Warframe – the best secondary weapons (2021)

Warframe is filled to the brim with secondary weapons to choose from, to the point where it can be a little intimidating at times. In this article, I will run through some of my favorite secondaries, which I consider to be some of the best secondary weapons in the game right now. You should find all these weapons to be rewarding in how they play, the damage they can put out, and their utility. They should also reward you for investing Forma into them, and should easily be able to do what you need them to do in the endgame.

Best Secondary Weapons In Warframe

Kuva Nukor

The Kuva Lich system can get you some amazing weapons in Warframe, and the Kuva Nukor is right up there with the best of them. It boasts the highest critical multiplier in the game, very high status chance, innate Radiation damage, and massive area-of-effect potential to give you one of the most fun secondary weapons you can get your hands on right now. It also has massive status chance and incredible accuracy.

Sporelacer Kitgun

The Sporelacer has the potential to be the best secondary Kitgun in the game, if you build it the right way. The incredible area-of-effect potential cannot be ignored, although you will need to watch out for the self-stagger aspect of this weapon. If you want to experiment with this, you can pick up the Kitgun parts from Father at the Necralisk. You won’t be disappointed.

Mara Detron

The Mara Detron can only be picked up from Bara Ki’Teer when he visits the Relays. It will set you back 200,000 Credits, and 500 Ducats, and will only be available on rare occasions. It deals innate Radiation damage, and when built to one hundred percent status chance, it will dissolve enemies. Just lean into a solid status build, and you can’t go wrong with this shotgun that thinks it’s a secondary weapon.

Staticor

You can get the Staticor from the Corpus Energy Lab in your Dojo. The standard fire mode is a slow-moving projectile that will cause area-of-effect damage. You can also choose to charge your shot, resulting in a faster projectile and large explosion. It deals innate Radiation damage, which will rapidly strip enemy shields. In many ways, it feels like a mini Lenz. I am always impressed by its ability to make any mission a breeze. With the right mods, this thing is going to melt most enemies you can find in most activities. It won’t stand up in real late-game missions, but it’s on this list because it is so much fun. Mod it with blast damage for hilarious enemy throwing hijinks.

Catchmoon Kitgun

While we are on the subject of mini versions of primary weapons, we should discuss the Catchmoon Kitgun. You can build this at Fortuna if you have enough standing and the right components. It is pretty much a secondary version of the Arca Plasmor, one of the top shotguns in the game. This weapon will blaze a trail through any mission you are playing and is the perfect weapon to accompany a Sniper Rifle primary, just because it does so much damage to so many enemies. I’m a fan of the Catchmoon + Splat + Haymaker build. Be warned though, it hits so hard it can be tempting not to bother exploring other Kitguns, but you really should try out some different combinations.

Pyrana Prime

Another shotgun that thinks it is a secondary, killing three enemies quickly will cause a second Pyranna to appear in your other hand for a while. The potential damage output from this weapon is insane, and it will rip high-level enemies apart with ease. High slash damage and huge critical Chance mean you want to build pure damage, and then lean into crits to get the most out of it.

Euphona Prime

Warframe’s equivalent of a sawn-off shotgun, the Euphona Prime can shoot slugs or pellets, depending on what you need from it. The slugs will have more range, while the pellets will decimate enemies that get close to you. I like to pair this up with a melee weapon that does an excellent job at clearing crowds, and this is a backup for when I run into a target that is a little bit tougher than the average. Even though it is technically a shotgun, it still uses Pistol mods, so no need to worry if you like to bring a shotgun primary weapon as well.

Related – Best melee weapons in Warframe (2021)

Pandero

The Pandero was introduced as Octavia’s signature weapon. It can fire in semi-auto to take advantage of high critical chance and damage multipliers, or it can dump all rounds in a burst to put out some massive damage. It’s also high in Slash damage, one of the most advantageous damage types in the game at the moment. Another weapon that offers great adaptability depending on the threat you are dealing with.

Sicarus Prime

The Sicarus Prime packs high base damage that has a great balance between Slash, Impact, and Puncture. It also has a great Critical Chance and a decent critical multiplier. The burst fire nature of the weapon rewards accuracy, so people with great aim and recoil management will be able to get the most from this weapon. It should be noted; a Fire Rate mod will reduce the time between each round of the burst, making this weapon much more manageable. It is also worth noting that the high-Status chance makes this weapon suitable for hybrid Crit/Status builds.

Knell

Knell is a scoped, one-shot pistol. It doesn’t sound very good, but a headshot will instantly reload the weapon, meaning that people with good aim can keep procing the weapon for infinite ammo. Landing headshots will also buff the weapons Critical and Status chance. This is Harrow’s signature pistol, and it works incredibly well with any Warframe that can effectively freeze enemies. It also has excellent long-range precision thanks to the scope. Definitely, one for people who believe in their aim, and some of the Rivens for it can just get silly numbers for extra damage and critical damage.

Twin Grakatas

Are you ready to channel the awesome power of Clem? How often do you see a Primary weapon become a secondary weapon? Not very often, but that is what happens with the Twin Grakatas. Instead of one gun, there are now two, and they are in your Secondary slot, freeing up your Primary slot for something else. Hard to find a better deal than that. While the weapons do have pretty high recoil, that can be solved with the right mods, and it also comes with innate multishot, high critical Chance, and an extremely high rate of fire to churn out the damage.

Akstiletto Prime

The Akstiletto Prime has been one of the top weapons in the game for some time now. Excellent accuracy, high Impact damage, solid Critical Chance, and very high-Status chance all combine to make these very viable at any stage of the game. They also come with two Polarity slots, making modding them very easy to do. They only really fall against high armor, but the right mods can take care of that for you.

Atomos

The Atomos is a favorite weapon of any player who likes to take advantage of Condition Overload Priming. It plays like a one-handed Ignis, spraying down large groups of enemies with high status elemental procs, and then you can rip into the group with your Condition Overload melee weapon. This is a great weapon to use to inflict Viral procs on enemies, severely reducing their health pool before you engage them in close combat.

Akbolto Prime

The Akbolto Prime is a secondary that relies on Critical hits to put out the most damage. The base Critical Chance is 36%, making it incredibly easy to hit those red crits with this weapon. It also has a very respectable Crit multiplier of 2.8, so you want to lean into Critical chance and damage mods to get the most from this weapon. It will also cause enemies to crash into other enemies, doing additional damage to groups.

Aksomati Prime

The Aksomati Prime enjoys high Slash damage, critical chance, status chance, and reload speed. They also present a nice spray and pray option for those who potentially struggle with aiming. The incredibly high fire rate also allows skilled players to dump huge numbers of bullets into enemy weak points, meaning they offer something for everyone.

Lato Vandal

Not many people are going to put the Lato Vandal on their list of best Secondary weapons, but those people are wrong. Or I am. Someone is wrong. I love the Lato Vandal and always have. It sits in a nice middle ground between weapons that spam damage, and slow firing weapons that hit hard. It has substantial base damage, high slash damage, and a high critical chance. It also reloads very quickly, meaning DPS downtime is limited. Finally, because not many people have it, and not many people use the standard Lato, you can get some pretty serious Rivens for this if you are lucky.