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Not to be confused with MagIcon272 Mag's Polarize130xWhite Polarize.

Polarization is the process in which a Polarity is added to or modified on a mod slot to a Weapon, Companion, or Warframe, allowing an individual equipment to use more mods and effectively increase their power beyond their original capacity. A Forma Forma is required to polarize an item.

Application[]

ModSlotPolarization

Polarization becomes available to equipment only when it has reached Rank 30. The option is displayed and applied in a similar fashion to the Orokin Reactors or Orokin Catalysts, by means of Forma.

  1. Apply the Forma.
  2. Select a mod slot to polarize. You can cycle through the different Polarities by clicking the slot multiple times. This includes slots that already have polarizations.
  3. Click "Apply".

Notes[]

  • Polarizing will reset the equipment to rank 0 and it will have to be leveled again.
    • Ranking up equipment that has been polarized will not give additional Mastery Points.
    • After polarizing Warframes, Archwings, and Necramechs, equipment will retain ability unlocks and/or ranks as if the equipment's rank were equivalent to the player's mastery rank (stats will still reset to rank 0, however). For example:
      • At Mastery Rank 10, newly polarized equipment has all abilities unlocked at rank 0.
      • At Mastery Rank 20, newly polarized equipment has all abilities unlocked with the first ability at rank 3 and the other abilities at rank 1.
      • At Mastery Rank 30, newly polarized equipment has all abilities unlocked at rank 3.
  • Polarizing does not remove any Orokin Catalysts, Orokin Reactors or Focus Lenses from the equipment. However, the equipment will not generate Focus before it is leveled to its maximum rank again.
  • For each Forma used on equipment, an emblem with a star will contain the number of Forma used on the equipment, visible at the top of the upgrade menu next to the equipment's name and rank.
  • If Mods are installed into the equipment that is being polarized, as many mods are left installed as possible with the resulting mod capacity and the rest will be uninstalled (and unaffected). Priority goes from Aura/Stance, Exilus, top row left to right, bottom row left to right.
  • Choose the target equipment, slot and polarity wisely, as the Forma cannot be refunded, and polarization can only be removed or changed with going through the process again and consuming another Forma.
    • Already polarized slots can also be unpolarized, but the Forma will still be consumed.
  • After the equipment has been polarized once, players can use the Swap Polarity function to rearrange the polarized slots, including innate polarities. However, Aura, Stance or Exilus slot polarities cannot be swapped.
  • Umbra Pol polarities can only be added using Umbra Forma obtained from Nightwave, Steel Path rewards from Teshin, or Gift from the Lotus.
  • A Warframe, Archwing, or weapon that has been polarized once can have their Secondary Energy Color customized.
  • An Aura Slot can be made universally polarized by using Aura Forma built from blueprints gained from Arbitrations

Tips[]

  • Re-polarizing slots for which you are forced to pay a penalty is the most efficient use of the Forma. Instead of just doubling mod capacity for one slot, you are essentially getting double + 1 for a slot that you would otherwise be paying a penalty for.
  • It is usually advised to first start with supercharging the equipment with an Orokin Reactor or Catalyst before polarizing slots, as the extra mod capacity is much more efficient than dividing the costs of mods.
    • Orokin Reactors and Catalysts give you 30 extra capacity when the equipment is at rank 30; to match this with Formas, one would need to polarize 4 slots, consuming 4 Formas and these slots would need to be equipped with two 14-drain and two 16-drain mods, such as Mod TT 20px Redirection, Mod TT 20px Steel Fiber, Mod TT 20px Blind Rage and Mod TT 20px Transient Fortitude, as well as going through the re-levelling process every time. The extra mod capacity granted by supercharging is also more beneficial when going through the re-levelling.
    • Melee weapons in particular, with their mostly low-drain mods and capacity-increasing Stances, usually can have fully ranked mods in every slot with just using a Catalyst, especially if they have innate polarities.

Patch History[]

Hotfix 31.1.5 (2022-02-17)

  • Fixed misleading prompt when attempting to swap an Exilus slot’s polarity: “Exilus slot must be unlocked before assigning a polarity to it.”
    • Misleading due to the fact that you cannot swap an Exilus slot’s polarity. It will now correctly indicate this in the error prompt.

Update 30.9 (2021-11-11)

FORMA MASTERY RANK CHANGES

When we first introduced Forma years ago, Warframe was a much smaller game. We had fewer weapons, fewer Warframes, and way fewer Mods. As players continue their Forma journey, there’s often discussions on doing a Quality of Life (QOL) pass to the way things work with our favourite Golden Puzzle Piece.

We want your Mastery Rank to be considered when using Forma to establish a baseline power level for your playable characters!

What does that mean?

If a Mastery Rank 30 player uses a Forma, they won’t have to re-unlock any Abilities (or their Ranks) on a given item! Yes, they’ll still need to level the gear itself to apply another Forma but, depending on your Mastery Rank, you can have access to more (or all) Abilities on your unranked gear! This achieves our goal of keeping Forma essential to build customization, but allowing players with higher Mastery Ranks a more convenient experience.

Right now, using a Forma on a Warframe (or Archwing/Necramech) requires you to start from 0 when it comes to Abilities you can use. Furthermore, you only get the first Rank of your First ability. Take Valkyr for instance. You install a Forma, and you’re back to only casting unranked Rip Line!

Our change will make it so your Mastery Rank impacts how much you have unlocked by default on Forma use. Following our Valkyr example, with this change, a Mastery Rank 10 player would have all of her abilities unlocked upon applying a Forma to her, albeit not at their full strength!

This ranking process is something players already experience in game - you know by the time you’ve levelled your Valkyr on Hydron to 10, you unlock Hysteria. We are making your Mastery Rank ‘match’ those milestones, so to speak, with the end goal being a Mastery Rank 30 player can use Forma without ever having to be locked out of Abilities. Simply put, the higher your Mastery Rank, the higher the baseline of your gear when using Forma.

  • New additions since the Dev Workshop:

Post Dev Workshop feedback and continued conversations have added on another related change to reaching Mastery Rank 30+:

Sorties and Arbitrations now allow Mastery Rank 30+ players that have put at least 1 Forma into their Warframe to bypass the "Rank 30 Warframe" requirement.

Hotfix 29.2.2 (2020-10-06)

  • Fixed inability to Swap a Polarization.
    • This was Hotdropped live last week!

Hotfix 29.2.1 (2020-10-01)

  • Fixed an issue where the "swap polarity" functionality would be broken on weapons that had only ever done no-op Polarizations.

Update 12.4 (2014-03-05)

  • Changed the description on the Polarization screen to be clearer about how Polarization works.

Update 12.0 (2014-02-05)

  • Polarity Management is here! You can now swap the order of Polarities on your Forma’d gear!

Update 8.0 (2013-05-23)

  • Introduced.

See also[]


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