = (Impact + Puncture + Slash) + (Elemental).

Elemental Damage Combinations are made by following 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. Innate weapon elemental damages are considered the last in the hierarchy. However, you can force it to be in a different position in the hierarchy if you use a mod of the same element as the innate element (e.g. putting Stormbringer on the top left slot of Synapse will change the position of its innate electric damage from last in hierarchy to first in hierarchy). Also, if using multiple mods with the same element, the first position is defining when they get combined.

LoadOrder

Load Order

As an example: If you're using an Script error: The function "Proc" does not exist. standalone weapon such as Prova and Lecta, then adding Script error: The function "Proc" does not exist., Script error: The function "Proc" does not exist., and Script error: The function "Proc" does not exist. in 1, 2 and 3 respectively get: Script error: The function "Proc" does not exist. (Script error: The function "Proc" does not exist. + Script error: The function "Proc" does not exist.) and Script error: The function "Proc" does not exist. (Script error: The function "Proc" does not exist. + Script error: The function "Proc" does not exist.).

Combinations can sum additional damage from the basic elemental damages, as long as the combination follows first before other elementals can be attached to the specified weapon.

Weapons with innate Combination Elements such as Ogris (Script error: The function "Proc" does not exist.), Penta (Script error: The function "Proc" does not exist.), Stug (Script error: The function "Proc" does not exist.),Nukor(Script error: The function "Proc" does not exist.) and Detron (Script error: The function "Proc" does not exist.) will always have that damage type, regardless of mods used. Therefore, on weapons like this, consider the elemental damage separate from your elemental mods, as they do not combine with the weapon's already combined damage type. 

Elemental additionals

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

Status Effect

Main article: Status Effect

A Status Effect, also known as proc, is an additional effect which 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.

A weapon will always (with every shot) deal any elemental and physical damage installed, regardless of the corresponding status triggering or not.

Damage Calculation

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 steal modifiers as well as Warframe debuffs are disregarded for now, since all of these are independent of damage types.

Against unarmored hit points, the formula is simply: Where ID is the inflicted damage, BD is the base damage, and HM is the damage type modifier against that hitpoint type (may be shield hp or health hp). To make it independent from the amount of base damage: and Where DM is the total damage modifier. An amount of damage of that type (BD) against that enemy will then always be multiplied with this factor (DM).

Against armored hit points, the formula is:

Dm with hm ar am

Damage modifier formula, considering armor and damage type modifiers against hitpoints and armor

Where additionally to the previous definitions, AM is the damage type modifier against the armor type and AR is the target's armor after all reductions from debuffs (including Corrosive Projection, Corrosive procs and Terrify).

It's important to note that type modifiers against armor work in two ways here: they mitigate a percentage of the target's armor, and increase the damage dealt in the same way as a type modifier against the hitpoints would do.

Therefore, a lower AM may be more effective than a higher HM against armored targets in some cases, but not always. More specifically, assuming all targets have Cloned Flesh hitpoints (all Grineer, including Corrupted Grineer):

  • Against Ferrite armor , Puncture surpasses Viral at 120 armor.
  • Against Ferrite armor, Toxin; however, never surpasses Viral.
  • Against Ferrite armor, Impact never surpasses Slash.
  • Against Alloy armor , Puncture surpasses Heat at 343 armor.
  • Against Alloy armor, neither Puncture nor Cold ever surpass Viral.

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

A generalized version of the above formula is:

Allg

generalized damage modifier formula

AR is still the target's armor after all debuffs (Corrosive Projection, Corrosive procs and Terrify) have been applied, how these debuffs work is subject of the armor article. AM is the damage type modifier against the armor class. Mi from i=1 to n are all n modifiers that take effect, these can be damage type modifiers against armor and hitpoint, the crit modifier (on average: chance * damage multiplier), stealth bonus (only normal auto attacks, the special stealth attacks are classified as Finisher damage type and disregard armor) , enemy body part/hit zone modifiers and damage multipliers from warframe abilities like Molecular Prime, Roar, Sonar or Eclipse. The term following the large pi operator simply means that this is a product, so all the bonuses stack multiplicatively. The notation replaces (1+M1)*(1+M2)*...*(1+Mn).

In case of enemies who have both shield and armor, damage to shield hitpoints is not mitigated by armor. Lastly, when Toxin damage is applied to a shielded target, the damage is applied to its health, not shield hitpoints - it bypasses shields.

Damage Display

Damage dealt from players to enemies is displayed on the HUD as numbers near the point of impact on an enemy.

Each individual projectile or melee attack will display a single damage number. Weapon with multiple projectiles like shotguns or rifles with multishot will display a damage number for each individual projectile. Weapons which fires continuously will display a damage number at a constant rate of one tenth of a second.

Damage indicators are color coded using the following system:

  • Regular attack on health - white
  • Regular attack on shields - blue
  • Critical hit and stealth attacks - yellow
  • Double critical hit - red

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